Loud Murmurs

This is the episode you’ve all been waiting for. Let us save you the time of reading 10,000 think pieces on why the movie is bad, by telling you exactly why the movie is bad. Together with our beloved guests Tony Lin and Rui Zhong, hosts Ina, Izzy and Afra spend an hour talking about why we are thoroughly unimpressed by Disney’s 2020 live action remake of “Mulan.”  In this episode you’ll hear our thoughts on:What we love and miss the most about Disney’s 1998 classic, the original animated version of “Mulan”  How the concept of “Qi” and Gong Li’s character undermine the storylineWhat the 2020 film got wrong about aesthetics and “Chinese” cultural elements (Disney doesn’t deserve Zheng Peipei)Who is Mulan? Warrior, daughter, the emperor’s perfect subject? How the 2020 film robbed Mulan of her agency, desires, and charisma What Disney sacrificed in order to appease the Chinese censors Disney decided to make this film in 2015, what changed (what hasn’t changed?!) in the five years since? About our guest:Tony Lin

When the musical “Hamilton” first came out, all four of us were in our early 20s, trying to find our own place in a new country. We found hope and inspiration in the story of Alexander Hamilton as told by the musical—the story of a young, ambitious immigrant who became a hero of the American revolution. This past July 4th weekend, a original Broadway production of “Hamilton'' streamed on Disney+ for the first time ever. Also on the same weekend, President Trump gave a speech in front of Mt. Rushmore, claiming "a left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution."What is it like to watch “Hamilton” in 2020, when a celebration of “American progress” seems unfit for the time we are living in? For this episode, we invited our friend Yangyang Cheng, particle physicist and writer, to talk about the musical and what changed between then and now. In this episode you’ll hear: Why do we think “Hamilton” is a product of the Obama era and “an embodiment of its triumph and

Violence is unsettling; violence in a civil demonstration is, for many, somehow more unsettling than violence sponsored by the state. This is the last episode in our three-part conversation about Black Lives Matter. Hosts Afra, Diaodiao and guests talk about the idea of “rioting” as presented in two movies: the National Geography’s documentary LA92, and Spike Lee’s classic Do the Right Thing. We discuss the history of tension between the Asian American immigrant community and the black community, and why this tension is still more than relevant today.Extra readings：Catching Hell in the City of Angels https://vimeo.com/ondemand/catchinghellLA92 -- full documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaotkHlHJwoFind Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review. RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google pla

This is a very special episode and the second of our 3-part conversation about Black Lives Matter. Longtime listeners of Loud Murmurs know that we have talked about “Black Panther” and “Green Book” when they first came out—about white savior complex in “Green Book” and the significance of Black futurism in “Black Panther.” But we want to bring back the two movies that are familiar to our listeners, and use them as an opportunity to have a conversation about race and racism in China, with the help of our guests. In this episode, Izzy and Diaodiao invited Esham and Joshua to join us. Esham (Twitter: @eshammacauley) is a first-gen African immigrant raised in the U.S. but has roots in West Africa, the Middle East, and Scandinavia. Joshua (Instagram: @joshytaughtyou) grew up on the south side of Chicago and currently works at a tech company in Shenzhen. Both of them have studied in China. In this episode, they talk candidly about racist encounters they’ve had being Black men in China and how they make sense of Hol

The Hollywood classic "Gone With The Wind" has recently been removed from HBO Max, and returned to its cinematic library a mere two weeks later with additional content: an optional intro that gives “frank assessment of both the film’s own racist content and the racism of the times and environment into which it was released” and another hour-long recording of a panel discussion on the complicated legacy of "Gone With The Wind." In this episode, our hosts Afra and Ina, joined by an old friend @Flyingpku, look into the film’s complicated legacy, the whitewashing, and romanticizing of the horrors of slavery. We discuss the following:How the movie differs from the book and a deeper dive into several characters The iconography of the “Southern Belle” and the long-lasting effects of glamourizing the Southern Antebellum (why plantation weddings are still a thing)The problematic portrayal of slave characters, especially female slaves, in the movie, and how those stereotypes still perpetuate today’s pop cultu

This is one of the most anticipated episodes on Loud Murmurs for Afra, Juan, and Ina, who share a (un)healthy obsession with the Nickelodeon cartoon “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” We’ve also invited a special guest, Eris Qian (Zhuoyang), New York-based director and playwright, to talk about why we love the show so much.It’s not just us. The 15-year-old cartoon is having a moment, a “stunning second life” as a recent New Yorker article put it. In May, “Avatar the Last Airbender” became the most-watched show on Netflix. The show’s adventures, friendships, failures, redemptions, and the characters’ struggle for morality in a chaotic world feel more real than real life in 2020. If you haven’t watched the show, go watch it before listening to this episode because lots of ~spoilers~ and simping a certain character whose name starts with “z.” May ATLA be your secret tunnel through 2020. In this episode, we talked about:Avatar’s world-building: Pan-Asian culture Cultural appropriation vs. appreciation Our favorite cha

Michelle Obama is one of the most iconic women of our time and one of the most beloved First Lady in U.S. history. Her memoir “Becoming” has been a book that is giving us life in a year filled with crises. For this episode, hosts Ina and Afra invited Dr. Guo Ting at the University of Hong Kong to talk about Michell Obama’s memoir—the lessons we can and cannot learn from her journey. We talked about: What’s Michelle’s source of power and faith that allowed her to defy societal expectations every step of the way? Financial wealth vs. wealth in human capital in Black families What’s the role of lifelong female friendships? Why is female friendship almost absent in so much of our cultural conversation and collective consciousness? What does the role of First Lady mean in American politics, society? How has that role changed over the decades? How did the Obamas manage to push the society’s understanding of race? How have they adjusted their goals throughout the eight years? Has the book fallen short of addressing

Hosts Diaodiao, Afra, and Izzy talk about Mindy Kailing’s new Netflix series “Never Have I Ever,” a coming-of-age comedy about Devi, a second-generation Indian American girl in California.We talk about our own past as overachieving high school nerds (more than one of us were also in Model UN ahem), the feeling of othering when you move to a new country, why the show only manages to tell one specific story from Devi’s perspective, and last but not least, the show’s unabashed female gaze. (Afra actually sought out Paxton’s fan page.)We also included an interview segment with our special guest: Saisha, who grew up in India, studied and worked in China, and currently lives in New York City. Saisha talks about what she loves about the show and why she finds the show to be more like India in the 90s. She feels nervous about some of the ways the show portrays Indian Americans’ attitude towards marriage and religion: “There’s a war over identity going on in India right now. You want to show that story very carefully

This episode is dedicated to one of our quarantine favorites -- Netflix’s The Half of it, a quirky coming-of-age romantic comedy written and directed by Asian American director, Alice Wu. We unpacked the literary references of the film, and discussed why the references perfectly captured the mindset of a teenager literature reader. We also talked about the four key characters in the film -- Ellie, Astor, Paul and Dr. Chu -- what they represent and what they mean for us in our own coming-of-age experiences.Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review. RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs. Support t

In this episode, our hosts Afra and Diaodiao are joined by a group of AI practitioners to unpack the new season of HBO’s Westworld. They talked about the show’s fuzzy rendition of the role of engineering in AI technology, explained how the real-world versions of Incite create your user profile, and shared stories and researches that illustrate the disturbing reality we live in -- the dual Leviathan of surveillance capitalism and surveillance state. Meanwhile, as COVID created a new reality where every citizen can be a security threat to the collective, they shared their thoughts, worries and observations on how surveillance can ride the tide, and why it is particularly important to be okay with being “radical”.The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: https://shoshanazuboff.com/book/about/Suji’s Anti-996 License: https://github.com/kattgu7/Anti-996-LicenseFind Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, a

This episode is basically an hour-long of us singing the praises of sitcom “Schitt’s Creek,” written and produced by Dan Levy and Eugene Levy. Its season finale aired in April so now is the perfect time to talk about this show, which went from a little-known series when it first aired in Canada 5 years ago to a breakout success with a ferocious fan base (us included.) The show tells the story of a rich family who lost all of their wealth overnight and had to move to a small town called “Schitt’s Creek,” which they bought originally as a joke. It’s a classic “fish out of water” story but infused with authenticity, warm and funny dialogues and characters who are so specific yet so relatable. Juan and Ina invited a new friend, Walton, to talk about what this show means to him. Having yet to come out to his parents, Walton said the wedding scene in the finale where two male characters celebrated their love in front of their parents gave him hope that he never knew he needed. Unlike some of our more dense episodes

Dear listeners, we hope you’re doing well wherever you may be. The hosts of Loud Murmurs have all been staying at home to help curb the epidemic and we thought what better way to retain our sanity than to talk about death, the meaning of life and ethics? In this episode, we invited our old friend Santu to talk about NBC’s comedy “The Good Place.” The comedy explores the above-mentioned large themes but still manages to be smart, moving and funny through its four seasons. We can’t talk about this show without spoiling it so consider yourself warned. Some stuff we talked about: How did writers of the show incorporate philosophical concepts and make jokes about them?Is Chidi a true Kantian? Or is the character’s understanding of Kant’s categorical imperative a flawed one?  What’s up with people’s obsession with Janet? Santu thinks we see similar characters in wuxia stories. Is Jason reinforcing or combating the Asian male stereotype on American TV? Last but not least, we recommend some books we mentioned in the

This week hosts Afra and Izzy nerd out about Edward Norton’s 2019 film “Motherless Brooklyn” with our special first-time guest, DK-an architect based in New York. The neo-noir film touches on a lot of topics we love to talk about: the fight for racial equality in the U.S., the urban plan3ning history of NYC, housing rights in the past and at present. The movie may not be the most famous one coming out of the last award season, but it’s a lovingly crafted story with a lot of ambition and heart. Please find it and watch it if possible. In this episode, you will hear about:Why noir films have a gender problem, and how Motherless Brooklyn approaches thatJane Jacobs vs. Robert Moses, death and life of great American cities What happened to Penn Station?Housing rights then and now (this sounds like a one-semester course, oops)What’s lost in China’s frenzy of housing development/urbanization? Is Edward Norton living by his principles? A rhetorical question.The impossible choice between Ed Norton and Brad Pitt, both

This is a very special episode. It’s a celebration of the second anniversary of Loud Murmurs. We’re very excited to share this with you all. Hosts Afra, Juan, Ina and Diaodiao talk about Queer Eye, the popular Netflix makeover show. We discuss how its tagline “more than a makeover” manifests itself over this season; the structural inequality and cultural conflicts revealed and then brushed off by the show; Fab 5’s celebrity status and how that plays into the dynamics.We also, for research purposes, watched a Chinese makeover show that has been accused of copying the format of Queer Eye, called “You are so beautiful.” We talk in depth about the show’s reinforcement of stringent gender roles, the lack of diversity in all aspects and how that ties into the culture of censorship in China. Enjoy. Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review. RSS f

In this episode, we talk about the 2019 movie “Bombshell” and two books that started the global “MeToo” movement—Ronan Farrow’s “Catch and Kill” and “She Said” by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. It’s been almost 4 years since Trump’s “Pussygate” and his election, three years since the bombshell news story of Weinstein broke, two years since the Kavanaugh hearing. Is “MeToo” going too far? (Spoiler alert: nooooo.)The week we recorded this episode, the verdict of the Weinstein trial had just come out and some say it is ushering in a new legal era in how we treat sexual harassment cases. We want to use “Bombshell” as a way into talking about what has changed, what hasn’t and what we can do to empower each other and push back against the logic (and normalization) of sexual harassment in career settings. Links：https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-storieshttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/08/books/review/she-said-jodi-kantor-

2020 has been a rough year for us -- with the Coronavirus spreading from central China to all across the globe, we realized how small we are as humans in the face of a global health epidemic, yet also how grand humanity can be in the time of disasters. As we grow weary of shedding tears, we try to make sense of it all, discussing with peers and looking at this from all angles. Everything will be different from this moment on. We will not forget what has happened as we take it upon ourselves to be the witnesses of history, to take this all in, to record it, to critically discuss it. In this episode, we revisit the show Chernobyl and discuss how the seemingly well-oiled machine of the Chinese bureaucracy that we know so well managed everything that has been happening since December, how extreme situations led to even more extreme results. As always, thank you for your continued support -- it means the world to us, especially during times of turmoil. Stay strong, stay healthy, be well.Find Loud Murmurs in the iT

Title：S3E2: Little Women: not all 'sweetness and light'Today, your four hosts gather together to discuss a literary-turned-big-screen phenomenon that’s been sweeping the world and the awards ceremonies. We absolutely adore this modern-day adaptation by Greta Gerwig (who directed Lady Bird) and together, we explore the various themes within the movie. Many of us have read the novel at a younger age, so join us on this journey as we attempt to reconcile the world we knew back then, the world in which the story happens, and the world we live in today: many things have changed for the better, while others, not so much. A snapshot of some of the things we discuss in this episode:Louisa Alcott’s life and personality; broader socio-economic and historical background; and how these factors influenced the bookThe role of the female storyteller (both Alcott and Gerwig) and the stories they tell (and society’s reception of it)The coming of age story: women’s self actualization and its conflict with the construct of

Welcome back to Loud Murmurs Season 3 and happy New Year to our listeners!We start the year strong with a deep dive into the timeless theme of the “unhappily-ever-after battle of the sexes” -- divorce. Your hosts, Afra, Ina, along with our guest Mr. You, discuss Noah Baumbach’s frontrunner in the Oscar horse race, Marriage Story. Beautifully acted by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johanson, Marriage Story offers a snapshot of a husband and wife navigating the emotionally and physically draining process of divorce. Here are a couple of things we discuss: The dismantling of an American middle-class family, a common theme of Baumbach’s movies, and how this core demographic impacts the movies that he’s madeWomen’s role as a mother, a wife, and how it’s viewed by society What’s divorce really like (a personal experience)?Links to movies we discuss：The Squid and the WhaleKramer vs. KramerAs always, thank you for your support! Please consider donating monthly to our Patreon project: https://www.patreon.com/

Loud Murmurs has had a very! eventful! year! We interviewed some amazing guests, did a really awesome episode (if we may say so ourselves) about “One Child Nation” (nominated for an Oscars, go Nanfu & Lynn!!), got on the radar of censors cuz we blew up yay, started a whack-a-mole game with Chinese podcasting platforms and eventually ran out of f*cks to give so we packed all of our shit together in a neat little backpack and carried it with us to a cool new website HERE. We got a lot of support and love from y’all and used the $$ you guys sent to pay for a great editor. As we speak, we’re already planning cool new episodes for y’all to listen to next year! In the meantime, here’s a special episode where Juan (not easy), Ina, Diaodiao (aka laoyang) and Afra sat down and raised a glass (or two, or three) to the year that is almost over. We answered some listener questions, told our origin story, listed our fav episodes from this past year, and recommended some of the music/videos/movies that are giving us LY

“Climb into my fur,” JLo’s character said, and Constance Wu’s character happily obliged. This was our favorite scene from the recent movie directed by Lorene Scafaria ——“Hustlers.” In addition to all wanting to climb into JLo’s fur and stay there till the new decade, we also want to take this opportunity to share our thoughts on the movie that features “triple threat” JLo and Constance Wu, the first Asian woman to be nominated for “Best Actress” in Golden Globes’ forty-five-year history (seriously). Some stuff we talked about: What we love about "Hustlers, why is 2019 the year of JLo? What does JLo mean to us growing up consuming American pop culture in China? Did the Hustlers do a good job portraying the sex work industry?Juan takes issue with the way the movie portrays sex workers’ finances and spending habits. We talk about what it means to be poor in American in our day and age. What is the difference between having a lot of money and having a lot of wealth? Our special interview segment with DAPHNE