PODCAST

Growing Up Avatar-American

— ·23 min read

Brief

Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel The Legend of Korra serve, for many second- and third-generation Asian-Americans, as a rare mainstream fantasy world that borrows Asian cultures not as exotic motifs but as lived, textured environments. Sam Caden Lai opens the episode by describing discovering Avatar around age 11–12 and, throughout the conversation with host Eric Malinsky and multiple interviewees (Mamatha, Elaine, Viet Hung, Emily), the podcast traces why the show felt like it had been made “for us.” Listeners hear concrete production details—fight choreography modeled on specific martial arts (Nickelodeon footage and Eric cite Hung Gar for earthbending), animators using filmed reference, and background painter Emily describing trips to Korea for lighting and visual authenticity—that underpin the show’s credible cultural textures: pagoda-like architecture, chopstick-detailed food tables, and even small props like egg custards that triggered visceral recognition for listeners.

Cleaned source text

title: "Growing Up Avatar-American"

author: "Imaginary Worlds"

source_type: podcast

content_hash: b0376b1e521377460501a3efd7a8304c735d57d332eef18862f494598509b3a3

extraction_method: podscripts

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Hey, everybody. Before I begin the show today, I want to let you know that I'm going to be having a live show on Sunday, February 12th at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

You don't need to buy tickets to show up. It's part of an arts festival called Work

by Work, and I'm going to be doing my presentation from 4 to 5 o'clock in the salon area, which

is in the back of the lobby. In fact, there's going to be podcasts from other networks that night doing different shows. So it's going to be fun. All right,

here's the show. You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why

we suspend our disbelief. I'm Eric Malinsky. Now, when I started this podcast, I always wanted to

get to the point where I could bring on other voices who could tell stories that I can't, because I'm always going to be stuck in my perspective, either as a

middle-aged white man, or just in terms of what I like and what speaks to me. And I'm often reminded

of that when I talk with my wife, Serena, who's Chinese-American. And I would talk about as a kid

how I could easily imagine myself as all these different characters from Star Wars to Ghostbusters.

imagine myself as all these different characters from Star Wars to Ghostbusters. And she would tell me how she was so starved for any kind of media representation that she used to watch

reruns of this cringeworthy cartoon from the early 60s called Hashimoto Mouse.

Excuse bad manners, please. His letter from Imperial Palace.

So I was really interested when Sam Caden Lye contacted me on Facebook.

He told me about what the series Avatar the Last Airbender meant for him.

And some of what Sam told me about Avatar the Last Airbender and his reactions to it touched on similar issues that I explored in my episode about Ghost in the Shell.

But a lot of his insights really surprised me.

So I invited Sam on the show to help steer this episode.

So, Sam, welcome.

Hey, what's up, Eric?

Okay, so you're actually not here in Brooklyn. You're in Ireland.

You're in college there?

I actually just graduated really, really recently. But I studied creative process, which is kind of useless.

But it's basically creative writing plus a bunch of multimedia stuff.

So how old were you?

I mean, you're going to make me feel really old, but how old were you when you first started watching Avatar?

11 or 12, maybe younger.

Right.

So this is interesting.

Because 2005, when the show came out,

I had just left working in animation

and I had moved to New York

and I was delving into public radio.

So I knew the show was on.

I knew it had a really good word of mouth,

but I just, I didn't watch it.

So when you contacted me,

I went back and started watching the first season.

And it is amazing,

but I'm still looking at it as a guy

who used to work in animation.

So I'm thinking about like the storyboarding

and like the character design.

So I'm curious, tell me about your reaction as a kid watching it and what you've discovered since. Okay, so this story starts at Halloween, and not any particular Halloween, just

any Halloween. Like Halloween's always like a weird time for me. And now I always feel like I

have to keep in mind my color. And I'm always thinking like, well, who are the people of color I could dress up as?

So this is my friend Mamatha.

She's a med student in Chicago.

We were just commiserating about this yearly dilemma we both face.

And if I'm not going to be a person of color, I'm going to be like an animal or like an

inanimate object like BB-8 or something.

I don't feel like comfortable

dressing up as like a white character at this point like think if i just if i just put on

harry potter glasses and drew the lightning bolt which i have like i'm not harry potter i'm asian

harry potter yeah exactly and everyone would say that or you're like you're like cho chang and

harry potter's like long lost son like that would be what people would say to. Or you're like, you're like Cho Chang and Harry Potter's like long lost son.

Like that would be what people would say to you.

Okay.

To my credit, I didn't just dress up as Harry Potter.

I dressed up as alternate universe,

Slytherin, Harry Potter.