So Cal AZN@!

[momopi]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n3HQ9ug ... r_embedded#![/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mTkM4Iw ... r_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMv68Pxb ... r_embedded#![/youtube]



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtpZTuFJ ... re=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIrl-1Cs ... re=related[/youtube]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wong_Fu_Productions

3 guys with a camcorder

[Falcon]

Those guys make really funny videos. Thumbs up. I loved their music too.

But I don't fit in with this typical SoCal Asian-American youngster crowd. They're very nice to me and all say I'm a cool and smart guy, but whenever I tag along with their crowd, I often find myself on the peripheries struggling to penetrate their social circles. What strikes me most about them is their suburban cliquishness. They also have a certain subculture, such as these preferences and features.

(1) Boba. To me it seems like a typical part of mainstream California Asian-American identity. Tapioca Express ("TapEx") is the typical boba venue.
(2) Going to Jamba Juice, YogurtLand, Chipotle, or sometimes Asian restaurants. I'd see large groups of Americanized Asian kids at these places all the time.
(3) "Hanging out" (i.e., socializing in closed cliquish groups). It's very difficult to fit into their group if you didn't go to their high school, or even middle school.
(4) Mainstream American pop music. Mostly mainstream pop, mainstream R&B, electronic, or hip-hop. Rihanna, Chris Brown, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Drake, Coldplay, and more.
(5) Breakdancing. Often I'd see large groups of breakdancing Asian guys at parks and schools.
(6) Basketball. Especially recently, this involves obsessing over Jeremy Lin. Personally I could care less, since I'm not a sports guy.


I would consider this subculture to be the Asian-American parallel of the Mexican-American "Chicano" subculture. If I were of Mexican descent and grew up around Chicanos, I'm sure I wouldn't fit in either. First-generation Mexicans make fun of them by calling them "pochos." The SoCal Americanized Asian kids would be the Asian equivalents of "pochos," but first-generation Asians are too nice to call them by such names, haha.

What I see is that these youths are trying to develop unique American identities, and they do so according to social class and, to a lesser extent, geographic location. Many lower-class Southeast Asian and Hispanic youths would pick up features of the African-American "gangsta" subculture, while the upper-class Northeast Asian youths would pick up features of the Caucasian "surfer dude" subculture. People accuse them of being "wannabes," but what they are actually doing is creating their own "hyphenated American" identities. This, unfortunately, can result in some intense cliquishness.

I'm not criticizing or making fun of them. Just some observations.

[Ned Zeppelin]

Most asian american teens, mainly males, are turning into a bunch of wanna be gansters. I can't tell you how many asian kids in seattle and tacoma think they are little bloods wearing red clothes and air jordans. The stupidest part is that these are middle class suburban kids with parents that love and support them, rather than the low class black kids who dress and act the same way. Falcon has it nailed and im sure the problem is more rampant in soCal.

[Falcon]

Most asian american teens, mainly males, are turning into a bunch of wanna be gansters. I can't tell you how many asian kids in seattle and tacoma think they are little bloods wearing red clothes and air jordans. The stupidest part is that these are middle class suburban kids with parents that love and support them, rather than the low class black kids who dress and act the same way. Falcon has it nailed and im sure the problem is more rampant in soCal.

Great observation, but like I said, I wouldn't call them wannabes. It's that they're pressured to assimilate to American culture (or subcultures), and thus have to find their own ways to do so. Again, here's what I wrote.

People accuse them of being "wannabes," but what they are actually doing is creating their own "hyphenated American" identities. This, unfortunately, can result in some intense cliquishness.

For instance, Chicanos aren't simply trying to become black. In fact, in South LA they generally don't like blacks! They're borrowing features of what's considered to be American, and then molding them into their own emerging ethnic minority youth identities.

[momopi]

I actually hanged out at almost all the places shown on the video @_@;;

But I order my drinks without the tapioca.

Guppy:



The latest fad here in Irvine is Boiling Point (hot pot). If you ever come up to South OC, hit me up -- my treat.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/boiling-point-irvine

[adria2789]

Those guys make really funny videos. Thumbs up. I loved their music too.

But I don't fit in with this typical SoCal Asian-American youngster crowd. They're very nice to me and all say I'm a cool and smart guy, but whenever I tag along with their crowd, I often find myself on the peripheries struggling to penetrate their social circles. What strikes me most about them is their suburban cliquishness. They also have a certain subculture, such as these preferences and features.

(1) Boba. To me it seems like a typical part of mainstream California Asian-American identity. Tapioca Express ("TapEx") is the typical boba venue.
(2) Going to Jamba Juice, YogurtLand, Chipotle, or sometimes Asian restaurants. I'd see large groups of Americanized Asian kids at these places all the time.
(3) "Hanging out" (i.e., socializing in closed cliquish groups). It's very difficult to fit into their group if you didn't go to their high school, or even middle school.
(4) Mainstream American pop music. Mostly mainstream pop, mainstream R&B, electronic, or hip-hop. Rihanna, Chris Brown, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Drake, Coldplay, and more.
(5) Breakdancing. Often I'd see large groups of breakdancing Asian guys at parks and schools.
(6) Basketball. Especially recently, this involves obsessing over Jeremy Lin. Personally I could care less, since I'm not a sports guy.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this pattern is very similar to the NorCal Asian American youngster crowd. I intermingle with Asian American college kids up in NorCal and it's very similar...just add karaoke I grew up in SoCal in a Latino neighborhood, so for me, the Chicano culture is hard to generalize..there were different cliques/scenes. At my high school, cliques were roughly based on music/dress style. My high school had the wannabe gangsta/clubbing crowd, preps, jocks, rockers/goths, greasers, chunti/paisa and inbetweens. I was in the between group, which was a mix of "nerds" and "rockers/goths" crowds. The aforementioned groups intermingle sometimes and people jump around groups of friends/cliques. What Falcon describes fits the wannabe gansta/clubbing crowd just replace boba and jamba juice with American/Mexican resturaunts. I avoided most of those people like the plauge...since they were generally into the underground drug scene.

As for the gangs/ganster culture I agree with Falcon. They are taking parts of it and making it their own culturally and historically. South L.A was predominately white before the 1960s, which also had lots of white/black violence. Whites would rountinely go after blacks who would go into their areas. Blacks formed protection groups, which began some of biggest gangs in L.A. In a historical standpoint, Hispanics/Latinos gangs replaced white gangs and continuing the tension/violence. This tension has slipped over into civilians not affliated with gangs. The two groups generally don't like each other in LA much but there are exceptions. I knew girls who would wave/wink and flirt with black high school football players when they came to play against our football team. Some girls I knew would always say they want to try some chocolate (knowing their parents would probably go berserk)

[Falcon]

@momopi
I live pretty close to South OC, so why not. Are there any good Taiwanese xiaochi/小吃 places in Irvine that you'd recommend? I really miss all those Taiwanese treats.



I like my drinks without the boba too. And, without ice. Those also happen to be my parents' preferences. We just want that pure, savory milk tea. The Asian girls at the cash register always look surprised whenever I say, "No boba, no ice please!"

Hit me up if any one of you would like to visit Tijuana or Mexicali. I'll show you the "real" Mexico that most gringo tourists never get to see - hard-working families, residential neighborhoods, live acoustic music, Chinese-owned businesses, university campuses, cultural centers, and other hidden gems.


@adria2789
Since I grew up in Northern California, I can safely say that the Northern and Southern California Asian-American youngster crowds are the same. Technically, "Asian-American" can't be generalized, since Asian Americans are tremendously diverse. But here, the crowd I'm talking about is generally:

- East Asian: Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Vietnamese
- Upper-middle class preppy suburban kids
- Have professional parents who are engineers, businesspeople, real estate agents, and so on
- A significant proportion are fundamentalist Protestant Christians
- Usually do not speak their heritage languages well

There are also Asian-American crowds that are very different, such as the children of Southeast Asian refugees in the Central Valley.


Some quirks that differentiate the northerners and southerners though:

- SoCal'ers use "like" a lot and raise their intonations at the ends of their sentences much more. They say "I'm going to take 5" instead of "I'm going to take the 5" when talking about freeways.
- NorCal'ers use stereotypically "hella" much more.

The difference really isn't quite noticeable, since people move around within California a lot, especially college-age kids.

[momopi]

@momopi
I live pretty close to South OC, so why not. Are there any good Taiwanese xiaochi/小吃 places in Irvine that you'd recommend? I really miss all those Taiwanese treats.

Sure. Guppy House is good for shaved ice, Class 302 is good for some appetizer dishes, Liang's Kitchen is good for 眷村 style dishes, and so on. If you're willing to drive further, Sinbala has good Taiwanese sausages and oyster pancakes. There's a ding tai fung in Arcadia for small steamed buns.

For Chinese breakfast, try Yi Mei in Rowland Heights or Four Seas in Hacienda Heights. For Dim Sum, we'd need to get my Cantonese GF. She's the expert and her figure shows eating one too many har gows. LoL.

If you come up on weekends in the morning, I could recommend stopping by San Juan Capistrano for tea at Los Rios. Excellent freshly baked scones with cream. Ramos house across the street has a killer bloody Mary for breakfast with meatball and crab claw.




See here for some ideas:
http://biggestmenu.com/?cuisines=*Taiwanese

[colibri]

wow ! months ago i started to folllow this guys (along with kevjumba) ! they make real funny and creative stuff i like the wong fu weekends ahhaha later i discovered the fung brothers !

i like this video ---------> http://youtu.be/_Bw7FtyiX3g


this one and th eone thats says ACNE IS GOOD :p HAHA hilarious

ps andrew is the best looking one lol

[colibri]

I actually hanged out at almost all the places shown on the video @_@;;

But I order my drinks without the tapioca.

Guppy:



The latest fad here in Irvine is Boiling Point (hot pot). If you ever come up to South OC, hit me up -- my treat.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/boiling-point-irvine

GOOOSH I DUNNO WHAT IS THAT BUT IT LOOKS MOUTHWATERING !

[Falcon]

wow ! months ago i started to folllow this guys (along with kevjumba) ! they make real funny and creative stuff i like the wong fu weekends ahhaha later i discovered the fung brothers !

i like this video ---------> http://youtu.be/_Bw7FtyiX3g


this one and th eone thats says ACNE IS GOOD :p HAHA hilarious

ps andrew is the best looking one lol

Haha, Fung is a Cantonese last name, which is why they're crazy for dim sum (點心)!

KevJumba is Taiwanese. As for the WongFuProductions guys, at least one of them has got to be Taiwanese, even though all the online sources say they're Chinese Americans.

[colibri]

wow ! months ago i started to folllow this guys (along with kevjumba) ! they make real funny and creative stuff i like the wong fu weekends ahhaha later i discovered the fung brothers !

i like this video ---------> http://youtu.be/_Bw7FtyiX3g


this one and th eone thats says ACNE IS GOOD :p HAHA hilarious

ps andrew is the best looking one lol

Haha, Fung is a Cantonese last name, which is why they're crazy for dim sum (點心)!

KevJumba is Taiwanese. As for the WongFuProductions guys, at least one of them has got to be Taiwanese, even though all the online sources say they're Chinese Americans.

yES ! red his bio too though he says he prefers asian girls only ha, my visa expired a month ago and im doing the paperwork to renew it (actually it was all online) i hevnt been in L.A in ten years hope to go there in march, the first thing ill ask for is going to be dim sum and thta stuff that @momopi posted !

[momopi]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVGZ8-nJ ... re=related[/youtube]



http://www.youtube.com/user/thenotoriou ... ture=watch


You can get the thick toast from Guppy House:
http://www.myguppyteahouse.com/

[Falcon]

Nice videos!

Anyways, what does momopi stand for? I've always thought it's 摸摸屁, hahaha.

[adria2789]

wow ! months ago i started to folllow this guys (along with kevjumba) ! they make real funny and creative stuff i like the wong fu weekends ahhaha later i discovered the fung brothers !

i like this video ---------> http://youtu.be/_Bw7FtyiX3g


this one and th eone thats says ACNE IS GOOD :p HAHA hilarious

ps andrew is the best looking one lol

Haha, Fung is a Cantonese last name, which is why they're crazy for dim sum (點心)!

KevJumba is Taiwanese. As for the WongFuProductions guys, at least one of them has got to be Taiwanese, even though all the online sources say they're Chinese Americans.

yES ! red his bio too though he says he prefers asian girls only ha, my visa expired a month ago and im doing the paperwork to renew it (actually it was all online) i hevnt been in L.A in ten years hope to go there in march, the first thing ill ask for is going to be dim sum and thta stuff that @momopi posted !

@colibri: LA? Los Angeles? Voy a estar alli en marzo tambien. Que si quieres, nos puedemos juntar. Y yo me imagino que hay dim sum en Chinatown en Los Angeles...pues es mas cercano de mi ciudad natal. Y tambien puedes preguntar a Momopi