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Dec 11, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Ronak G. Gandhi |Pearl Zhou
It’s that time of year when folks across North America curl up under a blanket to watch a holiday movie. For Asian families like ours, these movies—while a staple during the season—can feel a bit distant from our own holiday traditions and experiences. Instead, here’s a list of heart-warming Christmas movies that hit a bit closer to home. These AAPI Christmas movies (and one TV series) feature Asian leads and themes are a must watch this winter.
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Dec 5, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Ronak G. Gandhi |Jeevan Sangha
In my childhood home, we keep an alphabetized cabinet of old DVDs. In picking a family holiday movie to watch with growing up, I often passed over Bend It Like Beckham (2002) lingering in the early B’s. I made up some narrative in my head about the DVD being a gift from a family friend with misplaced kindness (“oh I saw this movie about a Punjabi girl and thought you’d love it”), so I strayed from watching it. This November, I gave it a try.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Ronak G. Gandhi |Jeevan Sangha
Warning: spoilers ahead. Nimona, the animated feature set in a seemingly post-racial world, uses race-bending as it weaves a tale of the unlikely friendship between a shapeshifting teen outcast from society and a brooding knight framed for murder. The film deftly twists familiar threads found in the original 2015 graphic novel by ND Stevenson to show a world devoid of racial strife.
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Oct 27, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Ronak G. Gandhi |Jeevan Sangha
I’m not a big scary movie person. There’s something about intentionally instilling fear in myself for Halloween that doesn’t compute with me, but I still sincerely tried to get behind them this Halloween season. With the recent rise in the Asian diaspora on screen, seeing Asian American creatives break into a space not dominated by identity-driven stories was gratifying. It’s good to see Asian Americans play characters that don’t centre on some (often overdone) aspect of their identity.
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Oct 25, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Ronak G. Gandhi |Natasha Jung |Deloitte Canada |Chinese Association
Fifty years ago, legendary martial artist and actor Bruce Lee passed away unexpectedly. To commemorate the anniversary of his death, Cold Tea Collective’s Natasha Jung sat down with Shannon Lee, his daughter, to talk about the legacy that the Asian American icon left behind. Her reflections on her father’s work and how his image continues to inspire touches upon themes of what it means to be a steward to someone else’s legacy while also trying to create your own impact.
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Oct 18, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Ronak G. Gandhi |Evan-Thomas May |Cecilia Huang |Pearl Zhou
This month marks a year since I started writing for Cold Tea Collective. I often find myself reflecting on anniversaries—large and small—so I spent some time thinking about why I decided to write here to begin with and our relationship is going (spoiler: I’m sticking around). When I was sixteen, I started consuming online news much like I did dino nuggets at age six. This mostly was before paywalls when ad blocker extensions and incognito mode would do the trick.
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Sep 30, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Pearl Zhou |Patrick Armstrong |Ronak G. Gandhi |Natasha Jung
Growing up in the Asian diaspora, my family never really celebrated Western holidays. We would get together to have a meal, but the sentiments of Christmas or Thanksgiving were never meaningful to me. Instead, for my family, my parents made an effort to celebrate a handful of holidays.
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Sep 29, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Evan-Thomas May |Ronak G. Gandhi |Samson Chan |Natasha Jung
Akatsuki Japan is realizing my basketball dream as a Japanese American. I’ve always wanted to play basketball competitively. However, I am all but destined for a career in the Sunday night leagues. Luckily for me though, I get to vicariously live out my dreams each year during the NBA season. This past summer brought a bit of an early treat for a basketball aficionado like myself.
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Aug 22, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Patrick Armstrong |Ronak G. Gandhi |Pearl Zhou
On the latest episode of Conversation Piece with Patrick Armstong, adoptee influencer and educator Taylor Shennett joins the podcast. Adopted from Hunan, China at nine months old, Shennet began creating adoption related content in 2012. Hear what Shennett has to say about having more empathy in the adoptee community and how empathy offered her a different perspective on birth parents.
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Aug 17, 2023 | 
coldteacollective.com | Natasha Jung |Laura Sirikul |Ronak G. Gandhi |Pearl Zhou
Cold Tea Collective recently traveled to Los Angeles to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Head in the Clouds Music Festival by 88Rising (HiTC), courtesy of our friends at Honda. It was an amazing celebration of global Asian music artists that gave me all the feels. As someone on the older end of the millennial age range, I grew up in the era of bleach blonde, spikey haired boy bands and girl groups whose stockings were knee-high.
