 Is this cultural appropriation or is it cultural appreciation? Can it be anywhere in between? Is the dress white? Is it blue? And why is it always about a dress? So by now I'm sure you've heard about this prom, Chi-Pow wearing Utah high school controversy and then as a channel that has been covering Asian stuff for about the past seven years, I feel like I got a few things to say about it. I'm gonna tell you why she actually wore the dress, why Asians are split on whether they're mad about it or not, why it's complicated being Asian and trying to own up to your own culture, why I'm glad this actually happened and where we should go from here. But real quick, let's refresh ourselves on the story. So there's this high school girl in Utah who's not Asian but she dons a Chi-Pow as her prom dress. Her friends and her family really like it. So an Asian guy retweets this, accusing her of a cultural appropriation, this goes viral, the internet is relentless. People are fiercely tweeting her about her ignorance and some people are fiercely tweeting that Asian guy for starting that. The general reactions go as follow. Asian Americans overall were kind of split, some saw the cultural appropriation and some people thought it was okay. They even applauded her for respecting Chinese culture. A lot of non-Asians and even Asians came out defending her saying that she didn't disrespect the dress so therefore it's okay. And then the Asians in Asia didn't think it was a big deal. Let me make this clear that this girl was not wearing this dress for any other reason other than the fact that she thought it was cool and she wanted attention. And believe me, she did not wear a red Chinese silk dress to prom in Utah just to blend in with everybody else. I have a feeling she wouldn't have done this if she was from San Francisco, LA, New York, or just anywhere with more Asians. A lot of decisions are made based on social context. And while in my heart, I don't believe she was doing anything out of ill intent or maliciousness, let's be honest, man, she's not out there trying to rep for Chinese culture. That sounds silly. I just wanted to show appreciation for Chinese culture that I appreciate. I personally, I wore the dress because I really respect the culture. And okay, that's definitely something that people say to overcompensate after they've been accused of something racist. And other than her just saying that, there's really zero to zero percent evidence that she knows anything about Asians or Asian culture. Oh my God, I would never say that. I mean, I want to like, I like Asian. I want to be Asian. I love Asians. Oh, I don't even think we love ourselves that much. You sure you want to honor Chinese culture? Because it was kind of hard for me to do that when I was 18. And I'm Chinese. It's 2018 and I know a lot of people, mostly white people, have a strong incentive to say that everything is okay if you don't meet it in a bad way. Nobody wants their freedom to be cut down. Nobody wants to really be told that they can't do something from another group. The post that they're doing in the group pick as a reference not to anything Asian, but a popular YouTuber that they all follow and to address Mr. Lam out there, the guy who kind of sparked this whole flame. I mean, wow, was that great usage of the retweet button. That is exactly what Twitter is for. And I didn't retweet you, but I'm all for Asian guys expressing themselves. Honestly, the Chi Pao is probably not the best catalyst for this conversation because it's not the biggest violation in the world. Chi Paos have been sexified and fashionized for decades now. Plus, you can buy them anywhere. It's definitely not in the same vein as an Indian sari, hijab or turban. It's not the most sacred piece of clothing, but more on that later. America is kind of complicated right now. People can't seem to decide whether it's a true melting pot where everybody's culture is everybody else's or is it more like a Greek salad? Hold up. Why is it gotta be Greek? It's just a salad where everything's chopped up into really big pieces and sometimes in a bite you don't get everything else. You just get tomatoes and that's like kind of wack. I'm all for people voicing their opinions and saying how they feel, but here's what I don't like about what I saw. I didn't really like seeing Asians getting mad at other Asians for trying to defend their culture. Yo, shut up guys. You guys are making me look bad in front of white people. It's not cool to be too sensitive and I'm trying to be cool. It's important for Asians to express themselves. We don't do it enough and to be honest, the last thing I want to be a part of is a group of people who feel offended and don't say anything. Yeah, I do wish Asians would speak up more in real life and not just on the internet, but I don't know, baby steps. And what I didn't like was a bunch of non-Asians trying to write off thousands of angry Asians' opinions like how they feel doesn't matter. It's not a big deal, shut up. Right, like it's your call, but whose call is it? Issues like this are really nuanced and complicated. Everyone's kind of right and everyone's definitely kind of wrong. Listen, I'm not going to tell you that I'm infuriated about this, but I am not ever going to be mad at Asians being mad about Asian issues. Now is a perfect time for Asians to stop playing just defense and start playing some offense. It's so easy to complain when you see someone you have not approved using your culture in a way that you don't like, but it's on us to show them our culture the way that we want. If we wait for other people to do it, we will never like it. Overall, I'm glad it sparked discussion. I'm glad that Asians are getting fired up about something and just releasing it on the internet and I'm also glad that the word cheap I was a little bit more mainstream than it used to be. And I'm also glad that she wore the dress to a nice event in a nice way. I'm overall glad this happened. It could have been a lot worse. But I'm going to leave you now with some questions that I think are very, very, very important for Asians to answer moving forward. I'm going to wrap it up here, but this is the first question to answer. For the people who are not mad, at what point would wearing something like this a cheap how become offensive? What if it became super trendy? What if she wore it for Halloween? Where do we draw the line? And how does someone qualify to wear this clothing? Next question. For those that are very mad and very offended, what now? Do you guys go and wear the cheap how? How are you going to be proactive instead of reactive in representing our culture? If you are only responding and replying, are you doing enough? When aspects of your culture, whether it be products, clothing, food, language, are so accessible, so commoditized and so affordable, how do you determine what is right and wrong? How do you determine what is protected? What is sacred at that point? Finally, if Asians are always getting made fun of and our culture is not being taken seriously, how do we get people to take us seriously without complaining? Based on how split Asians were on this, I think it's important that you at least think about these questions. These are not rhetorical. Yo, honestly, this video right here probably would have gotten a lot more views and spread across the internet better if I had just taken one extreme stance on it. But guess what? That's not what we're about. I'm trying to ask some really hard questions here and get you guys to think. Because this world is not so white and black. There's bits of yellow, brown and red. Honestly, when it comes to culture in America, I wish somebody would just write a handbook or something. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching that video. I know there's a lot to think about. Hopefully, this helped you guys. Shout out to my brother, David. He's still out in New York. But man, guys, turn on your notifications. Give this video a big thumbs up. Share with a friend who you think needs to hear it. I don't know. But just keep thinking about it. All right, until next time, I'm out. Peace.