When the Great Recession hit in 2008, millions were downgraded to part-time, furloughed or simply laid off. But if there’s one thing the recession has proven, it’s that sometimes a downturn in life can be a blessing in disguise.
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: Features
STORY & PHOTO: Shirley Lau
It’s impossible to look in any direction without seeing someone playing the Words with Friends app on their iPhone or messaging a friend on their Blackberry. Despite government-issued checks being the sole source of income for many, it’s not hard to find restaurants with people waiting in a line that goes out the door, eager to spend their scavenged cash on a nice meal. It may look like the economy is getting better, but looks can be awfully deceiving.
Being unemployed or making a career change during what is considered by economists to be the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, is anything but an anomaly. As of this past summer, the unemployment
rate was nearly 10 percent, about 31 million people. And with constant fears of a possible double-dip recession, it doesn’t look like things are going to get better any time soon.
So what is one to do when she’s living off unemployment and sending hundreds of résumés into a black hole? Some may choose to make a career out of being couch potatoes, while others are just trying to stay afloat, holding out for the day when they can make a career out of what they’re most passionate about. And then there are those fresh (and once fearful) faces who’ve changed their lives for the better — and they have the recession to thank for it.
Business, Interrupted
{ Alfred Fung, Chinese American }
Current job: Marketing manager
“Most people who go to business school, there’s a sense of entitlement. They think they’re going to get a six-figure salary or be the next Mark Zuckerberg. It’s almost this fantasy,” says Alfred Fung, who once chased his dream of starting his own business after he got his MBA from University of Southern California.
But that proved to be the hardest thing to do during a recession.
“Expectations were already low at the point of graduation. It was clear that there would be a rocky journey to find funding,” says Fung. “Despite this, entrepreneurs I knew pushed forward by bootstrapping as much as they could in what was our generation’s most hostile start-up environment. After all, being an entrepreneur was a much more active role than being unemployed.”
So Fung spent nearly a year in search of funding to make his idea of a new educational platform come to fruition. He sent his business plan to venture capitalists, applied for grants, and even pitched his idea during job interviews.
“I approached investors of all walks,” says Fung. “The most promising, and ultimately depressing, meetings were with the U.S. Department of Education’s Small Business Innovation Research Program director, who loved my idea. I waited several months for an answer, only to be denied. The investment environment is just not friendly to people who just have ideas.”
After exhausting every option, Fung says he decided to forgo his business venture. Now he’s working in the marketing sector of a mobile apps company. It’s not exactly what he envisioned, but he says it aligns well with his interests and he’s lucky to have the job. He keeps in mind something a former classmate told him: It’s not just your job for now; it’s undercover research for the future.
– Shirley Lau
Purchase the Summer issue of Audrey Magazine here.
Actress, model and activist Yangzom Brauen fights for her grandmother’s Tibet in her new book Across Many Mountains.
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: My Story
STORY: Yangzom Brauen as told to Elyse Glickman
Though I am lucky to have a thriving career as an actress in the United States and Europe, I feel especially privileged that what has fueled my interest in acting and politics is directly traced to the persevering attitude of my mother and grandmother, who were forced to flee Tibet in the 1950s when the Chinese occupied the country.
The early years in the life of Kunsang, my grandmother who I call “Mola,” were idyllic, surrounded by tradition, family and proximity to nature’s wonders. It was in this setting that she became a Buddhist nun, devoting her life to prayer and spirituality, while building a marriage and raising a family. (Tibetan nuns and monks are allowed to marry.) But this simple life that sheltered my family and their ancestors was shattered when Chinese leader Mao Zedong exerted his will on Tibet to bring it under his rule.
The valiant Tibetan resistance under the fourteenth Dalai Lama was crushed by the Chinese military in 1959, sending my family and thousands of other Tibetans into exile. As if it were yesterday, Mola recalls with a melancholy resolve how she, my grandfather and two small daughters were propelled into an uncertain journey across mountains and along the Pang Chu River in icy, treacherous weather conditions after Chinese soldiers destroyed the monastery they called home. They traveled with barely enough food, some clothes and blankets, as well as a heavy bronze mould for making tsa tsa, sacred Buddhist images, out of clay. They shouldered the burden with dignity, not only staying out of sight of the Chinese soldiers, but also fulfilling the responsibility of preserving their culture, now in grave danger of disappearing.
Though my family reached India about a month later, life continued to be a daily struggle for survival. There was constant shuttling from refugee camp to camp, few jobs other than manual labor, and the consistent threat of disease, which claimed my grandfather’s life seven years later. Making life even more of a struggle was the fact that the Chinese army staged invasions into India, and Tibetans were not allowed to integrate themselves into Indian society. What is most remarkable, however, is that in all of these faith-testing situations, Mola and my mother, Sonam, never gave up hope, maintained their spiritual practices and did what they needed to in order to survive.
My political activism is a byproduct of a romance that blossomed in the early ’70s between my father Martin, an ethnologist from a prominent Swiss family, and my mother, who by then was beautiful, clever and working as a waitress in western India. Martin was passionate and persistent, yet respectful. However, Sonam was understandably hesitant about getting into a serious relationship with a white man, especially since mixed marriages were almost unheard of in the Tibetan community. Tradition dictated that the suitor seek permission from my mother, so Mola turned to her guru for guidance. Eventually, the guru gave the union his blessing, but made Martin aware that he wasn’t just marrying my mother but also my grandmother and, by extension, the Tibetan community. 
Growing up in Bern, Switzerland, I had a multicultural upbringing where we celebrated Christmas and Easter like every other Swiss family, but thanks to the insistence of Mola, who lived with us, we also celebrated Tibetan New Year and the birthday of the Dalai Lama. With these influences, I grew up with a widened view of the world that, in turn, put me on a very non-linear personal and professional path. I have often put acting aside to take up Tibet-related causes. However, I truly believe I have not sacrificed anything. After finishing my studies in Europe and establishing myself in German film and television, I put acting on hold to become the president of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe, encouraging young Tibetans and non-Tibetans to get involved in demonstrations, cultural events and benefit concerts. As a Tibetan, and also due to my father’s ongoing academic pursuits in Asia, I consider Tibet a second home country.
Though my acting career in America started gaining momentum recently, when Mola turned 89, I realized how important it was to get the stories about the old world down on paper. Through my grandmother I realized that the old ways were fading, even back in Tibet, with monks and nuns now outfitted with laptops and cell phones. It was also important for me to document how my mother came of age as a refugee in India. Then in March 2008, a huge up-rising in Tibet added to my sense of urgency to preserve the traditions and stories. The attention of the whole world was on Tibet, which by then had been occupied for more then 50 years.
I ran the idea by publishers, who suggested I go a step further by not only telling my mother’s and grandmother’s life stories, but also my own, about how their lives shaped mine. The result is Across Many Mountains, the stories of survival that defined, sustained and fortified Mola and Sonam. It turned out to be quite the journey to create, as my mother and grandmother for the first time in years had to relive many of their most painful experiences. In turn, those events opened up a near century of Tibetan history, revealing just how much the world can change over three generations. While there are definitely some beautiful memories, there was also bitterness, sadness and turmoil that followed Mola and Sonam from Tibet, to India, and eventually to Switzerland.
As I documented these stories, it became increasingly important to me that people in the West understand more about Tibet. I am surprised that I still meet people who have no idea where Tibet is, that there are not only monks and a Dalai Lama, but also nuns and farmers. I also learned more about myself — that to be Tibetan, you are automatically born into a political life. My name is so unusual that I am often asked about the origins of my name, which leads to political discussions about Tibet’s current state of affairs.
Even though my mother and grandmother endured so much pain and loss, the one thing they never lost, and passed along to me, was the ability to believe and have faith. It doesn’t matter what you believe in — for us it is Buddhism, while for others it could be Christianity, Hinduism or something else. What ultimately matters is that faith gives you the strength to survive any tragedy. I hope younger generations of readers will be prompted to dig a little deeper into their own family histories, because everybody has a family story worth telling and sharing.
Yangzom Brauen has appeared in the films Aeon Flux, Pandorum and Wilde Salome. Her next film is Escape from Tibet, due out this fall. Across Many Mountains: A Memoir ($24.99) will be released September 27.
More stories from Audrey Magazine’s Archives here.
When the Great Recession hit in 2008, millions were downgraded to part-time, furloughed or simply laid off. But if there’s one thing the recession has proven, it’s that sometimes a downturn in life can be a blessing in disguise.
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: Features
STORY: Shirley Lau
It’s impossible to look in any direction without seeing someone playing the Words with Friends app on their iPhone or messaging a friend on their Blackberry. Despite government-issued checks being the sole source of income for many, it’s not hard to find restaurants with people waiting in a line that goes out the door, eager to spend their scavenged cash on a nice meal. It may look like the economy is getting better, but looks can be awfully deceiving.
Being unemployed or making a career change during what is considered by economists to be the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, is anything but an anomaly. As of this past summer, the unemployment
rate was nearly 10 percent, about 31 million people. And with constant fears of a possible double-dip recession, it doesn’t look like things are going to get better any time soon.
So what is one to do when she’s living off unemployment and sending hundreds of résumés into a black hole? Some may choose to make a career out of being couch potatoes, while others are just trying to stay afloat, holding out for the day when they can make a career out of what they’re most passionate about. And then there are those fresh (and once fearful) faces who’ve changed their lives for the better — and they have the recession to thank for it.
Back to the Books
{ Enid Portuguez, 30, Filipina American }
Previous job: Los Angeles Times staff writer
Current job: Graduate student
She’s in graduate school and accumulating debt like there’s no tomorrow. She spent all summer in Europe doing an unpaid internship. At the age of 30 and after nine years of having real jobs, this isn’t the life Enid Portuguez had in mind.
“I kind of realized it was time for something new,” says Portuguez about her choice to go back to school. “I really wanted to do something that was practical and was different from what I was doing before.”
Despite the recent debate over whether college, especially graduate school, is really worth it, Portuguez decided to not only pursue her master’s degree, but also change careers. Her bachelor’s degree was in criminology, her last job was in journalism, and now she’s getting her master’s in conflict resolution.
After falling victim to the second round of about five mass layoffs at the Los Angeles Times, Portuguez decided to return to her old stomping grounds of New York — just a week after the stock market crashed. “That was kind of a downer, to say the least,” she says. She toiled away working at a restaurant, while also freelancing and continuing to blog for the Los Angeles Times for extra income.
“Don’t count anything out,” says Portuguez. “Don’t think about how old you are; don’t think about how ridiculous it might sound. Don’t think about how outlandish or impossible it may seem. Now is the time to try what will make you happy.”
When it comes to herbal remedies and supplements, especially the Asian kind, there’s a lot of skepticism out there. After all, you’re more likely to hear about its usefulness from your mom who heard it from her friend or from a late-night infomercial than from your family doctor. We wanted to see what all the hype was about, so we tested out some. Here, our no-holds-barred reviews.
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: Mind & Body
STORY: Audrey Staff
Sun Chlorella
$38.25 for 300 tablets sunchlorellausa.com
The Claim:
A huge hit in Japan, Sun Chlorella is touted to be nature’s perfect superfood — it detoxifies, increases mental alertness, and builds a stronger im- mune system.
The Review:
After I got used to the smell and taste (five pills three times a day!), I started to notice that I didn’t grow as hungry or as fatigued as I did in the past. I’m already a pretty perky person so for me to get even perkier … well, that’s a whole lot of perky. I feel like overall the Sun Chlorella pills did have a positive effect on my body, though if you were to ask me for specifics, I wouldn’t be able to name it.
“I often build a relationship with my paintings as if they are my off- spring.” — Diana Reyes
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: Personalities
STORY: Han Cho
Artist Diana Reyes, a.k.a. Fly Lady Di, brings new meaning to “art show.”
Diana Reyes is a dancer with an impressive résumé: She’s been featured in music videos for artists such as Fabolous and Fall Out Boy, and appeared in the film Honey starring Jessica Alba. Never- theless, Reyes considers herself a painter first. Better known as Fly Lady Di, the Filipina Canadian is a visual artist noted for her stylized “graffiti” art.
The influence of graffiti is clear. Reyes infuses bold, flat colors with intricate patterns and black outlines, a quality seen in most street art. However, her feminine subjects stay powerful and grounded, and oftentimes she puts herself “in almost everything that I create, much like the work of Frida Kahlo.
“Empire State.” Acrylic on Canvas. 24 x 36 inches. 2007.
“I often build a relationship with my paintings as if they are my off- spring,” says Reyes. “They are whom I have given life to.”
Reyes’ performance and art back- grounds come together in Live Art, a relatively new and little known art form. Live Art is a performance undertaken by the artist before an audience, revealing the private working processes of the artist. “When done in public within a strict time limit, art takes on a whole new meaning,” says Reyes. “Live Art inspired me because I had never seen painting pursued in that way.”
As the new assistant dance director of The Manifesto, a hip-hop art and music festival based in Toronto, now in its fourth year this fall, Reyes will be running the first-ever All-Styles Dance event in addition to exhibiting both new and old artwork, an indication of her rising success. “People don’t understand the willingness and luxuries we have to sacrifice to live as creative people,” she says. “The luxury is to live as a creative person, and not by society’s rules but by our own.”
Find out more about Diana Reyes at FlyLadyDi.com.
— Han Cho
More stories from Audrey Magazine’s Archives here.
Singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata rediscovers her soul with her long-awaited third album, Chesapeake.
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: Personalities
STORY: Janice Jann
Those accustomed to hearing singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata’s smoky voice breaking from all the pain and heartbreak she endured in her first two albums, Happenstance and Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Heart, will need to take a second listen to Chesapeake, her first studio album in three years. “This record [has] a sense of humor, looseness and spontaneity,” says the Japanese-Caucasian American. “There’s still depth to these songs, but there’s sort of a jovial sense about them — it’s new for me.”
Yamagata, 33, credits her fresh outlook with the way the record was produced. “We were literally sleeping on air mattresses; I’ve got a tent pitched up outside, and we’re grilling food together,” Yamagata recounts. “It was a very camp-like, home-style situation.”
Recording in the bathtub of a friend’s house may seem like something a novice would do, but Yamagata, who
was previously with two major record- ing studios, has sung duets with Ray Lamontagne and Mandy Moore, and finds her songs taking up airtime on Grey’s Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, and the new Muppets movie, is already a music industry veteran.
Though Yamagata is grateful for all the creative people that have championed her career, she found herself splitting with Warner Bros. Records about a year ago. “I think the pressure these labels are under to find ways for the music business to survive, it just was not the right envi- ronment for me anymore,” says Yamagata. The urge to reconnect with her fans and get new music out led Yamagata to re-team with her Happenstance producer, John Aliaga. Yamagata assembled a “dream team” of a band and began to make music right out of Aliaga’s house. Financial support for the album came through PledgeMusic, a leading online platform for musicians and fans to help raise funds. “It’s nice to know that there are people out there waiting to hear new music,” she says. “The [fans are] so supportive and the comments rolling in are mind-boggling sweet.”
Though Yamagata’s sultry vocals are the selling point of her music, the songstress’ first love is songwriting, which she picked up when she started touring with the funk-fusion band Bumpus in the mid-’90s. “The way somebody gets the acting bug and needs to delve into a character, I got it through songwriting,” says Yamagata. “You can see metaphors all over the place if you’re paying attention.”
After Yamagata self-releases Chesapeake on her own label, Frankenfish Records, she’ll begin touring October 24. Some of the places Yamagata hopes to hit are Asia, Australia and Hawaii. “I love to travel,” says Yamagata with a laugh. It sounds like Yamagata will have much to sing about.
— Janice Jann
More stories from Audrey Magazine’s Archives here.
Actor Tim Kang takes a less-than-appealing role and turns it into what may be the studliest Asian American character on TV.
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: Personalities
STORY: Han Cho
With a season-to-date average of 14.4 million viewers, CBS’s highly rated show The Mentalist begins its fourth season this fall. The crime drama follows Patrick Jane (Simon Baker), a specialist hired for his “psychic” abilities, and a team of top-rate investigators, including Special Agent Kimball Cho, played by Korean American actor Tim Kang.
Viewers may find it hard to believe that the levelheaded, deadpan Cho was originally written as a socially inept, slightly overweight married man with two kids. Instead, the character has morphed into a former teen gang member with the brilliant mind and athletic physique of a Green Beret, a strong, silent type with a new girlfriend (played by Chinese-French Canadian beauty Sandrine Holt). So what happened?
“It took some juggling to shape him into something that I could believe in,” says the 38-year-old. Growing up as an avid TV and film fan in San Francisco, Kang was always bothered with the lack of positive representation of Asian Americans in the media. “They were never the heroes. Bruce Lee was the only ‘Asian American’ hero that we could look up to and not be ashamed of. And that was a little disconcerting.”
When Kang first read the script for The Mentalist, he realized that Cho “was just yet another example of not seeing a potential in a certain character. I thought, ‘Wow, some of this is really funny, but stereotypical.’ So I took some of it, kept some of it, and changed it around.
“He is certainly all the things the producers had originally envisioned,” adds Kang, “but he’s not just a book- worm. He’s a little more than that.”
Kang’s fresh take on the character can be attributed to his training in Off Off Broadway shows and the America Repertory Theater’s M.F.A. program. However, he sees “nothing sexy” about his role or his big break as a series regular on a hit show. In fact, he sees it as a “gift and responsibility.”
“To this day, I have not figured out the rhyme or reason to this business,” says Kang. “But I have certainly been afforded the kind of success that you should be proud of. And I am proud of it. I get to do something that I love every single day.”
— Han Cho
More stories from Audrey Magazine’s Archives here.
“Runway is fantastic because it is so high energy. Anything can happen, anything can go wrong, and everything can be phenomenal.” — Brent Chua
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: Personalities
STORY: Shirley Lau
Brent Chua’s inimitable look graces designer clothing ads and high fashion catwalks.
Killer abs, a signature Mohawk and a fabulously fierce mug have made Chinese- Filipino American model Brent Chua a hot commodity in the modeling world. The 26-year-old now calls East Village in New York City home, but he used to spend his days traveling around Europe and Asia, strutting down the runway for Versace and Gucci, and starring in ad campaigns for Macy’s and United Colors of Benetton.
“Creating images for editorials or fashion houses with talented individuals is an amazing experience; [I’m] constantly trying to bring something new,” says Chua. “And runway is fantastic because it is so high energy. Anything can happen, anything can go wrong, and everything can be phenomenal.”
That anything-can-happen mentality was what actually started Chua on the road to fame. He was spotted by a fashion show producer in a club — at this point he’d never even considered being a model — and his career skyrocketed. In 2004, he was voted Male Model of the Year at the Singapore Fashion Awards.
So why is Chua’s look so sought-after? It may well be his androgynous mien, epitomized in a series of photos where he’s donning a blanket of feathers and a hot pair of heels. Chua’s a bit more philosophical about it. “Your perception of yourself seems to basically be a gathered perception of what others have thought of you and made you aware of,” he says.
Whatever it is that makes Chua supermodel-worthy, it doesn’t seem to affect his down-to-earth perspective on life. He recognizes that modeling isn’t a lifelong career, so he wants to reverse roles and become the man behind the camera.
“I really enjoy taking photographs so it would be great to keep doing that,” he says. “I find a lot of inspiration in cinema and reading and observing the passersby in the city.”
— Shirley Lau
More stories from Audrey Magazine’s Archives here.
Passion Play executive producer Rebecca Wang is a woman on top.
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: Personalities
STORY: Janice Jann
Don’t call Rebecca Wang a multi- hyphenate.
“Multi-hyphenates do not present motion pictures,” says the film producer who released her first Hollywood film, Passion Play in May 2011, starring Mickey Rourke, Bill Murray and Megan Fox. “What I am striving to achieve through Rebecca Wang Entertainment will prove that.”
But the stunning beauty, with her milky skin and a figure made for ball gowns, has already found enviable success in several challenging fields in her young lifetime.
The Chinese American moved to the U.S. for *college. After graduating, Wang worked as a therapist for several years. Though she found the job rewarding, Wang wanted to exercise her creativity, so she left her practice and opened a fashion boutique in China. She inherited her passion for fashion from her mother. “From a young age, I would accompany my mother to Paris and to Milan every year to experience the fashion shows,” says Wang.
A career in fashion eventually turned into a career in film. Though Wang loves all the arts, film is her favorite because, she explains, it “will not only tell a story but engage the viewers.”
The first few years of breaking into producing was not easy. “I had to be clear with the direction my decisions were taking me while being patient and diligent,” she says. When the Passion Play project got around to Wang, the industry novice took charge as executive producer, rounding up an impressive cast and working for months in Albuquerque, N.M., to lift the romantic-fantasy drama from paper to screen.
Wang handled being a newcomer — and a rare female in power — well. “It was a difficult position regardless of gender,” she says. “There are many talented women in this field; they are simply a little more incognito than we realize.”
So as a producer, has Wang found her professional calling? “If I knew the details, then it would spoil the surprise,” she says of her long-term goals. Currently, Wang’s production company is looking for another project to produce, but she is also working on a self-help book. Wang may not consider herself a multi-hyphenate, but she is definitely something else.
*Wang attended UC Berkeley, obtained a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and subsequently became a psychotherapist.
More info on Rebecca here at www.rebeccawangentertainment.com
— Janice Jann
More stories from Audrey Magazine’s Archives here.
After a slew of one-hit-wonders, U.S. audiences may be hesitant to embrace another Asian artist, let alone a five-woman, pan-Asian group brought together by an Asian reality TV show. So what sets Alisha Budhrani, Natsuko Danjo, Angeli Flores, Victoria Chan and Ji Hae Lee apart? Could be their raw talent, harmonious tunes or the fact that they reeled in Snoop Dogg for their newest single, Undivided, now available on iTunes. We get the scoop.
ISSUE: Fall 2011
DEPT: Plugged In
HED: Blush
STORY: Shirley Lau
Audrey Magazine: Blush is the product of the reality TV show, Project Lotus. What was that experience like?
Angeli: FarWest [Entertainment] found me via Facebook and so my dad and I didn’t think it would be so big or real, but then once we went to the auditions, it was clear how serious Project Lotus was.
Ji Hae: Project Lotus was my first time to perform — I had only practiced and auditioned [before]. It was also my first time [making] foreign friends. It was only my second time outside of South Korea, my first time in Hong Kong, and I had very rarely used any English until Project Lotus. AM: How do you feel about being the only pan-Asian girl group in the U.S. right now?
Victoria: It’s really exciting because we are representing so many people and we want to do a good job. We hope Blush will inspire others to connect with their own culture.
AM: Who would you like to collaborate with?
Natsuko: Pink — she rocks! Victoria: Justin Timberlake ‘cause he’s hot!
Angeli: Bruno Mars. He is so talented and part Filipino!
Ji Hae: Karina Pasian. She has a beautiful voice.
Alisha: A.R. Rahman because he creates beautiful music.
Details Blushband.com.
— Shirley Lau
More stories from Audrey Magazine’s Archives here.
