shu mai, mars, and other stuff
Inspired by (miss) shu mai
Good morning? evening? we're a little tired lol but hope u learn something outta this!
As always, we'd appreciate if you could share this newsletter with one friend you think might like it! :') forward a past favorite or send the link below… thank you!
Love,
Jamie and Melinda
TW: police brutality, death, graphic
Before we get started, we wanted to make you all aware of a recent incident of police brutality that resulted in the death of Navy veteran Angelo Quinto (30 years old). He died at the hands of police at the end of December 2020 after his family called 9-1-1 for help because he was experiencing a mental health crisis. One officer knelt on his neck for almost 5 minutes. Thank you to our friend and reader AJ who shared this with us. Go here to learn more and sign petitions.
News
🚀 Filipino American engineer Gregorio Villar III and Indian American scientist Dr. Swati Mohan were key players in NASA's Feb. 18 landing of a rover on Mars.
🗽 Tahanie Aboushi, "a fiery veiled Palestinian attorney," is running for Manhattan District Attorney! When she was 14, her father was sentenced to 22 years in prison, after which she was forced to confront the "brutal justice system." Tahanie says, "Muslims are... a group that is severely underrepresented in public spaces like the media or politics. This lack of representation has facilitated the hateful rhetoric and false generalizations that have targeted Muslims for so long."
Source: Image via MuslimGirl.com
😠 Harvard professor J. Mark Ramseyer claimed in a recent paper titled "Contracting for sex in the Pacific War" that the "comfort women" of WWII entered s*xual slavery voluntarily... Many Harvard students have signed petitions demanding a formal apology from the professor.
The Korean Association of Harvard Law School stated, "As students, we have the utmost respect for academic freedom, including that of Professor Ramseyer. But at the same time, we firmly believe that a sincere commitment to academic freedom is inseparable from the obligation of academic integrity as part of a genuine search for truth."
💵 California just passed a bill allocating $1.4 million to track anti-Asian bias and hate crimes, supporting Stop AAPI Hate's ongoing efforts. (Between March and August 2020, >40% of the self-reported anti-Asian discrimination incidents they received were from California.)
TIL... A briefer on Chinatowns
So recently, my friends and I took a trip to Chinatown in Philly (before it got snowy and icy). I hadn’t been for a while because it normally is an hour and a half round trip walk, but I was so happy to have visited again. Growing up, there weren’t a lot of Chinatowns per se where I lived, and coming to Philly, it was super interesting to go and got me curious about the history of all the “towns” and ethnic enclaves in America. So… figured we’d do some reading lol
Source: VisitPhilly
Whether its explicit (as in early SF where migrants were often barred from inhabiting and inheriting property) or comes about more organically as immigrants cluster with those they already know, a critical component of the existence of urban ethnic enclaves like Chinatowns is segregation. Philly, though a diverse city, is also the nation’s 4th most segregated big city. The history of Chinatowns almost always begins with migration. As one of the major ports of entry into the mainland, the Chinatown in SF is the largest and oldest one in America. Single men who worked as railroad laborers, farmhands, and miners settled into these communities, and demand for cleaning services and hot meals “led to a proliferation of laundry services and restaurants” (source).
Labor disputes and the use of Asian immigrants as cheaper workers and scapegoats led to resentment and the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the late 1800s. Followed by the destruction of property and violence, many Chinatowns at the time were seen as dirty (physically and morally) and sus places. Reconstruction of the areas by wealthier Asian merchants cast new buildings in traditional dynastic architecture to transform the image and attract tourism.
Chinatowns today are largely pan-ethnic, prompted by larger-scale migration after the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act and redevelopment in the 1970s with refugees from the Vietnam War. During COVID, tourism to these areas has vastly declined, “buffeted by the twin traumas of xenophobia and a public health crisis” (source). There has been a massive uptick in violence over the past couple of months.
Source: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
In particular, the Philly Chinatown is a growing neighborhood located near Center City. (fun fact: Philly had been experiencing an overall population decline at least since the 2000s, and recent recovery has largely been driven by immigration). Between the 60s and 80s, the development of Philly and urban renewal projects like expressway construction threatened Chinatown’s borders and community centers. Today, it is supported by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, a coalition of community and business leaders, and there are a number of cool community orgs that operate there (including Asian Arts Initiative and Asian Americans United). Celebrations and traditional elements are still visible; my friends and I visited the weekend before Lunar New Year, and people were really amped to get ready for the holiday.
Source: MyPhillyAlive. A non-COVID new year celebration
“According to the 2010 Census, the bulk of Chinatown residents were still Chinese, although the area was also 4.4 percent Asian Indian, 4 percent Korean, 2 percent Vietnamese, and 1 percent Filipino and Japanese, with smaller numbers of Indonesian, Malaysian, Cambodian, Pakistani, and Burmese residents. Chinatown also housed Vietnamese, Burmese, Korean, Japanese, and Malaysian businesses. “ - Kathryn Wilson / Philadelphia Encyclopedia
That all said, I’m sure there is so much rich history and information that we may have missed in writing this. If you have any suggestions, corrections, or thoughts, please let us know! Things we are wondering: How do international students from Asia experience Chinatowns (and -towns more in general)? If you grew up in a Chinatown, what was that like? Also FYI if you're in Philly, here are some restaurants to try.
Small Feelings
Maybe to some people's surprise, I'm the only East Asian person in my larger ~25-person team at work (there's only 1 other Asian person - a South Asian man). My team is really white... anyhow, I decided to share some news articles with my team on the anti-Asian violence (esp against the elderly) and hopefully made a tiny difference... this news has been plastered everywhere in my bubbles but probably not in theirs.
✨ S P O T L I G H T ✨
Miss Shu Mai // Jeffrey Liang
Born and raised in SF Bay Area, Jeffrey Liang is "a queer, 2nd generation Chinese/Taiwanese-American choreographer, drag performer, spoken word artist, and activist based in Los Angeles." His drag persona is Miss Shu Mai.
On a monthly basis, Miss Shu Mai co-produces "LA’s first and only monthly Asian/PAcific Islander drag show called “Send Noodz." Aside from having performed from shows all over California, she's spoken at universities, including UC Irvine, UC Berkeley, and Loyola Marymount University. She uses drag as a way to bring queer APIs together and to talk about about important issues. Follow here on Instagram here.
It just so happens that Miss Shu Mai's roommate, Emory Chao Johnson, made a film about Miss Shu Mai. This film is streaming for free on Saturday, Feb. 27 as part of UCLA's Asian American Studies Center Film Festival that's happening this past weekend/this upcoming weekend. Sign up here!
💫 We would love to know any AAPI individuals or groups that you think are cool. Fill out the nomination form, and we'll write a spotlight about them!
Chef's Specials
💄 Kulfi Beauty, a South Asian make-up brand, just launched! The founder, Priyanka Ganjoo, previously worked at BCG. Here's Kulfi Beauty's feature in Vogue.
✍🏽 Asian American Writers' Workshop writers look back at the the past four years of Trump, from immigration, to airstrikes in Yemen, to Trump's Muslim ban.
🎾 Naomi Osaka won the Australian Open, winning her 4th Grand Slam title.
Events
Saturday, Feb. 27, 3pm PT - UCLA's Asian American Studies Center Film Festival; most of them are sold out already, BUT you can still sign up for the Visions of Fire: LGBTQ+ Voices (you can still watch Anna May Wong: Asian American Icon, which was already screened, here)
March 5-6 - BIWOC Gathering Circle - "The goal of the BIWOC Gathering Circle is to create a dialogue among, Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color, health policy professionals and decision-makers, health care providers and relevant stakeholders about the key issues that uniquely or disproportionately impact on the health status and health care of women of color and people who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community."