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Lily Kim | Daughters of the East | Asian American Culture

@daughtersoftheeast

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Asian American culture, fashion & music.
🏮 Beauty = inherited ➡️ culture.
🙋🏻‍♀️ 🇨🇳🇻🇳🇺🇸 Corporate Girlie
👘 Qipao Cheongsam for modern day

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The Kpop Economy is taking over Hollywood.
🇰🇷🎥🎼

Who else is watching and who do you have money on? 👀 taken in Koreatown, Los Angeles by @daughtersoftheeast

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4 months ago

This week, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be American. 🇺🇸

For some Asian Americans, we live in the tension of being both. Too foreign to fully belong in the country we were born in. Too American to live in the country people tell us to go home to. 💔

This tension has existed since the beginning of our history in America when Chinese immigrants first arrived in California. (Gold Rush, 1848).

Less than a couple decades later, we were indispensable, serving as the primary labor that built the railroads that physically stitched this country together. (1860’s). In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act became the first U.S. law to ban immigration by nationality. but what we carried here had already taken root. 🛤️

We spoke our language at night, cooked our food from home, and lit incense for ancestors thousands of miles away. 📿

And by 1930, our ancestors had built Chinatowns in cities coast to coast, small but meaningful worlds where future generations like me could begin to understand a home we had never lived in.

And along the way, America and home stopped being two different places.

Maybe being American isn’t something we are, but something we’re becoming. And part of that becoming is building ourselves into the “more perfect union” we want to live in.

That’s why wearing a qipao to celebrate Independence Day feels right.

Belonging happens when we carry our culture into the country we call home. 🏠❤️🇺🇸

What does it mean to be American? taken in Portland, Oregon by @daughtersoftheeast

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3 months ago

Love seeing that people are adopting our beloved #qipao into their wardrobe, but why does it hurt sometimes?

I’m optimistic about appreciation vs the #appropriation but the hardest part about cultural appreciation isn’t the appreciation itself.

Sometimes for me it’s remembering that some of the things being celebrated today are the same things many of us once learned to hide.

I hope there’s space to understand that feeling.

Curious if there are strong feelings out there bout this. Was this cultural appreciation or #culturalappropriation? Why?

Send this to someone who needs to see it. taken in Seattle Chinatown-International District by @daughtersoftheeast

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4 months ago

Who knows what’s next for #ChinaMaxxing ?

Excited to see the culture spread but selfishly I hate wait longer in line for #dintaifung and #xiaolongbao

🥟🥟🥟

If China’s #softpower grows in the West, what becomes America’s newest obsession? 🥟🐼🥢🧆🍲🍤🍧🍡 taken in San Francisco, California by @daughtersoftheeast

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2 months ago

We went from #Chinavirus to #Chinamaxxing across to Trump presidencies.

Love it or hate it, let’s unpack the journey from #kungflu to #rednote and the TikTok Ban to stopAAPIhate to the Chinese spy balloon.

What did I miss? taken in San Francisco, California by @daughtersoftheeast

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2 months ago

#BTS spent years proving Korean-language music belongs on the world’s biggest stage.

Now they’re addressing a bigger question:

When Asian artists have already become global, should they still be recognized separately?

It’s having the power to help redefine what recognition itself should look like. I don’t think this is about good or bad intentions from the Grammys. It’s what happens when culture moves faster than the institutions built to recognize it.

Maybe the biggest sign of BTS’s influence isn’t another award..

So, you watching the Grammy’s? taken in Wailuku, Hawaii by @daughtersoftheeast

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2 months ago

For years, every successful Asian artist was compared to a Western one. The Chinese Bieber. The Asian Taylor Swift.

Maybe that was necessary once. But I don’t think that’s the story anymore.

@ykaizzk didn’t succeed by becoming more Western. He won by being himself and finding the audience meant for him on Timtok and Instagram.

And maybe that’s the bigger cultural shift. For decades, influence flowed West to East.

Asian artists aren’t just crossing over. Maybe the West is finally coming around.

How’s crossing over? by @daughtersoftheeast

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2 months ago

Why does the West see our #Qipao as fashion, but not as generations of wisdom and history.

I spent a year sabbatical in Asia and stumbled on learning about my culture and how the Qipao helps carry our culture forward. 🏮🏮🏮

I’m excited to be sharing what I learned while making these and giving away these Qipaos to the community over the next several posts. 🤳

I can’t wait to share the journey with you. ❤️

#chinamaxxing #qipao #asianamerican #giveaway taken in Los Angeles by @daughtersoftheeast

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2 months ago

ChinaVirus to Chinamaxxing Ep 6 - Gardens ⛲️

The West and the East take different approaches in the expression of beauty through #gardens.

Western Gardens often express order through symmetry, straight lines, and nature shaped by human design and control.

Eastern Gardens take a different app approach. They use winding paths, framed views, water rocks and hidden spaces to reveal nature slowly one seeks control the other might invite discovery. #chinamaxxing #bridgerton #yerinha #sophiebaek

Which garden 🌿⛲️ philosophy speaks to you more? taken in Portland, Oregon by @daughtersoftheeast

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3 months ago

ChinaVirus to Chinamaxxing Ep. 5 - Qipaos

From #ChunLi to fast fashion, the #qipao is globally recognizable again, it has a long history of evolution to symbolize revolution. But as the Chinese diaspora and #ChineseAmericans reclaim it, a bigger question emerges for culture. 👘🥻💃🏻👗

Is it acceptable for non-Chinese people to wear a Qipao and when is it acceptable for anyone to wear a Qipao?

#verychinesetimeinmylife #chinamaxxing taken in Portland, Oregon by @daughtersoftheeast

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3 months ago

Chinavirus to Chinamaxxing Ep 4. - Dragons🐉🐲

From #gameofthrones and #lordoftherings , Western stories often portray dragons as fire-breathing weapons: creatures tied to conquest, destruction, and power over others. @houseofthedragonhbo continues that tradition, using dragons as instruments in a violent struggle for the throne.

In Eastern tradition, dragons are more often connected to water, rain, wisdom, prosperity, and harmony with nature. Think @dragonballsuper @dragonballanimeofficial .

One tradition imagines power as something to command. The other imagines it as something to move with.

Same mythical creature. Two different philosophies of power.

Who does it better? taken in Portland, Oregon by @daughtersoftheeast

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3 months ago

What’s happening to training in the West that inspires athletes to go East? Is it #DragonballZ ?

Imagine being a 7‘3“ @nba superstar and during your off-season going full #chinamaxxing to become a #shaolin monk. 🐉🥋

That’s what @wemby is doing to master his mind body and spirit connection. 🏀

Often the West reduces Asian martial arts to combat sports. Whereas in the East, #kungfu and wushu is a way of life that involves the #martialart aspect of combat, but also the philosophy of living and a way to achieve peace. 🧘🏻‍♂️📿

What inspired Wemby to train in the East? 🐲 taken in Chinatown, Los Angeles by @daughtersoftheeast

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3 months ago