44 － Corporate, Creative, and Chronically: Rethinking “Success” as a Eurasian w/ Sophia Hotung 何慧恩

Host: Kyle Leung

Podcast Linktree

What Kind of Asian Are You? Podcast Instagram https://www.instagram.com/whatkindofasianpod/

Guest: Sophia Hotung 何慧恩 

 https://www.instagram.com/sophiahotung/?hl=en

Sophia’s Website  

https://www.sophiahotung.com/

Sophia’s blog article about her experience with chronic illness

https://www.sophiahotung.com/writing/get-well-soon

Sophia Hotung is a Eurasian (hapa, halfie, mixed, etc) illustrator/writer based in Hong Kong. She is best known for her Hong Konger cover series, where she adapts New Yorker Magazine covers for Hong Kong. In her work, she focuses on topics related to disability, gender, race and socio-economic disparities in Hong Kong and abroad.

In our conversation, Sophia shares her story of being Eurasian in Hong Kong, her looking too white passing as a mixed person and the privilege that comes with that and what she tries to do to make sure her privilege is used in a good way. In addition to that, Sophia shares her story of starting out in corporate before being a full-time creative after going through burnout and experiencing chronic illness/disability since she was 16. We also talked about the meaning of success, how to find self-worth, hustle culture and how one should do things for their own sake and not for others regardless if it seems selfish. Last but not least, we talked about Sophia’s art and how she got into being an illustrator.  

End:

Thank you for listening! Make sure to follow Sophia! Her art and writing are definitely worth checking out! Don’t forget to follow the podcast on your streaming platform, on social media and to share the podcast to your friends and family online and offline! Again, thank you for your support and thank you for caring about Asian stories.

A thing that the podcast is trying out and looking to continue to do long term is to spotlight charities or organizations that the guest of the episode have attachment to or is part of that they like people to check out and support if they want to. For Sophia, this organization is Youth Diabetes Action out in Hong Kong.

The website is https://www.yda.org.hk/

Credits:   

Theme Music Intro: m-train-dpa.wav by hkmtrhah / Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) / https://freesound.org/s/371934/