theuwucrew

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Pop + Semester Recap

Producing our power is a statement that gives me a sense of strength within myself but also within my community. When I came into this class I had no idea that I would have to be on a stage at the end of the semester. But it was really moving being able to see the work that not only my class created, but also the work of many other people apart of my community.  Even though I grew up attending a school that was filled with Asian Americans just like myself, I never felt like I was apart of that “community”. We never produced our power and uplifted each other. Seeing how everyone supported each other was something that warmed my heart. As I reflect on the event itself, it was nice to see everyone enjoy themselves. Throughout the semester I always felt like there was just the same group of people that had fun and they usually uplifted everyone to somewhat enjoy the time we all spent in burk 252. But with this event, mostly everyone was on the same wavelength and we all supported each other. 

[theuwucrew]

Blog Post #8- The Rise in K-beauty

Korean culture has boomed in the world within the past few years due to the rise in popularity of K-pop. The popularity in K-pop has given Koreans a huge platform to rise in this economy and one thing that they are known for now is their skincare products. The beauty community has taken an interest in K-beauty because of the multi-use products that they have been able to create. According to NBC, “K-beauty introduced the concept that skincare could be fun and effective, with natural ingredients priced at a value.”  These skincare products have gained popularity all around the world and is just another factor to the boom of the Korean industry. Americans have found interest in their products as sales have gone up around 300% in the past years. Not only skincare products have given the Koreans a reputation in the beauty community, but as well as their self-care remedies like the different spas that have gained popularity through companies like Buzzfeed. These companies shine a light on the intellectual minds of Asian American woman who have taken traditional routines and adapted them into American culture, by opening spas throughout the country that have special service that aren’t well known here. With this rise in their self care remedies and their new products, Americans find interest in what Korean (Americans) have created. This popularity earns a reputation among Asian (mainly, Korean) Americans because it shows the capabilities of the possibilities of  Asian American Woman’s mind.  With this boom in popularity we can see more Asian American woman apart of the beauty community. Finally having this image in a huge community gives many Asian American women a sense of confidence knowing that we are seen for what we do. 

[theuwucrew]

Blog Post #7 - Asian American Families

Asian American families are weird. Or well, the history of my family is kind of weird. Speaking from my own experience I’ve never really connected with my family because each of my family members are rooted in different cultures. Obviously there is a cultural difference between my parents who grew up in the Philippines in a completely different generation, but something that makes it even more complicated for my family specifically is that my eldest sister grew up in the Philippines for the first 16 years of her life (first 8 or mine).  It was always surprising to find out how shocking it was to people when they found out that my eldest sister grew up in a completely different country. It never occurred to me growing up how “weird” it was having an older sister in another country, that I probably only saw 3-4 times within those first 8 years of my life. I mean, it probably isn’t “weird” but I feel like that’s the best word that I can use to explain my family’s situation. (My sister couldn’t come to American because of legal papers.)  But whenever I think of these cultural differences between my parents, my eldest sister, my other older sister, and myself; I understand why we all act so differently. I mean yeah, I don’t really connect with my family very well. But I understand that we all act different ways based on the culture and community that has surrounded us as we became the people we are.  But Asians, or at least Filipinos, are very family oriented. Even though I can’t live or be around my family for too long because all of our different minds clash for no reason, I’ll always love them for who they are. We’re all completely different but I know that we all have good rooted in us somewhere no matter how different we all are or think.

[theuwucrew]

Blog Post #6- Asian American College Students in the Workforce

Maybe I’ve run out of ideas or I don’t have a life outside of my job, but I guess I’m going to CAR the restaurant and some of my coworkers that I’ve worked at for over a year now. So Marugame Udon at Stonestown has been a pretty big hit since we’ve opened. This establishment is, in the way I’ve been explaining it for the past year to different people, the In-N-Out of Japan. With locations throughout all of Japan and select countries in the world, Marugame Udon has started branching out into the United States. This Japanese based establishment is known for it’s hand-made udon, tempura, and musubi. I could sit here and re-word different explanations of the history of this restaurant but honestly, it’s making me cringe talking about my job outside of my job. So instead, I’m going to talk about my experience as an Asian American who has helped build upon this huge corporation. One thing I would like to analyze about this job is how this specific restaurant is basically built on the backs of a bunch of Asian American college students. I’ve been apart of this crew since the very beginning, like even before we had a restaurant to work in. I’ve been able to work alongside so many different people. But one thing I’ve noticed is about 75-80% of the people that have passed through this establishment were Asian American. I’ve never really asked my coworkers why they decided to work at this random udon restaurant. But I’ve noticed that among all of my fellow Asian American coworkers, not trying to exclude my coworkers of different ethnicities but I’m mainly trying to relate this to Asian American college students, is that we all have a similar drive to support ourselves. As many of us are first-generation Asian Americans, we find this drive to take the financial weight off of our parents who have worked so hard to get us to where we are. I’ve noticed that many of us feel like we need to so independent at such a young age where we take on the responsibility of school and work. I guess this drive for independence relates to many college students as well. But through this restaurant, we’ve (or at least some of us) have built a connection through the struggles we’ve faced together while we built this restaurant into what it is as well as creating this standard for the new stores opening throughout America. Being and Asian American working in an Asian food establishment does definitely have some perks. It’s kind of like cooking food that you’re used to cooking at home, it was weird teaching someone how to cook rice because it’s been something that I’ve done since I was a kid. Cooking food that I’ve grown up around my whole life made this job a lot easier for me. With the familiarity of the food served here, this restaurant has become a second home to me and it’s helped give me some comfort being apart of an establishment with people that I can understand.

[theuwucrew]

APAture Blog

The event I attended for the APAture 2018 - RE:place festival was the music showcase held at Hotel Utah Saloon.  “APAture is Kearny Street Workshop’s annual multidisciplinary arts festival celebrating emerging Asian and Pacific American (APA) artists of the San Francisco Bay Area. For 16 years, APAture has been a site of dialogue, collaboration, and political action between artists and community members around contemporary issues affecting the Asian and Pacific Islander community.”  This festival, showcasing different Asian and Pacific Americans (APA) artists throughout the San Francisco bay area, creates a platform for APA artists to collaborate with their communities about issues that effect them. Kearny Street Workshop provides APA artists to be able to show themselves, with their own different choices of art, in order to “develop their art, affirm their voices, and share their work with the APA community.”  APAture was an interesting event that I attended. It was something different than any other “music showcase” that I have ever experienced. When I first got there, I had no idea what to expect and my social anxiety (and my herniated spinal disk that I got a week before attending the event) made me miss some of the opening of this event. But when I actually entered this event, I felt the passion that built up this showcase. Being able to see my fellow APA community create a stage that showed themselves was inspiring. Knowing my emotional self, I cried a couple times because I just appreciated the work and art that these people had to share. It was honestly so moving to see people that I could relate to create something with their own voices and experiences that I could relate to. Through this event (and this class), I was able to experience my own community’s culture and that’s something I don’t think I could say that’s happened very often through my life. Seeing people apart of this APA community build each other up and create a voice that I can relate to gives me a sense of solidarity within a community that I can relate to. But also gives me that same sense within myself as well as some validation in the culture that I felt  like no one else understood.

[theuwucrew]

Iron Chef Blog Post

For my group, we decided to re-create okonomiyaki which we called it “okonomiyancake” for our project. We wanted to make this cake in order to show how traditional recipes changed and adapted to Japanese-American culture as many Japanese immigrants found their way to America.  Japanese people found their way to the United States in search of more peach, prosperity, and social mobility. They wanted to come to America to escape discrimination and find better opportunities for their future generations. While the Japanese found themselves pushed away from the terrible social conditions of their homeland, the Chinese Exclusion Act pulled more Japanese people into America. This act banned Chinese immigrants from being apart of the labor force which opened more opportunities for the Japanese to climb up the ladder of labor. These opportunities earned the Japanese some respect since they were able to be work and create a life for them and their families in America. As Japanese people were more integrated into American culture, we can see how these cultures became integrated. Traditions slowly changed and the things that seemed like “home” (food) were altered as traditions were passed through generations.  My role was to basically perform most of the skit we prepared. By “prepare”, I mean that we put it all together last minute. I’m not going to even sugarcoat the fact that I wasn’t prepared for this performance and I definitely messed up. This was due to my own lack of commitment to this project and the lack of communication within our group. Even though we were all basically unprepared, I’m really thankful for how much work my group did end up putting into this project. I wish that I could have executed our skit better, but what happened happened already.  Overall, when I reflect back on this project, I wish that I could have done a better job in connecting my group together. They all did an amazing job cooking the food we re-created and creating all the different aspects to this project. 

[theuwucrew]

BOLG #15: POP

In pop, I chose the dance group because I am not very good at speaking and my friends Gina and Lorrita are in this group. Besides, I really like dancing, even though I can't dance.

Although I take the 19 units class this semester, and I know that choosing this group requires frequent practice, I still stick to this group. As it turns out, my choice is correct.

Our team members are really friendly and lovely. Krystal, Emi, Mav, Nam create these dances and taught us. Gina, Lorrita, Jessica, Mugiho, Nick, Alex, and Tony (my partner) are very kind and lovely.

When I first dance, my hands and feet were completely uncoordinated, I always jumped wrong, and I couldn't keep up with the beat. In the repeated practice, I could finally jump completely. Thank you for the joy and help that my team members have brought me. To be honest, we didn’t dance together in the gym these days. I really miss you guys. I miss the time when we 12 people dance together.

-Cheryl M

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POP BLOG + SEMESTER RECAP

“Raindrop, droptop!”

For this semester’s POP show, I was a part of the dance group and our concept was: From Solitude to Solidarity. Our songs included Singularity by BTS, Get You by Daniel Caesar ft. Kali Uchis, Make It to Me by Sam Smith, and This Is Me by the cast of the Greatest Showman. Our dance began with all of us starting off as alone in solitude (Singularity) and as each song progressed, there is a transition of all of us coming together in solidarity (This Is Me). 

I can’t even begin to explain how much fun POP turned out for me. From the three-four day weekly practices we had to the combination of nerves and excitement I felt with my group before it was our turn to perform on stage, POP was a truly memorable experience. We performed our hearts out there and I know our efforts were visible to the people who watched. I’m proud of us. I just want to say thank you to our talented choreographers Krystal, Emi, and Nam! We appreciate your hard work and creativity for putting together this dance piece. And shout out to the rest of my group! We all got hella close after and I’m going to miss seeing y’all almost everyday. Love you guys, let’s stay in touch!

As for the class overall, I’m really glad I took AAS 218. The class really is like no other. I always felt a sense of empowerment and unlike many classes, it was easy to stay engaged as the things we did were actually fun yet educational at the same time. I’m grateful for the people I met through this class and I’m genuinely gonna miss it!

- Jessica R.

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Blog #9: Producing Our Power + semester recap

Unfortunately, I did not take any pics or videos cause I had to leave early. But my experience at POP was amazing and something I’ll never forget. I was in the fashion group. I was a little bit indecisive of what group I should choose for this because I didn’t really fit in the with the rest. I’m glad I chose this group because fashion is something that means a lot to me because it is not only used to project modesty, but it is used for self expression. I feel really lucky to have such a great group because we all worked with another equally by putting outfits together, and I want to thank Sabrina for putting most of the things together! There was so many beautiful pieces and a video and This fashion show wouldn’t have happened without everyone. I’m so happy with how everything turned out to because I know everyone put in their hard work and creativity to create this.

Semester Recap

Honestly, I did not expect this class to be the way it is. I thought it would be like all my other classes, with the boring lectures, test/quizzes. I actually learned a lot about my culture. I made new friends who I actually connected with and everyone was so accepting. We all treated one another as if we were family and I’m really thankful for our teacher, Irene and our amazing TA’s Mav, Josh and Troy.

-Kaylani Galindo

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BOLG #14: Hotpot

Hotpot is a unique Chinese food with a long history and is a food for all ages. According to research, there was a hot pot during the Warring States period. When people used clay pots as pots, it was very common in the Song Dynasty to eat hot pots. In the recipes of Lin Hong in the Southern Song Dynasty, there were introductions of hot pots with friends. In the Yuan Dynasty, hot pots were spread to Mongolia to cook beef and mutton. In the Qing Dynasty, hot pot was not only popular in the folk, but also became a famous "court dish", the material used is the pheasant and other game.

A hot pot generally refers to a cooking method in which a pot is used as an appliance, a heat source is used to cook a pot, and water or soup is boiled to cook food, and the pot used in the cooking method can also be referred to. Its characteristics are to eat while cooking or the pot itself has a heat preservation effect when the food is still hot, the soup is one. Similar dishes are available all over the world, but they are particularly popular in East Asia. Hotpot is now hot, spicy and savory, deodorizing and dehumidifying, suitable for the climate of mountains and rivers. Today, it is developed into a shabu-shabu, spicy and light, each need, all suitable for young and old, and the best for winter.

Typical hot pot ingredients include a variety of meat, seafood, vegetables, soy products, mushrooms, egg products, fans, etc., put it into boiled water or a special soup pot to boil and eat. Some eating methods will also be served with seasonings.

-Cheryl M

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BOLG #13: APATURE Event

I participated in film showcase win APATURE 2018- RE: place with my boyfriend on October 28th in Z Space, 450 Florida Street.

There is 10 short film in the film showcase, they are: XANH, Belief Dictates Outcome, The Construct: Female Laborers and the Fight for Equality, Illegible, Mari, Aspara in NY, Nothing on Us, Baraha, Daughter, Many Names.

Among them, my favorite is the fourth short film, the name is Mari. Mari is only 1-2 minutes, shown in a cutely animated form, described a young lady narrates stories of her childhood memories. When I saw this short film, I missed my family and my childhood memories. I remembered when I was a child, I went to my grandmother's house for lunch every day. My grandmother cooked my favorite foods for me. I walked with my grandmother at dusk.

In addition, in the third short film, I saw the hard work of the young women. Their salary is very low, I hope they can be treated well in the future.

-Cheryl M

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BLOG #10: BTS

Anyone who know knows me, knows that I adore BTS.

For those who aren’t too familiar with them, BTS is a South Korean-pop group based in South Korea. The seven members of the group debuted under the company, Big Hit Entertainment in 2013 and from there, have only been going up. 

To begin with, they’re not Asian American themselves–– although they do give visibility to our community. Like I’ve said in my previous blogs–– seeing someone onscreen that looks like you is a powerful thing. Therefore not only does BTS’s success send messages to the AAPI youth that, “Hey! That can be you too!”, but it also shuts down the stereotypes of Asians only being successful doctors and lawyers and shit. Their worldwide recognition and breakthrough into the US market is a huge deal, proving them to be a symbol of diversity in the music industry. They’ve experienced nonstop success over the last two years: being the first Korean artist group to attend and win at the Billboards Music Awards, making several appearances in talk shows such as Ellen or Jimmy Kimmel Live!, performing at the AMA’s, working with UNICEF, speaking in the UN, and just recently they’ve been nominated for a Grammy. (fucking insane). What I mainly admire of the group is how they use their platform to make socially conscious music that sheds light on stigmas such as mental illnesses and send endless positivity through their messages of self-love and acceptance. You can see this through both old and new songs/albums such as their latest album, “Love Yourself: Tear.” Another thing I admire them for is how they challenge the Western beauty standards of men. For anyone who has watched a video of BTS knows that they wear makeup and while it’s normalized in the idol world for men to wear makeup, it’s one of the things I see that they get ridiculed for in the West. But did they stop? No because they said fuck fragile masculinity! Anyway, I love BTS and I hope they keep thriving 

- Jessica R.

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BLOG#9: BETTER LUCK TOMORROW

Better Luck Tomorrow came out in 2003 and is a film centered around a group of teenagers as they navigate their way through high school. Like any other high school student, they spent their days worrying about SATs, getting at girls they thought were cute, hanging out after school, etc. The did some things that many high school students didn’t do, such as take part in drug dealing, scam computer scores, or be part of a cheat-sheet ring ran by the school’s valedictorian. (Kim, 2018) Many things occur in the film, such as the murder of an acquaintance from another school, which was followed by an attempt suicide by one of the members as the pressure got too much for him. The whole movie was a rollercoaster that revolved around this group of Asian teenagers doing bad shit.

The things I appreciated about this movie is that 1) it had a predominantly Asian cast and director and 2) it didn’t limit the characters to the typical Asian trope of a mathematical genius or kung fu master. During the Sundance Film Festival in 2002, a critic stood up during a Q&A with the cast and asked, “Why … make a film so empty and amoral about Asian Americans?” And that then saw Roger Ebert (the director), pointing out the double standard implicit in that question: “Nobody would say to a bunch of white filmmakers, ‘How could you do this to your people?’ … Asian American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be. They do not have to represent ‘their people.’” Preaaach. This movie really is too underappreciated despite sending the important message that not all Asians are the same and that this model minority bs is a lie served to limit our people. 

- Jessica R. 

[theuwucrew]

BOLG #12: ABC and international student

ABC means American Born Chinese.

As an international student, I can easily distinguish between ABC and international students who grew up in China like me. With regard to the typical traditional Chinese, unlike most ABC's social growth environment and contact education, there are differences in grooming and emotional expression.

Language There are differences between the phonetic intonation and the way of speaking. The grammar of Chinese is different from the grammar of English, and the sentence structure is different. Therefore, in everyday spoken conversations, many sentences that we feel are too normal are strange to foreigners.

Appearance

ABC girls are dark-colored. In the United States, people are pursuing a healthy complexion. They not only like sunbathing but also sunscreen oil that specifically deepens their complexion. Children who grew up abroad are also more favored for wheat-colored skin. This is very different from the Asian women who pursue whitening. Another point is that ABC girls prefer makeup. International students generally do not wear makeup or makeup light. This is also related to the growing environment. ABCs like fitness. Therefore, ABC is relatively more robust. A large proportion of international students are thinner.

-Cheryl M

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BLOG #8:  LONGEVITY NOODLES

It’s been an ongoing tradition in my family to eat noodles whenever it was someone’s birthday. Whether it be pasta, chow mein, pancit, etc. we always just have to have some form of noodles because it’s believed that you’ll live a longer life if you eat noodles. It sounds kind of cute when you first hear about it, but my mom took this shit so seriously–– as in if we didn’t eat noodles, the person whose birthday it was would experience 10 years bad luck or something lol. Anyway, after doing some research I actually learned that this tradition originated from China! And that the name for this practice is called Longevity Noodles. It’s been an ongoing tradition since the Han Dynasty till this day. I know I have like the tiniest ounce of Chinese blood in me so I wonder if that’s why my family keeps this tradition alive, but I have other friends from various ethnicities that practice eating noodles in celebration of a person’s birthday as well. Pretty cool how this tradition had started in China, but over time has managed to spread and be practiced by multiple ethnic groups 

RESOURCE:

“What Chinese Eat on Their Birthday: Longevity Noodles.” EChineseLearning  www.echineselearning.com/blog/what-chinese-eat-on-their-birthday-longevity-noodles.

[theuwucrew]

APAture BLOG

During the month of APAture, I went to their film showcase and ended up liking various films. One of them was the animation, Belief Dictates Outcome where we watched the experience of a single Latina mother in the 80’s and how she was able to break past the glass wall barriers. The animation and soundtrack were cool as hell, and the story in general was empowering as we saw her fight through the struggles of a minority woman paving her way through a patriarchal workforce. Another film I was thoroughly intrigued with was The Construct: Female Laborers and the Fight for Equality by Jalena Keane-Lee. This documentary heavily focused on the workforce of women in Yangon, Myanmar. It features human rights activist, Cheery Zahau, who breaks it down for the audience the inequalities these women face compared to their male counterparts. Throughout it, I only felt admiration for these women. Not only were they doing the same heavy labor as their husbands, but they were also in charge of cooking and taking care of the children. They’re more exhausted than their husbands and it makes no sense they don’t receive equal pay. Overall, the documentary did a fantastic job of raising awareness for the women of Myanmar. The last video I really liked was Ruby Ibarra’s documentary of her music video, Us. I remember when they MV dropped earlier this year and everyone was hyped (rightfully so). Therefore, seeing the process of how it was created was super cool. I think my favorite part was when Ruby shared that she wasn’t expecting the large turn up of Pinays and her reflecting on it, like damn, of course they’d wanna be a part of something that represents who they are as a Filipina. The whole documentary was both badass and wholesome.

[theuwucrew]

Blog 15: POP

Due to work, I unfortunately could not physically attend POP, but I promise I was there in spirit! And I appreciate my friends who kept me updated throughout the whole night. Every group did so well and the whole process to get to the end of POP was quite the experience. I was apart of the animation group who made the short animated film Trivial Thoughts: Serendipity. In the beginning I would say it was a bit rough getting the storyline together, since we kept changing it as the weeks went by. I almost got worried we weren’t going to finish on time but fortunately in the end, we were able to pull it all together. Jade and Tuans drawings were superb and the voice acting from Carlos, Mugi, Aldrin, Jason, and Stacie’s nephew were all on point! I enjoyed doing the final edits on creating the storyline and I am so grateful for my group for the end results.

Overall I just want to thank this class for the experience I had and for giving me the opportunity to create new friends. I really enjoyed this class and how it opened my mind to topics that were outside of your typical class discussions.

-Jaslyn B