Friday was International Secret Agents, a showcase featuring the likes of Jin the MC, Far*East Movement, Paul Dateh, and Jessi Malay, put on in collabo with Wong Fu Productions (those cheeky fellows who make the Up In Da Club shorts).  

If you went, chances are you had to get a ride from your mom, because the crowd was predominantly of the teenie-bopper variety. I don’t say this negatively, because while it made this blogger reach for his drum of Tiger Balm and can of Crotchety, it was kinda, well, cool in a way.

The show was a mix of music performances and some video shorts. Needless to say, all involved held it down. But take a second and look at the line up. Wong Fu Productions, Jin, FM, Paul Dateh, etc. What do they have in common? They all have very strong online presences -- gaining exposure through YouTube (Dateh, Wong Fu), MySpace (Jin), or personal websites (pretty much all of them). Cross this with the fact that the average age of this seriously paying audience was probably around 18, and you gotta realize that being a star on YouTube is starting to mean being a star in real life (or RL for you LARPers).

What was really cool about it was the fact these youths seem to be creating and empowering their own new forms of entertainment. Despite the mainstream's continued white-washing of Asian and Asian American stories (a little Blackjack, anyone?), young people are still able to identify and support media that appeals to them -- media that tells their stories, and not their stories played by white actors.

Sure, these stories may be about clubbing or what not, but at least we get to see Asian faces claiming them. For example, I was watching a very fancy David Choi music video and I began to think,“Do I know that guy? He looks awfully familiar.” And then it struck me: David is a face I can identify with. I’m not saying that he looks like me, or one of my friends, and God forbid I promote the idea that We All Look the Same, but I can identify much more easily with the artists at ISA than, say, to this dude. Call me superficial, but it can be extremely powerful and empowering actually to be able to relate with someone in the media, mainstream or not.

In the relative vacuum that is Asian Americans in the media, a sort of underground is sprouting up, fed by Asian Am youth, and capitalized upon by groups like Jin, and FM, and Wong Fu. There are songs to be sung, stories told, cheesy shorts recorded, and, yes, money to be made. It’s a digital revolution, and the mainstream should take notice.