Kelly Hu talking to voters at Asian Americans for Obama in San Francisco (Steve Rhodes/Flickr)

David Fung and his brother Andrew Fung -- together forming the comedian and rapper duo the Fung Brothers -- made a Youtube video to motive Asian Americans to vote. The video specifically targets  the first generation of Asian Americans who usually have a low profile of political participation. Though many first-generation Asian Americans don’t speak English,  ballots are multi-lingual and language is not the major barrier to their voting.

The big hindrance is laziness or indifference. David Fung said many Asian Americans don’t want to break out of their routines to cast a vote. In his opinion, the first generation of Asian Americans are too busy making a living in the new country, and many of them don’t have time to vote, nor do they care to.

Fung also said voting is a learned behavior and a lot of Asian parents proactively discourage their children from voting. In the video he made, an Asian mom tells her children not to be involved with politics but focus on their studies instead.

“Politicians are supposed to care about everybody, but actually they care about people who vote,” Fung said, “They[Asian American voters] are not raising their hands saying I care…and nobody needs to pay attention to them.”

Fung wants to encourage Asian parents to set the voting model. He said his video is not targeting any particular Asian American group. He hopes it will spark a discussion about why Asian Americans don’t vote, if they should vote, and, further, how to spark deeper engagement.

“Not just vote and live your life, people should get involved locally. It’s not very Asian to do that,” Fung said, “We are going to stay in the U.S….It’s important to develop successful behaviors.”

Eugene Lee, the Voting Rights Project Director at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), said his group would send volunteers to voting sites to communicate with Asian American voters in their own languages. He said some Asian American voters have struggled in casting ballots and don’t understand how to cast a ballot. That’s where his people kick in.

“In most cases, voters are able to get language assistance they are entitled to,” Lee said.

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