It's 2008, I'm a senior in high school, home alone and aimlessly looking for something to watch that can distract me from homework and feed my new hankering for Korean dramas. I don't remember what I searched for exactly, but I remember clicking through the pages of a Google search for something to the effect of "K-Dramas online with subtitles.
" And, BAM! Just like that, I found a post about the then upcoming DramaFever on a blog which was a gem I had unknowingly discovered for myself.Enter Angry Asian Man.
There is something about Angry Asian Man that makes me feel like my existence as an Asian American is more and more important in a country which is still trying to figure out where we fit in. We really don't see a lot of Asian Americans in mass media. For the longest time, my only outlet for any form of Asian American news was watching The Filipino Channel's (TFC) Balitang America. How bizarre is it that I had to watch an international broadcast to see exactly what was affecting the people at home? Even then, watching TFC still limited my exposure to just the Filipino-American viewpoint of the issues all Asian Americans face.
Philip Yu, the founder and curator of Angry Asian Man, has released news relating to Asian Americans for years now. This is everything from ignorance in the modern era, injustice committed against and sometimes by Asian Americans, to more joyous and recent eras like Linsanity and the impending broadcast of Eddie Huang's Fresh Off the Boat. Even more so, I've come across heroes in the Asian American community that I never learned of in school but their significance is rightfully commemorated and message spread on Yu's blog.
Exposing Asian Americans and their history to themselves and the rest of the country is something that Philip Yu had been able to do independently. Angry Asian Man has been around for almost a decade, and he is only now asking for help through donations to keep up with the costs to maintain what has now become such an integral part in understanding our identity.
I've watched Angry Asian Man evolve from blog entries to its own YouTube series. It has grown so much over the years and to think that the owner may have to cut back is just devastating. Please do take some time to check out the blog and support Philip Yu in his quest to make us visible.