Asian Pacific Coalition

The Asian Pacific Coalition (APC) at UCLA is a progressive coalition of 24 Asian and Pacific Islander (API) student organizations at UCLA. We work to promote coalition-building among API and other student student organizations. University of California, Los Angeles Est. 1975 Facebook | Twitter | Official Website

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Re(Claim) AAPI – Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

It is undeniable that Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities have played key roles in shaping the institutions, cultures, and histories of the United States. Today, AAPI communities comprise a significant portion of the United States, growing in prominence and power. However, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders still face multiple forms of misunderstandings, misrepresentations, and discrimination which attempt to stifle collective voices and erase self-determined histories. In a tense political climate where the importance of race and ethnicity are continually denied, we must remind ourselves that contentious figures such as Alexandra Wallace, Pete Hoekstra, and the perpetrators of Danny Chen’s suicide occurred only within the last two years alongside the rise of inspirational figures such as Jeremy Lin.

It is in these multi-faceted experiences of being Asian American and Pacific Islander today that we invite you to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) during May. We call upon our community to reflect upon and engage in what it means to (Re)Claim our AAPI identities alongside our multiple intersecting identities. Throughout May, we invite you to join the Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA in partnership with our member organizations and the Office of Residential Life to our events to remember and reflect upon our homes, heritage, and histories, both in the United States and elsewhere.

For a full list of events, check out http://apcla.org/wordpress/2012/04/27/reclaim-aapi-asian-pacific-american-heritage-month/

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Follow-Up Response to Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout

Follow-Up Response to Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout

by: Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA

August24, 2011

Earlier this summer, the Palace Restaurant Seafood and Dim Sum establishment partnered with a UCLA student-run business known as UCLA Munchies to open a takeout service. This service took the name "Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout," in reference to the online rant posted by Alexandra Wallace: "Asians in the Library."

The use of such a racial slur prompted a response from several sources, including Assemblyman Mike Eng. We, the Asian Pacific Coalition, released a statement and called the takeout service to change the name. Shortly afterwards Rachel Lee, the owner of the Palace Restaurant, responded with an apology and changed the name to C2L2. She said that she had already thought of changing the name of the takeout service, as she was unsure about the sensitivity of the original one.

However, the students behind UCLA Munchies have maintained that the name was only meant as a joke. They are looking for another business to partner with for the takeout service, and have stipulated that the original name must stay.

We must stress again that while the name was meant to be used humorously, it still carries many negative connotations. "Ching chong ling long" originated as a slur against Chinese immigrants to America, and this history prevents it from being reclaimed as a harmless joke. The phrase is still used today to mock the Chinese language (as demonstrated in Alexandra Wallace's video). As such, it is inappropriate to use the slur as a name for any business.

The Asian Pacific Coalition appreciates that The Palace Restaurant has changed the name of their takeout service. However, we would like to ask the students behind UCLA Munchies to meet and engage in a discussion about the use of the name and its harmful effects.

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API EQUALITY - LA Volunteer Orientation!

Join API Equality-LA for an afternoon to have fun, network with passionate activists, and find out about our amazing volunteer opportunities. Once again, California’s LGBTQ community is under attack. Now is the time for us to come together to learn about the challenges we face and take action for LGBTQ equality. Volunteering with API Equality-LA offers opportunities to: - Work with seasoned activists in the API community - Stay informed about LGBTQ community issues - Be a part of a great community. Join us on Saturday August 13! As a community of activists united across generations, we will work together to change hearts and minds for LGBTQ equality. EVERYONE is welcomed! Lunch and snacks will be served, please RSVP with Tran Le at [email protected] When: 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Saturday, August 13, 2011 Where: Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) | 1145 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90017 Questions/RSVP: Tran Le | [email protected] | (818) 292 - 6922 Visit API Equality - LA to learn more.

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The Chinese American Museum is seeking VOLUNTEERS

To whom it may concern,

I wanted to give you heads up about a volunteer opportunity that may interest your center.  The Chinese American Museum (CAM) is celebrating an upcoming event called the 15th Annual Historymakers Awards Banquet happening Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown L.A. The event serves as the museum's major annual fundraiser as well as a platform for us to recognize and honor individuals who have made a significant impact in the Chinese American community.  

  CAM is looking to recruit lots of volunteers for the event, especially with the SET UP SHIFT (anytime between 11am-5pm).  Though I know most of the Center's volunteers are students, I figured I send this out to you anyway, just in case there are students who might be available and interested in helping out.  Please visit website www.camla.org to learn more about the Chinese American Museum.

  Click this link for more VOLUNTEER details:  http://camla.org/pressreleases/2011/Volunteer%20Call.pdf Click this link for more EVENT details:  http://camla.org/historymakers.html 

  Many thanks,

  Linh Duong Communications Director Chinese American Museum 425 North Los Angeles Street Los Angeles, CA 90012 www.camla.org [phone](office) (213-473-4224 (fax) 

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Stacey's Departure from UCLA AASD

Dear Colleagues, Hope this email finds you all enjoying the summer. I write to let you know, with deep regret, that Stacey Hirose, our MSO, is leaving her position in the AAS Department to become the MSO of the Department of Public Policy in the Luskin School of Public Affairs, effective August 15, 2011. Stacey has been an asset to the Asian American Studies Center and the Asian American Studies IDP since her student days. I, among others, witnessed that phase of her social and intellectual quests with a deep impression. She now holds two Master degrees from UCLA (Asian American Studies, 1993; History, 1998) and she has been a Ph.D. candidate in History at UCLA since 1998. Since 1998, Stacey has served the AAS IDP/Department with an extremely high level of competence and performances, initially as a Counseling Assistant (1998-2001), then as a Student Affairs Office (2001-2007), and, in recent years, as the Department Manager (2007 – Present). In fulfilling these demanding, and often times thankless, obligations, Stacey has demonstrated extraordinary passion, dedication, selflessness, and ingenuity, her heart always resonant with student and faculty needs and her eyes always set on the larger goals and interest of Asian American Studies both as an academic institution and as a live community of memory, history, and ongoing concerns. We will miss Stacey dearly with fondness, appreciation, and affections. And we all wish her the best in her future career pursuit with the Department of Public Policy. Stacey is not leaving us now; it won’t happen until August 15, and I will make sure that all goes as scheduled despite her imminent departure. I am already working with College Human Resources and the Dean’s Office in identifying our next MSO.  This, of course, does not rule out the possibility of making an interim MSO arrangement during the transition period. Continue to enjoy the summer; I will keep you posted. Regards, Jinqi Ling, Chair Department of Asian American Studies      

Thanks Stacey for all your hard work and dedication with the Asian American Studies department and with working with students! We wish you luck in your new post!

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AAS 187C: Preserving Community through Cultural Performance

Preserving Community through Cultural Performance: From the Pilipino Culture Night Experience

Fall 2011

TR, 12:30 pm to 1:45 pm

Dodd 167

Instructor: Dom Magwili

This course will explore through discussion, criticism, play readings and film/video analysis the unique and necessary function of preserving the community through cultural performance techniques and approaches.  Through the experience of Pilipino Culture Night (PCN), the course will pursue the deeper implications of discovering historic/established community culture as well as creating and developing something new.  The class seeks to outline the cultural night phenomenon and structure.  It will also describe the step-by-step creation and development of a cultural night performance, from the development of theme through rehearsal and final show.  The class will include the construction and in-class performance of an original cultural night.

  New Asian Am course...a critical look on how to create a culture night! hop on it! Dom is pretty awesome too -- he used to teach the Asian American Theater course and he did it through acting! 

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hapaklee:

BUY TIX NOW (from K.Lee)!!

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hellomallory:

Mish and I attended a meeting with members from the LA Neighborhood Land Trust (http://www.lanlt.org/), SIPA (http://www.esipa.org/), Eliseo Silva (http://www.eliseoart.com/htm/bio.html) and other stakeholders involved in the future of Unidad Park.

Overall, it seemed that there was some...

Fantastic job, Mish and Mallory! This is definitely the progress we like to see in our communities. Looking forward to this upcoming talk at an SP event!

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hellomallory:

STOP THE DESECRATION OF THE HISTORIC FILIPINOTOWN MURAL AT THE UNIDAD PARK BY THE LOS ANGELES LAND TRUST

Dearest Friends and Advocates of our Filipinotown Community,

It’s been 16 years since I completed our mural on Beverly Blvd, and very happy that I am revisiting it once again to reclaim...

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Interested in being the link to the Pilipino-American community concerning issues in the Asian American/Pacific Islander movement? Check out being the APC rep for Samahang!

This year, we intend to advocate on behalf on a number of issues, including:

University Affordability

Relevant Education

Community Empowerment and Preservation

...and much more!

Decolonizing education. Grassroots mobilization. Solidarity through consciousness. Send us a line if you have any questions about being APC Rep!

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antology:

The UC Regents plan to raise our fees ANOTHER 10.5% this Thursday, on TOP of the 8% already set to go into effect in the fall. Instead of aggressively pursuing alternate revenue sources they’re automatically putting this on students, before we get the chance to organize a response on our campuses. FIGHT THE FEE INCREASE - spread the word and write on Mark Yudof’s wall to shame him for sacrificing access and affordability for all students. RE-blog and put it as your profile picture

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In Response to "Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout"

In Response to "Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout"

by: Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA

July 5, 2011

On June 21st, 2011, the Palace Restaurant Seafood in conjunction with an undergraduate-run [1] business UCLA Munchies, received immense media attention after opening a takeout service under the name of “Ching-Chong-Ling-Long Gourmet Takeout” in Westwood, Los Angeles, CA. Especially in the wake of recent attacks on the API community (such as the racist Wallace video), the API community at UCLA and beyond has taken offense to the name that the entrepreneurs have taken for their business as it is an overt reference to a racial and ethnic slur.

While there was “reassurance” to the business owners of Palace Restaurant Seafood from UCLA Munchies “that it was an acceptable joke”[2], the Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA disagrees. This reassurance is a reflection of the misguided perception of race in America today: the phrase still carries with it hurtful and anti-Asian American sentiments and reinforce harmful attitudes about the community. As expressed in a previous statement that the Asian Pacific Coalition released, “‘ching chong’ stands out as an ethnic slur considered derogatory due to its historical usage in negatively depicting Chinese speech patterns.” [3] Clearly, the business owners were ignorant as to how such statements hurt the API community. It is not and will never be an “acceptable joke.”

These types of feelings cannot be ignored as they are all indicative of the current climate of the UCLA campus.  It is indicative of how well we understand our own histories of immigration (whether recent or in the past) and how well we are all able to respect and appreciate the different cultures that all of us represent.

Thus, the API community and Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA would like to issue the following calls to action:

We call that the business in question immediately change its name in light of its insensitive, anti-Asian, racist implications.

We call that the business in question publicly engage with the API community in order to publicly acknowledge the racial insensitivity of the situation.

In the event that the business does not meet these expectations, the Asian Pacific Coalition is prepared to mobilize a boycott of the business and its affiliates. We expect that, in the future, individuals are more careful in displaying such ignorance and insensitivity toward any community.

[1] http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/06/studentrun_small_business_uclamunchies_delivers_latenight_snacks_to_hill_residents

[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/disgrasian/ucla-chinese-food-deliver_b_880897.html

[3] http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150124417344084

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Asian American Theater Conference and Festival!

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Krunk Fu Battle Battle: East West Players

Check out Krunk Fu Battle Battle if you're in the LA area! Hosted at the Nation's Premier Asian American Theater, East West Players! An Asian American Hip Hop Musical written by Beau Sia, who was API Graduation's Keynote Speaker this year!

KRUNK FU BATTLE BATTLE is special not only because it's ground-breaking as Asian America's first-ever hip hop musical but also because of the goodwill it inspires in all who experience it. - the talented dancing and singing, the humor, the positive storyline - This is not a story for the youth or the older generation, and it doesn't matter if you prefer rap, rock or classical music.  

As one 87-year old subscriber recently wrote: "I don't listen to Hip Hop - BUT THIS WAS REMARKABLEŠTHERE IS A STORY - Mother, Son, Girlfriend, Rivalry, Jealousy & much more."  

Or as a charged-up 16-year old kid tweeted:  "That was SICK!"  

KRUNK FU BATTLE BATTLE is that rare show which transcends and touches all...   AND FOR IT'S FINAL TWO WEEKS EAST WEST PLAYERS, the Nation's Premier Asian American Theatre, is proud to offer the following CLOSING OFFERS*

June 15-19: 50% off with code CARS50 June 22-26 (CLOSING WEEK):  25% off with code CARS25 Tickets can be purchased at www.eastwestplayers.org or 213.625.7000 x20 (*offers are subject to availability)

For Group Discounts, please contact Tim Lounibos at 213.625.7000 x16 or [email protected]

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Thanks to Pac Ties for the coverage! CAPSA + APC doing Arts & Activism! Holla!

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Power Map of Queer Asian Pacific Islander Resources

Power Map of Queer Asian Pacific Islander Resources

Compiled by Asian Pacific Coalition's Gender and Sexuality Committee 

UCLA

Counseling and Psychological Services – talking circles

Lesbian/Bi Women’s Group

Gay/Bi Men’s Group

Asian Pacific Islander Group

Campus Assault Resources and Education

Campus Retention Committee

SEACLEAR

SPEAR

Student Initiated Access Center

Project 1 – outreach to queer people of color high school youth in GSAs

HOPE

SPACE

PIER

Centers

LGBT Center

Center for the Study of Women

UCLA Women’s Health Center

Undergraduate Student Organizations

Queer Alliance

Pan-Asian Queers

queerXgirl

Relevant Education

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Studies

Asian American Studies Department – plenty of supportive faculty

Asian American Studies Center

AASC Reading Room – Library to research queer API works

OutFest Legacy Archive – extensive archive of queer API films

Los Angeles

LA Gay and Lesbian Center SiGAw - Sisters of Gabriela Awaken! Los Angeles Barangay LA Satrang Trikone Asian Pacific Gays and Friends China Rainbow Association Gay Asian Pacific Support Network API Equality Los Angeles Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team Asian Queer Women Activists GLSEN Trevor Project Equal Action: Outspoken sessions – Intersectionality organization focused on LGBTQ high school youth. Inclusive space for queer APIs. Koreans United for Equality API PFLAG Los Angeles MCC Transgiving Trans* Genderqueer Film Festival Gender Justice LA

Art Activism: Open Mic

Equal Action: Outspoken sessions Tuesday Night Café The Bakla Show That’s What She Said – queer API womyn’s webseries Blogs: We Are the Youth http://cuepoc.tumblr.com/ - queer people of color blog http://fuckyeahasiandykes.tumblr.com/ - queer API women’s photo blog http://fuckyeahlgbtqasians.tumblr.com/ http://hongni-rainbows.tumblr.com/ - Asian Lesbian culture blog http://hongni-rainbows.blogspot.com/ http://genderfierce.tumblr.com/ - The QTAP Project: GenderFierce and Queerly Fobulous, is an on-going project dedicated to promoting the visibility, voice and empowerment of trans, gender queer/non conforming, gender variant, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer Asians and Pacific Islanders locally and globally. Each week a new photo & film will be posted! Online communities: O-moi NQAPIA – especially their green book Activists: Kay Barrett Kit Yan – Good Asian Drivers Quentin Mia Mingus

Online QAPI resources/workshops

Visibility and Story Projects: Dari Project – Life stories of queer Korean Americans The Visibility Project – Queer API photo project Statistics and Fact sheets: California fact sheet: Asian and Pacific Islander (API) lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans Living in the margins: A NATIONAL SURVEY OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS Queer Asian Compass: A Descriptive Directory of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBTQ) Asian American, South Asian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Organizations Mookey's Story: A Transgender Journey Trans 101 Account of FTM Pin@y Shirley Tan and Mercado Case: Uniting Families Act - http://lezgetreal.com/2010/06/new-breakthrough-video-a-year-since-shirley-tan-gave-testimony-at-senate-judiciary-for-uafa/ QTAP Project: GenderFierce and Queerly FOBulous Asexuality: Ace Lingo 101 What is the Buddhist’s View on Homosexuality? CSUN sources Transgender in the Philippines Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Community LGBTQ API Literature That’s What She Said 

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AP-Eyes Arts & Activism was a success! Awesome examples of how visual and performance art serves as a form of activism. And even better, the pieces were submitted by the talented and critical members of our API community!

Shout out to CAPSA for helping bring it together!

Hope to see it come back next year! Let us know if you'd like to contribute your artwork for next year.