Jimmy Wong is a singer/songwriter/actor from Seattle and is the creator of the youtube sensation “Ching Chong means I Love You” – a response to a racist rant against Asians by former UCLA student, Alexandra Wallace who posted her video on youtube. Jimmy was nice enough to chat with me from his home in LA so I could learn more about the inspiration behind the song. Jimmy is first generation Chinese-American who grew up in what he describes as great community where he never felt directly affected by racism. His parents moved here from China in the 1980’s and had him and his brother. It was a fantastic conversation with this intelligent and driven artist, hope you enjoy.
What was your initial reaction to the Alexandra Wallace video? A friend e-mailed the link to me . . .and I wasn’t necessarily angry , but it was more perplexed and irritated at what I was seeing before me. It was something was so out of place in the 21st century, you know what I mean? I didn’t really know what to think. I was definitely not angry, I was more bemused. And a little irritated.
What was your time-line for creating “Ching Chong Means I Love You”? I watched it the day before writing the song. I didn’t think that I needed to make a response or anything like that. And then my brother and I ended up talking about it and he was like, ‘you know it may not be a bad idea to do something comedic and do something on you-tube and it might get a lot of attention’. In terms of turn over it was pretty quick, the entire process took me about 8 or 9 hours to film, write and record it.
Have you ever been contacted by Alexandra Wallace? No
Where you surprised how many hits you got after posting the video?
The highest hits I had ever gotten up to that point had been a couple hundred thousand. What I didn’t realize at the time that it was going to have such a significant social impact on the whole situation just because I didn’t realize how deep Alexandra Wallace’s words deeply affected people who had dealt with more racism than I had. It was definitely a pleasant surprise. It was an honor to see how people took it, how well, in the wake of all that happened how it became a reference point for people. To help deal with a situation like this.
My response to the video oscillated between being amused and deeply saddened by her words, what moments stuck out to you: The parts where she mentions being raised as a good American girl were the parts that really got me, they actually made me more sad for her, just the fact that someone could say that in the middle of a racist rant it was very confusing, like: I can’t believe that she’s saying such opposite things right now and be completely oblivious the fact that she is not being a ‘nice American girl’ by any means. That was a big one that stuck out for me. The ‘ching chong ting tong’ part was pretty funny, because actually her impression is not too bad of how someone might sound with a heavy Cantonese accent speaking Chinese in the library. Just because I have grown up around Cantonese accents my entire life and when I saw it, I was like “hey that’s not too bad!” Except for it being terribly racist, that’s not too bad at all! I speak Mandarin, but my Dad speaks Cantonese and so does my entire family. I’m very used to hearing very thick accents speaking both Chinese and English and I can pick up on accents pretty easily, but the accent in my video is more Japanese.
As a performer do you feel that being an Asian male comes with any baggage?
It’s a mixed bag of things, in a lot of ways there assets and downsides to being an Asian actor. In my case it opens up a lot of roles – in other cases it completely shuts a lot of other ones out. Given the choice, a Hollywood executive is more apt to cast a relatable young white male in the lead of a big budget movie rather than an Asian lead, it’s not that they wouldn’t cast an Asian – they would be more comfortable with them being the supporting role .... I think for the most part it’s tough just because, there hasn’t been one or two in that demographic that have broken out of that mold. If you look back to the 80’s you can see that African American actors stood up and wanted to be recognized and they wanted their presence to be equal in this industry. They really took a large step forward in actually making that happen. And because of their tenacity and their boldness – they were recognized and they have grown in into the community. And that’s not to say that it’s not a battle that everyone isn’t still fighting. I just don’t think that Asians have made that bold step necessarily. And they may be in part because the culture is more of a collectivist culture in general. It’s not so much focused on the individual but more the family so that’s why it hasn’t yet. For the most part, that’s sort of what’s holding us back and there haven’t been one or two people out there that prove to everyone else that it is possible to open those doors that remain closed.
Sure, but I don’t know if I agree that a White male is more relatable that an Asian male. I mean don’t Asians deserve to be marketed directly to? I once read an article about how when being marketed to in commercials Asians had the same response to a white person and than to an Asian person on screen. Meaning that regardless of what’s on screen – their ability to want to buy a product didn’t differ depending on the race of actor selling the product. I can’t remember where I had read it, but it really stuck with me.
What is Asian American culture? Is there a connection between us? I loved your song “Chinese Food” - you were celebrating a place, a thing that you felt a connection to and yet remain outside of it. There’s this pride about feeling connected to something isn’t there?– but also, you are far enough away from it that you don’t take it for granted, you can appreciate it. What do you think Asian-American culture is? : a connection to a place that we originated from or the experience of our ancestors or past generations being immigrants? (I realize this question has no real answer. . . )
I totally agree with you that there is a sense of fraternity between Asian-Americans – but that is a double edged sword. We are all grouped as being Asians – and in a lot of ways it’s empowering – but it also takes away power at the same time. But, there is a common bond between all of us – if you look back in the major philosophies. I think Confucianism is something that runs very strong through all Asian cultures. That is stresses the importance of family, filial piety that’s rooted in all Asian cultures and that is something that we can all identify with. It may not be something we even realize – it may be more subconscious. It’s sort of, how we treat our parents, how our parents treat us. That’s something we all naturally connect with each other on without even realizing it. Another part of it is the immigrant thing, whether you are first generation, second generation – we all know our personal history – I think our parents make sure that we know that history more than anything else. I find that it’s the same with other immigrant families. I think that’s one thing most Americans have in common – that there is a strong history of immigration in everyone’s family. The connection we feel is both cultural and philosophical and in a weird way you connect to people who look like you.
I have noticed that we Asian-Americans also have a huge appreciation for each other’s food: I think it’s because we share the same key ingredient: rice! “Chinese Food” was a fun song for me to write because I have been to China 9 or 10 times now and every time I go back it changes. It’s so interesting to see what has changed and how – I think at the core of it I grew up with eating Chinese food. My mom would always cook for us when we were growing up and it was the one thing that stayed consistent throughout all my trips to China. And I felt that very strong and also very sad that culturally everything else was changing and it was the food that always stayed the same – that the world and culture changed and how they wanted to be represented. The billboards that they put up…In a lot of ways I feel like it was kind of a weird betrayal of what being Chinese actually meant. But at the core of it I was still happy that the food remained the same. And that was something that was valued still and that over all, things are going to change, but who you are, at the core you are who you are and that remains the same.
Click here for Jimmy Wong’s “Chinese Food”
Here for more about Alexandra Wallace inspired thoughts and ideas
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