so this episode soed is all about chinatown and the chinese-american experience. if there's one thing the united states is about, it's cultural appropriation. i love chinatown. i just know people can go there and culturally appropriate things because i did when i was a teenager. i was the classic teenager who was totally into bruce lee, watches the movies, decided to dress like bruce lee because that was the fastest pass to mar martial artist prowess. i moved to the bay area in' 97,

i still had the jacket and hadn't worn it for a wild. i was in my 20s. i said, i'm going to wear that kung fu jacket in san francisco where bruce lee was born. i wasn't in chinatown. i was in the rich area. it isn't touristy there. i walked two blocks into richmond and i said, they don't think of me as one of them. i'm an [ bleep ]. i'm going to take this jacket off and put it right here in this trash. i'm going to be a little chilly on the way home but that's a good lesson for me. don't be an [ bleep ]. my name is w. kamau bell. as a comedian, i've made a living finding humor in parts of america i don't understand. and now i'm challenging myself to dig deeper. i'm on a mission to reach out and experience all the cultures and belief that add color to this crazy country. this is "the united stathades o america".

oh, san francisco, one of america's greatest and most idiosyncratic cities. for years it's been known as america's gay neighborhood and still figuring out ways to see that crazy summer it had in 1967. currently it's known as the bedroom of silicon valley. before that it was known as the birthplace of a truly american phenomenon. no, not annoying bicyclists who think they can be hurt by cars. i'm talking about chinatown. i lived in san francisco for 12 years. longer than i've lived in any city in my life. i moved there to do comedy, but the first thing that made me want to come to the city was bruce lee. as quiet as it's kept, the man no. as the dragon was born in san francisco's chinatown in 1940, the year of the dragon because, of course. back in the 1800s chinese immigrated here during the california gold rush. soon after thousands of chinese were recruited to build the transcontinental railroad. many don't realize chinese were

among the first immigrants to this country. almost 200 years later, many of us still don't know much about the chinese-american experience. we know the easy stuff like kung fu or chow mein or chinese new year that all other asians call lunar new year. that even proves what we don't know. while chinese americans are only around 1% of the country's population, in san francisco they are the largest minority group at well over 20%. globally the chinese are almost 20% of the world's population. that's just the chinese people in mainland china. the sheer size of china has made it something some politicians are obsessed with. >> the economic issue with china. >> corporations will shut down in america. >> it built artificial islands and now they're taking them over. >> okay. what's it like for chinese-americans here? do they feel a connection to china or is being

chinese-american a separate identity? why do i sound like carrie from "sex in the city." how important was it for to you grow up in your chinese culture and owning your chinese-american experience? >> you've opened up such a -- >> i'm like magic johnson, passing it to you. >> i'm third generation so my grandmother came over after world war ii. i've known you're not chinese from china because that's a whole different cultural, historical perspective i don't have. really being imbedded in both histories and both sorts of context has been important to me. it's something i've been proud of. >> san francisco's chinatown is where chinese immigrants initially settled. maybe because the neighborhood is near the port where the boats arrived from china. once they moved there, they were forced by the city to stay there. sort of like gentrification but in reverse. chinese businesses sprung up to serve this new neighborhood, serving a clid community that's sustained for over 150 years. >> where do you live?

>> right in here in chinatown. i have not moved out for the last 40 years. >> rent control? >> sure. >> ah! >> they came, i would say the guru of chinatown -- >> one of the hearts of chinatown. >> being chinese is the cool es thing in the world. our new year's celebrations addition. >> chinese new year celebrations are lit. besides firecrackers, when it comes to celebrating chinese new year, the most recognizable part is the lion and dragon dances. >> one, two, three -- >> today i'm heeding over to lion dance to meet another man who teaches the dance to hundreds of teen each year. >> how's it going? >> good, good. >> i figure if he can teach all these kids over the course of a year, he could probably teach me in a few minutes, right? the lion dance is a century's old tradition where two dancers

together mimic the moves of a lion. the belief lion dancing was a way to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. like how in my people the electric slide is way to identify which of your friends can't dance. >> good job, guys. how did you like it? >> it's amazing. you know, i think a lot of stuff you think you've seen it because you saw it on tv, but i didn't know it to be that athletic. >> it can get pretty extreme. you want to try some music? >> sure. >> you'll see some magic happen, okay? for you. ♪ that's it. >> oh, that's it, okay, well, yeah, yeah. >> three, five minutes can you learn that. on your mark -- >> one, two, three, one, two, three, one two, three. oops. >> that's it. you just have to know when to start. ready? >> one, one, one, two three. one, one, one, two, three.

oops. >> we'll counted slower. >> once goit the clapping down, i wasn't quite ready to graduate to the drum sticks but i was apparently adequate enough to be trusted with the symbols. >> oh, yeah! >> all right, all right. >> cymbals! >> that's right. keeping the stereotype alive. so, is this something, you know, like jewish people have hebrew school they send their kids to. the kids don't want to go but they do. is it the same with your parents, you're going to learn the lion and dragon dance. >> i would say in general it has a bad stigma because they think it's gang related in chinatown. >> really? >> yeah, their parents have a bad image of it. back in the day they would think people who started it or people who do martial arts, also they get into gang affiliation or corruption. >> really? that's something i didn't know. >> chinese it's called -- the

try y t triad related. >> that's organized crime that followed chinese immigrants to mainland usa. in the 1950's they terrorized the streets of chinatown and sometimes used the lion as a disguise. how can i be a gangster when i'm such an adorable lion. >> for me its more community driven. i want them to grow up and take part in helping the community. >> is it important that chinese-americans retain this culture and not let it go and sort of, you know, all this talk in america about assimilation. >> it's very important. i'm trying to grow this into a new era. my goal is to make lion dancing mainstream and know. >> it's not about holding on. it's about building. >> correct, correct. >> and now the moment we've all been waiting for. hope i don't embarrass these well-meaning kids by being a way superior dancer. hey, have i no idea what i'm dog. >> on your mark, get set, bend

and punch. punch up one, down, to. to your right, left, left. are we ready? down. action one. down. action two. punch. slow down for him. right, down. left, blink. >> nope. >> drop the head. chase your tail. >> sorry. >> blink. there we go! how was that? >> pretty much the whole time i was chasing my tail.

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do you remember the guru of chinatown? she invited me over for tea to teach me more about her neighborhood. >> hi. >> ni hao. >> ni hao. >> very good, very good. >> thank you. >> welcome to my home. >> i'm not going to lie. i'm really curious what a 40-year-old rent-controlled apartment in san francisco is like. maybe she needs a roommate. >> i'm making lunch. this is the teaed egg. it's actually hard-boiled egg and then you put tea leaves in there and make it like a tea paste. >> so, fran has the first chinatown. so, i identified with chatown, it seems like the identity of the city. >> exactly.

yes ago it was like a boundary, like another country. and chinese could not go across broadway street because the kids would start fights. >> chinese people in chinatown had to stay in chinatown? >> yes. >> that's the san francisco history people don't like to talk about when they like to promote san francisco as an welcoming and accepting place but that's not always true. >> after the either quake, chinatown was supposed to move elsewhere. >> chinatown, like much of san francisco, was devastated in the 1906 earthquake, but even before the neighborhood was destroyed, city officials had begun plotting how to move the chinese out of what had become prime real estate. kind of like how san francisco sees every neighborhood not filled with tech today. >> we band together, we're not going to move. and saved by the ching dynasty empress. >> so the empress of china helped save san francisco chinatown. >> the empress sent her general counsel to demand chinese were allowed to rebuild in the same spot or they would move

chinatown to another city completely. city officials knew they needed china's tax dollars and acquiesc acquiesced. so began the rebuilding of chinatown as we know it. >> i've lived here 40 years. when we first come, people go to movies and chinatown was bustling even after midnight pu now shops are closing and they can't afford the rent. >> do you feel optimistic about the chinatown future? >> saving the first chinatown is very important. an h to attract people coming back to chinatown, that's my mission. >> i do feel you take that seriously. your job is to promote chinatown. thank you very much. >> well, good to see you. >> good to see you. i will have some tea. don't know about those eggs but i will have some tea. the eggs may be too much. >> okay. >> i'm not that adventurous. now more than ever, the relationship between china and america is complicated. i wonder why that is. >> they're taking our jobs.

then the president of china comes over and we have a steak dinner for him, honoring him, what a wonderful guy. he's laughing all the way back to china. >> uc-berkeley professor hopelely can sort it out for me. >> with the current president there's a lot of talk about china. >> yes. >> and the united states' relationship to china. >> yes. >> i'm even saying it the way he says china. >> yes. oh, gosh. >> what do you think that, you know, the united states gets wrong about china and what do you think about non-chinese-american citizens get wrong about china? >> china is so complex. you're talking about diplomatic history between the u.s. and china. that's very complicated. >> the united states and china. the u.s. initially welcomed the chinese as trade partners and laborers but in 1882 we passed the chinese exclusion act. because i guess back then congress didn't bother with trying to make their horrible laws sound less horrible. in classic, they're stealing our

jobs fashion, the act prohibited the immigration of all skilled and unskilled chinese laborers. which covered a lot of people who were trying to immigrate here. the act wasn't repealed until 1943. it's been a complicated 200 years of a love/hate relationship. friends? not friends. friends. nope, not friends. friends again. friends. still friends. friends. not friends? >> it's the changing, ee vofling society and i think that we tend to fix it in our imagination as just one thing. in terms of politics, economics, even the people and culture, you know, the way they are now versus the way they were ten years ago. >> if you had the ear of the man in power of this country, how would you explain china to him in a way he can understand? i guess, you got to speak in tweets. >> yes, which i don't do. >> no, no, you don't. but what would you say to

explain how he should be thinking about china? >> i would say cooperation, collaboration, and not antagoni antagonism. >> there's also this thing has come out now this fear of them taking over because they're so huge and the global economy and when china becomes a super power and all this kind of stuff. what do you think when you hear things like that? >> it's very alarming. i hear that all the time, especially now, right? there are people who are really scared about it. you know, there are books over and over again with dragons. >> always with dragons. >> always something about the rising dragon, you know. it inspires a lot of fear. it's really disturbing because then that gets sort of mapped onto chinese-americans here. people begin to have these fears of chinese-americans. and they see them as one in the same without, you know, distinguishing china is china as a political, economic, geopolitical kind of entity. and you have chinese-americans who have been here a long time, who have adopted the ways of

american culture and kind of becoming part of this multicultural, multiracial society. >> yeah. are you optimistic about the future of china? do you think even the current state of this country? >> china will be china. it survived many major events. it's gone through a lot. >> it's funny when you say it that way, first time i realize as country that looks as united states as a young whipper snapper, they're like, we've been here for centuries. >> we've seen a lot. >> weave been through a lot. you think we're worried about you? yeah, good luck, sir.

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if you look up yellow fever in the merriam webster dictionary it shows words like acute, disease, mosquito, but if you google yellow fever you'll see a different set of words like white male, sexual preference and asian women. that's a big difference. i sat down with film maker debbie love to talk about this phenomenon. your documentary "seeking asian female", what is it like to be in that position? >> i am chinese, that's true. sitting here in this chinese tea house wasn't really my suggestion. >> it wasn't mine either.

i would like to apologize on behalf of "united shades of america ". >> thank you for saying that because i was like, are they trying to provoke a reaction from me? >> no, no. >> oh, don't worry. i fired everybody. everyone my contract said i was allowed to fire. that craft services guy isn't coming back. so, your documentary -- the look on your face is already like, yep. what do you think it is about asian women? what do they see when they exotify asian women? >> i wanted to know the same question. looking at these personal ads looking for asian women exclusively and i asked them that question. >> debbie's film is great. and disturbing. listen to these dudes. >> it's their hair. it's the long, black hair that's eye-catching. >> okay. >> i think they give more consideration to how the man feels than sometimes themselves. >> not okay. >> yeah, they are kind of subtle and kind of quiet. >> really not okay.

>> the whole tng uerneath the eye is just like -- knocks me out. >> somebody needs to get knocked out all right. >> every asian woman i know from my sister to my friends to my aunties and granies, it's something we've had to deal with all of our lives. you grow up in america, there's always this guy who has this thing for asian women. there's actually a study that came out a few years ago by a dating site where they looked at 2.4 million users and found that none of all races prefer asian women except for asian men for some reason. >> that's so complicated. >> it is so complicated. a lot of people go, you should be happy that you are so popular, but it makes you feel kind officy. >> for me it's the difference between attraction and fetishizing, is that what it is? everybody has a type. everyone has something they connect with on a sexual level but it's about what that

connection means and whether or not you let the person's humanity shine through. >> then you have the asian fetish thing going on, it's like, it has to do with the way they look at you. i think it's really not subtle, that stereotype of docile, subservient asian women. >> identify seen the hypersex of the asian female and the desexualization of the asian men. asian men are the lease searched for. i'm like, how do you fix that? somebody's getting left out of this. somebody's going home by themselves. >> i think that's changing. >> i hope so. >> there's a lot of hot asian guys out there. >> i want to be clear. that's not for me. i -- i can thing of many hot asian men, which is weird to say but true. i feel "the fast & furious" franchise alone. asian men are part of that.

one of those guys is in guy, a uc-berkeley law school graduate who works in the san francisco public defender's office and the other time he works in adult films as jeremy long. not his real name. where did he get his name from? one guess. genius. so, in the business, how much is it about the money and how much is it just about the fact that some sort of interesting job to have? >> being able to do porn, you have to be open, you have to knock your [ bleep ], you have to not care what people think about you. i'm thinking about the social impact i'm making. it's not about the money. porno pays -- >> what about the social impact? >> we're dealing with asian male masculinity. its inferiority at a categorical level. >> the ee mask lags of asian men is deeply rooted in our society. a book called "the asian

mystique" suggested it started with the first immigrants who men wore long robes and braids for tradition. that relegated chinese men to what was, quote/unquote, women's work like laundry, cooking and child care. the de-manly fiing of the chinese man in america began. add to that years of media perpetuation and centuries later all asian american men, regardless of their ethnicity, are still being treated as if nobody finds them attractive. even though, again, chinese people are almost 20% of the world's population. that can't happen if nobody's attracted to you. >> my perspective as an asian male and benefiting my people, its kind of like what i consider social guerrilla warfare. something we can use to fight, we can use the power ourselves, but it takes crazy [ bleep ] like me -- >> social guerrilla warfare. you going on film as an asian-american man having sex better than the abilities of

most of us regular walking around dudes proves that asian-american men are not genetically inferior sex objects. >> exactly, exactly. >> when you got into porn were you thinking as an asian-american man in this industry i can do something formy people as a whole? >> growing up as an asian male, i do care about how our people are perceived. if i can make an impact on that in this racist society, you know, i'm going to do my part, whatever i can do, i'm going to do it. i feel scholars write papers, studies, whatnot, but society doesn't care about papers. they want to see our [ bleep ]. that's what matters. >> they want to what? >> they to want see us whip outer our [ bleep ]. that's what makes a difference. >> that's what makes society -- >> that's what makes the impact. >> i want pull down my pants, you should be a comedian. you could be funny. in some sense asian-american men

weren't thought of to be tough or strong or great fighters and bruce lee shows up and lays waste to everybody. you're doing that on the sexual level. >> yeah. >> you're the porno bruce lee. >> that's an honor. >> i'm just trying to call it out there. thank you for talking to me today. i learned a lot. the other thing i appreciate about you is that you dropped the-q the "f" bomb 25 times and once you apologized. we'll figure it out. >> yeah, make a social impact with your penis, yeah! social impact the film i'm co-writing with jeremy long. my part is this, i'll leave you to it. uiet chatter) (soft gasp) (record scratching) ( ♪ ) (excited chatter) ( ♪ ) various: whoa!

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usually on my shows the producers have me try something i've never heard of and/or something i don't to want do. today i get to try something everyone's heard of and i would do every day if i could. i get to eat chinese food. there are over 45,000 chinese restaurants in the united states. that's more than all the mcdonald's, kfcs, pizza huts, and wendy's combined. and san francisco's house of nan king is one of the best. two-time chop winner kathy fong

will teach had me how to walk the wok. word play. >> i got a little something for you. just so you feel like you're one of the pros. >> excellent, excellent. yes, yes. oh, and in my size, too. >> yeah. >> you probably had to special order this. >> xx small, right? >> yes. i grew up on chinese food. why is it so popular? >> mostly because it's comfort food. kind of like soul food. we have things that are sweet, things that are spicy. it's full of flavor. >> do you remember a time in america where chinese food wasn't as popular as it is now? >> chinese food was narrow. a few things people knew about. immigrants came from all over china, different parts, so they bring their own different things. now people accepting the chinese food a lot more than that. >> so, we are going to actually

show you how to make pan-fried noodles. >> all right! >> let's pick up ground pork. it's the chinese version of chicken. we'll add a little salt. that's a lot. soy sauce. >> how mu >> a full spn. stir that up. >> lost a piece. in my kitchen i go get that and put it back in here but i don't want you to lose your license. >> chinese noodles. >> two minutes. >> two minutes, sflael i'm always overcooking my noodles. >> he'll fry that up. >> how can we make this more delicious? oil and heat. whoa! eyebrows will grow back, right? >> they will. >> okay, good. this is our version of the pan-fried noodles. >> man. that's a lot of deliciousness and architectural glory. mm. i could eat that every day.

>> i can tell you like shrimp. >> wow. >> i'm no dummy. >> it's hot. >> when i was a kid, i think all i knew was the barbecue spare ribs, chicken chow mein and pooh pooh platter. >> pooh pooh platter? >> i know more than you do? >> i have something to learn. >> i think it's an east coast thing maybe. and also does your kid pooh pooh. i'm betting a lot of chinese-americans know about pooh pooh platter. it's not authentic. it was invented in china. one, initially chinese chefs had limited access to traditional chinese ingredients. two, in order to get more of that finicky tourist dollars, these restaurants began catering palate. ery basic american >> chinese food is so broad. american-chinese food is one segment of it. it's more approachable.

>> thank you for this wonderful lesson in chinese food. and now i'm taking this with me. i'll send the plate back. seriously, i ate that food for the next two days. ♪ according to some liberal rag called the harvard business review, immigrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs than american born citizens. one is stanley lo with sales over $4 billion since 1986. stanley has built an empire that features some of the most coveted properties in northern california and he serves both domestic and international clients. today we go onto the grounds of his one-of-a-kind estates to meet the man behind the mailbox brochure. stanley's hair is way more impressive than mine. i've never been in a house like

this. when you moved, were you well off? >> no. when i come here, i have -- almost have no money. 100 bucks in the pocket. i come for school. when i landing. i even arrive in the wrong airport, i go to seattle. i was supposed to go to -- we don't know. we don't understand. suddenly somebody tell me to take a greyhound to san francisco, there's more chinese here. so i did it. then i started in san jose in electrical engineer. >> did you work in electrical engineer? >> not one day. >> what happened? >> when i was in school i was already starting to learn how to do real estate. i just have a passion for it. >> your whole life would be different if you ended up in kansas. >> yeah. people tell me it's very windy there. i was kind of scared. >> and not a lot of chinese people. >> no. >> wow. this is a lot to take in. so, what does it feel like to have come here from taiwan with $100 in your pocket and end up

in a house like this? >> well, it's the american dream. >> yeah. >> yeah. when i come to this country, i live in the san francisco, very, very tough area. and i made up my mind, i have to work hard and then my career built up. i work 18 hours a day. >> 18 hours a day. >> yes. nighttime always people start calling me, right? >> now i'm understanding, am i right, that some chinese people who have money are actually creating new communities in places like this, right? >> yes. there's a lot of successful chinese overseas, they start moving to the bay area because, you know, it's -- the schools are better, the environment is better. >> and it's not just the bay area. it's happening across the nation. after the 2007-208 housing crash, wealthy chinese nationals began buying up u.s. property in large numbers, spending almost $28 billion just last year. quite often purchases are made as an opportunity to provide

their children with housing to live in while they go to school. and many of these are cash offers bought sight unseen. the only thing i've ever been sight unseen was a 12-pack of black afro picks. went surprisingly well. >> this is the land of opportunity. i just never stop my dream. i keep growing my dream. >> part of your dream was this guy here? >> you only live once. you want to enjoy to the maximum. >> this seems like the maximum. so, clearly this house has got everything you would want and more. its got this. that's definitely more than i need. but there's only one thing in this house that i want to take with me. follow me. it's an automatic toilet. ♪ oh, my god, the seat is warm! whoooo.

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most americans are familiar with the term a littlternative medicine. because i'm in san francisco, let me be clear, i'm not talking about that alternative medicine. although i do enjoy the grateful dead. while alternative medicine has increased in popularity over the

last decades, chinese have been using the same methods for thousands of years. they just call it medicine. i went to the wellness center to meet with dr. chan and see if she could help me learn something new about my body. what does that mean? >> it means field of medicine. so, it refers to the fact that inside our body we have this capacity to cultivate health. >> one of the main concepts of chinese medicine is chi, or energy. it flows through body pathways called meridians that correspond to each organ. acupuncture, tai chi restore the body to balance. >> california was the first state to actually legalize chinese medicine and acupuncture as a medicine. >> are you heritage chinese? >> i'm from hong kong. >> oh, you're from hong kong.

when did you move here? >> my family moved to the united states when i was about 11. i always wanted to be a chinese healer. you know, i would see all those martial arts movies and get excited about it. one time my dad had bad back pain and in one session this chinese master used his energy and healed in one session. >> really? >> as a child, what's more cool than that? >> when you say emitted energy, do you literally mean energy came out of his hands? >> uh-huh. >> that's a real thing, that can happen? believe me, i'm not -- i want to believe. i like to believe. i'd like to believe in things like that. >> its not a believing thing anymore. now we have scientific instruments to measure electromagnetic fields emanated from people's hands. >> can you do that? >> some. i can't call myself a master because there are some in their 80s and working on it their whole lives. chinese medicine hey a huge, long history, many thousands of years that chinese medicine has

evolved through. what would you like to work on? >> i have back pain. i have bad ankles. i'm too big and not built for this world, and my back, my neck, i travel a lot. i mean, other than that, just always tired because i have a 2-year-old and i travel a lot and a 5-year-old and i don't get enough sleep but i don't think you can replace the lack of sleep i'm getting. i know if i would get more sleep i'd feel better but i cink drink a lot of coffees and red bulls and not enough water. i'm not a good policy. i'm following into a shame spiral. >> okay. we'll do some work and see if it is better. >> now that i'm done feeling sorry for myself, the real work can begin. >> when you bend down, touch your toes, what happens? >> i used to be able to do this. >> that's right, america, i w. kamau bell, cannot touch my toes. the shame spiral continues. oh, this feels weird.

i never felt this kind of massage before. >> so, what i'm doing is push and grasp. >> yep, that's it, right there. yep. >> so, i'd like to do some cupping. have you ever tried cupping before? >> no. >> what do you know about it? >> i know that it's what's responsible for michael phelps being such a great swimmer. >> yeah. would you like a little michael phelps in my life. that sounds weird. >> this allows us to create a better suction. >> oh, this feels weird. cupping is an ancient chinese massage therapy technique. it's thought to enhance circulation, reduce muscle pain and pull out toxins. it makes it look like dr. edith is trying to milk my back fat. it feels like a bunch of animals are biting my back. >> chinese abuse.

i'm going to take t off and inspect the bruising marks. if there are darker spots, that really tells where the tissue is more injured, then we'll see how you feel. so standing right now, let's see what happens. wow, look at that. >> i haven't been able to do this since i was 14 years old. yes, the chi is flowing. thank you, thank you. this is really good. ♪ naturally hardwood smoked. 100% premium pork. no fillers. period. i'm nick, that's my brother brett and we're proud to say it's made the johnsonville way. [ barks ] radio: scorching heat today, staywalter!ut there! stop suffering with hot ac. cool it yourself with a/c pro. in just 3 easy steps, enjoy the comfort of 2 times the cooling boosters from the #1 selling coldest air. nothing cools like a/c pro. are upgrading their water filter to zerowater.

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when i was 13, i discovered the film "enter the dragon," and my life was never the same. bruce lee was my hero still is. i bought all his movies on vhs, hung his posters on my wall. i would take the bus across the city of chicago to study kung fu, his original style. i even created a petition in high school to get bruce lee a star on the hollywood walk of fame. i think i got four names but every bit helps. he's got one. some may say i'm a total geek and maybe i was, but bruce lee's philosophies help guide me and shape me into the person i am today. it's that courage i'm trying to summon up now for when i come face-to-face with his daughter, shannon lee. it's like having an audience

with the queen. i've been a big fan of your dad for a long time, which you know, because i've been annoying about it. because i'm the biggest bruce lee fan. i know the other people say that, but i actually am. >> no, i actually am. >> checkmate. >> exactly. >> yes. touche. point shannon. so in america, you can't talk about the chinese american experience without talking about your father. he was born in san francisco. >> that's right. >> america's first chinatown. then when he left hong kong -- i'm telling you like you don't know. >> tell me, please. >> what's this? what are you saying? >> kamau feels awkward. next on "united shades of america." even if you just want to talk about chinatown in san francisco, your dad comes up. if you want to talk about the chinese american experience, your dad comes up. if you want to talk about asians in the entertainment industry, your dad comes up. you want to talk martial arts.

in a very short amount of time he got into a lot of places. >> he did. >> there's a lot of people that made martial arts movies but no one has broken through as a cultural icon like your dad d if you're asking me, aside from the fact that he's extremely skilled as a martial artt and knewow to entertain and thas all very cool, but there's an energy about him tt it makes you sort of sit forward a little bit. >> yeah. absolutely. >> you know, my father, and this is something i always want to really have people understand, he worked really hard. i mean, this was a goal of his, which is why he chose the medium of film and television because it can reach more people, and he wanted to share his philosophy and have them see the real sort of picture of a real asian man, a strong asian man in the media. when you come into the archive and you see like all these writings and all this stuff, it's like the output of a person who lived to be 85 or something.

>> yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> but he died at 32. >> in the same way the beatles in music. we'll always be dealing with the beatles. the your dad have any sense of that talking to your mom? >> gosh, you can hear him say, i've already made up my mind. that's something of the true -- now he used the word oriental. but it was the '70s. >> nobody says that anymore. >> i know. >> in the past. >> exactly. but something of the true oriental is going to be shown in the world because it's still bad now, but back then it was really bad, you know. and so he had that big goal. whether he ever thought, you know, what exactly that -- you know, he flowed like water. so he was probably just like, hey, man, howevert turns out. this is what i'm working on and ll just keep adding in that direction. >> because like a lot of ethnic cultures are based on tradition and your dad comes through to

sort of disrupt the traditions. >> yeah, yeah, definitely. i think he really helped change the perception toward chinese men, toward asian men. for asian men in particular, i say, i think they were sort of like, yes. yes, yes, yes! >> you and me. you see somebody else do something, then you can reconceive what you can do. >> exactly. >> by the same token, i have to understand that this is your dad. >> yeah. you know, the relationship i had, the feeling that i have for him as my father is mine and mine alone. and it feeds me to this day. and then i'm proud to be able to care for his legacy and keep it alive in the world because it's worth doing. >> and it's certainly, like i said, as you know, it's an essential part of the chinese american experience. if you are going to go down, if the chinese american land, you got to go down bruce lee alley at some point. can we be friends now? >> yes, we're friends.

>> yea! >> you can text me your cell phone number. >> that would be amazing. i'm excited. i'm not really kidding. i'm excited. >> i'm not kidding either. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, no. >> you made me feel like i'm 14 again. >> that's awesome. >> let's be honest, talking to shannon is all i really wanted when i start this episode. i got that and more. because as much as you want to make chinatown foreign, it's very much american because it's one of the things that defines this country. the people who live there aren't living a chinese experience in america, they're living an american experience because america isn't just one thing. it's lots of people with their own ingredients who show up here and mix those ingredients up into something new. chinese americans know that better than anybody. my favorite bruce lee quote is absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own. got it?

okay. now i'm going to go text shannon. ♪ who here has been to appalachia or from appalachia? let's see. i feel like people didn't clap. they just put their hands up. i don't want everybody to know. appalachia has a stigma on it. it's a very poor area of the country. it's also -- it's like the poorest white area in the country. in appalachia, not only is it poor, it's also in a very remote part of the country that it's hard to get to and isolated because it's in the mountains, which basically makes it the only poor neighborhood in america to never get gentrified. not enough subway trains go there. they will be poor forever because it's like they can't get there. does that make