In May, our nation recognizes Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month, an annual celebration of achievement and remembrance of struggle and hardship among these communities in the U.S. and beyond.
Da Eun Kim and Sophia Sun, co-hosts of the podcast “bamboo & glass,” presented a keynote address on April 29 regarding their unique experiences growing up in the Bay Area of the U.S.
Kim is a Korean American storyteller working in filmmaking and podcasting while pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
Her work centers around unearthing meaningful identities about the Asian American identity, diaspora and multi-generational family lifestyle.
Sun is a Chinese American product manager for Flipgrid, focusing on empowering learners to share their voice and learn from others in video-based social learning communities.
Kim and Sun presented the historical context playing into the current conditions of living as a person with Asian or Pacific Islander heritage in America, including racist immigration acts, stereotypes, the concept of a “model minority” and cultural erasure.
“This doesn’t excuse any of the awful acts of hatred that we’ve been seeing, but it does provide some context, and it does prompt us to think about how systems like immigration and media are shaping these assumptions, and the subsequent actions,” Kim said.
The speakers used this historical context to explain the increased rates of discrimination, prejudice and violence towards AAPI individuals over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These acts of violence often stem from assumptions the victim is of Chinese heritage, therefore having something to do with the spread of the virus, a form of stereotyping that is not original to COVID-19.
People of Asian descent, especially those identifying as Chinese, have often been subjected to harmful assumptions about cleanliness, hygiene, relating to disease. This has been seen as recently as the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak, and as far back as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barring Chinese immigrants from entering the country based on several racial prejudices including a perceived lack of cleanliness.
On the other hand, AAPI individuals have experienced an increase in pride, recognition and success in 2021, often found in politics, media representation and accolades, an area that has historically excluded or underrepresented those of AAPI descent.
This includes recognition in film award programs particularly, as “Parasite” enthralled audiences and “Nomadland” awarded the second-ever Best Director honor to Chloe Zhao, an Asian American woman, along with Best Picture. In 2020, Andrew Yang, an Asian American man, was a front-runner for the presidential office.
“It’s an interesting time for the U.S. because, while there are these awards and name recognitions, it’s also a time of a lot of strife and struggle,” Sun said.
Kim and Sun also touched on how the learned stereotypes and assumptions towards themselves as a Korean American and Chinese American resulted in a sense of “otherness” or exclusion and ostracism in their communities. This spanned from musical interest in piano and violin, to college applications, to interest in film and media production rather than more traditional careers in law or medicine.
“I think there is some redeeming aspect of wanting to find that unique value in us and being able to feel empowered, but it can prevent you from wanting to continue to pursue a passion… because so many other people are doing it,” Sun said, commenting on how certain passions and hobbies were stereotyped to be more “Asian” than others.
Kim and Sun concluded their presentation by discussing AAPI Heritage Month and the most effective ways to deconstruct harmful social stigmas and discriminatory attitudes towards AAPI individuals.
“I think there is a balance of ‘how can we all do our best to contribute our time and effort to uplifting the community and practicing in a more hands-on way’, but also continue to elevate the voices that are doing the storytelling to bring more visibility to the Asian American community,” Kim said. “I think that’s always going to be a hard balance, and I think it’s not one-size-fits-all … everyone has their own way of doing advocacy.”
“bamboo & glass” is available on all podcast streaming services and is released weekly, discussing success, self-empowerment, the workplace, relationships, diversity, cultural traditions, and more.
“I found that I could really relate as to the stories and conversations not only as an Asian American woman, but as a young person just trying to navigate the world through the process of constant learning, which is what their podcast is all about,” Mariah Soriano, a member of the UI’s Asian-American Pacific Islander Association, said. “You should listen if you’ve been searching for the right words of inspiration to start important conversations with yourself, or loved ones.”
Katarina Hockema can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kat_hockema