The mysterious Stanley Lim co-founder of YOLK magazine spews his thoughts and insights on YOLK and the Asian American psyche. Find out if our probing questions scramble Mr. Kim or just turn him over easy.
Stanley Lim, an Asian American media veteran, continues to bring leadership, experience and entertainment know-how to the new and improved, webzine format of YOLK magazine. Before taking on the co-president and publisher positions at YOLK about ten years ago, he worked with Korea Times, KTAN, and FM Seoul in the in-language event, print, television, and radio production for fifteen years. In 2002, Lim created "Yolk on the Road Presents" to document the Asian demographic in America. Currently, Stanley Lim prepares to transition YOLK to an electronic publication and revolutionize the racy, yet eye-opening model of Asian pop culture.
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Interview with Stanley Lim
September 9, 2003
Interviewed by Ed Goto
Transcribed by Allan Axibal
Ed: Hi Stanley, can you please introduce yourself?
Stanley: Hi, I'm Stan Lim. I'm a Korean American, second generation, born and raised in New York City, and then raised in Los Angeles in the later part of my teen years. I went to Malibu Park Junior High School and Santa Monica High School. I studied journalism early on as a youth and had a pension for the information era. I loved to follow the media on all fronts. And today, I'm publisher of YOLK magazine, a ten year publication directed toward Asian American youth pop and entertainment.
Ed: When and how did you get interested in working with the Korea Times, KTAN, and FM Seoul? What roles did you play at these places?
Stanley: The in-language community that I worked for was about a fourteen-year stint. It came about in my post-college days and I did not actually speak Korean at the time, but I was offered a position by the publisher to come and join the company, which was at the time about 300 in-language, Korean speaking people. It was a very strong immigrant community and I felt that I could lend a lot of assistance to their efforts by speaking English with a native tongue and knowing the ropes from the American point of view. By helping the Koreans at that point in time in the 80s, and this was pre-riots, we were able to do a few things that changed the way Americans dealt with the in-language community, obviously recognizing them, number one, as a viable, marketing group. And number two, there was a strong consumer base from which Asian cultural sensitivity had to be adhered to. With that, we saw a large amount of growth in advertising from mainstream America. And being an integral part of that growth, I got to see and study a lot of expansion within the Asian American communities.
Ed: Describe the in-language community and the obstacles it faced to gain prominence in America.
Stanley: With the new immigrants came new social problems: gangs, drugs, a lot of deviant activity. It wasn't the same positive role model that the established Asian Americans had created for themselves here in America. I think it was a little bit disappointing for them. But with immigration, large influx from Asia, you had a community that had to survive in America and take on a lot of new cultural norms and also abide by a lot of new rules and laws to succeed here. Beating the system their way, or basically, the Asian way, didn't always mean doing things fairly or legally. But in as much as they tried their best, they created a huge Asian community for themselves that is very strong in-language, and when I say in-language, it's Korean speaking, Chinese speaking, Vietnamese speaking. When you see these communities, a lot of the new immigrants that came in after that, they had an easier time assimilating to America because they were able to survive without speaking English. They were able to come here and live ten years without speaking a lick of English. The hardest thing was going to McDonalds and ordering a hamburger, maybe. Otherwise, you can get all your goods and services in-language, so to speak. So, this huge Asian American community that was here prior to this new immigration, who no longer needs to speak English, has sort of been pushed aside today by the Asian American ad agencies and corporate America who have identified Asian Americans as these new, in-language Asian cultural people and we're sort of now a silent majority amongst our own minority as Asian Americans. I hope that one day there'll be a turning point for all Asian Americans to sort of unify, but at this point I see that the community is more fragmented and segmented than ever before. There are those who are still very much in culture and fronting a very Asian American presence and yet there are those who refuse to become Americans and will retain their own cultural identity and find a way to survive in America, maybe prosper and take their money and go home to Asia. There are a lot of remittances back to Asia and that is the mindset today of a lot of people who come to succeed in America and not really want to become an American. On the same token, we as Asian Americans try to do our best to provide some sort of sense of belonging to other Asians in America that are still searching for an identity. Hopefully, Asian Americans will find terms to unify somewhere in America's history in the near future.
Ed: You obviously felt inspired to take the entrepreneurial route and leave the Korea Times, KTAN, and FM Seoul to start at YOLK. Why did you do this and what was your vision for YOLK? How did you use your journalism background for this new venture?
Stanley: Well, first of all, I didn't leave the Korea Times, KTAN, and FM Seoul for this publishing entity. I actually had wished to leave the in-language community all together and look for other business opportunities and was looking to retire out of the media business, so to speak. But a turn of events came. Tommy Tan, who was one of the original founders of YOLK magazine, came to me and asked me to help with a restart on a dot-com merger and a possible new venture with regard to Asian American publications with an internet presence. I found the project very interesting. I thought that the time was right, just at the turn of the decade (the year 2000) to try and do something that was more commercially viable for the Asian American community that wasn't really presented before. YOLK always had fresh, irreverent content, geared towards the urban youth pop culture, lifestyle and community. Each time a group of Asian Americans get together to create something new like YOLK, it's a very fascinating, energetic endeavor. And there's a lot of great support that comes from both the mainstream, as well as the Asian community, by both Asians and mainstream people. That new energy, with each new generation, seems to have kept YOLK going for the past ten years. I saw the energy that was there. I come from a basically traditional publishing media background and I felt that if I could incorporate the basic model, from which magazines and companies that obtain advertising and obtain new subscribers, but stick to the basics a little harder and give the staff more guidelines with regard to what is more standardized within the industry today, then we might be able to create something that is a cut above and a little more acceptable by today's modern Asian American media.
Ed: What is YOLK's mission statement?
Stanley: YOLK's mission statement, originally, was to entertain Asian Americans and Americans alike in the field of entertainment pop culture and things that are Asian, happening in America. Our first and foremost priority is to the Asian Americans who are second, third, fourth generation and up. We do look to things from Asia, as well as Asian imports in the entertainment industry, because they do generate interest within both mainstream and Asian society. We're always looking for the next big thing coming from Asia. But unofficially, we've been coined the magazine for all those Asians who sort of disappointed their parents.
Ed: Some say that YOLK is risqu?and is almost like the "Asian MAXIM." How do you respond to this? Do you think projecting such images is progressive for our society?
Stanley: Yes, it's true. When we started the revamp in 2000 with Kelly Hu on the cover, we looked at what magazines were selling in America and we found MAXIM, FHM, all the top men's magazines, or adult type magazines were catering to a more fresh, irreverent voice, creating larger, double page layouts that were a lot more appealing to the eye. We tried to incorporate what today's best selling points were with what we can meld together with the content from our Asian community. Of course, we do have beautiful gorgeous Asians, both females and males, who have graced our pages and have been very proud to have been displayed in such a sort of positive, beautiful, out look, or, how should I say, presence, within our publications.
Ed: Who are some prominent people you have interviewed? Who do you have lined up for future issues?
Stanley: When I first started with YOLK, I met such personalities as Beat Takeshi from Japan and Jet Li, on the set of "The One". It's quite fascinating to be on the set and meet with the actual actors who we see up on the big screen. I've met just about every cover model, as well as featured person, within the publication. I try to attend most of the photo shoots. I don't always make it to all of the interviews and such, but then again, we have a great staff of reporters who really do a wonderful job following up with these personalities. In the future, I see a lot more coming out in the field of Asian entertainment from Asia, as well as Asians from other parts of the country, and even outside of the United States. I think the growth here is just exponential and we've come to a point where there is almost too much content for our publication. I am bumping material constantly and I have more PR agencies than I know what to do with.
Ed: You recently made a big decision to turn the YOLK publication into an online magazine. What led to this decision and what are the other changes you plan to make for YOLK, if any?
Stanley: Well, somebody once did a study recently and noted that Asian Americans don't really buy magazines, but spend a lot of time on the net. Naturally, if we're going to follow the trends, trends being your friends, we see that Asians are pretty much glued to the Internet on a daily basis. Statistically also, Asians are the number one DVD player buyers in the industry. If you want to deliver content to an Asian American, it's almost logical to find out where they're spending most of their time and their leisure time. And since in today's society, a lot of people are getting their information off the net, we hope that we can give greater depth to the net presence with regard to what it is we're doing.
Ed: Are there are any other changes you plan to make for YOLK?
Stanley: Well, other than basically cutting out the print model, we will continue on with the e-commerce site, the Yolk Shop. We will try to create a database for the archive of all of YOLK material. I think there's a lot of Asians who haven't seen all of what YOLK has had to offer. It would be a shame for this publication to cease without many of the Asians from yesterday and today, knowing that there was such an effort within the community.
Ed: Why would YOLK prosper more as an online magazine, as opposed to a print magazine?
Stanley: Well, in today's economy, the print factor is pretty finite. You've got a certain set of magazines you produce from a printer. It costs a set dollar amount. There's also a ceiling as to how much money can be attained back after the sale of such a product. Looking at those numbers, without the lack of advertising support from mainstream media, or even community media, we basically can't keep the print factor as a viable business concern. I don't think the print factor for the past ten years of YOLK's history has really been able to say that its' been operating in the black. Much of the revenues that support the publication come from other revenue streams around the publication and a lot of the content and support that's found in the creation of the publication is from the core Asian Americans here in Hollywood, or in the arts industry that come to sort of lend their support.
Ed: What is iFILM.com and "YOLK on the Road Presents?"
Stanley: With iFILM.com, a lot of independent filmmakers and producers can create content and for a small fee, get their content up on the web site for all to see. iFILM has been very good to us in that they've been able to get one of our first projects called, "YOLK on the Road Presents." It's an E&G type report where we take a Asian American host and we go out to a public event and in this case it was "Hot Import Nights" in California. We asked a simple question, "What was your favorite car?" to just about every car show girl we could find out there on the route. We've done other reports like it in Chinatown, San Francisco, "Hot Import Nights" in Long Beach, California, and Asian Model Expo. We've been going around to different Asian or urban pop venues and trying to create unique Asian style, or Asian slanted E&G reports, I guess. It's not traditional news reporting. It's sort of in-your-face, kind of fun. It shows a different side of the Asian American lifestyle that maybe isn't always readily available, accessible to Asians across America.
Ed: Do you have any other future endeavors?
Stanley: Well, in the future we would like to see more presence on the Internet. We'd like to have, as your publication on-line is doing, the ability to create web content via video format, compress it on Quicktime, and turn it around for more people to see. I think in the future when we are able to offer standard def type of television through the Internet, it'll become a more exciting place to visit and learn more about different cultures and people. But right now, in the event that the Internet can't speed up fast enough to deliver standard def TV, we're taking our E&G reports from the "On the Road" series and we're hoping to create a compilation DVD from which we can send these out, people can pop this into their DVD or computer, and watch it in full screen and full motion without the Internet-type feel. And that's about it.
Ed: Great. Well, thank you very much for your time.
Stanley: Thank you.