"We just went for it." The Wireless interview

The wireless caught up with Calvin Sang, DOP and Editor, and Chye-Ling Huang, director, of our new 3 minute documentary!

Asian Men Talk About Sex has been released as part of Loading Docs - a launchpad for short New Zealand documentaries. Watch it here!

The Wireless: DIRECTOR INTERVIEW with Chye-Ling Huang

by Chev Hasset

When did you start getting involved with film?

I run a theatre company called Proudly Asian Theatre. I started off as actor when I did a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts at Unitec, and the comedian James Roque was in my class. We were the only Asians and we were facing our final year at Unitec.

We were freaking out that there was not much hope for us with representation in the industry. So we started Proudly Asian Theatre, which basically tells Asian stories in the New Zealand landscape, providing positive, truthful and interesting representations for Asian stories.

Huang embarks on her film directing debut with Asian Men Talk About Sex

How did the doc come about?

Loading Docs came along as an opportunity when someone said to us this year’s theme is diversity. Even though diversity is kind of a dirty word these days, I think it has opened up a lot of doors even if it is problematic at times.

We just went for it. We sat down as a group and asked what was missing in film and television especially New Zealand. We were looking at how you can count on one hand the Asian men we saw on TV. So we decided to come up with something that talked about the demasculinisation and desexualisation of Asian men. We wanted to do it simple and truthful; hopefully something incredibly real and readily accessible for everyday people.

How did you find interviews?

I definitely learnt a lot about sex. I consider myself a super sexual and liberal person. I guess I learnt about the world of sex; it is so layered and nuance, there are so many factors. Interviewing ten guys -eight of them will be in the Loading Docs version - listening to their conversations raised a whole bunch of questions.

Chye-Ling Huang interviews Aram for Asian Men Talk About Sex

Lastly, does this film help change the stereotype of Asian men?

I really hope so. This is what the film is kind of about. It has two points: opening a conversation about sex and also debunking a lot of those stereotypes which is truthful. These guys are everyday dudes and I really hope it does change people's’ perceptions about Asian men.

Stuff: Why these Asian men really want to talk about sex

Woo hoo! We've reached over 3000 views on our short and sweet doco this week - Asian Men Talk About Sex!

Stuff.co.nz chatted to Calvin Sang, DOP and editor, and Chye-Ling Huang, director, about how getting all the Asian men we knew into one room and opening up a conversation about sex got the ball rolling into a bombastic new film.

Check it out here! 

Or check out excerpts below:

Why these Asian men really want to talk about sex 

GLENN MCCONNELL

When an email lands offering the chance to interview Asian men about sex, you can't say no. This initial thought is this could be hilarious.

It isn't really that funny, though. There are laughs, but the documentary Asian Men Talk About Sex has a serious core.

It all stated as a potluck dinner party, where the subject of conversation was sex. Chye-Ling Huan, a Chinese-Pākeha director, had pulled together all the Asian men she knew to get their thoughts on sex.

Yoson An, Han Huang and James Roque talk sex

Her dad was there, sitting next to her friends from drama school, and she passed round a basket filled with questions about sex.

"It was surprisingly not that awkward when we got everyone in the room," she said. The gathering was literally every Asian man Huang could find. At the table, crunching down on a broccoli sesame seed salad, fried rice and a pile of other foods, was one of the most diverse groups you could find.

James Roque (centre) sits next to Chye-Ling Huang's father during the dinner party that started it all.

Gay Asian men, fathers and a Singaporean man who had made it past his half century sat talking with a cast of creative types to keep the conversation following. "That was the first time I'd ever talked to my dad about sex," Huang recalled.

Huang held the gathering because she believed there was a serious problem in the media, where Asian men were severely desexualised. 

"When you are desexualising someone, you're dehumanising them too because you're putting them in a box," she explained.

The documentary Asian Men Talk About Sex features the stories of a diverse cast of Asian men living in Auckland.

She teamed up with editor Calvin Sang to create a short documentary featuring interviews with Asian men wanting to talk about sex.

Kelly Gilbride, Calvin Sang and Chye-Ling Huang at the launch of the Loading Docs films for 2017

The men featured opened up about having sex in a portaloo. Huang's father told her about having sex against a wall to keep the door closed.

Their film was aimed to combat the traditional representations of Asian men by showing a diverse cast talking about sex, Huang said.

Chye-Ling Huang invites all the people she can find to kick-start a discussion about the sexual representations of Asian men.

As a young actor starting out, Huang said she looked around the industry and saw only stereotypes. She co-founded the Proudly Asian Theatre Company with comedian James Roque to foster acts that went against that tide.

"We realised if we didn't create our own work then we weren't going to have work because we're Asian actors," she said.

Their latest documentary, the company's first stab at film, was about showing accurate portrayals of Asian men and sex. "That's not what we see a lot, we see a lot of caricatures and stereotypes," she said.

Sang, a filmmaker of Chinese descent, said it was inexcusable for New Zealand to be showing the same stereotypes as the rest of the world - especially as there was such a strong Asian community here.

"Shortland St, where are all the Asians? How many Asians are in real life hospitals versus how white Shortland Stis," he asked.

Trying to list Asian men in the media, Sang came up with comedian Raybon Kan and "the spray and walk away guy". 

The documentary team spent 45 minutes interviewing each Asian man willing to tell his story.

He said the under representation was bad enough, as it created a sense that the Asian community didn't contribute to New Zealand. The problem compounded, Sang said, when Asian actors managed to get a role that was stereotypical and often harmful.

"The common stereotype I hear a lot of is that Asian dudes are quite nerdy, they spend a lot of their time at gaming cafes," musician Tristan Hemi Colenso explained in the film.

"All the stereotypes I encounter as an Asian guy are things like I am sexually or romantically inept," Roque continued. 

Asian Men Talk About Sex was published as part of the Loading Docs project, and received $4000 of funding while raising about $2000 of its own funding. The crew behind the short film said they hoped to create an extended play, or series, based of the many interviews they filmed.

How to watch ten documentaries in your lunch break

“The weirdest place I’ve had sex was a portaloo. I can’t say it was aromatic.”

Asian Men Talk About Sex gets an awesome shoutout on the spinoff!

Check it out here!

BFM interview with James Roque and Chye-Ling Huang

We talk to BFM to talk about the launch of Asian Men Talk About Sex, PAT and Loading doc's brand new doco.

James Roque, one of the stars of Asian Men Talk About Sex

Directed by Chye-Ling and starring James, co-founders of Proudly Asian Theatre, hear them spill the beans on this cheeky little film here!

Fun fact - James Park and Tristan Hemi are both musicians that are regularly played on bfm - James of Miss June fame and Tristan as the bassist in Clap Clap Riot.

Check out the doco itself here: https://vimeo.com/229068040

Asian Men Talk About Sex is LIVE! Plus interview with VICE

Our mini dodo made with Loading docs is LIVE online for the world to see!

Check out our interview with VICE New Zealand to hear what director Chye-Ling Huang had to say about the ideas behind this confronting, funny and insightful short film.

In her first documentary, Chye-Ling Huang flips the script on that sexless, nerdy stereotype.

by Hussein Moses, VICE NZ

Western culture has forever stereotyped Asian men as somehow not masculine. Over and over again, we are fed clichés that Asian males are sexless and nerdy types who are underrepresented in sports because they're athletically inferior. As VICELAND host Eddie Huang put it: "We count good, we bow well, we are technologically proficient, we're naturally subordinate, our male anatomy is the size of a thumb drive, and we could never in a thousand millenniums be a threat to steal your girl."

In New Zealand, a new documentary Asian Men Talk About Sex is out to challenge those bullshit stereotypes. The short film, which is part of this year's Loading Docs initiative, shows that there's another side to Asian men, says director Chye-Ling Huang. They're sexy, but they've always been sidelined; in reality, Asian men deserve the spotlight just like anyone else.

The documentary is Huang's first foray into filmmaking—until now, she's been known for her writing and acting work in the local theatre scene—and the new direction came about after feeling dissatisfied with the status quo for such a long time. "Directing and writing is a way to create the kind of work that I want to see," she tells VICE. We sat down with her to find out more.

From left: Ruby, Chye-Ling, Kelly and Calvin at the premiere screening of Asian Men Talk About Sex for Loading Docs

VICE: The documentary is called Asian Men Talk About Sex , which isn't something we usually see in mainstream media. Why do you think that is? 
Chye-Ling Huang: From a media perspective, I think it's such a chicken and egg situation at the moment where it's like there aren't enough people in those positions of power that are Asian men or Asian creators of content. And if you do get those chances, how likely is it that you want to rock the boat? We don't have the same number of people represented in the media because we've never been given those chances. So how are you going to get to that level? There are no bankable Asian actors for ATC (Auckland Theatre Company) shows, for example, or in other forms of media because we're not giving them those opportunities to grow and to learn and to train.

There's heaps to unpack, obviously. Did you want to explore stereotypes in the film or is it more about shining a light on the untold experiences of Asian men?
I didn't really know, to be honest. For me, I love talking about and unpacking the dynamics of race and how that has a direct impact on my life and my humanity. It's so cerebral when you start talking about all this kind of stuff, but then when it comes down to your daily experiences, that's when it becomes really interesting. When it's like, this is actually how it emotionally affects me as a human, or in my interactions in life or a job or whatever.

What's beautiful about it is that sex is such a universal experience and that the joys and the awkwardness and the discoveries and the heartbreaks of sex are so human. Hearing the conversation without knowing that everyone's an Asian dude in the room, you could mistake it for anyone talking about sex. But then there are definitely layers to that, which are very uniquely Asian, that come directly from the traumas and expectations and stereotypes that are layered upon this really beautiful human experience of sex, which sucks.

How much of a role do you think race plays when it comes to sex and dating?
I think race plays a really big factor when it comes to sex and dating. The whole reason I got really interested in this was two things: I'm all about representation of Asians in media and I'm really fucking sick of seeing people in my life, who are Asian men that I love so much, being represented as bumbling idiots on the screen. The other thing is, personally from a female perspective—obviously I'm not an Asian man, but I have dated Asian men—a couple of years ago I started deconstructing my own racial and sexual prejudice and realised that it is a thing. So it's kind of that double-edged sword where you start reflecting on yourself and you're like "wow, Asian women are so sexualised and then you start looking out and you go wow, Asian men are so desexualised".

Kelly Gilbride and Chye-Ling Huang on the set of an interview

Did you always have it in mind to keep the focus solely on men in the documentary?
I think it's two different stories when it comes to the Asian experience of sex. Asian women are the most sexualised race, whereas Asian men are the lowest on the food chain when it comes to being sexualised or being chosen as sexual or romantic partners. So yeah, it's two really different conversations. Also, there's a three-minute deadline for Loading Docs, which is very daunting. I'd love to make another one with Asian women. I think the stories would be completely different. You've got so many different layers of misogyny and sexism that are all wrapped up in that as well. It's such a huge conversation and it deserves its own thing.

Was there a question you set out to answer when you began making the documentary?
Not really. I think for me, what I really wanted to achieve was truthful representation of Asian men on screen. Also, I really hoped that what we would find would be something really casually mind-blowing in the fact that the sheer truth of these men's stories would speak volumes to the opposite end of the spectrum of representation. I think I just really wanted people to see Asian men as they really are.

Everyone has sex. Everyone has a sex drive—most people; some people are asexual. It's a human thing and we shouldn't be ashamed of it. That's the whole point of this documentary. We shouldn't be ashamed of talking about sex. As well as debunking myths around Asian males, I think that as New Zealanders as a culture, we're so prudish when it comes to talking about sex.

Nathan Joe, participant in Asian Men Talk About Sex

Were there any common themes that emerged from the conversations you filmed?
One common theme that I never asked a direct question about was porn. Every single person talked about porn. Generally the way people learned about sex was like, sex education in school and porn. The sex education was a day or two, which taught them nothing, and then porn taught them everything about attitudes, how-tos, and dynamics between men and women. Just horrendous shit that they then had to unlearn. That was definitely a really common theme for most of the guys.

What sort of things do you think need to change for us to move forward?
I think the funding bodies that fund film and television and theatre in New Zealand are definitely upping their games in recent years. There's things like the Diversity Project Fund and there's different kinds of quotas with the Film Commission that are quite focused towards Māori, Pacific, Asian, and non-white stories. I think that's a huge step in the right direction. I think there can always be more that's done. It's all about media: personal attitudes aren't going to change unless media is reflecting it. It's a chicken and egg situation again. It needs to become "hot" before people want to do it, want to make it, and want to see it. But then it's like, no one's going to think it's hot unless it's being made, so we need more development programmes to develop Asian and non-white practitioners in film and television: writers, directors, producers, everything.

The tide is turning for sure. The more America changes, the more we get excited about it and want to do it too. Which isn't a bad thing. It's annoying, but it's not a bad thing. But that's what needs to happen, I suppose. It's so basic: we already know that Asian men have been here since 1842, and we know that Asian immigrants are coming over all the time. Regardless of how long someone's been here, they should be treated the same. We know that. It's a basic human decency. But when you see an Asian man walk across the street, or you see an Asian man pull out of a park in a bad way, your gut reaction or your internalised racism is always going to be the first thing that comes out. Unless people are having these conversations and actually going deep with it and seeing positive examples to shove all that shit to the side, it's not going to change.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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