Samantha Pak

Seattle

Writer and Editor at JoySauce

I tell people what to read on @nwasianweekly and write/edit for @joysauce_. I also dance, paddleboard and go upside down. A lot. I’m a complex creature.

Articles

‘Elio’ star Yonas Kibreab is not afraid to be himself

1 week ago | joysauce.com | Samantha Pak

What would happen if the world’s weirdest kid was accidentally abducted by aliens and mistaken as the leader of Earth? This is exactly what happens in Disney and Pixar’s latest film, Elio. Directed by Adrian Molina, Domee Shi, and Madeline Sharafian, the film follows 11-year-old Elio Solis, who becomes the intergalactic ambassador for Earth after he’s beamed up to the Communiverse by aliens for making contact (to be fair, he was asking to be abducted).
Kevin Kwan Isn’t Making This Up

1 week ago | seattlemag.com | Samantha Pak

When Kevin Kwan made his literary debut with Crazy Rich Asians in 2013, he introduced readers to the world of — as the title implies — crazy rich Asians. While it may not have been the first book to tell a story about the Asian diaspora that wasn’t rooted in trauma, it was the first to have mainstream success.
Kevin Kwan’s latest books reflect how ‘wealth culture has exponentialized’

1 week ago | joysauce.com | Samantha Pak

When Kevin Kwan made his literary debut with Crazy Rich Asians in 2013, he introduced readers to the world of—as the title implies—crazy rich Asians.
Kevin Kwan’s latest books reflect how ‘wealth culture has exponentialized’

1 week ago | flipboard.com | Samantha Pak

1 day agoPresident Trump’s first term gave us the “China Initiative,” a government program intended to root out Chinese espionage. The result was ethnic profiling of Chinese and Asian American researchers, flimsy cases that were eventually dropped and no prosecutions of scholars for spying or theft of …
Ana Huang on why murder is okay in romance, but cheating is not

2 weeks ago | joysauce.com | Samantha Pak

SP: What is it like to write those more violent moments in your books? AH: I don't know what this says about me, but I don't really have to get into a different kind of head space. [Laughs.] I think for me, it's because—and it's taken me a while to get to this point—it's a fantasy. I actually really love writing unhinged characters, because I can really go all out with them.
Ming-Na Wen brings nuance to the Asian mom in ‘Karate Kid: Legends’

4 weeks ago | joysauce.com | Samantha Pak

When asked what it’s like to now be playing the Asian mom in a film, Wen says she’s had 24 years of real-life experience being a mom, so playing the role was second nature to her. This being said, she was very concerned at the beginning of the project about how Dr. Fong was going to be portrayed—whether she was going to be stereotypically stoic or a tiger mom. She wanted to make sure they cast a different light on the Asian mom.
I love my body now, but that doesn’t erase my insecurities

1 month ago | joysauce.com | Samantha Pak

I spoke to Chan earlier this week and asked her why she decided to share those photos and that message. She tells me, “because that's the reality.” It seems simple enough, but I found Chan’s words particularly powerful because as most human beings can relate, I have had my share of body image struggles.
'Worth the Wait’ brings an all-Asian cast to the ensemble rom-com

1 month ago | joysauce.com | Samantha Pak

“That's actually what drew me to it initially,” Whitney tells me when I compare Worth the Wait with the 2003 British holiday film. “I remember Dan (Mark) and Rachel (Tan), our producers, who this is actually based off of their love story, that was how they were pitching it to people.
Randy Ribay on generational healing and dismantling the patriarchy

1 month ago | joysauce.com | Samantha Pak

One sign of a good book for me is if it can make you laugh out loud, or make you cry. When I read Randy Ribay’s young adult novel Everything We Never Had, it was the latter. The story follows the Maghabol boys over four generations—from Francisco arriving as a young man from the Philippines in Watsonville, California in the late 1920s, to a teenaged Enzo in 2020 Philadelphia trying to survive the Covid-19 pandemic.
Why author Carolyn Huynh loves writing messy and unhinged Asian women

2 months ago | joysauce.com | Samantha Pak

As a reader, I love a good confrontation scene. When characters spend so much time estranged from loved ones, pushing down their feelings and pretending to be okay, or keeping secrets or trying to uncover them, I look forward to the moment when it all comes to a head. One of my favorite confrontation scenes is from The Fortunes of Jaded Women (2022) by Carolyn Huynh.