hAAPI hour with melissa cho

My guest today is Justin Kim, the 21-year-old Korean-American artist, musician, and filmmaker who goes by the name Suave Punk as his musical alter ego. Suave Punk was actually the title of Justin’s first song, and he liked the name so much that he decided to attach it to his own creative identities. His other personas also include being someone who loves fishing, or someone who developed a Souther...

Meet Ethan Soo, the 21-year old Cambodian-American filmmaker and current USC film student. He’s about to direct an independent horror short titled “Swept Under;" the film follows a Cambodian American man who moves into a new house and discovers that a rug may hide sinister forces beneath its surface. Growing up as a child of a Cambodian refugee, Ethan was always frustrated that people weren’t taug...

Happy Sunday, my dear happy hour friends! Today is a bit special because I turn 22. I'm not a personal birthday celebratory person at all, but I do have a small birthday wish and I hope you can make it a reality, which is to leave a quick hAAPI hour review on Apple Podcasts. It requires no money at all and it takes less than 3 minutes, but it would make me super glad knowing that you're helping me...

Happy Fourth of July hAAPI hour friends! I hope you all spend quality time with family and friends today—this episode fits today's theme of spending time with your favorite people. My guest today is Wenny Chou, the 22-year-old Taiwanese-Canadian and recent USC business graduate who just started Saloon 301, an exclusive dinner club that seeks to celebrate food and people. During the pandemic, Wenny...

Meet Kendra Ing, the 23-year-old Taiwanese-American dance artist and hopeful educator-to-be very soon. Like many other college students during the pandemic, Kendra left New York City and came back to Taiwan to escape the big apple’s alarming covid crisis. But since graduating last year, Kendra’s been based in Taipei as a freelance dancer, choreographer, model, and teacher. As a lover of environmen...

Meet Corey Nguyen, the 23-year-old cinematographer based in Los Angeles and Orange County. He found his calling for cinematography after experiencing an incident on a big TV pilot. He had his first breakthrough with a documentary he shot in 2019 called "Frat House" (directed by Nancy Nguyen), which was about the last gay bar in the town of Garden Grove, California. The film was featured in The Adv...

My third guest is Steven Lee, formally known as stevenoclock on social media. He’s a photographer, illustrator, CG artist, and art director based in Orange County, California. Steven’s work is known to be vibrant and out of this world, and his intersectional interests between fashion and surrealism have allowed him to produce bold and visually stunning work, many of which have been featured in fas...

My second guest is Isha Punja, the 24-year-old founder of Hut Mentality, an ethical clothing brand sourced by Indigenous and rural artisans in India. The brand's clothes are made by hand and natural materials, such as organic cotton being hand printed with vegetable dyes. Isha's designs have been notably featured in British Vogue and at New York Fashion Week. With India still facing the de...

In this first-ever episode of happy hour, I talk to freelance cinematographer and photographer, Farrah Su. She’s a 1.5 generation, Buddhist, Taiwanese-American creator, who was born in Taipei, Taiwan, grew up in Long Island, NY, and now resides in Los Angeles, CA. Other than speaking to her about her experiences in film and photography, we shared anecdotes about our Mandarin names, the Asian diasp...

Welcome to hAAPI hour, a podcast for featuring AAPI creatives. I'm Melissa Cho, a 21-year-old Taiwanese-Chinese-American, who grew up in Taipei and Shanghai for around two decades. I’m also a multimedia journalist, documentarian, and digital content editor. There are so many AAPI filmmakers, editors, creative directors, designers, performers, stylists, food bloggers, content creators...you name it...