 A new poll shows that 44% of Americans cannot successfully name a famous Asian American celebrity. Now we're gonna go through the reasons on why we think that is, and also talk about why a lot of people are freaking out over this. Yeah, this is going viral on a variety of platforms, of course, especially in Asian circles. Andrew, this study comes out every year. It's done by the Asian American Foundation. Long story short, they said people were naming Bruce Lee, who's been passed away for 50 years. Jackie Chan, who's not an American citizen, and Kamala Harris, which does count even though she's half, but I would have to say a lot of Americans don't even know that she's half. So actually the top ranking Asian American that people know that is famous in 2023, Andrew, is actually Lucy Liu coming in at 3%. Wow, alright guys, we're gonna go through the comments section, but first we're gonna talk about the reasons on why we think the number is at 44%, and maybe why you shouldn't be shocked, so please hit that like button, check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys from silly to serious. We're talking about it all. Yeah, I mean, I think this is going viral right now because people are like, but we had such a great Oscar run, we've got beef, physical 100, all this stuff from Korea, even though that's foreign content, how can it still be 44%? But they don't really realize Andrew, in 2022 it was 58%, so it's actually a 14% improvement year to year. Bro, if you gain 14% on your stock portfolio, you're gonna be rich. Alright guys, anyways, let's start with reason number one, why we think the number is at 44%. Why 44% of Americans cannot name a famous Asian American? One, I think that literally it's just a very fragmented pop cultural landscape in 2023. It's not like the old days where everybody just followed like maybe 50 celebrities. Now there might be like 50,000 celebrities depending on what independent vertical you happen to care about. Exactly. Like if you follow NBA Instagrams, they're constantly making jokes about Guangdong Tigers and Shanghai Sharks for Dylan Brooks and Jordan Poole. That's so niche. And if you're an American kid who's following K-pop to you, BTS and Blackpink are your world, but your parents or your older cousin might not even know any of them. I will say though, to be fair, there still is a mainstream teapot that is big, but it's not as big as it used to be. It might be TMZ, Access Hollywood, Time Magazine, People Magazine, and maybe Daily Mail for the UK. You know what I will say? It's not digital media. It's not TikTok. It's not YouTube. And it's not Netflix. Right. Like RiceGum could have been on this a couple years ago, but I don't know if people count RiceGum as a celebrity because he's an internet celebrity. He's a YouTube celebrity. He's a Twitch celebrity. So anyway, moving on to number two, Andrew. People recognize Asian faces in movies and TV shows, but they don't know their name. Yeah. So what you will see often times, and this even happens Asian on Asian, right? But a lot of people have seen a show with an Asian face in it and are like, ah, I like that. The scientist from Jurassic Park. Yeah. The Asian guy from Silicon Valley. Or, oh, I saw this comedian once he made me laugh, but I just don't know their name. So especially when quizzed on the spot, a lot of people can't register the name. David, even other Asians to this day, just the other day, we got called the Wong Foo Bros. Now shout out to Phil Wang, Wong Foo, and Wes Chan, but we're not the Wong Foo Bros. Yeah. People just get names mixed up of worlds that they don't really take that serious. And to be honest, entertainment and stuff like that is just like outside of people's career paths oftentimes. Somebody said, yeah, you know, if you pulled the average Asian in the suburb of Texas, Ohio or Washington above the age of 45, under 45, basically whatever city they're in, it matters a lot. Yeah. And also the age, you know, like, you know, I don't think a lot of young people were pulled. I do think the results are quite different if you were to pull only Americans below the age of 35. Yeah, the age matters. Like, literally whether they're a coastal city and Enclave City, like, hypereducated, not educated, if they're really focused on their pumpkin patch and their chili cookoff, I really doubt that any place like that in Texas cares about Asian celebrities. And why would they? Moving on to number four, Andrew. If they perform every two years this study, the numbers will begin to shift over time. Yeah. I mean, there's already a 14% decrease in the people who can't name an Asian. So what about the 2024 study? Is it going to be at below 40% maybe? You know, I just think the number is going to continually go down as more and more people are watching more and more Asian content. Point number five, Andrew, most people in America, even though there is a technical definition that includes a lot more types of people, only think of East Asian when they hear the word Asian. Do you agree with that? Yeah, I do think that's the narrative, and that's why I think Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan ranked so high on that list, even though they technically do not count in the term Asian American. It's because those are just the global stars, and they are East Asian now. And they were in Hollywood movies too. Yeah, even as an Asian who is trying to think of a brown Asian who is globally on that level, like an Indian celebrity that's on that level of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, or even a Jeremy Lin, it's hard to name. I know a lot of Indian actors and a lot of Indian comedians, but they're maybe not on that global level. Point number six, Andrew, did you know that there was not a single Southeast Asian named in the top 20 most known Asians, according to the study? Yeah, and I think that that is just also in the numbers. Wise, I also think East Asians have been in media for a longer time, even if you think about Anna Mae Wong, or Sessa Hasegawa, obviously. There is a long East Asian history in America. And to be honest, my Southeast Asian friends, as long as they, them family, and their friends, and they're having vacations in Vegas and stuff, or Hawaii, they do not care about this. Yeah, I mean, I've heard my Southeast Asian friends even say just like, yeah, I mean, I don't even think Hollywood knows what a Southeast Asian is. Now, I think it's going to increase. I think their time is coming soon, because they still have a lot of numbers, but it's just, yeah, the East Asian, that's the narrative right now. Let's get into the comments section. Somebody says, I'm South Korean myself, and I can name a ton of celebrities from South Korea, but I really even struggle to name some from America, even though a bunch of faces popped into my head. I kind of knew who Sandra O was, but then I realized she doesn't even count because she's Canadian. I kind of knew who Johnny Kim, the Navy Steal, Sniper, Astronaut was, but I couldn't even remember his name, and I'm Asian myself, and I know a lot of Asian things. Yeah, and I think the people who clicked on this video from us and are watching right now, I think you guys in the comment section can name a lot more Asian Americans, but you have to understand that a lot of these comments are pulled off Reddit, and actually Reddit is not, doesn't necessarily mean that you're tapped into media. Like a lot of people recognize faces, even other Asians, they recognize faces, but they don't all care about media the same amount, so they can't just bust out these names out the top of their head. Somebody said, I'm a young white guy, and I have to admit, I would say Asa Akira, but a lot of people do not want to mention that, so they're just going to say I don't know. So I think these studies are kind of inconclusive because people are going to shift their answers even though they do know some names. Yeah, I think if the question was, can you name a sexy Asian person? I think some people would start busting out the adult stars, yeah, for sure. Somebody said, you know, you just freeze up when you're asked to name somebody on the spot because it's not a common question. Billy on the street used to go up to people and say name a woman, and people would freak out and just like freeze up. Yeah, you know, when you're caught off guard for some reason your brain just doesn't connect the way it's supposed to. Somebody said, hey, I'm a younger liberal white male in a coastal city, and I have to say they always pull boomers for these things because those are the only people that have time to fill out a poll. And basically a lot of boomers are really stuck in what that show Good Times symbolized where basically people just care about those good old days where basically almost everybody in media was white. So this liberal white guy who's on the coast was like, yeah, I'm just blaming it on the Good Times crowd. That's really funny, but I don't think we should discredit them. I mean, those are human beings, those are citizens, those are people who generally in a traditional sense define America. Well, they still run everything, right? So I'm still curious to know what they think, but yeah, I'm sure if you pulled a college campus at UCLA, I'm sure this... They're probably gonna say Aquafina for sure. Yeah, I'm sure that this whole list looks completely different. Somebody said it's really the system, man. Don't blame the people. Asians can't get roles that are like really visible lead roles, right? Because obviously there was a whole whitewashing controversy. So how was it the people's fault when they're just watching what the machine produces? It'd be like that. Somebody said, listen guys, there are plenty of reasons to believe that Asians and Asian immigrants get treated badly, but this is not one of them. Who cares about this stuff? Yeah. I mean, a lot of people are questioning why do we keep caring about Asian celebrities? Why does it matter? Them being famous, what does it do? Yeah, we got a lot of takeaways about that. You guys want to stick around to it. And somebody said, of course, it was Lucy Liu. I'm 40. I had a crush on Lucy Liu growing up. She was the only girl who got a shout out in a multi-platinum song, Hey Ya, by Andre 3000. Yo, and also I got to give it up to Lucy Liu. She was born with a pretty catchy name, the alliteration Lucy Liu. And all the Lucy Liu's. Somebody said, why is being famous important, man? Asians got good macro statistics. You know, they stand out of trouble, just keeping their family together, building, you know, buying property. Why, who cares about being famous? Yeah, I think a lot of people, especially of the, to be honest, the Asian groups that have the smaller numbers, I think they're like, yo, listen, honestly, it's going to be so long before we're actually fully represented. I don't even care, man. I'm just worried about my own life. And that does account for something. I do think that a lot of Asians who are caught up in the, the name dropping. Representation movement. Maybe, maybe, maybe some Asians are too caught up in it, you know. Little bougie may perhaps have their priorities overly placed. But maybe if they didn't care that much, there wouldn't be such a change. Yeah, that's true. Somebody said, man, if you told a white, black or Latino person off the street to read through the list of famous Asian-Americans that Asian, that always pop up on Asian blogs, they would have no idea who anybody was. Yeah, I think the average non-Asian would have trouble, especially if they read the name and they try to match the name with the face. Yeah, somebody said, man, maybe most people just don't even care about celebs at all. And of course, somebody else came back and said, no, it's because they don't value our identities. Most Asians are third generation here now and they still don't care about us. So actually, both of these people are wrong. People do care about celebs because America, if you know, is a hyper-celeb-driven country, if you really analyze it versus even other countries, to be honest. And number two, most Asians are actually still fobs. So actually, this Asian-American that was trying to say that most Asian-Americans are third generation lives in a bubble and was also completely wrong. Yeah, and it's also a cycle because when Asians see more Asians on the screen, they're gonna care more about media because they see themselves represented. And if I'm a lot of older Asians, I would say above the age of 45, they did not see any Asians on the screen. So a lot of them just checked out of the whole entertainment scene as a whole. So they were just like, I don't even care, man. Just living my life. I gotta get money. I gotta buy my mom a house. Yeah, definitely Asians are always asked, and I think that they do live up to this. They follow everybody else's sports, but they don't like follow their own because there is nothing that is Asian. Of course, other than K-pop and like martial arts movies, right? Dude. But an anime, if you consider Goku Asian, you know, it's dependent, it's debatable. But I'm just saying like, you know how like white people watch hockey? Black people watch basketball. White Americans might watch baseball, but now it's a Latino thing to watch baseball and soccer because their group is heavily represented visually in that sport. Asians are the only ones that are like, man, I'll just watch anything I like because nothing's gonna have me in it. Exactly, and I mean, Steven Young always has that one quote that I really like. He says, man, America is like always feeling like you have to care about everybody else, but nobody has to care about you. Yeah, or nobody thinks about you. Yeah, nobody has to think about you. But you gotta analyze and think about everybody else. You gotta know things about everybody as you gotta be in everybody else's culture, but nobody has to know about yours. Somebody says, man, if you take away the American citizenship requirement of being born in America, I could name you some names. Yeah. And I just cannot name you any that were born in America. Dude, actually, of the current stars even in Hollywood that are actually born and raised in the United States, there's not that many. Right. Awkwafina is literally at the top of that list because Michelle Yao, Henry Golding, Ronnie Chang, Jimmy O. Yang, they don't count. Right, Steven Young and Ali Wong, I believe. No, Steven Young is born in Korea. John Cho is born in Korea. Daniel Day Kim is born in Korea. Oh, yeah. So, Ken Jeong, I think. You have Ali Wong. You have Awkwafina. And off the top of my head, I mean, there's a lit because Simu's not born in America. Sandra O's not. Right. Well, Simu wasn't even born in Canada either. Yeah, he was born in China actually, yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. Listen, guys, it also depends on your definition of American. Anybody who's an American passport holder, if you get PR status, this account, who knows? Anyway, let's get into the takeaway, Sandra. I will say this. And I will say this. Every time this statistic comes up every year, there are so many bloggers that write these think pieces or maybe they, I don't know if it's real outrage or false outrage about it. And my whole thing is like, okay, I acknowledge this is true. Most people are still just saying Jackie Chan Bruce Lee. I get it. You know what? I think that Asians have been without Asian representation for so long that we can hold off until we get the right representation. I am so sick of people pushing like really garbage products and just being like, hey, all AAPI support this just for the sake that it's AAPI. I'm like, yo, listen, guys, we were without it for so long, still got good macro stats. I'm not saying individually, you know, some people struggle and that or that, but like overall the Asian community is doing good. You know what I mean? Got good careers. We can wait until we get the right type of representation. We don't got to take everything just to be degenerate cloud chasers just to be like, see me, see me. Yeah. Like, oh, we got ours. See, you know, I don't look at it necessarily just as a badge of honor, guys. And also the term Asian American, I mean, if you are so strict to it, who cares, man? I just, I just think any Asian that is affecting our, the diaspora who probably is an Asian who speaks English. Like when Michelle Yo was a Malaysian citizen who got famous in Hong Kong, a lot of people consider her an Asian American. Yeah. She's like the Asian queen of the media right now. You got Malaysian passport, yeah. Yeah, but I mean, and so it doesn't really matter who's like, at this point, if you're Asian and you're contributing to Asian representation in the West in particular, but of course we also want to show love and always acknowledge that Asia has its own thing going on. Always, right? That's also very extreme. They got their own award shows every day. Yeah, they got this extremely huge. I mean, some bigger stars, right? If you want to think about the biggest stars in the world, they're in Asia right now, by the way. Also, I would say, you know, I would say that... Like, I don't want to see from me back to my first point. I don't want to see Asian Jerry Springer or degenerate content just to get known. I know that some people think that's so great because it runs counter to the model minority myth, like, if you are purposely trying to be a degenerate, typical American to run counter to the model minority myth, you're actually still being held hostage by the model minority myth by being repelled from it directly. If that's you organically, then by all means, be that. But don't do it just because you're like, yeah, the culture's moving this way, so all dark this way and it'll be cool. Yeah, I know that there is a feeling in a lot of people, men and women, who feel like, oh, I'm going to do this just to break stereotypes for the heck of it. Really because I think that this is good work or not really that this is how I'm raised. But that's who I am. What is organically you? I just want to stand out and do something crazy. You know, do you, but I guess at the end of the day, Asians need to focus on living their own lives. And sometimes, you know, like we going back to some of our Southeast Asian friends who are doing well for themselves, but they just know that Southeast Asian stories are not really going to be leading the Asian narrative anytime soon, although they're going to have their day in the light. But I guess like they're just being like, you know what, man? I'm just living good, you know what? And I'm living my life and I feel like I'm respected in my community, in my friend group, even in my city amongst the non-Asians in my city, and I'm good, you know? We ain't man, I'm out at Encore Day Club with my squad, man, we living, man. What are you trying to tell me about 44%, man? They don't always have to be Viet, but we got a lot of Viet friends. So anyways, guys, we're going to leave it right there. You guys let us know in the comments down below how many Asian-Americans can you name. Are you shocked by this number? Obviously, like, but also let us know. Do you think it's going to continue to go down in the future or not? Yeah, I think it'll continually improve, but I definitely think that I'm super over. Everybody just going, support this terrible project because it's Asian-American. I will never diss it. I'm not a negative person, but I'm just saying. We need to celebrate and support Asian projects and Asian films, even though they suck. I disagree with that in 2023. All right, everybody. All right, please leave it in the comments down below. Thanks so much for watching. Until next time, we out. Peace.