- Hey, you did a really good job.
Do you boil your cup ramens, like,
a little bit more chewy-ish
or do you want them more...
- Chewy, definitely chewier.
- Thank you!
Team chewy!
Whoever gets soggy noodles, you guys are nuts!
- [Evan] Yeah.
- (gagging)
(light music)
- Hey guys, I'm Evan.
Today, I'm here with Amber Liu here.
- Hi guys, my name is Amber.
I am in a group called f(x),
and I also do my own stuff on the side.
- She's gonna be answering some
fan questions that we hand-picked.
And what better way to make this video lit,
than the lit ramen itself?
- Oh, God.
- Fire Noodle.
- I kinda regret coming now.
- I'm confident I can be unphased.
I'm pretty good with spicy food.
- The situation after the filming is always really bad.
Hi, be good to me please.
- I'm gonna read it, as how it was written, okay?
- Yes, okay okay.
- What keeps you motivated?
Because, girl, I have a hard time even getting
up in the morning.
- So I'm from the Valley, you have to use the hand motion.
- Girl. - Girl.
- I get bored really easily, so I just need to, like,
do something, see even right now I'm, like,
my knee's going.
I think I just wanna challenge myself
and just kinda learn as much as I can.
How do you make this ramen?
Let's look at the ingredients.
You know, just something small, and, like a squirrel!
- Oh, like a squirrel!
- Like a squirrel.
- Like a squirrel, you're like, hi.
- Oh, so you're always questioning everything in the world.
- Curious George is my spirit animal.
(conversation in Chinese)
And I kind of wanted my dog to be like,
kinda like trilingual.
So I wanted him to understand...
- Trilingual!
That's a lot of training for a dog!
- Hey, my dog's gonna be the smartest dog out there.
- Do you think it's harder or easier for K-pop stars
to have a connection to their fans
compared to Western artists?
- Pretty much similar here, you just do fan greets,
and little handshake events, and high-five events.
In Korea, when we were promoting full-on,
we see our fans, like, every day and at multiple events
'cause they follow us to the next event.
'Cause everything is pretty local.
I think it's how much you wanna be connected to your fans,
is I think the question.
People on the streets, when they see me,
I'm just, I'm taking pictures with them and stuff,
so it's fun.
- For you, you're very open-minded.
You are what you're like behind the camera
in front of the camera,
so you're really good at letting your...
- (exhales) Sorry.
(laughter)
This is not going away.
I'm trying to keep it down, but I'm just like...
- You're getting a little sweaty.
- Does Mike Wazowski wink or blink?
- Okay, so he has one eye,
and you technically wink with one eye.
That would be winking to us,
'cause we have two eyes, that's our standard.
- But then, that's the only eye he has,
so if he's closing that...
- So he's also blinking.
- Yeah.
(clears throat)
Does he wink or blink?
Please comment below.
Bwinks.
- Bwinks.
- Are you close with any NCT members?
- I actually adopted Ten, the member Ten.
He's my son, he's my child, you know.
- Your child.
- And you need to take care of him...
- He's your soul-
- My soul child.
- (talks in Chinese)
- Wait, there are 18 members, right? Sorry.
- There's 18 members?!
- Yeah, I think there's, like, 18 members.
- Wow.
- I understand now when I was promoting,
when all our seniors would say, like,
"Oh, what's your name?"
I'm kinda, like, at that stage now.
- So you understand.
- I kinda understand now, so no,
- No hard feelings.
- no hard feelings to NCT,
I'm sorry, I would like to know all your names,
I see you guys, you guys are working really hard,
you guys are doing your thing.
- But Ten.
- Ten, you are my child. Ten.
- What has been the hardest challenge so far
in juggling between being a K-pop star
and also keeping yourself grounded?
How do you cope with both mental and physical health stress?
- I like my job, I like what I do,
and I think when I'm really really immersed in it,
you just kinda forget everything around you,
so it's always good to remember to get up,
walk around, eat something.
Mental health is a very, very big part of life.
I think people don't tend to think about
definitely taking the time out to have some alone time,
and also sharing your problems and
being able to talk about it, be vulnerable to,
I guess, people around you.
I think people are sometimes scared to share because
they don't want to be judged.
- And you do have a lot of supportive people in your life.
- Yes, yes.
- That's great.
Who's your personal hero?
- My sister.
Jackie is the complete opposite of me, and I look up to her.
- I feel like you guys are,
you guys have similar personalities.
You guys are both outgoing, both really friendly.
- She made me become outgoing.
My sister's really taught me how to be in touch with
my emotions and making sure
having emotions is not something to be ashamed of.
- How do you think male K-pop idols
feel about doing so much skinship
since there's so much fragile masculinity in the States?
And masculinity is important to men.
- Masculinity and femininity are on a spectrum.
You can be any part on that spectrum.
Honestly, if you're close to that person and
they consent to that touching, go ahead.
- Yeah.
I'm very touchy with my bros.
I'm really touchy.
- With girls, too, girls link arms all the time.
I'm so scared of linking arms.
I do not consent to people linking arms with me.
There's only, like, a couple people that I got used to it.
Krystal is one of them, my member.
Oh my gosh, when she links arms, I'm just like
(grunts)
- But you guys have been together for nine years.
- I don't know, it's just, like,
you're in my armpit area, and it's just like...
(laughter)
- Armpit area!
So when you see Amber next time, link your arm.
(laughs)
Just link.
- What was it like in the Korean music industry,
being a female idol, to not prescribe
to "typical" gender roles and beauty standards?
What types of criticism and support did you experience?
- (clears throat)
Sorry, wow.
This is still burning hot, god, this doesn't go away.
- You're just refusing to drink that water.
- Oh.
(laughter)
Because K-pop has now become so international,
once you kinda put yourself out there,
you're prone to just getting criticism.
Definitely, there's a huge amount of support,
but definitely on the uglier side,
something so simple as, like, if I wanted to go work out,
like, "oh my gosh, a girl, you can't have muscles".
Things like that happens every day and
it's something that I've gotten used to.
Hopefully through what I do,
I can slowly open someone else's mind.
Girls, if you wanna go work out, go work out,
go get those muscles.
When I see comments on my Instagram and
on my social media, they're always just like,
"thank you so much for representing the tomboy crew".
I appreciate all that support.
- How do you find out you were allergic to mangoes?
You're allergic to mangoes!?
- Yes.
- (groans) Oh my god, Amber, no.
- So I can eat mangoes, I just can't touch it.
- What?
- Yeah.
Literally if I have a mango and I wanna eat it,
I have to wear gloves so that the juice doesn't
touch my skin.
I remember one time I was eating a mango,
and I went like this.
- With the juice.
And my ear got a rash.
I can eat it though.
- But it touches your lips when you're eating it.
Nothing but the teeth.
- This is me eating mangoes.
- Do you like shrimps?
- I love shrimp.
- I can't eat shrimp, I'm allergic to shrimps.
- (gasps)
- When I eat it, I get hives,
and I was like, "my life is over".
- Can you eat lobster?
- I can eat lobster.
- Okay, that's fine.
- It's just shrimp.
- Okay, okay, good.
- What are your personal thoughts on LGBT people,
especially in the K-pop industry?
- My good friend Marshall,
he's gay and he's also in the K-pop industry.
It's very, very progressive,
and I really thank them for their bravery.
Times are changing right now.
- Yeah. For the good. For the better.
- LGBT community, just do you,
stay strong, we got people out here supporting you.
- Very, very good to see that people are supportive.
Time's are changing for the better.
Should we expect any comebacks from f(x)?
- Me and the members are always talking about it.
Right now I think we're just taking time to
do our own careers at the moment.
Luna's putting out her own single.
Krystal's doing acting, Victoria's doing acting.
We're all just kinda doing our thing right now.
Until the right time comes, right?
Thank you guys so much for waiting and being supportive.
I have a mix tape out.
Yeah, it's for free too,
so you can go watch that on my YouTube channel,
or on SoundCloud.
Go listen to it.
Thank you, Evan.
I'm like, really sweaty.
People don't know, but my back is really sweaty right now.
- I noticed that you're, like,
(laughter)
constantly letting the air through.
(soft music)