It
is a given that Urban Youth are at the forefront of generating
specific trends in music, entertainment, fashion, and media.
Within the subsets of popular culture, it is interesting to
find that young Asian Americans are playing an influential role
in generating tastes and interest with key trends that are readily
embraced by mainstream America.
As
with New American Dimensions' (NAD) recent study, "Made
in America II: Asian American Teens and Echo Boomers,"
it is shown that Asian American youth normally see themselves
as trendsetters in distinct categories of interest. Presented
by Thomas Tseng from NAD at the recent conference "IMPRINT:
Urban Youth Unabridged" it was revealed that there is a
strong influence among Asian youth in specific (although not
soley) subcultures, i.e., technology/gadgetry, Anime/Manga,
and video-gaming.
Aside
from bringing together young cultural creatives such as Otaku
heads, an Angry Asian blogger, a Cos-player, and hip-hop emcees,
NAD captures a glimpse of today's Do-It-Yourself youth that
are immersed in a wide variety of cultural and creative worlds.
Today's Asian American Youth strive to be perceived in a different
light than before through their choice of activities and unconventional
lifestyles. After watching the video, you should gain a better
understanding of these activities, interests, behaviors, and
lifestyles through a closer, more personal look of today's Asian
and Urban youth demographic.
