I never knew a language that I don't speak could feel so comforting to me. When I watched Tigertail on Netflix, and heard Taiwanese being spoken, I suddenly felt like my mom was hugging me. Taiwanese, aka Hokkien, is the language the adults used to use when they didn't want us kids to know what they were talking about. But also, just casually with each other. I never learned Taiwanese though, because outside of Taiwan, the global Chinese dialect used is Mandarin, so that's what I learned. And unlike how many European languages of the same family have some degree of mutual intelligibility, that is not true for Chinese dialects. So, this blog post is really more about the Taiwanese language, but Tigertail inspired me to learn some basic Taiwanese Hokkien, and for anyone curious, here's a little bit of cultural and language insights...

If you haven't seen this documentary, you must. It came out in 2017, but I only just watched it this week and it has really opened up my eyes to the grotesque ways of the meat industry, and has motivated me to go full vegan, or at the very least eating less and better meat. I know that sometimes as soon as someone hears that a documentary has turned someone vegan, an automatic resistance is turned on. But trust me...this is worth a watch  so you know what you're actually putting into your body and how it is affecting your health as well as the health of communities suffering as a result of mass produced meat. This post isn't about me trying to convince everyone to go vegan, but I hope more people will consider avoiding mass produced meat, and instead support ethical and sustainable farms.

I saw an Abercrombie & Fitch store last weekend and I wondered how they're still in business, which reminded me to watch Netflix's documentary, White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch​. Maybe because Abercrombie was such a cultural staple during my tween and teen years, I felt especially angry watching this. I think it's an important watch, because it also highlights the problem with many diversity & inclusion initiatives beyond the obvious.

I read that some white dude felt Turning Red, Pixar's latest cuddly release, was limiting in scope, because it was centered around an Asian Canadian girl growing up in Toronto. Hate to break it to you, but dude, your racism is showing! Turning Red is the most relatable film if you've ever been through puberty, tried to figure out your own identity, and dealt with raging emotions. It's a classic coming-of-age story, and if that's unrelatable, then please take your male white privilege to Donald Trump's sauna party for fragile egos.

That's really all I have to say about that, other than...watch this movie now! It's so cute. And what I really love about this movie, what really stood out to me was the theme of dealing with, managing, and embracing all our emotions as part of us. That's something that even as an adult, I'm sure many of us can connect with...except for Sean O'Connell, CinemaBlend's managing director.

P.S. I loved Phil Yu's (@angryasianman) response:

I knew I needed to be emotionally in the right place to watch The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut, starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley. Then an article in The Atlantic convinced me to just hit play. This film is a must watch because it calls truth to the side of motherhood that no one, especially no mother, wants to admit for fear of shame. Watch it.

I recently watched a documentary on Netflix that I want to recommend to you. Found is about three adopted American teenager girls who discover they are cousins after taking a DNA test. They were each adopted from China, by different white American families, and getting to know each other inspires them to journey to China together to learn about their earliest days, meet the women who cared for them until they were adopted, and maybe even find their parents. 

*SPOILER ALERT* 

I didn't see a trailer before I watched this movie, but heard a lot of buzz about it, and figured I love jazz so was excited to check it out. What I quickly learned as I watched it is that this movie is not about jazz, though jazz is one of the vehicles of the story. It's a thought-provoking animation about life that has a timely message as we leave behind an unprecedented year and enter a new one that remains challenging but has hope. This is a great movie to watch with the family, and the animation is cute, fun, and imaginative. Soul​ is indeed good for your soul.

Updated on 10.4.2020 to include information on Prop 24 in California.

I watched The Social Dilemma this weekend and you should, too. Basically, the film is a documentary in which tech industry whistleblowers reveal to us just how much tech companies are manipulating us, with a weird scripted narrative interwoven throughout,  in which Vincent Kartheiser is creepy as ever. In general, we are all probably aware that our every move on social media and the internet is being watched, because we'll talk about something and suddenly get blasted with ads for that thing. The other day, I was literally watching a video in a copywriting course I'm taking, and an hour or so later during my next IG pop-in, I was seeing an ad for the company that was mentioned in the course. I had never even heard of this company or product until the course used one of their ads as an example. But I don't think any of us are surprised anymore to be "mysteriously" targeted with ads related to some obscure or random thing we may have just talked about with someone. So, here are 3 big takeaways I got from this film.

I've seen a lot of people get upset over this film recently, and say the filmmakers exploited children and made child pornography. It all started when Netflix released a piece of promo for the film that showed the young stars of the film in provocative dance positions. At first, knowing nothing of the film, I thought it was a bad poster for a tasteless cheerleading movie. So, I mostly ignored the whole thing, because I thought, I'm not watching a movie that exploits children. Isn't that what "Dance Moms" is? (I don't know, I've never seen it) Then someone shared an article that was titled "We Watched Netflix's 'Cuties' So You Don't Have To" and they were asking their friends and followers to sign a petition to have it removed from Netflix. That's when I decided I needed to watch it, because I'm not letting anyone make judgments for me.

I finally watched Black is King on Disney+ and it has got to be one of the most beautiful pieces of art I have ever seen. Following my recent post on screen time for my kid, I decided to turn the screen on. But, when I turn the screen on, I want to surround my son with art and inspiration. Black is King is everything glorious and large you'd expect from Beyonce, but more than a 90 minute Beyonce music video (which is basically what this film is, and every minute is worth it), this is a celebration of culture, history, and the beautiful and powerful tomorrow that still lies ahead. SPOILER ALERT: There's a lot I love about this and don't want to spoil too much, but I think one of my favorite things in this piece of art is seeing Beyonce and Kelly Rowland's friendship and sisterhood still growing strong.

Watching this has further inspired me to dig deeper into my ancestral history, because I'd like to see Chinese and Asian cultures celebrated and empowered this way. I've been thinking a lot about how one big misconception of Asian culture is that we are a submissive culture, especially the women. It's time to tell the truth, to show the world the truth. There's not much else to say on this, because you need to witness and experience it for yourself. So, go watch it. And then re-watch it. We all need more of this kind of magic to rain down on us.