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In January 2008, Filipino American YouTube star Christine Gambito uploaded a touching video blog, or vlog, to her YouTube channel from a hotel room in Manila. The vlog, “1st Day in Manila,” shows Gambito sitting alone on the floor in front of the bed as she talks candidly about her experience being in the Philippines for the first time. She describes being greeted with festive signage and a sampaguita flower necklace by travel agents upon deplaning. The Philippines offers “such a warm welcome, a warm people,” Gambito remarks, as if “this is all family.”1 She tearfully reads a letter that her mother had snuck into her suitcase before she left the United States. Her mother, originally from Manila, writes, “I’m so excited for you. This trip is my dream come true.”2 Moved by her mother’s words, Gambito implores her Filipino American viewers to visit the Philippines so that they too can “experience it and appreciate it.”3 To her viewers, the vlog communicates a touching journey of self-discovery that results in an intergenerational communion between an Asian American and her immigrant mother. Gambito portrays Asian American identity formation through a relatable narrative topos: an Asian American connects with her Asian heritage upon visiting her ancestral homeland.
As a genre, vlogs offer a discursive space for content creators to express their identities and cultural values. Moved by her experience, Gambito wipes tears from her face as she tells viewers, “I think it’s important for you to see my heart in all of this, too. It’s not just entertainment. Happy Slip really comes from the heart.”4 By juxtaposing her YouTube vlog against other forms of “entertainment,” Gambito suggests that vlogs allow content creators to reveal themselves as vulnerable, genuine, and down-to-earth people who exist apart from other media realms that prioritize theatricality over authenticity. Gambito’s reflections articulate why YouTube has been valued by scholars in Asian American media studies. Indeed, Lori Kido Lopez argues that YouTube conditions an interactive online culture “free from the influences of mainstream media’s gatekeepers and institutional structures” that enables affective affiliations between marginalized peoples, motivates political activism, and facilitates collective constructions of cultural citizenship through a “DIY aesthetic” that promotes sincere conversations between content creators and viewers...