Employee Spotlight: Anna Cui

Anna Cui, our Associate Manager, tells us her family’s story and cultural heritage as we celebrate AAPI Heritage Month. Learn about what inspired her to work in the music industry.

Name: Anna Cui
Job title: Associate Manager, Business and Legal Affairs, East Coast Label Shared Service
Instagram handle: @annac.esq
Preferred pronouns: She/Her

Questions:

Which Asian/Pacific Islander region are you from? Please share some of your favorite cultural celebrations and what they mean to you.

I am Chinese-American; my family is from China. One of my favorite cultural celebrations is the Mid-Autumn Festival (“Zhongqiu Jie” / 中秋节 in Mandarin Chinese), which usually occurs in mid-September or early October. Mid-Autumn Festival is observed in many other Asian countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and South Korea, and festival customs vary depending on the region. In Chinese culture, Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration of the moon, which symbolizes family and togetherness. What I love most about this celebration is reuniting with family and having a big feast. The hallmark food of the Mid-Autumn Festival are mooncakes, which are round cakes (reflecting the shape of the moon) with a layer of dough made with cake flour on the outside and filled with sweet or savory fillings such as sweet bean paste, lotus seed paste, or red date (jujube) paste, usually enveloping a mini salted and cured egg yolk.

Name an artist that identifies with the AAPI culture/community that has inspired you throughout your life/career and how did they do so?

BEAUZ (Universal Music China), a DJ/producer duo comprised of Indonesian/Chinese-American brothers, Bernie and Johan Yang. I went to high school with them (Bernie was in the same year as me). They have always been extremely passionate about and committed to their craft. Watching them grow to become a force to be reckoned with in the EDM genre, especially as the first artists in their family, has truly been inspiring.

How has your cultural background influenced your career and interest in music?

I grew up in San Gabriel, California, which is home to the largest concentration of Asian immigrants in the U.S. I’ve always felt very fortunate and proud to have grown up in a city with multigenerational and multiethnic Asian/Asian American diversity; however, I quickly realized that American pop culture, movies, and television at that time did not reflect the same diversity I grew up with. There was always the stereotype that Asians are typically doctors, nurses, or good at math, but my mom was someone who broke that stereotype. She was an opera singer who began her career performing for the Chinese military and later immigrated to the U.S. when she got accepted to the University of Southern California’s opera program in hopes of performing worldwide. Hearing about my mom pursuing her dreams as an opera singer in the U.S., especially as a Chinese immigrant and a woman, inspired me to pursue a career as a professional dancer (prior to my current law career). OneRepublic’s “Wherever I Go” music video was the first job I booked as a professional dancer, and I was so happy to see that the director and the majority of the cast were all API. I wanted to contribute more to this industry and help break down barriers so that more API artists would become part of our mainstream culture, so I decided to pursue a career as a lawyer in the music industry. Now, I am really proud to work as a lawyer for a company with a growing roster of successful API artists and a commitment to amplifying API voices and representation.

How can we educate supporting communities to better understand AAPI culture, heritage and challenges?

In recent years, there has been a lot more awareness in the media about API communities and the challenges we face, which is really great, but it is also important to acknowledge the complexity and nuances surrounding various API groups in order to avoid monolithic perceptions of the API experience. The API experience is as diverse as its geography, and one’s identity can often be influenced by their ancestral roots. Learning more about the individual cultures and communities comprising the API community is a great place to start. Many video streaming platforms now offer a diverse catalog of films and television shows that provide informative insight on various API cultures. Some of my favorites are Minari (Lee Isaac Chung), A Taxi Driver (Jang Hoon), As Far As They Can Run (Tanaz Eshaghian), Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki), and Boy (Taika Waititi).