Hey, this is Annie from all the way from Hong Kong. Yes, I am abroad, as a former AAA member asked my good friend and Barnard VP for AAA, Ai-Lin today. But wanted to bring forth an article that hit the front page of the NYTimes Page today. This has been happening for years: Mandarin is eclipsing Cantonese as the dominant spoken language in Chinatown! An influx in the Mandarin-speaking population as well as an increasing interest in learning the Mandarin language have shifted demographics. Cantonese, for those who are unfamiliar with Chinese languages, is a dialect of Souther China; Mandarin is the official language of China, and the two are quite different dialects. While the written characters are the same for the most part, the dialects are such that a Cantonese speaker may not understand a Mandarin speaker, and vice versa. In addition, many of those in Chinatown are Taishan speakers: Taishan is a dialect of Cantonese which Cantonese speakers may not understand!

Now why am I concerned? Part of it is a personal reason; Chinatown is where I was born and raised, and still consider home today. I've grown up using my broken Cantonese/Taishanese to buy groceries, wander around, talk to my parents, etc. Put in context, my parents are Taishanese, and speak Cantonese. My mother speaks a bit of Mandarin, while I believe my dad does not understand it at all. As the article mentions, historically it was Cantonese speakers who immigrated to this country and made lives here. Chinatown, especially, is a place where one can make friends, connections, a living, and generally have all you need-- without learning another language. We've seen problems at the voting polls because of language barriers and limited resources (side note: you all should consider helping AALDEF on Election Day with its Poll Voting Survey! more information is linked). This already underrepresented group (albeit increasing in awareness and political clout) is beginning to be alienated from its home, Chinatown!

And it's not just a problem in Chinatown; this has worldwide implications for whole groups of people who've lived their lives with only one language. In Hong Kong already, there are schooling shifts to teaching Mandarin and English, as Cantonese is not as widely used, primarily only used in Southern China. (The Chinese dept. at the University of Hong Kong, on a side note, only teaches beginning Cantonese to exchange students, while Mandarin is available through an intermediate level). Now I am not saying demographic shifts or the teaching of different languages are a bad thing; Chinatown was once a Jewish and Italian neighborhood, and I understand completely the role of cultural diffusion. What I am saying is that something needs to be done to make sure these communities are not alienated and eventually endangered or exploited. This is especially applicable to the Asian-American community, which has such a diverse number of languages. I understand it may be inevitable that Chinatown shifts in languages as more Mandarin speakers arrive in America, but yeah, I'll be helping my dad translate throughout. I just hope that if and when Chinatown and other places like it change, as is inevitable, that others will be helping those like my dad, my fellow Chinatown-ers and those beyond its limits.

Hi,

As a PhD student in counseling psychology at Columbia University, I am currently working on my dissertation regarding the Asian American experience with racial microaggression (a contemporary form of racism). I was wondering if it would be possible to send out the survey link/following email through your listserv/blog or post it on your website?

Survey link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ejZ2mHdOih8PuAUYMz5yoA_3d_3d

Thanks for helping to further research on racism against Asian Americans!

Annie

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Asian American participant,

As a PhD student in counseling psychology, I am currently recruiting Asian American participants for a study on experience with racial microaggression. The data collected will assist researchers and educators in understanding how Asian Americans experience modern forms of racial discrimination.

Your participation is completely voluntary and confidential. There is minimal to no physical or psychological risk involved in this study. The survey should take about 20 minutes.

Survey link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ejZ2mHdOih8PuAUYMz5yoA_3d_3d

Please forward this survey link to as many of your Asian American friends/family/colleagues/listservs as you can and ask them to forward this on.
If you have any questions about the survey/research, feel free to email me at ail2103@columbia.edu.

Thanks in advance!

Annie

I am utterly stunned and captured by Varun Gulati's (SEAS '10) response to a column posted in the Spec by Rajat Roy. In his column, Roy makes some strong criticisms regarding the existence of "cultural" groups on Columbia's campus, and how they can sometimes be too insular to merit their funding.

Race was, is, and always will be a divisive issue on this campus. However, we have created a new word that doesn’t spark as much controversy but means essentially the same thing to the layman (and yes, even though we are Columbia students, we, for the most part, are still laymen). This word has some truly nefarious implications, and at Columbia, we have seen how big an issue it can be.

This word is—“Culture.”

I am not joking. “Culture” is causing more harm than good at Columbia. Let me clarify—culture in and of itself is inherently good. Every person needs to be cultured and be exposed to other cultures. However, Columbia does “Culture” in a way that only hurts the overall community. It wouldn’t cost that much in terms of man-hours or money to rectify this situation. In fact, changing this could increase the amount of money available to all students.

And Gulati puts him into perspective.

From the explicit identification as “cultural” within each constitution, cultural groups under the Activities Board at Columbia received only 4.4 percent of student life fees for clubs, the equivalent of less than $7 from each undergraduate. Especially in recent years, these groups have made extraordinary efforts to create collaborative programs and outreach to the entire Columbia community with little funding, contrary to the insinuation that an organization’s “worth” is entirely dependent on its funding.

Through five major cultural showcases in the 2008-2009 academic year, nearly 3,000 students, families, professors, administrators, and New Yorkers were given a glimpse into the communities that make up the diverse cultural fabric of Columbia University. The real problem here is not the lack of open cultural events, but the unawareness and apathy towards these hundreds of events. Ultimately, this causes the perpetuation of repulsively ignorant statements, including “’Culture’ is really a definition of insularism where people of the same group can meet and hook up.”

Bigoted generalizations such as these inappropriately dismiss the genuine interest of the thousands of students who engage in events thrown by the cultural organizations, none of which are exclusive in membership or attendance. To label these groups’ funding needs as unworthy or their intentions as incestuous is oppressive and insensitive. [emphasis mine]

Though Roy does give examples of "cultural" groups that, in his view, make good use of their funding allocations, I can't view as legitimate the argument that "insular" groups don't deserve their funding. What kind of campus culture would we have if we could only experience the "cultures" of those who could successfully market and sell them to their peers? Shouldn't we also value the groups whose priority is to support constituencies that experience a lack of resources or representation?

Hey, all: this is Annie, all the way from Hong Kong catching you up on the latest news. It still baffles me somehow to see so many Asians in office here in Hong Kong, as I'm generally not used to the sight back in New York or in America in general. I'm taking a class here called "Hong Kong and the World," which is all about Hong Kong's role in this globalizing world; it's been really interesting so far. I recently got to hear Margaret Ng, Legislative Councillor, speak about rule of law over here in Hong Kong and the ever-confusing Chinese influence on Hong Kong (well, at least to me: I have a lot to learn). But enough about Hong Kong. Here's the real news:

I found out via multiple Facebook postings/statuses/etc. that John Liu recently won his runoff election against David Yassky (as the Times reports)! While the poll sites were pretty empty on the 29th (as is typically the case for runoffs), Liu won convincingly, beating Yassky 56-44, and will face Joseph Mendola in November to become Comptroller, the equivalent of the city's accountant. Although Liu's rival for Comptroller, Joseph Mendola, is a Columbia Law School graduate himself, I'm sure the Columbia Blaaag crew would agree with me that it'd be much more interesting to see NYC's first Asian council member become NYC's first Asian-American comptroller. Congrats, Liu! (Although a Daily News editorial doesn't seem so quick to congratulate him or his campaign financing)

As many of you probably already know (via the Times), City Councilmen John C. Liu of Queens and David Yassky of Brooklyn ran for New York City comptroller on Tuesday September 15th. If elected, Liu would become the first Asian American to hold this office. He led the primaries at 38% of the vote, just short of the 40% required to avoid a runoff. Yassky took second with 30%, while Councilwoman Melinda Katz of Queens was third with 20% and Councliman David Weprin of Queens was fourth with 12%.

It has been a competitive race, with the candidates raising $10 million between the four of them. Compare this with the $5 million spent on 2001's election for the same position. Unfortunately, like Liu said in a Chinatown dining hall, "I gotta ask you for two more weeks." I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Congratulations to Dartmouth for being one of APAP (APA for Progress) and Angry Asian Man's "Best Colleges and Universities for AAPI Students!" Among other things, Dartmouth is cited for its student involvement in various intiatives in coalition-building, furthering the institutionalization of Asian American Studies, and community service. What I am personally most jealous about is the (hott with two T's) list of Asian American stars they've hosted: Helen Zia, Maxine Hong Kingston, Gary Okihiro, Captain and Chaplain James Yee, Valerie Kaur, Mari Matsuda, Frank Wu, Shilpa Dave, Margaret Cho, David Choe, the Slant Performance Group, and Lisa Lowe. C'mon Columbia, we've got some catchin' up to do! [There will be plenty of this at CultureSHOCK, in case you were wondering...]

So, way to go Dartmouth! But for those of you who are thinking, "Let's take 'em down," take a moment to nominate COLUMBIA!

NOTE: For the full article about Dartmouth from the APAP website, click here.

Hello, all! So as I, Annie, mentioned last entry, I'm going to be a correspondent in Hong Kong this semester. I have arrived! It's my second day here: I've so far gone through a ton of Hong Kong, and it's pretty great. I love the in-your-face buildings that are always 20+ floors high, kind of like a taller New York. But I also love the green mountains that are always in the background, a reminder that amongst all the busy urban life, there's also a need to remember the smaller things in life, the natural things that, while so obvious sometimes, need to be remembered. And of course, there are many more things, but that would take a long time to explain.

Anyways, I am very interested in all the things I'll be doing here, and, more importantly, how I can relate it back to things that I know, including American things. Amongst all the stores and businesses stacked amongst one another are McDonalds, Burger Kings, KFCs, and a sea of people that, as my cousin on my dad's side put it, really like wearing clothes with English words, no matter what they say (you'll see like KCIMEY SOUME shirts and KNIE shoes back in China, for example. Interesting). And very different lifestyles, philosophies on things that I've already seen. And college life at the University of Hong Kong will be quite different.

I need to catch up on my New York news. I feel so out of the loop now haha, and it's only been two days.

Anyways, enjoy the rest of summer! I'll keep updating.

-Annie

Hey, all. My name's Annie, and I'm the Event Advisor of AAA as well as a new blogger for the BlAAAg! I'll be our resident Hong Kong person for awhile, as I'll be abroad for the semester. But for now, I blog from Chinatown, NYC, where voting, immigration, gentrification, and so many other issues still apply, as throughout the world still (and you better not forget it!). I thought I'd write an entry as summer winds down, and thank y'all who've been reading this blog for quite some time, even through these cool summer months. I'll be writing periodically about things happening in the HK; I'll elab more once I'm there (the 19th is approaching!)

Anyways, it was big news when Euna Lee and Laura Ling, journalists who crossed the border to N. Korea so many months ago, were freed last Wednesday: it was the first article on the NYTimes site for a day and a half, woot! Bill Clinton made a 20-hour private visit over to North Korea and spoke to Kim Jong Il, supposedly just on humanitarian issues (but who knows what could have gone on there). Anyways, Il gave a special "pardon" to the two, who had been there since mid-March. The video of their return was pretty damn emotional.



As for US-Asian relations, who knows how this can affect things. Sure, the Obama admin. has been claiming that Bill went on his own and that they had no say in it, but there must've been some approval by the White House to get the girls out. North Korea, too, has been given its share of good press, which has been rare for the isolationist and expanding nation. Perhaps this'll be the beginning of resuming and progressing talks btwn. the UN and North Korea, which has been threatened with so, so many sanctions in the past. But for both sides, this looked pretty darn good. We'll see.

It's been cause for celebration, too, not just for the families of the journalists and the U.S. government. This has been huge news, too, for a good portion of the Asian-American community in America who've been keeping an eye on this story for quite a while. For some months, I was beginning to think that the two could be there for years. What could that have said about U.S. policy? I wonder, too, what this story could mean for a lot of the community out there in the future. But hey, we'll see again.

Us AAAers (yes, we still talk, despite the summer recess) kept touch about it, and our VP from Barnard suggested a celebration once people return to campus! Yay! But we'll stay in touch about that...and cultureSHOCK... and OCM apps... and other things and events, as we've been planning for the new school year. Stay tuned to this blog, our upcoming Twitter page, our Facebook group, for more and more updates!

-where it's A.T.

Yesterday was the Third Annual Hate Crimes Prevention Art Exhibit, presented by OCA-New York and coordinated by our great friend and Blaaag-writer Ryan Fukumori / Heiroku. A bad night and some bodily ailments left me unable to go at the last minute (sorry, Ryan!), and no word yet on whether or not fellow writer David went, but those of you who are in New York and heard about the art exhibit - Did you go? How was it? Was New York City Councilman (and Comptroller Candidate) John Liu fantastically vague and diplomatic as usual? Did our dear friend Taiyo do a good job of counteracting that by being provocative and saying too much (which, I think, is how it should be done)? What were students' art work like? Did it inspire any new thoughts or emotions in you?