Contributions by Asian Americans Through History – Not Widely Known or Published

by Jeannie SalomonAll Posts, Culture & HeritagePosted on Comments are Disabled

May is Asian American Pacific Islanders Heritage Month Contributions from Asian Americans throughout history are not widely known or published or made to our textbooks.  We want to take time to honor these unsung heroes who made such remarkable contributions to our lives.  This is a reprinted article from the History website.  Originally published on March 31, 2021 by Elizabeth Yuko. We have many resources on our site. Please check out our Asian American Connections or the AAC Journal.  If you are local in Rhode Island, we are having a month-long celebration at the Washington Park Library’s patio (outdoor) in Providence on May 6th, May 13, and May 20, 2023 at 1316 Broad Street, Providence, RI. Please register to enjoy this celebration with us.  FREE admission, FREE food and FREE educational entertainment! Reprinted article by Elizabeth Yuko from the History Website 8 Groundbreaking Contributions by Asian Americans Through History Though the Gold Rush triggered the first major wave of Asian immigrants to the United States in the 1840s, their presence in America predates the country itself. For example, in 1763, facing a life of forced labor and imprisonment during the Spanish galleon trade, a group of Filipinos jumped ship near New Orleans and established the settlement of Saint Malo, forming one of the first documented Asian American communities in North America. While Americans with ancestral ties to Asia have made countless significant contributions throughout the country’s history, most have never made it into textbooks. From atomic science, to labor rights, to YouTube, here are a few examples of some of the major advancements made by Asian Americans. Atomic Science PROFESSOR CHIEN-SHIUNG WU (LEFT), PICTURED WITH DR. Y.K. LEE AND L. W. MO, HER ASSOCIATES, CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS, MARCH 21, 1963. In the 1940s and 1950s, Chinese-born physicist Chien-Shiung Wu, Ph.D., was instrumental in the developing field of atomic science. This included the Manhattan Project: the code name for research into atomic weapons during World War II. Specifically, she improved existing technology for the detection of radiation and the enrichment of uranium in large quantities. Following the war, Wu’s research focused on beta decay, which occurs when the nucleus of one element changes into another element. In 1956, theoretical physicists Tsung Dao Lee, Ph.D. and Chen Ning Yang, Ph.D. asked Wu to devise an experiment that would prove their theory on beta decay. Wu did exactly that, but did not receive the 1957 Nobel Prize along with Lee and Yang—one of many examples of her work being overlooked. An early advocate for women in STEM, Wu spoke at a symposium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964, famously telling the audience, “I wonder whether the tiny atoms and nuclei, or the mathematical symbols, or the DNA molecules have any preference for either masculine or feminine treatment.” Farm Workers’ Rights JULIO HERNANDEZ, UFW OFFICER (LEFT) AND LARRY ITLIONG, UFW DIRECTOR (CENTER) PICTURED WITH CESAR CHAVEZ (RIGHT) AT HIS HUELGA DAY MARCH IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1966. Born in the Philippines, Larry Itliong immigrated to the United States in 1929 at the age of 15 and immediately began working as a laborer, up and down America’s West Coast, as well as in Alaska. By 1930, he joined striking lettuce pickers in Washington, and spent the next several decades working as a labor organizer and eventually, a union leader—including forming the Filipino Farm Labor Union in 1956. In 1965, Itliong and some of his union colleagues organized the Delano Grape Strike: a walkout of 1,500 Filipino grape-pickers demanding higher wages and improved working conditions. As the movement gained momentum, Delores Huerta and Cesar Chavez from National Farm Workers Association joined Itliong and the Filipino Farm Labor Union. Eventually, the two groups combined to form the United Farm Workers, and the strike ended in 1970—but not before making major strides for agricultural workers, regardless of ethnicity.  “We got wage increases, a medical plan for farm workers, we set up five clinics, a day care center and a school,” Huerta said in an interview. Civil Rights Though her activism was influenced by the two years she spent in internment camps during World War II, Japanese American Yuri Kochiyama’s civil rights work extended to the causes impacting Black, Latinx, and Indigenous Peoples, as well as Asian American communities. After World War II, Kochiyama and her husband—whom she had met at the Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas—moved to New York City, where they hosted weekly open houses for civil rights activists in their apartment. “Our house felt like it was the movement 24/7,” her eldest daughter, Audee Kochiyama-Holman told NPR in a 2014 interview. Kochiyama befriended and collaborated with Malcolm X in the 1960s, and continued to work with Black civil rights activists following his death. Then in the 1980s, she, along with her husband, campaigned for reparations and a formal government apology for Japanese American interned during World War II. Their work became a reality in 1988, when President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act into law.  “She was not your typical Japanese-American person, especially a nisei [second-generation Japanese-American],” Tim Toyama, Kochiyama’s second cousin, told NPR. “She was definitely ahead of her time, and we caught up with her.” “She was not your typical Japanese-American person, especially a nisei [second-generation Japanese-American],” Tim Toyama, Kochiyama’s second cousin, told NPR. “She was definitely ahead of her time, and we caught up Ethnic Minority Psychology Two Chinese American brothers originally from Portland, Oregon, Derald W. Sue and Stanley Sue, were influential figures in ethnic minority psychology. “Ethnic minority psychology is a subfield of psychology concerned with the science and practice of psychology with racial and ethnic minority individuals and groups,” says Sumie Okazaki, Ph.D., professor of applied psychology at New York University, and author of the book Korean American Families in Immigrant America: How Teens and Parents Navigate Race. In 1972, the Sue brothers founded the Asian American Psychological Association—one year after writing a seminal paper on Chinese American personality. “Derald W. Sue is best known for his work on multicultural counseling and racial microaggression, and Stanley Sue is best known for his work on cultural competence in psychotherapy with Asian Americans and ethnic minorities,” Okazaki explains. The USB INTEL CHIEF I/O ARCHITECT AJAY BHATT, CO-INVENTOR OF USB AND PCI EXPRESS, …

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A Brief History of Filipino Americans

by Maia MongadoAll Posts, Culture & Heritage, Learning, ResourcesPosted on Comments are Disabled

On October 18, 1587, men from Manila set foot on what is now known as Morro Bay, California. They were crewmen on a ship that was a part of the Manila Galleon trade, a route between the two Spanish colonies of Mexico and the Philippines. This journey officially made them the first Asians known to ever step foot on what is now American soil. Filipinos have been present in this land even before modern day America has existed, but the circumstances of this presence has evolved over the centuries. The Philippines’ long history as a Spanish colony ensured that Filipinos would always be present, albeit in small numbers, as crew men for Spanish ships on the outskirts of American trade posts. At some point, some of these Filipino sailors even deserted to create their own small community, Saint Malo, in the Louisiana bayou. Here, experienced with tropical storms and harsh coastal conditions, Filipino sailors (called Manilamen by the surrounding peoples) found a new freedom away from Spanish officials in a quiet fishing village that existed from the early 1800s until 1915, when its last remnants were destroyed by a hurricane. The bulk of Filipino American history, however, occurred after 1902. Spain and America had just finished fighting their own war; Spain, exhausted an already ongoing revolutionary effort by Filipinos, ceded their territory to America. After a period of brutal fighting between Filipinos and Americans, it ended with a decisive Filipino defeat in 1902. With that, the Philippines America’s largest colony. From then on, the role of Filipinos in the U.S. would constantly be in flux, governed by the ever-changing identity politics of early 20th century America. As colonial subjects, they were technically American nationals who were unrestricted from migrating to America like many other Asians; many Filipinos received lessons from American schoolteachers, and still today Filipinos have an unusually high fluency of English as a remnant of this colonial past. However, this did not preclude them from experiencing racism, both systemic and personal, from local American populations. In the 1920s and 1930s, Filipino populations in America rose from a few hundred to 45,000. Almost all men, they immigrated in order to fill demand for cheap farm labor in California or Hawaii during the Great Depression. Americans were not quite sure how to parse their identities; were they Latino, as a former long-time Spanish colony? Were they “Malays” or “Orientals”, racial categories that at the time referred to the general areas of Indonesia andChina? How did anti-miscegenation laws, which forbade intermarriage between races, apply to them? Having been educated as American nationals, Filipino men saw themselves as having the same rights as any other American, wearing flashy, fashionable clothes and dancing with white women in local dance halls. This drew the ire of white men, who decried what they saw as the theft of their women and their jobs by arrogant immigrants. Mounting tensions led to the 1930 Watsonville Riots, in which white men wandered in mobs, attacked and beat Filipino men for these perceived slights. Such tensions led the American government to speed up the independence process for the Philippines and restrict Filipino immigration to the United States. In 1946, the Philippines was officially no longer an American colony; however, this did not stop many Filipino veterans from successfully applying for American citizenship and settling in the U.S. with Filipina brides. Filipino women and children encouraged the creation of local clubs, associations, andneighborhoods. The family structure, always the lifeblood of community in the Philippines, was now present in America. Filipino communities took on a new vibrancy and unification, and many Filipino American districts blossomed throughout the U.S., concentrated on the west coast. After the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act ended all national quotas, the number of Filipinos in the U.S. skyrocketed to the now 4.2 million living here today. Filipino Americans today come from all walks of life and many different origins. Some have had family living here for generations, where others have immigrated themselves in the past few years. Because of American influence on Filipino history which has given Filipinos a unique ability to assimilate, Filipinos are sometimes thought of as a “silent minority”; they have not been as represented in popular American media and culture as much as groups such as Chinese, Japanese or Indian Americans, despite their large numbers. However, this has not stopped Filipinos from forming lively communities and connecting with one another, even oceans away from home. Although Filipino American history has been fraught with racialized violence from the U.S. government and populations, it has also been one of resilience, adaptability, and interconnection. Filipino Americans have always been at the forefront of important movements, such as Larry Itliong, who worked with Cesar Chavez to fight for Filipino and Mexican farm workers’ rights in the 1960s. Or Fe del Mundo, the first woman to be admitted to Harvard Medical School. The history of Filipino Americans also expose how weak the racial divisions we form in the U.S. truly are; they have historically not been able to be categorized and still today exist in a sort of flux between various identities. In a world of globalization, as racial, ethnic, and national identities reach a new point of fluidity, the history of Filipino Americans perhaps has a valuable lesson to teach us all about the importance of human connection above all superficial division. Sources  July 4, 1946: The Philippines gained independence from the United States: The National WWIIMuseum: New Orleans. The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. (n.d.). Retrieved October22, 2022, fromhttps://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/july-4-1946-philippines-independence Manilamen the Filipino settlement: Lesson Plan curriculum: The Asian American EducationProject. Manilamen The Filipino Settlement | lesson plan curriculum | The Asian AmericanEducation Project. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2022, fromhttps://asianamericanedu.org/manilamen-first-asian-american-settlement.html U.S. Department of State. (n.d.). U.S. Department of State. Retrieved October 22, 2022, fromhttps://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/war Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, August 15). Watsonville riots. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 22,2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watsonville_riots Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, October 1). Larry Itliong. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 22, 2022,from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Itliong Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, October 18). History of Filipino Americans. Wikipedia. RetrievedOctober 22, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Filipino_Americans Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, October 21). Philippine Revolution. Wikipedia. Retrieved October22, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Revolution Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, October 8). Filipino Americans. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 22,2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_Americans About The Author: Maia Mongado is a senior at Brown University majoring in Computer Science. She has also taken coursework in English, French, and Filipino studies. …

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The History and Future of Asian American Activism

by Daniel LiuAll Posts, Culture & Heritage, Learning, ResourcesPosted on Comments are Disabled

The year 1968 saw the birth of a monumental moment when renowned scholar and activist Yuji Ichioka coined the term “Asian American” as part of his co-creation of the Asian American Political Alliance, an organization which has since left a powerful mark on collegiate Asian American activism. This phrase marked the beginning of a new identity for Asian immigrants and citizens, adopting a title that would shed the dated names of “Oriental” or “Asiatic” and would stand for more than just groups segregated by ethnicity; it would represent the unification of a people connected in culture and in spirit. Great strides have been made in the past century with progress towards solidarity and equality for the Asian-American and Pacific-Islander community (AAPI for short). On a macro scale, the Asian American Movement spurred the surfacing of more liberal, racially-conscious ideas amidst an era that saw social uprising in labor, civil rights, and war. Specifically, the war in Vietnam generated massive backlash as many in the AAPI community marched and spoke out against imperialism. Before, communities of Asian immigrants were scattered and did not have the power to make significant advancements as a result; however, the potential for change was realized when specific individuals took charge in initiating and sustaining activism in their communities. The aforementioned Yuji Ichioka worked with Emma Gee, Asian activist and writer, to start the Asian American Political Alliance, whose early members had prior activist experience but had never worked together before to achieve their shared goals together. Their efforts, among many others, have persisted to this day in the hands of organizations such as The Asian American Foundation; their campaign titled See Us Unite invites AAPI members to have their voices heard and bridge the gap between a community passionate about their culture and the outside world that has yet to fully understand what it truly means to be Asian American. It is this rift in understanding that causes the many injustices that Asian Americans face every day; whether it be bullying and harassment or hate crimes and large–scale racial bias, it is unacceptable for the AAPI community or any minority group to experience these wrongs in a modern age where acceptance and unity is more important than ever before. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prohibited Chinese immigration, the killing of Vincent Chin a century later where his murderers were given a paltry $3000 fine and no prison time, and the more recent occurrences of Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic display the extent to which heinous grievances continue throughout history and will remain unless awareness and change is brought about. The Alliance for Asian American Justice, for example, is one coalition whose primary goal is to counter anti-Asian hate in the courts; Asian Americans Advancing Justice likewise pushes for equity in civil rights no matter a person’s background. Despite the aggregation of anti-Asian hate, especially in the wake of the pandemic, the sentiment of unity thrives now more than ever. Making a difference doesn’t mean you have to organize a rally or march in protest; it can mean having your voice heard, educating others about your culture, and voting to protect your rights. The precedent is there; it’s up to us to do something about it. Sources: https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Yuji_Ichioka/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_American_activism https://www.allianceaajustice.org/ https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/ https://www.asianjusticemovement.org/ https://www.taaf.org/projects/seeusunite About The Author: Daniel is an ABC (American Born Chinese) and lives in Western New York. He currently attends Brown University concentrating in Computer Science and interns for CSEBRI. *This article also appears in the Article Section of AAC Journal, Issue 3.

Picture of Freedom, Liberty, Respect

AAC Periodical Preview: Asian History in Rhode Island

by Rachel KimAll Posts, Culture & Heritage, LearningPosted on Comments are Disabled

In the mid-1870s, there were only nine Asians total in Rhode Island, all of whom were Chinese men. It is easy – especially in 2022, when Asians account for 3.6% of Rhode Island’s total population (meaning there are approximately 39,500 Asians residing in the state) and are one of Rhode Island’s fastest-growing demographics – to forget the rich and robust history of Asian immigrants in Rhode Island. The state was home to at least two Chinatowns, one on Burrill Street and another on Broad Street, both of which were destroyed. Despite Asian immigrants making up a small percentage of Rhode Island’s total population, they were marginalized and faced discriminatory legislation. Written descriptions of Chinese immigrants in The Providence Journal ranged from them having “quiet demeanor[s] and uniform behavior[s]” to them being “celestials” with “funny double-monosyllabic names.” Both descriptions stereotyped and exoticized the Asians residing in Providence, and the latter especially showed the lack of respect non-Asians had towards Asian immigrants’ names. In 1910, the Providence Business Directory listed Chinese laundries by their street names and phone numbers only, despite other businesses including the owner’s names as well. This was justified by the directory with the disclaimer that “Chinese names are not reliable.” Another pervasive stereotype was that Chinese immigrants were gamblers and opium addicts. There was a movement in 1913 to remove Chinatown from Empire Street after six Chinese men were found with $12,000 of illegal opium. The justification from the police superintendent for removing Chinese people was that ”the appearance in any location of any considerable number of them means that gambling is going on” because “the Chinese are inveterate gamblers: the vice is inherent in the race.” Even a headline about the Chinese men’s arrest made fun of their accents, with it reading that the Chinese men were “brought to the ‘Melican [presumably the way Chinese immigrants said ‘American’] halls of justice.” There were also multiple instances of discriminatory legislation in Rhode Island. In 1899, anti-Asian legislation attempting to block Chinese immigrants from applying for restaurant licenses was brought to the Providence Common Council. However, Providence’s police chief at the time asserted that the block was unnecessary because he intentionally held restaurant license applications from Chinese business owners for two to three months to strictly evaluate their characters. In addition, Providence law enforcement required Chinese restaurants to remove all doors and drapes so that the insides of their businesses were always visible after a Chinese man, William Leon, was suspected of murdering his romantic partner, a white woman named Elsie Sigel, in 1909. Police also advised teachers who taught Sunday school to Chinese immigrants to “be of an age and character as to make any such an occurrence as that […] impossible.” While hate against Asians still persists in Rhode Island – Channavy Chhay, the Executive Director of the Center for Southeast Asians, reported that there has been an uptick in anti-Asian hate crimes in the state as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic – there has been more concrete legislation to support Asians and Asian Americans in the state. In 2017, Governor Gina Raimondo signed the All Students Count Act, which was championed by advocacy groups, the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education and the Providence Youth Student Movement. The All Students Count Act mandated the disaggregation of information on Asian American students, meaning Asian American students had to be recorded as being part of specific ethnic groups instead of being grouped under a larger Asian American umbrella. This disaggregation is intended to make the academic disparities existing within the Asian American community more obvious: Despite Asians being portrayed as a ‘model minority’ in academic achievement, Southeast Asians have the highest dropout rate in the United States and nearly 40% of Hmong and Cambodian adults do not have a high school diploma. With this bill being signed into law, Rhode Island became the third state in the nation to pass the All Students Count Act. In 2022, Representative Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung introduced legislation that required all public primary and secondary schools in Rhode Island to teach Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) history, starting with the 2023-2024 school year. The bill passed both the House and Senate and is expected to be signed by current Governor Daniel McKee, which would make Rhode Island the fourth state in the nation to mandate AANHPI history in schools, joining New Jersey, Connecticut, and Illinois. What I find most special about the latter bill is that it will affirm the importance of Asian and Asian American history. When there is so much history – especially right here in Rhode Island – it is essential that we recognize and understand the complex histories of Asians and Asian Americans so that their stories are not forgotten. As Representative Fenton-Fung said while advocating for the passing of the bill: “There’s a lot of amazing Asian Americans out there, but their stories don’t get told and they don’t become part of this big melting pot.” This is one of many articles that will be featured in the AAC Journal, which will be released to members in September this year. You can learn more about Rachel here. Sources Fitzpatrick, Edward. “R.I. Asian American Population Grew by Nearly 28 Percent in the Past Decade.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 16 Aug. 2021, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/08/16/metro/ri-asian-american-population-grew-by-nearly-28-percent-past-decade.  Fitzpatrick, Edward. “R.I. Poised to Become Fourth State to Require Teaching Asian-American History.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 7 June 2022, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/06/07/metro/ri-poised-become-fourth-state-require-teaching-asian-american-history.   Fuchs, Chris. “Rhode Island Data Disaggregation Law Revives Debate Among Asian Americans.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 27 July 2017, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/rhode-island-data-disaggregation-law-revives-debate-among-asian-americans-n786986.   Gall, Mark. “‘Careless Chinese, These Empire Street Denizens!’ A Look at the Struggles of Providence’s Chinatown.” Small State Big History, The Online Review of Rhode Island History, 23 Nov. 2019, http://smallstatebighistory.com/careless-chinese-these-empire-street-denizens-a-look-at-the-struggles-of-providences-chinatown.   Jones, Chelsea. “‘Words Matter’: RI Sees Uptick in Hate Crimes against Asian Americans since Start of Pandemic.” WPRI.com, WPRI.com, 17 Mar. 2021, https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/providence/words-matter-ri-sees-uptick-in-hate-crimes-against-asian-americans-since-start-of-pandemic.   Kelly, Grace. “Providence’s Lost Chinatowns.” Rhode Island Monthly, Rhode Island Monthly, 8 Feb. 2016, https://www.rimonthly.com/providences-lost-chinatowns.   …

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Why Language is More Than Just Google Translate

by Kate CreedenAll Posts, Culture & HeritagePosted on No Comments

As technology advances, it becomes easier to communicate with others who don’t speak the same language. Even so, learning another language can still be very beneficial.  Firstly, it makes communication much easier. While it may be easy to use technology to translate for you, it would be very tedious and stagnant. It’s much easier to connect with someone else if you understand their language and culture, since learning another language helps you connect to other cultures and understand them, as often language and culture are intertwined. It exposes you to new ideas and customs. Another reason to learn other languages is that it has already been proven to make people smarter in other areas. People who are bilingual tend to be better at multitasking and are better at focusing and paying attention. It also has shown they produce better test scores and are stronger in their core classes. Many people who are bilingual also seem to have greater abilities in their own language than monolinguals. While learning different languages not only makes you more intelligent, it also seems to prevent cognitive decline. Studies show that speaking multiple languages seems to delay diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia by up to four or five years. Learning more languages also broadens career opportunities and can boost salary. Many jobs in education, healthcare, or international business favor those who are bilingual. In addition, a study was done on the salaries of American college graduates. They discovered that bilinguals have a 2% greater salary compared to monolinguals.  Knowing another language can help you in many important ways, but you could also use your knowledge for fun. It makes travel much more entertaining, as you’d be able to easily communicate with the locals. It’s also very interesting to find words that don’t exist in your own language.  So learning another language makes you smarter, prevents cognitive disease, increases job opportunities, and is entertaining and fun. While it may be hard work and easier just to use the vast internet, becoming fluent in another language is very beneficial, and also gives you some awesome bragging rights. Bibliography Armstrong, P.W. and Rogers, J.D. (1997).  Basic Skills Revisited: The effects of foreign language instruction on reading, math, and language arts. Dr. Ellen Bialystok, Lifespan Cognition and Development Lab, lcad.lab.yorku.ca Albert Saiz and Elena Zoido, 2002.  “The return to speaking a second language,” Working Papers 02-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Language School Blog, middlebury.edu, “Why You Should Learn a Second Language and Gain New Skills, May 12, 2020. About the Author Kate is our youngest member of the team. She joined the Cultural Society team as an intern in the summer of 2021 and works with the Program Director for Asian American Connections Initiative.  Her bio can be found here. 

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

by Jeannie SalomonAll Posts, Culture & HeritagePosted on Comments are Disabled

Honoring all the Asian Pacific Americans who help make America a diverse and great nation, I am posting information from another website which tells you everything you need to know about the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. National Asian Pacific American Heritage Month recognizes and celebrates the culture, contributions, and heritage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans. President Jimmy Carter signed a joint resolution declaring May 4-10, 1979, as the first Asian Pacific Heritage Week. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed an extension changing Asian Pacific Heritage Week to a month-long observance.The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid those tracks were Chinese American immigrants. Check out more about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month on this website.

Anti-Violence Against Asian American Resources

by Jeannie SalomonAll Posts, Culture & Heritage, ResourcesPosted on Comments are Disabled

The recent incidences against Asian Americans have prompted us to provide a resource page for all those affected by it. We want you to know that we are standing in solidarity with our Asian American brothers and sisters across the nation. Please help pass this information resource page around so people will know where to go relating to these hate crimes. We condemn all violence against the Asian American Pacific Islanders Community and combat it with love and information. (Credit: Nellie Mae Foundation Blog page) Townhall on Anti-Asian Racism, https://bit.ly/3vzAANA Anti-Asian Violence Resources CARRD, https://bit.ly/3qRJS3X Stop AAPI Hate resources, https://bit.ly/3rWhcZ5 Anti-racism resources to support AAPI community, https://nbcnews.to/3bTsnfm Hollaback! Bystander Training https://bit.ly/2P0wMo3 Anti-Asian racism is Taking a Mental and Emotional Toll on Me by Nancy Wang Yuen, PhD. https://bit.ly/30YuXKJ Asian Awareness Project, https://bit.ly/3qVNn9J Anti-Racism College Guide for AAPI Students and Allies

If the Eye is the Window to Our Soul, Culture is the Window to Our Mind

by Jeannie SalomonAll Posts, Culture & HeritagePosted on Comments are Disabled

If the eye is the window to our soul, culture is the window to our mind. I say that not without evidence. After teaching Chinese for almost ten years at this great organization and other institutions, I often get amused and enlightened by my students’ questions.     On a Saturday morning in a private Chinese class, I sat across from my student, who was a recent college graduate. He was reading a relatively advanced passage for someone who had only taken one year of Chinese. When he stumbled onto the word for “panda”, he asked me, “What does the word 熊 mean in  熊猫?” I said without hesitation to this straight question, “It has the sound of the word, 凶 which means ‘fierce’ in English. But the word,熊, which means panda, it’s probably a coined word taken from the sound of 凶. ”  And I gave him a few examples of how the word 凶 is used in Chinese nouns.   He asked again, “But what about the word, 猫?  What does it mean?” I said, “It means ‘cat’. You know that word. It’s one of the most frequently used vocabularies in Chinese lessons. You have learned it too.” I was puzzled as to why he asked me for the meaning of such a simple word. After all, he did have one year of Chinese under his belt and he should know that word. But what followed totally made me look at these two simple words more closely. He came to a very thought-provoking conclusion: “So, the word ‘panda’ is translated to ‘fierce cat’ in English?” I said, “Yes, that’s it if you go by the sound of it.  I think that’s how Chinese people coined the word, ‘panda’ because they think of panda as a ‘fierce cat’.  Pretty good!”  Is ‘panda’ a cat or a bear?  Then all of a sudden, it dawned on me that I never thought of why.  Why do Chinese people put ‘panda’  in the cat category when in English, ‘panda’ is in the bear category? I thought for a moment: wait a minute. Is ‘panda’ a cat or a bear?  All of a sudden his inquiry revealed a new aspect of the Chinese language to me, my native language, which I took for granted.   Why do Chinese people think of pandas as cats and not bears?  As I did some research on Google, there was a debate in the scientific community for ‘panda’ that was dated back over two hundred years ago that panda was either a bear or a raccoon.  Back then, pandas only existed in Asia, mostly in China and the region around China. (I think it still is.  Pandas aren’t found in any other regions outside of captivity.) So, my thoughts were that the word, panda, 熊猫 was coined way before the debate in the scientific community and Chinese people from a long time ago determined that panda was in the category with the “cats”. Wow, what a revelation from just studying Chinese. Studying one’s language reveals a lot about one’s mind.  Another Example – Culture is the Window to our Mind Another piece of evidence for my assertion that culture is the window to our mind is from the American students who took Chinese from me.  There was a pattern in the way they think. One of the very first lessons I teach to all of my beginning students was numbers. Numbers in Chinese are very easy. If you know the first ten numbers, you will know how to count to 100 easily. It can become such a rhyme or “song” that most of my students want to master and are drawn to, because of the way they sound. The numbers are 1, 一 (Yī), 2, 二 (èr), 3, 三  (sān), 4,  四  (Sì), 5,  五 (wǔ), 6,  六 (liù), 7,  七(qī), 8,  八(bā), 9, 九 (jiǔ), 10, 十(shí). After ‘ten’, the number in Chinese would just repeat itself.   For example, number 11, would just be 十一，taking the number ‘ten’ and ‘one’ together to get eleven. The same applies to the numbers from ‘twelve’ (12) to ‘nineteen’ (19). Once it gets to ‘twenty’ (20), the pattern changes. Before I revealed how to get the number ‘twenty’, I often asked my students to guess how to say ‘twenty’. Almost 99% of the time, all of them say “十十”，putting two ‘ten’ (10) together. At the time, I just gave them the answer, which is ：“二十” and taught them how to say it and continued with my lesson.    However, this time I take a step back and wonder how they came up with “十十.” The fact that almost every student consistently made the same guess was very interesting. What happened if I didn’t reveal the answer to them? Would they have continued to guess “十十十” for ‘thirty’? I thought to myself that it’s a very inefficient way of using numbers.   That’s why the word for ‘thirty’ is “三十“ and not  “十十十”, which will become very cumbersome as we string higher numbers together for ‘forty’(40), ‘fifty’ (50), ‘sixty’ (60), ‘seventy’ (70), ‘eighty’ (80)….etc.  We would run out of space to put the “十”  there, that we might as well coin a different word for each of the 10’s, right?  So, are there different words for bigger numbers? Yes, there are! Simply put, Chinese people’s way of thinking and looking at things are different from westerners’ way of thinking.   For example: the number 10,000 is written as 一万 [Chinese people will use “万” as the new unit of measurement when it gets to 10,000 now.  Chinese people wouldn’t call this number, 10,000  “十千“  literal translation means “ten thousand” because once it has reached 10 in this unit, which is in ten thousand’s, there is a different measure word, it is called 万 (pronounced wan in the fourth tone).  That’s why it is called 一万 and no longer called 十千. [The correct translation for 10,000 is 一万 and not 十千. If you do translate it and …

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Why Cultural Awareness is the Cornerstone of Our Teaching?

by Jeannie SalomonAll Posts, Culture & Heritage, LearningPosted on Comments are Disabled

Knowing each vocabulary word doesn’t mean you always know what each Chinese expression means. Perhaps this expression goes back to the feudalistic foundation of Chinese culture that big families are the common characteristic, so “big family” is equivalent to calling everybody. We can make a further inference from this expression.