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Oakland, California, in the 1980s had a bad rap. Despite the rising crime rates and drug use, there existed a vibrant community rich in cultural heritage and strong social bonds. “Freaky Tales” showcases stories from the era, shifting the spotlight away from the town’s stereotypes and toward its true spirit and mythos focusing on the funky, diverse, and resilient communities and arts scene. 

Written by Bay Area native Ryan Fleck and co-writer Anna Boden, and based on Fleck’s real and imagined memories of the town, the film gives us not one — but four — intertwining stories that showcase the subcultures building momentum in Oakland: punk, hip-hop, and athletics. 

I talked to Korean American actor Ji-young Yoo about punk culture, 1987 Oakland, and the film’s relevance today. 

What is Punk Culture?

In the first vignette, “The Gilman Strikes Back,” young punks Tina (played by Yoo) and Lucid (played by Jack Champion) are part of the raw and chaotic Gilman Street community. It’s a real Oakland gem that spawned the likes of Green Day, Rancid, and Operation Ivy.

“Punk is really like an ethos and a culture and mindset … because punk is just kind of anti-institution, and is against capitalism and against trends,” Yoo informs me. “Punk in the ’80s would be different from what’s punk right now, which is a really interesting debate to have. For this film, we did a lot of work with the actual Gilman [music club] in Oakland and some of the original founding members of it, such [as] Tim Armstrong, who was a member of Rancid and also Operation Ivy, consulted a lot in the movie, and got us connected with a lot of the people, including the bands that perform in the film.”

Although punk music is associated with both mosh pits and aggression, the sign at the door of Gilman — both historically and fictionally — reads “No Racism, No Sexism, No Homophobia, No Drugs, No Alcohol, No Violence.” This counterculture is most importantly nonviolent….

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At the end of episode one in Lulu Wang’s miniseries “Expats,” a grieving Margaret (Nicole Kidman) and her friend Hilary (Sarayu Blue) dance to Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” in a noodle shop. As the pairs’ bare feet sashay across the flooring and their flouncing window reflections are abruptly sliced off by worn menus taped up to the walls, the cooks in the kitchen watch on unfazed. It’s a quiet and lively scene, the first one where the two women, guards down, are having a good time. But it’s also wild — because it’s as though every dance move Margaret makes feels as though it could lead to a complete breakdown, because two foreign women are making a local eatery their late-night disco, because they have a personal driver in a luxury car just outside at their whim, ready to swoop them wherever they wish to go. 

Who possesses the ability to live like this? Well expats. Shorthand for “expatriate,” the term refers to an individual who lives outside of their native country and usually intends to return to their country of origin. Wang’s series follows three, Margaret (Kidman), Hilary (Blue) and Mercy (Ji-Young Yoo), all of who call Hong Kong home, though knowing it’s only temporary. Margaret and Hilary make up the typical expatriate, very well-to-do, households-run-by-low-paid-helpers — the former living in the city due to her husband Clarke’s (Brian Tee) job and the latter because of her partner David’s (Jack Huston) law career. On the other end of the spectrum, Mercy has ended up in a weary Hong Kong apartment alone, the recent-ish college grad insisting on needing a “fresh start.” 

This intricate mise-en-scène is where “Expats” takes off. The hardship of the series is a multitude of things, but the catalyst of it all is the disappearance of Margaret’s youngest son,…

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Kevyn Fong, also known as Level4alpha, is a content creator, comedian, writer and Sailor Moon aficionado. His original content has amassed over 200 million views across all platforms, focusing on the comedic intersections of the Asian American and LGBTQ+ experience. He can be found at Costco every Saturday eating the free samples and buying a month’s worth of chicken breast (boneless and skinless). (Photos by Andrew Dinh.)

Do you remember the last time you went to the bathroom without your phone? 

Did you know that instead of spending 15 minutes on the toilet staring at that $1,000 slab of metal and glass, you could get out in 5 minutes and go on with your day? Despite the joy and ease the modern phone has brought to my life (music, photos, Grindr hook-ups), it’s also brought me anxiety and stress (less sleep, doom scrolling, Grindr hook-ups). We all talk about how we should cut down on screen time, but do we actually?

These were questions I asked myself around spring 2023 before switching from my iPhone 13 to a Nokia flip phone. Shocking, I know, they still make flip phones today, which are targeted mostly towards the elderly. Though, as an aging millennial, I am basically considered geriatric, so same difference. Living in Los Angeles, detoxes are trendy (who hasn’t done a juice cleanse?), but a new detox is arising –  a digital one. However, I didn’t want just a detox, I wanted an actual lifestyle change. I committed myself to use a flip phone for 30 days, and after that month, the side effects of not having a smartphone were so positive that I continued… for a full year. As of the time of writing this article, I’ve been on a flip phone for over 15 months and I’m not going back.  Some people may find that impossible, especially considering my career as a content creator, but guess what? You don’t need a…

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When the reality you face is bleak and you believe the worst of humanity, what would you do if given the power to alter the course of the world for billions of people? This is one of the many dilemmas explored in “3 Body Problem,” a sci-fi Netflix show based on the acclaimed Chinese book series “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” by award-winning author Liu Cixin following humanity’s discovery and preparation for an invasion by (spoiler alert!) aliens who are already in the midst of a 400-year journey to reach Earth. 

The sci-fi epic is helmed by the creators of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and the executive producer of “The Terror” season 2, Alexander Woo, as showrunners, meaning the novels’ character-driven plots, fantastical elements and astrophysical concepts were in good hands to bring the adaptation to a grander and global scale. 

While the Netflix series is not the first adaptation of Liu’s work, previous adaptations include a live-action Chinese series by Tencent Video and a web series completely animated using the video game “Minecraft,” this version (under the blessing and advisory of Liu) expands the trilogy past its original Chinese borders, setting the show primarily in England and employing actors from around the world. “We wanted to represent, as much as possible, all of humanity,” Benioff says in the Netflix press packet. “We tried to make [the show] a very diverse, international cast to represent the idea that this isn’t just one country’s struggle against the threat of aliens; it’s a global struggle to survive.” 

The first season saw scientists Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo), Augustina Salazar (Eiza González), Will Downing (Alex Sharp)…

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The Hmong community’s roots in the United States date back to the 1960s and the country’s imperial activities in Southeast Asia. Originally emigrating from China, the Hmong populated Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. In violation of the Geneva Accords, the CIA forces covertly recruited and trained Hmong during the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War to combat the rise of communism. After both communist forces won and the United States withdrew in 1975, abandoned Hmong communities fled backlash and persecution in Thailand. About 130,000 Hmong would flee to the United States. Today, Hmong communities in the U.S. can be mostly found in Wisconsin (MI,) the Twin Cities (MN,) Fresno, and Sacramento (CA.)

Siskiyou County lies approximately 260 miles north of Sacramento. Hmong communities began to migrate there in 2014. The latest census data shows that within a population of 45,000, 85% are white and 1.6% Asian American. Margiana Petersen-Rockney is an assistant professor at the University of Montana and is a research affiliate at UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Through her work, she has collaborated with the Hmong community and came to understand how arriving at Siskiyou County was mostly due to low income. Having to migrate into racially segregated and low-income areas, many community members have had to work low-wage jobs like factory or farm work, which created what she referred to as “repetitive work injuries.”

“[They] had not been provided a lot of government support in that resettlement process,” she said. “[Many] are reaching retiring age and don’t have a lot of money, certainly things like pensions or retirement funds.”

This hurdle and the need to maintain community led them to buy lots in Siskiyou County for as cheap as $10,000. “A lot of people described moving there in order to own land,” Petersen-Rockney went on. “To be near the mountains, to be in a more rural landscape that reminded them of their…

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Have you ever been sucker-punched by a book? “Unassimilable: An Asian Diasporic Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century,” by Bianca Mabute-Louie, did that to me for good reasons. Like many Asians, I’ve been searching for resources that remind me of who I am and who I’m becoming. As a scholar who studies race, racism, and their impact on society, I don’t see my identity formation as linear, but instead as an ever-expanding and contracting constellation. During an era painted by genocide, COVID-19, and the rise of fascism globally, I’ve been looking for a north star to expand my constellation during this moment of contraction. In this process, I found a meteor. 

Mabute-Louie’s new release is that fallen star that was missing; it wants us to come back to earth, reground, and reclaim ourselves as Asian diasporic peoples racialized by both place and placelessness in a country rooted in a mirage of stars and stripes. “Unassimilable” is both here and there — and now. 

What Is the Book About? 

“Unassimilable” is a memoir-manifesto that turns Mabute-Louie’s life into a mirror of our own lives as Asians in America. She offers herself as a telescope through which we can see ourselves in the larger constellation of Asian American history. Mabute-Louie describes “unassimilability” as “an act of interdependent community … cultivating our own social networks and daring to prosper in America without Whiteness.” 

Mabute-Louie is talking about reclaiming ourselves from assimilation, an inherent process that happens to Asians as they are socialized into the United States by way of institutions, policies, culture, and practices. 

The “Asian diaspora” term offers a bridge between the United States and wherever we find ourselves placeless. Mabute-Louie says “placeless” because Asians occupy a third space materially and psychologically. She describes diaspora as including “the immigrant, the expatriate, the refugee, the migrant worker, the…

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Star Trek has always ventured “to boldly go where no one has gone before,” and since 2009, when J.J. Abrams’ film rebooted the franchise, old and new fans alike have been treated to new worlds and new formats, including animation. But so far, the films and spin-offs have focused on the Federation and Starfleet, making the latest Paramount+ film “Star Trek: Section 31” a unique adventure led by the award-winning actor Michelle Yeoh.

The straight-to-streaming film is a fast-paced adventure that follows Phillipa Georgiou, played by Yeoh, and a motley crew from the secret division of Starfleet known as Section 31, as she faces her past to save the universe. A Trekkie herself, Yeoh shares the significance of having been in a lead role in the Star Trek franchise and what she loves about this film. 

More About “Star Trek: Section 31”

Yeoh is not new to the franchise. She plays not one, but two versions of the fan-favorite Philippa Georgiou. Philippa was introduced in the TV series “Star Trek: Discovery” (2017-2020), where her recurring character was initially captain of the USS Shenzhou.

“It was such a privilege to be the first Asian captain of the series, and it was so beautifully written, where she was so loved,” Yeoh remarks. “She was a good leader — strong, tough, but at the same time loving of her crew and very wise. And then she gets killed.”

Of course, in true sci-fi fashion, no one ever truly dies. Philippa returns to the Star Trek universe albeit as a Mirror Universe version of the beloved captain. This version, however, is not the loving and righteous leader. This is Emperor Philippa Georgiou, and it is this imperial version of Philippa that we follow in “Section 31.” 

Yeoh shares that the character of Emperor Georgiou was a “complex, beautifully crafted character” because she is at once scary and terrifying. Even if you haven’t watched the television series, you will learn in the film that this version of Philippa is not…

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In Mochi Mag’s list of new book releases for January, we explore the deep need for connection — with strangers in a laundromat, with a long-lost lover, for solidarity, for our family history, or with ourselves. This theme is timeless and spans genres, as you’ll see in the list below. 

“Yeonnam-Dong’s Smiley Laundromat”

 Kim Jiyun 
Adult Fiction
(Jan. 7, 2025, Pegasus Books)

“Homeseeking”

Karissa Chen
Adult Fiction
(Jan. 7, 2025, G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

“Immortal”

Sue Lynn…

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