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) explored how thoughtful advocacy strengthens community influence. They examined what it means to shift from demanding visibility to claiming agency and how Asian Americans can lead these conversations with nuance intact.

Julia B. Chan
Award-winning journalist; Editor in Chief, The 19th

Julia is an award-winning journalist, project manager and strategist. She’s worked in the news and media industry for more than 20 years, managing and supporting journalists; leading editorial strategies, story and content production, and audience engagement of coverage ranging from breaking news to long-form investigative work—across formats and platforms. Outside of the newsroom, Julia volunteers her time to the broader journalism community: She serves on the national board of the Asian American Journalists Association and she founded the Journalists of Color Slack, a community of digitally savvy and diverse media makers.

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 has been observing, exploring, and writing about the Asian American community for over thirty years. He launched one of the first Asian American national magazines, A. Magazine, in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, and now writes for The Guardian and Washington Post and can be heard regularly as part of NPR’s culture critic panel on Pop Culture Happy Hour. Among his bestselling books are Jackie Chan’s bestselling memoir I Am Jackie Chan; Once Upon a Time in China; and Eastern Standard Time, and most recently the New York Times bestselling RISE and THE GOLDEN SCREEN: The Movies That Made Asian America. He’s currently writing a reimagined Monkey King for the new prestige graphic novel imprint THE LAB and working with screen legend James Hong on Hong’s forthcoming memoir, due out from Simon & Schuster in 2026. His first movie as screenwriter, A GREAT DIVIDE, can be seen on Amazon Video, and the first season of the food journey show he developed and sold with his son Hudson Yang, CRASH COURSE CUISINE, can now be seen on Hulu and NatGeo. He is currently collaborating with legendary character actor James Hong (BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE) on Hong’s memoirs, to be published by Simon & Schuster in September 2026.