You've probably heard or read about him. You might even have seen videos of him in action.

For many Malaysians, Alvin Tan Jye Yee is an uncouth sex blogger and an insolent critic of Islam. He has been criticised for posting sex videos of himself and his girlfriend on his personal blog while poking fun at Malaysia's largest religion through Facebook.

However to the rest, he is the real deal when it comes to the freedom of self-expression without living in fear of repercussions.

It’s been five years since he left Malaysia to seek asylum in the US and Mashable Southeast Asia caught up with the 30-year-old to see how much has changed in his life.

Alvin Tan circa 2014. IMAGE: Alvin Tan

Hey Alvin, how has life been since you left Malaysia? How did you adapt to life in the US?

Basically I arrived in the US in 2014 and it's been almost 5 years. It was a long journey. The first couple of years were just purely me trying to get on my feet, building a network, getting a job by hook or crook because you don't want to end up homeless. I began getting active in the adult film industry in 2016 but it took a backseat in 2017 when the cryptocurrency bull run happened and I was into that. But in 2018 I shot a bit.

I'm still doing the crypto thing and I do shoot a little bit of pornography here and there. But right now I'm mainly working on my software business.

Could you share more about your business?

It's a Software as a Service (SaaS) business which I've always wanted to do. Not many know this but I had started this business back in 2012 and it was was my source of income between 2012 to 2013.

I basically code business software for small to medium businesses. Back then, I made a pretty good income because it is mostly passive. When you run a software business, a lot of aspect of it is automated. So I was making around US$900 to US$1200 (RM4,000 - RM5,000) a month.

"I basically code business software for small to medium businesses."

So the funny thing was upon arrival in the US, I was in the immigration prison for four-months because I didn't have a valid visa. Now, if you don't attend your business for that long, it dies. That was the end of my business so right now I'm starting it again. It is yet to be launched so the revenue is still zero but I'm confident it will work out because I've done it before.

The only challenge this time is the currency exchange rate. Because running an SaaS business from Malaysia is a lot cheaper. The exchange rate helps if your clients are from the US. Right now I'm living in Los Angeles, one of the most expensive cities in the world. So we'll see how this goes.

How do you sustain yourself financially then?

I'm working on several things at once. The crypto thing, I shoot porn, and I also bartend about three nights a week. I'm all over the place, really. But you know what, you can't just do one thing alone in the 21st century.

How's the dabbling in pornography coming along? Would this be a long-term thing?

First of all I've never seen my career in the adult film industry as a long-term thing. In fact, many don't see it as a long-term thing as many see it as a transitional phase. I kind of started shooting porn in 2016. Most of it was self-produced and then after that I started shooting more for some small companies here and there. Of course when I was shooting my own productions, I had these content that I'm sitting on. So I added them into my website.

Alvin Tan now generates some passive income through his adult content website, Alvin Heaven. Viewers have to pay to download his videos. IMAGE: Alvin Tan

Most of it was done as a labor of love. I loved it because I'm an exhibitionist. I love to do it. The second reason is to increase the Asian male representation in the Western porn industry. Asian males are not well represented in mainstream American media, let alone porn. So I saw it as a rare opportunity to stand up for my brothers. The last reason was to produce some passive income for myself.

So when I was doing it actively in 2016, it actually paid for my rent for about a year. I wouldn't say it was wildly profitable, but it did make a decent amount of cash.

Since you've had first-hand experience in the adult film industry, why do you feel it is not a profitable long-term career choice?

Not many can understand the lifestyle of a male porn star. I don't think its generally good to force your body to regenerate semen that often. So the way they shoot porn, you have to rely on certain drugs and injections to meet the demands of production. I don't think it's sustainable in terms of health.

I also don't like where the industry is headed. The studios are dying because due to the rise of tube websites. There's tech and automation through computer-generated imagery, virtual reality and augmented reality that is replacing usual porn.

In recent years, we've seen some adult film actors joining Hollywood. Was this your main intention all along?

Contrary to popular belief, 99% of time this doesn't happen. More often than not, going into an adult film industry closes doors rather than opening it because major Hollywood studios don't want to associate with the dark side of the business. It's one of those sad things which is not accepted in the mainstream because most people are hypocrites.

They watch porn but publicly they want to demonize it. No one's going to openly admit that they enjoy porn. The numbers don't lie, porn sites have some of the highest traffics in the world. So who is watching it?

Vivian Lee (left) and Alvin Tan claimed the spotlight in 2012 when videos of them having sex surfaced. IMAGE: Alvin Tan

Do you have any guilt or regrets when it came to filming yourself having sex with your then girlfriend, Vivian Lee, and then uploading the videos online?

I've never felt ashamed of my sexuality. It's a part of me. I never felt the need to hide the fact that I like sex. I never needed to. A lot of it is to do with meeting the right person, the right place, the right time, and the magic happens.

Vivian was as liberated as I was and honestly we didn't feel anything wrong with putting our sex videos online. Again, it was a labor of love. In fact there is a whole community of people who used to put their sex videos on Tumblr. It's not something new, not even in Malaysia. It's been going on for years but for some reason we were singled out and condemned publicly by the media.

What do you have to say to your critics who considered your content offensive?

To them I have to say, if you don't like it (the videos), don't look at it. Why do you have to wilfully visit our sex blog, look at our pictures, watch our videos and then be offended? It makes no sense. I mean, I didn't force you to surf our website. I didn't create a pop-up in your computer that featured my sex videos. I didn't pry your eye lids open to watch it nor did anyone force you to watch it. You made the choice to watch it, first of all. And then to be offended afterwards? I find that to be disingenuous.

"I didn't pry your eye lids open to watch it nor did anyone force you to watch it."

You know what you were going to watch. You stepped in with your eyes wide open. You made that decision. Own it. Don't be a hypocrite by saying afterwards it's not suitable for our community. Why did you watch it? Why did you contribute to this moral decadence? So to me, it's really hypocritical.

It has been embedded in our cultures for centuries to be shameful about sex.

To see it as something dirty and to see it as something sacred even to be practised within marriage. A lot of it has to do with religious roots.

Now, you've also been pretty critical of Islam, a religion practised by 60% of Malaysians.

You've criticised the religion by uploading images and videos deemed offensive by the authorities leading you and your then girlfriend to be charged under the Sedition Act. You have even equated Islam with Nazism. Why are you against Islam?

The Nazis promoted the superiority of the Aryan race. The equivalent on the Islam side is the promotion of the superiority of the believer. In Islam, if you're a non-believer or even a believer of the wrong sect, you're considered a scum. A sub-human. They justify this by considering it halal to prosecute you.

The image that got the couple in trouble with the law. It reads, "Happy Breaking Fast (with Bak Kut Teh... aromatic, tasty and appetizing!) IMAGE: Alvin Tan

Unlike other religions where people can opt in and out as they like, in Islam, there are legal and societal implications. So when you opt out, they'll view you as a pariah and might condemn you socially. They might even attack you violently.

"Unlike other religions where people can opt in and out as they like, in Islam, there are legal and societal implications."

Furthermore, in Islam there is no separation of the state and the mosque. I find this to be problematic because there are rules for banking, marriage, diet - essentially a comprehensive system of living based off religion.

So Islam and the government will never be separated. Islam is government. Calling Islam a religion is incomplete. Islam, first and foremost, is a political system. Criticising or mocking the religion can be viewed as going against the state which can land a person in jail.

Alvin Tan also had tattooed the Arabic word for "Allah" on his thigh. IMAGE: Alvin Tan

Speaking of the government, what are your thoughts about the recent change in governance in Malaysia? Are you optimistic with the ruling coalition Pakatan Harapan?

You know, I know a lot of people who were very optimistic when they took power in May last year. Myself included. I didn't sleep at all when they were tallying the votes.

I know a lot of people who voted for Pakatan Harapan are very disappointed with their performance. There's been a lot of backtracking and not fulfilling promises. There's also been a lot of pandering to the far right, especially the Malay extremist agenda.

"Malaysia does not have a government problem. It has a demographic problem."

To me - and I keep saying this many times on social media - Malaysia does not have a government problem. It has a demographic problem. So as long as the demographic become more Muslim and keeps trending towards that direction, Malaysia will be more and more oppressive regardless of who the government is.

Because in a democracy, the government is the reflection of her people. So if the majority becomes increasingly Muslim, the government necessarily becomes increasingly Islamic. You will see more and more religious laws being made into civil laws.

I don't see the demographics reversing anytime soon.

Alvin Tan speaks to Mashable Southeast Asia.

With porn out of the picture, what's your plan for the coming years apart from your SaaS business?

Porn is something I'll keep doing on and off here and there. It's not going to be my main bread and butter. But it's definitely something I like doing, so I'll continue doing. It's not going to be the only thing I'll do though.

In the future I definitely want to be running my own software business.

I want to be actively investing in the cryptocurrency market and the stock markets. I feel that the biggest problem with my life right now is the necessity to work. I know it sounds weird to most people but some people would get what I am saying. You know, you got to get up everyday and show place at some place that you don't really want to. But if you don't do that, you'll go broke and you'll go homeless. To me this is a problem. I need to solve it because I think I know how to solve it.

"I feel that the biggest problem with my life right now is the necessity to work."

Furthermore, technology is going to automate a lot of jobs in the future. It might not be me who would be losing my job. But when a lot of people lose their jobs, they're going to compete for my job, putting my job security at risk. And this is something that is not far off. It would happen in the next 5 to 15 years.

Are you optimistic or apprehensive about the way the world is headed especially when it comes to technology and automation?

First of all I don't think we should fear technologies because for hundreds of years technology has made our lives better.

But the only problem is that in recent years it is starting to replace our reason for existence. It is trying to take over our jobs and our livelihood.

I am mostly optimistic because governments will have to tackle this issue. When you have a large number of population who are unemployed and displaced because of technology, there's going to be chaos. Eventually there's going to be some form of tax systems on these tech companies that are making obscene amounts of money like never before. And then they would have to distribute it to the population. I'm pretty sure it is going to happen in some shape or form.

So what's your game plan going to be?

So you either want to be in the tech industry or at least invest in a tech company because these are the companies that are going to benefit hugely from technology and automation.

Because by the time they start rolling out self-driving vehicles and AI customer service robots, the people who're going to profit hundreds of billions of dollars are your Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook and companies that are into AI and automation.

Why? Because if you own a robot, first of all they don't cost a salary. They don't ask for paid leaves, they won't unionize or sue you for whatever reason. You don't have to hire or fire them. They can work for 24 hours, 7 days a week. In the end, companies want to make money first and foremost.

So my game plan is to invest in technologies itself. Either by investing in AI or blockchain companies. I want to be in on the action itself by either by being a software engineer or owning a software or hardware business.

Alvin Tan is on Twitter as @AlvinTanYOLO.