Take a look at this image… do you have yellow fever? For list of symptoms see here.

In my last entry, I talked about the beginning of mainstream presence for Asians worldwide. And as many of you know, I have a band called Cool Silly. Well, we decided to make use of our production and writing skills and pen up a track about this very topic (video below).

The song we wrote is called ‘Yellow Fever’, our video features all your favorite Asian characters in a fun light: Jackie Chan, Maggie Q, Jin the MC, YaoMing, etc.

Here’s the music video for our song:

What is this so-called ‘Yellow Fever’?

Well, let’s take a look at a few definitions in Urban Dictionary for this term:

1. A mental disease that afflicts the Wapanese, the fanboys, and the otaku. Symptoms of this condition are;

(a) A sexual obsession towards females of Asian descent.
(b) An obsession towards Asian media and entertainment, primarily anime, hentai, manga, and other Japanese media.
(c) A sudden urge to imitate anything from Asia. For instance, learning Japanese and eating sushi just for the sheer sake of trying to be “Asian”.
(d) Thinking that one knows more about Japan than the Japanese themselves, despite never setting foot in that country or at lest reading about it.

2. Sexual obsession felt by a non-asian (Usually white, usually male) towards asians of the opposite gender. Symptoms of yellow fever include stalking, halfhearted attempts to learn Japanese/Mandarin/Cantonese/Korean and whacking off to Sailor Moon video’s.

3. The best infliction to have ever hit caucasians. Signs of having contracted yellow fever includes extreme attraction and affection towards Asians of the opposite sex.

Genius definitions if you ask me. Needless to say, this track is about the recent influx of Asians and Asian Americans in mainstream media and entertainment.  Enjoy and remember: sharing is caring!

Question: do YOU have yellow fever?

If you’re an Asian dabbling in the arts, now is the time to man up and charge forward full throttle. NOW is finally the beginning of mainstream presence for Asians worldwide. Let’s take a look at a few legends in the making that are paving the way:

Pop/Hip-Hop Group Far East Movement who opened for Lady Gaga in Japan and went double platinum with 2 million sales of their track ‘Like a G6′.

No not Kobe, but the king of Taiwanese/Chinese pop Jay Chou who recently starred alongside Seth Rogen in ‘The Green Hornet’, which made $33 million in its opening weekend.

Alexander Wang, talented fashion designer adored by many influential artists including Rhianna and Kanye West.

And of course there are many others. Ten years ago (or even five years back), such stars / collaborations simply didn’t exist for Asians in a white-dominated society. Asians were perceived simply as unnecessarily smart math geeks and kung fu specialists. Now there are smart, talented Asians and Asian-Americans dominating their industries all over the world. Needless to say, this is an inspiring time for all Asian artists.

Perhaps it’s the fact that more and more people all over the world are recognizing the power and influence of China, given the fact that nearly half the world resides there. In other words, China equals a treasure chest of cash, cash, and more cash… and every one wants in on this nearly untapped market.

Regardless, this is an encouraging time for Asians worldwide. Slap on your confidence and take that leap forward. This is YOUR time.

Taking action is so awesome.

Our mini-album release performance in February 2010.

In my last two posts, I wrote about taking the driver’s seat and grasping control of my career and artistic direction. It is has been an amazing ride in the recent four to six months for my bandmates and me (and it’s just starting ).

In my last post on November 25, 2009, I wrote the following goals for our band:

1. Break the 1,000 fans mark on our Facebook page.
2. Hit the radio airwaves.
3. Release our own album next year.

Well, guess what?  No. 2 and no.3 are done.  We released our first mini-album on February 10, 2010 and as a result, we’ve been featured on two major radio interview shows. Check and check.  Goal no. 1 is in the process of being completed (I forecast completion in two days max); at the time of this writing, we are looking at 947 fans (and that number shot up from 774 fans within 48 hours due to a TV show appearance we did two days ago).

On national TV earlier this month.

The fact that I am mentioning all these figures and accolades are not for showing off or asking you to bow down to us. :p  Not at all!  I just feel compelled to write this post today simply to tell you that if you: 1. make goals and commit to them, 2. take action on your passionate ideas, and 3. stay consistently fervent on achieving what you set out to achieve, … you’re going to see some pretty phenomenal results.  I kid you not.

Since October of last year, our band has achieved many of the landmarks that a ‘signed-and-backed-by-a-huge-label-band’ achieves with only the smarts, courage, and passion of a few stubbornly hopeful individuals.

Some crowning achievements:

1. Getting radio airplay
2. Going on a major TV show
3. Winning a nationwide songwriting contest
4. Releasing an album
5. Getting accepted to perform at the Woodstock 2010 of Taiwan (Spring Scream)

What’s even more inspiring is that we’re actually making profit from our ventures because we are literally our own bosses (i.e. no big brother entertainment agency snatching a huge chunk of our income).  One thing that I’ve learned more than anything is the importance of a strong movement.  And by that I mean the friends and family that help build the fundamental roots to uplift a product (in this case, our band Cool Silly).  We have such amazing support from our close friends and it is truly indescribably touching just knowing that they are there for us. So, special thanks to all of you guys and gals!!!

And as usual, some upcoming goals for the band to be completed within the next 6 months:

1. Sell 500 mini-albums (on our way)
2. Shoot a music video
3. Surpass the 2,000 fans mark on our Facebook page
4. Perform in China (in the works)

If you’ve read this far in to the entry, I read somewhere once that goals are dreams with deadlines and that a goal without a deadline is just a wish. Bottom line: Take action on your passionate ideas!   Set goals with deadlines and stay committed!  If you come up with cool ideas and halfass execute them, you are simply wasting your time.  Go full throttle!!!  You will be on your way to awesomeness in no time!  I leave you with a nice quote:

A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.

Now GO!

In my last entry, I wrote about achieving some cool feats by taking the driver’s seat and executing with my new band, Cool Silly.

Well, I just took this entrepreneurship project to the next level a few days ago…. how you might ask?

An album release! (mini-album to be exact)

Yep, we just released our debut mini-album a few days ago in Taipei, Taiwan.  With the exception of a professional mastering engineer to master our album, everything else we performed ourselves, including the following tasks:

1. Music production (lyrics, music, recording, mixing)
2. Design of posters, album booklet, and other various paraphernalia
3. Release party coordination
4. Digital outlet for selling our album
5. etc. etc.

I won’t lie, the execution of these tasks was not a trivial feat.  I slept on average 5-6 hours each of the ten days prior to the release date.  But not without eventual success and satisfaction!!!  We had an awesome turnout at our release party and sold as many albums/posters as there were attendees.  We are really stoked about this release and are confident in the six songs on the album.  Cool Silly is going on radio pretty soon and TV should be right around the corner.

You can preview the songs on the album on our website. The album is available for purchase in the form of an instant digital download (with digital album booklet) there.  All you need is either a Credit Card or PayPal.

Please help support us! You won’t be disappointed I promise. The album will soon be on iTunes as well as other worldwide digital platforms.

The challenge of being your own boss, creating a product from scratch, and taking that product to market is no easy task. But to finally achieve this first step of releasing an album lays the necessary groundwork for future development. Sometimes taking that very first step is the hardest one a.k.a. actually taking action on an idea. But that is the beginning of commitment. And commitment is one of the major items necessary for getting something done (whether it be in the form of a contract or verbal agreement).

Bottom line: take that first step! More to come…

Last month, I wrote a post on taking the driver’s seat and grasping control of my career and artistic direction.  Well, sure enough, I did just that in the last thirty days and achieved some groundbreaking results.

Since leaving my previous agency last month, I started a pop trio called Cool Silly with two of my closest friends in Taiwan who I had previously written music with. The idea for this group came about when I saw a poster for an upcoming nationwide songwriting contest which would require live performances in each round of the contest.  I figured the three of us could 1. write a song for this contest without any problems, and 2. put on a pretty decent show.

Well, one month later, the results are in:

1. We are number one in the country (hear our #1 song below).
2. We have performed in front of 100,000 people.
3. We have accrued over 3,000 views on our live performance video on youtube.
4. We have our own concert lined up at the end of December.
5. We are performing on a TV show later this week.
6. We have an official band website (designed by yours truly ) and close to 500 fans on our Facebook page.

This all happened in the span of one month…

What is key to all these milestones is that we achieved them with zero financial or agency backing a.k.a. we did everything ourselves with the help of some amazing friends. I guess desperate times really do call for desperate measures.  Sometimes you just have to get out of your comfort zone and believe in yourself and challenge your limits.  A few of the things that got my drive going:

1. Leaving my previous agency i.e. no more income.
2. Fast-approaching deadline of songwriting contest when I first heard about it (we wrote and recorded the song in literally a few days).
3. The personal satisfaction and inspiration of gaining achievement upon achievement based solely on one’s own hard work and efforts.

To-be-achieved goals for Cool Silly:

1. Break the 1,000 fans mark on our Facebook page.  Add us!
2. Hit the radio airwaves.
3. Release our own album next year.
4. Start (and maintain) a youtube TV show (check).

And finally, here is the song that garnered us all the above achievements:

Bottom line: Get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself in an area you believe you have authority in! You won’t regret it!

As you may know, my passion and current career track is being a recording artist i.e. songwriting, performing, and musical arrangement. I love my career and would love to write and perform music for a very long time.

But right now my music career needs your help…

Allow me to explain…

I am competing in a songwriting competition in Asia. If I can win this competition, I will have a world of opportunities ahead of me to create more music and expose it to an even wider audience in Asia.

So can you help me out?

Here’s a quick 8-step guide on how you can vote for my music:

1. Go to: https://ssl.kkbox.com.tw/reg_step1.php
2. Fill out the information (don’t forget to check the agreement box at the top) and press ‘送出資料’.

   Detailed explanation on how to fill out the form (click the image):

3. Go to your e-mail inbox and click the KKBox mail.  If it is not there, check your Spam folder.
4. Click the confirm link towards the bottom of the e-mail:
5. Go back to: http://www.kkbox.com.tw/event/20090909copyright/index.shtml and login if it prompts you.  (It takes about 5-10 seconds to load the songs)
6. Go to pages 1, 2, or 3 to find my songs.  (Annoying I know, sorry they don’t have a search function)

   My songs look like this (I submitted a total of 4):

7. Click on the small black button ‘投我一票’ at the bottom of the song.

   

   (A message will pop up telling you success, press OK)

8. Repeat steps 6-8 on the other three songs of mine.
   *You can only vote once per song with a given e-mail address
   *Each person (e-mail) can vote a total of 6 times.

Perhaps you want to hear the songs I submitted? That seems fair! Here they are:

Change (Chinese) – with Michelle, Leeway
Music: Tony Chung
Lyrics: Tony Chung / Leeway Lan / MKao
Arrangement: Tony Chung

No Regrets (English)
Music/Lyrics/Arrangement: Tony Chung

Leave or Stay (English)
Music/Lyrics/Arrangement: Tony Chung

I’m Yours (English)
Music/Lyrics/Arrangement: Tony Chung

I really appreciate your support! If you enjoy the music, please share this article with your friends and family! Hear more of my music here.

As for many of us, Michael Jackson was one of my heroes growing up. I was and still am fascinated by his music, performance, charisma, and giving nature. The day that he passed away, I vowed to myself that I would remix one of his songs as a tribute to his legendary career.

So here it is, my re-interpretation of Michael Jackson’s ‘Remember the Time’ with a nice video.

Rest in peace, Michael Jackson. You will forever be in our hearts.

This film was shot in 2006-2007 and it was my first time acting in a movie (watch how my eyes flicker in fright when my gun goes off lol).  Nonetheless, it was an amazing, fun, and memorable experience because the cast and crew were so great.

The movie is called ‘Binary City’, you can watch the trailer here.  My good pal Mark Tran wrote and directed the film.  He is a very talented guy and I think he did an excellent job given the tight student budget for this movie.  Footage of this film was also later used for one of my music videos, ‘Reminiscent’, which you can check out here.

Please support Mark by checking out his latest film, ‘All About Dad’.  I think it’s a beautiful piece of work.

Secret side note: the club that you see in this footage was actually built with props at our university aka it is not a real club. Sweet, huh?