How to American | Jimmy O. Yang | Talks at Google

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Jimmy O. Yang receives a lot of criticism as an Asian comic. I think it's important to get the words from his mouth about his experiences. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his point of view, his experience as an immigrant is valid and shared by others. He does talk about the criticism of taking "stereotypical Asian roles" and counters by explaining how he himself is a stereotypical, accented Asian, and he wants to present himself authentically.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/TangerineX 📅︎︎ Jun 01 2018 🗫︎ replies
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[MUSIC PLAYING] GRETCHEN HOWARD: All right, welcome, everyone. I am Gretchen Howard. I am one of the partners at CapitalG, which is Alphabet's growth equity investing fund. And I have the privilege and honor of introducing you to my friend, Jimmy O. Yang. Come on down. [APPLAUSE] [DOG BARKING] I'm going to give you a hug. JIMMY O. YANG: Thank you. Thank you. GRETCHEN HOWARD: All right. [DOG BARKING] JIMMY O. YANG: Hey, gang. Thanks for coming out, everybody. I appreciate that. Is there a dog here? GRETCHEN HOWARD: Yes, there is. JIMMY O. YANG: Aww. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So Google has a dog open-door policy. So Jimmy wrote a book recently. It's called "How to American." We're going to have a little chat here, and then we'll open it up to questions. And just as a little incentive, if you don't have the book already, those who ask questions will be the first to get your very own copy of the book. JIMMY O. YANG: Ooh! So exciting. [LAUGHTER] And I'll be signing and taking pictures afterwards. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Exactly. Yeah. All right. So we're going to start in the beginning. JIMMY O. YANG: Hi. GRETCHEN HOWARD: You're born-- hi. You're born in Hong Kong. JIMMY O. YANG: Uh-huh. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Tell me about that. Let's start there. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. I was born in Hong Kong, and I moved to LA when I was 13. GRETCHEN HOWARD: In 2000. JIMMY O. YANG: In 2000. That was after, like, the handoff from the British colony back to China, right? And I think there was a lot of worry there. It's probably one of the reasons why our family moved here. And when I first came here, I couldn't really speak English very well, kind of like Jian Yang, you know? And I just, I've learned English in Hong Kong how kids here would learn Spanish. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Right. JIMMY O. YANG: So it's not very well. And like, I didn't understand the simplest slangs, like what's up. Like, they don't teach you that in school. Like, what's up? You know, right? And eventually I learned a lot of English by watching "BET Rap City." That was like, my thing. So yeah. And then it just progressed from there. GRETCHEN HOWARD: But even before you moved to LA-- let me see if I get this straight. Your parents were originally from Shanghai. JIMMY O. YANG: That's true. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Did they spoke Shanghaiese? JIMMY O. YANG: We spoke-- it was speaking Shanghaiese back home. And then I learned Cantonese from school. GRETCHEN HOWARD: OK. JIMMY O. YANG: So I speak Cantonese in school, and then I watch shows in Mandarin. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So no wonder you're confused. JIMMY O. YANG: Very. Yeah. And then English somewhere came along. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So how did that even feel as a kid, even before you got to the US, not knowing how to speak really good English, just being in Hong Kong but having parents who came from the mainland? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. I was kind of already the foreign kid, because whenever I speak to my parents, they'll be like, oh, that's the Shanghai boy right there. You know, there was like an internal almost hierarchy, and a semi-racism within Chinese people. Like, Hong Kong people always think they're better than other mainland China people. And so they always called me the Shanghai boy. And so maybe that was like, my first experience at assimilation, which really came in handy later when I came to America, when I was actually the foreign kid. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Already sort of felt like an outsider-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: --still in Hong Kong. OK. So you get to the US. You're in LA. JIMMY O. YANG: Mm-hmm. GRETCHEN HOWARD: What's your first day in the US? What happens? JIMMY O. YANG: It was just complete culture shock, because Hong Kong is like Manhattan. You've got buildings 25 stories high. It's a concrete jungle. And then you came to LA. The streets are like six lanes wide. Everything was just like a two-story strip mall. And you walk down the street. There's nobody in the street. So it's like, where am I? It was like, is this "Mad Max," or what's going on? [LAUGHTER] And the first day, my grandpa took us to his favorite American restaurant. We walked 45 minutes down the street. First of all, we passed by Pizza Hut. And that was my favorite restaurant in Hong Kong, because Pizza Hut in Hong Kong is like a gourmet restaurant, with like, seafood, pasta, and like, real gourmet soups and stuff. And then I saw the real, authentic American version, and it was just a hole in the wall with an oven. [LAUGHTER] I'm like, what is this? How is the real version worse than the foreign version? I was panicking. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So where did Grandpa take you? JIMMY O. YANG: And then Grandpa, he was like, this is my favorite American restaurant, when we arrived at this strip mall. And it was El Pollo Loco. It was a Mexican fast food place. But it was amazing. And then it was like the first time I experienced American freedom inside of El Pollo Loco, because if you think about it, they give you so many choices. There's dark meat and white meat, which my grandpa was like, don't ever order the white meat. That's dry and rough. That's for American idiots, OK? Get the dark meat. There's corn tortilla and flour tortilla. You get the flour tortilla because the corn tastes funny. And then you get a glass of water, and you can go to the soda machine and get whatever you want. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Not exactly how it works. JIMMY O. YANG: And then you can go to the salsa bar and just get whatever you want, you know? Get some onions and cilantro. You can go home and saute that stuff for some dish later. It's freedom, people. GRETCHEN HOWARD: All right. So after you ate your little chicken taco, you go to middle school in LA. And you go to John Burroughs, right? JIMMY O. YANG: Yes, John Burroughs. It's very-- it's inside of LA Unified School District, so it's very diverse. It's the first time I ever met a black person, a white person, a Latino person in real life, because in Hong Kong, obviously all you had was Chinese people in my school. And it was crazy, because I had seen these different types of people on TV, but I had never met them. And I was 13. I was about, I don't know, like 4' 10"-- really scrawny little kid with glasses. And like, I just remember the first day-- I was pretty good at basketball back home, in Hong Kong. [LAUGHTER] And then when I came here, I was-- in eighth grade, this kid, Marquise, was like, dunking. And I'm like, yo, like, this is what America is about. Like, it was crazy to me. And then I saw this Latino kid. He had a mustache. I couldn't grow any hair at that point. It was complete culture shock. And I was just-- you know, my English wasn't that good, so I was just trying to fit in. GRETCHEN HOWARD: I thought you were a ping pong star back in Hong Kong, which is so stereotypical, but like-- JIMMY O. YANG: Back in the day. I was very stereotypical growing up in Hong Kong. I played the violin. I was pretty good at math. And I played ping pong competitively. But that seems like a stereotype here, but in Hong Kong, you're just another dude. That's just what people do. It's like playing catch. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Did you bring your skills, though, to the middle school? Did you show them off? JIMMY O. YANG: No, nobody cared about ping pong. [LAUGHTER] Maybe until college, when it became like a beer pong game, but that's a whole different-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: We're not there yet. JIMMY O. YANG: --skill set. GRETCHEN HOWARD: We're in middle school. Yeah. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So middle school, is this when your BET love affair with the television started? JIMMY O. YANG: I think it started. I remember the first day of school, people were telling me to sag my pants. Like, I'm in the locker room changing into my PE clothes, and the kids are like, hey, hey. Pull your shorts down. And I'm like, oh my god, what is going on here in LA? [LAUGHTER] And apparently, it's a culture of sagging your pants, back in the early 2000s. You know, that looks cool. If you pull it all the way up, they call you John Stockton. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So how far did you pull them down? JIMMY O. YANG: I pulled them all the way down to my knees. And they were like, no, no, no, don't do that. And even just-- even underwear, it's just different. Like, people wear boxers here. In Hong Kong, we wear tighty whiteys. And people made fun of me for that, you know? So I learned a lot, not just by the language, but culture, from watching BET. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Right. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: And then how was it-- so you're in middle school. Then you go to Beverly Hills High School, right? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. My dad was a genius. He used a fake address for me to go. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Jimmy's dad is right here. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Stand up. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, he's-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: Say hi to Jimmy's dad. [APPLAUSE] JIMMY O. YANG: Oldest Googler in the building. And the subtitle of the book, it's-- well, the title is, "How to American-- an Immigrant's Guide at Disappointing Your Parents." So here we are. [LAUGHTER] GRETCHEN HOWARD: So we're going to talk about, you're still not quite in the disappointment phase in high school, right? That's more college? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm still the good Asian kid then. I got to disappointing them later. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So who did you hang out with in high school? JIMMY O. YANG: It's a group of kids. I wanted to hang out with-- I wanted to find, like, a group of Chinese kids I could kind of really hang on to, you know? When you don't really know the language, you know, you kind of long for that, something that reminds you of back home. But there wasn't really a lot of Chinese kids in high school. So I ended up just hanging out a bunch random misfits, right? Like, I had a couple of Persian friends, a friend from Bangladesh, and then a friend-- one Chinese friend and then a Korean immigrant friend. So it was a great group of different people. And we just kind of-- we were never the cool kids, but we also weren't super lame. We just kind of never fit in with any particular group. We weren't the skaters. We weren't the athletes or anything like that. GRETCHEN HOWARD: But you started to find your people. You started-- JIMMY O. YANG: I started to find my people, and I started a rap group. That's what happens when you watch too much BET. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Can you do a little of that rap for us now? JIMMY O. YANG: I can't. No. No. I was horrible. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Just a little? JIMMY O. YANG: No. I-- well, what I did, I eventually-- I knew I was a horrible rapper. So I recruited my buddies who can rap, and I just made the beats. And that was like, my first creative outlet. It was me, my black friend Julian, and then my other friend, Yuji, who was half black and half Japanese. So it was perfectly one and a half Asian guys and one and a half black guys. And we called the rap group the Yellow Panthers. It was very embarrassing. Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Did you ever sell one of your songs? JIMMY O. YANG: I sold maybe a couple bootleg CDs in school. Like, we would just burn CDs. You guys remember that, when you burn-- it takes 30 minutes to burn a CD, and then you sell it for like $5 to some kids. GRETCHEN HOWARD: There wasn't like, a porn site that bought one of your songs or something? JIMMY O. YANG: What? What are you talking about? My first paycheck I really made in show business was from a website called fudgestick.com. This is true. OK? Don't look it up. [LAUGHTER] It's not a thing anymore. It used to be a site, a porno site. And I used to post my beats that I made online. And this guy called me one day. He was like, hey, are you Doc West? That was my beat maker name. [LAUGHTER] Which is like the wackest name ever, right? Doc West. It's like from Dr. Dre and Kanye West, I just combined the two and called myself Doc-- it's horribly hacky. And he called. He was like, hey, so, are you Christian? I'm like, not really. Why? What's up? He was like, well, so I'm in the adult entertainment business. And a lot of Christian people aren't down with what I'm doing. And my name's LeRon James. That was his name. Not LeBron James-- LeRon James. [LAUGHTER] And he was like, I like one your beats. And can I use it for a trailer for one of my pornos? [LAUGHTER] So I sold it to him-- my first paycheck. GRETCHEN HOWARD: All right. So a little short-lived music career. You go to college. UCSD? JIMMY O. YANG: UC San Diego. [CHEERING] GRETCHEN HOWARD: Ooh, we've got some in the house. JIMMY O. YANG: I'm sorry. [LAUGHTER] I'm sorry-- one of the most boring places I've ever been. Did you like it? You did like it? Oh, good. What did you guys study? Like, engineering, computer science, or something? Good. Well, at least you guys studied something you guys liked. [LAUGHTER] Economics! How did you end up here? [LAUGHTER] Imposter. Kidding. Kidding. So am I. I studied economics also. And here I am. GRETCHEN HOWARD: But you didn't-- is that what your dad wanted you to major in? JIMMY O. YANG: He wanted me-- like, something legitimate, right? What Asian parents would consider legitimate is like, engineering, science. So I went in as a mechanical engineering major. And I realized I would never graduate. So then I went into economics, which is like the easiest major that is still approved by Asian parents. [LAUGHTER] Right? He was a financial advisor. It was like, that's what it is. And so I did it for five years. It took me five years to graduate with my economics degree, which is very sad. And I didn't-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: A lot of extracurricular activities? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, you know, smoking a little too much weed my freshman year. I was just trying to not be grouped in-- because there's so many Asian people in UCSD, right? It was like, for the first time I came to America, that Asian was the majority once again. But now, I have a different identity crisis, because now, I don't want to be grouped in as the other kids, because I'm like, dude, I listen to Jay-Z, man. Like, I'm Doc West. You know what I mean? Like, I don't-- you know, I'm cool. So when you're younger, you don't want to be grouped in with some-- or when you hit that age, that college age, you don't want to be grouped in. So I tried to do other stuff. And for some reason, as twisted as this logic sounds it kind of made sense to me, was if you just smoke enough weed, you would transcend being just the Asian kid. [LAUGHTER] You will be the stoner kid. You know what I mean? And for me, in my mind, somehow that's better. Sorry, Dad. [LAUGHTER] But-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: So did you not hang out with any other Asian kids, then? JIMMY O. YANG: No, no. I did. I mean, that's my only option at UCSD, and it was fine. But it was like, maybe other Asian stoner kids. I didn't know what I wanted to do. Like, when I graduated after five years, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just know I didn't want to do economics. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Right. JIMMY O. YANG: You know, I had an internship at Smith Barney that my dad hooked me up with. It was one of the really nice financial firms. I don't know if you guys know about this. Smith Barney, I mean, it just sounds nice, too. I think it's part of Morgan Stanley now or something. But like, I just, sitting behind a desk, I was just like, oh my god, I'm going to do this for the next 40 years, looking at some other people's mutual funds? I was having a panic attack. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Yeah. JIMMY O. YANG: I mean, that actually sounds attractive to a lot of people-- like, you know, the safety of having a nice job like that. But to me, it just didn't appeal to me. So-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: But that's hard. I mean, your dad got you this job. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: And he helped you go to college, right? He was there for you. He really like, raised you a lot through your teenage years, right, because your mom went back to Shanghai? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So papa over here, and all of a sudden, you tell him you don't want to do the job that he got you. I mean, what was-- how did you-- JIMMY O. YANG: That's when I disappointed him. [LAUGHTER] GRETCHEN HOWARD: How did you get up the courage, though, to have that conversation with him? JIMMY O. YANG: It was hard, man, because you don't ever want to disappoint your parents, especially if they've done so much for you, right? Like, they came to this country for you, for your education, got you in school, right? Faked an address to get me into Beverly Hills High School. I mean, come on. And then I'm going to tell them I don't want to do this job, you know? And do what? I don't know. Like, stand up? And it was hard. But I figured it was probably better to disappoint my parents for a couple of years than to disappoint myself for the rest of my life. So that's why I just, I was like, I can't-- Dad, I can't do this. I don't want to do this job. And I went through a journey after that, of finding what I wanted to do. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Right. JIMMY O. YANG: I didn't think stand up was going to be a career. It was just something I found that-- it was a friendship that I found in stand up, with other comedians, and a camaraderie, and something to do, even, just a community, so I don't feel as stuck. But I tried other things. You know, I got three jobs when I graduated. I sold used cars during the day. This was all in San Diego. And then I would go to work at the Comedy Palace, working the door, collecting tickets. And then in exchange, I would get a couple minutes of stage time, doing stand up. And then at night, I became a strip club DJ. [LAUGHTER] GRETCHEN HOWARD: So let's talk about that, because your boss' name was Shooter? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. He was Shooter. I don't know why. He probably shot somebody. Who knows? It was a very gangster, seedy strip club. And when you're like, 22, you think working at a strip club is like the coolest thing, right? Especially when you watch too much music videos. But it wasn't. It was like-- I soon realized nobody in that strip club actually wanted to work there. They were there because they'd been to prison a few times and they have to work there now. And everybody got nicknames, like Shooter. The bouncer's name was Beast. He used to be in the Aryan Brotherhood back in prison, so he probably wasn't too hot on me working there. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Right, right. JIMMY O. YANG: And yeah. It wasn't that great of an environment. But I tried to be professional, you know? [LAUGHTER] GRETCHEN HOWARD: That's all we're going to talk about that. OK. But back to your stand up. It sounded like when you were taking tickets at the door, you actually had some people who became really good friends and also advisors. So Sean Kelly? Was that-- JIMMY O. YANG: Sean Kelly. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Talk to me about him. JIMMY O. YANG: A good friend of mine. He kind of became my mentor. I think that's one of the most important things, is finding a good mentor, and not afraid to ask somebody to be a mentor, and really-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: How did you meet him? Who is he? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. So he was the guy that started the Comedy Palace. He was like a businessman and a comedian. And everybody in San Diego was like, yo, if you want stage time, you need talk to Sean Kelly. I'm like, who's Sean Kelly? They're like, Dave Chappelle's cousin or something? Like, I don't know. And he turned out just to be like this brilliant businessman that really helped me along my career. And yeah. He was the one, I guess, in the beginning, he was like, man, you know, you've got such a unique story of your immigration, you know? And you're wasting your time talking about, like, hacky masturbation jokes. Don't do that. Every other comic can do that. But you have your own story. You should develop this material, eventually write a book about it. And then you can do talks. You can do whatever. And look. Look at me. And he was the one that talked me out of working at that strip club. He was like, yo, Jimmy, you're funny, man. You've got to move to LA before this gets like, into like, a point of no return. So yeah. Yeah, finding that mentor is extremely important. GRETCHEN HOWARD: I love that he pushed you in that direction, because there's one part in the book where Terrell and Guam, who seemed to be good friends of yours, who are also-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, they're two comics. GRETCHEN HOWARD: They're two comics. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: But it sounded like, you know, they had a more lively sex life than you did at this time. JIMMY O. YANG: Right, right, right. GRETCHEN HOWARD: And so they were incorporating all of that into their stand up. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: And you were like-- JIMMY O. YANG: I wanted to do that. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Right. But it wasn't authentic, right? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So Sean has somehow saw that in you, not-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: And made you tell your real story. So how did that change your comedy? JIMMY O. YANG: It's great. I think it's still evolving. When you first start as a comedian, you just try-- you're not funny, right? Nobody's funny when they first start. You just try to do jokes that you've seen on TV and your own remix of that-- you know, a lot of, like I said, masturbation jokes, or like-- and then you graduate to some like, self-deprecating Asian jokes or something like that. And then eventually, you are able to become more vulnerable and talk about the immigration stories that I have, like that I wrote in the book. And I'm really happy to kind of use some of that material. And that's material people can't even steal, and it's just your thing, right? So I think that's what I'm trying to strive to doing, because that's what some my favorite comedians did. You know, Chappelle-- George Lopez has great family stories, and like, him being a Mexican-American in America. So I want to do more of that. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Right. So how did you then make that jump from doing stand up to then going to LA, getting an agent? Like, talk me through that shift. JIMMY O. YANG: Oh, man. I just wanted to do stand up. My goal was to get a college agent. I could make like $2,000 a week doing college shows, right? But then, you know, things started to unfold. And I went back to LA. I was living in this dude's living room from Craigslist, for $300, because I didn't want to move back to my dad's as a failure. So I-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: You're on the couch? JIMMY O. YANG: It was a struggle. I was just trying to make ends meet. I was hoping to book a commercial, because a commercial, you can make like thousands of dollars in one day of work, with residuals. So that was what I was hoping for. So I signed up, put my head shots up on all those websites, like desperately seeking for an agent. And then the first agent I met with, a commercial agent, I was like, oh, man, this is great. I'm going to be great. This is going to change my life. And I drove up. I pulled up. It was an apartment rental office. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Oh, jeez. JIMMY O. YANG: It wasn't even an agency. I walked into an apartment building. And then he had me read the Staples commercial, right? It's like, Staples, where all the folks, da, da, da, da, da. And I was so bad, the apartment rental agency rejected me. [LAUGHTER] They were like, ah, we're fine. We don't need you. And I was like, almost about to give up on that. And then I found another small agent that kind of took a chance on me. And she started sending me out on auditions that were like, beyond my goals at that time, even-- not just commercials, but like, "Modern Family," just like two lines here and there. And I couldn't-- I guess I learned some timing from doing stand up. But I had never taken acting classes, so I wasn't very good. And then eventually, I spent a lot of money on acting classes. And I got my first part on "Two Broke Girls." It was just like two lines. And I thought that was like the epitome of acting. Like, it was amazing. And then from then, you know, the two-line part. And then I got another two-line part, got a part on "Always Sunny" with a few more lines. GRETCHEN HOWARD: And what type of characters were they, you getting cast in? JIMMY O. YANG: It's different. One of my favorite parts in the book is this audition log I have, right? It's the 101 auditions that I went on before I got my 102nd audition, which was "Silicon Valley." So let me see here, if I can find a good section. Where is that log? Oh, here you go. It was a hundred-- so all these auditions, I used to meticulously keep a log. And then I got on "Silicon Valley" and I'm like, OK, fine. [LAUGHTER] But it's a lot of like, stereotypical roles. Like, my first few parts that I auditioned for, I don't even get it. It's like, loud Japanese host. Taiwanese, 20, looks like 12, computer geek. Tucker-- ethnic friend. Right? It's like these two-line parts. This is one of my favorite parts, looking at these parts. I'm like, oh my god. Like, I used to dream about getting these roles. You know what I mean? GRETCHEN HOWARD: Right. JIMMY O. YANG: And really, "Silicon Valley" started off as a two-line part also. It was when Jian Yang opened the door and he's like, "This is Pied Piper." Like, that was the two lines that kind of started it. And then they wrote the fish scene after, and then something else. And then by season 2, I became a series regular. It was-- and so like, I felt like I snuck in the back door. And it was just amazing. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So even that first season, you were still trying to pay the rent, trying to make it work? JIMMY O. YANG: I got paid $900 per episode. $900-- that's the SAG minimum wage, OK? That's the lowest they can pay an actor. And that's what most people get paid in Hollywood when you're just starting out. So I was in three episodes in the first season, and I had maybe like five words total. And I was paid, what? Like $2,700-- you know, with maybe residuals, $3,000 at the end of the day. And I was still super broke. I actually drove Uber between season 1 and season 2 of "Silicon Valley," but nobody recognized me then. And I used that $2,700 as down payment for like a 2006 Prius. And then that's how I could sustain myself. And when I got a call to be a series regular on season 2, it was life changing. Like, I knew that was the moment. I was like, oh my god, everything's about to change. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Awesome. So let's talk about Mike Judge, then, because he's obviously been a big influence on you. JIMMY O. YANG: Mike Judge, my guy, who wrote the foreword on this book. Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: And the first time you ever heard him speak was, besides "Beavis and Butthead"-- JIMMY O. YANG: It was at UCSD. Mike Judge was my commencement speaker when I graduated. How crazy is that? 2009, he was the campus-wide commencement speaker. I was very hung over that day. GRETCHEN HOWARD: But you went. JIMMY O. YANG: I almost didn't go. And then my buddy convinced me. He's like, oh, come on, man, just go. You know, he did, like, "Beavis and Butthead." He's the "Beavis and Butthead" guy and the "King of the Hill" guy. I'm like, OK, whatever. I'll go. And then his story really spoke to me, because I was really lost at the time. And he was saying that he was a physics major in UCSD, and he was working in Silicon Valley in the late '80s, making computer chips for fighter jets, I believe. And he said he just didn't like it, you know? And eventually, he became a touring musician. And then from then, he found his passion in an animated studio, and that's how he made "Beavis and Butthead." It was an amazing story. It was a story that I kind of never allowed myself to have, growing up in an Asian family. My dad always told me that if you pursue your dreams, that's how you become homeless. [LAUGHTER] Artists are homeless people. So he never-- like, I was never allowed to kind of have that dream thing, right? That's a very American thing. And that's what a big theme in the book is. It's, in Asian culture, you're supposed to be obedient, follow the rules, be a good son. In American culture, you're supposed to be an independent man, go pursue your dreams, pursue your happiness. So how do you kind of-- you know, I'm sure a lot of Asian people here could relate to this, or even anyone. It's like, how do you-- which side do I go to, because they're exact polar opposites, right? And I think deep down, I always wanted to be that artist person. But you know, I did go through the route, even throughout college, of trying to just be the good son. Right? And then the Mike Judge speech really spoke to me. I'm like, man, this dude didn't know anything about Hollywood, but he was able to make it. So that kind of gave me a little extra motivation to go pursue stand up and whatever I loved. And yeah, five years later-- he had no idea I was sitting in the audience. I just went into an audition for the part and I got the part. And the first day at table read, I told him. I was like, Mike, you were my commencement speaker, man. Thanks. So that was a pretty cool moment. And Mike's a very calm, quiet guy. He's like, yeah, cool. Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: He majored in economics, too, and he turned out all right, so I think you're fine. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, yeah, you're fine. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So OK. So now you're on "Silicon Valley" full-time. How do you reconcile, you have your own sort of immigrant story, and then there's the story of your character? How do you think about that? How do you prepare for that? What do you draw from your own experiences? What do you draw from-- JIMMY O. YANG: Absolutely. I think it all came full circle, that I'm able to kind of use my past story into building the Jian Yang character, because he's basically a version of myself 15 years ago, kind of wandering around, kind of can't understand a lot of things, and in a way, being kind of bullied by TJ's character, Erlich. But he's not stupid. So he can kind of come back with some just really deadpan factual trash talk that you don't see coming. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Do you have a favorite comeback line? JIMMY O. YANG: Well, I remember-- so when I was younger, when I first came here, people would talk trash to me, right? And when you're young, like when you're 13, people were just like, hey, your mom's fat, ha ha ha, or whatever. And I would be like, no, she's a skinny Chinese woman. [LAUGHTER] That's a very Jian Yang moment, in a way. And I think one of my favorite things in-- I mean, there's so many favorite moments with me and TJ. I just love working with him. One of my favorite scenes, personally, is when we walk into the mansion party, and we try to get into the Muir Woods project, and we just constantly keep trying to throw each other under the bus. We did a ton of improv there, too. One of the things was like, when TJ was like, can we just go in and just take one quick lap? He doesn't even eat. And I said, yes, I'm very hungry. Like, stuff like that. And then there's another take where I just started naming off different food that I see inside. I was like, oh, Korean BBQ, spaghetti, meatballs. Just so much going on in that scene. That was the first time that me and TJ had the whole scene to ourselves, and the whole background and setting. So that was really fun. And I think that was the day that we discovered, I was like, oh, man, we do have something. Like, there's something special there. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Yeah. So in this season, obviously TJ's not on. We're not quite sure where he is. So how do you find-- JIMMY O. YANG: Smoking opium in Tibet. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Yeah, exactly. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: How do you find your rhythm, not having him to go back and forth with? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. He's one of my best friends. I think him and Mike are my two best friends on the show. So it was really sad to hear him go. He called me like at midnight one night, and he was like, I'm not coming back for the next season. And I was like, shocked. I'm like, oh my god. So that means whatever the last scene we did was going to be our last scene together. So I was like, really sad about it. But you know, I think it turned out to be kind of a blessing in disguise. You know, the writers have to think of more creative ways to build out the show without TJ. And also, for me, I get to interact with some other cool people, and kind of be a pain in the ass to other people, which is really fun. Yeah. So I'm-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: You're running the incubator-- JIMMY O. YANG: I'm excited. GRETCHEN HOWARD: --now, right? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm trying. I'm trying. We'll see how it develops. And yeah. I get to interact with a lot more people, and even, I think, one of my favorite actors, Matt Ross, who plays Gavin Belson. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Yeah. JIMMY O. YANG: So I get to do some stuff with him. And it will be fun. GRETCHEN HOWARD: And another cool project, "Crazy Rich Asians"? JIMMY O. YANG: Yes. Are you guys familiar with that? Have you guys read the book or anything? Yeah. So it was an international best seller, a book. It's a satire of billionaires in Singapore and that culture. And they turn it into a movie. And it's the first studio movie in 25 years, since "Joy Luck Club," that features a full Asian cast. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Wow. JIMMY O. YANG: So this is like, our "Black Panther." [LAUGHTER] GRETCHEN HOWARD: Not the Yellow Panthers. Yeah. JIMMY O. YANG: Not the Yellow Panthers. Well, basically the Yellow Panthers. Yeah, so we just shot in Singapore last year. It's coming out in August. And it's a really good movie. And the experience of that was amazing, because as Asians in Hollywood, I don't know if different art forms-- like, a lot of times on any set, we're the only person on there. And now there's an added weight of like, now the scrutiny's on you to represent Asian people, right? GRETCHEN HOWARD: Right. JIMMY O. YANG: So and you're always looked at as the Asian dude, no matter what. Right? It's always Asian dash something-- Asian leading man, Asian asshole, Asian funny guy, or whatever. Right? But shooting this movie was great. It was in Singapore, where the most talented, most beautiful, funniest Asian people are all in one room trying to make this movie. And the pressure is just kind off of you. Like, you're not just the token Asian dude on the set. You just, you can do your job, like me as the funny character, Constance Wu, Henry Golding, as like the lead character, the romantic lead. And we just kind of handed off the baton. And it was the first time in Hollywood that I felt white. [LAUGHTER] And it felt great. [LAUGHTER] It felt so good. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Are we OK to open it up for some questions? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, for sure. Let's get to some questions. GRETCHEN HOWARD: So we actually have a mic right there if you guys want to get-- we're live streaming, so we're going to need you guys to talk into the mic. So if you can line up back there. And we also have a Dory, if you guys want to ask anything in the Dory as well. So just state your name, and then the question. AUDIENCE: Hey, Jimmy. I'm Vince. Thanks for coming out, and writing that book. It's awesome hearing that story. I was curious. I love your role in "Silicon Valley." And there are some like, cringeworthy, semi-stereotypical Asian moments. I'm wondering how you reconcile that with yourself, having lived through that? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. I think it teeters the line of being a stereotypical character and then portraying an immigrant character and humanizing it. Right? I know a lot of, especially American-born Asian actors, that don't even-- they won't even audition for a part that has like an accent or something. And for me, I kind of disagree with that, because I was the kid that was foreign. I was the kid with an accent. So my job is not to judge that, but to portray them in a humanizing, funny way, to make them look better. I think that's more important than shunning those people out, because one of the most painful things when I first came here wasn't the fact that, say, black people, Latino, white people didn't accept me, because I was the foreign kid. I expected that. But one of the most painful things was like, the American-born Asian people didn't accept me, because they didn't want to be grouped in as like a FOB, as like the fresh off the boat guy. You know? So I kind of feel pretty strongly about that, where I want to make immigrants just as appealing and just as sexy and just as funny as a perfectly English speaking person. And I think that's important. [APPLAUSE] AUDIENCE: Thanks for repping the FOBs. GRETCHEN HOWARD: We're going to alternate, one live and one Dory question. JIMMY O. YANG: OK, cool. GRETCHEN HOWARD: All right. The next question is, do you have any thoughts on effect arts and artists, TV included, they have on the perception of the immigrant population? JIMMY O. YANG: Immigrant population. That's kind of the same question. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Especially modern day-- yeah. JIMMY O. YANG: Anything else? What is your relationship like-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: TJ. JIMMY O. YANG: --with Erlich, TJ Miller, in real life? He's a good friend of mine. And we really got along. I think we've got the same sense of humor and stuff. I felt pretty good about it. He said I was the first one he called when he decided to not do "Silicon Valley." We hang out every now and then. He's in New York now, so we don't get to hang out as much. But I took him to a showing of "Patriot's Day," a movie I was in. And-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: Of the Boston-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, about the Boston Marathon bombing. And then after the movie, TJ was like, standing up clapping. And then he just like announced to the theater. He was like, guys, this is my friend, Jimmy O. Yang. He was the kid in the movie. Please, everybody clap. So he's got a big personality. Like, he is kind of that guy in real life. But I love him. He's awesome. Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: All right, go ahead. AUDIENCE: Hi. Thanks for coming out. JIMMY O. YANG: Hi. AUDIENCE: As someone who has navigated that really complicated space of kind of giving up the more guaranteed regular salaried job to kind of pursue something that could be a spectacular failure, what kind of advice do you offer, or could you offer, to someone trying to decide whether or not to take a chance on something that could not work out? JIMMY O. YANG: Good question. I think for me, I just, I almost couldn't live with myself not doing what I love. I always think it's better to try something and fail miserably than to have never tried at all. So if you sum it up in that sentence, you know. And I talked to some startup people. I think those guys are really brave. And they're artists, too, right? Because they could be working somewhere for like $200,000, but they decided to take a chance. And one guy told me, he was like, you know, all you are missing is maybe two years of opportunity costs. But you can always go back to doing something safer. So yeah. You're just only losing a couple of years. You're fine. Yeah. AUDIENCE: Thank you. JIMMY O. YANG: Just pretend you're in a coma or something, if it didn't work out. [LAUGHTER] GRETCHEN HOWARD: All right, next question. Are you experiencing any reverse culture shock now, when you go back to-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yes. Yeah. When I go back to Hong Kong, China. I went back to Hong Kong for the first time in 17 years last year, after I shot "Crazy Rich Asians." And that kind of-- I couldn't find an ending for the book. And that trip gave me the ending that I needed for the book. It was culture shock. I'm so used to LA now. Now I'm not used to tall buildings and stuff like that, right? And the people, I'm like, oh my god, this is so anxiety inducing. There are just people everywhere. But there is still a part of me that feels like Hong Kong is always home, because when I went there, there was just-- I don't know. I felt at peace at something, because here, like we talked about, if I'm playing ping pong or playing the violin, or just eating dim sum here, I'll seem a little stereotypical. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Do you still play the violin? JIMMY O. YANG: I try. I dabble. But I would be like the stereotypical dude here, right? But if I'm just, if I'm eating dim sum in Hong Kong, reading a Chinese newspaper, I'm just another guy. I don't have to explain myself, you know? So there's some kind of safety and a peace there. And I just, it was good to know that there's a part of the world that I can always feel that way, because in America-- like, I just became an American citizen last year. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Congratulations. JIMMY O. YANG: Thank you. Still Asian, it's fine. [LAUGHTER] Because like, I joke about that, but it's true, right? Because nobody in any part of world-- not America, not Italy, not anywhere, not even Japan-- would be like, oh, look, that's an American guy. No. No, no, because I don't have blonde hair and blue eyes or like, whatever, right? GRETCHEN HOWARD: I don't either. JIMMY O. YANG: OK, but you look way more American-- [LAUGHTER] --than I do, even though we're at the same level of American. So I think, hopefully, with movies like "Crazy Rich Asians," more seeing Asians in media, and seeing a more homogenized place, like Google, like this, people will start seeing Asians as Americans more and more in the future. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Great. AUDIENCE: Hi, Jimmy. JIMMY O. YANG: Hi. AUDIENCE: First off, I wanted to say it was really freaky looking over at your dad, because my dad-- JIMMY O. YANG: Me too. Yeah, I agree. [LAUGHTER] AUDIENCE: My dad is also a bald Shanghaiese man. [LAUGHTER] He wears glasses. JIMMY O. YANG: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] AUDIENCE: Who gets up randomly to take pictures. So it's great-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yes! AUDIENCE: --to see him here. Thank you. And my other-- JIMMY O. YANG: Does he also have a photo shoot whenever he goes to lunch or dinner? AUDIENCE: Exactly. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. AUDIENCE: Yeah. And my question is about how you prepared for your role of Jian Yang. JIMMY O. YANG: Mm-hmm. AUDIENCE: I think some people could say that you've been preparing for this role your whole life, being Chinese, being an immigrant. But did you do any specific immersive research in this area, for example, going to Stanford classes or immersing yourself in a hacker hostel? And if not, how did you best prepare and develop the idiosyncrasies of this area? JIMMY O. YANG: Thanks. So this past off-season, I actually made HBO give me like a tour of everything. So I talked-- we have a lot of great consultants on the show that, you know-- Dick Costollo's one of them. So-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: Used to be a PM here, CEO of Twitter. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. And then I visited Google this past summer. And I visited Facebook and more mid-sized companies, like Lyft, and-- which CapitalG invested in-- and a few places, and I learned a lot. And studying the characters there, it's really cool. And also, just for Jian Yang the character, the immigrant character itself, whenever I drive to the lot, I listen to Chinese radio for like an hour when I'm driving. You know, 1300 AM, the Mandarin station in LA, that's my jam. So it gets me kind of in that Mandarin mindset. And I also, whenever I-- before I do a scene, I always kind of say this mantra to myself in Mandarin. I say [MANDARIN],, which means, I don't know, in Mandarin, which I think it helps me think in Mandarin, first of all. But also in a way, it kind of sums up who Jian Yang is as a person. Either he actually doesn't know about something, or he doesn't even care to know about it. So yeah. That would be, I guess, my preparation for it. AUDIENCE: Thank you. JIMMY O. YANG: Thanks. GRETCHEN HOWARD: OK. You've mentioned before that stand up isn't really a thing in Hong Kong. Do you have any plans to try doing stand up there, and are you funny in Chinese? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. Stand up is becoming a thing in Hong Kong now. There's a club that opened up called Takeout Comedy. That's the actual name of the stand up comedy club. So I would want to go try some stand up out in Hong Kong, maybe even in Mandarin or Cantonese or something. But it is not as easy as just literally translating my English jokes into a different language. It's more than that. It's cultural differences. They wouldn't understand a lot of stuff that we talk about here. So it would be kind of a challenge. But maybe in the future, I'll be down to explore that. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Does your dad think you're funny? JIMMY O. YANG: Do you think I'm funny? AUDIENCE: Yeah, he's getting funnier and funnier day by day. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Funnier and funnier day by day. JIMMY O. YANG: Still keeps me humble. But you know-- GRETCHEN HOWARD: OK. Go ahead. AUDIENCE: Thanks so much for coming today. I know you talked a little bit about your story getting into Hollywood in America, but is there any kind of specific occurrences that you felt really down, or you got a lot of pushback, like racially, or just not fitting into the role? And do you still face that, moving forward today? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, when I didn't get the loud Japanese host part, I was, you know-- I think one of the sadder things is like a part perfectly describes you, and you still don't get it. It's like, short Asian, Chinese with glasses and long hair. And you go and you audition, and you still don't get the part. You're like, wow, I'm bad. [LAUGHTER] Like, the open ethnicity part, I get it. They have plenty of options. But you know what? At the end of the day, I've never tried to blame it on the fact that I'm Asian, even though that might be true, even though people could be racist or they are actually looking for a white guy, but they have to audition an Asian guy or something. But it doesn't give me benefit me at all, if I try to blame that on me being Asian. So I just try to be better the next audition. If I'm not funny on stage, I try to write better jokes and come back the next day and not use being Asian as a crutch, even though it might be true sometimes. Right? So yeah. That's how I look at it. AUDIENCE: Thank you. JIMMY O. YANG: Thanks. AUDIENCE: Hi, Jimmy. I'm actually a really huge fan of yours. Other than "Silicon Valley," I've actually gone through all of the videos I can find of yours on YouTube. JIMMY O. YANG: Wow, thanks, man. AUDIENCE: Uh-huh. Yeah. I even checked your YouTube comments. It's kind of creepy. [LAUGHTER] GRETCHEN HOWARD: We'll keep him a safe distance away. JIMMY O. YANG: Good guy. AUDIENCE: So I am super excited to be here. My question would be, further in the future, would you more look into continue your path as a comedian or doing both a comedian and being an actor in the show business? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, I think both, and more writing, also, and creating my own IP because still, there's not a lot of material out there for Asians to do. You have to come up with your own stuff. So hopefully, one of my goals is turning this into a TV show-- maybe like a version of "Atlanta," but our version of it, right? And that will probably reach a more mainstream audience, because stand up still doesn't translate to a lot of Asians, especially. Like, I never grew up listening to-- like, knowing what stand up is. My dad didn't know what really stand up was. So I think turning it into a TV show or something would reach like a broader, more mainstream audience. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Didn't he think you did a talk show? JIMMY O. YANG: Talk show-- my dad still calls it a talk show. I'm like, I'm going to the Laugh Factory tonight. He's like, what? To do talk show? AUDIENCE: Thank you. Sorry, one more thing. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, sure, go ahead. AUDIENCE: I also have a question about the problems you mentioned, about Asian being minority in the show business. As you gain more popularity and influence to your audience, is there something you want to do more about that, like maybe like what kind of actions you would take to change that, kind of putting a great actor into a sort of a stereotypical role in a TV show? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. I think what I can do is just creating my own material and putting myself in it, and giving myself jobs that maybe other people would have given to Scarlett Johansson or Matt Damon. You know what I mean? So I think it's really important to create and do what you do best, right? Whereas it's right, do stand up, act. So I always just try to concentrate on being the best I can. When there is an opportunity, I can nail it, because there is a lot of groups out there, like NAACP, CAPE, that's for the Asian advancements and stuff like that. And they're doing a lot of ground work in representation and making sure the right article comes out and there's no racist commercials or anything, you know, right? Or whatever, right? So they are doing their job. But that's not necessarily my job, right? My job is to really nail the opportunities that they create for us. And really, when I go into an audition room, not just being the best Asian actor, but being the best actor in that room so I can get that role. GRETCHEN HOWARD: It is kind of amazing though. You've gone, in just a span of a couple of years, from literally sleeping on the couch, paying $300 in rent, scraping it together, driving Uber, to now having the weight of representing all Asians, and what that means on TV and in film. And do you do parts of the accent or not? And how do you create opportunities? Like, how do you just deal with that pressure? JIMMY O. YANG: You try to not think about it. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Yeah. So that's why-- JIMMY O. YANG: And then you have a panic attack at 2:00 AM. No. I'm just enjoying it, man. Like, this is really fun to see all of you guys show up. Like, I never imagined this would happen, you know? Or I would imagine this happening in the future. But it's just great. I'm just trying to enjoy the moment. Like, it's getting a little busy, but still, I never try to put the weight of representing Asians on my back, because that doesn't make me better at my job. So I just try to entertain. AUDIENCE: Thank you so much. JIMMY O. YANG: Thank you. AUDIENCE: So great to see you in person. JIMMY O. YANG: Thank you. Love this guy. GRETCHEN HOWARD: You have to sign his book. JIMMY O. YANG: I love-- of course. Of course. I love this guy. AUDIENCE: Hi, Jimmy. So I think your story really resonates with me because I dropped out of medical school. And for like two years, my mom was like, you know what? You're never going to get a girl to want to marry you if you're not a doctor. [LAUGHTER] I was like, under lot of stress. JIMMY O. YANG: Are you married now? AUDIENCE: No, no, no, no, no. [LAUGHTER] So maybe she's right. Maybe she's right. So I've got two questions. The first question is, if you never got the big break on "Silicon Valley" and you ended up being a miserable failure, like you said, what do you think you would have ended up doing? And my second question is, so do you have groupies now, now that you're like, an Asian celebrity? GRETCHEN HOWARD: Well, I'd say. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, the last guy, I guess. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] If I didn't get "Silicon Valley," I think I would still be working hard to try to get something, right? And I always try to put like-- you know, have different things in the pipeline. Like, if maybe I never became a really good actor, I would have just tried to concentrate on stand up or concentrate on writing or something like that. But I don't see there's a world where I would have went back to Smith Barney or anything like that. I think people have a misconception of like, Hollywood or the arts. It's luck or it's nepotism or something magical needs to happen for you to make it happen. But at the end of the day, if you work hard enough and if you're good enough, it's going to happen, one way or another, right? Especially in the stand up world-- if you just get good enough, at least you can do some colleges. At least you can make ends meet, right? You might not be the next Dave Chappelle. But you can make it a job. So I think that's where the disconnect is with maybe the older generation, and also how a lot of people think of the arts. Yeah. Groupies, I don't know. I still use Bumble sometimes. AUDIENCE: Thank you. AUDIENCE: Hi, Jimmy. My name is Zang. And the other part of your story really resonated with me, the immigrant part. So as an immigrant myself who's been living in the US for almost two decades, one question really trips me up a lot. And it's, where are you from? So Jimmy-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. AUDIENCE: Where are you from? Like-- JIMMY O. YANG: It depends who is asking that question, right? If it's an Uber driver that I don't really want to talk to, I'll just say LA, and that's the end of that. And a lot of people like to ask you, no, no, no, where are you originally from? And people take offense to that. And I get it. Like, I wish we don't live in a world like that. But I'm proud of where I'm from. Like, I'll tell people I grew up in Hong Kong and that I came here. So if they want to hear the long story of that, I sell them a book. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Tell them to buy the book. Yeah. JIMMY O. YANG: You know? [LAUGHTER] GRETCHEN HOWARD: You, too, can buy it on Google Play or at a bookstore near you, right? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, exactly. Anywhere you want. Yeah. AUDIENCE: Cool. Thank you. JIMMY O. YANG: Thanks, man. AUDIENCE: Hi, Jimmy. JIMMY O. YANG: Hi. AUDIENCE: I was wondering if you're still keeping in touch with your high school friends, the misfits and other folks who knew you before "Silicon Valley," and what are they up to now? And do they think you're funny? JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. You know what? They're still some of my best friends, man. My buddy Jeremy, Persian guy, he's in construction now. And but he wants to be a writer. So we're actually writing something together because he knows my life as well as I do. Yeah. And you know, my friend who lives in Irvine now, he came out to support one of my book signings. And it was really sweet to see that. And yeah, they still live pretty close to me, and still some of my best friends. And it's good to have people like that to keep you honest, I think. Like, they'll check me. They're like, Jimmy, you're acting too Hollywood, man. You know? Why you going out to buy a gold chain? What's wrong with you? So I stopped at one gold chain. Thanks. AUDIENCE: Hey, Jimmy. My name is Tony. I'm a big fan of the show. I'm excited to check out this book. Also being the child of like, immigrant parents, I'm curious to see how the conversations or process went with you talking to your parents about wanting to leave Smith Barney, disappointing your parents, you said, for a couple of years. Like, what was that like, talking to your dad? And how did that all go? JIMMY O. YANG: It's hard, I think. Also, in an Asian family, we're not as open, in a way, like with a Western family. Like, in an Asian family, we don't necessarily say, I love you, or I'm proud of you, things like that, on the surface. Whereas it's a very casual thing for my American friends to say, oh, I love you, I love you, I love you, right? GRETCHEN HOWARD: I love you. JIMMY O. YANG: So-- oh, thanks. [LAUGHTER] So you know, it's hard, man. I sought some therapy. And you know, you have to kind of just like kind of step up. You don't want it to be like a thing where you don't end up talking to somebody, right? So it's like an ongoing conversation. I think me and my dad now have a good communication, where like, we talk all the time, even about stuff that-- I make him talk about stuff he doesn't want to talk about sometimes, like stuff from the book. And he read the book and stuff like that. So sometimes it's up to us to maybe force that conversation on them. AUDIENCE: Yeah. Was there a point that you felt you had to kind of like, earn his acceptance at all? Or was it-- was he kind of-- JIMMY O. YANG: I'm past that. I'm past that now, I think. Yeah. GRETCHEN HOWARD: You got him to try acting, right? JIMMY O. YANG: Yes. He's an actor. He played my dad in "Patriot's Day." He's a pretty good actor. AUDIENCE: All right. Thank you. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, thanks. AUDIENCE: Hi, Jimmy. I'm Huang. And my question is actually kind of similar to that last one. But having Asian parents means that there are a lot of expectations. They expect you to go to a good school, get a good job, and then get married after school and have kids before 30. JIMMY O. YANG: Right. AUDIENCE: Has your parents' expectation changed as your career grow? And how do you deal with those expectations, I guess? JIMMY O. YANG: Huh. GRETCHEN HOWARD: I think there's a lot of people feeling similar pressures in the-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. Has your expectation changed, Dad? Do you want me to have kids, like, soon? AUDIENCE: I would like you to apply for a job in Google. [LAUGHTER] GRETCHEN HOWARD: Anyone want to hire Jimmy at Google? JIMMY O. YANG: So there you have it. Yeah. I mean, maybe there is, I think. I don't know. But I try and not let it get to me. AUDIENCE: Thanks. JIMMY O. YANG: Thanks. AUDIENCE: Hi, Jimmy. I'm Xiang Li. Thanks for sharing the stories today. So my question is, now you've gained lots of popularity and fame, but at what point do you think that you think you are actually going to be famous someday from TV show? And at what point do you start to actually believe that you're going to be-- you know what you're doing and you're going to be good in acting and stand up? JIMMY O. YANG: I think being an actor and being a stand up, you're always kind of insecure. And it's not like an absolute, like, oh, now I'm a good actor. I think I'm very confident in my abilities now, ever since a few seasons of "Silicon Valley" and other stuff I've done. But it's-- you always try to just get better, you know? And not suck. So I don't know. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Was the process of doing TV versus a movie different for you? JIMMY O. YANG: Not too much, because "Silicon Valley" is a single camera, so it shoots like a movie. So I think that gave us a lot of practice. And you know, "Silicon Valley" is like going to school for me, the acting school I never had. So that was awesome. So maybe one day I'll sell out. I don't know. We'll see, as the rappers would say. AUDIENCE: Were there nights when you cry in the evenings because you think that it's difficult? JIMMY O. YANG: I cry in the evenings? GRETCHEN HOWARD: Do you cry? [LAUGHTER] JIMMY O. YANG: I didn't know that. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Do you cry? It's a question. Do you cry? Have you ever cried from the pressure or the fear of not making it? JIMMY O. YANG: No, I don't think so. It wasn't the fear-- like, I get anxiety from it, but it's never like, crying. Like, sometimes I cry tears of joy when I realize how blessed I am. That's when I cry. AUDIENCE: OK, thanks. JIMMY O. YANG: Thanks. AUDIENCE: Hi. OK. My question is, actually, I like Jian Yang, this role, very much. But I think it's very different with other guys I met in Silicon Valley. I think, like me, I'm an Asian guy and software engineer in Silicon Valley. But I think most Asian guys I met are very smart and they did get things done. But Jian Yang is totally different with that. JIMMY O. YANG: As to say he's stupid. AUDIENCE: Yeah. Do you know that? Or I know the role is not decided by you. It's by a director or some other guys. But I mean, do you know what's the true software engineer in Silicon Valley, the Asian software engineer? GRETCHEN HOWARD: I think she's inviting you to do a Google engineering immersion [INAUDIBLE].. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. These Chinese folks asks me the tough questions, right? I mean, you've got to still play the comedy of it, right? Like, if it's just a dude sitting in front of a computer making really awesome apps and really successful, making hundreds, it's not funny. [LAUGHTER] AUDIENCE: OK. JIMMY O. YANG: So it's, I think, funny to make it a satire of he has some of the mannerisms of the Silicon Valley people, but he still kind of has the balls. And he kind of steps up, and he's kind of an asshole. And you know, he's kind of an opportunist in a way, you know? I think Jian Yang can code pretty well. The Not Hotdog app, he just made it. [LAUGHTER] You know? AUDIENCE: OK. Thank you. JIMMY O. YANG: Thank you. GRETCHEN HOWARD: Maybe time for two more questions. JIMMY O. YANG: Cool. AUDIENCE: Thank you for coming, Jimmy. My name is Vicky. I'm an ABC, American-born Chinese. My parents are from Taipei. I grew up exactly kind of the similar path that you may have been. And until I got into Google, my mom was disappointed with me. JIMMY O. YANG: What did you do before that? AUDIENCE: Well, I actually went through the recruiting program, university recruiting. So I actually went to UCSD and went through the career center, and actually applied to work in AdWords. JIMMY O. YANG: I never stepped foot in that career center. [LAUGHTER] AUDIENCE: So it was my first job out of college. It was the only job I applied for. And I was like, I hope this works out. And my mom was like, you better hope it works out. So now to this day, even my grandparents are like, don't leave Google. Whatever you do, don't leave. And I don't think they even know what I do. So it's like, there is an expectation. I totally understand what a lot of us are going through. The question I had for you was around children, your future children. I have a child now. And I grew up going to Chinese school, doing all the traditional Chinese things we do. I find it challenging to figure out how to raise my child in America, and also instilling the basic cultural traditions I grew up with. And I feel like there's some responsibility on my end to do that. So my question to you would be, imagine yourself being your dad one day, having your own children. How would you go about making sure that your own children don't lose their own cultural identity, given that they're not from Hong Kong or Shanghai? JIMMY O. YANG: Do you speak Mandarin? Or-- AUDIENCE: I do. [SPEAKING MANDARIN] JIMMY O. YANG: Oh, OK. So do you speak to your kids in Mandarin? AUDIENCE: So she's only one, like 14 months. JIMMY O. YANG: Well, I mean, will you, you think? AUDIENCE: Yeah. No, I'm planning on sending her to Chinese school-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, I think-- AUDIENCE: --which is what I am used to. JIMMY O. YANG: --that's very cool, because your kid's going to learn-- this is what my dad told me. Like, your kid's going to learn English in school. You might as well speak to him in Mandarin. Like, I see some of my relatives, like, they insist on speaking maybe English to the kid, so the kid doesn't-- aren't going to be foreign like they were. But that-- the kid grew up in America. He's going to speak English. So I think the language itself is very important. I think everyone's trying to learn Mandarin now. GRETCHEN HOWARD: BET still-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, BET. Show him some BET. AUDIENCE: OK. JIMMY O. YANG: So I think, look. Like, even people, actors and people in media, we're trying. So hopefully, as he or she-- he or she? AUDIENCE: She. JIMMY O. YANG: As she's growing up, there will be more material out there of a positive, cool Asian representation. Read her this book. AUDIENCE: Yeah. I mean, we only have [MANDARIN] right now. But I'm sure there's more opportunities and things for her to learn from. But yeah, I agree. I think language is part of it, but also the traditional sense-- I don't know if you plan on celebrating certain holidays with your future children, and-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah, I would love to. AUDIENCE: --teaching. OK. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. But I'm not one to give parenting advice. Thank you, though. AUDIENCE: Thank you. GRETCHEN HOWARD: You and your dad could write children's books though. That could be a cool thing. JIMMY O. YANG: No, let's not. Let's not do that. Let's not do that. GRETCHEN HOWARD: All right, last question. AUDIENCE: I feel so incredibly grateful. I'm the last one, so like, I made it. JIMMY O. YANG: This better be good. AUDIENCE: Yeah. It's going to be a long one. First of all, hi, Dad. I mean, I didn't get the hot dog signature on the book, but that's not a complaint. JIMMY O. YANG: There was only one. AUDIENCE: Right. Yeah. Kudos to your comments on the "Crazy Rich Asians" being the "Black Panther" for Asians. I really, I feel strong about that too. This is about thought leadership. So I'm also 1.5 generation Asian Canadian, and went to Canada when I was 14. My voice might be shaking right now. Sorry guys-- too excited. JIMMY O. YANG: You're good. GRETCHEN HOWARD: You're doing great. AUDIENCE: Yeah, thought leadership. I also really liked how you were saying the difference between Asian-born Amer-- I mean, ABCs here and the 1.5 generations. I see there's a change of like, ABC tolerating 1.5 generation more, as Asian is rising, specifically in China, after 2005. There's still more to be done. And the thought leadership part is, I don't want to divide anyone with all these labels. Like, also, diversity is like a talk in Google, globally. But like, how do you just tell people like, we're just the same, and we're all immigrant, and you should be proud of who you are without-- JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. AUDIENCE: Like, if they haven't been to your shoes. JIMMY O. YANG: Yeah. I think it's hard to tell people that. I think even if you turn on a TV, like something like the immigration issue is so politicized. There's two sides, and they're just two people arguing, and they never get anywhere, right? And that's why I kind of wanted to write a book like this, where it's just me telling my story, and hopefully it humanizes the immigrant experience, right? And so maybe people can see it from my point of view, in a kind of humorous, lighthearted way, and really understand what it was like to be an immigrant. It's not always sob stories, like, oh, whatever. But in a real way, as if this is a real person. So I think that's important to me. And it's hard to convince people. But sometimes it's easier. It's like pitching jokes to the writers' room. You don't want to tell them, hey, this is the joke I want to do. But you want to kind of make them think they came up with that idea. Right? You should do that with your bosses. You should make them think it's their idea. And how do you do that is maybe by telling them a story through different mediums-- stand up, books, or just in person, telling them a story. So I think-- and just showing them who you are, letting them know you as an immigrant. And I think that does more work than arguing with someone and shoving a point down their throat. GRETCHEN HOWARD: I think we're all very lucky that we get to hear your story, in writing-- JIMMY O. YANG: Thanks, guys. GRETCHEN HOWARD: --TV, and in the movie. [APPLAUSE]
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Channel: Talks at Google
Views: 1,509,729
Rating: 4.9155679 out of 5
Keywords: talks at google, ted talks, inspirational talks, educational talks, How to American, Jimmy O Yang, jimmy o yang silicon valley, jimmy o yang interview, An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents, jimmy yang
Id: ND2xk-naGWM
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 62min 56sec (3776 seconds)
Published: Tue May 22 2018
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