Introducing The Rebels of 2025
The Asian and Asian American figures who challenged power, shifted culture, and refused to play it safe in a year that punished both.
We didn’t start The Rebel Yellow because we thought the timing was right.
We started it because too many Asian American stories were being told by people who didn’t have to live with the consequences of getting them wrong. Too much commentary. Too little accountability. Too much comfort in being visible, not enough concern with whether that visibility translated into power, protection or progress.
2025 exposed that gap in a way few years have.
For many in our communities, especially immigrants and their families, this was not an abstract political shift. It was felt directly in status, safety and opportunity. I’ve sat in rooms this year where the tone changed. Where things that used to be implied were said plainly. Where the margin for error narrowed.
That’s why this list matters.
The people recognized here didn’t win because they were popular. They didn’t wait for consensus. They made choices that moved things — sometimes forward, sometimes imperfectly — but always with skin in the game. That’s the difference. Real rebellion isn’t aesthetic. It costs something.
The Rebel Yellow exists to document that kind of action, to challenge it when necessary and to preserve a record that doesn’t disappear when the cycle moves on. That kind of work doesn’t scale easily. It doesn’t play well with algorithms. And it doesn’t survive without readers who understand why it matters.
If you’re here, I assume you do.
We’re not here because 2025 was kind to us. We’re here because history hasn’t been either, and we’ve never waited for permission to keep going.
Lastly, if you believe in this work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Independent newsrooms are being hollowed out across the country, even as the need for serious reporting grows. I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep saying it because it’s true: if just 1% of Asian Americans in the U.S. supported independent journalism with a monthly subscription, we wouldn’t be talking about survival, we’d be building newsrooms in every major city.
That kind of scale changes what’s possible. It changes who gets covered, how deeply stories are reported and who holds power to account.
Download the list below:
Benny Luo