Chinatown 2.0

Episodes

1. 24

   Ep. 24: Comedian Olivia Xing discusses her Party School special, ESL comics and how to handle bombing on stage

   Olivia Xing is an actress, standup comedian, artist and student based in LA, and she recently did a one-hour comedy special called Party School where she told jokes about China, the US, politics in both countries, and the immigrant experience. 00:00 Teaser 00:44 Intro 02:48 How Olivia got started...

   Mar 24, 2023

   51m
2. 23

   Ep. 23: (Mandarin) Weibo co-founder Indigo on China's startup scene, NFTs, life in Japan/Vancouver

   Indigo was co-founder of Sina Weibo, or China’s Twitter. After Weibo, he started doing angel investments and incubating new projects. One of his main investments included the largest off-line art selling platform in China. Recently he got into the world of web3 and NFT. He writes a blog about...

   Dec 13, 2022

   48m
3. 22

   Ep. 22: Comic Peng Dang tells American jokes like a native, learned English from listening to rock

   Peng Dang is a standup comedian based in Texas. Peng moved to the US from China in his twenties, speaks absolutely impeccable English, and more importantly, tells jokes like a local pro. I find his sets funny, educational, and wholesome. I’m not sure if a comedian wants to hear their jokes...

   Nov 23, 2022

   40m
4. 21

   Ep. 21: Bilingual comedian Amy Yu sees stand-up as life-changing, discusses role of AI in art

   Amy Yu is a bilingual standup comedian based in Canada. We talked about how standup comedy changed her life, how she thinks about telling jokes in Chinese vs telling in English, and how to properly tell a dirty joke. I also had a pretty serious debate with her about the role of artificial...

   Nov 20, 2022

   46m
5. 20

   Ep. 20: Magician Dan Chan Performed for Elon Musk, Plans to Build Magic Mansion in the Bay Area

   Dan Chan is a magician that has performed at corporate events at fortune 100 companies and lavish parties hosted by celebrities. He recently got to perform for Elon Musk at the PayPal 20-year reunion party, hosted by Peter Thiel. Prior to his illusionist career, he was an employee at PayPal…

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   Nov 15, 2022

   25m
6. 19

   Ep. 19: Career coach Alec Sorensen helps dreamers of biz ideas take action via habit-building

   Alec Sorensen is a career coach who helps people take action on life-changing business ideas they've been putting off. Alec is also a follower of the Mormon church, a Japan-living American at one point, a California-to-Texas transplant, among other things. We discussed how he got into career...

   Mar 31, 2022

   2h 00m
7. 18

   Ep. 18: Entrepreneur Karol Guan discusses creativity at art school and in her beauty AI startup

   (Episode in Mandarin) Karol Guan is an entrepreneur. This interview was recorded in Nov 2020. At the time she was co-founder of HelloAva.co, a startup that recommends skin care products based on a combination of AI and doctors. Karol studied Fashion/Apparel design at Parsons School of Design in…

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   Mar 31, 2022

   1h 31m
8. 17

   Ep. 17: Operations mgr Erin Cuellar moved between five states in 13 years for manufacturing career

   Erin Cuellar is Director of Operations at STERIS, a manufacturer of medical devices. At the time of the interview, she was senior operations manager at the same company, and her role was essentially that of a plant manager. Her responsibilities included supervising teams, managing KPIs, and...

   Oct 1, 2021

   52m
9. 16

   Ep. 16: Kunming-native American cowboy Bruce Wang speaks English with perfect Southern accent

   Bruce Wang is a Chinese cowboy. Not an ethnically Chinese person that was born in Texas, but someone born and bred in Yunnan, China. He came to the US as a college student. He adopted a Southern accent, started dressing like a cowboy, and started making videos about how cowboys spend their time.…

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   Sep 30, 2021

   1h 02m
10. 15

    Ep. 15: Restaurateur, Food & Beverage businessman Chris Tay hustled nonstop for three decades

    Jul 30, 2021

    2h 37m
11. 14

    Ep. 14: Crypto CEO Stephen Tse on community-development, culture-building, nongreedy parenting

    Jul 16, 2021

    1h 03m
12. 13

    Ep. 13: Government data scientist John Stevenson overcame homelessness and plans to run for governor

    John Stevenson is a Black American who grew up home-insecure, but later graduated valedictorian of his high school. He went to Dartmouth and later graduated from the Political Science program at the University of Chicago. He now owns a yoga studio, does contracts for various government agencies....

    May 2, 2021

    2h 18m
13. 12

    Ep. 12: Conservative mayor candidate Ellen Zhou wants to end 50-year Democrat rule in San Francisco

    On today's Chinatown 2.0, I speak with Ellen Lee Zhou, or 李爱晨, a two-time candidate for San Francisco mayor, in 2018 and 2019. She ran as a conservative in a city where the mayor had been a Democrat for the last half a century. On top of her “non-mainstream” political ideologies, she had zero...

    Nov 1, 2020

    55m
14. 11

    Ep. 11: Howard Schultz communications manager Lin Yang started hometown newspaper to fight misinformation that harms local election

    Lin Yang is a grassroot political organizer who also works in tech. Lin had a full-time job working for Howard Schultz, helping him explore a presidential run. For those unaware, Howard Schultz was the founder and previous CEO for Starbucks. Lin also participated in campaigns for President Obama...

    Oct 26, 2020

    58m
15. 10

    Ep. 10: (Mandarin) Entrepreneur Wei Luo quit coding to build vertically-integrated home renovation business

    Wei Luo quit his software engineering job to become a contractor in 2006. After 14 years, he had a business (based in San Francisco Bay Area) consisting of 50+ employees and multiple business lines, including home renovation, interior design, cabinetry and appliances. Wei shared with us how he...

    Oct 15, 2020

    45m
16. 9

    Ep. 9: (Mandarin) Stuyvesant ex-Principal Jie Zhang taught American prisoners, fixed U.S. schools, returns to China to lead two international schools

    Jie Zhang has been an instructor, administrator and leader of American education institutions for more than three decades. She began her career teaching math to prisoners on Rikers Island (New York). Her most well-known positions included principal of the Ivy League feeder Stuyvesant High School,...

    Oct 8, 2020

    2h 36m
17. 8

    Ep. 8: (Mandarin) "Chinese son-in-law" 中国女婿 Morgan Jones talks being Black in China/US

    Morgan Jones is a Black American that previously spent six years in China as a radio host, movie production assistant and EMBA English teacher. He is a “Chinese son-in-law” (中国女婿), a self-described Tiger Dad (“虎爸”) and a fluent Mandarin speaker. He got his EMBA from Cornell and bachelors from...

    Sep 23, 2020

    1h 05m
18. 7

    Ep. 7: China historian Anne Chao grew up on four continents, archives oral history of Chinese Americans

    Professor Anne Chao is a Chinese modern historian that lectures at Rice University. She is also manager of the Houston Asian American Archive, an oral history archive that looks to document the challenges faced and contributions made by the Asian American community. As the daughter of a Taiwanese...

    Sep 16, 2020

    55m
19. 6

    Ep. 6: China Tech Podcaster Rui Ma talks TikTok ban, Sino-US decoupling, female expat life in China

    Rui Ma is an investment banker (Morgan Stanley) turned VC (500 Startups) turned podcast host (Tech Buzz China). Her show covers current tech trends in China, with a focus on power players such as ByteDance and Alibaba. Her diaspora journey included a childhood in the China countryside, college…

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    Sep 8, 2020

    1h 34m
20. 5

    Ep. 5: (Mandarin) Children's Chinese Magazine Publisher Jing Cheng believes the power of print media

    Jing Cheng is the co-founder and CEO of the largest North American Children's Chinese magazine, Pipa Magazine. She shares her inspirations for starting the publication, the challenges of running the business of print media against digital headwinds, and her philosophy and suggestions for Chinese...

    Aug 31, 2020

    48m
21. 4

    Ep. 4: History Professor Sixiang Wang reconciles his Sino-US identity from studying Korean history

    Sixiang Wang is an assistant professor in Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA, specializing in Korea’s premodern history. He speaks fluent mandarin, writes Chinese poems and is well-versed in China's history and culture. Sixiang described his journey of attempting to self-distance from his…

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    Aug 7, 2020

    33m
22. 3

    Ep. 3: Software Architect Nuo Yan on avoiding shortcuts in life and the appeals of living in Japan

    Nuo Yan is a Tokyo-based software architect. He was previously based in Seattle and San Francisco, and was founding engineer at multiple tech startups, one of which was acquired by Pinterest. Nuo discussed his philosophy of avoiding shortcuts in software design and implementation, the purpose of...

    Aug 6, 2020

    1h 04m
23. 1

    Ep. 1: (Mandarin) PR entrepreneur Jingzhu Yang helps Chinese business-people meet US presidents

    Jingzhu Yang started her PR company AmeriChina to bring Chinese companies to high-end and exclusive American events, such as Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and charity dinners with ex US presidents. In the peak year of her business, the company made revenues of 10M RMB (1.5M USD). Jingzhu covered...

    Jul 31, 2020

    1h 11m
24. 2

    Ep. 2: Quant Trader Robbie Yan talks algo investing, governance systems and China startup scene

    Robbie Yan is cofounder of a quantitatively driven hedge fund based in China. We talked about the nature of quantitative investing, governmental efficiency in China and associated tradeoffs, argument for protection of privacy, China's startup scene, and more. Robbie shared with us: * What makes...

    Jul 31, 2020

    34m