Asian American advocacy has evolved. The recent backlash over Jin Chao in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” exposed deeper tension surrounding Asian American representation today. Because Asian Americans remain significantly underrepresented in mainstream media, individual characters often carry disproportionate symbolic weight. A single portrayal can quickly become a proxy for broader anxieties around belonging and stereotypes.

In this Equity Pulse conversation, Georgia Lee (Committee of 100 member, filmmaker), Jeff Yang (author, cultural critic) and Phil Yu (content creator, editor) will explore how thoughtful advocacy strengthens community influence. They’ll examine what it means to shift from demanding visibility to claiming agency and how Asian Americans can lead these conversations with nuance intact.

Georgia Lee
Award-winning writer and filmmaker

Georgia Lee is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. She created and was 
showrunner of Netflix’s “Partner Track”. Georgia has written for “The Expanse” and “The 100”. After being Martin Scorsese’s on-set apprentice on “Gangs of New York,” Georgia wrote and directed her first feature “Red Doors” which won numerous awards on the festival circuit including the Tribeca Film Festival. Georgia is a recovering management consultant, having worked for McKinsey & Company before running away to Hollywood. She holds a BA in Biochemistry from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is obsessed with figure skating. 

Jeff Yang
New York Times bestselling author, cultural critic

Jeff Yang is a narrative strategist, author and futures expert whose career in media, marketing and technology has spanned two decades, and included multiple successful media and marketing startups. He has been a columnist and featured contributor for CNN, Wall Street Journal, SF Chronicle, Village Voice and other platforms, and is on the culture critics panel for NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. He was the founder of aMagazine: Inside Asian America, which grew into Asian America’s largest and most influential English-language media institution, and of aOnline.com, one of the first Asian American content and community sites on the web. His bestselling books include “I AM JACKIE CHAN: My Life in Action (the memoirs of cinema icon Jackie Chan);” “RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the ’90s to Now;” “The Golden Screen;” and others. His research focus includes such topics as the use of mobile and social networks among younger generations, the social impact of technology, and the shifting nature of identity, both on and offline.