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[Tapas Insider] Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with Tapas

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! We interviewed our Asian American and Pacific Islander and global team members at Tapas to celebrate our diverse backgrounds and experiences in the webcomics and webnovels industry! See their responses below!

Want a chance to win 5,000 bonus ink? Tell us which Asian American/Pacific Islander or global Asian/Pacific Islander Tapas series you enjoy reading! Post your reply on our Instagram or Twitter post by May 27th for a chance to be one of TEN lucky winners of 5,000 bonus Ink!

(Rules: 1 submission per person. Comment on both Instagram and Twitter to increase your chances of winning! The submission period will end on 05/27/2021 at 11:59 PM PDT. Winners will be notified via Instagram or Twitter by 06/04/2021.)

Jade - Head of Localization

I'd say it's one of my guiding missions in life— to build and augment Asian American representation in media by any means possible. In this role, it means leading a team of mostly Asian American translators, typesetters, and editors to localize amazing stories that celebrate humanity and imagination as seen through the lens of an Asian creator. Being able to share pop culture and historical culture is a rich and fulfilling position and I've learned so much in the stories about family and dating, high fantasy romance and gaming worlds. Being Asian American is to experience the flavors and customs of a geographical world so far away, in the locality of your home here in the States. To identify with all my ancestors and build upon the stories that are passed down through food, through language, through family culture. 

The work itself is so fun and empowering, but also the fact that my global team just understands inherently so many Asian cultural allusions even when everyone is multicultural and gathered from all corners of the world— it really speaks to the intersectional delight when a cultural heritage is embraced and appreciated. Translating puns and jokes is like a puzzle to unravel, and it is so fun to follow the history of sayings like "떡 줄 사람은 생각도 않는데 김칫국부터 마신다" which I am told is literally "Someone who has a rice cake is thinking of giving it to you, but you have already drunk the kimchi broth," which is pretty much "counting your chickens before they hatch." I'm Chinese American, but I really enjoy the wonder in learning about Korean culture through this work as well! It's so delightful to learn about these cross-linguistic idioms that really demonstrate the universality of human experience. The worlds we live in are so vast and beautiful, and bigger than we can imagine. It's lovely to be able to share a story with another reader, and find connection in that tale, to say we both know and understand this one thing together. I find that just really remarkable.

Stephanie - Content Acquisition Manager

I'm Taiwanese American and I think the time I noticed the biggest gap between me and some of my non-asian peers was in college. I had no real sense of the difference between western or eastern cartoons growing up. I considered anything animated as a cartoon and AWESOME. It was always something I always grew up with and really enjoyed in all forms. However, I did have a special place in my heart for what we call dònghuà and anime. It was what my parents and I would connect with because they watched similar shows as kids.

 It wasn't until college where instructors were hinting toward us that "anime"/ "chinese cartoons" couldn't teach us fundamentals, that it hit me. People at that time considered one style superior than the other. They never said it so direct like that but you could really feel the quiet prejudice against any inherently asian style. At that time, it was easier to say to us "You need to learn fundamentals first" than doing research on what was considered fundamentals in other cultures. I often had to "hide" my influences so that I wouldn't feel inferior. I knew many of my peers had to do the same.

I'd like to think the world is much better today than I was in school and more people are open to different styles. I suffered a lot denying my background for a long time. That's why I hope any young Asian American creator with a similar experience to mine, or really any ethnicity, can freely enjoy their influences to the fullest and love what they're creating! 

Kristianna - Translation Team Lead, Localization

As an Asian American woman, I am proud of the ways many of our offerings challenge dominant narratives that tell us who we are and what we can be ONLY in limited scope. Stories help us make sense of what it means to be human not only by helping us construct our personal and community identities but also by giving us a glimpse of what could be. By telling our own stories, we refuse to be "othered," we demand to speak ourselves into being.

I consider it my life’s work to support diversity in storytelling by empowering these voices.

Elizabeth - Quality Control Editor

Being Asian American has taught me to be aware of what it means to live between cultures and how to negotiate those differences in a way that brings positivity, diversity, and cultural understanding. Being proud of my heritage and learning about other cultures has also helped me to become more sensitive to the experiences and social obstacles of other individuals. What I hope to accomplish through my work is to bring awareness to the sensitive layers of culture and for others to see beauty in difference and human dignity. 

Hyun - Korean Translator 

I definitely feel empowered, as the majority of the work that are on Tapas is in the Asian setting. I feel presented and the fact that the Asian names of the characters are being represented and kept unedited (to western names like, 'Jessica' or 'James') and that the readers are invested in the series, just makes me quite emotional! I've never had many characters with Asian names during childhood, so it definitely makes me feel so happy for the young generations to grow up to our race being represented. My goals within this work is to present the best translated work for the readers so that they can feel the exact same way as the Korean readers would. Every day, I try my best to come up with better ways of translating as smoothly as possible and honestly, it's such a rewarding job! I love Tapas!

Sandy - Translator

It means we have so much culture and meaningful content to offer to the world! I hope to show as many people as possible the stories and culture of the AAPI community.

Blaire - Quality Control Editor

I hope more people understand that AAPIs aren't just quiet, shy, smart, and timid people. We can also be all of those things and more. We can be talkative, outgoing, dumb, and brazen. The landmass and the community where we are born from defines us, but the preconceptions that society (particularly Western society) had used to to simplify us does not encapsulate who we truly are. And I wish my work, both in and out of Tapas, can help others understand just how big Asia is and that no stereotype would ever be enough to define it. 

Yong-Yi - Marketing Manager

When I applied for Tapas, I remember lurking on the About page and noticing that the team was predominantly women and many had Asian last names. I vividly recall thinking to myself, “How cool would it be have so many coworkers who looked like me, who shared similar experiences as me?” Looking back, I shouldn’t have been surprised by this. Growing up, I had many cousins and friends who were avid manga fans; reading manga was so prevalent in the Asian community. So naturally, the Tapas team would reflect the demographics of readers. And while I didn’t read a lot of manga growing (I was much more addicted to Asian dramas), it’s been a lot of fun exploring such a variety of webcomics at Tapas. I feel like I’m getting to experience a childhood I never had! It’s definitely something to brag about - I get to read comics for my job!

David - Translator

I'd like to help in spreading the Asian culture to the Western readers and promote understanding and familiarity. 

Jim - Translator

I think I never really felt anything that special about my Asian heritage as love of webcomics and webnovels are very universal these days. I take great enjoyment of my work as a translator as I get special benefits of being able to read the webcomics far ahead of everyone else! If that isn't a big plus, I don't know what is! That aside, I take great pleasure in my work bringing these webcomics into English localization so it can be enjoyed by many more people out there who aren't familiar with Korean. Localizing isn't just about translating the text presented before you but you're challenged to translate a certain feeling or the character's attitude and personality which can be very fun as it makes you think of the English equivalent (which is to say that sometimes an English equivalent doesn't exist and you need to improvise). In essence, we are translating the author's thoughts, so it really falls on our shoulders to try and really understand at a deeper level what the author is trying to portray in each pages as we localize them and I find that to be the most enjoyment of my line of work. It's also very rewarding for me to later go back to the updated episodes on the app to read through it again in English along with the wonderful comments our dear readers leave behind. I...guess I never really thought about what I wanted to accomplish through my work until now. I stared blankly at the screen for 10 minutes wondering if I'm having a existential crisis, but I think my goals are rather a simple one and that's to continue my line of work to bring much joy and laughs across the world as our wonderful readers gets to enjoy my localization of these webcomics through Tapas! Everyone should have the right to enjoy a good comic to brighten up their day, if my efforts can tear down the language barrier and let our English audience enjoy these works, I think that's a good enough goal for me! 

Peih-Gee - Quality Control Editor

It's truly an honor to bring my culture to a Western audience.  As an Asian American, I feel uniquely situated to help present webcomics in a way that makes sense to a western audience while still maintaining the integrity of my Asian heritage. I am grateful for the opportunity to help craft stories that will influence and shape perceptions of Asian culture in a positive light. 

Barbra - Localization Quality Control Team Lead

As an AAPI and daughter of Pilipino immigrants, I find that working on webcomics, especially with translated and localized series, has been surprisingly more rewarding than I anticipated. I knew working on comics would be fun, especially since I love art and storytelling, but I've started to realize how much more meaningful it is to me. When I was growing up, it was always such a struggle to be able to find stories featuring or told by people of API descent, let alone AAPIs, because you couldn't get it through mainstream channels or publishers. It always felt like there was this gap between what I saw in the mirror and was experiencing versus what I was reading. Plus I felt even further away from my own heritage and cultural background because I grew up in the U.S. and am only fluent in English (anyone else have a teacher tell your parents they should only speak in English to their kids?). Now with webcomics being easily accessible, with series being translated and localized into multiple languages, and with so many diverse offerings not just from our localized side, but with Studio Tapas and Tapastry, that gap, which once seemed so big or insurmountable, feels so much smaller than before. I love that I'm a part of bringing in various voices, stories, and perspectives, and I hope that we can help amplify and tell even more stories from our different communities. I would especially like to see more from South Asian, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, indigenous, multiracial, and multicultural perspectives, so that for more people closing the gap is only just a matter of clicking over to another comic on the site. 

Victoria - Creator Happiness Team Member

Being a Korean-American, I was able to grow up with a multicultural understanding of the world. Korea has an extremely rich culture, so I am grateful I was able to stay in touch with it from my friends and family. For me, it’s really special to work at a company that also brings Korean media to the American market! 

In addition, we have creators from all over the world, which is reflected in their unique styles and storytelling. I grew up feeling that I never really fit in America, so seeing people embrace different cultural influences in their writing and art brings me a lot of joy. Let us continue to embrace our unique multicultural experience and show the world that we have voices too!

Gabby - Head of Studio Tapas

Growing up, I'd never seen traditionally published authors with similar names to mine. Then I discovered DeviantART and started following Asian American artists making a name for themselves online, visited convention artist alleys, etc. and though I'd always thought art and writing would continue to be a hobby or side hustle for me, I couldn't shake the feeling that I wouldn't be happy doing anything else. During my 6 years at Tapas, I've grown to love the webcomics and webnovels industry. I love that writers and artists no longer need to keep their passions on the side, and I love being the one to provide them opportunities and growth. I hope to see more AAPI artists and writers thrive with us at Tapas as we grow the industry in the US.

We hope you enjoyed reading about Tapas team members in the webcomics and webnovels industry! Make sure to take part in our little raffle mentioned in the beginning of this article! 

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

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