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ART IN THE API COMMUNITY
How Asian American artists preserve traditions and challenge perceptions
spring 2006AcommunicSIANS
communicASIANSspring 2006, v.v, issue no.2
cover graphic by Cecilia Yang
11
15
communicASIANS is published quarterly by the Asian American Activit ies Center (A³C). Views expressed in communicASIANS are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the A³C. communicASIANS welcomes all signed letters of opinion, which are subject to editing for length, accuracy and grammar.
Asian American Activities Center545 Lomita DriveStanford, CA 94305-3064
FEATUREArt in the API Community............................................................................3
Kimi Narita: Finding What I’ve Got............................................................20
Mark Liu & Linda Lee: Spencer’s Gift & the Return of Racist T-Shirts.....19
VOICES
6
What you should know
Tremors in the Himalayas.........................................................................15
Avian Flu...................................................................................................16
THE NEWS
Earthquakes strike South Asia and Stanford and the world responds
The Asian American Art project at Stanford
Unexpected Directions.......................................................................4
Rediscovering 19th Century Asian American Artists.........................6
What does a middle-aged, straight Taiwanese man, know about gay cowboys?
Revolutionizing the Asian image in music
No Artists in My Family.......................................................................8
Far*East Movement.........................................................................11
The search for Asian American artists
STAFF
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
JULIE KIM
COPY EDITORS
KYLE BRUCK
STEPHANIE NGUYEN
LAYOUT EDITOR
CHRISTINE CHUNG
CONTRIBUTORS
YI-REN CHEN
LARISSA CO
WILL GUTIERREZ
LIMIN LAM
LINDA LEE
MARK LIU
KIMI NARITA
FRANCIE NEUKOM
STEPHANIE NGUYEN
SOLINA TITH
JESSICA WANG
JILLIAN WONG
REID YOKOYAMA
JAZIB ZAHIR
Exploring the world of traditional Filipino American music & dance in the Bay Area
Stories for the Dead........................................................................12
Social & the Aesthetic......................................................................14
Stan Lai, playwright and director, challenges students in creativity and acting
Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month originates from a billAPI Heritage Month..................................................................................18
Stephanie Nguyen: Of Goodbye and Clippy the Paperclip........................24
Linda Lee: Beyond the Painted Smile......................................................2224
ENJOY,
JULIE KIM, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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EDITOR’S LETTER A3C STAFF
DIRECTORCINDY NG
ASSISTANT DIRECTORSHELLEY TADAKI
AIM COORDINATORMARC RILLERA
ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIESLINDA LEE
CAMPUS AND ALUMNI RELATIONSLINDA TRAN
COMMUNICASIANSSTEPHANIE NGUYEN
COMMUNITY BUILDINGJEN LAU
COMPUTER SERVICES STEVE NGUYEN
CULTURAL PROGRAMMINGYANG LOR
BEIJIA MA
FACILITIES COORDINATORJULIE KIM
FROSH INTERNS
CHRISTINE CHUNG
CHRISTIAN DALIT
ALEXANDER DAO
CECILIA LEE
JASON LEE
MARCIA LEE
GRAD STUDENT PROGRAMMINGALICE SIU
MAJOR EVENTS COORIDNATORCYNTHIA LEE
MAJOR EVENTS ASSISTANTRATUL NARAIN
SPEAKER SERIESTAMMY PHAN
WEBMASTER AMY YU
“Why art?”
Over the years, CommunicASIANS has written about many API issues ranging from politics to sexuality. But you may have wondered as you picked up the magazine and saw the cover of this issue, why art? Why have an issue devoted to art when there are other seemingly more important API issues? Questions like these are the reason why art should be discussed. Art surrounds us daily in so many forms that we often forget to stop and really think about the different perspectives behind the art. The articles in this feature examine these perspectives and ask questions. How does being Asian American influence an artist? What is being done to preserve this rich yet underrepresented history?
Because art is not a topic of general discussion in the API community, I was worried that it would be difficult to find writers. The strong response of writers who were interested in contributing to the feature on art and Asian Americans pleasantly surprised me. The enthusiastic and varied responses reinforced that students are interested in the arts and how Asian Americans are involved in preserving the traditions yet challenging stereotypes.
My goal as CommuncASIANS’s new editor-in-chief is to find new ideas and perspectives that make you want to read this magazine. The purpose of CommunicASIANS is to explore issues affecting the API community. The issues are diverse: ranging from art, politics, stereotypes, social challenges, and more. My hope is that you are able to learn something new, to challenge social norms and or just to get you thinking in a different light and to inspire the readers to enact change in our society or in your personal lives.
As editor-in-chief, I can also tell you how hard many people worked to create this product. I hope that these efforts are apparent in the quality of this magazine. My heartfelt thanks goes out to all the writers and the editors and their long hours of writing, editing, layout, and everything in between.
And to you, the readers. You did not have to open the magazine. But you did. I hope that a question piqued your interest and that you will continue on to read the articles and view the photos. I hope that new questions will arise and you will start to wonder about the future issues of the API community. While the ink on these pages has just dried, I am already looking forward to the next issue and the ideas you have. I highly encourage you to take any thoughts you might have and develop them into an article for CommunicASIANS. E-mail me at [email protected] if you are interested in writing an article, have comments or criticisms, or just want to say hello.
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T he modes of art among Asian American artists are as diverse as their intentions. A film
director strives to make great movies by infusing his personal experiences and fresh perspective into the scenes. Student artists face the challenge of resolving their own passion for art with the pressure for a practical career. Hip hop musicians live their dreams of making music while in the process improving Asian American representation in the music industry and dealing with issues like the “model minority.” A playwright uses his experience to guide student actors as they explore their own feelings and perceptions. These are just a sampling of the wide range of artists and their stories. But the broader story does not end here. Others strive to preserve the works and histories of Asian American art of the past, while some work to understand the art of the present. Whether one is making the art or understanding the art, one fact is apparent: art is thriving in the API community. Within the following pages, delve into this exciting world of art. ■
“Light Hearted” by Anh Tran
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I t may seem as if the last person that could direct a movie about two young gay cow-boys and their love affair on the open
range would be a middle-aged, straight Tai-wanese man. But Ang Lee is not your aver-age director. Ever since he first read the sto-ry of Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx four and a half years ago, he was determined to make the book into a film. “When I first read the story, it gripped me,” he told the New York Times. “I had tears in my eyes at the end.”
But first there were obstacles to over-come.
“I was on my way to do ‘The Hulk,’ so I went ahead doing that,” said Lee to the Hol-lywood Reporter. “But the whole two years those 30 pages of Brokeback Mountain kept haunting me. I just couldn’t forget it. It re-fused to leave my mind.”
After Lee finished The Hulk, he asked the original screenwriter if Brokeback had been ac-quired by a producer yet. To his delight, he found that it had not and quickly obtained the rights to pro-duce the film adaptation.
Many critics were skep-tical of Lee’s abilities to di-rect such a Western story, especially since he had just finished directing The Hulk, a flop in the box office. The only movie he had made that garnered American critical acclaim was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), a
traditional Chinese film. Although he had lived in New York City for 25 years, he still claimed not to quite understand American culture. But he saw this as an advantage in making Broke-back.
“I love ex-ploring authentic American terri-tory: Civil War fighters, comic book heroes, cow-boys,” he said in a recent interview as part of a press jun-ket. “I know all of these are cultural icons, but I feel like when I look at them, I see the ‘other side of the
moon’—the side that nobody sees. I didn’t grow up here, so I don’t know the metaphors, the subtleties. I just dive in. And that makes my perspective rare and fresh.” Larry Mc-Murtry, award-winning author and co-writer
of the Brokeback screenplay, also saw Lee’s foreign outlook as an advantage. “One of the things that Ang brings to all of his projects is his deep sense of being a double exile, an outsider’s outsider,” McMurtry told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It allows him to con-nect with, to find his way to, other exiles and outsiders.”
Even critics have found his foreign status a benefit for the film overall.
“He knows how to handle the subtle in-ner feelings in an Eastern way while retain-ing the American way of telling the story,” movie critic Liang Liang told the Associated Press. “In this way, the emotions presented have transcended the levels of a gay story and become universal.”
Lee feels that his Asian background has had a deep affect on his filming career.
“Who I am, how I was brought up, I use that a lot in my work,” he said, “I feel that deep inside of me, there’s a mistrust of de-pending on things. Everything changes. It’s kind of Taoist. At a certain age, every Chi-nese person thinks that way.”
Various Stanford students have not found Lee’s cultural background to be dis-tracting from the over-whelmingly Western story either.
“[Lee] brings an element of beauty that doesn’t exist in American Westerns, the story being a fo-cus on nature rather than merely the set-ting being in nature,” said sophomore Dawn Maxey, who saw the movie a week before it opened. “Had the director been typi-
cally American, I think the focal point of the movie would have been elsewhere.”
Sophomore John Maas, who has seen it twice, hesitated to characterize it as a West-ern.
“I wouldn’t call it a Western at all,” he said. “Of course it happens to take place in the West, and its visual language is that of the West, but in the end, that matters less than the love story. Calling it a Western is like calling You’ve Got Mail a techno-thriller—it
by Francie Neukom
What does Ang Lee, a middle-aged, straight Taiwanese man, know about gay cowboys?
“ ’’I just dive in. And that makes my perspective rare and fresh
Unexpected Directions
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[ ]rtAmisses the point. Proulx’s story, after all, is not really a Western story—it’s a love story. Love is universal and accessible to every culture.”
Sophomore Tiffany Morris, who saw the film two weeks ago, agreed with Maas’s assertion.
“Ang Lee seemed to want to capture both the beauty and undeniability of love between two people and also the tragedy of a world that tries to thwart it,” she said. “What made the movie good was not its ‘cowboy’ quality but the ability of the director to show the conflict between pure love and society. Perhaps with this movie Ang Lee is broadening the defini-tion of a Western by forcing viewers to see the common links between his and other Western films.”
And Lee has tried to link his own per-sonal experiences with the setting of the film. Although the story’s setting in rural Wyoming may seem drastically different from Lee’s Chinese homeland, he found commonalities.
“I think the American West really at-tracts me because it’s romantic,” he said. “The desert, the empty space, the drama. Same with China.”
His home country has lauded him as “the glory of Taiwan,” and he received a hero’s welcome last month after Broke-back received four Golden Globes, in-cluding Best Drama. However, his mov-ie was quite controversial when it first opened in China.
“They had never seen men kiss be-fore,” he said. “That was the first one, and you could hear the collective gasp from a thousand people, and then they settled down and watched the movie. They loved it.”
Although Lee enjoys making tradi-tional Chinese films, he has appreciated this break from directing them.
“Chinese films exhaust me,” he said. “Psychologically, it’s a burden because I’m Chinese, and you spend a lot of en-ergy in the production, making things happen. There’s no question that Ameri-can actors are the most comfortable with the cameras.”
Nevertheless, Lee has hinted that his next project will be “something Chi-nese.” ■
photos courtesy of futurefilmfestival.org, im
pawards.com, m
vps.org, and eclipse.org
Dire
ctor
’s
Credits Brokeback Mountain (2005)Hulk (2003)The Hire: Chosen (2001)Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon (2000)Ride with the Devil (1999)The Ice Storm (1997)Sense and Sensibility (1995)Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)The Wedding Banquet (1993)Tui Shou (1992)
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T he Asian American Art project at Stan-ford University seeks to recognize the achievements of Asian American artists
who were active from the mid-19th century to 1965.
From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 limiting Chinese immigration into the Unit-ed States to Executive Order 9066 intern-ing Japanese Americans during World War II, the political and social history of Asian Americans has been painful and bleak. Re-discovering the work of the Asian American artists’ that lived through these challenges defies the myth that creativity played no part in their lives. Their art expresses emotions and feelings of this history in ways other
sources cannot. One of the most poignant examples is found in the work produced by Japanese American artists during WWII. In the oil painting Untitled, Jack Yamasaki uses sharp structural angles and a lack of color to reflect the desolation and hardship of life at the Heart Mountain, Wyoming internment camp. Asian American art, with its expres-sive cultural meanings, contextualizes his-torical moments for a clearer understanding of the past.
“The work of Asian American artists is significant, perhaps one of the most signifi-cant cultural contributions by Asian Ameri-cans to this country” said Gordon Chang, Professor of History. “This field of research
has been neglected by Art History and Asian American Studies, either because researchers have felt it’s too hard to study or not impor-tant.”
It may be shocking to realize that the first exhibit of Asian American art was show-cased only eleven years ago in October 1995. The exhibit at San Francisco State Univer-sity was called, “With New Eyes: Toward an Asian American Art History in the West.” It featured approximately 100 objects, a small sampling of the breath of art produced by Asian American artists.
The exhibit was a catalyst for a larger scale study of Asian American art. As a re-sult of the exhibit’s success, Mark Johnson, Director of the Art Gallery at San Francisco State University, and Sharon Spain, the Asian American Art Project Manager, received a grant from the National Endowment for the
Asian American ArtistsRediscovering 19th Century
by Reid YokoyamaThe Asian American Art project at Stanford
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(Left) Jack Yamasaki, Untitled, 1942, oil, from Ayumi: a Japanese American anthology (San Francisco: Japanese American Anthology Committee, 1980) p. 284. (Center) Teikichi Hikoyama, Pines of the Shore, ca. 1922, woodcut, private collection, San Francisco. (Right) Chiura Obata, Setting Sun, Sacramento Valley, 1927/1928, color woodcut on paper, printed by Tadeo Takamigawa, Tokyo, private collection, San Francisco. (Below) Professor Gordon Chang, from “A Personal Journey,” Stanford Today Online, Nov/Dec 1996.
“The work of Asian American artists is significant, perhaps one of the most significant cultural contributions by Asian Americans to this country.”
-Professor Gordon Chang
Humanities to begin studying Asian Ameri-can artists in California from the 1860s to 1965. Upon the discovery that Asian Ameri-can artists were also active in major cities outside of California, such as Seattle and New York, the project has broadened to be-come the most comprehensive study and in-terpretation of the American history of visual art created by individuals of Asian ancestry.
Now in its tenth year, the project is near-ing completion. Four years ago, the project moved to Stanford with assistance from the Stan-ford Humanities Lab and Professor Chang. The archives of original files are the largest of its kind anywhere, stacking over twenty feet high. Accord-ing to Spain, “the artist files include a variety of materials: artist inter-views, newspaper articles, records for exhibitions, examples of artwork, photos of the artists…basically anything we can get our hands on that relates to a particu-lar artist.” Over one hundred Asian Ameri-can artists are detailed in the archives.
The fruits of this project will culminate in the publication of the novel, Asian American Art: Starting from Here along with an exhibi-tion at the De Young Museum in San Fran-cisco to open in Fall, 2007.
“Asian American Art: Starting From Here” will include essays from ten writers ap-proaching Asian American art from different regions and disciplines. For instance, Karin Higa, Senior Curator of Art at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles,
writes about Japanese artists in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles during the interwar period. Val-erie Matsumoto, Associate Professor of His-tory at University of California, Los Angeles, covers the history of female Asian American
artists in California between 1890 and 1960. The project also has an interna-tional scope and will feature an essay by Kao Mayching, Professor at the Open University of Hong Kong. His piece is entitled, “Chinese Artists in the United States: A Chinese Perspec-tive.” In addition to essays, the book will include biographies of 160 Cali-fornian artists, serving as a directory of their education and exhibitions. It is complete with a timeline of the his-
tory of Asian American art juxtaposed with major events in Asian American history.
The project has been assisted by curators at the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art, San Francisco State Univer-sity, UCLA, and Stanford. Perhaps, more important to the project’s success is the work of many undergraduate students of these schools. “Student input in the book has been significant,” Professor Chang says. “They have interviewed families, artists, and tracked
down sources.” Over the last decade, more than fifty stu-dent interns, many of them Stanford students, have con-tributed to the success of the project. Spain adds that, “the project would not be where it is today without this impor-tant student involvement.”
Professor Chang hopes that student interest in Asian American art will spark fu-
ture uses for the project. He envisions use of the archives in future Asian American art courses and research at Stanford. Thus, this project will ensure that the legacy of Asian American art will continue. ■
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C hinatown: a mixture of Eastern and Western infl uences spring up in these neighborhoods in cities across the United States. The culture that is created at these intersections is vibrant and
distinct. The art that grows from this culture is just as rich and tex-tured. However, one may ask: when one considers the depth of the culture, why are there not more Asian American artists who pursue art as a living? We interviewed two Asian American artists from Stan-ford to fi nd out what has hindered an Asian artistic Renaissance.
Anh Tran is a junior studying Architecture. Although she origi-nally planned to pursue a Biological Sciences major, she eventually realized that art is an important part of her identity. Anh sketches, paints and does photography—hobbies she has had since she was young. However, she wanted to obtain a science degree because she thought it was the more practical thing to do. After refl ecting on all of her options, Anh fi nally decided that Architecture would allow her to be creative and still have a stable career.
No The Search for Asian American Artists
by Larissa Co and Jillian Wong
“Self Portrait” Anh Tran
“Dancing” Anh Tran
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Practicality was something that Amy Lee, a senior, was also con-sidering when she first came to Stanford. Because she always knew that she was interested in art, she wanted to major in Product Design. Amy believed that this major would allow her to use her creativity to create commercial products for other people. Eventually, she real-ized that she had deeper themes in her art that could not be conveyed through mainstream design. Her interests led her to become an Art major, where she has been able to explore varying media from paint-ing and filmmaking to installation art among other projects.
Ahn and Amy experienced similar hesitation to major in an art-related field. They both agree that practicality is a strong Asian value that played into their decisions. Ahn says that even though her par-ents are not as conservative as some Asian families, she still sensed their resistance to her becoming an artist. “My family couldn’t un-
derstand why I was giving up biology. To them, it just didn’t make sense”, she says. Ahn doesn’t blame them for their point of view; she sees it as a cultural norm for Asians, who are expected to study hard and pursue engineering, math or science. Similarly, Amy is still struggling to convince her parents that art is the path that she wants to take. Her parents live in China, and still hold very traditional values. She acknowledges that many Asian parents still do not view art as a legitimate profession since it does not assure success and stability.
Both artists say that familial pressure and strict Asian values con-tribute to the lack of Asian American artists today. Ahn thinks that most Chinese families, like hers, believe that “art is something you do for yourself instead of a profession.” At the same time, Asian artists like Ahn and Amy draw from their rich culture in some of their work. When Amy travels to Beijing to visit her parents, she goes to the art
“Lips” Anh Tran
“Thousand Legs” Anh Tran
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Amy LeeSenior
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Anh TranJunior
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Revolutionizing the Asian Image in Music
galleries there. The first time she went to an exhibit was the first time in her life she appreciated Chinese paintings. Ahn adds that most of her Asian-inspired paint-ings are food or family related, because these are two things she associates the most with her cul-ture. For instance, she made a photo series on Lion’s supermar-ket, an Asian grocery store which she says is an appropriate icon for her own personal culture.
Living in the United States, Asian American artists like Ahn and Amy, are exposed to a mix of Western and Eastern values that affect their artistic influences and
so do not see themselves as purely traditional Asian artists. Amy says that growing up and living in both Asia and the West has caused her
art to always have been a mix of identities. The term “Asian Ameri-can artist” leads to different interpretations by the two artists. “I feel like I’d owe it to the Asian American community to call myself an Asian American artist,” Amy says as she points out that there are not enough of them out there. At the same time, she clarifies that she is not doing identity work, or creating art with the sole value of em-phasizing her Asian identity. Ahn, on the other hand, says that Asian influence does not have a huge impact on her art. Growing up in a suburban neighborhood, she feels that she didn’t have much exposure to Asian artwork. She wants to explore this side of her culture, but she just has not had the chance to.
Clearly, there is more to Asian American art than just being Asian. To Amy, her Asian roots exert a less obvious, deeper influence in the fluidity of her paintings, just as her culture is a mix of Western ideas on the surface and more subdued Eastern values. Will art eventually serve as a medium for describing the uniqueness of Asian American culture? Ahn thinks so. She says that hopefully, as each generation is exposed to other cultures, Asian American parents will allow their children to become professional artists. Artists like Ahn and Amy are definitely going to lead the way. ■
“Light Hearted” Anh Tran
Amy Lee
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M eet Far*East Movement: smart, tal-ented, connoisseurs of hip-hop and R&B, and Asian American. Form-
ing the dynamic hip-hip trio, the emcees Kev Nish (Kevin Nishimura), Prohgress (James Roh), and J-Splif (Jae Choung) share a com-mon passion for lyrical composition and new-age rhythm. Undeterred by the low rep-resentation of Asian Americans in the music industry, Far*East Movement joins other Asian American artists such as Vienna Teng, Ken Oak, and Kai in forging a new image for Asians in music media.
However, being Asian American pioneers in the hip-hop scene is not an easy task. “It’s hard […] because people don’t take you se-riously. People always ask what language we rap in,” says James Roh. However, Roh is an optimist. He is still confi dent that the time has arrived for Asian Americans to be heard. “People are curious about the Asian experience these days,” says Roh, “So it’s only a matter of time before our music gets heard.” Already their audience is expanding as Far*East Movement has been featured in magazines such as URBAN and Hapa Maga-zine and has performed at both national and international shows. Furthermore, streamed via the internet, their videos and songs con-tinue to reach thousands of fans and new lis-
teners around the world. Aware of their broad audience range,
Far*East Movement’s lyrics have multiple missions. Inspired by “the current state of our people and [Asian American] dreams and aspirations,” Roh asserts that their music is very much based on emotions and real is-sues. Using their lyrics not only as a form of musical expression, Far*East Movement also writes about issues and struggles pertinent to Asian Americans. Infused in their music are messages dispelling the “model minority” myth and other lesser known concerns about being Asian American. “Everything,” says Roh, “is an inspiration.”
At the end of the day, what drives the boys of Far*East Movement is their genuine in-terest and passion for their music. However,
music wasn’t something they always serious-ly considered as future careers. For instance, like many other second generation Asian Americans, Roh’s parents dreamed that their son would become a lawyer. Recalling his fi rst year in law school, Roh disclosed that “as every semester passed […], I realized this was not what I wanted to do.” While his fellow law students “lived and breathed” law, Roh realized that his heart was with Far*East Movement and his co-emcees.
Given Far*East Movement’s determina-tion and breadth of talent, it will only be a matter of time before they make it big in the music industry. Their previous collabora-tions with Ruff Ryders’ Jin the Emcee, TQ, and Ken Oak, have earned them a reputa-tion for being stylistically true and lyrically brilliant. Defying common Asian American stereotypes, Far*East Movement’s unique style has made them an internationally re-nown and popular L.A. underground hip-hop group. Their politically infused messages and bona fi de lyrics have set the stage for a new generation of Asian Americans in hip-hop and music.
And, for the record, all of the songs on Far*East Movement’s self-titled debut al-bum are in English. ■
For more information, visit their website at http://www.fareastmovement.com.
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Stan Lai, renowned playwright and director,challenges students in creativity and acting
S tan Lai, or in Chinese Lai Sheng-chuan, is one of the most renowned and infl uential
playwright/directors in Asia. To date, he has created 24 original plays. Lai’s most famous work, The Peach Blossom Land (1986), was made into an award-winning full motion pic-ture in 1992 and has been performed world-wide, including 50 productions in Beijing alone. Furthermore, he revived the lost art of “crosstalk,” in his work That Evening, We Performed Xiangsheng. In addition to creat-ing critically acclaimed plays and fi lms, Lai also has experience as an arts educator and scenic designer and often helps conceptual-ize set designs in his own plays.
Most recently, his epic seven-hour play, A Dream Like a Dream received top awards at the 2003 Hong Kong Drama Awards and is described as a “play within a play” because “the story [beginning] with one character and leading into another” (Taipei Times). Mul-tiple actors play the role of Gu Shiang-Lan, a prostitute in Shanghai during the 1930s who is diagnosed with an incurable disease. As she confronts her impending death, Shiang-Lan revisits the diverse roles of her life, in-cluding her role as a wife, painter, and survi-vor of the Cultural Revolution. In addition to the interesting subject matter, two unique qualities make the play especially engaging. First, new characters are constantly intro-duced throughout the play. Second, multiple scenes take place simultaneously as a 360-degree stage surrounds the audience. More-over, the seats rotate so that the audience can see the actors in any direction.
Lai acquires inspiration for his plays from many different sources. For instance, he integrated the following experience that a friend vividly described to him into A Dream Like a Dream: One morning, I woke up and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. I cracked an egg over a pan and immediately found my-self back in bed again. I went to the kitchen again to make breakfast. After cracking an egg, I immediately found myself back in bed again. This happened six times. The seventh day I cracked the egg and the egg cooked. Since that day, I have lived my life. I wonder what if the egg had cooked on the 5th day? This story about cooking the egg demon-strates how Lai is not a stranger to integrat-Stan Lai at the National
Theatre in Taipei, Taiwan photo by Michael Ting
by Solina Tith
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ing surreal elements in his theatrical work. Lai seamlessly blends both imaginary and realistic aspects of personal experiences in his work.
Lai brought his talent as director and playwright to guide students in a workshop sponsored by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford (IDA). IDA was started in 2001 as a way to support students, fac-ulty, and artists by fostering an environ-ment of cultural awareness at Stanford and its surrounding communities. IDA hopes to increase the opportunities for students to study non-western artistic practices. To date, sixteen artists have been invited to teach workshops in a variety of art forms, with an emphasis on race and diversity issues. As a participant in Lai’s IDA workshop, I worked alongside other stu-dents and Lai to develop a play, Stories for the Dead, which was performed at Stanford from March 15 to 17.
Working with Lai has taught me much about theme development and creativity. For instance, Bardo, meaning “in-between” death and rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism, was chosen as the underlying theme. However, work-ing with Lai, I realized that the Bardo theme was simply meant to guide our creativity and
would be applied very loosely to the devel-opment of the play. In fact, we were initially unsure if the play would even include scenes of death or rebirth. Instead, Lai placed more emphasis on how our own personal experi-ences of Bardo could be incorporated into the play. As a result, the other workshop partici-
pants and I developed our own concepts of the “in-between” by incorporating our unique perspective as students growing up in the United States.
Lai also primarily uses improvisational techniques to create his plays. With Lai’s direction, we used improvisation to freely in-tegrate our own personal feelings, experiences, and perceptions into scenes. The product was a play about the challenges of
growing up in the United States of Amer-ica, addressing issues such as American family dynamic, parent-child relationships, violence, individuals’ interactions with the community, socioeconomic divides, and iso-lation.
Stories for the Dead asks the question: to what extent are Americans aware of the unique challenges they face as a society? Thus, by integrating surreal elements in a thought-provoking, witty and entertain-ing manner, the play forces the audience to challenge their perceptions of true re-ality in America. From this experience I have learned that art is a window through
which communities can become more aware of serious social issues and is a way of inspir-ing social change. ■
For more information about the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford, visit:http://www.stanford.edu/dept/ida/.
Scen
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A Dream Like A Dreamphoto by River Wang
The Peach Blossom Land photo courtesy of Performance Workshop
“ ’’...art is a window through which communities can become more aware...
Stan Lai during a workshop sponsored by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford
Stan Lai and the students in his IDA workshop develop the play Stories for the Dead
photos courtesy of Solina Tith
Aesthetic
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T he stage is completely dark. A piece of music starts fi ltering through the speak-ers, fi lling a university auditorium with
music played on gongs. Lights direct our at-tention both to a man in a pre-colonial getup with a scimitar sword and to his kneeling female counterpart. Neither one is smiling. Pots of varying sizes are scattered around the stage. Throughout the dance, the man struts around the stage, gathering pots to be stacked atop the woman’s head culminating in a tower of earthenware. The man contin-ues to strut as the gongs build to a droning climax and the stage goes completely dark. Applause. “That gong music,” my sister asks me after the show, “sounded kind of like Missy Elliott’s ‘Get UR Freak On,’ didn’t it?”
This is my most prominent memory from a show that I saw during my childhood. It was a showcase of historical Philippine dance styles. A troupe of about twenty perform-ers danced short portrayals of various types of Filipinos: unsmiling Filipino Muslims, grim and indigenous Filipinos, lively peas-ant Filipinos. Since that night, I have been interested in how traditional-seeming perfor-mances, such as the one from my childhood, can have such undeniable force in the Fili-pino community. Are these dances popular because they remind us of historical bodies or because they are compelling fi ction?
Performance as a concept has always fas-cinated me. This summer, I worked at a Fili-pino community center in San Francisco and was approached by one of our partner La-tino organizations. They asked if our center could help diversify the ethnic entertainment of an interethnic neighborhood fair they were organizing, which included lion dancers and danza azteca. Our offering was a group of local youth dancing to the American pop art-ist Gwen Stefani.
Recently I learned that there were plans fl oating around for a multimillion dollar op-era-style Filipino arts space in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco. I found this to be an interesting development, considering the sizable low income Fili-pino population in that area and the recent struggles they have had securing affordable housing. In light of this obvious clash, I wondered: how do communities choose to present themselves onstage and how do these choices confl ict with social needs?
I am currently completing honors research on this subject in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE). In the process, I am constantly confronting this confl ict be-tween social forces and aesthetic forces in the Filipino community. The question that’s driving my work is simple but hard to an-swer: how are dancing bodies entangled with bodies offstage? ■
by Will Gutierrez
Social &Aes&Aesthetic&theticSocial &Social
theExploring the world of traditionalFilipino American music and dance in the Bay Area
photos courtesy of Will Guiterrez
Kulintang, a traditional Filipino percussion instrument, consists of eight tuned gongs.
PiNoisepop is an annual Asian/Filipino American music festival that takes place in San Francisco.
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B arely had the world recovered from a devastating tsunami and hurricanes when South Asia suffered a massive earth-quake in the early hours of October 8th 2005. The rumble
registered a powerful 7.6 on the Richter Scale ranking it among the largest earthquakes on record. While gentle tremors and aftershocks rippled across the entire region, significant damage was confined to the northern territories, most notably to the sections of the disputed state of Kashmir currently administered by Pakistan where nearly a 100,000 people are feared dead. The aftermath of the earthquake and relief efforts dominated the region’s news, thoughts and actions for months.
Entire buildings collapsed in and around Muzaffarabad in Kash-mir. The occupants of many homes and schools were killed instan-taneously while many others were left buried in the rubble only to be discovered days and even weeks later, barely clinging to life. The Pakistan Army spearheaded relief efforts by mobilizing troops in the area to clear the rubble and flying in supplies via airlifts. The nation was united in its efforts to collect funds and basic commodities to be distributed among the victims. Thousands of working professionals and students in the country cast aside their daily routines to lend a helping hand in the relief efforts. Unfortunately, all endeavors were impeded by the onset of a bitter Himalayan winter.
The response of the world to this tragedy has been heart-warm-ing. Several countries pledged billions of dollars of aid to Pakistan. Special mention must also be made of the student group Pakistanis
at Stanford. With support from the Muslim Student Awareness Net-work and Sanskriti, they prepared special presentations and flyers to create awareness about the tragedy on campus. According to their website, $19,318 has been successfully raised by the campus for this cause. Senior Maham Mela, an active member of Pakistanis at Stan-ford, points out that, “though the response was understandably less than that to the tsunami and Katrina, the efforts were commendable because this was the first time Pakistanis at Stanford was able to coordinate a project with off campus relief groups as well as organizations directly involved in Pakistan.”
It is heartening to see how people have demonstrated compassion through their mon-etary contributions and support of the relief efforts. Hope-fully, the government will use the funds to strengthen the in-frastructure and guard against future possibilities of damage. It is also notable that Pakistan and India agreed to open the Line of Control – the disputed boundary line - at five points to facilitate the movements of relief workers in the region. Perhaps the most important lesson for the region is how political boundaries cease to exist in times of need. ■
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Earthquakes strike South Asia and Stanford and the world responds
Tremorsin the Himalayas
by Jazib Zahir
(Left and below) After the earthquakes hit South Asia, many countries assisted by pledg-ing donations and other aid. Here, people in need of aid wait for helicopter relief. (Bot-tom) The state of Kashmir suffered the most from the earthquakes. 100,000 people are estimated to be dead.
photos courtesy of Jazib Zahir
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A vian Influenza, commonly known as bird flu, is an infectious disease caused by a class of viruses that normally in-
fect birds and sometimes pigs. Avian flu vi-ruses are highly species-specific, but have, on rare occasions, crossed the species bar-rier to infect humans. Bird flu harmlessly infects wild birds but can infect unprotected domestic birds through contact with infected bird saliva and secretions. Recent outbreaks in domestic birds and some humans in con-tact with these birds began in Southeast Asia around mid-2003 and are the largest number of infections on record: never have so many countries been simultaneously affected, re-sulting in the loss of many birds.
The pathogen, the H5N1 virus, has proved to be especially resilient. Despite the death or termination of an estimated 160 million birds, the virus is now considered endemic in many parts of the world. Control of the disease in poultry has proven to be extremely difficult due to this extreme virulence.
From mid-December 2003 until early February 2006, outbreaks in poultry have been reported in South Korea, Vietnam, Ja-pan, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mon-golia, Turkey, and Romania. Only Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia have announced control of their poultry outbreaks and are now considered free of the disease. In the other affected areas, outbreaks are continu-ing with varying degrees of severity.
The prevalence of H5N1 in poultry poses two main risks for human health. The first is the direct infection of humans from poul-try, resulting in severe symptoms. Although there are many forms of the avian flu virus, of the few avian flu viruses that have crossed the species barrier, H5N1 has caused the largest number of cases of severe disease
and death in humans. Victims’ health rapidly deteriorates, resulting in multi-organ failure and ultimately death. Most cases have oc-curred in healthy children and young adults, and over half of those infected have died. The second and even greater risk is the pos-sibility of mutations in the viral genome that will allow transmission from person to per-son. Such a change could result in a global
outbreak comparable to that of the 1918 avi-an flu outbreak that was caused by the H1N1 flu virus and killed between 20 million and 50 million people.
Human cases have been reported in sever-al countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Iraq, and Turkey. The risk of pandemic flu is serious, as each additional human case gives the virus an op-
AVIAN FLUby Yi-Ren Chen
“Despite an advance warning that has lasted almost two years, the world is ill-prepared to defend itself against a pandemic.
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portunity to improve its transmissibility in humans.
Despite an advance warning that has last-ed almost two years, the world is ill-prepared to defend itself against a pandemic. Al-though a vaccine against the H5N1 virus is under development in several countries, due to the high mutation rate, no H5N1 vaccine is ready for commercial production. Because
the vaccine needs to match the pandemic vi-rus, large scale production cannot start until the pandemic viral form has emerged. Un-fortunately, flu vaccines are produced using chicken eggs and take time to incubate, mak-ing it difficult to quickly respond to an out-break. Current global production capacity falls pitifully short of the projected demand that a pandemic would require. Two antivi-
ral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza can reduce the severity and duration of illness caused by flu. However, efficacy depends on early adminis-tration, usually within 48 hours of symptom onset. Another substantial constraint to wide usage is the limited production capacity and price of the drugs in most countries. It would take a decade to produce enough Tamiflu to treat 20% of the world’s population.
Fortunately, the World Health Organiza-tion (WHO) and many nations are taking steps to prepare for a pandemic. Follow-ing a donation by industry, WHO will have a stockpile of antiviral drugs sufficient for 3 million people by early 2006. These drugs can be used near the start of a pandemic in the geographic region of outbreak to reduce the number of human infections. Many na-tions have also proceeded to vaccinate its poultry and reduce the number of diseased birds. For instance, China has recently em-barked on an ambitious plan to vaccinate all of its poultry with 5.2 billion flu shots. These preventive measures will hopefully decrease the likelihood of a pandemic.
For now, it is safe to continue eating poultry, as there is no evidence that prop-erly cooked poultry or eggs can be a source of infection for avian influenza viruses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend any travel re-strictions to affected countries at this time. However, it is advisable for travelers to af-fected countries to avoid poultry farms, con-tact with animals in live food markets, and to avoid any surfaces that appear to be contami-nated with poultry secretions. ■
Information obtained from the World Health Or-ganization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Wayne F. Peate, M.D., M.P.H, associate professor of public health at the Col-lege of Public Health and of clinical family and community medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Arizona.
AVIAN FLU What You Should Know
’’Despite an advance warning that has lasted almost two years,
the world is ill-prepared to defend itself against a pandemic.
photos courtesy of Yi-Ren Chen
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M ay marks Asian Pacific Islander Month, which is celebrated all across the United States. At Stanford, Asian
Pacific Islanders currently constitute 24 per-cent of the undergraduate student population and 11 percent of the faculty. This year, sev-eral Asian American groups on campus have planned activities to celebrate the month. In June 1977, Representatives Frank Hor-ton of New York and Norman Y. Mineta of California introduced a House resolution that called upon President Jimmy Carter to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian Pacific Islander (API) Heritage Week. The following month, senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both bills were passed. On Oc-tober 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual cel-ebration. In May 1990, the holiday was expanded when President George H.W. Bush desig-nated May to be API Heritage Month. He chose May in order to commemorate the im-migration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843. The month of May is also significant because it marks the anniver-sary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad – which was built primarily by Chi-nese immigrants – on May 10, 1869. Dif-ferent events and struggles that Asian Pacific Islanders faced through history contribute to the importance of the month. History Professor Gordon Chang dis-cussed the tension that exists in the concept of API Heritage Month: “Is the month for Asian Pacific Islanders to celebrate their for-
eign ancestry or to celebrate their experience in America? It seems to be a catch-all for anything Asian.” The month is typically celebrated in a vari-ety of ways, ranging from indulging in Asian food and culture to discussions and confer-ences on current issues related to Asian Pa-cific Islanders. Yet the primary focus of the Month is ambiguous. According to Chang, “It’s unclear if API Month is meant to be kept inoffensive or if it is something to highlight more political issues, the struggles Asian Americans face today for greater inclusion.” At Stanford, several student groups are organizing events to celebrate the month and promote cultural awareness on campus about API history and issues. “As for AASA events, this year we are planning our annual events such as AASA Fashion Show and Asian Images,” said Asian American Students Association co-president Linda Tran. “The AASA Fashion Show is a
charity fundraiser in which the proceeds go to an Asian American organization that works on pressing issues in our Asian American com-munities, particularly that of sweatshop labor in the garment industry. Asian Images is a panel event of guest speakers that explores the topic of Asian Americans in the media.” Senior Brian Nguyen said that he felt that having a month devoted specifically to Asian Pacific Islanders may be counterproductive to promoting their culture “I don’t really no-tice if it’s Black History Month or Women’s Month, all the months are the same to me. Different groups shouldn’t be limited to spe-cific months to celebrate their culture. People should just respect each other and try to learn about different cultures. Because once API Heritage Month is over, does that mean you should stop learning about Asian people?” Junior Judy Wang echoed similar thoughts, saying, “API Heritage Month shouldn’t be just a month, it should be all year.” ■
Asian
API Month
Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Originates from a Bill
“ ”According to [history professor Gordon] Chang, ‘It’s unclear if API Month is meant to be kept offensive or if it is something to highlight more political is-
sues, the struggles Asian Americans face today for greater inclusion.’
photo courtesy of imagesoftheworld.org/thailand
by Jessica Wang
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M ore than three and a half years af-ter Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F) thought it was hip and marketable to
print racist images of Asians onto t-shirts, an-other company, Spencer’s Gifts, is at it again. This time the shirts have explicit sexual overtones. One shirt reads “Hang Out With Your Wang Out” with the same caricature of a buck-toothed, slanty-eyed Asian wearing a conical hat as its A&F predecessor. Although not as large as A&F, Spencer’s Gifts still has a large reach with over 600 mall locations in the United States and Can-ada. When the A&F shirts hit the shelves, within a day, Stanford students met to plan what to do about the t-shirts. A nationwide campaign started and students inundated A&F with phone calls, e-mails, and picket-ers. Much like the campaign against A&F, the movement against the Spencer’s Gifts t-shirts started with college students. Van-essa Au, a graduate student in the Bay Area, brought the controversy to the community’s attention through her blog. Word of the cam-paign then spread through e-mail, and people responded by calling Spencer’s Gifts and signing an online petition, which collected over 1500 signatures. Because of people’s efforts, Spencer’s Gifts has issued an apol-ogy and the t-shirts were pulled.
The appearance of these same moronic t-shirts after the A&F controversy begs a few answers. Why did these t-shirts appear again? The campaign against A&F was successful in getting the t-shirts removed and receiv-ing a lukewarm apology from the company, but there were no institutional changes. Few made the connection between the sale of rac-ist merchandise and the institutional and in-cidental racism within US history. Although Spencer’s Gifts issued an apology and pulled the offensive shirts from stores, images that demean and defame Asians/Asian Americans will (re)appear in the media, unless and until society addresses racism in the fullest sense. This controversy raises another funda-mental question. Why do college students react so quickly against racist t-shirts but do not take a stand against the sweatshops that exploit Asian workers to produce the t-shirts? Oftentimes, our anger and activism is limited to only what we think directly affects us. Ultimately, the degradation that we feel when racist shirts are made is linked to the degradation a worker feels when her rights are violated and her humanity denied. We share a common struggle with the rest of the world against oppression in all its forms. ■
For more information on this issue, please visit the web site: http://www.wearingracism.blogspot.com. ”
Spencer’s Gifts Hosts the Return
(Above right) The first t-shirt design to spark controversy. (Below) Two featured t-shirts on open display at a local Spencer’s Gifts bou-tique.
of the Racist T-Shirt and Sparks Asian American Student Activism
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photo courtesy of imagesoftheworld.org/thailand
by Mark Liu and Linda Lee
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During spring of my freshman year, I watched from the audience as girls moved their bodies sexily to the ad-dictive rhythm of Britney Spears’s “Toxic.” So this was AASA Fashion Show? It looked
amazing, and I love to dance. Soon after, I found out that I had gotten in. I was thrilled!
And then it hit me. What was I think-ing? I am not model material. I am 5’5” and a size 12…not a size 2. Self-doubt and misgivings about my body image plagued my thoughts during the first few Fashion Show practices.
Instead of squaring with my insecuri-ties, I faked confidence. During practices, I smiled and oozed self-assurance. Under-
neath it all, I was hoping no one was looking at me and wondering why I was there. In ret-rospect, it all seems silly. But at the time, as I looked around and saw attractive, thin Asian girls, I could not help but feel inadequate.
What gave me confidence was dancing. After much hip-hop experience, I knew I had rhythm and could “shake it.” One of our choreographers created an amazing all-girls routine to Ciara’s “1-2-Step.” We practiced hard every Friday afternoon to get the moves right. Our knees were bruised from going down on them so often on hardwood floors, but I had so much fun. I forgot about my body size at these practices because I was so wrapped up in dancing.
However, the feeling of inadequacy sprung up again when the Fashion Show clothes arrived. Aside from modeling in the sets I was dancing in and the finale, I found out I would not be modeling in any other sets. The clothes were too small.
Kimi Narita
Finding What I’ve Got
One Student’s Quest to Discover BeautyBeyond Female Idealism
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I cracked. That afternoon I cried to my friend who was participating in the Fashion Show as well. I cried about how insufficient I felt compared to stereotypical Asian female body images. I am not small like how Asian girls should be. I am not thin like how Asian girls should be. I am not dainty like how Asian girls should be.
After that good cry, I knew I could no longer fake confidence. I wasn’t happy. In-stead, I turned to what made me confident--dancing. When I dance, all that body image junk melts away until all that is left is the beat of the music and the movements of the dance. With modeling, there were no flashy dance moves to cover up what I looked like. This was a frightening thought until I real-ized something.
It was all in my head. No one in Fash-ion Show ever made me feel like I did not belong. Instead, I made lasting friends. No one in the audience ever laughed or sneered
at me when I modeled. Instead, they cheered loudly. And when I was on stage, with the bright lights and blaring music, I felt sexy for the first time in my life. I felt sexy when I danced, and I felt sexy when I modeled.
It took me a long time to realize some-thing very simple: fitting into stereotypes is severely overrated. No, I do not have the body of a stereotypical Asian woman. But now it doesn’t matter as much to me.
Confidence isn’t found through trying to fit into those stereotypes but by mak-ing the most of what you’ve got. I know this is easier said than done. I am still self-conscious about my body. Feelings of inadequacy spring up more often than I would like, but I get over them easier after having this experience. In the end, being in Fashion Show was a journey that made me feel…good. I could not have asked for more. ■
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Finding What I’ve Got
photos courtesy of Kimi Narita
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All of a sudden ev-erywhere I turn, it’s all about the geisha. Especially with the recent release of Steven Spielberg’s Memoirs of a Gei-sha (2005), the cin-ematic rendition of Arthur Golden’s 1997 bestseller of
the same name, images of the geisha seem to be appearing everywhere. Preceding the release of this film, the San Francisco Asian Art Museum featured a popular ex-hibit titled: “Geisha: Beyond the Painted Smile” from June until September 2004. All over San Francisco, pictures of the gei-sha were pasted onto billboards, buses, and taxicabs. It was rare that you could escape her “painted smile.” According to a press release put out by the museum, “geisha have
Beyond the been a powerfully evocative icon of Japan and a source of fascination around the world since the late nineteenth century.” Undeniably, the geisha has indeed fascinated people throughout the world and continues to do so. Un-fortunately, perceptions of the geisha often serve to rein-force notions of Asian American women as submissive sexual objects.
Although many, myself included, do not know what a geisha is, what she does, or who she is supposed to be, there do exist some negative perceptions of the geisha as a prostitute and highly sexualized woman. These im-ages of the geisha as beautiful, sexualized, and subservi-ent have in some cases been projected onto Asian and Asian American women. Within film and other media forms, Asian American women have been typecast into two contradictory roles – the overly sexualized dragon lady and the docile servant. The “exotic” Asian Ameri-can woman is expected to be both docile and kind while keeping her sexual secrets hidden. While the recent re-lease of Memoirs of a Geisha has re-sparked notions of Asian American female exoticism and sexual objectiv-ity, some Asian Americans continue to resist these ste-
Painted SmileLinda Lee
artful sexualized the
ofresistance
geisha
all photos courtesy of Linda Lee
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reotyped images.Centered on the Geisha art exhibit at the Asian Art
Museum in San Francisco, Scott Tadashi Tsuchitani, a 3rd generation Japanese American artist, attempts to contest negative images of Asian American wom-en by reappropriating the Asian Art Museum posters of the geisha. In an interview with the San Fran-cisco Chronicle in December 2004, Tsuchitani says, “When I first saw those images throughout the city, it annoyed me. It kept bugging me, and at a certain point, I realized I can stop getting upset about it and make art out of it.” Tsuchitani’s art consisted of a spoof of the postcards and flyers used to publicize the art exhibit. His postcards consisted of an image of Tsuchitani himself dressed as a geisha whose face is partially hidden by a fan and plastic-framed glasses and a line reading, “Orientalist Dream Come True: GEISHA – perpetuating the Fetish.”
Here Tsuchitani is using his art to comment and criticize the way Asian/Asian American women have historically been viewed as a fetish, or highly de-sired. Although the Asian Art Museum argues that their show concerning the geisha was an attempt to contest the popular ideas that the geisha was or is a prostitute, as opposed to a highly trained and edu-cated entertainer and partner, Tsuchitani argues that the plastering of images of the geisha all over San Francisco simply fed the public curiosity and never completely demolishes stereotypes attached to the geisha. For Tsuchitani, other Asian American activ-ists, and many Asian American women, who might not identify as activists, the image of the geisha is not a flattering one, but one that reduces Asian American female identity to that of a sex object.
In attempt to resist such simplification of the Asian American female, Tsuchitani, although he is a man, reinter-prets the image of the geisha used by the Asian Art Museum by making it his own and pok-ing fun at the delicacy an im-age of the geisha is supposed to provoke. Furthermore, Tsuchitani does not just make art but tries to share his art with people. Tsuchitani reminisces, “On the closing weekend of the “Geisha” show, my friend S. and I plastered Japantown [in San Francisco] with doz-ens of mini-posters, and then proceeded to plant five dozen glossy inserts in the informa-tion booth inside the Asian Art Museum itself.” The work that
Tsuchitani does is not simply meant to be consumed by art connoisseurs, but are piec-es meant to provoke and destabilize one’s perception of dominant, normative culture. Art is not just for the viewing pleasure but can also have a very particular political function.
Therefore, in thinking about more recent images of the geisha, such as in the recently released Memoirs of a Geisha, one must rethink and examine closely the ways in which these characters are portrayed. The Asian community must openly discuss and question these social norms. It is then that we can truly appreciate the work of Scott Tsuchitani and the way art is used to resist Orientalism and other forms of social ste-reotypes. ■
For more information about Scott Tsuchi-tani’s work, see his blog Memoirs of a Sansei Geisha: Snapshots of Cultural Resistance at http://www.geishacrossing.blogspot.com.
all photos courtesy of Linda Lee
photos courtesy of Linda Lee
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experience?In total des-
peration, I even succumbed to asking for help from Clippy, the annoying paper clip in the lower right hand corner of my MS Word program.
Clippy: What would you like to do?Me: Discover what is the Stanford Uni-
versity experience.Clippy: (Blinks twice.) Do you mean:
“College graduate resume” template? “Re-quest for graduate school recommendation” template?
Me: (Bangs my head on keyboard.)And so, for lack of better direction from
Clippy and in order to economize my 500 word limit, I have decided to make a list of my top five memories in the Stanford Asian American community:
1. Watching so many different commu-nities at Stanford come together to support a greater cause, whether it be the Tsunami relief effort in Southern Asia or the Bone Marrow Typing Drive in honor of Professor Gordon Chang’s daughter, Chloe Chang.
For the past week, I have postponed all social meetings, school work, and measures of personal hygiene in order to write an awe-inspir-ing, revolutionary farewell to the Class of 2006. But now that the end of the
week has arrived and I am starting to receive threatening e-mails from my TAs demand-ing my reasons for missing mandatory sec-tions, I have come to the sad realization that I spent most of my week either staring at a completely white screen or occasionally checking thefacebook.com. And by occa-sionally, I mean every five minutes.
But please understand my difficulty. How could I possibly begin to sum up the last four years of my life into a single page? How do I even begin to describe all of the amazing Stanford traditions I have experienced, the articulate and passionate people I have met, or the knowledge I have learned both inside and outside of the classroom? In other words, how do I describe the Stanford University
2. Going to Castro St. at 2 O’clock in the morning for a late-night “Pho Run.”
3. Watching the ASAA Fashion show for the first time and being blown away at the amazing dance, choreography, and design talent at Stanford.
4. Turning 21 only to be carded the next day at a rated “R” movie. (I guess they are right when they say Asians look young.)
5. Getting literally “screwed” for Screw Your Sib and then being able to exact revenge a year later. =)
To the Underclassmen: Don’t worry if you have not yet had similar experiences– you still have time create your own Stanford memories. Stanford has so many resources and surprises waiting for you, so go out and make your own memories.
To the Seniors: I hope that these were some of your favorite memories too. Unfor-tunately, we only have the next two months left together. Listen to some wise advice I heard from an elder: Life is like a roll of toi-let paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes. So, take advantage of all the opportunities that Stanford can offer while we have them. You have the rest of your life to worry about “the real world.” See you at the next Senior Pub Night! ■
all photos courtesy of Stephanie Nguyen
“ ”Take advantage of all the opportunities that Stan-ford can offer while we have them. You have the rest of your life to worry about ‘the real world.’
24 communicasians
Stephanie Nguyen
communicASIANS spring 2006 Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage Paid
Palo Alto, CAPermit No. 187
***TIME VALUE PLEASE EXPEDITE***
Published by the Asian American Activities Center, 545 Lomita Drive, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-3064(650) 723-3681 http://a3c.stanford.edu
