Masculinity in Transit: Steven Yeun, John Cho, and the Korean American Diaspora Onscreen Main Menu

John Cho sure is a breath of Fresh Air

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Taking a guest spot on Fresh Air, with producer Ann Marie Baldonado and not the usual host of Terry Gross, the conversation between Baldonado and Cho focused on three primary topics: transnationality and immigrant-family issues, Cho’s personal experiences in acting and auditions, and Cho’s thoughts on Asian American representation. Before starting the interview in earnest, Fresh Air plays a clip from the film. Introducing the clip, Terry Gross describes Jin Lee as ‘from Seoul’, ignoring his Asian American background, and then the clip discusses the ritual performance of grief that is also used as voiceover in the film’s trailer. However, the clip ends with Lee saying “Of course, my dad didn’t believe in that shit.” This is a moment of ideological rupture that acts as both a general funny line but also a challenge to the expectation that all Koreans everywhere subscribe to the same beliefs and myths. 

Despite this momentary rupture, Baldonado’s first line of questioning centers on Cho’s thoughts about being a dutiful son and his ideas about obligations to family. Here, Baldonado is distinct from NPR’s review, Pop Culture Happy Hour, and Morning Edition, in that she confronts the film’s ehtnic identity and culture head-on. It is important to note at this point that Baldonado appears to identify as part of the Asian American community. Cho says that “immigrant children have to deal with this clash of cultures [and] what’s expected from their parents of this culture that they didn’t grow up in.” And after relating a story about trying to rebel against his parents, as he saw in a Judy Blume book, and being harshly reprimanded, he notes “So I’ve been thinking about this cultural disconnect between parent and child all my life.” 

Cho here talks about being part of the so-called 1.5 generation - being an immigrant body himself (having been born in Korea) but being primarily raised in the United States. In Kim & Stodolkski’s study, Korean Americans “They recognized cultural differences between Koreans in Korea and Koreans in the USA and they no longer saw their culture as equivalent to typical Koreans from their home country. At the same time, however, they realized that they would always be considered foreigners in the USA and face assimilation-related problem” (268). With the invocation that he is not from his parent’s culture, he recognizes this cultural difference. And yet, in trying to mimic white-normative forms of resistance against his parents, he still received Korean-normative punishment, again realizing that he and his family are facing ambiguous cultural and assimilation-related problems. Later in the interview, he even acknowledges that the immigration at his young age (6) proved difficult, especially in becoming fluent in English. 

In the next section of the interview, Baldonado asks Cho how he became interested in professionally acting. Cho states that a production of the Woman Warrior in college, featuring many other Asian American actors, made acting seem like a viable career. From there, he also assesses the ‘glamor’ of acting - that being an artform that allows him his own studio apartment, a rarity in his life, having had to share rooms in Korea, growing up with his brother, and in college dorms. Although Cho has elsewhere noted his valuation of acting as a form of expression and art, here Cho identifies acting as a place to both carve himself out as an individual (obtaining his own room) but also engage with a larger Asian American community. Cho just narrowly missed the burgeoning Asian American comedy community on YouTube - check out an early and definitely dated viral Steven Yeun appearance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A4PlXD560w&ab_channel=TheSecondCity). However, Lori Kido Lopez notes that online community formations are powerful, “Online media provides a new arena for Asian Americans to voice their opinions, organize themselves and their allies, initiate conversations, create their own media, and increase the impact of their messages—tactics which act in concert with or contribute to the efforts of other Asian American media activists” (141). The same tactics can be transferred to amateur or local theater efforts, which Cho leverages in this interview as a way to see himself within productions, act as a symbol for other burgeoning young Asian American actors, and surround himself with fellow allies and supporters. 

The final aspect of this interview I want to examine is Baldonado’s inquiry into auditioning and interrogation of stereotypical roles. She brings up Kal Penn, Cho’s Harold and Kumar co-star, and his Twitter thread of racist casting calls.  hello