Traveling as Asian Wander Women with Co-Founder Emily Fang
By Alyssa Chiang and Alexis Constantino
Photos Courtesy of Asian Wander Women
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED Jan/Feb 2023 BY LOTUS MAG
Emily Fang is a Taiwanese American from San Francisco. She is a founder of Asian Wander Women, a media and community based platform that aims to help Asian women gain location and financial freedom to wander around the world—all on their own terms. Emily worked and lived in Singapore for the past three years, and before that, in the Bay area for nine, and she is super passionate about connecting the East and the West because of her time overseas in Asia as someone who was born in the U.S. Currently, she is consulting for two startups while trying to build the media arm of Asian Wander Women. Check out Emily’s travel tips, safety precautions for traveling as an Asian woman, and strategies for financing your travel.
Emily’s Tips for Traveling or Moving to a New Place
Find a few locals in the area who have a good understanding of the city/country you are going to, and ask them if they can show you around or grab coffee/dinner together. The locals really know what you should be doing, where the great accommodations are, what clubs to go to, where the best food is, etc. The AWW community is a super easy way to find people who are really excited to welcome you into their country! Other organizations you can look into include Subtle Asian Travel and Meetup.com.
Create a collaborative Google Doc that anyone you meet along the way can help fill in, and that you can add to as you do your own research.
Research the city or place you’re going to, especially weather and current conditions. Crowdsource information from the Internet. I would look at forums to see whether it is a good time to go. I also like looking at YouTube videos with current time stamps.
Personal story: Last year, I went to Siargao, which is the surfing capital of the Philippines, and I didn’t know that they were hit by a typhoon last year. So when I went, everything was just kind of wiped out; there was no Wi-Fi and a lot of amenities didn’t work.
Be aware of cultural do’s and don'ts–ask someone who is local about things you should be aware of and prepared for. If you make a mistake, say that you’re sorry–remind yourself that you are in someone else’s country; we should respect the places we go to.
Travel Safety as an Asian Woman
I generally share my itineraries with my sister or my best friend. I let them know where exactly I'm staying and where I'm going. I've had a few friends who got stuck in different countries, and giving more information to a contact that you know and trust is going to be helpful. It’s preventative. I will say that if you are traveling alone, and you're Asian and female, you just have to be a little bit more careful.
Marginalization or racism while traveling
I’ve encountered snide comments from ignorant people like “ni hao” or the whole “ching chong” kind of crap. It’s so stupid! I generally just either ignore them, or I’m beginning to snap back and say things like “What does that even mean? What are you saying to me?” There actually aren’t a lot of single female Asian travelers or nomads on the road; I wish there were more of us out there. I personally like to travel with one or two friends or I meet Asian Wander Women members! It’s good to expand outside of your circle, but it’s also comforting to meet people of the same background.
Financially Sustainable Travel
Figure out exactly what you’re comfortable with. Pro-tip: A lot of women in AWW sublease their apartments for less than what you’d be charged for an Airbnb or hotel!
Personal story: My friend and I found a really cheap place in Brooklyn, New York, that was $1,500 for two weeks, but we had to share the studio. We made it work, because New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world and I was not down to pay ~$4,000/month for rent.
Make sure you have multiple income streams. As you’ve seen, a lot of the tech companies have been doing massive layoffs–just like that, people’s main income source disappears overnight. We’re moving into a new “creator” economy, where anything you produce can be used as leverage as part of your branding. You can literally make money out of anything. What are you knowledgeable about or what niche specialty do you have? I think sometimes we think the skills that we have aren't sellable or marketable, but they actually are like.
Personal story: Someone paid $50 to me on Superpeer, a platform where people can request a one-on-one with you to get a consultation, to talk for 30 minutes about how to move to Singapore!
To Quit or Not to Quit the 9a-5p?
Everyone's experience is really different. If you can keep your job, keep it–but if not, build another source of income stream that will help sustain you.
Some reasons to consider quitting the 9-5:
1) If you're battling a mental health battle and are seriously just at your wits’ end
2) If you have substantial savings, and can afford to quit. But that's based on everyone's comfort level. I will say that I'm very risk-tolerant, but I think in this day and age, if you are going to quit, I would make sure you have at least one year's worth of living expenses. I say one year instead of six months, because we're heading into a recession and the market is crap.
If you're not ready to quit, I would take five to ten hours out of the week to work on something that will make you money, such as a small side hustle. And then you can slowly transition into that, or you don't transition at all and you just keep your 9-5. Have an open conversation with your manager if there’s anything in that role that’s making you want to quit, or maybe consider pivoting into a different role.
Challenge: Consider Your Impact When Traveling
Think about how we have an impact on society and our surroundings wherever you travel and read up on a place’s history and cultural norms. Go to the source of the business rather than using Tripadvisor or travel platforms that take a big cut. Ask your local friends to connect you directly to local businesses.
Personal story: When I went to Bali I had a local driver, Bromo, who drove me and my friends around. I talked about him on all my social channels so that friends could directly book with him for travel accommodation.
Asian Wander Women
In 2020, Ivy Xu and I set out to create a community of like minded women. Back in the building phases, it was called Asian Female Nomads. A lot of people didn’t really relate to the term “nomad” so it was changed to “wander women'' in 2021. The group organically grew from a small group of 50 women to its current 1,300+ people. I brought in a lot of people from Southeast Asia because of my network there while I was overseas, and Ivy was traveling to different cities, and also funneling people into the group. By word of mouth, organic growth, and both of our content channels, people started filing in. The goal was to hit 1,000+ members and to keep the community healthy and sustainable–which we reached! Now, with more members, the goals for 2023 are to continue growing the community sustainably without watering down the content, build the media arm, and hopefully generate funding and/or revenue by the end of 2023, through content partnerships, affiliate marketing, etc. to keep it sustainable and potentially hire some of the women from our community to build it up.
Getting Involved with the AWW Community
We have a resource guide on our website at asianwanderwoman.com, so if you ever want to host your own meetup, there’s a package that includes how you create the branding, marketing collateral, how to get people’s interest and where to post.
Casual social meetups within the community
Meet up for coffee, see a comedy show together, etc.!
Reach out for or offer support
If someone’s going to a new country, we want to help them soft-land into that country.
Create content
Write articles for the website and social media so we can draw in new members and share the different lives and stories of the members in our community.
Write itineraries or travel guides around certain topics that members in our community would be interested in.
Offer expertise in certain topics–we’re always looking for people who've done interesting things overseas and can share their experience with the community.
AWW Travel Summit 2024
This summit is tailored exclusively for Asian travelers who love creating, connecting, and exploring. Join us for deep insights via panel discussions, inspiring keynotes, and unforgettable experiences that will shape your path in this ever-evolving world.
Alyssa Chiang is Co-Founder of Lotus Magazine - and she’s also working on her Ph.D. in bioengineering at UC San Diego! She loves to try new foods and bathe in the SoCal sunshine. You can catch her whipping up tasty meals, dancing in heels, reading in her Cave, or listening to sad music. Perpetually juggling a bunch of things, but it’s all by choice and passion.
Alexis Constantino is one of the co-founders of Lotus Magazine where she enjoys working with the team as well as connecting with people within the community. She is also a local piano teacher in San Diego, teaching kids from elementary to high school and anyone who's willing to learn! In her free time, Alexis loves immersing herself in books, traveling to new places, and eating great food.