Inspired by bitter melon
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<3 Melinda and Jamie
News
🗽 The New Way Forward Act, a bill "sponsored by 34 Democrats in the House and endorsed by more than 300 organizations, seeks to decriminalize immigration and tackle systemic racism in the country's immigration system." This could mean that many Southeast Asian Americans previously deported or in the process of deportation could stay in the U.S. Under Trump, there was a notable rise in detentions and deportations for SE Asian Americans.
😧 The coup in Myanmar: the military seized control of Myanmar on Monday, detaining the civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her party, the National League for Democracy after they had "won by a landslide" in the recent general election. The military claimed there was voter fraud, though there's no evidence to support this. President Biden has mentioned the possibility of reinstating sanctions on Myanmar.
Some background: The military has taken over the country before, as it ruled the country from 1962 to 2011. In 1989, the military changed the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar. In the 1990s, Aung San Suu Kyi started a movement to restore democracy in Myanmar; this earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, while she was under house arrest due to the military. Sadly, she has denied that the military has committed genocide against the Rohingya minority group in Myanmar.
🦠 Andrew Yang, a current NYC mayoral candidate, tested positive for COVID-19
📣 The farmers protests near/in New Delhi continue. Authorities have still blocked Internet service at protest sites, locking folks out of social media. During India's Republic Day on January 26, people demonstrated at the Red Fort, a historic monument. Violence between police and protesters occurred. Talks between farmers' union leaders and the government have not progressed.
Source: CNN (Red For in New Delhi)
TIL... some interesting early migration history
So I was auditing an Asian American Studies class earlier this semester, and our set of readings came out of Shelley Sang-Hee Lee's "A New History of Asian America", and wow it was actually quite fascinating all the things I learned in the first two chapters.
I knew that prior to the 1900s, there was an initial wave of Asian migration to the US, but outside of the Chinese workers on the Transcontinental railroad, none of my regular history classes ever covered anything of the sort. I see AAPI migration history as a larger extension of the labor conversation we had two weeks ago, and learned during the class how the experience of migration was deeply tied to the foreign policy of the original nation and the US at the time.
In the mid-late 1800s, Asian immigrants primarily originated from 5 countries: China, Japan, Korea, India, and the Philippines. Asian immigration bloomed at a time after the Civil War when the growing country faced a labor shortage of agricultural workers after the emancipation of slaves in the South. Recruitment agencies and the prospect of higher wages pulled immigrants (men only, as most women the Page Act of 1875 banned female East Asian immigrants) out of their historical homes as they set out to work on sugar plantations (mostly in Hawaii, which at the time was an independent kingdom, later to be annexed by the US in 1898), railroads, gold mines, and other forms of indentured servitude.
China: Most of the immigrants here are Cantonese from the Guangdong (now 广东) region. Following the Opium Wars, which left China at an economic and foreign policy disadvantage, increased trade in these historical port cities in the region grew, and many of the first contacts with China from the US were through merchants. As population growth in the area outstripped the land base, men seeking jobs and economic opportunities would take out loans or come as indentured servants (this was often known as the credit-ticket system). Initially, they were sent to Hawaii as contract workers (also derogatorily known as "coolies"), and by 1870, almost 25% of the California workforce.
Source link
Japanese: After the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which rooted out Western influences and isolated foreigners in the country, the Meiji Restoration, which began in 1868, reestablished ties with the West. Relations between Japan and the US were open, and while many laborers came in the later years (1880s+), the largest category of early immigrants were students! Despite the Page Act, they were sometimes able to bring over wives ("picture brides"), which contributed to the stability of Japanese immigrant communities in the US.
Source: Immigration to the US
Korea: Korea had a ton of diverse immigrants. At the end of the 19th century, after having the Russia-Sino War, Sino-Japanese War, and annexation by Japan, Korea was in a period of internal disarray. Much of the immigrants at this time were converted Christians as a result of intense missionary work in the region.
Source: Boston University
Filipino: During and after the Spanish-American War, the US became involved in the Philippine Revolution for independence, and sike! were like "no can do! imperialism!". Following US occupation, Filipinos that sought Western education went to the US for school, similar to the Japanese. The Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA) also played an active role in recruiting Filipino workers - mostly Ilocanos instead of Tagalogs - to sugar plantations in Hawaii and lobbied for legislation in Washington.
Source: This one Tumblr blog that was a class project (lowkey check this out its kinda lit)
India: Indian migration was framed by the dynamics of empire at the time. Internal migration among the British colonies was high, and many Indians were also subject to the coolie trade. Some landed in Canada, where they worked on railway construction and lumber yards, and some ended up in the Caribbean (the Indo-Caribbean history is pretty interesting). Of the people who ended up in the US, almost all were Punjabis of Sikh faith. A new system of land taxation (they were forced to pay in cash rather than being able to pay in-kind) drove most off their land, and they came in small groups (mostly self-funded, sometimes on loans) to the US, where their place in the racial and social order was ambiguous.
Source: Immigration to the US
These are just small notes from the readings I did - let us know if you have any thoughts, corrections, or comments to make! We thought this stuff was really interesting and were surprised at how little we knew about all this...
Small Feelings
☃️ I love the snow!! I wish I had a sled to sled down the hill in my backyard. Props to my dad for shoveling a lot (my sister and I tried to help as much as possible)
🐱 We got a lucky cat (the one that waves), and because of it I won a mahjong round twice!
Love this shit ⬇️
✨ S P O T L I G H T ✨
Source: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
Bela Bajaria
VP of Global TV on Netflix (Forbes Most Powerful Women 2020)
Bela Bajaria moved to the U.S. as an 8-year-old from London. Her parents, originally from Zamba, wanted to go to the U.S. in the 1970s to chase the American dream, opening car washes. While a young adult, she entered pageants, eventually winning Miss India USA, then Miss India Universe in 1991.
As for her career, she worked at CBS, then Universal (later becoming President). While she was at Universal Television, she "green-lit The Mindy Project, the first major show from a South Asian woman." She said, “I always imagine a brown girl as the hero of the story. That’s the way I see the world." She had also worked on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."
In 2016, she joined Netflix as head of its foreign original series, later becoming VP of Content. Late last year, she became the head of Global TV, a rise that surprised many.
In a recent interview, Bela said, “One of the first things I did when I came into my role overseeing non-English language content in the last year was banish the word ‘international’– because I wanted to erase this idea that there is US content and ‘international’ content. All content is local for our members, and sometimes they want to watch in a language other than their own, which Netflix makes incredibly easy and satisfying."
I'll end this spotlight by @ Netflix for not having Asian language subtitles for a lot of Netflix movies and shows... Hoping Bela is working on this!
Chef's Specials
🌴 The Netflix original movie Finding Ohana came out on January 29. It's "'a Goonies style movie in Hawaii that was about family, culture, and heritage' with three of the four starring roles played by Asian and Pacific Islander actors."
😢 "What it's like for Asian Americans to watch family enjoy 'normal' life overseas during Covid" (relatable, as I see IG stories of people there)
🏏 Maybe Major League Cricket will be a thing in the U.S. in 2022?