Yul Kwon at a non-partisan voter outreach event organized by APIA Vote.
A year and a half ago, I dubbed Yul Kwon, of Survivor: Cook Islands, “Super Asian Man”. On September 21st, 2006 (as I live-blogged the season affectionately referred to as Survivor: Race Wars), I wrote this comparison of Yul Kwon to fellow cast-mate Cao Boi (aka Mr. Miyagi) while Kwon was calmly uncovering the Immunity Idol from the sand of a lonely beach:
Yul is a frickin’ superhero. He is a Super Survivor, in the mould of Tom from a couple seasons ago. He shall have to be henceforth named (S.A.M.) Super Asian Man. If Mr. Miyagi is the one-dimensional, “Chop-Chop” shame of Asian Americana, S.A.M. is our Stepford Husband – too good to be true.
Little did I know that a year and a half after writing this effusive praise, I would get to meet the Super Asian Man, live and in the flesh. And, boy, would I be embarrassed to tell Kwon about the S.A.M. moniker (he laughed and called it “sweet”). But I’m also delighted to find the name remains appropriate nearly two years after Kwon cashed that million dollar cheque.
Since Kwon’s decisive win in the Survivor: Cook Islands season, he has used his money and notoriety for political and philanthropic causes. Kwon has become a fixture in the Asian American politicized speaking circuit, traveling to schools, conferences and organizations all over the country to promote a diverse array of Asian American causes including bone marrow drives, increased political participation, and ending stereotypes in the media. In Las Vegas this past weekend, Kwon joined Asian Pacific Americans for Progress (APAP) and APIAVote to help promote Asian American voter turnout in this key primary state. Despite several long days packed full of media events, Kwon still found the time to not only buy ice cream for a group of exhausted APAP volunteers (Kwon is co-owner of Red Mango, an incredible West Coast dessert shop franchise featuring an awesome concoction known as green tea frozen yogurt), but afterwards, sat down to an hour-long interview with me over a meal of take-out McDonald’s.
After two years of being “that Asian Survivor winner” guy, Kwon remains surprisingly tolerant that the first question he’s asked by fans and reporters (and bloggers like me) is invariably about the show. I asked him whether or not he was sick of having to field Survivor questions. He laughed, saying:
I don’t mind people asking me about Survivor, if they actually know something about it. The thing that kills me is – and I actually had an interview with a reporter today –
Imitating the reporter, who sounds like he’s from the Valley: “Ohhh! Survivor! …What’s that? Is that like a reality show? …So how does it work?”
And immediately, I know what the next fifteen minutes are going to be like… I get a lot of questions like that, and that stuff drives me nuts because I know exactly how the conversation is going to work.
Reporter: “Ohhh! So do you get any food?”
Kwon (resigned): No.
Reporter: So… what happens if you win?
Kwon (resigned): You get a million dollars.
Reporter: (interrupts, gasping loudly) You get a million dollars?!? Oh my GOD! What did you do with it?
I’ve had that conversation at least a thousand times. But, y’know, if they’re fans of the show, I don’t mind talking about it.
So a tip to all you Yul Kwon fans out there: before you accost him on the street, he’d appreciate it if you knew the basics of the show. And it turns out that there’s a really good conversation to be had with Kwon about the underbelly of Survivor, if you’re familiar with his season. Survivor: Cook Islands was a departure for CBS – the producers went out of their way to recruit and cast a racially diverse group of castmembers, and then initially pitted them against one another in racially-segregated tribes.
When Kwon first heard about the format of his season, the night before the game started, he nearly quit.
I was like, “I don’t know if I want to do this, because I don’t know if I want to be a part of something that’s going to perpetuate racial stereotypes, that’s going to group us together on the basis of our skin colour.” And clearly, if that’s the case, you’re not really going to be treating us as individuals or portraying us that way.
I came close to quitting, but then I thought, “Look, when I look around, if I quit, who do we have?” We’ve got Cao Boi. And Brad is actually really very thoughtful, three-dimensional, and we’re very close friends. But all I knew about him at the time was that he was gay… and so I didn’t how that would be played either. And so if I dropped out, the only Asian American males they have is Cao Boi, who’s the embodiment of the Fu Manchu, Mr. Miyagi, Mr. Ming stereotype, and Brad who, if you watch Entourage, there’s Lloyd, who’s very flagrantly gay. And that [perpetuated] the notion of Asian American men as effeminate. So I was thinking, “If I quit… and these are the only two people on the show. I didn’t know how the show was going to portray them, but I could see them portrayed in a very, very negative way…
So, at that point, I felt like … I had an obligation to go forward because if I drop out right now, then I really have no control over how this plays out. So at that point I figured, I’m already here, I’ll do my best.
Kwon’s acute awareness of the cameras during Survivor: Cook Islands motivated him to avoid perpetuating the stereotype of the emasculated Asian male:
I was very cognizant of everything I said… whatever you gave [the editors] could be manipulated to tell a story. I was very conscious of that so I tried to be super, super careful.
He jokes that he was “lucky… [coming] across as the Korean Jesus” after the show was edited. However, I asked Kwon whether he ever became concerned that in his quest to not perpetuate negative stereotypes of Asian men, if he inadvertently started to perpetuate the model minority myth.
Yeah, I was thinking about that, too. I don’t want to perpetuate the model minority myth, but at the same time, I don’t want to break the myth by being stupid. (laughs) …[Also,] I was being portrayed as a leader; the model minority myth posits us as being industrious, hard-working, smart, but lacking charisma and leadership qualities. So, as long as I’m still being depicted as a leader among people of different ethnicities, than I was okay with that.
Kwon also thought about whether he continued to perpetuate the “sexless” stereotype.
There’s the notion that [Asian men are] sexless. I mean, the stereotype of the martial arts master, someone who’s physically-gifted but oddly sexless. And I was thinking, if I want to break that stereotype, I should probably hook-up!’ (laughs) …and, really, I should probably hook up with a White chick! And then I started thinking, ‘should I really hook up just for the sake of hooking up?’ That’s stupid… I’m not going to do that. If I’m going to perpetuate that myth, that’s okay with me. I’m not going to be that Asian guy.
On Cao Boi (whom Kwon notes was stereotyped – and cast – because he was perceived to be the “crazy Fu Manchu, Mr. Miyagi”), Kwon laughs, saying his first impression was “… if this guy gets on television, we [Asian Americans] are all screwed.” Cao Boi was worse than his portrayal on the show, notes Kwon:
They toned him down. They made him seem like this kind of crazy but kind of a kindly sort. But he definitely had [another] side to him. …At times he could be very chauvinistic, and very ‘my way or the highway’.
We used to get into big arguments with him. He was always talking about these Asian stereotypes, and how Asians eat dogs all the time, and mystical healing. And we were all like ‘Dude, Cao Boi, just shut up! What’re you doing? You don’t want everyone thinking that we all eat dogs!!’
Kwon and Cao Boi (who are still acquaintances outside of the game) may have clashed because they had fundamentally different perceptions of their responsibilities as Asian Americans on Survivor.
[Cao Boi and I] had this very intense debate because on the one hand, I was like ‘Cao Boi, y’know, everyone who’s going to be watching this show is going to be judging us and making assumptions based on how we behave.’ We have a responsibility to be careful of what we say.
But Cao Boi’s reaction was ‘Why do I have to have a special responsibility just by virtue of the fact that I’m Asian? I went on this show for my own purposes, it’s not fair to attach these responsibilities onto me, just because of my skin colour.’
Kwon’s larger concerns over minorities in media and his responsibility to the community to not feed stereotypes even affected his strategy in the game. After the mutiny that left an all-White tribe picking off the remaining minority cast-mates one by one, Kwon reveals that he was willing to sacrifice himself to give fellow cast-mate Becky Lee (one of the finalists who shared Kwon’s sense of responsibility towards the APIA community) the Immunity Idol and get into the Final Four, just so that one minority face would remain standing at the end. However, in a scene that was not aired on television (and thus not well-explained to audiences), Becky refused the Idol, instead suggesting that if it ever came to that, it should be Kwon in the Final Four.
Since the show, Kwon was ranked amongst People magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive, along with John Cho and the male cast of Heroes (which includes Asian Americans Masi Oka, James Kyson Lee and Sendhil Ramamurthy). Given Kwon’s initial thoughts about staying on the show after the race-based format was revealed, I asked Kwon whether he felt like he had made significant process in combating the Asian male emasculation stereotype on-screen (or in further any of his other causes):
It’s hard to say. I don’t how much of an impact I’ve had. I like to think I’ve had at least some impact, because I’ve had a lot of people coming up to me, and I’ve given a lot of speeches, and the feedback I’ve gotten is [people saying] ‘I was really glad to see someone who didn’t conform to that emasculated stereotype. I was really proud of that’ or ‘it made me think of myself in a different way’. So it’s very gratifying. So, I feel really proud of the fact that these are the people who are seeing a really solid image on television who gave themselves a really different expectation of themselves.
But at the same time, when I still look on television today, there’s still not a lot of Asian Americans created in a way that’s not stereotypical. The two most popular recognizable Asian American male characters on primetime TV are Masi Oka on Heroes and Daniel Dae Kim on Lost and they play characters who don’t speak English. And they’re depicted as foreigners, not Americans. In this day and age, it’s still shocking to me.
…Sometimes I wonder [about the impact I’ve had]. I feel like I’ve worked harder this past year than any time in my life. And I’m more cognizant of all the disappointments and frustrations I’ve had… Sometimes I feel like I’m really struggling and treading water… It’s not always clear I’m making progress.
To try to do his part, Kwon has used his notoriety (and million dollar cheque) to become a leading spokesperson in the Asian American community, taking up political causes like Asian American media representation, political participation and bone marrow registration.
A lot of people assumed that after you win [Survivor], you would do lot’s of fun stuff – like, go out partying and meet lots of women. It’s like the complete opposite of what my life has been like. I hate going out to parties and I’m really trying to use the platform I’ve been given to talk to a lot of organizations and have people focusing on issues that matter to our community. …I try to raise the issues in as many forms and platforms as I can.
Kwon believes that reality television has taken the forefront in showing more diversity, but is disappointed that this hasn’t translated into more scripted roles. He nonetheless believes that the key to increasing diversity of Asian Americans (and other minorities) in media, minority communities must demonstrate that television shows and movies can remain viable when carried by a cast of non-White actors.
It really comes down to money. There’s no explicit effort to keep minorities out, or Asian Americans out, but it’s a real risk-adverse industry… They don’t see how they can make money carrying a lot of Asians.
On the other hand, Kwon is impassioned about changing media representation in mainstream news, to help bring the stories of Asian Americans to the forefront of the news cycle. He considers our invisibility in mainstream news as one of the reasons why Asian American concerns remain invisible and thus unaddressed, politically.
We don’t really have a lot of people on the inside [of news media] making sure our stories and voices are heard. It was really frustrating during the immigration reform debate, because, even though that issue has a big impact on our community, you never really saw Asian American people talking about this on television.
For the future, Kwon is trying to figure out where he can continue to do the most good. He sees himself as being in the unique position to network across different spheres – whether it is using his fame and mainstream media connections to shed light on the efforts of politicized Asian Americans in Nevada over the weekend, or using his celebrity to try and encourage more Asian Americans to support Asian American media or philanthropic causes. Recently, rumours circulated that Kwon was considering a run for California’s 12th Congressional District seat being vacated by Tom Lantos (the filing deadline is in March and if Kwon decided to run he would face an uphill battle against favoured state Senator Jackie Spier). Kwon confirms that he is thinking about running but still hasn’t decided if that is where he will best be able to serve the Asian American community.
Personally, I think Kwon would do the most good in Congress compared to the other options he has on the table. I believe that there is still a substantial lack of Asian American politicians who retain ties to the Asian American community and who are willing to use their political position to champion political issues. The few politicians who take the lead on APIA issues – Representative Mike Honda and Councilman John Liu, to name two – will not stay in their position forever; we need younger APIA politicians to take the helm and continue to help bring legitimacy and political resources to a movement that remains – at times – mired in grassroots activism.
Kwon agrees, noting that this reluctance of prominent APIA politicians in advocating for Asian Americans is part of a larger pattern that remains an obstacle for the Asian American community.
The people who do become successful and get any sort of mainstream success are often afraid to be too closely identified as being Asian American. You see this in politics sometimes, like when people cross-over, they don’t really come out to be a strong advocate for the APA community. And you see this a lot in entertainment. Y’know, people like Kelly [Hu] are kind of the exception – [she’s] reached out to other people.
[Others] don’t want to talk about Asian American issues or events. They don’t want to be pigeon-holed because they think it will hurt their careers… I think in order for us to move forward, we have to support the people who are trying to get that cross-over appeal and find that mainstream success, because that’s the only way we’re going to… change perceptions. But at the same time, those people who make it have an obligation, I would argue, to try to use that platform to give a voice to our community and create more opportunities.
That same obligation extends to all Asian Americans, Kwon argues. Kwon admits that he is frustrated that, unlike in other communities, Asian Americans are reluctant to support independent or mainstream Asian American films and shows. Citing the struggles filmmaker Justin Lin had in promoting “Finishing the Game”, Kwon notes how Asian Americans continue to consume entertainment “like Whites”, and display little loyalty to Asian American-made media.
Asian Americans don’t necessarily come out to support Asian American films. African American films – even if they’re not very good – [the] African American community will come out and watch the film and support it. Our community, we don’t have that collective sense of shared responsibility or ownership.
… Justin Lin and all those guys have been touring the country non-stop trying to promote their film Finishing the Game, and, y’know, it’s been tough… a lot of them feel like the Asian American community isn’t coalescing to try and support their films.
…I think a lot of people [in the community] complain about the fact there aren’t more Asian American films, but at the same time, as a community I don’t think we’re willing to go out there and actually demonstrate support with our dollars.
Kwon hopes that the Asian American community – celebrity or otherwise – can adopt a more communal sense of our shared responsibility.
There’s a perception that there’s a finite pie… and if I help you I’m knocking myself out. So you see a lot of Asian Americans… taking each other down or just competing against one another rather than helping one another to expand the whole pie.
Everyone should get more involved in community service organizations or at work to join a community group that provides mentorship opportunities to other Asian Americans. I think we need to learn to contribute more, both in terms of time and resources to philanthropic causes, and also to political causes. We need to start funding more candidates. We need to start funding more political organizations. That’s the only way we’re going to start building a network to give members or our community a chance.
We need to change our mindset to focus on the long-term future. We’re extremely fragmented… as long as we remain divided, it’s hard for us to move forward together.
On a lighter note, recognizing that Kwon has become the heartthrob of a generation of young Asian Americans, I asked Kwon if he remains Asian America’s most eligible bachelor.
I do have a girlfriend. We’re very serious. She’s a wonderful, wonderful person. I’d say the best thing that came out of Survivor was finding the right person for me…. Brad, one of my tribemates, actually set us up.
It’s been a challenge being in a relationship because I travel so much. But it’s been a wonderful, happy relationship, and I’m very lucky.
I wondered if Kwon might see himself one day retiring from the public eye:
Part of me is a very private person, that’s why it’s been sort of … unnerving, being so public and having so much scrutiny. There’s definitely a part of me that really just wants to have my own privacy and ultimately settle down and have my own family.
But on the other hand, I still feel a really strong sense of responsibility and obligation. Not many people have been given the opportunity I’ve had. …So, I feel a responsibility to use [my fame] to help other people in the community. If I saw someone else in my position and squandering that, I’d feel really disappointed. I don’t want to be that person who squanders it.
It’s clear that despite the hectic pace of being a public figure, Kwon isn’t ready to give up this opportunity to better our community. Though he started out as the Super Asian Man of Survivor, Kwon hopes that’s not the end of his story:
My hope is that the whole Survivor thing is one thing that I’ve done, but I certainly hope that it’s not the most important thing or the most significant thing I’ll do with my life.
And I, for one, can’t wait to see (and be a part of) what’s next.
To Get More Involved:
Kwon supports a variety of philanthropic causes, including the non-partisan APIA Vote organization aimed at getting out the Asian American vote. Kwon also became highly involved in bone marrow registries after his best friend died of leukemia. (A list of bone marrow drives in your area will be posted shortly – I stupidly left it at work over the weekend).
Finally, Becky Lee, Kwon’s Survivor tribemate and fellow finalist, started a foundation with her prize money from Survivor to raise awareness about domestic violence in the Asian American community. You can get involved and donate at Becky’s Fund.
