It’s the tenth birthday of FeministAsianDad.com!

That statement is astounding to me. For one thing, it’s hard to believe I’ve owned this blog for an entire decade! I still remember chatting with some of you back then, asking for your feedback on possible blog names I had come up with. And yes, I still consider this blog active, even though I haven’t had much time to write in recent years, with my life as a high school teacher squeezing out the time to post thoughtful reflections. I actually do think often about potential pieces to write; it’s just my schedule doesn’t allow it.

The ten-year anniversary of this blog also catches me by surprise because so much has changed since then. My daughters, ages seven and nearly-ten when I launched this endeavor, are now seventeen and nearly-twenty; they have even become participants in the conversations on this blog. My older daughter, code-named J.J. in this blog for 姐姐 (pinyin: jiě jie), or “older sister” in Chinese, shares credits with me for three posts (our review of the movie She Said about the survivors of Harvey Weinstein’s violence against women, our review of MS NOW anchor Ali Vitali’s book Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet, and our review of the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film The Marvels). Both she and my younger daughter, code-named M.M. for 妹妹 (pinyin: mèi mei), or “younger sister,” share credits with me for our entertaining post last year reviewing the animated film KPop Demon Hunters.

My vocation is also very different; ten years ago, I was working in relationship and sexual violence prevention education and women’s rights advocacy. FeministAsianDad.com was, back then, a vital part of my work as an activist, and it opened many doors to promote those causes through collaborating with other activists; speaking at conferences, colleges, and churches across the country; writing for publications in print and online; and providing commentary and context in interviews with local, national, and international media. These days, I work full-time teaching calculus and pre-calculus, so my advocacy is more indirect, like when I share with my students the stories of women throughout history who’ve done extraordinary things in math and the sciences. 

There’s also the social context in which I live, which is incredibly different from 2016. My country, the United States, has suffered from a decade of the most bitter polarization that I’ve seen in my lifetime. It’s sustained and inflamed by the words and deeds of institutional leaders that gain power and wealth from national discord. (As the late Senator John McCain put it sadly, “Our incapacity is their livelihood.”) On top of that, some of these leaders, while claiming to support women, actually work to undermine movements and eliminate programs that empower women and girls, especially women and girls of color. That’s such a far cry from where the U.S. was a decade ago.  

Yet despite all of these differences between now and then, I’m still trying to grow in being a feminist Asian dad. Some of that learning has taken place through the increasingly complex and nuanced conversations I’ve enjoyed with my daughters – chats about how they view their lives and the world in which they exist, as well as about the changing ways they need me to be their dad as they move into young adulthood. I hope to share on this blog some of the lessons I’ve been learning recently, after I’ve had more time and thought-space to process the experiences and dialogue that have informed that growth.

Ten years after the launch of this blog, I’m as committed to promoting the empowerment of women and girls as ever! But let’s take one more look back at the first ten years of Feminist Asian Dad.

“Go Back to Your Country”: This was the post with the most! It will probably be a surprise to most readers that, among all of my pieces on this blog, this one has had the most views, and it’s not even close. There are about 10,000 more page views for that one as there are for any other piece – around 14,000 total. 

“Go Back to Your Country” doesn’t even have much writing to it. Just some of my honest grieving over horribly racist, anti-Chinese words directed at me through the years, juxtaposed with horribly racist, anti-Chinese images from the 19th century. In some ways, not much has changed.

A few of the other top posts over the years:

“This Is What a Feminist Dad Looks Like”: The original! This post kicked off the blog on August 21, 2016. In it I explain what it means to me to be a feminist and why that is so deeply tied into my experience of being a girl dad.

“L.A. Clippers Assistant Coach Natalie Nakase: The F. A. D. Interview”: This is the post that I share the most often with people these days! Natalie is in her second year as the head coach of the super-popular WNBA Golden State Valkyries, and if you want to better understand why the team plays smart basketball with relentless tenacity, and why it has achieved so much success in its first two years, read this conversation I had with her. At the time of our chat, in 2019, she was an assistant coach with the NBA Los Angeles Clippers – the first woman of color to serve as an assistant coach with any NBA team. 

“A Fun (and Kinda Deep) Convo with My Teen Daughters about KPop Demon Hunters”: We had a blast talking about the film, and I really appreciated this convo about the motifs and deeper meanings in the story. If you’re a fan of KPop Demon Hunters, I highly recommend this one to you!

Here’s to the next ten years! I can’t promise that I’ll be able to get back to the regular posting I did when this endeavor first started. But given that our society will, for the foreseeable future, continue to be heavily tilted toward the benefit of men and boys, I will always be looking to share thoughts, ideas, and experiences here that lift up the advancement of women and girls. 

And of course, everything on FeministAsianDad.com will always be deeply rooted in my love for my daughters. This blog exists because of them.