Subtle Asian Traits isn’t just a Facebook group– it’s a growing community where Asians from around the world feel like there’s a place for them. Whether you’re Simu Liu, Hasan Minhaj or any other of the group’s nearly 2 million members, here, you'll discover the most niche memes about the little aspects of Asian culture – and the Asian diaspora in particular – that are often overlooked. Like the tradition of removing shoes when entering a house or the experience of always having your name mispronounced at Starbucks.
And the reason why the group is so successful? Humor. Lighthearted and fun, the space binds thousands of people together through what is common and funny to them. But that doesn’t come without its challenges. When moderating such a large group, the group’s nine founders – Chinese-Australian students from Melbourne – have run into a few problems. “Why are you only representing Chinese culture?” “You need to speak out about more issues.” “Asians are not a monolith.”
Despite issues of representation, co-founders Kathleen and Tony are trying their best to honor all identities. They strive to make sure the members have a good relationship with the group, that it’s a welcoming space for all and somewhere people are not afraid to be who they really are.
Director
Andrew Yee
Producers
Andrew Yee
Chris Yee
Editor
Andrew Yee
Director of Photography
Abdullah Yusuf
Sound
Andrew Yee
Additional Camera
Johanna Ng
Daniel Darmawan
Editor-in-Chief
Keshia Hannam
Head of Production
Stephanie Tangkilisan
Producer
Yudistira Dilianzia
Post Production Coordinator
Skolastika Lupitawina
Assistant Editor
Rendy Abi Pratama
Color
Nadya Shabrina
Sound
Ernesto Suarez
Additional Music by
2050 - Interpretation of a Dream
Lalinea - Aurora
Liquify - Cyber
Peter Spacey - Tech No Ledge
Tomas Novoa - Brotes
Tom Goldstein - Origami
Additional Archival Material
Subtle Asian Traits
Netflix Is A Joke
Mashable
The Harvard Crimson
firstmonday
PAPER Magazine
SBS
Daily Dot
Special Thanks
State Library Victoria
And the reason why the group is so successful? Humor. Lighthearted and fun, the space binds thousands of people together through what is common and funny to them. But that doesn’t come without its challenges. When moderating such a large group, the group’s nine founders – Chinese-Australian students from Melbourne – have run into a few problems. “Why are you only representing Chinese culture?” “You need to speak out about more issues.” “Asians are not a monolith.”
Despite issues of representation, co-founders Kathleen and Tony are trying their best to honor all identities. They strive to make sure the members have a good relationship with the group, that it’s a welcoming space for all and somewhere people are not afraid to be who they really are.
Director
Andrew Yee
Producers
Andrew Yee
Chris Yee
Editor
Andrew Yee
Director of Photography
Abdullah Yusuf
Sound
Andrew Yee
Additional Camera
Johanna Ng
Daniel Darmawan
Editor-in-Chief
Keshia Hannam
Head of Production
Stephanie Tangkilisan
Producer
Yudistira Dilianzia
Post Production Coordinator
Skolastika Lupitawina
Assistant Editor
Rendy Abi Pratama
Color
Nadya Shabrina
Sound
Ernesto Suarez
Additional Music by
2050 - Interpretation of a Dream
Lalinea - Aurora
Liquify - Cyber
Peter Spacey - Tech No Ledge
Tomas Novoa - Brotes
Tom Goldstein - Origami
Additional Archival Material
Subtle Asian Traits
Netflix Is A Joke
Mashable
The Harvard Crimson
firstmonday
PAPER Magazine
SBS
Daily Dot
Special Thanks
State Library Victoria
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00 I think we felt it was big when, I think every day,
00:03 like after the first day,
00:05 and people actually started adding people
00:07 that we didn't know into the group.
00:09 And then when they started seeing
00:10 like how many people there were,
00:12 went from 10,000, 50,000, 100,000 to a million,
00:15 it's like really unreal to like see those people
00:20 that you've been looking up to on the big screens
00:23 and doing so many different amazing things
00:26 to acknowledge our group and even know of our group
00:30 in the first place.
00:31 So this is Subtle Asian Trades.
00:33 This is a Facebook group.
00:34 These are Asian people.
00:35 Do you know what memes are?
00:38 Not really, you can explain.
00:39 Do you know what memes are?
00:41 No.
00:42 Okay.
00:43 So my name is Kathleen.
00:47 I'm 22 years old and one of the original founders.
00:50 I started this group in late 2018.
00:54 Sat originally was founded by nine of us,
00:58 which were myself, Tony, Annie, Anne, Lydia,
01:05 Kerry, Angela, Brendan and Darren.
01:08 - Hi everyone.
01:09 - Can I take an order for my phone?
01:11 - It wasn't like we had started this with a plan to get big.
01:16 So it kind of sounds cliche,
01:18 but it's just like starting a business with your friends.
01:22 It's, at the end of the day, it is a Facebook group,
01:24 but it's also a community.
01:26 But then all these different amazing people
01:28 have also been in the group and interacted with the group.
01:31 Now I think before Subtle Asian Trades,
01:33 I didn't really think much of like being Asian.
01:36 I never really had a good thought on, you know,
01:39 how different it's been for me to grow up as an Asian
01:43 in a society where we're sort of like a minority.
01:46 - And because we met so many other people
01:50 that are similar to us,
01:52 we sort of learnt about our culture
01:54 and learnt that it's something that you should be proud of
01:57 rather than something that you want to hide.
01:59 So I think my childhood was a very typical Asian childhood.
02:06 I sort of struggled with my, I guess,
02:11 identity while I was younger.
02:13 Why am I Chinese?
02:14 I don't want to be Chinese.
02:16 I hate being Chinese.
02:17 Why can't I just be normal,
02:19 like everyone else?
02:21 - A Subtle Asian Trade to be.
02:29 - Taking off your shoes when you get into the house.
02:32 - I think a lot of Asians have organisation within.
02:35 I think that's something that, you know,
02:37 correlates to me.
02:38 - I think what SAPP provides
02:42 is a place that is lighthearted, that is fun.
02:46 The reason why we were so successful
02:49 was because of humour, like, period.
02:52 - We're controlling the kind of narrative that we have.
02:58 We're being ourselves,
02:59 we're being authentically ourselves.
03:01 So humour is a way to keep people engaged
03:03 because nobody wants to read a thousand words
03:06 in a Facebook group every day.
03:08 But sometimes when you grow into such a large group
03:11 and you encounter these big problems,
03:13 being too casual and friendly sometimes
03:15 can present its problems on its own.
03:17 And I think what a lot of people don't realise
03:19 is that it's also mentally exhausting
03:23 to sort of moderate the group and approve those posts
03:26 because there is some stuff that people,
03:30 I guess, submit that can be quite heavy.
03:35 Like the topics, the conversations that people wanna have
03:38 can be very intense.
03:40 I guess starting off SAPP as,
03:43 I guess, young adults or like teenagers
03:46 just finishing high school,
03:47 there are a lot of things we didn't know about.
03:50 And it's not an excuse,
03:53 but it's just something that we've never been exposed to.
03:56 - At a certain point, we would wake up in the morning
03:59 and our phone would be filled with notifications
04:02 from the group, from people messaging us
04:04 about problematic posts, comments,
04:08 different things that had happened in the group.
04:09 - We suddenly had all these people come to us
04:11 and be like, "Why are you only representing
04:15 the Chinese culture?
04:16 Like, why is there not more representation
04:18 on like other ethnicities?"
04:22 And we obviously had the best intentions,
04:28 but we're learning and we're, I guess,
04:32 proactively trying to read up on those topics,
04:37 do our research, talk to people
04:39 in order to, I guess, build a better space.
04:42 Like, it can always be better, right?
04:45 Yeah, well, I think a big part of our team
04:54 is that we try not to make ourselves the main part of it.
04:59 - 'Cause we're just a bunch of normal kind of Asian people
05:05 that just happened to start a Facebook group
05:09 that people thought was cool.
05:12 We try to facilitate that and make sure
05:14 that the members can have a good relationship
05:16 with the group rather than a good relationship with us.
05:18 (upbeat music)
05:21 (upbeat music)
05:24 (upbeat music)