FROM A DOCENT

A tumblr dedicated to the stories shared at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience

[fromadocent]

Opinion: 'Air' proves Hollywood can make you root for anyone | CNN

"Air" is an extended lesson in how Hollywood can make you care about anyone — and how it nonetheless, over and over, keeps insisting that we care about the same affluent White guys winning for capitalism, argues Noah Berlatsky.

This has nothing to do with Chinatown or Asian American history.

But it does have something to do with storytelling and who gets to tell the story.  Noah isn’t Black and he doesn’t have to be to see and speak up about how a movie is biased to the POV of affluent White guys.

[fromadocent]

No, my Japanese American parents were not 'interned' during WWII. They were incarcerated

The Los Angeles Times will no longer use "internment" to describe the mass incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

It’ll be hard for me to shake that habit since I grew up with using the US government preferred term. Never got into the habit of “Non-Alien”, also a preferred term. With textbook publisher afraid of offending the ‘anti-woke’ (laws, school boards, etc.), publishers will no doubt pull back from getting rid of the traditional ‘interned’. Over 8 decades later, it shouldn’t be so hard and yet it is. 

::: mk ::: 3/17/2023

[fromadocent]

The rise and fall of Chinatown: The hidden history of displacement you were never told | Globalnews.ca

In Chinatown, the past is important. But against that backdrop of nostalgia also lives a deeply painful history and you need a good memory, because so much has been lost.

May 2022, Canada. If you know nothing of Canadian history but know Chinatown history in US, it’ll look familiar. Railroad workers. Anti-Asian hate. People and businesses thriving in the face of adversity.

::: mk ::: 1/12/2023

[fromadocent]

Yes, Harvard Discriminated Against Jews. No, That’s Not What It’s Doing to Asian Americans.

The comparison to the 1920s fails to capture some critical differences between the two cases.

Nothing someone who has gone through Connie So’s class likely doesn’t know already. The future is looking stormy though when it comes to affirmative action, the issue might come up in conversations about racism. Legacy admissions at Ivy League schools is probably a thing to ask Rahul/Doan/Jintana, official how to handle topic. 

[fromadocent]

Pachinko’s Food Has Layers of Meaning

The generations-spanning Apple TV+ drama is fluent in the “unspoken language” of cooking and culture.

Irene Yoo (earlier post on rice) also did a similar article to this. 

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a39596792/pachinko-rice-bowl-korea-meaning/

Spoilers abound by the nature of the articles. Better to watch the show first then read the article. 

[fromadocent]

The Surprisingly Little-Known History of White Rice in Korea

How Japan had everything to do with the most important ingredient in Korean cuisine today.

Seems a food tour kind of article to read. 

[fromadocent]

The Asian American wealth gap, explained in a comic

The largest wealth gap in the country comes down to the history of Asian migration.

What? Aren’t all Asians alike?

::: mk :::  6/15/2021

[fromadocent]

How a Japanese immigrant stood up to the injustices of his day with a pioneering civil rights message that resonates in ours

Takuji Yamashita, a 1902 University of Washington Law School graduate, voiced with rare clarity why America must improve — to live up to its own founding principles. His writings and speeches belong in U.S. history texts, beacons to the future...

[fromadocent]

Why bystanders fail to intervene when strangers need help

When it comes to those whose jobs it is to keep us safe, we need people whose solidarity lies with something broader than the building they work at or the squad they're on.

and

https://youtu.be/-eavNtEV41c

The Seattle Times column talks about why bystanders fail to intervene and cites a study where soccer fans were less likely to help a soccer fan of the opposing team. But if fans were reminded of their love soccer then they were as likely to help a fellow soccer fan, even one of another team. 

That reminded me of a scene in the Expanse (link above) where Erich (crime lord) is talking to ‘Melba’/’Peaches’ (mass murderer) and she talks about growing a tribe.

One can be critical of steroid use in sports and still love sports. Not all sports fans may see it that way. In a similar way, being critical of US history can shrink the tribe so remember to keep a goal of growing the tribe in mind. 

I’m not saying never mention negative things. (wait, is that  triple negative?) I’m saying be aware of your audience. Not forgetting and always improving is what makes a more perfect union. 

Tours help grow the tribe. Asian Pacific American history is not someone else’s history, it is the story of America.

::: Michael Kan ::: 4/8/2021

[fromadocent]

This is the strangers’ case; And this your mountainish inhumanity — Sir Thomas More For #WorldRefugeeDay in 2018, we collaborated with International...

A little Shakespeare, from a play believed never performed in his lifetime. It was too radical for the powers-that-be. 

::: mk ::: 7/2020

[fromadocent]

A Healing Spirit From 19th-Century Japan Is Back to Face COVID-19

Artists are bringing back Amabie, a 'yōkai' associated with protection from disease.

::: mk :::

3/27/2020

[fromadocent]

Same playwright as Vietgone, story of Vietnamese refugees in Alabama

Oregon Shakespeare Festival has made a serious effort to branch from doing just Shakespeare. 

Another play which might be of interest is

https://www.osfashland.org/en/productions/2020-plays/the-copper-children.aspx

If you can’t spare the money and time to get to Ashland and see the play, here’s a link explaining the history behind the play. In a nutshell, 1900 Arizona, White townspeople freaked when they discovered Irish Catholic orphans were going to Hispanic Catholic families. So they took the children away from the Hispanic families and ran the Catholic priest out of town. Courts supported this because Mexicans would never be allowed to parent white children. The children in New York City were considered hopelessly inferior but out West, stopped being Irish or Catholic and became ‘white’. 

https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/the-irish-orphan-abduction/Content?oid=1087070

::: mk ::: 2/27/2020

well rats. missed posting on 2/20/2020. 

[fromadocent]

Bellevue College apologizes after administrator alters display on Japanese American incarceration

The art installation “Never Again Is Now,” created by Seattle artist Erin Shigaki, includes an 11-foot-tall mural of two children who were photographed at a California incarceration camp. The project was brought to Bellevue College last week as the school...

The story is interesting in two ways - no explanation for what exactly the person doing the censoring found objectionable (it is part of the historical record that Kemper Freedman rallied anti-Japanese sentiment). 

The other thing interesting is that the Times removed the comment thread altogether because of violations of the Terms of Service. A better thing would to be to cancel the offender’s access but Times doesn’t want to lose subscribers so it is easier to censor the comment thread’s history altogether. 2020, people are still unable to discuss, in a mature and civilized manner, WWII internment of Japanese Americans 

It is becoming obvious people know full well violating the TOS will result in shutting down the comment thread and are doing it on purpose to censor the posts they don’t like which likely are ones in support of the artist.

::: mk ::: 2/27/2020

[fromadocent]

With Their Subject Matter in the Crosshairs, What Should Museums Do?

My parents were part of the generation that fought and won World War II. As their children, it was common for us to ask them, “What did you do during the war?” We wanted to be reassured they had st…

You should talk with whoever is your boss to see what their take is on this story.  So if that time comes when someone threatens to go over your head because you weren’t “neutral”, you can look them right in the eye and know you’re dealing with them in the manner as already approved by your boss. The other person may try to force you to retreat on an issue by intimidation and gaslighting. Don’t let them. ::: mk ::: 9/9/2019

[fromadocent]

Classroom Historical Role-Playing Games Can Easily Go Wrong. So Why Do Teachers Keep Assigning Them?

It’s possible to do “living history” exercises well, but many teachers aren’t equipped to pull them off.

Why does this matter if the museum doesn’t do this? Because it is probably a good idea to know what bad ideas teachers may have that the museum doesn’t want to support.

::: mk ::: 5/20/2019

[fromadocent]

The 150th Anniversary of the Golden Spike Ceremony - May 10th, 2019

The 2019 NRHS convention attended this ceremony for their 3rd day of the convention.

Elaine Chao, Transportation Secretary, @21 minute mark.

Keynote by historian and writer, Jon Meacham, @34 minute mark. He has the grander speech-giving voice and better loftier speech. He argues that despite the railroad exposing some of America’s worst aspects (treatment of Native Americans, racism), it also was some of America’s best aspects - pushing ahead despite the uncertainty and division.

What neither would mention is the outrage from the 100th anniversary:

“Who else but Americans could drill ten tunnels in mountains 30 feet deep in snow? Who else but Americans could chisel through miles of solid granite? Who else but Americans could have laid ten miles of track in 12 hours?” Those were the impassioned words of John A. Volpe, Secretary of Federal Transportation, as he addressed the crowd at the centennial ceremony in Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1969. - https://chsa.org/exhibits/online-exhibits/work-of-giants-the-chinese-and-the-building-of-the-first-transcontinental-railroad/golden-spike-centennial/

The organizer of the Golden Spike conference that Mom and I attended in Salt Lake City, shared a hate mail he had gotten during the conference. It raged that whites did everything and deserve all the credit. Others were merely hired help.

At the conference someone noted that some minorities are punished for their imagined vices (lazy) whereas Chinese were punished for their virtues (too hard working and so a threat to white employment). America took pride in laying 10 miles of track in one day - but passed laws which prevented the men who accomplished that from ever becoming Americans. By 1969, America was assigning the credit to 'Americans’, having whitewashed Chinese out of the history. This is why the work we* do is important.

::: mk ::: 5/16/2019

* I’m using a kind of royal ‘we’, since I don’t work at the museum. Yes it is the work of the museum but the museum cannot make eye contact like you can.

[fromadocent]

A white woman’s “clean” Chinese restaurant shows the flaws of “clean eating”

"Clean" food suggests the alternative is dirty, for one thing.