Winter 2011

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Photo by Shane Sato

Philip Yu: Angry Asian Man

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When Phil Yu (C00) started posting personal musings about race, pop culture and other issues on his website, he never planned to become Asian America’s most influential blogger. Now his 10-year-old blog, “Angry Asian Man,” receives an average of 250,000 unique visitors a month. For much of the Asian American community, it’s a hub for cultural and political commentary and offers a spotlight on everyday injustices, as well as review of new music and indie films and details on upcoming events. Yu, a Korean American who grew up in the Silicon Valley and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Joanna Lee (J00), says he was inspired by his time at Northwestern, where he was one of the first students to enroll in new Asian American studies courses in the late 1990s. Today, Yu is Yahoo! Movies’ content producer during the day and spends late nights updating “Angry Asian Man,” a one-man operation. Yu, who is really not all that angry, says his goal is to inform, entertain and inspire people to action, but “at the end of the day, it’s this mode of personal expression. I do it because I really love it.”