In a cast of unique individuals and stories to boot, it’s all too fitting we finish on Vince Moua. The 27-year-old has lived a life of adaptation, going from an impoverished childhood to the halls of Stanford to teaching English in South Korea. He enters the game with a Hawaiian shirt and a sense of responsibility, hoping to inspire minorities from marginalized communities like he was from growing up. And though he turned down the offer to become the next shaman in his Hmong-American community, he’s hopeful the Survivor gods will bring him good fortune on his journey to the win.

Read on for my chat with Vince, and make sure you’re caught up with Survivor’s coverage on Parade.com, including interviews with this season’s contestants and other on-set tidbits. Survivor: Island of the Idols premieres on September 25 with a special 90-minute premiere on CBS.

Tell me about yourself.

I was born and raised in Merced, California, a very small town in the central valley. I randomly found myself at Stanford University somehow. I graduated and lived in a small town in Korea for five years teaching English and coordinating a teaching fellowship program. From there, I moved to Seoul, where I worked as the only public school college counselor in South Korea. I did that for about two and a half years. I just moved back here, where I’m now an admissions counselor.

Is education something you always wanted to get into?

Not initially. My mom was like, “If you become a teacher, I’m gonna disown your ass.” (Laughs.) That’s what she told all of us. She’s an elementary school teacher, and she’s like, “Nobody appreciates you and the work is hard.” But I was originally pre-med for three and a half years. I switched, knowing that going into the medical field was not going to help the communities I wanted to help. Access to medicine goes all the way back to access to education.

What was it like teaching abroad?

It was hard! I was at a boys’ middle school for the first two years. In Korea, there’s a saying along the lines of, “We don’t have to be afraid of North Korea because we’re afraid of middle school kids.” (Laughs.) It was hard, especially teaching English as a second language to students who don’t think it’s necessary. It’s a required subject in Korea through high school. Then I moved to Seoul, where I was in a specialized public high school. Our students were admitted based on exam scores and other policies. That was very different because they were down to learn all the time. They made me afraid to teach! (Laughs.)

And what brought you to Survivor?

Survivor has always been such an integral part of my life. When I say that, people have always been like, “What the hell, Vince?! It’s a reality TV show.” I didn’t grow up the most privileged; we grew up quite poor. My parents kept that away from us. I learned that when I went to Stanford. When you grow up poor, you don’t know until you get somewhere and it’s blatantly clear. I didn’t grow up with a lot of access. Survivor provided me with a lens, an ability to see beyond the walls of our community. Beyond the poverty and lack of resources. It allowed me to dream bigger than what my community said we could dream.

And now you have the opportunity to be that inspiration for somebody else out there who might be in the same situation.

That’s a huge reason why I’m here. I represent so many minoritized groups. I’m Hmong-American, which is a very small minority of southeast Asians who came to America as refugees. I’m also gay. There are a lot of communities I’m trying to uplift and show kids out there who may be in similar situations that there are things beyond where you are currently. If you want to achieve those goals and get there, your ass has got to put in the work! Things will eventually go the way they should go. I hope being out here will help marginalized minoritized students see that.

There’s been a hubbub of representation in media, like with Crazy Rich Asians. I’m here to say, “We’re not all crazy and rich! There are some crazy poor-ass Asians!” That’s a community I unfortunately represent. There’s not too much of a distinction when we think about Asian-American bodies in the larger context of American society. But there are quite drastic differences between the southeast Asian communities, first-generation communities, and low-income communities that are overlooked in the larger homogenized of what being Asian or Asian-American means in America. It’s a lot of stuff, man.

What do you think people are going to perceive you as?

Based on looks, I think I fit into a very stereotyped idea of what an Asian body is in America. But when I start talking, people are like, “What?! Who is this person?” (Laughs.) I get that reaction all the time. When I got to Stanford, the first question peers asked me was, “Where are you from, and why do you talk like that?” It really struck me that in certain spaces, you need to code-switch, to talk in a vernacular where individuals who are not from my community can better understand me. I’ve had situations where T.A.s would write on my paper, “You have a wonderful grasp of the English language, but…” When I go home, nobody’s going to me seriously if I say, “Hey, let’s talk about issues within education as it pertains to language!”

I think a lot of players in the past, especially Asian-American players, have fit that stereotype. I’m probably the first one coming in not really fitting that mold. That’s something I was afraid of coming in, people questioning my authenticity. Because that’s just what you have to deal with. When you don’t talk a certain way or look a certain way, people are going to question why you act like that. If you get to know me, you’ll know I come from an incredibly impoverished section of California where educational attainment is quite low for adults 25 years or older. I’m hoping once people get to know me, they’ll be like, “Wow, damn. That’s a different reality from what I expected.” “Homeboy Vince” is going to be “Survivor Vince.” They won’t know “Stanford Vince.”

What do you desire in an alliance partner?

As a superfan of Survivor, I at times do miss the whole idea of being loyal to the end. I feel like everything is super cutthroat these days. Like, “I’m gonna cut my closest ally!” and then you get cut yourself. (Laughs.) I’d really like to look for someone who I can trust with not only gameplay but also personal history. That’s the best way to get to know people when you share your background and insecurities. But if you’re gonna cross me, you better look all four [expletive] ways. Because my ass is gonna bulldoze your ass down before you get to me! (Laughs.) That’s the game I want to play. I’m loyal to the people I’m loyal to. The people who are not gotta go.

Give me a Survivor winner and non-winner you want to play like.

For winner, I’d say Natalie from San Juan Del Sur. Homegirl was real loyal up until the end when she needed to get [expletive] done. She was loyal to her original alliance with Jeremy, and that’s really commendable. Especially considering how Survivor has changed so far. Her strategy was on point, flipping things and voting where she wasn’t supposed to. She’s a really underrated player; she was amazing.

For a non-winner, I would say Shii-Ann. Don’t mess with the Shii-Devil! She’s also a great player who was unfortunately on tribes that didn’t work out for her. (Laughs.) I really loved her tenacity and will to keep going, despite all the difficulties that happened on her seasons. She and Natalie are typically people who folks forget. But they both stand out for me, especially as women of color who did their thing.

So what’s the chance that you call everyone “stupid people” in your confessionals?

(Laughs.) Might be high.

You said your father is probably the truest survivor you know. What’s his story?

After the Vietnam War, there was a mass genocide of the Hmong and Mien people. There was a movement to exterminate our ethnic minority groups. We were recruited by the U.S. government to help facilitate and assist with guerilla warfare. After the war, there was retribution that folks wanted. The Hmong people were targeted. A lot of folks had to run to refugee camps in Thailand. My dad, at the age of 16, and two of his cousins ran through jungles with dead people everywhere and bullets flying, not knowing how they were going to get to the Mekong River. And they don’t even know how to swim! So when they get to the Mekong, they’re like, “What the hell?!” (Laughs.) They lost a cousin, but then got reunited.

They eventually got to the refugee camp after this struggle that my father doesn’t ever really want to talk about. That’s very normal in our community, I guess. They don’t want to relive that trauma. After that, he was sponsored by an American family and was shipped out to Montana of all places. He was in Montana for a while as a farmhand. They treated him well, and eventually, he was watching over the farm by himself. Finally, he moved down to California, where he met my mom. He’s done so much for our family, considering where he’s come from. In my eyes, he’s the truest of true survivors, as well as anyone who lived through those situations.

Obviously this situation is like apples and oranges compared to that, but is there any part of your dad’s fighting spirit that you’re going to bring into the game?

It’s very similar. I visited Vietnam a few years ago. And when I got there, I saw the vastness of the jungle and how difficult it would be to even think about running through such conditions. It made me realize the struggles I had in America are nowhere close to what they had. Yet they persisted; they had the will to survive, the will to live, and the will to make good out of bad. That’s what I’m taking from my father’s experience. To fight with all you have so that you can make a better life, not only for yourself but also for your family.

When your tribe visits Tribal Council, would you rather vote on strength or loyalty?

I think I’d go for loyalty. If we’re a good way into the premerge, we’re going to get to the merge eventually. So if I have enough people on my side to get rid of the physical threats, it’s better to do it now than later. Especially if the physical threat is not in my alliance. It’s preparing for the merge, at which point big physical threats become the number one enemy.

I heard your grandma decided you’d be the next shaman. Can you tell me that story?

My grandma didn’t decide it. It was more so the spirits. (Laughs.) In the Hmong culture, we are a mixture of animism and shamanism. We sacrifice animals and present their spirits to our ancestral spirits, asking for help or luck. We also honor the animal in doing so. Every generation or so, there should be a shaman that rises somewhere in the Hmong community. A few years back, my grandma went to her shaman master’s home. My grandma has a shaman master, and she is legit. Homegirl puts candles in her mouth and pulls them back out. She was talking with my grandma during their session, and suddenly she was like, “The spirits have told me a new shaman is going to be rising in your family.” At that time, I was like, “Nope, that’s not gonna be me! I don’t have time for that.” (Laughs.) “I’m questioning myself already; I don’t need spirits to talk to me.” So we brushed it off that it was going to be someone else.

Eventually, I start having these interesting out-of-body experiences. Some might say they’re anxiety-induced, but they’re very different. I feel like I’m physically still here, but in my mental and spiritual space, I’m elsewhere. I’ve been having those sessions throughout the entirety of my life. It stopped for a while, then I went to South Korea, and it started to happen again. My parents asked multiple shamans to perform ceremonies. They came back and said, “Oh, it’s because your son is supposed to be a shaman. On top of that, he was the Mulan of the Hmong people in the past!” (Laughs.) That’s a lot to live up to! I’m like, “Damn, do I need to do all this?!” Since then, the shamans have sealed off my spirits.

And have you had any out-of-body experiences since?

The interesting thing is I don’t really believe in shamanism or even any other form of higher entities. But I do believe in the power of believing. Since they’ve sealed it off, I haven’t had those situations arise anymore. When I feel like it’s coming, it stays away. It’s very difficult to explain. But I feel like if you witnessed it happening in person, you’d be like, “What’s going on?” That happened to my ex-boyfriend. He saw it in real time. He’s like, “Do you need to go to the hospital?” and I’m like, “No no no, I’m just gonna step out for a bit.” He said it looked like my face just went pale and I was fearing for my life. That’s usually how it does feel, and it lingers.

If you could bring one celebrity or fictional character out as your loved one, who would you pick?

If it could be anybody, it would probably be Mulan! (Laughs.) Because I was her and she is me. But in all seriousness, growing up and seeing an Asian face in a Disney film was super impactful. I remember for a long time, I anointed myself with the nickname “Ping,” which is what she called herself when she was disguised. In elementary school, I actually won a bicycle in a raffle. But on the ticket, it said “Ping,” which confused them. They’re like, “Who is Ping?!” and I yelled, “That’s me!” Homegirl was resilient. She didn’t give a [expletive] about men said and did what she wanted.

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