I need more Asian friends
For more reasons than a Viki login 👀
Ironically, right before I first started Asian Verified at the end of March 2023, I told my girlfriend “I need more Asian friends.” And not because I needed a new Viki login (I do tho).
You might be able to relate. I often felt “othered”. I grew up in a place where, as a rare Asian in the community, I had the responsibility of teaching non-Asian persons I encountered that:
You can be Asian and Chinese at the same time
People don’t call people “Oriental” anymore
I’m actually not that good at math
Exhausting work! But beyond avoiding basic ignorance, I’m learning there are more important reasons to keep Asian friends close.
Use it or lose it?
Sometimes I have the extremely irrational thought of “If I don’t inundate myself with an Asian lifestyle, will I lose my Asian-ness?”
For about 5 seconds, it’s interesting to think about. Like, damn… if I don’t eat rice for a third consecutive day, will I start wearing Sperrys and Vineyard Vines? Will I watch college football? Will I order chicken pho?
(Scary stuff, but all hypothetical I assure you.)
No, your heritage is not as easy to lose or forget as Spanish 101. But as an Asian male who doesn’t have a lot of non-family Asian friends these days, I’m starting to wonder if I’d be better off with more Asian people in my life.
Let’s be honest, the fire starts to burn out once you stop getting green texts from Asian Android-truthers in your circle.
You gotta fight it!
An assertion: If you’re Asian, and without a solid stable of Asian friends, I think the risk of losing your special Asian panache and the customs of your family is incredibly high here in “the West”. I’m not interested.
In March 2023, I was having both “use it or lose it” and “need more Asian friends” thoughts a lot. Sometimes I’d go even to the manga section of Kinokuniya and look confused in hopes some Asian homies would tap in with me, but that only attracted unshowered white dudes.
But then I started this page called Asian Verfied.
Here they come
It’s funny, because just 5 months after telling my girlfriend I needed more Asian friends, I now have over 10,000 Asian friends across these silly lil video channels, with Instagram eclipsing 10,000 alone today.
Maybe you think differently, but if you know about Asian Verified, I consider you my friend.
Thank you, sincerely, for being my friend.
To me, this means I now have thousands of Asian friends who understand what I mean when I say it’s not called “99 Ranch”, and thousands of friends who staunchly disagree.
I now have thousands of friends who are suspicious of Asian restaurants who are closed one day a week, let alone two. (If you’re closed 3 days a week, we ain’t coming bro lol.)
Moreover, I now have thousands of friends who deeply understand the Asian-American experience, and I wasn’t sure just how much that would mean to me before you all showed up.
Thank you ❤️
Exploring the Asian-American experience together
With Asian Verified, I set out to help define a framework for approaching Asian culture. And while I work on that, I’m finding a whole universe of Asianness to explore with you.
I hope you continue to have fun being part of this mission with me, friend. After all, we’re just getting started.
Until next time, peace sign ✌️✅