By now, a lot of you have probably seen the video of this crazy Asian guy dancing in public all across Toronto, groovin’ to Soulja Boy, in his underwear. The purported reason for the video is to break the stereotype that Asians are shy. Are Asians shy? How does this video break that stereotype? Over at blogTO the video has already been receiving some heated comments, from applause, to critique of his dance moves, to some pretty critical commentary on Sexy Dragon as a person.
Well, we at blogUT figured the best way to understand the reason behind this madness was to go talk to the man himself! After all, he’s a U of T Electrical Engineering student. So, what’s his story? Read on to find out!
Actually, if you click around a bit and visit the Sexy Dragon Productions website, it says clearly what the video is about: “Sexy Dragon Production has been filming this video at various locations in Toronto as a first promotional video for [an] upcoming rap song.”
Turns out our friend Yang A.K.A. the Sexy Dragon is a man with a plan. I sat down to chat with him to find out what it’s all about.
What the goal for Sexy Dragon Productions?
The goal of Sexy Dragon is to start a group, a following, that is willing to challenge the social norm and break stereotypes. “Every social movement starts with one person,” Yang says. What it takes to start a movement is for one person to stand out with a message that people can get behind. Then, a crowd will form around the message and follow the leader and a movement is born. In the future, Sexy Dragon wants to grow its following and interact with the crowd that’s part of the movement.
How do you have the balls to dance in your underwear in public?
“Personal life experiences, and an impulsive personality,” says Yang. It’s definitely not a one step thing, but a gradual progression. Most people are confined to living within their boundaries, like living in a box. It takes time to expand your boundaries and eventually step outside the box.
How do you handle criticism?
As always, YouTube and blogs are filled with people drunk on the haterade. There’s plenty of criticism, but Yang seems to have a handle on this. Sexy Dragon removes offensive comments that may offends its viewers. On negativity, Yang says, “I can understand where people are coming from, but it doesn’t really bother me.”
What’s in store & upcoming for Sexy Dragon?
Well, the second video has been filmed and is in post production. It’s about being proud of who you are and being proud of your culture. It features Yang in a giant banana suit, and the fine lady you saw at the end of the first video. Take a look at the teaser for the second video below:
Shout outs!
Shout outs go out to the Sexy Dragon Production team: Ian (G69), Dominik (Big D), Mark (Mack Daddy), and Kelvin (Sexing). “Although I’m the one in the video, it’s not a one man thing. I want to give credit to the whole team here,” says Yang.
If you want to be one of the first to see the 2nd Sexy Dragon video, you can become a fan of Sexy Dragon on Facebook and also follow Sexy Dragon on twitter. So, what do you think of Sexy Dragon?
Looks like he’s just got an exhibitionist fetish, not really proof that Asian men are not shy, just kinkier than we expected.
There is still a hint of self-consciousness in his body posture, especially in the mall footage.
I’m not saying I’d do it, but I’m not saying I haven’t already done it under the influence.
@Greg I don’t think he took off his clothes because he finds it kinky — being in his underwear just makes what he is doing even more difficult to do. Don’t you think that a shy person would have a lot of difficulty doing this? Also, I think that doing something like this under the influence is cheating.
So if he wants to break the sterotype, why does he use names like “sexy dragon” –dragon is such a blatantly asian symbol, how are people going to stop associating asians with supposed “stereotypes” when his online meme is so ‘stereotypically asian’? Not to mention his future projects include something to do with “banana” and “why you should date an engineer” — all of which embodies the typical Asian-Canadian image.
To change that image, if that’s his goal, perhaps he could go and investigate on how some Asian university students who DON’T fit the “Asian stereotype”. I know many of my Asian friends who are majoring in liberal arts such as history, political science, modern languages. It seems like what he’s doing is reinforce the stereotype. Not to mention many of my asian friends, and me included (since I’m asian) are far from being shy and reserved.
In response to if he wants to break the sterotype:
“to break the stereotype that Asians are shy”
NOT to break all the other Asian stereotypes that you mentioned
“What’s the goal for Sexy Dragon Productions?
The goal of Sexy Dragon is to start a group, a following, that is willing to challenge the social norm and break stereotypes. “
if you didn’t notice, “stereotype” is pluralized, as in “stereotypes”. Sure, he may not want to break all Asian stereotypes or any other cultural stereotypes, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is, according to him, shyness is apparently a label for Asians–and that’s where I disagree. I don’t feel shyness is one at all. And I certain I’m not the only one who feels that way–there are a lot of assertive and confident Asians out there.
Being shy isn’t a cultural issue, it’s a personal issue.
All I was suggesting is, if his goal is to “break [general] stereotypes”, then he should reach out to “non-stereotypical” Asians/other cultural groups so he can gain a bit more insight on the matter
All I get from this is severe second-hand embarrassment.
in case you guys are wondering if people really think Asian guys are shy, watch this video
The title of this video is called
“Why Asian Girls Go For White Guys”
one of the Asian girls says “Asian guys are shy”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI3lPLsbwjw
quote: “he purported reason for the video is to break the stereotype that Asians are shy.” — then maybe SD, you should contact the writer of the article and clarify your purpose of the video with “…break the stereotype that Asian GUYS are shy”, instead of defending this general notion that ALL Asians are shy with your video.
And please, ONE girl in a youtube video saying “Asian GUYS are shy” does NOT EQUATE to EVERYONE’S opinion of Asians, or Asian guys in general.
I love how whoever was ranting up there managed to associate a “giant banana costume” with “wanting to be white” or whatever retardation he/she/it is insinuating. Shows how much this video brings out one’s own self-identified prejudices despite purportedly going against them.
And is there something wrong with being an Engineer? By all means, it’s not completely associated with an “Asian stereotype”, and even if it is, it’s a positive stereotype. But whoops, it’s just the poster’s prejudices coming out of its shell yet again.
it might just been one girl but over 2 million people have been exposed to that video. therefore this stereotype does exist.
if you visit our original youtube page where the video is displayed you can read all the description of why we made that video. but i bet you never visited the original page or our website. i am proud to be an engineer, in fact my 2nd rap song is called “I’m an Engineer”
the 2nd video is just a teaser, i like how some people judge so quickly. the purpose of that video is to show that I am an Asian living in the western society. and people often call me banana because they think i am yellow on the outside and white on the inside.
i think that is a big mistake because one should not judge a person by the colour of his skin and place anyone in any generalization. therefore i am bringing the claim that i am a banana into physical reality in an attempt to show the world how silly it is to call someone a banana.
as well, i see there are a lot of negativity in the world, and i am just trying to do something to change the world. some might agree and some might disagree with my methods.
if you dont like my way of things, i encourage you to do something about it. because your negative comments are not productive, instead you can try something in your own ways to bring about change
@yeee : I see I’ve upset you with my comments. However, NOWHERE in my comments did I bash the engineering profession. I also don’t think there is anything wrong with being an engineer–in fact, a lot of my closest friends are engineers and I admire their work ethic and intelligence, some of them are asians, some aren’t. So with that said, I don’t appreciate you accusing me of being prejudiced because all I was merely stating is that the projects seem to be reinforcing stereotypes. That’s my opinion, you don’t have to agree with me.
@SD: well, thanks for explaining, and you’re right, I should have checked your website out first before jumping to conclusions. so with that, I apologize. But if you are going to pursue your goals with your projects, don’t take every criticism as negative–these are just people’s opinions that are sometimes worth listening to, because after all, these people are your audience.
I am still not really convinced with your logic of “but over 2 million people have been exposed to that video. therefore this stereotype does exist.”
2 million hits perhaps…doesn’t really mean 2 million UNIQUE individuals saw it. And just because these people saw the video, it still doesn’t tell you if people agreed or disagreed with the stereotype or not.
And another thought: people who watched the video were probably merely wondering “Why Asian Girls Go For White Guys” not searching for “Why Asian guys are shy”. I think this issue has been addressed effectively by “Yellow Fever” over at WongFu–it’s a completely different topic altogether and I’m not going to get into it, b/c surely you’ve seen the video.
@yeee So I just read the first paragraph of your first comment–you’ve misunderstood my msg and I was not “insinuating”, and I DID NOT say anywhere in my comment that “the banana costume = the desire of being white”–where the heck did you get that from? I’ve heard of reading between the lines, but that was totally off. Selective reading = assumptions = misunderstanding
lmao sweet stuff bro.