Hi friend! You are here! Thank you for clicking over to further understand the “why” of our studio

A close-up of a black chair with a printed flyer on the seat, showing pink graphics and text about Asian culture and filmmaking, along with brown text at the bottom with event details.
A stack of papers, pink and purple promotional materials, and an orange hole puncher on a table, related to Mother Tongue Media's 2023 launch party.

So, instead of the below rather formal way of introducing ourselves,

allow me to tell you the story of why truly we began as a boutique content shop! Now, all the above is true, I promise! It’s just, a bit more“corporate tongue”, and less “mother tongue”.

“Born out of the strong urge to knock open doors for more consumer market opportunities for intercultural brands and individuals, here at Mother Tongue Media, we are dedicated to bringing the most relatable content to life.

We are thrilled when talented storytellers and hearty brands are brought together to create resonance within a larger community. Whether it is for media to entertain, to educate, to generate sales, or to motivate, we want to be there. Because humanity is the base-layer mother tongue of us all.

Standing at the intersection of creativity and marketing demand, Mother Tongue Media is ready to embrace collaboration and facilitate life-long friendships over compatible visions.”

So, here’s that ‘ah-hah’ moment…

“Hey, flip back to the frame where that Asian bird was…”

A collection of photographs, handwritten notes in pink ink, and a school ID card. The ID card is from The Webb Schools in Claremont, California, showing a girl named Lily, who graduated in 2015 with a grade of 10. One photo features Lily in a graduation gown and cap holding a diploma, another shows her as a young girl sitting on the ground, and a third is of a doll. Handwritten notes describe Lily's activities, including being a BFA from NYU Tisch at age 23 and boarding school at age 14.
A collage featuring a young woman with a smile wearing a beige sweater, standing on the left. Handwritten pink annotations label her as 'In-house producer Lily.' In the background, there's a photo of an older man with gray hair and beard wearing a blue jacket and red apron, with handwritten pink annotations pointing to him as 'A where I began my training.' In the foreground, a person is painting a picture of a young boy, with handwritten annotations stating 'MATM,' '#STOPPASTANHATE,' 'PSA,' and
A collage of notes, papers, and a photo of a woman with handwritten annotations in pink and brown. The woman is identified as Lily, founder of MTM, born in 2540 of the Thai calendar. Text also mentions April 2023, Asian entrepreneurs, and statistics about online audiences.

I don’t exactly remember how that sentence was finished, but I knew I felt weird when I heard the above during one of my first post-production Zoom meetings, shadowing a senior producer.

“That Asian bird”, umm. As a first-generation Chinese American woman and a fairly rookie agency workaholic, I thought the word choice of “bird” was somewhat unfamiliar. But I was able to quickly realize it must have been the equivalent of “chick”. I happened to be the only “Asian bird” on the call that day, besides the young lady in business casual with a confident yet humble smile in the stock photo at said frame. Both she and I certainly took up spaces, pretty unapologetically already (except then, I was yet to be cool enough to say it right back to him - “hey, how about we just use the word, woman”). Yet still, I couldn’t help but wonder: Am I always going to remain a smiley stock photo to the world of Mad Men; A frame to be flipped to and away from on some timeline; A testimony to DE&I brochures?

Fastforward to May 2023, I launched my own shop - Mother Tongue Media, where clients take care of their brands like their own blood and flesh, and so do I. Mother Tongue is defined as the first language each of us naturally takes on. It describes taking on a system of communication prior to internalizing rigid rules of grammar or dissecting choices of words. And the beauty that lies within such a tender progress is what I wanted the company to embody - we all know what it feels like to want love, warmth, security and support, as we begin to speak our mother tongue. And that tongue is not English, Mandarin or anything else. But simply, human.