Self Evident: Asian America’s Stories
Society & Culture:Documentary
Daphne Chen always held a special place in her heart for the Taiwanese girl group S.H.E. Growing up in Ohio, she’d listen to their greatest hits before falling asleep, clinging to their pop songs as one of her only genuine links to the island and the culture her family had left far behind.
So years later, when Daphne realized that those greatest hits were actually covers of American pop songs by Destiny’s Child and the Legally Blonde soundtrack, she suddenly had a lot of questions... not just about S.H.E., but about why idolizing a Taiwanese girl group was so important to young Daphne in the first place.
In this episode, we're sharing three conversations about the need to see and hear ourselves in popular culture — and the limitations of what pop culture can do to meet those needs.
After Cathy chats with Daphne about their Asian teen idols in music, our intern Alex Chun calls up his favorite OnlyFans star, Cody Seiya, to unpack how watching queer porn has played such an outsized role in their own understanding of intimacy.
Then, producer Harsha Nahata meets with two Indian diaspora culture writers to compare how — even with their differing upbringings and vastly different relationships to Bollywood movies — they began to question the role and the power of the Bollywood industry.
CreditsSelf Evident is a Studiotobe production, made with support from our listener community. This episode was made with support from PRX and the Google Podcast Creator Program.
Self Evident Presents: “Live! Making Before Me With Lisa Phu” (by The Vietnamese Boat People podcast)
Self Evident Presents: “How to Wash Your Brain” (by Boen Wang and Feet in 2 Worlds)
Self Evident Presents: "Exploring Ancestral Grief" (by Grief, Collected)
Self Evident Presents: "Arrival" (by VPM's Resettled)
Self Evident Presents: "Before They Were Your Parents" (by Immigrantly)
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Before Me, Part 5: Birthday Card
Before Me, Part 4: Head of the House
Before Me, Part 3: Beautiful Country
Before Me, Part 2: Photograph
Before Me, Part 1: Firstborn
Introducing "Before Me": A new series from Self Evident
Self Evident Presents: "Get Up Stand Up" (by Re:Work)
(BONUS) Hunger Strike! How Immigrant Taxi Drivers Took on City Hall
Say Goodbye to Yesterday
Heartbeats
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Specially Processed
Bonus: Diaspora DJ Roundtable 2021 Feat. Les Talusan, Arshia Fatima Haq, and Roger Bong
Diaspora Dance Mixtape, Vol. 1
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