Hey everyone, uh,
welcome back to another episode of TwoSet Violin.
Today we wanted to talk about something that um,
many of you have been requesting us to talk about,
which is to address the recent violence against Asian people.
Um...
I know we're not very quick to respond to
these type of things, because...
We usually want to think...
...when it comes to these type of things,
about how...we should, uh,
responsibly add to the conversation in a helpful,
- but also a meaningful way, right? Um... - Mm-hmm.
I mean, I think, at this point it's quite clear,
I...I hope it's very clear,
that it's obvious to us that racism is not a good thing,
you know, it's horrible,
the things that have happened to the Asian people...
...recently, with the violence and discrimination,
but not just Asian people, right?
Like just in general,
forms of discrimination that are experienced
by people of different minorities.
I think it's quite clear that's...not good.
But yeah, I...I think...for this one though,
we feel like we have maybe a little bit more of
a responsibility to talk about, because we ARE Asian.
I...I feel like a lot of other times,
when people of different minorities are going through things,
I don't feel qualified to add to the conversation, other than saying,
"Look, don't be racist, we don't support." You know.
But, other than that,
we're not in the most best position to speak on behalf of them.
- Yes. - (Eddy) But for this one,
we...we know what it feels like.
We've experienced it, and we have friends that experienced it,
and we know what it's like to feel that
you're being discriminated for being Asian.
- Even just for your skin colour. - Yeah.
And so our hope is maybe by making this video
and opening up about some of our experiences, um...
To be honest I don't know, like,
I don't know if this will help.
But I feel like maybe at the very least,
by us sharing our experiences,
we can help more people understand what it's like.
And also, at least to know...
...they're not the only ones going through it.
Yeah.
- And to know that it's it's quite a real thing that happens, right? - Yep.
- 100 percent. - Um...
Again, I'm not like a sociologist...
- Oh, I'm not either. - (Eddy) Expert...
I don't know what the answer to these problems are.
All I can say is we can share with you
our own experiences, right? So...
You know, it's...it's funny, because Australia is a strange one,
because people are so friendly there.
But yet, there's definitely racism there.
You know, I moved to actually New Zealand when I was three,
and then Australia when I was eight,
I was born in Taiwan.
When I think back of Australia,
there are very obvious and explicit examples of racism.
I can think of a couple...pretty crazy ones that...
I kind of just brushed off, because...
...thankfully they didn't involve violence,
and also because to me that was just my best way of
dealing with it was just to ignore it, right?
So I kind of almost forgot about them, but...
I was thinking about recent things happening,
and I'm like, "How bad was racism in Australia?"
And then I'm like, "Oh s***."
Like, I suddenly remembered. For example...
I remember I was at a um, bar this one time,
and there was a group of eight Australian people,
between 20 to 30 years old.
They stood around in a semi-circle around me,
and started chanting,
"Go back to your country, go back to your country."
They kept chanting it so loud, until...
...I had to leave.
I mean, I...
It was such a shock to me, I didn't know how to handle it.
But I remember thinking I didn't want to...walk away,
because that felt almost like a humiliation.
But at the same time there was just eight of them chanting,
so I don't know what the f*** to do.
It's like, after like...a little bit,
I was just like, "Oh, you know, f*** it."
- And then I just left, right? - Yeah...
You know, things like that do happen,
they're...they're not common, but they do happen.
I can think of...three or four other examples.
A lot of them happen when people had uh,
had a few drinks.
- Things start to come out. - Mmm.
So I was at another different bar, in...
For those of you that know Brisbane, the Valley, and...
This one was a shock to me.
I was chatting to this guy, he's like,
"Where do you live?" I'm like...
- ...actually I probably shouldn't say this, because... - Yeah, haha, yeah.
I lived in a place in Brisbane,
there's a big Asian community in that area.
And so I was like, "I live in..."
...insert, "blah blah blah".
And he goes, "Oh, nice!"
"My mom used to live there!" I was like,
"Oh, nice! That's cool! Does she like it?" He's like,
"Yeah, she said that place was such a beautiful place,
until all you Asians came and ruined it!"
"You f***ing Asians, get the f*** out of my sight!"
And then you know, just like, stared into my face,
and I was like...
"Holy..."
Like, "Here, have a beer."
Yeah, I wish I said that.
- It doesn't happen often. - Yeah.
- Just to clarify, it's not like, every day it happens. - Yeah.
I'd like to kind of mention like,
- we're immersed in Australian culture, - Mm-hmm.
so when it does show up, it's like a...double shock.
It's weird because Australia always has prided itself
- for being multicultural, diverse, very accepting. - Mmm.
- And, don't get me wrong, a lot of people are. - (Brett) Yeah.
- But, these things do happen, still. - But...yes.
Yeah, they do happen.
And, first it's a shock,
- second, you don't even know how to respond, or react to it. - (Eddy) Mmm.
- You can't even imagine someone in that state of mind. - Yeah.
- Someone you don't even know, to confront you, - Yeah.
and make all these assumptions about you.
Yeah I can think of other small examples.
One where I was walking down in broad daylight,
and the guy was just like,
he called me like...
I don't even know if it's appropriate to say like...
It start with C, rhymes with "think", and he's like,
"Go home to...whatever, you...you...
...'bink'."
And let's not even talk about race,
like why would you even just go up to someone and insult them?
- Yeah, that's like the problem itself is like, - Full stop, right?
- why would you even do that? Yeah. - Like, where is that even coming from?
I think I'm lucky, because my experiences, positively, in Australia,
far outweigh things like that,
and I have been accepted a lot, you know,
a lot of my best friends are Australian,
- Mm-hmm. - whether born in Australia,
or other races that live or grow up in Australia, right?
But, you know, when I see...
...footages, or hear stories about people getting violently assaulted,
that's...that's different, right?
So I guess, for those of you that might be wondering,
maybe some of you that haven't experienced this, uh,
yeah, actually it happens quite a lot,
and I think a lot of people just don't talk about it.
I mean, talk around, and you'll probably notice,
most Asians growing up in Western countries,
and I'm sure other minority races,
it's a pretty common experience.
- (Brett) We've all expe— - Not common in the sense of frequent,
- but we've all experienced that type of thing. - Yes we can all relate to the same...situations.
Yeah.
It was weird growing up in Australia.
And don't get us wrong, we love Australia.
- Oh yeah, yeah...just clear that up. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
I mean, we're showing this one aspect of it,
- but there are many amazing, amazing things about Australia, - Like...
- Australians and Australian culture. - Yes.
I wouldn't cast this as...all Australians,
- it's definitely just a small minority. - Yeah.
And we're just saying Australia
- because it's our experience growing up there. - Yes.
So I don't know what it's like overseas,
- in other countries but this is from our experience. - Yeah.
Well what I was going to say is actually,
to me I didn't really...understood the extent of what racism was.
I mean yeah I kind of theoretically understand it,
but when growing up in Australia,
the things that happened to me, which could be interpreted as racism,
was interpreted differently, from my own experience.
I thought, "Hey, all these negative experiences I had
were probably just me."
Um, the reason I'm saying this [is] because,
- things happen but I just kind of dismiss it. - Hmm.
"Oh, this is how it is."
"Oh, maybe it's just me, I'm a bit shorter than everyone else."
You know, or, "I don't play sports as well,
like, I'm not as big as the rugby guys."
Um, all these weird reasons.
Until I remember when I went to Taiwan,
for the first time in like seven years.
And, the first thing I noticed was that people in Taiwan...
I was like, "Why is everyone so nice to me?"
"Why does everything feel like there's this sense of relief?"
Like...I don't have to push myself through a certain social situation,
- or...certain things. You know? - Mmm.
Everything just felt..."normal".
And then that's when it clicked, and that's when I realised,
it wasn't because people were just nicer to me,
it was actually just I wasn't...the Asian kid.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, just a normal...another person. - I was just another person.
I was just another person,
so that was a huge kind of shock, of a change.
You know, you kind of look back on my whole life.
"So hang on, I've been [dealing] with this implicit...
...way of kind of like, racism."
I mean, there's more like explicit ones
where you kind of really see it happen.
I think Australia...
...again, not everyone, it's just a small group,
is there's a very implicit way of demonstrating racism.
Yeah yeah, so like the explicit will be like,
the ones when they're aggressive and like
- "Go back to your country"... - (Brett) Yes.
but then implicit would be like...
Like they're nice to you...
They're nice to you but for some reason,
you know you're always the kid that's...
...kind of left outside the social circle
- with the Australian people, you know? - Yeah exactly, 100 percent.
I feel like growing up in Australia, for me,
if—it sounds like for you, as well,
you almost start seeing yourself as that Asian kid.
Oh yeah.
And then it's just like,
"Oh yeah, I'm the Asian kid,
my friends laugh at me when I make jokes on my own eyes being small,
and they like the jokes, so I take on that character to gain acceptance."
I mean, it's kind of f***ed up, but whatever, right?
But then, yeah, you go back to an Asian country,
where the idea that you're Asian doesn't even...
- ...it's not even in their minds, they just treat you as a person. - If...
They just treat you as a person.
Yeah, and again it's not like
- Asian countries don't have racism too as well. - Yeah, exactly.
But for us, it was kind of just like,
"Whoa, everything seemed normal!"
It wasn't because they were being nice.
- Okay, some granted, were. Thanks to those people. - Yeah.
But you're just a normal person.
Um, and that was a big changing point for me, and I was like,
"Wow."
Why are we sharing this,
one is we wanted to respond to the requests to talk about it,
but also share our personal experiences.
You know, this is not something we've ever done on camera before,
so it feels really weird.
I...actually don't even know if what we're saying is
- coming across in the right way. - Yeah.
And then, looking forward, it's like,
- how can we make a difference. - Mm-hmm.
It's so conflicting, right?
Because you feel like you want to make a difference,
but then you kind of just see the world today
spiral into this chaotic thing, where people are just...
...so divided, and everyone's kind of like, really emotionally charged,
and everyone's on social media,
and it is pretty...it's pretty crazy.
It's pretty...distressing to kind of see all this happening.
Again, we...
I don't claim to know how to make things better,
or we can just say some of the values that we believe in.
I think the first one is,
if you're going through this, and...we've gone through this before,
so I know what it's like to struggle...
...with figuring out your identity.
You gotta learn to stand up for yourself,
like you shouldn't take...being treated.
And you should realise when you're being treated badly,
because sometimes you're so used to it,
- you don't even realise that you're being treated badly. - That was...one of our cases, yeah.
For me, things got better when I was able to slowly learn
to assert my own boundaries, um,
not in an aggressive way, like not fighting back,
- like, "No, YOU go back!" blah blah blah, it's more just like, - Yeah...
"Hey that's not cool, don't do that."
- That kind of...feeling, right? - Yeah.
Again, that...that's different to, say,
someone assaulting you randomly in public.
These uh...you can't really...
"Don't do that."
- They're about to like, punch you, right? - Yeah.
I did see this video though, online,
where this Asian woman got kicked in the face five times,
and nobody around her helped.
And that was a bit distressing to me to watch.
- Why is nobody helping? - Yeah...why's there no...and it's not even...it's like,
it's just a human to a human at this point,
why is no one helping, like that shouldn't happen.
I do sometimes wonder like,
why...why do people act this way, right?
I wonder where this kind of...hatred, or this need to be...
...to inflict....hurt on other people is coming from.
This is gonna sound so weird of an analogy,
but you know how Naruto,
they say like there's this pain cycle that never ends,
- where people just want revenge and revenge... - Yes, that's true, because you inflict pain on someone,
someone bottles that pain, and they use that pain to inflict
- more pain on someone, and this is... - Yeah.
- I mean, there's some truth to that. - Yeah.
Like let's just don't even talk about race, sexual orientation,
all these things, right?
I just think it's a...it's a general good principle to try and treat people...
- ...how you would like to be treated. - Yeah.
I also like...to be clear,
not everyone is racist.
Like there are a lot of good people.
- I know that some of you guys have been burnt before, from this. - Mmm.
Um, and because you've been burnt,
you've kind of lived in this...
...fear, of things happening to you,
and that everyone's like, racist against you.
Well, it's...it's easy to um, feel that way,
- when these things happen to you, - Yes.
- to think, "Why is the world so unfair against me?" type of thing. Um... - Yes.
I also found on that, right, like, for me,
part of it was to start seeing where these things were,
and learning to assert my boundaries,
but the other part was also,
to be careful not to take on a, too negative of a mentality,
because I think sometimes, if you go too negative,
you miss out on...a lot of the good in the world, as well.
I think today's media, I mean, media always has been,
- just social media is so much more intense now, it's like, - Yeah.
there's a lot of...negativity, and...
...not just negativity, right?
Of course you need to talk about negative things,
but it's like really driven in your face,
- like maximum fear-mongering, right? - Yeah.
And, I think if I was to have gone around,
thinking, "All Australians are racist!"
I would not have been able to meet
so many of my best friends, that are Australian.
- Yeah, and they are genuinely good people, great friends. - Yeah.
Yeah, this is a deviation from our standard...
...fun, entertaining content.
But we also do hope that this video...
...you know, as uncomfortable as it is for us,
serves to provide some positive value for people watching it.
If everyone else could just drop all this...
(both) ...bulls***.
- Bulls***. - All drop this bulls***.
I mean, look after yourself,
look after the people around you,
um, more love, more music.
Music brings people together.
- I think music really does bring people together. - Yeah.
More watching TwoSet Violin.
I mean, yeah.
- TwoSet Violin equals practice, equals music, - Yes.
which means more love.
- More love, right? Don't forget to practice, - Yeah.
'cause you need to practice more,
to bring better music, and bring better love.
(both) Exactly.
To be honest, we...we don't really know kind of,
- where we're going with this video. - Yeah.
- We just thought we'd at least address it, - Mmm.
share our kind of experiences,
which will be...hope is helpful, we don't know.
But...I think that's it for today.
Take care everyone, look after yourself.
Uh...yeah.
Bye.