What Inspired a Japanese Rock Band’s Video on Alienation in the Asian American Community

Photo by Philip Harris (@pharris)

Japanese rock band ONE OK ROCK is touching the hearts of viewers with their latest music video, Stand Out Fit In, which showcased snippets of the Asian American experience. In less than one month, the video has generated almost 6.2 million views on YouTube. The video’s director, Peter Huang. spoke to AsAmNews about his life and what influenced him in creating the story.

Huang came to Canada by way of China when he was only four years old, where he quickly stopped learning Chinese and started to learn English.

Although he doesn’t remember the incident clearly, Huang’s mom told him the story of how his English was put to good use: “Because I knew English, I stopped a kid from getting bullied who only knew Chinese,” Huang told AsAmNews.

Although Huang didn’t experience much direct bullying himself, he definitely felt like an outsider as a Chinese kid in Canada.

“I was always known as the ‘Whitest’ Asian kid and I wore that kind of proudly,” he added. “The ‘fobbier’ kid got picked on.”

“I felt so uncool in high school,” he said. “Asian, not good looking, not White.” Striving to be the “Whitest” Asian kid was a struggle for him, and he dealt with his feelings of isolation via art. He turned to reading, video games, and music. He originally wanted to be a musician, but he started making prank videos in high school with his friends, which eventually led to filmmaking.

ONE OK ROCK reached out to him with the intention of having their music video showcase the Asian American experience and feelings of alienation. Huang quickly drafted a story with inspiration from his own life.

Huang’s parents owned a Chinese restaurant for a couple years when he was young, and the scene of the protagonist doing homework while his parents are working in the restaurant is very reminiscent of Huang’s childhood days.

When asked about the decision to include the Sichuan opera dancing scene, Huang said he wanted to incorporate culturally Chinese elements. The art style is called Biàn Liǎn, which translates literally to “face-changing.” He mentioned his desire to include “thematic references to what Asian Americans are doing,” explaining it as “putting on different masks for the different worlds you live in.”

 

 

 

 

 

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I was asked by Japanese band @oneokrockofficial to make a video about the Asian-American experience. So I wrote about how it felt to grow up both in an upper middle class Canadian suburb and a lower income Ohio town. Long story short – you never feel comfortable in your own skin. But it became the very basis for artistic insight. So thank you bad experiences of childhood. We are all defined by the things that broke us. To that end though – I really couldn’t give a fuck about our cultural obsession with identity politics. The last thing I want to do is fuel more resentment-based social media posts and divisiveness. Truthfully, I think everyone can relate to being an outsider – there is commonality there. Even the ‘bullies’ in the video are trying to look cool, stand out, fit in. Thanks to the entire team for making this come to life – you are all wonderful collaborators. Also I was very stoked to include the face changer of Sichuan opera. The dancer learned from her uncle and grandfather. It is a very guarded technique passed down directly from dancers in that region.

A post shared by peter huang (@thepeterhuang) on Nov 24, 2018 at 5:48am PST

The end scene where the protagonist transforms to appear more “White” also definitely catches the eye. “When I was younger, I looked in the mirror, and I wished I looked more like a White person—blonde hair and blue eyes.” said Huang.

He definitely was able to connect to viewers, with plenty of YouTubers sharing their experiences in the comments:

Huang said that as an adult, he’s able to celebrate the cultural differences among his friends, something that was difficult when he was younger due to the pressures to assimilate.

He hopes that viewers will feel a “weird sense of belonging from knowing that people went through the same kind of outsider experience that you did.”

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