Season Finale: #StopAsianHate with Amanda Sum and Mayumi Yoshida

This is the fifth episode in our ongoing #StopAsianHate series where we explore the intersection between anti-Asian hate and the film and television industry. May is Asian Heritage Month, and to paraphrase Sandra Oh, it’s an honour to celebrate the depth and breadth of what it means to be Asian. Asian is a big word; Asia is comprised of nearly 50 countries, billions of people, thousands of cultures and languages and ways of life. So when we celebrate Asian Heritage each May, we are celebrating billions of threads that weave together to become the dazzling, storied, and vast continent that is Asia. But for those of us in the diaspora, Asian Heritage Month is tinged with the knowledge that it can be dangerous to be Asian. During the pandemic, hate crimes against Asians in Vancouver rose nearly 3000%. So when we in the diaspora celebrate our Asian heritage during this month, we do so with defiance. We want to revel in our cultural heritage. We want to claim our joy.Joy – and joy as a form of resistance – are central in the music video for Different Than Before. The song was written and performed by Amanda Sum and the video was directed by Mayumi Yoshida (Amanda and Mayumi visited the podcast in 2020 to talk about their first collaboration, the video for Groupthink). This new video features an Asian family out for dim sum and karaoke, celebrating the engagement of the their older daughter. There’s lots of laughs, until they’re heckled by a white family. The dad wants them to just ignore the racism. The daughters want – something different.Different Than Before stars Amanda Sum, Olivia Cheng, Tzi Ma, Sachin Sahel, and Amanda’s mom Linda, and premiered on May 20 on Amanda’s YouTube channel. Amanda and Mayumi join Sabrina for a contemplative conversation about pursuing joy in the face of hate, and how art can change the conversation. NOTE: This is our spring season finale! We'll return with new episodes in June. Thank you for getting us this far!Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA