ABOUT THE STUDY
The Asian American Man Study is the first and only annual survey of American men of East, Southeast, and South Asian descent. Since our debut in Fall 2015, our findings have reached more than 100,000 people and have been featured in major news outlets like The Atlantic, NBC Asian America, and Fast Company. We share our research freely to inform the public and ourselves about who we are and to contribute to the important national conversation about race, gender, and justice in this country.
Media Coverage
- HuffPo - The Radical Way Bruce Lee Defined Asian Masculinity (July 2019)
- Fast Company - Asian Americans on Being Likable in the Modern Workplace (July 2018)
- Quartz — Tinder has Pulled a Video Clip that Some Asian Men Say Makes Them Appear Undateable (August 2017)
- Sino Vision — The Asian American Man Study (August 2017)
- ATTN — Former 'The Walking Dead' Star Get's Real About Being The 'American Version' of Asian (July 2017)
- AsAmNews — Overwhelming Majority of Asian American Men Surveyed Say They’ve Been Harassed (May 2017)
- Sweet and Sour Podcast — Eat Bitter (May 2017)
- The PG Podcast — Episode 24 — Jason Shen and the Asian American Man Study (March 2017)
- NBC Asian America — Where Do Stereotypes of Asian American Men Come From? (Sept 2016)
- The Atlantic — Asian Americans Feel Held Back at Work by Stereotypes (Jan 2016)
ABOUT US
Jason Shen — Principal Investigator
Jason is a first-generation Asian American and CEO of Midgame, a voice assistant for gamers. Born in Suzhou, China, Jason moved to the US when he was 3, growing up in a suburb of Boston before attending Stanford. After nearly a decade in the SF Bay Area, he moved back east and resides in Brooklyn, NY. Jason's Asian American Man story: "Up through my mid-twenties, I didn't spend much time thinking about how my race/ethnicity affected the way others perceived me or interacted with me. I had close friends who were Asian and those who were not. But over time, through conversations with many Asian American men, I've come to realize that our ethnicity cannot be ignored. And running this study is one small way I hope to add to the conversation on race in this country." |
Alan Yang — Research Fellow
Alan is a second-generation Asian American and an undergraduate at Harvard University. He grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Alan's Asian American Man story: "During my high school and college years, I became increasingly aware of my identity as an Asian-American and how it intersected and interfaced with other people's identities. I wanted to encourage conversations about the experiences of Asian-Americans both within the Asian-American community and across the country at large. I met Jason and was fascinated by the Asian American Man Study he was spearheading. By collaborating with Jason, I hope to shine a light on issues facing Asian-American men. |
THE HISTORY OF THE STUDY
In the fall of 2015, Jason was walking through Union Square in Manhattan with his friend Shiyin, then a medical resident at a major hospital in New York City. They were discussing our experiences living, dating, and working as Asian American men and they wondered how lives compared to our peers. In that moment, they realized that despite living our whole lives as Asian American men, they didn't have a good understanding of what Asian American men face in this country.
Jason realized that needed data. He had never seen any kind of survey that focused on Asian American men. So he put together a simple 28 question survey and asked for help on Twitter.
It spread naturally over Facebook, Twitter, even Reddit, reaching hundreds of responses from Asian American men in just a few weeks. He crunched the numbers and wrote up the results a few months later on Medium. The findings were read by over 55,000 people in just 48 hours and earned coverage on Atlantic.com and NBC's Asian America.
Perhaps more important than the media coverage was the response from men themselves, saying things like: |
I think this is a relevant survey and all Asian American men need to start fighting for more accurate representation.
I have never taken a survey regarding this subject before, it was intriguing
Thanks for collecting data on an oft-overlooked group.
These responses indicate that there has been too little attention paid to the concerns of Asian American men, something this annual study can help address.
In 2017, Alan Yang joined the team as a research fellow to help further this work as the team launches the 3rd edition of the study.
In 2017, Alan Yang joined the team as a research fellow to help further this work as the team launches the 3rd edition of the study.