I love Michael Wong’s Instagram-YouTube-Facebook-Tiktok series “Asian Verified.” He’s a Seattle based commentator, digital creator, writes for Seattle’s The Stranger newspaper, and calls himself a cultural anthropologist for Asian Americans. He has a Chinese father, a Filipina mother, and is married to Tasheanna, a Black woman. One of his videos is about his wife and mom becoming fast friends while taking a trip to Paris (without Michael) only a couple weeks after their marriage. It’s quite moving, actually, and more serious than many of his videos, like the Dad Cam series, in which he mainly comments on the ways Asian dads dress. They’re hilarious.
My favorite Asian Verified video is below. It’s Wong’s commentary on the dress and food and Filipino swagger on Filipino Heritage Night at Dodgers Stadium, which happened just a few weeks ago on June 15, 2026. “The Gen-Z lingo hurt my brain,” said my oldest son Rick after his brother Aaron sent the family a link to it. What Micah, Rick’s oldest, liked best was when a shot of an older Filipino man came up and Wong said, “And the solo lolos* were out and about swag farming the stadium.” “That looks like you, Lolo!” she exclaimed. Well, to be more precise, it looked like my Dad, though I guess the older I get the more I do look like him.
Wong is the master of the last-line, throw-away compliment. We see an older lady with traditional wide-legged pants topped with a Dodgers jersey, and Wong says, “And ate* here combines the provincial with the promotional. That’s talent.” “And while everyone was rocking Dodgers gear, tita* here went for the double pink Aeropostale situation on a Monday night.” It’s all delivered fast and droll. But my favorite is when a younger man appears, his back to us, and Wong says, “And Buddy here paired the barong with the Fjallraven side bag, a never before seen combo pack, a new era in swagapino shit.” One reason it’s my fav is that at pretty much the same moment I first saw this, I was pulling out all my barongs—a surprising nine in all—wondering which one to wear at an upcoming family wedding. More about that HERE (the link goes live when I get around to writing about barongs).
At the end he says, “You gotta love Pinoys, the most love-pilled people on the planet.” As an aside, a joke might be that if “pilled” was really meant to be “filled,” many verified Filipinos might have pronounced it “pilled” anyway. But no, it’s more Gen-Z lingo. There’s all sorts of “pilled’s,” much of them referring to taking a pill, as in the movie The Matrix. The pill—often in colors, like red, blue, or black—wakes you up to a world view you adopt, or even become obsessed with. For example, a quick Co-Pilot search yielded this: “‘Black-pilled’ refers to a pessimistic or fatalistic worldview, often linked to nihilism, social defeatism, and the belief that certain outcomes, especially in dating or social hierarchies, are predetermined and unchangeable.” This may be opposed to “red-pilled,” which “promotes an individualistic approach to self-improvement and awareness of societal structures.” In a political context, it could refer to “taking the red pill” and waking up to the supposed reality of the world” (my italics everywhere!). It’s sometimes used as shorthand for radicalization into far-right political beliefs. Whatever. To be “love-pilled” seems simpler. It’s a belief in traditional romance: that you believe men and women can get along, and that long-term relationships are possible and the healthiest places you can be.”
Anthony Bourdain’s greatest single TV show throughout his many award-winning series is, I believe, his show on Manila, the first episode in season seven of Parts Unknown. Near the beginning he says, “Filipinos are the most giving people on the planet. Think I’m talking shit? Keep watching.” Now here on this short video Michael Wong says we’re the most “love-pilled” people on the planet. It makes me feel a pardonable pride in my people to be so warmly verified.
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♦ Go HERE for a list of my other writings about Filipinos and the Philippines on this site.
* WORDS: “Lolo/Lola” = Grandfather/Grandmother in Tagalong. In my own Philippine language, Ilocano, it would be “Apong/Apang,” which obviously don’t go as well with “solo,” as in Wong’s “solo lolos.” “Ate” is pronounced ah-teh, and is an honorific used for an older woman. “Tita” = Auntie.