Written by Sarah J. Kang
May is the month of recognition and remembrance for people who have been, and still are, politically underrepresented, economically marginalized, and socially ostracized. All of these definitions are applicable to the last month of the academic year, and for members of Asian Student Union (ASU), the last few days have been tumultuous.
Between classes, packing, and the end of the school year, there has been an underlying buzz of activity in preparation for Asian/Asian-American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month. ASU decided to use this longer name rather than the more nationally marketed “Asian American and Pacific Islanders Awareness Month” because it is exclusionary towards non-citizens and can induce inaction with the buzzword “awareness.”
Established in 1990, this month is an extension of the original, congressionally-designated “Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week” of 1978. May was chosen in commemoration of the first Japanese immigrants arriving to the U.S. on May 7, 1843, along with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.
It may seem strange that this Western dictation of celebration should be the banner under which Asian students gather, but in fact it has proven a powerful tool for sparking conversation on the untold histories and contemporary realities of Asians in America.
ASU members began the campaign on April 25, running a table in Worner with a red sign that read “Are We Visible Now?” encouraging Asian-American students to take a picture with the prompt “I am proud of…” This photo campaign, along with a timeline of Asian and Asian-American history, made up the display on the Worner Quad on May 2 and 3.
“At first we wanted to emphasize celebration of the Asian identity, but with further research and discussion we realized that we need to think about this month and what it really means,” said sophomore ASU co-chair Qiu Chang Wu on the development of the exposition. “It turns out, there isn’t a lot to celebrate… The history of Asians in America is not a pleasant one.”
From the deaths of Filipino and Japanese contract laborers in sugar plantations in the seventeenth century, to the refusal of entry to refugees of the Vietnam War, and to the mass lynching of Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles prior to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, there are many critical narratives that are either minimized or completely omitted from social studies textbooks. The history of Asians in America is one that has always been grossly misrepresented, if discussed in length at all.
Asians are largely ignored in historical and contemporary conversations on race in the U.S. because “when we talk about racial tensions and racial hierarchy we talk about racial binaries, and Asian-Americans don’t fall within that binary,” said Wu. “[Asian-Americans] are labeled as the ‘model minority,’ but this is simply untrue. Asians have been perpetually treated as foreigners in America.”
First-year Jinkang Yu, an international student from China and one of next year’s ASU co-chairs, said, “In my two years of high school in America, I often felt unengaged because of the lack of discussion on Asians in the American narrative… The events of this month were planned to learn for ourselves and educate others on Asians in America. Instead of celebrating what we shouldn’t, for us this is a month to remember why we are here, what we have gone through, and who we really are and have been.”
The process has been educational and community building for many Asian students. In preparation for the month’s events, they were asked to consider their heritage in depth for the first time and how their own views of Asian-American history have been influenced by their educations. For Asian and non-Asian students alike, much of the knowledge presented came to light for the first time and opened up a fuller, more nuanced conversation on race.