Gwai Jai - Asian Budget Boys (2024)

30/01/2021

When I was younger, grandma used to always cook food for my brothers and I as kids - we'd always go over to her place and eat her home-cooked meals... and growing up, I never really truly appreciated how much it meant to my grandma to be able to cook for her family and how much joy it brought her.⁣
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A lot of our time spent with grandma revolved around food. When she wasn't able to cook for us, she absolutely loved when we came over and took her out for "yum cha" or dumplings. Even though my poor Chinese limited our conversations to a handful of sentences, it would always make her so happy to be able to share food with us. ⁣
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No matter what, every time my grandma saw us, she would always ask if I had eaten yet, and to make we were well fed - this was her way of caring for us, even if she hadn't eaten herself. Even when she was sick in bed and didn't have any energy, she would still ask if I had eaten yet. That was just who she was. That was grandma. ⁣
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Over the last couple of years, I could tell how much my grandma missed being in the kitchen. She kept bringing up how she wanted to make her famous "𝘫𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘨" for us. It would always brighten her mood and even when she didn't have any energy, she would still talk about it. ⁣
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I told her we'd go down to the kitchen for the first time in awhile and we would make it together - she would teach me, and I would do all the physical work. She never had the strength to get out of bed so we never got to that point, but I brought all the ingredients home and attempted on my own. ⁣
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I will always remember her smile and the way her eyes light up in a way that I've never seen before when I brought her my "𝘫𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘨". Even though she couldn't eat solids, she still wanted to have a bite.⁣
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"This is Joong, very tasty!!" she said in Chinese, even though it was really never quite like the way she used to make it. ⁣
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Thank you for everything you've done for my brothers and I. I will miss coming over to take you out for dim sum. I will miss your home-cooked meals and you always asking if I had eaten yet. I will miss being able to cook for you and you saying it was good no matter what I made. I love you grandma. ❤️

21/12/2020

𝗪𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐆𝐰𝐚𝐢 𝐉𝐚𝐢 🙆‍♂️ 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝗪𝐄 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞? 💝 ⁣⁣
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As a follow-up to a comment/question we received from our most recent video, we decided to answer this question in today’s post!🤓⁣⁣
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Shout out to Alleesia Ella from YouTube - you’re amazing and supportive 😍😍⁣⁣
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𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥, 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳? 𝘐𝘧 𝘴𝘰, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘞𝘏𝘠? ⁣⁣

14/12/2020

𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 🙏⁣
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Every couple years, we have a pivotal moment that tweaks or pivots our outlook on life🔑; whether that may come from work, or even through interactions with family or friends, these moments often help us become stronger individuals.
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Some of our most memorable moments include:⁣
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🧧 Being able to give to others while not expecting something in return😇⁣
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🧧 The confidence to think for yourself and come up with solutions versus simply defaulting to others for guidance
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🧧Surrounding yourself with the right people can help put you in the right mindset and help identify the right career fit⁣
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🧧 Friendships can be equally as important and meaningful as blood relationships ⁣
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🧧 Find your passion early, and be ready to put 100% effort into it - this will minimize the number of regrets you have in the future⁣
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Overall, we realized that these moments don’t come by often, however, when they do, it’s worth taking the time to reflect and think about how these things can help make you a better person 🙆‍♂️⁣

07/12/2020

𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 💌⁣
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In the last 10-years or so, we have collectively been through several breakups 😔 ranging from 6-month to 5+ year long relationships. ⁣
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No doubt it was painful. 🤒⁣
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Given our nature and personalities, we invested heavily in our relationships and attempted to integrate our partner 💑 into our daily life as much as possible (for better or for worse). ⁣
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What that meant was, when we broke up, we literally lost someone who was a part of our everyday life🥺, someone who supported us both mentally and emotionally.⁣
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A lot of the post-breakup feelings included regret, a feeling of lack of self-worth, lower self-confidence and at some points questioning whether or not our life would ever be better without the person there. ⁣
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Although that negative feeling was not easy, we admit that it has also helped us grow. ⁣
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Now, at 27, we often see a breakup as a result of lack of fit between two people (or simply not the right time or right place in life). 🕺⁣
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In order for a successful relationship to materialize, we strongly feel that it will require perseverance, sacrifice and hard work (not too different than many other things in life like career progression as an example). ⁣
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Looking back, did the breakups hurt? 100%. Was it worth all the pain? Yes, because having the experience to overcome that “low” feeling helped us further grow as a person.🔑⁣
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On the bright side, your friends will always be there for you. 🙏⁣

30/11/2020

𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬⁣⁣
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Shout out to Kelvin for consistently giving us a sneak peak into his dating life. 🥰⁣⁣
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What started out with us sharing our ideal first dates🙆‍♂️, we quickly realized that only Kelvin (and maybe Justin😅) was the only real Gwai Jai with this “modern” dating experience. ⁣⁣
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Ever since we’ve started this journey together, Kelvin has made an effort to be vulnerable with his dating journey😳, enabling us to share with you 1) what to do....😅 2) what 𝐧𝐨𝐭 to do (mainly this one) and 3) demonstrating the humility it takes to put yourself out there in front of a stranger, to see if there’s potentially something meaningful between you two. ⁣⁣
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Kelvin has taught us many tactical things not to do, but at the same time has reinforced the need to really just be yourself and find someone who will appreciate you for who you are. ⁣⁣
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Thank you Kelvin 😘 for continuing to be our go-to dating doctor and keeping our followers entertained! ⁣
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Like this picture, we will continue to follow the lead of Kelvin on this dating life. ⁣⁣
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With that being said, we are OFFICIALLY re-launching🤣 our referral program 🕺 for (virtual) dates with Kelvin. ⁣⁣

30/11/2020

Looking back one to two decades back, we really reflect and think back to 𝐰𝐡𝐲 our parents 👪 pushed us towards a set of extracurricular activities. ⁣
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It is not uncommon for our parents to put us in Chinese language school🈵, piano lessons 🎹, extra math or abacus classes 🧮 (the list goes on!). ⁣
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While the experience growing up seemed dull most of the time, looking back, the number one thing these activities really distilled in us was discipline. 🔑⁣
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𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐰𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦. 🧗‍♂️⁣
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Yes, we did scream, shout and cry about this 😢, but looking back, we wouldn’t change it for the world. Well...maybe one of us would change it...⁣
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For everyone else there who may feel the same, join us in telling your mom, dad, grandparents, siblings or anyone else who pushed you, “Thank you for always looking out for me”. 💌⁣

Come check out our channel!

YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVxdlAsIlmg&t=155s

IG: https://www.instagram.com/gwai.jai/

29/11/2020

Since so many of you guys requested, we decided to take a deeper look at Mr. Corporate Hubby's Hinge profile to see how we can change his life forever!

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23/11/2020

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐆𝐰𝐚𝐢 𝐉𝐚𝐢 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡?⁣
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Huge shoutout to Amy for being one of our biggest supporters 🤗 through her recent appearances on Gwai Jai, who publicly still continues to not follow us on IG😒 (as of November 23, 2020). ⁣
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Amy certainly embodies the definition of the modern marketer given both her expertise in analytics and soft skills to drive successful marketing execution.🕺⁣
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While none of the Gwai Jai’s have a career in marketing (maybe aside from Gwai Jai VP of Marketing - Ivan🌝), Amy’s career has a taught us a few key lessons:⁣
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🧧 Although Amy’s parents did not push her to pursue a very specific career, Amy learned that the absence of a “push” enabled her to strengthen her own initiative and decision-making thought-process. Lesson? Maybe we’ll take this same approach with our future kids🤔 and hopefully they turn out wonderfully like Amy. ⁣
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🧧 Not only will strong soft skills set you up for success for a job interview, we see Amy’s communication skills having massive impact on other aspects of her life. Takeaway? Our single Gwai Jais are currently taking this same insight and seeing how they can improve their communication skills to find love. 💌⁣
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🧧 Do your due diligence, a lot of people think that marketing is always “fun, creative and interactive”, however, an overlooked drawback includes administrative work that also needs to be executed. Solution? Network or find a mentor who can share their experiences (don’t limit this to a career, network with other people and listen to their perspectives in any aspect of life). 🤯⁣
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Again, if you or anyone you know would like to share some perspective on your career journey - please DM us. 😍⁣
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We strongly believe life is all about perspective🧘🏻‍♂️, and if your journey can help change someone’s life for the better, why not share!⁣

16/11/2020

𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠💌⁣
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As we continue on our dating journey, we often catch ourselves setting aside a predetermined set of expectations. 🤷🏻‍♂️ These expectations may include how someone looks, what the relationship should “feel like” or even what you expect the other person to do. ⁣
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These expectations may come from experiences shared by family or friends and sometimes even from movies or TV shows.🎬 ⁣
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Although knowing what’s important to you in a relationship is key, often, these “expectations” may create challenges if what you think you want is not aligned with what you need.🤔
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From our experience, having predetermined expectations may create a set of wants, i.e. certain physical traits or a particular occupation.⁣
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Unfortunately, there may be misalignments between what one may want versus need 😨; where needs may involve aligning values or life goals. ⁣
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Overall, the biggest challenge with finding what you need is that it takes time, and while online dating 🤳 may create massive opportunity to meet new people, it also creates challenges given that you may not allow for the right amount of time to validate your needs with your “online match”. 🙇‍♂️⁣

09/11/2020

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲.🤗⁣
Pressured by family and friends to be in a relationship? Are you “only” happy if you’re in a relationship? 💌⁣
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If a relationship, marriage, or having children is what we want, then we should pursue it. Just know that life doesn’t always give us what we want. So don’t let someone or something be the sole reason for your happiness.🌝⁣
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We’ve personally felt the pressures of these “relationship goals” and the additional stress it brings to our lives. We love the idea of finding someone who is a great “fit”, but have also come to realize that this shouldn’t be forced.🤯⁣
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Rather than expecting a relationship, we’ve taken a step back to think about the dating situation differently. ⁣
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Knowing that there are no “guarantees” in life, we’ve come to accept that being in a happy, fruitful relationship is also not one of those guarantees. We may find the right person for us today, tomorrow, or never. Being in a long-term relationship, in-and-out of relationships, or staying single are all very real possibilities. ⁣
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So, why can’t we find a way to be as happy and fulfilled as possible in any of those 3 scenarios? Sure, we might not be “equally” happy in all 3 scenarios, but there are too many things in life to be grateful for than just solely tying our happiness to a relationship. 🕺⁣
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Worst case: We’ll continue to have our loving friends to keep us positive. 🤓⁣

23/10/2020

Growing Up Asian...
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Growing up in an Asian household, many of us tend to share similar experiences having been raised by immigrant parents in North America. My brothers and I had an interesting discussion about this the other day here in downtown Canada…⠀
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One of the reasons we call ourselves “Gwai Jai” (chinese translation: obedient son) 🧧 is because we’re truly grateful for what our parents have gone through to support their families and how much they sacrificed to help give us “our best life” as Asian millennials. 👦🏻 ⁣⠀
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But as with everything else, growing up Asian, we’ve also seen over the last decade or so the different challenges our upbringing has brought us.⠀
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And more specifically, our immigrant parents’ cultural standards and how their values and experiences influenced us both in a positive and negative way...⠀
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Growing up, we were taught...⠀
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1. That decisions made by our parents were the “best” for us (not having the freedom with our own decision-making process)⠀

2. To always abide by and respect authority no matter what the circumstances - not speaking up in the workplace (even when you know authority is wrong, or to stand up for yourself to your boss or employer)⠀

3. Excelling at academics and practicing instruments was prioritized over social skills + communication (playing piano or violin was emphasized over tangible skills like learning to collaborate in a team setting or being able to socialize/network with others)⠀

4. To be “humble” and never showcase our accomplishments. (Not consistently “marketing our successes” at work because it’s better to work in silence… has hindered our ability to be promoted into more leadership positions in more “Westernized” workplaces; this is a real thing - Google “Bamboo Ceiling”)⠀

5. Choosing a stable career with “status” took precedence over what we actually wanted to pursue (family prioritizing “professional” career - doctor, engineer, lawyer... and anything else was “lesser” than...)⠀
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For many of us, our parents “love” was not necessarily communicated verbally or shown through affection, but by always being involved in the decision-making process because they wanted to make sure we didn’t make the “wrong” decision or face any unnecessary burden. ⁣⠀
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And while they might not have always explicitly made certain choices for us, it somehow seemed like our paths were predetermined from when we were kids...⠀
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Do well in school, excel in extra-curriculars, go to a good university, pick a stable career, suddenly find a partner and get married by 30…⠀
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And if we made a decision or picked a path outside what they knew, then we weren’t making the “right” decision for ourselves.⠀
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Navigating these challenges has definitely been a struggle for us as we became working professionals through our 20s, especially having the pressure to be “model minorities” in the workplace and become “independent” from our parents.⠀
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With that being said, we can confidently say that these personal challenges have helped shape us to where we are today and allow us to appreciate the perspective our parents are trying to share with us.⠀
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Our biggest takeaway we’d like to share is that while we all have certain “limitations” or barriers growing up, don’t let that stop you from achieving what you want to achieve because it’s how you’re able to use these as stepping stones that will help define your path and the milestones you’ll be able to reach throughout your 20s and 30s!⠀
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And while we may want to blame our parents for a lot of our misfortunes, just remember it never hurts to listen to your loved ones because it’s likely that family will always try to look out for your best interests - even if their advice may not always be the best for you.⠀
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Have any of you guys experienced any similar or different challenges growing up in an Asian immigrant household?

21/09/2020

Growing up in an Asian household, many of us tend to share similar experiences having been raised by immigrant parents in North America. 💭🌎⁣
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One of the reasons we call ourselves “Gwai Jais” 🧧 is because we’re truly grateful for what our parents have gone through to support their families and how much they sacrificed to help give us “our best life” as Asian millennials. 👦🏻 ⁣
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Whenever we got in trouble or needed assistance growing up, they would always be there to support and protect us. 💜⁣
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And for many of us, their “love” was not necessarily communicated verbally or shown through affection, but by always being involved in the decision-making process because they wanted to make sure we didn’t make the “wrong” decision or face any potentially negative consequences. ⁣
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But as we hit different milestones in our lives 🎊 (i.e. university, first job, first relationship, etc.), we began to realize that there were many things happening in our lives where we had to start thinking for ourselves… 🤷🏻‍♂️⁣
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Often times, it was extremely difficult to make these decisions without having our parents “approval”, but we slowly realized that it’s simply part of “adulting”. 💁🏻‍♂️⁣
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And this is especially true as we progress through our 20s and into our 30s 📈 - as our parents grow older, we realized that it’s one thing to be independent from our parents, but an entirely different mindset to flip the accountability, and role, to start helping them out instead, and taking care of them as they progress through their years. 👵🏻👴🏻⁣
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For some of us, it even includes being the future go-to individual who will need to be the primary support for our parents because we “are the oldest son” in the household. 🧧⁣
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Regardless, like everything else in life, this is a constant journey, and we aim to continue to overcome these challenges in our lives to grow into the best versions of ourselves that we can be. ⁣

13/09/2020

Personal finance, relationships, health, and career; these are all topics we intend to share our perspectives on as we continue our journey to live our best lives. In order to continue our own growth, we hope to build a community in which we can learn from as well. As 5 young professionals navigating life in Toronto, Canada, we wanted to share our experiences (failures, lesson learned, and successes) on how we tackle different challenges we encounter as millenials.

Gwai Jai - Asian Budget Boys

30/01/2021

21/12/2020

14/12/2020

07/12/2020

30/11/2020

30/11/2020

29/11/2020

23/11/2020

16/11/2020

09/11/2020

23/10/2020

21/09/2020

13/09/2020

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