Chinese American Bear, the duo of Anne Tong and Bryce Barsten, today have released their new single “No No Yeah Yeah (不不好啊好啊)” viaMoshi Moshi Records. The rhythmic, infectious single is a sharp burst of blissful melodies and danceable rhythms, which sees the band continue with their trademark brand of indie pop. 

“This song came about one day because we were joking about wanting to write a song using only ‘No’ and ‘Yeah,'” the band explains. “Can we make a song with such simple lyrics, be engaging and fun still? It felt like the ultimate test. We obviously failed because we added some other lyrics. haha. But it was fun writing with those constraints because it forced us to get creative with different melodies. It’s easier thinking of melodies when you don’t have to think about the lyrics, so it lent itself to that well. We came up with too many melodies in the end, and had to whittle it down. There are so many melodies and rhythms flying around all the No’s and Yeah’s. It feels jam packed, but the arrangement is sparse to help combat the busyness. Just a thumping bass synth, heavily processed drums, and some glittery stuff here and there. Bryce’s favorite part of the song is the little reverb’ed out bridge into the last verse. The chord progression changes for the last verse, just that once, and it’s really pretty for a moment, then transitions out of it quickly. Our next challenge will be to write a song with only one word!”

Chinese American Bear is a lighthearted and quirky mandopop duo from Seattle, creating fun & eclectic bilingual English/Chinese ear candy. Comprised of Anne Tong and Bryce Barsten, the married couple creates groovy, and “not too serious, food loving” tunes in their home studio together.  Their sound, somewhere between Melody’s Echo Chamber, The B-52’s, The Flaming Lips, and a hypercolor cartoon, has earned tens of millions of streams and global acclaim. They’ve been featured in VOGUE+, Paste Magazine, Under the Radar, celebrated by BBC Radio and KEXP (#1 album), and spotlighted across major Spotify playlists including All New Indie, Indie’s Top 50, Fresh Finds (#1 cover track), Bedroom Pop, Chill Vibes, and more. They toured internationally with the release of their second album Wah!!! including 15 cities in China, multiple trips to the UK, dozens of festivals, and support for the pop star/internet phenomenon Poppy (USA), and Greer (USA). Their music has been featured in the film The Wedding Banquet, Apple TV series Platonic, EA’s new “Skate” video game, an Apple commercial, and more. 

“No No Yeah Yeah (不不好啊好啊)” is out today via Moshi Moshi. 

Chinese American Bear Bio:

As Chinese American Bear, married musicians Anne Tong and Bryce Barsten know that the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. “I remember learning a little Chinese for when I first met Anne’s family, and it was so amazing that you don’t say ‘how are you?’ or ‘what’s going on?’ when you’re greeting someone, you say ‘have you eaten yet?’” Barsten smiles. So when his previous band disbanded and he and Tong started working on music together for the first time, the Seattle-based duo turned to that intimacy and warmth to lyrically match the musical soup of Flaming Lips, Beach Boys, Bee Gees, B-52’s, and Teletubbies that they had been cooking up, peppering their songs with food references to reinforce the filling emotional resonance. And through that fusion, Chinese American Bear started writing music that exposes new listeners to Chinese flavors in their indie pop delicacy and provides a sumptuously nostalgic glow for countless fans in the Asian diaspora who had been craving representation.

“When we started this project, we never intended to have me sing in Chinese, or even for me to sing at all!” Tong laughs. At first, the songs were a pandemic project, Tong just being a “supportive partner” helping Barsten with some ideas and teaching him how to speak a bit of Chinese. But the further along the songs got, the more confident Barsten felt that his wife’s voice just made everything sound better. While she studied classical piano through college, Tong had never trained as a vocalist or sung in a band, but somehow it just fit. 

After moving to the US in elementary school, Tong grew up with a complex relationship to her heritage. She spoke Chinese at home, but she sometimes felt embarrassed to speak it in public. “Kids of immigrants often just want to fit in, to assimilate, especially in school. Japan really exported their culture in the ’90s, and in the last 10 to 15 years Korean culture has become huge,” she says. “But we’ve heard from so many fans that hearing me sing in Chinese has made them feel proud to speak Chinese for the first time.” But Chinese American Bear isn’t standing as some self-serious cultural icon. Instead, many of Tong’s lyrics are joyously direct and full of references to dumplings, noodles, and boba tea, both because food is so central to the culture and it’s the perfect way to tap into the nostalgic joy of that special cuisine. “It’s also true that I have a limited vocabulary in Chinese and we love to eat, so it just makes sense,” Tong laughs.

On their single “Take Me To Beijing”, the ties to China hit an even more sentimental root. Built on a clap-along beat, burbling electronics, and washes of synth, Barsten’s composition feels like Architecture in Helsinki by way of Beach House, while Tong’s lyrics recall her beloved childhood summer trips to visit family. “Take me to your hometown/ Let’s drink some oolong tea/ Show me where you first loved/ Show me your family,” she glows, grabbing onto her memories and sharing them with the listener through each new sensation. “I’ve had Chinese-American fans tell me that the song has made them tear up a little bit, feel emotional,” Tong says proudly.

While that emotional reaction may be a surprise for listeners who first find themselves just grooving to the pristine indie pop, Chinese American Bear’s very existence remains an unexpected adventure for its members. “We truly never set out to be in a band together, and we almost approached it at first as a bit of silly fun,” Tong says. “It was a way to try something “alternative ”after a lifetime of classical music and a strict upbringing pushed towards a traditional career path. And for Bryce it was a way to reset his approach towards songwriting and find his original child-like joy in creating music after spending several intense years in a band that he took much too seriously..” But now that the couple are fully leaning into the project, they’re finding that their fun and passion are joined beautifully in the adventure.

Barsten, meanwhile, grew up on a llama farm in Washington state, playing in a long-running string of folk and rock bands. He and Tong met in high school in Spokane, and dated through college and post-grad time in New York and Chicago before getting married in 2018. And whenever Barsten’s bands weren’t busy in that long stretch, he taught himself how to produce and took odd jobs producing and mixing for other bands. That diverse experience helped him achieve a sound at once immediately familiar and dizzyingly new for Chinese American Bear.

After releasing their first self-titled album Chinese American Bear on their own in 2022, Chinese American Bear first signed to a label in China, while simultaneously building a fervent following in the United States and Europe.  They then signed with Moshi Moshi who released their sophomore album Wah!!! in 2024.

Complete with mascot-headed dancers, backup vocalists, and endless enthusiasm, the band’s concerts have been compared to punk shows for toddlers. “We wish we had a budget for a full on giant noodle monster to take the stage. Flaming Lips-esque,” Barsten says. “We just constantly embarrass ourselves on stage in the best way, trying to keep that levity and goofiness.” Consistent with the rest of Chinese American Bear’s work, even that levity has a purpose: bringing a burst of childlike wonder. And by bringing that joy to audiences alongside Tong’s memories and heritage, it feels all the more real. Every slurp of noodles and sip of tea feels at once like a misty ideal and immediate reality translated through Barsten’s immaculately dreamy compositions. “Recording in our little home studio, we could write about what makes us smile on any particular day: food, love, friends, and funny bits about our lives,” Tong says. “We are so excited to share that, to play these songs live and put on crazy concerts with an army of dancing dumplings.”