Chinatown 2.0

Richard Yan
  • 5.0 (1)
  • DOCUMENTARY

Chinatown 2.0 is a video podcast that interviews world citizens of Chinese heritage.Our interviews are long form, deep dive, rationalist conversations.Our guests are thinkers and doers, and come from areas of startups, finance, law, art, academia, et al.Some videos will be in English, and others in Mandarin.Host: Richard Yan (twitter.com/gentso09)

  1. Ep. 24: Comedian Olivia Xing discusses her Party School special, ESL comics and how to handle bombing on stage

    03/24/2023

    Ep. 24: Comedian Olivia Xing discusses her Party School special, ESL comics and how to handle bombing on stage

    Olivia Xing is an actress, standup comedian, artist and student based in LA, and she recently did a one-hour comedy special called Party School where she told jokes about China, the US, politics in both countries, and the immigrant experience. 00:00 Teaser 00:44 Intro 02:48 How Olivia got started with her Party School comedy special 08:19 Chinese debate show 奇葩说 12:12 How Chinese comics and rappers deal with censorship 16:26 Olivia's biggest takeaways from her comedy special 18:38 Richard's favorite jokes from Olivia's comedy special 23:29 ESL comics: English-as-a-Second-Language comics 25:13 Minority comics shouldn't pander to stereotypes just to get laughs 30:02 Fellow professional comics she admires 32:36 Cultural outlets for the Chinese diaspora 35:25 Why there are so few male ESL comics 37:33 Recommendations of ESL comics to follow 42:45 How Olivia deals with bombing on stage

    51 min
  2. Ep. 23: (Mandarin) Weibo co-founder Indigo on China's startup scene, NFTs, life in Japan/Vancouver

    12/13/2022

    Ep. 23: (Mandarin) Weibo co-founder Indigo on China's startup scene, NFTs, life in Japan/Vancouver

    Indigo was co-founder of Sina Weibo, or China’s Twitter. After Weibo, he started doing angel investments and incubating new projects. One of his main investments included the largest off-line art selling platform in China. Recently he got into the world of web3 and NFT. He writes a blog about frontier tech, and teaches online courses on stock investments in these areas. He is based in Vancouver. I spoke to him about China’s startup environment since 2009, his takeaways from doing angel investments, his views on web3 especially NFTs, and his observations of target countries of Chinese immigration. 02:24 Indigo's work at Weibo, post-Weibo investments, and classes on Web3 & investing 08:35 Phases of development of China's internet sector 11:08 Streaming commerce 17:14 Exit of venture capital from China 19:06 How young people in China today are evaluating a career in entrepreneurship 22:12 Out-migration from China: Evaluating Singapore, Japan, Vancouver 29:28 Indigo’s advice for making angel investments: sourcing via personal connections, working on a platform full of entrepreneurs 32:23 Why streaming commerce is popular in China and not in the US 35:39 Three uses for NFTs: digital collectibles, creator royalty, soulbound tokens 46:08 Indigo’s life vision includes continually getting involved in businesses with young people

    49 min
  3. Ep. 22: Comic Peng Dang tells American jokes like a native, learned English from listening to rock

    11/23/2022

    Ep. 22: Comic Peng Dang tells American jokes like a native, learned English from listening to rock

    Peng Dang is a standup comedian based in Texas. Peng moved to the US from China in his twenties, speaks absolutely impeccable English, and more importantly, tells jokes like a local pro. I find his sets funny, educational, and wholesome. I’m not sure if a comedian wants to hear their jokes described as “wholesome,” but I mean that as a compliment. We talked about how his English got to be so good, what life was like for him in Alabama, Atlanta and Dallas, how he honed his comedic skills, his views on "freedom of safety" on China's streets, the infamous Tony Hinchcliffe incident, and more. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode. Feel free to like, share and subscribe! 0:00 Peng’s standup about Chinese builders 1:52 Blue material 5:54 How Peng got started in standups 6:39 Standup about Chinese railroad builders in the US 8:15 Peng learned to speak English by listening to punk rock while in China 14:37 Standup about kung-fu 15:23 Spending time in Alabama and Atlanta 21:37 Standup about the Chinese language 23:39 Gun safety and crimes in America 27:30 Standup comedy TV shows in China 29:30 Overrated comedians

    41 min
  4. Ep. 21: Bilingual comedian Amy Yu sees stand-up as life-changing, discusses role of AI in art

    11/20/2022

    Ep. 21: Bilingual comedian Amy Yu sees stand-up as life-changing, discusses role of AI in art

    Amy Yu is a bilingual standup comedian based in Canada. We talked about how standup comedy changed her life, how she thinks about telling jokes in Chinese vs telling in English, and how to properly tell a dirty joke. I also had a pretty serious debate with her about the role of artificial intelligence in comedy. 0:00 Amy’s standup set 01:04 Debating the role of AI in art creation 22:31 How comedy helped Amy with mental health 28:17 How to deal with bombing on stage 31:48 Amy’s (and Richard’s) comedic influences 37:02 Telling jokes in Chinese vs English 38:32 Jokes about going on a date with a Chinese American 39:40 Blue material

    46 min
  5. Ep. 20: Magician Dan Chan Performed for Elon Musk, Plans to Build Magic Mansion in the Bay Area

    11/15/2022

    Ep. 20: Magician Dan Chan Performed for Elon Musk, Plans to Build Magic Mansion in the Bay Area

    Dan Chan is a magician that has performed at corporate events at fortune 100 companies and lavish parties hosted by celebrities. He recently got to perform for Elon Musk at the PayPal 20-year reunion party, hosted by Peter Thiel. Prior to his illusionist career, he was an employee at PayPal, where he met Thiel. Dan has also been grooming his 14-year old son to become a magician, who has been doing his own $1000 shows in the San Francisco Bay Area. We talked about how Dan decided to become a magician, how he received his training, his experience of tiger-parenting his son to learn magic tricks, how he found success in Zoom-based magic shows after Covid dropped all his bookings, his plans to build a private VIP magic mansion in the bay area, and his plans beyond magic. 0:00 Dan's magic 2:24 Dan at Paypal 05:13 Starting out performing magic at local libraries 08:47 Dan studied at a clown conservatory 09:24 Dan disliked studying but enjoyed magic 11:58 Teaching his son to reverse-engineer his success 13:49 Dealing with flops 14:42 How Covid made him pivot into Zoom magic 16:28 Plans to make a private magic club in the Bay Area 20:42 Tiger-parenting his son for the career of a magician 23:15 Plans to become a better speaker, do a TED talk and write a book

    26 min
  6. Ep. 19: Career coach Alec Sorensen helps dreamers of biz ideas take action via habit-building

    03/31/2022

    Ep. 19: Career coach Alec Sorensen helps dreamers of biz ideas take action via habit-building

    Alec Sorensen is a career coach who helps people take action on life-changing business ideas they've been putting off. Alec is also a follower of the Mormon church, a Japan-living American at one point, a California-to-Texas transplant, among other things. We discussed how he got into career coaching, his faith, cultural shocks in Japan, why he moved to Austin from the Bay Area, and more. 0:00 Intro 1:20 Alec as a Coach: His thoughts about the coaching industry, and how he uses habit building techniques to help people achieve their goals 12:18 Growing up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and thoughts on the Broadway show The Book of Mormon 20:26 Joseph Smith's controversy: His spiritual experience and his motives of starting the Mormon church 27:21 The question of polygamy: Does the current church endorse it, and the logic behind the practice 31:59 The Mormon church hierarchical order and how apostles are selected 35:39 Religion vs Crypto: They are both a commitment to fulfilling an unrealized vision 40:48 Alec's experience as a missionary in Romania 45:53 Missionary KPIs and follow-up of new converts 49:44 Alec's experience in Japan: Learning a new language, and living in a remote village 53:35 Chinese vs American parenting: Expectations of parents of their children, and why economic factors allow for more flexibility 58:44 Replaceability of the working class, China vs US 1:03:34 Japanese stereotypes that proved true during Alec's stay in Japan 1:11:38 Alec's experience as a crisis counselor for male rape survivors 1:18:46 Alec's opinion on microdosing and other mushrooming techniques used in counseling 1:19:28 Illegal drugs, coffee, tea and sodas: Why the church frowns on their use 1:21:57 Coaching: Why coaching, Insecurities, Working with clients to get them results 1:31:47 Decision to move to Austin: All the pros 1:38:08 How he gets clients from conducting pilots 1:48:30 Conversations in Austin vs conversations in the Bay Area 1:51:37 Cognitive dissonance: How some champions for change in the Bay Area are somehow ill-prepared to pivot when confronted by people of different opinions 1:54:43 Argument for the legitimacy of Russia's invasion 1:58:54 Outro

    2 hr
  7. Ep. 18: Entrepreneur Karol Guan discusses creativity at art school and in her beauty AI startup

    03/31/2022

    Ep. 18: Entrepreneur Karol Guan discusses creativity at art school and in her beauty AI startup

    (Episode in Mandarin) Karol Guan is an entrepreneur. This interview was recorded in Nov 2020. At the time she was co-founder of HelloAva.co, a startup that recommends skin care products based on a combination of AI and doctors. Karol studied Fashion/Apparel design at Parsons School of Design in New York City. We discussed how the 2020 Covid both helped her startup grow and presented challenges to the way she worked, how she felt about being a woman in the male-dominated startup space, how her training as an artist and creator at Parsons prepared her for entrepreneurship, how she felt about sexual harassment in the venture space and beyond, the career paths of her friends that have returned to China, and more! 0:00 Intro 02:34 HelloAva is the StitchFix for cosmetics 11:41 Rewards and challenges for being a startup founder 16:01 Dealing with messy logistics at her startup during Covid 25:52 Women in startups 36:53 Sexual harassment in venture 45:54 Finding one's calling in life 1:09:45 Reflecting on career paths of friends returning to China 1:14:56 Being Cantonese 1:22:05 Karol asks Richard about his takeaways from hosting Chinatown 2.0

    1h 32m
  8. Ep. 17: Operations mgr Erin Cuellar moved between five states in 13 years for manufacturing career

    10/01/2021

    Ep. 17: Operations mgr Erin Cuellar moved between five states in 13 years for manufacturing career

    Erin Cuellar is Director of Operations at STERIS, a manufacturer of medical devices. At the time of the interview, she was senior operations manager at the same company, and her role was essentially that of a plant manager. Her responsibilities included supervising teams, managing KPIs, and maintaining quality controls. Erin comes from a very different world than I do. She dropped out of college, worked at a local manufacturing site, joined an apprenticeship program, got her journeyman’s card which is sort of like a full license to practice in the trades, and moved from state to state for employment in manufacturing. In the course of 13 years, she moved between five different states. At least one of the moves was the result of a plant shutdown thanks to outsourcing. But Erin and her family, which includes a husband and three children were fully resilient in transitioning to new homes, new jobs, and new schools. In fact, about a year after our interview, Erin moved to Pennsylvania to become Director of Operations at her company. I became interested in the trades in recent years after noticing and following the works of Mike Rowe and Andrew Yang, who both highlight a change in the mix of American jobs available as well as people willing to undertake those jobs. In the US, there just seem to be fewer opportunities in the trades sector, and even fewer young people looking to enter those fields. Mike Rowe looks to encourage the youths to get into these areas, whereas Andrew Yang sees the loss of these opportunities as the force that hollowed out middle America, which disenfranchised large swaths of the population, leading to rising support for the wings of the political spectrum. In today’s conversation, Erin and I talked about what it's like to work in a manufacturing plant, her experience of working in the trades as a rare species of a woman, her moves around the country in pursuit of various manufacturing jobs, how does she think about raising her kids, and why she thinks it's a good idea for young people to consider a career in the trades.

    52 min
See All (24)

About

Chinatown 2.0 is a video podcast that interviews world citizens of Chinese heritage.Our interviews are long form, deep dive, rationalist conversations.Our guests are thinkers and doers, and come from areas of startups, finance, law, art, academia, et al.Some videos will be in English, and others in Mandarin.Host: Richard Yan (twitter.com/gentso09)

Information

  • Creator
    Richard Yan
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2023
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Chinatown 2.0
  • Show Website
    Chinatown 2.0