Oh, you’re a “Southern California Asian”? Let me guess: you like raves, bubble tea, poppy seeds, Valorant, and (insert overused stereotype here).
Fellow online Asian Americans have likely seen these videos circulating on TikTok and Instagram Reels. Often accompanied by the text “POV: On my 500th date with an Asian guy in Southern California,” these skits reflect some of the popular activities and hobbies enjoyed by many Asian Americans, especially in Los Angeles and Orange County. While the first few videos were (supposedly) funny, when does mocking your own community go too far?
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There’s only one person who can answer that question: Eric Au, also known as “SoCal Asian Guy.” A sophomore behavioral economics and psychology major, Au has more than 169,000 followers on TikTok and 80,000 on Instagram. He posts the occasional “monologue”-style video about college life and skits that lean into Asian American tropes. But those few skits have cemented Au’s online presence as the poster child for “SoCal Asian Guy.”
“I did not sign up for this image, and I did not sign up to be classified with the people in this image,” Ou said.
Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good jasmine milk tea or listening to Knock2, but reducing the broad and diverse Asian American community to just those things is questionable because it perpetuates the harmful idea that the Asian American community is a monolith that only likes listening to electronic dance music and wearing Stussy.
The notion of “Asian in Southern California” sometimes takes on a tone of “If you’ve never been to Illenium or Seaside Donut Bakery, are you Asian?” This is reminiscent of the “Asian superiority complex in Southern California” that became a hot topic online earlier this year, where it was argued that Asian Americans living in large Asian enclaves in Southern California often look down on Asians in other white-majority states because they may not share the same cultural knowledge.
These skits tend to feature East Asians and do not feature Southeast Asian or South Asian Americans. When Southeast Asians are included in the dialogue, it is only to portray them in a negative light. Vietnamese women and men are often referred to as “the most harmful type of Asian” by other members of the Asian American community.
Terms like “ABG” (Asian Baby Girl) and “ABB” (Asian Baby Boy) are historically associated with Southeast Asian Americans, but they are frequently used in trend-chasing videos as if they are simply synonymous with being Asian.
“In a way, this comes from our own ethnicity, because when we see a confident Asian girl or Asian guy, they are immediately labeled as ABB or ABG,” Ou said. “People are not used to seeing confident Asians.”
There are worrying implications to Asian Americans imposing stereotypes on their own identity group. While self-deprecating jokes about one’s identity tend to be relatively harmless, widespread social media trends like the “SoCal Asian” TikTok are sure to allow them to spread to other communities and enter the collective consciousness about Asian American culture.
Ou, who is also a content creator, said other creators are probably just chasing the “dopamine rush” of going viral.
“The creators who are making this know how humiliating it is,” Oh said. “They’re making people laugh. They’re making people embarrassed. They’re making people hate them. I just think this is incredibly weird.”
Ultimately, these skits are neither funny nor original. Sure, Irvine, California’s Paul Choi may not be singlehandedly trashing the Asian American community, but look for something different. It’s honestly embarrassing to watch five million variations of the same video over and over again.
“Their content is so lazy and they don’t respect the artistry and they don’t respect their people to make good content,” Ou said. “Other Asian creators like me are now being lumped together in the same group, which is having a negative impact on them.”
Again, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with liking raves and listening to poppy, but if that’s the pinnacle of your Asian American identity, you might be encouraged to look inward and reconnect with deeper aspects of your culture.
