The Asian Blush Forum is back online

Before social media, I ran a small forum focused on a large percentage of East Asians turning red when drinking alcohol (~36%, based on this medical study). It’s not isolated to Asian people, but that’s how I came across the topic (since I turn red when I drink). In 2003, there were almost no online materials about the phenomenon, so I posted about it on my web journal (this website). This led to over a hundred comments, which prompted me to open the topic up as a dedicated discussion forum. As a result of those discussions, I learned about the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) gene mutation who leads to a less effective enzyme, and as a result, acetaldehyde accumulation in the blood (and its associated elevated risk of esophageal cancer).

When I visited Japan in December, I met a guy named Billy Leung at a mochi pounding gathering at a local farm in Yamanashi. After meeting me, Billy kept looking at me in a way that suggested familiarity, and he even said the words, “Eric Cheng. E Cheng.”

It turned out that Billy had spent time on the Asian Blush forum during a notable phase in his life, and it helped him have clear understanding of what was happening to him after drinking alcohol. Billy now has a background working with infectious diseases.

At the farm, I mentioned to Billy that I still had the archive “somewhere,” and he encouraged me to put it back online. So.. here it is! The Asian Flush / Asian Glush / Asian Glow forum is officially back online as a static archive.