11. Chinamaxxing, Mahjong, and Asian Cultural Appropriation

Why is something you got bullied for as a kid suddenly "trendy" the moment someone else (especially a white person) discovers/Columbus's it?

That question has been sitting with me, and this episode is where I work through it out loud. I'm talking about growing up Asian, watching pieces of my own culture get repackaged and go viral with zero credit to where they came from, and why the line between appreciation and appropriation is actually not that hard to understand despite what white people want to tell you.

We get into wellness trends, food, fashion, beauty, social media and why it's worth actually listening to the communities these traditions belong to instead of talking past them.

What I'm covering:

•  Why cultural appropriation isn't just about intent but also impact
•  The childhood experiences that shaped how I see today's viral trends 
•  Where the line between appreciation and appropriation actually exists 
•  How social media, influencers, and brands profit from cultures they don't belong to 
•  What respectful allyship looks like when you're engaging with another culture

I know there's going to be a lot of angry white people in my comments and DMs for this one. Before you come spew your hate at me, take a moment to evaluate why you're so angry and so set on defending problematic behavior that would take only a few small fixes to change? Hmm? Chew on that.

Sources:

• Of over 3,500 hate incidents in California from March 2020 to June 2021, three out of ten (28.9%) occurred at the place of business. (Asian Business Association (ABA) Pandemic Impacts Survey) 

Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsallmost/

Visit my website: https://www.itsallmost.com

Join The Conversion Club: https://itsallmost.com/the-conversion-club

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello my lovely Yappers. Kieran here. Welcome back to another episode of The Conversation Club. Today we are talking about something that I've wanted to talk about on this podcast. I think it's taken me a little while. I'm surprised how long it's taken me to get here, but we're talking about Asian cultural appropriation. Speaking as someone with experience, being an Asian and being culturally appropriated, I wanted to talk about what it feels like on this end, what we are experiencing. Hopefully, to give you a little insight if you're not Asian, if you're not a person of color, into that experience, into all of it, all of it, from childhood to adulthood and these juxtaposing sentiments that we've had over the course of the last few decades. Today I'm also gonna preface as usual. We are in a heat wave currently in Europe. So I'm gonna do the best I can to not sweat my balls off while I'm recording. If you see, if you're watching the video, you could see Jeremy in the corner just trying to keep cool. I did get an AC yesterday, a portable AC, and so we're gonna have that installed. I didn't know they had TaskRabbit here in Lisbon. So because I was like, how am I gonna install this and blah blah blah. Anyway, that is getting installed later today. So hopefully it's gonna be like a hundred something, 3940 for those of you who are Celsius babes later this week and like consistently. It's not gonna get below like 77, 78 in the evenings, which is what around like 24, 25 in the evenings. And so is it a 24 turn? Maybe it's like 28, 29. I still don't know my Celsius conversions, but anyway, it's gonna be hot in the evenings, so it's gonna have a hard time cooling down. Hopefully, we will get through these episodes, these next few episodes, with some dignity, with some cooling techniques, but I just wanted to preface that a little bit before we fully dive in. Also, it's gonna be hard because this is one of the topics I get really heated about, so we will see how we regulate that body temperature. Why are we talking about this? Why are we talking about China Maxing, Mahjong, Asian cultural appropriation? I wanted to really set the tone for this podcast. I know that we talk about business, we talk about email marketing, we talk about building a life that you want to live, building the life of your dreams, whether that's abroad, whether that's wherever you live. And episode two, we really set the tone with that fuck AI episode. And it's not the last time we'll do sort of a fuck AI situation. But for those of you that know, I am very vocal on Instagram, in public, in many settings. Your girl loves confrontation. I love a little confrontation. Not a little, I love a lot of confrontation. But I wanted to give you all an idea. For those of you that don't watch my stories, for those of you that don't really know me really that well yet. This is who I am. This is me. This is real, this is me. I'm exactly who I'm supposed to be. For those of you that know the reference, drop it in the comments. And I really just wanted to set the tone for this podcast. We're gonna talk about some shit that some people might find uncomfortable, but I think it's important to say, I think it's important to address it, I think it's important not to ignore it and to bring it to light so that those who don't experience this are aware that it's happening and maybe are gonna be a little more conscious of how they move moving forward in life. So that's kind of what we're focusing on today. Are we ready? Are you ready to get into it? My chronically online girlies, my chronically online girls gays and they're will understand some of the things that I'm referencing. If you don't understand, I mean, maybe ignorance is bliss. So I mean, feel free to look into it and look up what I'm referencing. Obviously, this is more of an audio platform, and I don't think I'm really gonna be like on YouTube editing some of these examples in for all of y'all to see. So I'll talk about it. If you're unfamiliar, feel free to uh look into it. Maybe we'll post some Instagram posts so you can see some of these visual examples that I'm talking about. But yeah, let's talk about Asian cultural appropriation. So, for those of you that know and might have heard, I don't know, the kids, the kid, the youths, they are they're maxing. They're maxing on their looks maxing, their I don't know, protein maxing, their maw max. I don't know. I don't know all the terminology, but right now China maxing is a really big thing, right? I'm in a very Chinese time of my life. We've seen a lot of that kind of content going around lately. Everybody wants to be Chinese, and that's the thing. They want to be Chinese without actually being Chinese, right? They want to take all the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine, of traditional Chinese practices, and want to act like, ooh, we discovered it. Like it's a very Columbus. White people tend to, again, I'm gonna set the tone for this podcast, and the tone for not only this podcast, but me as a person, as Kieran on social in real life, you're gonna realize that I'm basically this way in every facet of my life. I actually have toned down a lot since I was younger when I first started my business and when I first started posting. I was a lot harder on white people than I am now. I don't know. I feel like I should kind of go back to being harder on white people. I think a lot of you don't get the criticism that you deserve. Don't get called the fuck out the way that you deserve anymore as much as you used to. So I'm here. I'm here to call you the fuck out because fuck this shit. This whole like, I'm in a Chinese time of my life. I'm gonna drink warm water because it's good for my. And it's like, yes, a lot of these things are good for you. Our ancestors have been doing them for centuries. They've been passed down generation to generation, these really traditional practices that are rooted in science, rooted in understanding the body, rooted in just so many things that all these white people are coming in and they're like, oh my god, like check out this lymphatic drainage thing that I learned how to do. Oh my god, it's so cool. And it's like qigong is not lymphatic drainage, okay. I mean, yes, it'll move the energy through your body, but I don't know. Anyway, it's they're just like, oh, it's Tai Chi, and I'm like, that it's also not Tai Chi. Like, that is yes, moving energy too. But qigong and tai chi are not the same thing, and let's not conflate them. And I don't know, it's just all these white people coming in and being like, look at this amazing thing that I do now, and it's rooted in traditional Chinese medicine or traditional Chinese practices. They never reference where it comes from, they never reference the source, they don't even give the names the proper names, they're calling it like arm twists, and I'm like, kind of dumbass fucking white ass name are you giving? Anyway, whatever. I'm trying to deep breast, deep breaths, because honestly, it's just fucking annoying to watch. It's so annoying to watch all these non-Asian people, non-Chinese people, China maxing and being like, mmm, I'm so Chinese. Like, I'm basically a Chinese girl. Like, mmm, all these TikTok trends, all these things where these non-Asian people are coming in and saying, Oh my god, look at this thing I've discovered. Look at this thing that's so new that I'm sharing with you as if I'm the one who created it, as if I'm the first person ever who's ever talked about this. And it's like, you're not. My fucking grandma taught me that shit when I was a child. The whole like gua shaw situation that I can't remember how long ago it was. It was like what five, 10 years ago, that everybody was like, jade rollers, da-da-da-da-da. It was so embarrassing just watching everybody use the technique wrong, and they were like, Oh, we're gonna go down. And I'm like, you never fucking go down, like you always up and away from the face. Like, again, my grandma taught me this shit when I was a kid, and you're gonna come at me now and be like, This is how you do it. Oh my god, you guys, look what I discovered. Um, I know I'm giving it a voice of like a influencer, like a female influencer, but honestly, like men and everyone in between, all of y'all are just very frustrating, very, very frustrating. And then there was also this year, earlier this year in 2026, everyone I feel like everyone and their mother was talking about lunar new year, lunar new year and the year of the fire horse, and what does that mean? What does the year of the horse mean? How is that different than the year of the snake? Why fire? What's the element of fire have to do with? And so many people were trying to explain, white-explain, were trying to just say, oh, this is the year of the fire horse. This is what that means, this is how you need to change your habits, change your business, do things, blah blah blah, clean your house, whatever, to prepare for the year of the fire horse, to shed everything from the year of the snake into the year of the fire horse and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Just like shut up. Honestly, if you're gonna take anything away from this episode and you're not gonna make it all the way to the end when I give you my whole big closing argument and spiel, it's this it's shut the fuck up. Just shut up. If you're like, oh, you know, I'm gonna share this, like, oh, drink warm water, ooh, have kanji, like I'm gonna do all of this, I'm going to cook with these ingredients. I'm going honestly, shut up. No one cares if you are not Chinese, if you are not Asian, and you're talking about these elements of Chinese, Asian whatever culture that are not yours, just shut up. Nobody needs to hear from you. Nobody needs to know what you discovered. Okay, and for those of you that are not watching, I'm very heavily doing air quotes on discovered. Okay. I know that a lot of this episode is just gonna be me like looking down and just sighing really heavily because it's just exhausting. It's absolutely exhausting. I mean, I remember growing up getting made fun of for all the Asian things that I did, right? Like the food that I brought at lunch, drinking the warm water, all these things I got made fun of for that now. White people are like, ooh, this is so smart. We're gonna implement all of this stuff in our lives. We're going to incorporate this, like, this is so cool. Have you heard of bubble tea? Have you heard of? And it's like, yeah, bitch, I have. I've been consuming this stuff all my life. You used to make fun of me for it when we were kids. Like, fuck you. Ugh, anyway, clearly coming at it from a very personal and lived experience perspective. So I'm gonna try to carry us through this episode without totally crashing out. Again, all of you chronically online girls, gays and they's maybe not the people who aren't as online, but you might have heard that Mahjong is making a huge, huge comeback isn't even the right word because it's a huge breakout. It's the breakout star, right? Of 2026. It's very popular right now. I'm gonna call it, should I? That's my other thing with Chinese words, is that I'm like, should I just say it the white way? Should I say it the way that all you basic ass bitches are gonna understand? Or should I say it the way that it's actually it's ma jang? It's not mahjong, mahjong, it's ma jang. So actually, you know what? I'm gonna say it the way it's meant to be said. And if you don't understand what I'm saying, I don't care. So anyway, Mah Jiang has been really, really blowing up lately. It's really popular among white women right now, especially those private school mom groups. The brand, I don't know if this is the exact, because I think there are multiple brands that have been created by white people, white women selling ma jung sets and all that. When I say the name of the brand, I'm gonna say it the white way because I think that's how they would say it. And so I'm not gonna give them any credit because no, no credit is due. But some of you might have seen the New York Times piece, Diet Prada also posted it on their socials, of this Dallas-based brand created by white women called Oh My Mahjong. Oh my mahjong.

unknown 13:05

Such a dumb name.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

But you've seen these, they're very Americanized in terms of the style of the tiles. The tiles are also really poor quality, they're also like 200 to 500 a piece, which is crazy. Or maybe not a piece, but like the tiles are way too much. For those of you that actually have played Ma Jang, for those of you that actually know the culture and know Ma Jiang is a very supposed to be a very accessible game, right? It's supposed to be played across all socioeconomic backgrounds. And so for them to again appropriate it, columbus it, take it to this new level of caucasity of whiteness, and to price full sets at like over a thousand US dollars when they're still very poor quality. They even changed the tile designs because the Chinese characters, quote unquote, were confusing. And it's like you've quite literally, in classic white fashion, in classic white people fashion, in classic white women fashion, you have taken the personality, the culture, the identity of Ma Jan, and you have stripped it down, and you have sanitized it, and you have turned it into this, like, it just feels icky. It just feels like it just feels stupid. It feels so unnecessary, obviously, very capitalistic. They're trying to make money. They have this like Maji mentor program where you can become a certified instructor. It's stupid. All of it is so fucking stupid. And I am just so sick of the caucassity of white women, the caucusity of white people thinking that they can take this ancient, I mean not ancient, but like a very traditional game, a very culturally rooted game, and turn it into this like a parody of itself, a fucking shell of itself. It takes all the joy and the fun out of it. And I bet you those bitches aren't even playing Mah Jiang right. I'm sure they added some of their own rules and whatever it is to make it less confusing. And it's so stupid because it's like Mah Jiang is a very straightforward game and it's really not that confusing. And you use cards with diamonds and clubs and whatever on it, but like Chinese characters are too confusing to you. Like, go fuck yourself. Truly honestly, if any of you bitches know the Omai Mahjong or whatever other brand that white women have created to play Mah Jian, if any of you know these people, or if you're listening, if any of you bitches are listening, like please go tell them, please tell them. And I'm telling you right now, you guys suck. You suck, you have no originality, and you should go fuck yourself. Okay? Okay, great. Glad we got that out of the way. So it's just shit like that. It's just it's this Chinamaxing. It's this, oh, I'm gonna cook with these ingredients, and I'm going to do qigong in the morning, and I'm going to tell you what to do in the year of the fire horse. I'm gonna teach you how to play ma jang, like or mahang. It's very frustrating. I know COVID was a really big catalyst, isn't the right word, but it was definitely a very defining moment in global society. Obviously, we're navigating the pandemic and everything like that, but because of the origin where the COVID pandemic started in China over the whole bat situation, it really increased, right? I mean, hate crimes against Asians, especially Asian elders, have been a problem for a long time. But this rise in 2020 and beyond of Asian hate, of hate crimes and violence against Asian people, it's been really sad to watch. I mean, I think COVID almost gave people, and by people I mean non-Asian people, almost like a like a reason, uh justification, some kind of like, oh, now we can really shit on Asian people. Now we can really hate on them, now we can really hurt them and be violent towards them and commit hate crimes against them because they cause COVID and they're the reason why, blah blah blah blah, like whatever stupid fucking narrative. I mean, even the Asian Business Association did a pandemic impact survey and of the over 3,500 hate incidents in California. So this is centered around California, so it's not a total indication of every single state or every single place or all the incidents, these are just the reported incidents from March 2020 to June 2021. So there were at least over 3,500, 3,500 hate incidents in California from March 2020 to June 2021. And three out of 10, so 30% of those incidents occurred at a place of business, a place that's owned by an Asian person where Asian people shop, that kind of thing. And it's really sad, it's really disappointing to see. I know I experienced, I remember there was one day I was walking down the aisle. I can't remember, I think it was like pretty early on. It was like a few months into the pandemic in 2020, and I was wearing a mask, obviously. And I was at the grocery store getting my little, I think it was like it was like Safeway or QFC or something like that. And I was just like going down the aisle, getting my food, da da da. And then I think I like choked on my saliva. I was oh gosh, after the pandemic, I had to be so cautious about how I moved in public because if you, as an Asian person, did one wrong thing, people would be like, oh my god, oh so I remember I like choked on my spit or something like that, and I started coughing to like get it out of my lungs, and I was pushing my cart down the frozen aisle, and this white person was coming towards me with their cart. And as soon as I started coughing, this man, this fucking ugly ass, disgusting ass white man, panic set in his eyes, and then he started backing up, not even turning his cart around and running away, but like backing up like this, like a little fucking moron, as I was coughing. And I was like, Could you be more racist? Why don't you just call me a chink while you're at it? Like, what are you doing? And so it was sad. It was sad. I mean, obviously, I didn't experience any sort of violence, I didn't experience worse things. Some of the things that obviously were even worse and even more harmful, I didn't experience that as much, but I still, it was very potent. The anti-Asian sentiment was very potent. And the hard thing about the stop Asian hate, the stop AAPI hate movement was that it didn't actually really serve us. The reason why I personally didn't really support it was because I mean, yes, I wanted Asian hate to stop, but like the way to do it was a lot of these Asians were promoting or saying, like, hey, in order to stop Asian hate, we need more policing. We need more cops to come in and intervene. And it's like, no. Cops coming to intervene, it's never gonna serve anybody. If you know, here and just anywhere where I exist, it's a cap all the way. Fuck the cops. All cops are bastards. Not a single cop in the history of copage have ever, ever been productive and helped someone and done something good. It has always been a terrible systemic fault to that. So, anyway, instead of actually helping reduce Asian hate crimes and violence against Asians, the stop AAPI hate movement actually only really hurt black and brown folks even more, right? Because it called for more policing and it called for more surveillance and almost martial law, right? Like more, more of this oppression caused by state systems and state institutions. And it didn't actually help, it really only hurt black and brown communities more. And I don't have a solution here, but like Asians, we gotta come together in a different way, and we gotta stop fucking calling for more policing. Honestly, policing is not gonna protect anybody, it's only gonna hurt other people. It's only gonna so anyway, that's what I have to say about that. I know some Asians are gonna be in the comments or be in my DMs and be like, and stop Asian. Hey, so you're okay with it. Violent crimes against Asians? I'm not, I'm not okay. I don't fucking want violent crimes against Asians. Who wants that? But I do just want us to hopefully come together and find a better way. Find a better way to stop. This Asian hate without harming our black and brown communities that have uplifted us and supported us. Why would we want to do something that harms them? So, anyway, that's how I feel about that. COVID really amplified and magnified and just gave all these people who were itching, itching to hate on Asians a reason to hate on them. And we hate that. We hate that. And I know some of you are gonna come in here and be like, oh, you know, appropriation, what if it's appreciation? What if I'm wearing this kimono to appreciate Japanese culture? What if I'm wearing chopsticks in my hair to appreciate Chinese culture? And it's like, stop fucking making excuses. Okay. Basically, appropriation boils down to like, but I really like it, but I really, really like it. And it's like, really, really liking it is not appreciating it. And you shouldn't take culture, someone else's culture, a culture that you are not from, that you have no rooted ancestry in, you can't take it for your own aesthetic pleasure without trying to understand what it is you're putting on your body or in your body or whatever. If you are going about it of a, there's this little element, right, of Asianness that I really like that I want to take for myself and I want to incorporate into my wardrobe, my life, my whatever. And I have no understanding of the history of it, what it's rooted in, where it comes from. I just want to take it because I think it like, I like it. I like it, I think it like looks cute. I think it that's not appreciation. That is appropriation. Okay, I need y'all to actually go and understand what it is you're putting on your body. And if you don't understand the holistic and the full background of it, and you're just like, just want a little bit of this. Because a lot of people out there, when they're appropriating, they just want this little aspect. They want the thing that looks cool, they want the thing, but they don't actually want to be Asian, right? They don't want the experience of being Asian in America, in other white countries. I guarantee you, a lot of you out there are gonna be like, I'm appreciating, I'm appreciating. And I guarantee you you're not. You're actually appropriating and you're trying to call it appreciation, and it's just not. It's just not. I mean, there's so many instances of like fashion appropriation, the chopsticks in the hair, the tip, like the Chinese, like silk with the little buttons, the little silk buttons that come up. It's like we don't need to be wearing that. I mean, other Asian appropriations like bindy's or henna or kimono's cultural robes, that kind of thing. Jesus Christ, I remember I had a boss who was a self-proclaimed japonophile. Ugh. Ugh. Any person who calls themselves a japonophile, you can go choke. Like, ew, ew, why are people like this? I mean, the chopsticks in the hair, the bindies, the henna, tattoos with dumbass Asian characters, Chinese characters. Oh, this means courage. And it's like, girl, that does not say courage. You're a dumb bitch. There's like the headdresses, the oh, Jade, Jade. I feel like I am taking a moment because your girl, I actually did get robbed the other day. Fully, someone broke into my apartment, stole all my jewelry, my cash. I'm about to talk about some jewelry, and I'm like, uh, but when I was buying all this jewelry that just got stolen, we're gonna do an episode on that whole situation. So don't worry, I will break it down for you later. But I remember when I was buying all this jewelry, whenever I would see a non-Chinese person selling jade, I was just like, you should not be selling jade. Jade is not for you to sell, jade is not yours. You should not be making money off of jade. It just felt so wrong. So I was like, I cannot buy jade from non-Chinese people. It just doesn't feel right. The jade, the Buddha appropriation. That one is pretty fucked up because it's like Buddha is not really supposed to be used that way. But anyway, whatever. It's just fashion appropriation. There's so much of it, it's so abundant, and I feel like nowadays people don't even see it anymore. They're just like, oh, this is so normalized. This appropriation of Asian culture in fashion, in style, in aesthetic. It's embarrassing. Embarrassing. But then also like the food appropriation. I remember growing up, like, and I'm so sorry, mom, for this. Wherever you're listening from, love you. She's dead, so she's listening from wherever. Heaven, hell, I don't know. But I remember she would pack me Chinese lunch every single day. It would be nyangal, which is my favorite, rice cakes. I loved her nyangal. It was so, so good. And I would throw it away every day at school instead of eating it because the kids would make fun of me as soon as I opened it. They'd be like, Ew, that smells so bad. What is that? And now all you bitches go to dintai fung and shit and eat your little nyangal and be like, this is the most delicious thing. They come to me, they're like, Have you heard of nyangal? I'm like, Yeah, the thing you fucking made fun of me for growing up. Yeah, I fucking know what nyangal is, you little bitch. This episode is a lot more heated than my fuck AI episode. I feel very strongly about my fuck AI, but this appropriation shit, honestly, because it's rooted in so many traumatizing childhood memories, this is gonna be a very like fuck you bitches episode. I mean, it already has been. We're like what 20, 30 minutes in. Those exact same people that made fun of the Asian kid in school for the smelly lunch that they would bring, even though it was like the best lunch, easily of everybody's lunches. I'm like, I don't want your stupid ass grilled cheese with tomato, the soggy ass shit with fucking way too much sodium and not enough nutrition. I would so much rather have my nyanko. I would so much rather, but I digress. One of the big ones, obviously, bubble tea. That was a big one that everyone I I still remember one of my favorite videos of that guy who's like, I just got I think it's called baba. It's bubble tea, but like they said there's baba, baba's at the bottom, and he like drinks it and didn't doesn't realize the tapioca like goes straight into his lungs. It's so funny. But anyway, I just yeah, a lot of people coming in here being like, Oh, bubble tea, have you had bubble tea before? I remember there was a really I can't remember how long ago it was, but I want to say around like five-ish, seven-ish years ago. Like, was it even that long ago? Time is so fucking weird. But the whole golden milk blow up, like everyone was like, Have you tried golden milk? Have you tried it? It's so good. And then right now, the big one is rice paper. Like, all these people being like, Have you made rice paper egg rolls or rice paper this or rice paper that? And they're like, Have you heard of how you could use rice paper? It's gluten-free. There's so many ways you can use that. There's so many recipes that I see on Instagram, on TikTok these days that are like, oh my god, like, look, I found this rice paper. It's like so versatile. There's so many ways you can use that. Um I just, it's like, yeah, we've been fucking using rice paper for ages, for centuries. But good for you. Good for you, Caitlin, for catching up. Good for you. But yeah, I mean, like sushi, the sushi burrito, dessert sushi, like there's so many bastardizations of sushi these days. And ramen, ramen back in the day was so appropriated. I think pho, pho is also a big one. Asian noodles are not all the same. People being like, oh, pho is the new ramen. Like, Asian noodles are not all the same. Yes, they're noodles and they're Asian, but like each culture has its own whatever, whatever. Fuck, fuck all of you.

unknown 30:08

Like, truly.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

And seriously, like, white people stop telling us how to make and eat our own food. We know how to eat our own food. We know how to make our own food, okay? You don't need to fucking be telling us any of that shit. I know I've said this so many times this episode, but it's just like, what are you doing? Like, you come in here and act like you know shit about shit, but you don't know shit about shit. And it's it's the caucusity, truly, the caucassity of white people. I don't know why. Like, I don't think it astonishes me as much anymore. It's very like, I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised. What can I be surprised about anymore? Y'all have found all the different ways to appropriate our cultures. It's embarrassing, it's embarrassing. But in terms of my experience too, there has just been so much fetishization of Asians, especially Asian women. Online dating as an Asian woman has been such a terrible experience. People are like, Oh, do you want to go on the apps and do you want to go on this and that? And I'm like, no, I don't, because honestly, a good amount of the interactions that I get are fetishization, are people being like, ooh, you're Asian. You must be so submissive and so quiet. And so I'm like, if you ask me what that mouth do, it's probably gonna fucking criticize you and all of your ancestors and your lineage and all the fucking shit that your people have done to my people. So that's what this mouth does. This mouth is gonna fucking cuss you out and gonna confront you and gonna talk shit, call you the fuck out. And so if that's the experience you want, I'm not gonna give you the little like mm, very quiet, very like, mm-mm, no, your girl is not doing that. Whether it's in anime or it's in K-pop or it's in other things, and the way that people will fetishize the music, the media, the culture, and just the existence of like Korea booze and we aboos and all these people who are like, I love Korean culture, I love Japanese culture, I love it. I know I've been just making a lot of like faces and random noises during this episode. It's the heat, it's the delirium, but it's also just like, oh my god, I'm just tired. I'm just tired. I remember I used to have an episode with my girl Geraldine. It was called Almost Chill, and we talked basically all about the Asian American experience, what it's like to be Asian American, where we're coming from. And we did an episode on this on cultural appropriation. And I remember in that episode, I mean, I was angry, but I was more matter-of-the-like in this episode I'm just exasperated. I'm just, I'm exhausted, I'm frustrated. There's not much else to say about that. But yeah, I mean, there's so many other appropriations, right? There's yoga, yoga is such a big one, like Tai Chi and Qigong, and celebrities out there that are appropriate. I mean, we know obviously so many celebrities out there appropriating Gwen Stefani. Ugh, she's gross, whatever. Katy Perry, Iggy Azalea, the Kardashians, like, I mean, what culture have the Kardashians not appropriated at this point? But yeah, I just so many celebrities like normalizing this appropriation, you know, in media and in casting as well, like Scarlett Johansson in Ghosts in the Shell, or Emma Stone in whatever, I forgot what movie that was, but where she plays like the Hawaiian character, and it's like, y'all, you couldn't have found fucking Asian people, actual Asian people, to play these characters. You had to do that. You had to cast white women as Asians, as people of color. It's just so uh I mean, I would say Hollywood do better, but you know, we know how Hollywood is. Hollywood is not taking feedback on doing better, and even if they do, they just like will be like, oh, maybe if we forget about it for a few years, we can bring it back and do it again and whatever. But even people of color appropriating POC, like Nikki Minaj, we know she's cancelled and she's whatever, fuck her. But with Chun Li, with all that, I mean, I will say also Asians, Asians are also very guilty of appropriating other cultures. So I'm not saying Asians are perfect, I'm not at all saying that because there are very, very many problematic Asians as well. A lot of Asians that are appropriating black culture. I'm not saying you can't listen to hip-hop, I'm not saying you can't appreciate hip-hop, right? But like obviously, we don't want to support the artists that are appropriating hip-hop, the whole entire K-pop industry, right? The whole entire K-pop industry is built on black culture, built on hip-hop, built on rapping, and built on taking all these elements of black culture and turning it into something that is mass-produced, something that is like, oh, look, we're so novel. Like, I know Lisa from Blackpink recently has been under fire for like her black scent using like black vernacular English and being very like, mm-hmm. I'm not even gonna try to imitate it because it's just embarrassing and obviously would be offensive. But if you go out there and you search, what is that one song? That new like Selena Gomez ice cream song or whatever, and you hear like Lisa and you're like, girl, that is not how you sound. You do not need to be using a black scent like that. Like it is so loud and it is so cringe, embarrassing. I mean, there are so many black artists that you can be supporting instead, instead of these Asians who are trying to cosplay. And it's just, oh god, it's so embarrassing. I'm just saying, just don't support artists who are appropriating other non-Asian culture. There are plenty of Asian artists out there who aren't doing problematic shit. So go support them, go support black artists, don't support Asians who are trying to appropriate black culture. Okay, that's all I'm saying. But yeah, I didn't want to end this episode without noting that, like, yes, Asians also appropriate. Everyone in every culture appropriates other cultures. And what I'm trying to say is, let's do less of that, right? Do less of that. We can appreciate, we can highlight other artists, other creators from other cultures without taking that culture, distilling it down to whatever you find interesting about it, and then leaving the rest. If we're gonna take a culture and we're gonna appreciate it, we're gonna take all of it, we're gonna understand all of it rather than, oh, I'm just gonna take this one little element of it. And to me, I really like it, right? Like I said, it boils down to I really like it. So, why is none of this okay? Why is none of this okay to do? Well, when you strip down complex and intricate cultures, when you strip it down to this like quick look or this like reductive representation of it, it takes away all of this history, all of this background, all of this context, right, for why it exists the way that it exists today. It has been evolved over generations, over centuries. There are very, very important cultural, historic practices that you're just gonna take a little bit of an element of, and it's just so reductive, right? You are taking what serves you. You're taking what serves you about a culture without understanding the impact it has on the people of that culture and their lived experiences, right? You're taking the little thing that serves you, that makes you feel good, that makes you feel like you're a part of whatever, makes you feel like, oh, look, I get to tell people that I know about this, or I get to tell people that I do this. But you're not actually understanding how that impacts the people of that culture, how it impacts their lived experiences, how it impacts the representation of them in media, in life, in the news, in whatever. And you're profiting off of it, right? We were profiting off of a culture that you are not a part of and that you frankly are not showing respect to. I don't know a lot of people who are out there talking about Mahdiang and how to play it and whatever while showing respect to it. When you appropriate Asian culture, when you appropriate other cultures, you are taking up space in a space that is not for you. It's not yours to take up space in. You do not need to be talking about any of these things. There are Asian creators, there are Asian people, Asian individuals who are actually influencers, whatever you want to call them, people out there who are creating this content and educating. Go follow them. You don't need to learn about this shit from a white girl. You just don't. And white people, non-Asians, you do not need to be taking up space in Asian spaces, in spaces that are meant for Asians to represent themselves and to talk about their lived experiences and to talk about the things that they grew up with, to talk about their own cultures. And so, like I said earlier, if you're gonna take one thing away from this episode, it really is just to shut the fuck up. If you want to share your rice paper recipe, you don't need to. You don't need to just shut the fuck up. Just shut the fuck up. Nobody cares, nobody needs to hear this from you, okay? And the lesson at the end of the day is to give the appropriate culture the space. Give the culture the space to properly represent themselves, right? Amplify their voices, amplify the people from that culture. Don't speak over them, don't try to take their space, don't try to take space that is theirs and not meant for you, right? You don't need to be giving these dumbass excuses for, oh, I'm celebrating. I'm not appropriating, I'm celebrating. If a person of color is telling you you're appropriating, and your first thing that you want to say is to defend yourself and saying, I'm celebrating, I'm not appropriating, you're not. Someone is telling you, someone is telling you that you are appropriating their culture. The first thing you need to do is apologize, is apologize, reflect, and change your behavior. It is not a time for you to be like, but, but, but, but I like it, but I'm appreciating it, but I'm telling more people about it so more people know about it. That's not your job. That is not your purpose. Your purpose in life is not to tell other people about a culture that you are not from. Okay. Always, if a person of color is telling you that you are appropriating, there's no defense necessary. You just need to apologize and stop doing that shit. Okay. Let me just say that one more time because for some reason, white people, I feel like y'all do not listen. If you are called out for appropriation, the only action you need to take is to apologize and not do it again. Those are the only things you need to be doing. You don't need to try to justify why you did it. You don't need to justify why you should be able to do whatever you want. None of that is necessary. None of that is necessary. All you need to do, apologize, change your behavior, and shut the fuck up. Okay? That's your homework. That is your homework for this week. If you are out there appropriating some culture, whether you're aware of it or not, and someone says, hey, you're appropriating this culture, you should stop doing this. Homework. Apologize, genuinely apologize, do a proper apology, stop doing it, change your behavior, stop doing it, and shut the fuck up. That's it. That's all you need to do. You don't need to do anything else. Okay. Or if people are just gonna be mad at me for calling white people dumb. But I hope maybe you got something out of this episode. Maybe you got something out of me being frustrated and being exasperated and almost crashing out on this episode. This is what this show is about, and this is what we are going to be talking about, you know. Because I know some people are gonna be like, this feels so unprofessional. Like, you can't just be cussing people out and calling people whatever. It's like, yeah, technically, it's probably not very professional, but this is who I am. I am going to be my authentic self. And I just yeah, I wanted to share a little bit, a little bit of that personality with all of you and know that there's more coming. There is much more of this coming. So, so be ready, stay vigilant. I hope you enjoyed this episode. For those of you that have other thoughts to share, my Asians out there, is there anything I missed? Let me know. Yappers, it has been another wonderful episode of the Conversation Club. Thank you so much for being here, and I will see you next week. Ciao ciao. If this episode gave you something to think about, take it and do something with it. If you want more of this or you just want to see what my life actually looks like, come follow me on Instagram at it's almost with two L's. Be sure to link it in the show notes. You can also follow me at Almost Consulting for some juicier, spicier takes. 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