(inspired by Professor Mai Ngai’s lecture) Anti-Immigration sentiment has always been prevalent in America. From the Chinese Exclusion Acts and neglection of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to American imperialism in Southeast Asia and El Salvador, those who identify as Latinx and Asian seem to constantly be positioned as foreigners who are unable to assimilate…
I was a chubby child. My weight problem could have been exacerbated by thoughtlessness or laziness, but it was still bad enough in its own right to force my Asian parents into regulating my diet, monitoring my workouts, and instilling in me a sense of shame (which I didn’t have), all through subtle hints and…
Growing up in Belgium, my brother and I were the only two yellow-skinned, black-haired Asian kids at our overwhelmingly white Flemish primary school. During the first week, the timid and the shy among my classmates gaped at me from a distance, while the braver souls approached me with naïve curiosity, one urgent question burning in…
When you type “Chinese students” and “classroom” in Google, the first article that jumps out is titled “Why Are My Chinese Students so Quiet?”. If you search the same words in Quora, you will find all kinds of discussions relating to the same topic. There seems to be a preconception that Chinese students sit silently…
The controversial Atlantic article “My Family’s Slave” by the late journalist Alex Tizon sparked a range of emotion and discussion. Tizon writes about Eudocia Tomas Pulido, a Filipina domestic worker his family enslaved for 56 years and how he felt about her contested role in the family, even after her death. Reactions ranged from sadness…
My mom is Taiwanese and my dad is Chinese, but many people only see me as Chinese. This was more of an issue when I was growing up than it is now, but usually when I tell someone in the U.S. that I’m Taiwanese and Chinese, they reply with, “Oh, so you’re Chinese, right?” As…