Jeff Yang looks back at eight years of "Asian Pop" and says farewell -- and thanks.

So this is it, I guess: The final installment of "Asian Pop." After nearly eight years beneath the masthead, the Gatekeepers have decided that "the economics of our business have changed in a way that doesn't support online-only columns." (And maybe not offline ones either: These are parlous times for the news biz.)

Obviously, I'm bummed. This little biweekly patch of digital real estate has been a pleasure to tend, and as sad as I am to go, I'm even sadder to see it go away. The good people at the Chronicle were tremendously generous to bring this column into existence, but even more so for letting it evolve to fill its present unique niche. I'm not sure the combination of creative freedom and institutional support that allowed it to happen will exist again anytime soon ... and certainly not at a venue with as much traffic and reach as the Chron.

As you might guess from its title, Asian Pop began with a focus on Asian media and entertainment, treating "Asianness" as something alien to the American experience, and "pop" as a reflection of passing fancies and ephemeral trends.

Over time, however, with the encouragement of three successive terrific editors, the column moved beyond those original boundaries, transforming Asianness from a spectacle into a perspective, and making "pop" shorthand not for popular but for populi.

Ultimately, this column became a place where, every two weeks, a spotlight could be put on the colossal shifts in technology, creativity, politics and creativity being driven by the global Asian community -- a cultural network anchored on both sides of the Pacific. It became a way to connect the changes taking place in a city that's one-third Asian (and counting) with those taking place in a world that's two-thirds Asian (and counting faster).

Asian Pop trekked the Gadget Gap and tracked the brief rise and hard fall of Asian American cable networks. It explored why Japan loves robots (America, not so much) and revels in game-show mayhem. It investigated the odd origins of Asian names, the idiosyncratic nature of Asian humor, the awkward realities of puberty, the curious contradictions of masculinity and the all-too-sudden ravages of middle age. It reflected on the developing definition of "Asian American," as our community is remixed and remastered by migration, multiracialism, transnational adoption and revolutions in everything from gender roles to genetics. It hunted the wild Tiger Mom, negotiated with thrifty mother-in-laws, meditated on the zen of Steve Jobs and celebrated the election of the first Asian American President of the United States.

Admittedly, it also gave me free rein to indulge in my personal interests -- comics, and comics, and comics, and comics, and food, and food, and food, and food. And uh, sex. And sex again. And more sex, but also love. And it allowed me to ruminate on the changes that have occurred over a fifth of my life -- including and especially the birth of both of my sons, who have grown up alongside and within this column.

All of this is a testament to the people who believed that these were topics worth talking about, and the right time to talk about them -- from Jeanne Carstensen, the editor who inaugurated this column, to Amy Moon, who stepped in to guide it when Jeanne left for fresh challenges, and now David Ian Miller, who's helped to transform this column into a feature that's regularly one of the most read, most forwarded and yes, most commented fixtures of this site.

In the end, maybe this was the right time for Asian Pop to wind down. I'm in the process of working on a book based on ideas that have germinated in this column, tentatively titled "Asian By Choice." It looks at the growing global community of "aspirational Asians," individuals who weren't born Asian, but who've professed an affinity for Asian traditions, values, philosophies -- and, for that matter, people -- and decided to embrace, in part or wholesale, an "Asian way of life."

The fact is, even as this particular column goes away, the people, phenomena and forces that it followed are destined only to grow in importance in the decades to come. I look forward to continuing to report on them, and hope you'll keep reading as I do -- so if you haven't already, please friend me, follow me, or circle me, because there are many stories still to tell, and there are many other ways to tell them.

Thank you, everyone, and Godspeed.

***

The Last PopMail

With the growth of Asian Pop from obscurity into a high-profile feature on this site, it was inevitable that there'd be those who disagreed with the column, the way I wrote it, its political, cultural or demographic underpinnings, or its very existence in the grand flux of space and time. Reading the broadsides of these anonymous commenters was a weirdly masochistic exercise, but I confess I to having a morbid fascination with them: Though they were often shrill and repetitive, they were also loyal to the column in their own way, and I would be remiss if I left without offering them a few final words -- a valediction, if you will, in verse:

Bitter language often flew

in our debate. At last --

the end of that exchange is due

erase now all that's passed.

My hope is that the stones we cast

enraged and ugly words

have not, within our hearts, stuck fast

and left our vision blurred

The simple truth can't be deferred

each of us has a choice

respectfully, all should be heard

so all can have a voice.

And that, my friends, is that. Peace out.