by steven cong

How a two-hour concert captured the progress of a decade

Kollaboration is the largest Asian Pacific American (APA) talent show in the nation. With concerts that stretch from Los Angeles to New York, its San Francisco show could have occurred anywhere in the Bay Area. To the delight of many students, however, this year’s concert took place at UC Berkeley’s own Zellerbach Hall on Sept. 10th. The diversity of ethnicities and talents in this year’s lineup allowed thousands of audience members to experience Kollaboration’s “empowerment through entertainment” first hand.

Just over a decade ago, the idea of APAs as hip hop dancers would have seemed unreal for people outside of the APA community. After all, we didn’t have a way of assessing America’s best dance crew back then. If people unfamiliar with APAs were to imagine an APA musician seven years prior to this year’s show, it most likely would have been William Hung. That seriously narrows people’s perceptions of the diversity within the Asian American community, as he is the poster boy for the Model Minority myth and the Asian nerd. With the idea of the studious and submissive nerd so firmly ingrained in many people’s minds, it is improbable that they could have envisioned an assertive comedian like Kabeezy Singh, one of the guest performers at this year’s Kollaboration SF.

However, seeing so many talented APA musicians, comedians, and dancers on the same stage in the biggest APA talent show in the nation made all those previously inconceivable ideas a clear reality. I remember learning in my Asian American Studies classes about the media’s portrayal of APAs as emasculated yellow perils, obedient model minorities, and second-class citizens throughout the centuries. The distorted image it created became a reality for people in regions without many APAs. And for centuries, we did not have the means to counter that image.

I don’t know how much talent has been sacrificed in the APA community as a result of youths being told they were “meant” to be doctors and not rappers. I also cannot account for the youths who never dared to speak out against racist taunts because the people who looked like them on television simply accepted it. And many times, those people on television did not even look like them because they were white actors playing Asian roles with the help of some eye tape.

When Kollaboration was founded in 2000, the APA community still had limited access to independent agency and means of self-representation. That would soon change. In 2001, MC Jin retired undefeated from Black Entertainment Television’s Freestyle Friday competition. In 2006, Yul Kwon was crowned the winner of a season of the television series Survivor that divided its competitors based on race. In 2008, the television series America’s Best Dance Crew premiered, and each of the past six seasons’ winners thus far included at least one person of Asian descent. In between, numerous APA comedians, musicians, and athletes rose to fame on youtube.com.

Many of these entertainers began their careers on Kollaboration, which originally focused on Korean American talent before extending its scope to include all APAs. The presence of such diverse talent from a diverse set of backgrounds not only attests to the success of the show, but also to the progress of the APA community as a whole. Clara Chung, one of this year’s judges, launched her career through Kollaboration and other concerts centered on APA talent. Every leg of her tour has been sold out, and who knows when this year’s competitors will also become role models that APA youths could reference when they’re told to be doctors instead of artists.

“Kollaboration hopes to impart with our audience that no dream is out of reach,” said Executive Director Christine Minji Chang in her Director’s Welcome.

“Whether your dream is to sing on stage or appear on the big screen…everything begins with courage…and perseverance.”

Indeed, courage and perseverance have been the cornerstones of the APA story for much of the past 150 years. Whether it be fighting exclusion acts or combating stereotypes, the APA community has been constantly progressing. After centuries of misrepresentation in mainstream media, we have managed to empower our community through the creation of our own images via mediums such as Youtube and reality TV. Kollaboration SF captured the diversity of the current APA movement in the entertainment industry, and it is a hopeful sign of better things to come.