We are Asian American and there's no hiding it...

Cynthia Lin (http://www.cynthialin.com) Unplugged at the Ridge Street venue was a great success! I want to personally thank Cynthia and all my friends and family for coming out to this fun evening. It rocked and so did Cynthia's performance!

After playing email tag with Cynthia about a live performance, we decided that a small set-up could be accomplished at the house I live at. With some furniture rearranging, candles, and the right lighting, I transformed our living room into our own personal, VH1 Storytellers. All our regular house guests walked in and were amazed at the "new look" for the evening. After some finger foods, mingling, and drinks, we had our first live performance.

Instead of holding a one-on-one interview with Cynthia like I've done with my past artists, I decided to give out questions to my guests and have them ask her in between songs. Something that Cynthia Lin touched upon (which I've posted in a past update) is the playing up or playing down of her "Asianess" to sell records. Her honest answer was - "Well, I'm Asian American and there's no way of hiding that..." and that's what "That Asian Thing" wants the world to know. We, including myself, are Asian American artists and in the lime light we may look different and have different tastes, but there shouldn't be an assumption that all we can do is math or science. Let our art and talent speak for ourselves and like all other artists of any race, give us the equal opportunity to let it shine.

Sorry to get so Asian American patriotic on y'all, but those simple words of not being able to hide our Asian American look made me proud. Proud to be an artist and proud to be an Asian American. Also - to keep going! We, as artists, and NOT just Asian American, need to keep trying to do what we love to do and to not listen to those naysayers that assume that we don't exist. Cause we do exist and a bunch of us are pretty damn good at what we do!



Continuing on - Cynthia talked about multiple things, such as the minimal amount of Asian American artists out there right now and how more and more are becoming apparent, how Asian parents have taught more of their children to go towards the path of better paying jobs, and how artists (like I said before) should let their art speak for themselves.



Cynthia was even cool enough to get to know her audience members more personally before signing the cd's to a name with no personality. That's a very down to earth singer and I whole heartedly applaud her.

Thanks Cynthia!