IN what Korean-American comedian Paul PK Kim called an “Oprah style” interview, three Asian American YouTubers and three restaurant founders shared their journeys to success, as well as random details about their lives and preferences.
Filipino-American YouTube sensations AJ Rafael and Joseph Vincent, Chinese-Vietnamese founder of Blogilates Cassey Ho and the founders of restaurant Seoul Sausage Co. – Yong Kim, Ted Kim and Chris Oh – dished their stories at an #IAm campaign event, hosted by The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE). #IAm features stories from Asian Americans making their mark in various industries, such as entertainment, food and social media.
Last year, the #IAm campaign was the No. 1 largest AAPI campaign on YouTube and the fourth largest non-profit campaign on the online video platform.
“The #IAm campaign reminds us all to embrace our identity, to take risks and to dream big,” Michelle Sugihara, executive director of CAPE, said at the event on Wednesday, May 27, at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. “I hope it inspires all of you to share your #IAm story.”
The event marked the second season in the campaign and its first live event. (Season one was only on YouTube.) An #IAm event is scheduled in New York on June 18 at the Japan Society on 47th Street.
AJ Rafael
Rafael was first to take the stage Wednesday and opened with a live performance that drew widespread applause from audience members. The 26-year-old musician told the crowd about how he used YouTube during his teenage years (somewhere in the early 2000s) to upload videos that he could put onto Myspace, which was slipping in popularity at the time. The platform also worked because it allowed users to upload and view videos for free, and allows content creators to reach up to millions of viewers.
“Also, there are no rules, really, on YouTube. You can post anything you want, from cat videos to music videos. And the fact that I … invest in my own music videos and can put them on YouTube and spread the word that way about my music without having a record label – I’m an independent musician, so I don’t have anyone telling me [what to post or not to post],” he said.
These factors have contributed to growing Asian American success on the online platform, Rafael said.
“The fact that there are a lot of Asian Americans on YouTube I think is a great thing, that we can create our own content and not be controlled by what’s happening in mainstream media,” he said.
Although he has experienced great success on YouTube – to date, he has more than half a million subscribers on YouTube and more than 120 million views – the Fil-Am artist announced a hiatus last June after feeling pressured to create new material for each of his shows.
“I took a [break] because I felt like I was touring for 10 years straight and even though I wasn’t doing shows consistently in the last couple of years,” he said.
“I felt a lot of pressure in a lot of different ways, and maybe I made it up in my mind, but it was good to take breaks. I know that a lot of creative people don’t think they should take a break because their job is fun, it’s fun to play shows. But it’s good to step back and just kind of see where you’re at,” he added.
Rafael said he plans on coming back in January 2016.
“Expect me to be at least announcing something,” he said.
At the request of Kim (who moderated the event) and audience members who participated in a Q-and-A session during each interview, Rafael also shared non-career related details, including his love for Disney, that a bible verse was his first tattoo, that his prefers Batman to Superman and that he had eaten Panda Express earlier in the day.
Seoul Sausage Co. – Yong Kim, Ted Kim and Chris Oh
When the founders of Los Angeles-based Korean restaurant Seoul Sausage Co. first started down their path to success, their sights weren’t set on becoming what they are today.
In their Oprah-style interview, the three co-founders crammed to fit into the couch seat facing Kim while sharing how everything came together.
Co-founder Chris Ho, who sat on the edge of the couch that could have served as an arm rest, said making sausages was actually just a passion project in the beginning.
“One day I decided to make Korean barbecue sausages,” Oh said. “So I literally went on YouTube, learned how to make a sausage on the Internet, and the next day was at Bed, Bath and Beyond, bought a $99 sausage maker – with [a 20 percent] coupon – and then I literally just started making these sausages every day.”
Oh’s studio kitchen served as the trio’s first kitchen, and their first food truck was Yong Kim’s SUV.
“That was our beginning. And we were so passionate about the whole project. We didn’t think about being this big company but we just wanted to do what we love, what we were passionate about. With that being said, you [have to] start somewhere, and that’s where we kind of started,” Oh said.
Eventually they opened up a restaurant and quit their jobs, expecting they would be much busier.
Except they weren’t. They often found themselves with time to spare, which led them to apply for The Great Food Truck Race, a show on Food Network. The day after the three submitted their application, they were informed that they were selected to be on the show.
“I remember we had this conversation: ‘Hey, let’s just not make fools of ourselves and just make it halfway through, and I think everyone will be proud.’ But after the first three episodes we [thought], ‘I think we can take this.’ I think a lot of the other teams were so caught up with trying to win, whereas we were just trying to have fun,” said co-founder Ted Kim, who is Yong’s brother.
At the end of the show’s third season, the Seoul Sausage Co. trio were named the winners.
“We didn’t sign up to be role models or ambassadors of Korean food or Korean flavors, but now that we’re on the stage, we want to take it to the next level,” Oh said.
“We want to do what the California roll did for Japanese food.”
With all their success, the group is now looking to open up a second restaurant in the near future.
“It’s been an amazing ride,” Oh said.
Blogilates – Cassey Ho
In 2003 at the age of 16, Blogilates’ Cassey Ho was looking for a way to get fit for the Miss Teen Chinatown Pageant. She stumbled on pilates, which allows people to work out at home without any equipment, and fell in love with it.
Four years later, she obtained her certification to teach pilates as a sophomore in college and began teaching classes. Two years after that, she had to move to Boston for her first job, so she created a YouTube video in 2009 for the students she was leaving behind.
The video was only meant for about 30 people, but it ended up getting thousands of views.
“From that point on I’ve always made videos for my students, for my fans and I think that’s really [what’s contributed] to the success of Blogilates,” Ho said.
The Chinese-Vietnamese shared that her achievements did not come easy. When she was younger, Ho wanted to become a fashion designer, a goal that wasn’t well received by her parents.
“[My dad] literally looked me in the eye and said, ‘Cassey, you will not succeed, you will make no money you will have no friends.’ And he was very serious about that…. And I cried, it broke my heart,” she said.
Ho then went on to pursue a track toward medical school and studied biology in college.
“But my heart just wasn’t in it,” she said.
Ho was getting the grades she needed and was just one class shy of completing the requirements to take the MCAT before she decided to drop out of that course (organic chemistry) so she couldn’t take the test.
“I just couldn’t come up with a good reason why I couldn’t do this for [my parents],” she said.
Her mother and father became upset and she stopped talking to them for a few years, moved away, and went into fashion design.
“It wasn’t until the whole YouTube thing started to work out that they came around and were happy for me and for my success. Because for them … they wanted financial stability for [my sister and I], and they knew that from a very stable career, like [being a doctor] or being a lawyer. And they just didn’t know how to do that following my passion.
“My dad always said, ‘You have to do the doctor thing, and then you can do what you love on the side.’ But for me, if I’m not living passionately 100 percent of the time, I’m wasting my time,” Ho said.
The Blogilates host recently returned to the U.S. from London, where she taught a Meetup class where nearly 400 attended and attended BeautyCon.
Joseph Vincent
Audience members were given another live performance Wednesday evening from another Fil-Am YouTuber, who performed “My Girl,” an original composition that hadn’t been posted anywhere as of the time of the event.
Vincent’s YouTube channel features acoustic covers of popular artists, as well as original compositions. On the online video platform, he has nearly half a million subscribers and more than 90 million views. With all his success on the video service, Vincent openly shared with the audience that he was initially hesitant to put his first video on YouTube, but that he was inspired by other Filipino Americans on the platform.
“They even gave me the advice to just do it, just put your music out, take the criticism in stride and use it to better yourself. And never get discouraged, don’t let anyone tell you you can’t. It’s generic stuff but it’s true,” he said in response to a question from an audience member who said she was just starting out with music.
While music is not the typical path Asian parents wish for their children to follow, Vincent said his parents have always been completely supportive of what he chooses to do. He attended UC Irvine where he obtained his degree in public health policy, although he left the university for a period of time to go to the Philippines where he was ready to sign with a label and pursue music there.
But his mom, who was present during the discussion with the label, stepped in and asked if this was what he really wanted to do.
“‘You know that I support you in music, but I kind of want you to finish college first,’” he remembered her saying.
So they made a compromise where Vincent would finish college first while working on his music at the same time. If he succeeded, he could continue pursuing it. And if it didn’t, he would have his degree to fall back on.
Even with all his YouTube success, the young Fil Am said he’s not entirely sure what comes next, but he does know he wants to continue making good music.
His hard work and talent even landed him a performances in front of a variety of crowds, including getting the opening act for some K-pop groups and a Japanese pop star. But his “weirdest” gigs have been ones at night clubs. During his interview with Kim, Vincent shared an experience he had performing an acoustic act at a night club that was playing EDM in Sweden.
“I’ve experienced a lot of cool things like that and it’s good to challenge yourself and put yourself in uncomfortable situations and see how you come out. It’s not always good but it’s something you can look back at and say, ‘Hey, that’s something that I’ve done.’”
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend May 30 – June 2, 2015 Sec. B pg.1)
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