"Trace is my fellow south-east asian sister in music. One of my favourite crooners and “Missing Me” is a song to keep your aching heart company. We also may have written a song together that you may get to hear next year some time"

"A cultural analysis and breakdown of Manhattan specifically, and the physical attributes as well as social needs that defined New York’s iconic and exportable look. The culture of congestion, by now largely surpassed by Asian and South American cities, defines Manhattanism as the goal for the contemporary city… in 1978."

"Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson. I was secretly thrilled that Sofia Coppola, who was panned for Godfather III, made such a triumphant movie so – it was so cool. I think it’s the single coolest movie I’ve ever seen. I haven’t revisited it in a long time, it just meant a lot to me at the time. Partially, I think it’s like I identified very strongly with the idea of being a stranger. I could talk to my therapist for a long time about this, but for me, it was like an Asian-American movie, because the idea of being a stranger in Asia was, to me, more of an Asian-American experience than it was a white American experience. That portrayal felt very inside baseball to me, and I identified very strongly with it. Perhaps it really is psychologically a commentary on me feeling Asian in white America, but I identified with that situation in a very personal way. It always meant more to me than I think the film should have, but I really have a lot of affection for it. I should revisit it, and I wonder if it’ll remain on my list, but I suspect it would."

"This felt so personal when I first read it, laugh out loud funny. One of the finest books, or actually any art form, to deal with the complexities of growing up being British and Asian. It’s about family, London, politics, art, relationships and the fascination with Eastern spirituality. I always shared the lead character's dream of escaping to NYC. "

"I was stunned when I read this book in the 1976, and not just because it was the first book I read by an Asian American woman. Hong Kingston wraps family history around myth and discovers the ghosts of woman who have traveled through time into her own life. I felt those ghosts and went looking for mine."

"I love Kore-eda; I can’t wait to watch Shoplifters. This film feels like a natural extension of Ozu, which is wonderful. As an Asian American person, you look for ways to justify and explain and understand why your family dynamic is the way it is, despite the fact that you’re in this country where everybody’s family dynamic seems very different. Then you get these glimpses and you’re like, oh, I can see the connection there."