Metamorphosis: Fall 2021

GENERASIAN

FALL 2021

LETTER

CONTENTS

FROM THE EDITORS

EXECUTIVE STAFF

Co-Presidents Chelsea Kwak Marva Shi Editors-in-Chief Chanel Pulido Amy Dai Secretary Alex Tran Treasurer Ellen Liu Marketing Directors Chelsea Li Victoria Ng Art Editors Joanna Feng Hana Pak Blog Editors Michael Lo Jihoon Yang Media Editors Caitlin Chien Marva Shi Layout Editors Charlene Tan Thea Wang

P O LI T I C S A ND C URRE NT E VE NTS

Dear Readers, Welcome to the Fall 2021 issue of the Generasian Magazine!

We’ve made it! Although the pandemic still weathers on, this marks our first semester of in-person collaboration after an unprecedented period of uncertainty and confusion within the AAPI community.

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cover art

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letter from the editors and staff/credits

Many things have changed since the start of the pandemic. As Asian communities across the world look back on the events of 2020 and 2021 so far, they shed their old ways to pursue a new normal. For this issue, we invited our writers to consider how they adjust to new norms after being compelled to return to in-person life in the midst of a still ongoing pandemic. After all of the chaos of the past year, we’ve come to a point where many members of the AAPI community are ready for change – whether that be on a personal or societal level.

H I S TO RY A N D CO N T E MP O R A RY C U LT U R E

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Undoubtedly, many of us are still in the process of healing from the events of this past year and adjusting to the new period we are entering. Through their creative and insightful pieces, our writers have grappled with various inner and outer

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metamorphoses, and have reflected on what those changes mean to them.

Navigating college life on top of everything that has happened in the world isn’t easy. Yet, our writers have come so far in reflecting upon and coping with the many responsibilities and challenges that transformation often entails from this past year.

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Netflix Taking the Lead in Bringing International Content to the World and What This Means for Asians

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Artists Emma Guan Julia Kim Sheil Mehta Yukki Qiu Angela Zhai

Michael Lo

Destigmatizing South Korean Feminism Alice La

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Artwork Julia Kim

F I C T I O N A N D PE RS ONAL E S SAYS

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Little Dragon

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Unraveling the Cocoon

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artworks

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Singlish

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The Synechdoche of Being Asian and American

Deborah Kwong

Shana Wu

Limbo: Spaces in Contemporary Asian American Music

Yukki Qiu, Angela Zhai

Annie Williams Chanel Pulido

Amy Dai

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Angela Zhai Acrylic on canvas This painting is based on a physical collage I had constructed with magazine pages, a postcard, M&M wrappers, a sticky note which was stuck to the door of my room, and wire Christmas decorations. It’s messy, and strange, and whenever I look at it I get the sense that it’s not quite finished yet. I guess the sticky note is there for a reason.

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In Between the Seams: Viewing Fashion through an Asian American Lens

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Evangelion: Loneliness, Escapism, and the Hedgehog’s Dilemma

LeAnn Mai

Eric Wu

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Breaking Out of the Binary

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blog and media highlights

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meet the eboard

Grace Tan

Disclaimer:

This publication is published by students at New York University and NYU is not responsible for its contents.

Calista Tey

LeAnn Mai

cover art: do not disturb (2021)

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2 Letter from the Editors

China’s Urban Rail Boom

Jihoon Yang

Your Editors

Layout Kunga Divie Julia Kim Willa Lin Charlene Tan Thea Wang

How Anime Feeds into Japan’s Female Sexualization Issue

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Nene Hamada

Sincerely, CONTRIBUTORS

Artwork Sheil Mehta

We hope you enjoy their heartfelt and honest stories as much as we did!

Writers Nene Hamada Deborah Kwong Alice La Michael Lo LeAnn Mai Annie Williams Grace Tan Calista Tey Eric Wu Shana Wu Jihoon Yang Hanxi Zhu

Angela Zhai

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Table of Contents 3

NIGHT WATCH VIENNA

By: Sheil Mehta Sheil is a senior studying Neuroscience at NYU who likes to doodle to ease his anxiety.

GREY MATTER

These collections of doodles started off as therapy has now become a hobby!

4 History and Contemporary Culture

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Artwork by Sheil Mehta 5

JAPANESE ANIME &

Additionally, I find it concerning that these images of romanticized anime characters are exported as a problem across the world.

When I meet new people in the West, I sometimes feel like I am compared to an unrealistic character born of imagination simply because I am Japanese. My sexuality and nationality alone should not put me in such uncomfortable situations.

Although anime is not to blame for all problems related to female fetishization, it is evident that the lack of social awareness in anime prominently feeds into the reinforcement of Japanese gender roles.

While anime is artistically unique and culturally significant, the art form should be celebrated and drawn in a way that separates the hypersexualization and fetishization of girls from its artistic values.

FEMAL SEXUALIZATION ISSUES

By: Nene Hamada Picture a teenage girl in a Japanese school uniform with big, sparkly eyes that take up half of her face, disproportionately large boobs, and a slim physique with legs and arms so long that she appears almost sickly—these unrealistic depictions of girls only exist in the fantasized realm of Japanese anime.

Combined with kawaii “cute” culture, anime commonly objectifies and fetishizes women for their physique, both on and off-screen.

Anime is recognized as one of the most celebrated aspects of Japanese culture around the world and is symbolic of Japanese art and entertainment. As an individual with roots in Japan, I was introduced to anime at a very young age. Like many other Japanese children,

6 History and Contemporary Culture

I remember watching family-oriented series like Sazae-san and Detective Conan (Case Closed) at my grandparents’ house before dinner, and I loved binge-watching more mature anime like Attack on Titan and Kingdom as I grew older. However, why many anime characters looked, sounded, and acted similarly always remained a question for my young mind. It was not until later in life that I truly realized why.

Although stereotypes depicted in anime are sometimes recognized by Japanese society as untrue, the prominence of anime as an art form ultimately leads to the failure of many to condemn the problematic social constructs projected in front of them. Relatively common but very inaccurate portrayals of Japanese social behavior that are unobservable in real life include excessive politeness, use of cliché phrases like aishiteru (I love you), and the taboo love between teachers and students.

Yet, a more grave issue that is deliberately dismissed and under-addressed is the sexual connotations that anime subtly relays to its audience; combined with kawaii “cute” culture, anime commonly objectifies and fetishizes women for their physique, both on and off-screen. Girls, especially young teenagers, are commonly drawn with short skirts and tighter clothes that sexualize the female body: they are overly skinny and have body parts that barely mirror those of a realistic and healthy girl. School uniforms and maid costumes are also sexualized styles that are catered towards the male gaze for a visually provocative and pleasing experience. The way girls are drawn in anime becomes the definition of the sexy and perfect body for many anime lovers, causing young girls in Japanese society to be fetishized and the target of sexual attacks.

Although more recent anime like

Jujutsu Kaisen paint more realistic and less sexually allusive female characters, gender norms such as male dominance and female social roles are recurring themes that can still be seen in anime. It is especially problematic as anime is a part of Japanese people’s lives from a very young age, so people do not grow up learning that gaps between anime and reality exist. Female characters like Nami and Nico Robin from One Piece are good examples of animated girls that embody the “perfect” but unrealistic feminine look—skinny and glamorous with big eyes. This anime is widely popular amongst Japanese children, especially elementary boys, so this type of fetishization being projected onto the developing minds of young boys is very dangerous, as some grow up with the belief that all girls in real life look and act like these hypersexual anime characters.

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Unfortunately, it is not rare for Japanese women to feel uncomfortable in the presence of males who take advantage of anime culture and force their fantasized image of animated girls onto girls in real life. As someone who went to school in Japan with a uniform throughout middle and high school, young girls being seen as fetishized anime characters was a problem I personally lived through. I

Gender norms such as male dominance and female social roles are recurring themes that can still be seen in anime.

Nene Hamada is a junior from Japan studying Media, Culture, and Communication & Economics at NYU Steinhardt/CAS.

would sometimes feel the unwanted male gaze while wearing my uniform in public and would be left feeling like my mere existence was reduced to nothing but a sexualized image that lives on the screen.

How Anime Feeds into Japan’s Female Sexualization Issue 7

NETFLIX TAKING THE LEAD

Artwork by: Emma Guan

IN BRINGING INTERNATIONAL CONTENT TO THE WORLD AND WHAT THIS MEANS FOR ASIANS

Illustration of Lee Eun-Hyeok (left) from Sweet Home (2020), Player #067 (middle) from Squid Game (2021), and Yoon Ji-Woo (right) from My Name (2021).

popular webtoons such as Cheese in the Trap, Along with the Gods, and Itaewon Class for years.

Even other mediums have taken notice of the potential of webtoons as anime adaptations of webtoons have been released.

By: Jihoon Yang

There’s something surreal about being a South Korean and seeing a Korean show about Korean children’s games climb to being the most viewed show on Netflix.

When I was at NYU in 2016 for my freshman year, I felt a bit suffocated. I could quite pinpoint why but I suddenly realized when watching a film in the theater: I have not seen any Korean faces on any screen. I was surrounded by a sea of faces but barely any were Asian. Since then, BTS and Blackpink have dominated the music industry while Parasite became the first Korean film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Now? The Korean show, Squid Game, as of the time of writing this article, is now the most watched Netflix Original Series of all time.1 Needless to say, it makes me proud to be a Korean and to be someone exposed to both the Korean entertainment industry as well as the American one.

For those that have still not heard about the Netflix K-Drama, Squid Game, it is about hundreds of contestants who play Korean children’s games to compete for large sums of money to pay off their massive debt. The downside? If they lose these games, they are killed.

Of course this isn’t the first time that South Korean Netflix originals have become popular outside of Korea. Shows such as the historical political zombie thriller, Kingdom, and the apocalyptic horror show, Sweet Home, have also been well received

People used to think that the penultimate of success in the entertainment industry was to make it in Hollywood. Now, actors and creatives alike from any corner of the globe can partake in their dreams of success beyond the borders of their country.

With the growing popularity of South Korean content, Netflix pledged at the beginning of 2021 to invest $500 million into its Korean content. Perhaps it is this awareness of foreign content and audiences that has put Netflix ahead of the other streaming competitors. by foreign audiences. Kingdom received critical praise for its ability to blend a political thriller with an unique take on the zombie genre. Sweet Home was able to become the third most popular show on Netflix in the US. With the growing popularity of South Korean content, Netflix pledged at the beginning of 2021 to invest $500 million into its Korean content.2 Perhaps it is this awareness of foreign content and audiences that has put Netflix ahead of the other streaming competitors. Not only was Netflix the first streaming company to expand abroad, it is also the company that invests the most into international content.

Other notable Netflix shows from other countries include the Spanish Money Heist, the French Lupin, and the Japanese Alice in Borderland. Other media companies can no longer ignore Netflix’s success with Korean content as Disney recently announced its plans to greenlight more than 50 original

titles from Asia by 2023.

Disney+, which released in late 2019 in the States, has also announced it would finally be launching in South Korea on November 12.3 Disney has also picked up the yet-to-be-released K-Drama, Snowdrop, which will feature Blackpink’s Jisoo as the female lead.4

Netflix also seems interested in creating live adaptations of webtoons for its Korean content. Webtoons are essentially colored digital comics or the Korean version of manga. Already, Netflix has released three K-Dramas based on popular webtoons this year and is going to release three more by 2022. The three 2021 webtoon based K-Dramas that have been released

As the largest global streaming platform, Netflix has the unique advantage of being able to distribute and invest in international content. Shows like Kingdom, Sweet Home, and Squid Game might not have been possible with Korean entertainment companies as they require extensive ensembles, sets, or CGI. It is no coincidence that the former two series started off as webtoons, where imagination can run wild on ink and paper without any worries about budgets. Of course, this is in no way underestimating what Korean media companies can produce.

It’s no secret that the entertainment industry has been dominated by Hollywood and American people for the past several decades. But the increasing call for more diversity on the screen seems to finally be heard as viewers show they are interested in foreign content. As streaming platforms (particularly Netflix) give

2 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/squid-game-secret-to-global-success-1235030008/

are D.P., Navillera and Nevertheless, while those that are scheduled to come out are Hellbound, All of Us Are Dead, and The Sound of Magic.56 Kingdom and Sweet Home are both based on webtoons and demonstrate that the medium provides fresh, interesting content for viewers. The popularity of these two dramas shows the rich potential that webtoons have to offer, similarly to how Japanese manga are a source of material for anime. Korean entertainment companies have already been creating movies and series based on

3 https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/media/disney-plus-asia-content-2023-intl-hnk/index.html

5 https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/3-netflix-k-dramas-2021-adapted-popular-webtoons.html/

4 https://whatsondisneyplus.com/korean-series-snowdrop-featuring-blackpinks-jisoo-is-coming-soon-to-disney/

6 https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2021/01/398_302645.html

1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/10/13/squid-game-is-now-netflixs-most-popular-show-ever-and-its-not-even-close/?sh=2dd7538e6c42

8 History and Contemporary Culture

creators opportunities to reach a global audience, the entertainment industry is able to deliver more authentic and personal foreign content to audiences around the world. Instead of having American studios poorly attempt to make “authentic” films depicting people from other countries, companies like Netflix can simply invest in foreign studios to make content.

This allows foreign actors and entertainment industries to shine on a global stage. The popularity of Korean content around the world suggests that the

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entertainment industry is stepping towards a more cosmopolitan era where people from around the world can feel represented on the big screen. People used to think that the highest level of success one could reach in the entertainment industry was to make it in Hollywood. Now, actors and creatives alike from any corner of the globe can partake in their dreams of success beyond the borders of their country. Now, when I go to a theater, I see Korean actor Ma Dong-sok in the Eternals trailer.

Jihoon Yang is a senior studying MCC in Steinhardt and minoring in BEMT. He loves all forms of visual media and thinks mantis shrimps are the coolest animals on Earth.

Emma is a freshman planning to transition to Gallatin to focus on an art-related concentration. She is first generation Chinese-American. Digital art is her primary medium and visit @ibisc_us on Instagram for more of her work!

Netflix Taking the Lead in Bringing International Content to the World and What This Means for Asians 9

LIMBO: SPACES IN CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN MUSIC By: Annie Williams Asian Americans have never had a space in this country’s music scene. Asian faces have long been absent on concert billboards and music magazines, and there has never existed a particular genre Asian Americans could call their own.

Instead, Asian American musicians were scattered across genres that more openly belonged to other ethnicities, and the lack

Asian Americans have never had a space in this country’s music scene. of cohesion among Asian American artists made it appear as if they were just floating idly around rather than solidly owning their place anywhere. However, there is presently an unprecedented number of Asian Americans in the music industry who are experiencing a unique sense of musical belonging that to an extent unlike ever before.

There are two lenses to examine the Asian American musical experience through: Asian American artists in spaces that are not typically “for” them, or genres that have not historically been associated with Asian Americans and Asian American artists in spaces that are “for” them. Regarding specific exclusive spaces, indie and rock are popular genres particularly notorious for their lack of

diversity. Historically, the most recognized rockstars and the majority compositions of rock groups have been white, with very few notable Asian American artists in the genre: James Iha of The Smashing Pumpkins, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, and Joey Santiago of The Pixies are names every Asian American indie fan will know.

1 Out of the already scarce Asian American musicians there are, most of them are minimally vocal about their identities out of necessity—with many obscuring their ethnic backgrounds throughout their careers to get by in historically nondiverse music and fan spaces, as doing otherwise in such landscapes could mean becoming a target or giving up their already vulnerable positions as artists.

H o w e v e r , there’s been a noticeable shift in recent years.

The contemporary change in indie and rock’s treatment of Asian Americans has much to do with Asian American musicians seeming to come into the landscape with

brute force—refusing to be quiet about their personal backgrounds, working it undeniably into their stage presences and produced works of music. Take Jay Som, for example: a rising star in the indie-rock scene, Som weaves together English and Tagalog, mixing into her work questions of identity and person, framed by dreamy guitar riffs. Mitski, too, who in songs like “Your Best American Girl” discusses feelings of alienation from white American partners; similarly, she bridges the gap in languages, occasionally crooning out chorus lines in Japanese. There seems to

hostile to them and making them their own, putting their own cultural twists on the music.2 Asian Americans carving out spaces for themselves rather than slowly breaking into existing ones has come to a head in the past decade or so. In larger capacities, this mostly occurs in popular genres of music: typically pop, or the currently preeminent RnB. Asian Americans were largely absent among these categories until 2010.

The rise in prominence of the Southern California electronic/hip-hop group Far East Movement and their breakout song “Like a G6” might principally remind many of us of our cringey middle school eras, but it was momentous—the song was the first by an Asian American group ever to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.3 Their legacy is undeniable—their unwillingness to veil their Asian Americanness and the song’s massive popularity led to the sudden explosion of Asian American artistry (from popular YouTubers and musicians beginning to release songs) and proved foundational for later artists.4

The identity of “Asian American Artist” is still being shaped—currently, it is an amorphos position, susceptible to change with the times.

This buildup of Asian Americans suddenly entering the music scene and steadily releasing work culminated in a bang with the one and only: 88rising.

The multimedia group reached immense success with their music label that includes artists such as Joji, Rich Brian, and NIKI, and often features artists such as Keshi, Yaeji, and other Western and Asian artists.

Amassing a cult following, their music videos on YouTube reached millions of

be a movement where Asian Americans are taking back spaces that were formerly

views and their annual Head In The Clouds festival accrued thousands of dollars.5 Much of this is owed to their branding: the company was as direct as possible about being by Asians and for Asians, and though the fanbase and artistry extends worldwide, the creators and artists place a particular emphasis on the Asian American community.

But the central question remains: why haven’t there been more major Asian American artists? The most prominent barrier that prevents a larger percentage of Asian Americans from entering the music scene is industry gatekeeping: primarily, record labels not wanting to sign or promote artists of Asian descent.6 This issue extends to all non-white aspiring artists, but certain characteristics often associated with Asian Americans serve as a direct barrier—the host of cultural stereotypes that still pervade lead to very real consequences. For example, there is the idea that all Asian and Asian American music “sounds the same,” which is rooted in the assumption that Asians lack creativity and are robotic in nature.7 As such, Asian American creations often face heavy scrutiny, and because of similar stereotyping, agents tend to turn away Asian American hopefuls at the door. Based on the amount of Asian American aspiring creatives, there is more than enough supply in the field—this issue is simply access. It

is incredibly difficult for a person to work their way up in a large-scale, sustainable manner. Without institutional support, it is unrealistic and unlikely for individual Asian American artists to make it on their own.

The idea of an entire group of artists gaining such immense success while being purposefully transparent about their identity signifies a major desire and need for change. The American music industry’s current approach—a dedication to upholding the status quo, having diversity occur in controlled, corporate manners— does not correspond to the current musical landscape or what listeners desire. As seen with the enormous success Asianfocused content in the United States have found, opening the market towards Asian American artists would be both a worthy social and economic endeavor. Industry members ought to correct their notions of Asian American artists and stop turning a blind eye in their direction, generating more opportunities for artists of Asian descent.

For now, though, the best course of action as a consumer of their work is to tangibly support Asian American artists as much as one can: streaming music, attending concerts, and always encouraging those who are often told by structural forces that they don’t deserve a place in the spotlight.

The identity of “Asian American Artist” is still being shaped. Currently, it is an amorphous position, susceptible to change with the times. Certain artists and groups are paving their way, forcing audiences and industry members alike to recognize who they are without turning away, gathering acclaim all the while. The sparse musical history involving Asian Americans speaks volumes regarding how much social value they possessed in the eyes of music industry leaders and is a clear indicator that there needs to be change in the music industry.

Annie Williams is a sophomore in CAS studying English and politics. In her free time, she enjoys photography of all kinds, reading poetry, and creating an excessive amount of Spotify playlists.

2 Euse, Erica. “The Defiant Sound of Asian American Women in Indie Rock.” VICE, 29 June 2017, https://www.vice.com/en/article/qv4yqq/the-defiant-sound-of-asian-american-women-inindie-rock.

3 Pietroluongo, Silvio. “Far East Movement Tops Hot 100 with ‘like a G6’.” Billboard, 14 Jan. 2013, https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/953171/far-east-movement-tops-hot-100-with-likea-g6.

4 Tseng, Ada. “How Far East Movement Took Success into Their Own Hands.” The World from PRX, 23 Nov. 2016, https://theworld.org/stories/2016-11-18/how-far-east-movement-tooksuccess-their-own-hands.

5 Hsu, Hua. “How 88rising Is Making a Place for Asians in Hip-Hop.” The New Yorker, 19 Mar. 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/26/how-88rising-is-making-a-place-forasians-in-hip-hop.

6 Noriega, Victoria. The Lack of Asian American Representation in American Pop Music. 2020. Pace University, Arts and Entertainment Management. DigitalCommons@Pace.

7 Dao, Dan Q. “How 88rising Raised the Bar for Asian Representation.” PAPER, PAPER Magazine, 3 June 2019, https://www.papermag.com/88rising-asian-representation-2638625195. html?rebelltitem=26#rebelltitem26.

1 pianoman. “List of Asians in Rock Music.” Asian Classical, http://asianclassical.com/viewtopic.php?t=89.

10 History and Contempoary Culture

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Limbo: Spaces in Contemporary Asian American Music 11

IN BETWEEN THE SEAMS: VIEWING FASHION THROUGH AN ASIAN AMERICAN LENS By: LeAnn Mai

Artworks by Angela Zhai The fashion industry has seen a new wave of attention towards Asian American designers, specifically through how Asian designers incorporate their culture into their pieces. Lesser-known designers, such as Aeie Studios and Mukzin, use Asian attributes to create new renditions of what it means to be Asian through fashion.

High-profile designers, such as Anna Sui, Vivienne Tam, and Vera Wang have become legendary for their early influence in runway shows and the fashion industry, while smaller designers showcase their Asian American identity through their small fan bases and seasonal collections.

Designers like Sui, Tam, and Wang, respectively, established their place in fashion history by sparking the eye of other wellknown designers, such as Ralph Lauren. What makes lesser-known designers, like Aeie Studio and Mukzin, stand out from Sui, Tam, and Wang is their dedication to subtly incorporating Asian heritage

into their clothing.

Aeie Studios, for instance, uses current fashion trends and Vietnamese culture in their collections, specifically in their January 2021 UNUSUAL USUAL drop. While their collection consists of mainstream fashion trends, such as deconstructed and patchwork clothing, it also takes inspiration from Vietnamese 70s pop culture.

As a fashion brand that originates from Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam’s capital, Aeie Studios incorporates Vietnamese popular culture into their pieces and creates a line of clothing that emphasizes both uniqueness and self-identity as a Vietnamese person. For instance, the Dream Dress1, incorporates the flashy colors and vibrant hues that were present within famous Vietnamese pop album artwork.

This dress uses a typography similar to that of Thanh Hà’s album cover Sa Mạc Tình Yêu (Desert of Love).2 Aeie Studios’ designer, Quách Đắc Thắng, uses his Vietnamese culture and subtly puts it into his collections, creating both a visual statement and a promotion of his culture. His Banh Tet Dress3 takes the popular Lunar New Year dish, bánh tét, and turns it into a visual masterpiece, with the yellow-green details representing the banana leaves that are used to wrap the dish and the purple hues representing the filling.

Being one of the few brands that publicizes Vietnamese culture, Aeie Studios deserves a round of applause for its ability to incorporate Vietnamese aspects into its clothes. Aeie Studios also does a phenomenal job at taking Vietnamese streetwear and elevating it to high-fashion, straying away from the usual traditional Vietnamese attire, such as áo bà ba, áo dài, and áo tứ thân. For young Vietnamese Americans, including myself, seeing our culture represented is a step forward towards inclusivity, especially when most brands typically portray more East Asian cultures, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultures.

As a fashion brand that originates from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam’s capital, Aeie Studios incorporates Vietnamese popular culture into their pieces and creates a line of clothing that emphasizes both uniqueness and self-identity as a Vietnamese person.

Other designers, such as Mukzin, also use their brands to advocate and represent their heritage. Mukzin, a Hangzhou fashion brand created by Kate Han and George Feng, creates pieces that

1 “Dreamdress.” Aeie Studios, https://aeiestudios.com/product/dream-dress/.

2 “Sa Mac Tinh Yeu by Thanh Ha & y Linh on Amazon Music ...” Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Mac-Tinh-Yeu-Thanh-Linh/dp/B005EVKFAK. 3 “Banh Tetdress.” Aeie Studios, https://aeiestudios.com/product/banh-tet-dress/.

12 History and Contemporary Culture

follows “Oriental Fever,” a method of design that takes apart Chinese traditional culture and incorporates it into modern work, taking inspiration from both Western and pan-Asian design. Their “Women Xia” exhibition during Paris Fashion Week4 was introduced, focusing on amplifying Chinese women’s voices through fashion design. Using Chinese culture in their pieces5, Mukzin combines cultural identity and fashion in one in their runway shows, using both aspects and turning it into a cultural display of femininity and Asian awareness. As a brand that started just as an idea two people had in a small town and that has blossomed into a runway-scale fashion brand, Mukzin exemplifies what it means to be a Chinese woman, empowering femininity and highlighting these aspects through their culturally-influenced clothing.

For young Vietnamese Americans, including myself, seeing our culture represented is a step forward towards inclusivity, especially when most brands typically portray more East Asian cultures, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultures.

As an Asian-American who rarely sees their culture truly appreciated and represented in the fashion industry, smaller brands like Aeie Studios and Mukzin make me proud of my cultural heritage. Rather than having my culture be hyper-fetishized and turned into clothing “meant for the male eye,” I enjoy seeing pieces made by and for Asian people. The fashion industry is booming with a plethora of smaller designers, and it’s these brands that take the next step in elevating and making the fashion industry more aware of cultural diversity and representation.

LeAnn Mai (she/her) is a sophomore in Liberal Studies, planning to pursue a major in English.

Growing up close to her Vietnamese roots, she incorporates her Vietnamese-American identity into her writing and interests. Generasian offers her the perfect platform to tie these aspects of her life together.

Angela is a senior studying Global Public Health with a concentration in Chemistry, and minoring in studio art. She is interested in women’s health and epidemiology, as well as collage, ceramics, and painting.

4 Fashion Week Online. “Mukzin Fall 2018: Paris Fashion Week.” Fashion Week Online, 6 Mar. 2018, https://fashionweekonline.com/mukzin-fall-2018-paris-fashion-week.

5 Mukzin. “Mukzin Official: Designer Brand: Fashion Women Clothing Online Store: Designer Brands Fashion, London Fashion Week 2019, Fashion.” Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/ pin/788270741011065986/.

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In Between the Seams: Viewing Fashion through an Asian American Lens 13

EVANGELION: LONELINESS, ESCAPISM, AND THE HEDGEHOG’S DILEMMA By: Eric Wu Hideaki Anno, the writer and director of the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, described the starting point of the show as “a worldview drenched in a vision of pessimism.”1 The series, over its 26 episode runtime, evolves from a tale of three teenage mecha pilots fighting aliens into a deeply introspective psychological drama.

Evangelion’s exploration of loneliness, the challenges of interpersonal relationships, and escapism have resonated deeply with me, especially over the past year.

If loneliness could be verbalized, it would be best described as the sensation that one is living their life behind a glass wall, watching other people go about living, while you feel separated by an invisible barrier.

Released in 1995, Neon Genesis Evangelion is set in the year 2015. Fifteen years prior, the world had been devastated by the Second Impact, wiping out half of the Earth’s population and heralding the arrival of the Angels—powerful alien beings who threaten the remaining half of humanity. Our protagonist, Shinji Ikari, is

recruited by his estranged father Gendo to join NERV, pilot a massive biomechanical robot called an “evangelion,” and fight the Angels. He is later joined by two co-pilots: Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu.

The first half of the show follows a fairly conventional plot, focusing on the three main characters bonding and defeating Angels. However, the series takes an abrupt turn by the 16th episode, shifting towards the characters’ internal struggles and their backstories. This sudden turn is the reason it continues to resonate with viewers such as myself over 20 years after its release.

One of Shinji’s defining features is his inability to take action. He is paralyzed by a crippling fear of rejection, perhaps influenced by his father’s abandonment.

Yet, he desperately craves attention from others, even admitting that he pilots an Eva to gain his father’s approval, despite the fact that he is terrified of fighting and risking his life. As a result, he chooses to isolate himself from others out of fear that they may perceive him negatively.

The other main members of the cast also face their own internal struggles.

Asuka, having tied her self-worth to her exceptional skills as a pilot, spirals into a catatonic state when her abilities begin

declining. Rei, as one of a series of clones, grapples with the fact that she is utterly replaceable.

Beyond the characters, Evangelion’s themes stand out in my mind. It probably goes without saying, but this past year or so has been a strange one, particularly for me.

An overbearing sense of isolation plagued me, largely because some of my friendships had decayed. As a result, the theme that resonated with me the most is the show’s approach to portraying loneliness.

In spite of our best intentions, closeness involves a degree of vulnerability, pushing us towards self-imposed isolation, out of fear of being harmed or harming others.

Loneliness permeates nearly every aspect of Evangelion. Beyond the characters’ inability to connect with one another, the visual language of the series emphasizes this feeling. Tokyo-3, the story’s main setting, functions first and foremost as a decoy. Its buildings are capable of withdrawing into the ground beneath them when an Angel attacks.

Noticeably underpopulated, the streets are almost always empty and eerily silent.

1 Anno, Hideaki. “What Are We Trying to Make Here?” Eva Monkey, 17 July 1995, http://www.evamonkey.com/writings/anno-hideaki-what-were-we-trying-to-make-here.php.

14 History and Contemporary Culture

Multiple scenes feature Shinji wandering around the city in a listless state. Whenever he is in a state of emotional turmoil, he rides the subway, listening to music, shutting himself off from the world, and riding from terminal to terminal.

Throughout much of this past spring, I would also sometimes get on a train, heading to nowhere, solely to get out of my dorm and see other people. If loneliness could be verbalized, it would be best described as the sensation that one is living their life behind a glass wall, watching other people go about living, while feeling separated from them by an invisible barrier. In other words, it is living one’s life as a secondary character in your own story. Whenever Shinji, or even the other characters for that matter, are seen staring blankly at an unfamiliar ceiling at night, their inner world a mystery to the audience, I like to think that this emotion is what they’re experiencing in that moment.

Ultimately, loneliness is the starting point from which Evangelion’s other themes stem. The challenges of intimacy are introduced early in the show. The hedgehog’s dilemma, borrowed from the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, is referenced. This dilemma describes a situation in which hedgehogs seek to huddle together in the winter in order to share warmth, but are kept apart by their sharp spines. In spite of our best intentions, closeness involves a degree of vulnerability, pushing us towards self-imposed isolation, out of fear of being harmed or harming others. Invisible walls are erected between Evangelion’s characters, preventing mutual understanding and connection. Avoidance is what leads into the series’ next major theme: escapism.

NERV’s ultimate goal is the Human Instrumentality Project. This project entails the merging of all of humanity’s souls into one. Instrumentality seeks to tear down the barriers between people, forcibly eliminating the possibility of rejection or hurt or in fewer words: the ultimate form of escapism. The film ending of the series shows Shinji accepting this outcome. If most of his troubles stem from his inability to feel connected to those around him, Instrumentality appears to be a perfectly appropriate solution. Ultimately, however, Shinji rejects Instrumentality, and chooses to live in a world where the potential for rejection exists. He learns that happiness READ OUR BLOG

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and true connection to others can only exist with a degree of risk. Loneliness and the pain of rejection may be inherent to life, but in the end, Shinji chooses to accept this fact. Running away will resolve nothing.

Of course, this isn’t always easy for everyone, and the story refuses to sugarcoat things.

In spite of the series and film’s nihilistic tone and imagery, it concludes on an optimistic note. The story’s world and dense lore, while interesting, are ultimately irrelevant and obscure its main message. Loving oneself, going outside,

and simply talking to people are the basis for a meaningful life. Of course, this isn’t always easy for everyone, and the story refuses to sugarcoat things. Opening up can be terrifying; the possibility of rejection, pain, and isolation is real, but facing these fears will always be more fulfilling than running away. Fittingly, the final episode of Evangelion is titled by four simple words: take care of yourself.

Hailing from Las Vegas, Eric is a senior at CAS, majoring in Politics and History. He has no idea how he got this far. His favorite animal is the orangutan.

Tokyo Metro Ginza Line Rail Yard in Ueno

Shinji Ikari

Evangelion: Loneliness, Escapism, and the Hedgehog’s Dilemma 15

BREAKING OUT OF THE BINARY By: Grace Tan “I guess I can accept this type of incompetence of Asian American films. As long as you’re happy, Americans.” This was one of the top comments left on the popular Chinese movie review site, Douban, for the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians directed

by John M. Chu. While the film was widely praised and loved by the Asian American community and even non-Asian American audiences, with a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, its reception in China was largely negative.

Although it has an okay rating of 6.0 stars on Douban, and there were mainlanders who loved Crazy Rich Asians, the sentiments expressed in the comment above are common amongst other Chinese people’s reviews of the movie.

One of the reasons Crazy Rich Asians was so beloved by the Asian American community was because of its all-Asian cast, something Hollywood had never seen before. It was seen as a huge step forward in improving representation for Asian Americans and in ushering in a new era of progressive cinema – one where Asians could be the faces of Hollywood too.

However, Chinese Americans’ and Asian Americans’ ideas of positive representation may differ from Chinese people’s.

16 History and Contemporary Culture

Photographs by: Jenessa Lu

The basic plot of Crazy Rich Asians follows as such: a Chinese American girl named Rachel goes to visit her boyfriend’s family in Singapore and finds herself unable to live up to the standards his mother, Eleanor Young, has for her. Rachel does not come from generational wealth and was raised by her single mother. Rachel is excluded not only due to her socioeconomic status, but also because Nick’s mother sees her as a foreigner. Because of her upbringing and background, Eleanor believes she is inherently selfish and only pursues what interests her. To Eleanor, these differences represent Rachel’s biggest problem: she is American. Many Chinese Americans could relate to the feeling of exclusion from Chinese people in Asia and could relate to the struggle to conform to parents’ ideas about family responsibility and expectations when the larger culture they are surrounded by promotes individualism and the pursuit of personal happiness.

However, these struggles did not seem to resonate as much with the mainland audience. Despite the film taking place in Singapore, Chinese people felt it depicted their culture negatively because it was the traditional values of Chinese-Singaporean

culture – the values most closely related to Chinese culture – that were depicted adversely. Many also felt that the movie relied heavily on stereotypes of Chinese people and took offense to such portrayals.

For example, the cold emotionless mother and the rich families devoid of taste: “we were inspired by the hall of mirrors in Versailles!” said Goh Nenna, the mother of one of Rachel’s friends in the film.

Through characters such as Eleanor Young, it depicts Chinese values as being somehow “backward” and tells a story in which “American values” such as love and individualism eventually win over Chinese virtues.

This theme of American values triumphing over Chinese ones represents a larger idea of an East-West binary that has been present in Western history for a long time. This binary proposes that these cultures are fundamentally different from

It depicts Chinese values as being somehow “backward” and tells a story in which “American values” such as love and individualism eventually win over Chinese virtues.

By potentially feeding into the idea of a rigid dichotomy between the East and the West, us Chinese Americans may forget to look at both sides with nuance and in turn, reject important aspects of our identity. each other with the East’s foundation lying in collectivism and the West’s lying in individualism. The binary was largely popularized during the Cold War, which was a global conflict between the ideologies of communism in the East and capitalism in the West. The Red Scare and McCarthy era propaganda further emphasized this issue by portraying communism, and subsequently collectivism, as evil and backwards. During this time, Chinese people and Chinese Americans were perceived negatively as well due to poor Sino-American relations and were very

much “othered” by American society as they were seen as embodiments of the ideology America was fighting against.1 This collectivist-individualist binary is still present in modern Western media.

Depictions of a great divide between Eastern and Western philosophies is perhaps another reason why diasporic Chinese internalize this binary. For example, during the height of COVID-19, many in the West claimed that the reason China was able to quell the issue so quickly was because of China’s collectivist nature.

In fact, it was many Asian Americans who proposed and promoted this idea. However, due to globalization and the ever-evolving cultural exchange between countries, China, and many other East Asian countries do not conform to such a strict philosophy of collectivism anymore. Researchers such as Changy Liu and Song Wang have indicated Chinese youths have become more focused on personal success and cultivating a sense of self, forming what is coined as “individualism with Chinese characteristics.”2 This is perhaps another reason why the depiction of Chinese culture as strongly collectivist in Crazy Rich Asians did not resonate with mainland audiences.

Another way that diasporic Chinese people’s understanding of the collectivistindividualist binary comes about is through family relationships. As stated before, many Chinese Americans speak of their struggles with finding the balance between familial responsibility and individual desires as the culture they are surrounded with conflicts with the heritage they come from. I personally struggle with these feelings as well, especially in college where I am trying to find a path that balances my desire to pursue a creative field with my responsibility to provide for my family.

Many Chinese and Asian Americans feel that they must reject their culture in order to assimilate or they feel that individualism resonates more firmly with their personal philosophy. Moreover, much of American popular culture depicts individualism and the pursuit of personal happiness as glamorous, so it makes sense that Chinese and Asian Americans would internalize such depictions and apply them to their own lives. With such deep internalizations, it’s no wonder that this binary manifests itself in Asian American media and can sometimes result in inaccurate depictions of modern Chinese culture.

This begs the question, does media made by Chinese Americans have to appeal to or resonate with Chinese audiences? The Chinese diaspora deserves to have stories told in a way that they feel best represents them. However it is also important to take into account that our perceptions of China may not be fully accurate. In addition, it is possible to have positive representations of both Chinese Americans and Chinese mainlanders.

While many Chinese Americans feel seen by these movies, these movies may also rely on tropes and stereotypes about Chinese culture that are no longer true. Cultures cannot be simplified as collectivist or individualist, and by potentially feeding into the idea of a rigid dichotomy between the East and the West, us Chinese Americans may forget to look at both sides with nuance and in turn, reject important aspects of our identity. If Chinese Americans wish to see themselves fairly represented, we should also think about how to do the same for non-diaspora people.

Grace Tan is a freshman studying Media, Culture, and Communications at Steinhardt. Her comfort food is pickled radishes and she eats rice porridge exclusively for the xiancai.

1 Hirshberg, Matthew S. “Consistency and Change in American Perceptions of China.” Political Behavior 15, no. 3 (1993): 247–63. http://www.jstor.org/stable/586631.

2 Liu, Changy and Song Wang. “Transformation of Chinese Cultural Values in the Era of Globalization: Individualism and Chinese Youth.” (2009).

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Breaking Out of the Binary 17

L I A NR

A B R U S ’ INA

M O BO

CH

By: Michael Lo Nestled in the heart of southwest China, Chongqing is one of China’s many megacities. Split between the winding Jialing and Yangtze rivers, Chongqing is a mountainous city, built upon hills and treacherous terrain. Because of its geography, Chongqing’s roads had to wind through its landscape. Its winding roads coupled with its massive and evergrowing urban population made traffic a major issue in the early 2000s. To ease road congestion, Chongqing’s government

From 2000 to the present, the proportion of Chinese people living in cities has increased from 36 percent to 64 percent, or almost 900 million people. By 2025, China projects to have over a billion people in cities alone.

wanted to build an urban rail system that would effectively connect the suburbs to its central areas. Yet, an underground system was difficult in some parts of the city because the mountains and rivers made it impossible to build subway tunnels.

Thus, in 2005, Chongqing opened its first urban rail line, running both under and above ground: this was China’s first heavy monorail line.1 Since then, Chongqing’s urban rail system has expanded to eight lines, serving over 4 million riders per day.

Chongqing was not alone among the cities of China in its construction or urban rail. China’s economic reforms in the 1980s produced a booming economy in the 90s. Inevitably accompanying this economic growth was urbanization: as the Chinese flocked from rural areas to urban ones in search of high-paying jobs and employment opportunities, China’s cities became hubs of human activity.2 Cities became centers of education, industry,

business, and recreation. Chinese people today dream of living in cities where they can ensure better lives for themselves and for their children. From 2000 to the present, the proportion of Chinese people living in cities has increased from 36 percent to 64 percent, or almost 900 million people.3 By 2025, China projects to have over a billion people in cities alone.4 As China’s urban population has grown and will inevitably continue to do so at an increasing rate, cities began rapidly constructing subway systems to meet the huge demand for urban transportation.

Since 2000, these projects have been completed at an astounding rate: from 2009 to 2015 alone, China built 87 urban rail lines totaling 1900 miles at a cost of over 1 trillion RMB.5 Currently, China has 233 urban rail lines in 44 cities totaling over 4700 miles long—nine of the top fifteen longest metro systems and half of the top ten busiest metro systems in

1 Sekitani, Taketoshi, et al. “China’s First Urban Monorail System in Chongqing.” Hitachi Review, vol. 4, pp. 193–197.

2 Xiao, Yiping, et al. “How Far Has China’s Urbanization Gone?” Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 8, 2018, p. 2953., https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082953.

3 “China: Urbanization 2020.” Statista, 12 May 2021 https://www.statista.com/statistics/270162/urbanization-in-china/.

4 Johnson, Ian. “China’s Great Uprooting: Moving 250 Million into Cities.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 June 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/world/asia/chinasgreat-uprooting-moving-250-million-into-cities.html?pagewanted=all.

5 “Chinese Metro Boom Shows No Sign of Abating.” International Railway Journal, https://www.railjournal.com/in_depth/chinese-metro-boom-shows-no-sign-of-abating/.

18 Politics and Current Events

the world are in China.6 China has been able to accomplish this because its oneparty government effectively commands infrastructure development. When the central government decides that building urban rail is a good thing to do, local officials will quickly carry out that order.

This allows China to work at a pace unmatched by anywhere else in the world: its urban rail systems are just one example of that.

In 2017, pictures were published on major media sites showing a Chongqing subway station “in the middle of nowhere.”7 Opened in 2015, Caojiawan station in northern Chongqing had been built among shrubbery and weeds—

used it, thus, Caojiawan seemed more like an abandoned station than a newly built one. However, in 2020, housing projects have already been built near the station.

Together with a community of new shops and restaurants, a neighborhood has been created, rendering Caojiawan no longer a ghost town.8 Commuters are using the subway station to quickly arrive at the city center and Chongqing’s metro system is busier than ever.

Certainly, the case of Caojiawan is interesting because urban transportation

systems are usually built following urban development. When local governments see that people have moved into a new suburban area of the city, they will provide transportation to connect that community with the city center. However, Chongqing’s philosophy was the opposite of this: to encourage urban growth in a less desirable area, they built a subway station, facilitating the creation of a new suburban neighborhood in that area.9 Foreseeing urban growth, China deliberately constructs infrastructure projects at a rapid scale, supporting the population influx that will inevitably arrive.

Being back in Chongqing for a week this summer, I was able to compare how the city has changed since my childhood—I was thoroughly impressed at what I saw.

Monorail lines run over major streets and a bridge has been built across the Jialing river for a metro line alone. A monorail station runs through an apartment complex that it was built alongside and a new station will soon open near my home. Having returned to Chongqing frequently to visit family since my childhood, I have observed how the city has shifted and expanded to the scale that it is today. With China’s tremendous progress in developing its urban infrastructure, Chinese cities will set the standard for what the future will be.

Michael is a junior at CAS majoring in East Asian Studies. A licensed pilot since the age of 18, he hopes to fly over Niagara Falls in the near future.

Currently, China has 233 urban rail lines in 44 cities totaling over 4700 miles long––nine of the top fifteen longest metro systems and half of the top ten busiest metro systems in the world are in China. nothing else was in sight. No one lived near the station and very few commuters 6 “China’s Metro Boom Continues to Drive Rapid Transit Growth.” Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, 30 July 2018, https://www.itdp.org/2018/07/30/china-drives-rapidtransit-growth/.

7 Wong, Maggie Hiufu. “China’s Metro Station in the Middle of Nowhere.” CNN, Cable News Network, 27 July 2017, https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/chongqing-china-metro-station-nowhere/ index.html.

8 “China’s ‘Ghost Towns’ Come to Life Thanks to Urbanization and Policies.” Global Times, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202012/1211265.shtml.

9 “Amazing Comparison of the ‘Most Desolate Metro Station’ - Chongqing News.” CQ News, http://english.cqnews.net/html/2020-12/31/content_51205031.htm.

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China’s Urban Rail Boom 19

DESTIGMATIZING SOUTH KOREAN FEMINISM By: Alice La Despite South Korea’s progression towards liberal ideals and President Moon Jae-In’s public support of the feminist movement, gender-based inequalities still remain a controversial issue in modern Korean communities.

Korean society fosters an environment that enables differential treatment, with big corporations catering to genderbased complaints and media platforms promoting critiques of the feminist movement to a large audience.

For instance, an ad for camping products advertised by the popular convenience store chain, GS25, recently gained immense backlash from many Korean men for being a feminist ploy.1 The image had been created by a woman and featured a campfire background with a hand reaching for a piece of grilled sausage. Male protestors believed that the positioning of the fingers resembled the pinching hand emoji often utilized by radical feminist group Megalian to make fun of the size of a man’s privates, and they vocalized their opposition to the ad until GS25 put out a public apology and took disciplinary action against the designer.2 This event catalyzed the beginning of many other protests against “misandrist symbolism” and resulted in the subsequent removal of controversial marketing visuals along with an issuance of apologies by big Korean corporations.3 Indulging these complaints advanced the misconception that modern-day feminism can be equated to misandry and furthered the notion that contemporary society operates on a system that puts men at a disadvantage.

Despite statistical evidence of wage, education, and

executive position inequality in Korea, many anti-feminists incorrectly assume that equality has already been attained

by South Korean women. According to a Statista report, female workers still earn 32.3% less than their male counterparts. 4Although there was a 5.1% increase from 2010 to 2020, South Korea still represents the highest wage gap amongst all the countries involved in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.5 “The New Men’s Solidarity” movement is an organization that seeks to “[wage] a war against feminists” by insisting that “feminism threatens men’s rights and encourages misandry (a dislike of men).”6 Groups like “Dang Dang We” and the “Anti-Feminist Organization” support these sentiments and protest against the sexual assault allegations pushed forth by the #MeToo movement while simultaneously working to abolish the operations of the government’s Ministry of Gender Equality & Family.7 These individuals are backed by many Korean politicians and fight feminism with “online taunting, anonymous threats, anti-feminist demonstrations, and sometimes bullying or sexual harassment.”8 They will go so far as to contact friends, family members, and employers of known feminists in order to force them to renounce their views.9 Anti-feminists are able to justify cyberbullying and attacking feminists without facing repercussions by reasoning that feminism manifests as an unjustified hate of men rather than a movement for gender equality.

According to a member of Haeil, a Korean feminist

organization founded in 2021, the hardest part about the ongoing harassment is that neither the people passing by – who sometimes even [cheer] them on – nor the police [stop the harassers]. The member said, “As well as being scared for my friends, I realized that no one would protect us and that we were alone.”10 All of this traction begs the question – why do many Korean men hate feminism so much? Journalist Thaïs Chaigne believes that many men felt threatened by the inceasingly feminist atmosphere in Korea prior to the wave of antifeminism, and see groups like Haeil as a threat to tradition.11 They feel intimidated by the changes feminists are trying to make within a historically patriarchal society and do not want to deal with the greater degree of responsibility that living in an equal society entails. Kim Ju-hee, the founder of Haeil, states that “some...have even said that we are North Korean spies [who have] come to spread dangerous socialist ideas, and that fighting against us is fighting for South Korea.”12 Nathan Park, a non-resident fellow of the Sejong Institute, adds that “South Korea’s experts… point to two tendencies among young Korean men: worship of the idea of meritocracy and misogyny.”13 Park shares that Korean men growing up in modern day society strongly believe that anything can be achieved through individual capabilities and disappointing results are a reflection of lacking ability rather than an inequitable system.14 Because anti-feminists insist women have already achieved their initial goals of equality, additional measures aimed at making working environments more inclusive are looked down upon and successful women are targeted with the term “preferential treatment.”

The new generation of Korean men are also distinct from their predecessors because of the way their conservative political views are mostly directed toward gender-based issues and their

Korean society fosters an environment that enables differential treatment, with big corporations catering to genderbased complaints and media platforms promoting critiques of the feminist movement to a large audience.

Korean men growing up in modern day society strongly believe that anything can be achieved through individual capabilities and disappointing results are a reflection of lacking ability rather than an inequitable system. perceptions of feminist ideas are largely influenced by widespread media coverage of feminist movements along with an individual sense of insecurity.15 Information provided by surveys reveal that young Korean men do not agree with ideals pushed forward by patriarchal sexism which highlight traditional gender roles and center men as the main family providers. Rather, their discriminatory views stem from an incredible distaste for feminism and the belief that they are being victimized by the movement: “58.6 percent of Korean men in their 20s said they strongly opposed feminism, with 25.9 percent marking the intensity of their opposition as 12 on a scale of 0 to 12.”16 Although strong anti-feminist sentiments persist among young Korean men, Korean celebrities are working to help push forward their own feminist views and utilize social media as a platform for normalizing feminist pride. Irene, the leader of K-pop girl group Red Velvet, is one such figure who has garnered criticism for instigating gender-based discourse.

“In March 2018, [Irene] caused a frenzy online after revealing to her followers that she had read Cho Nam Joo’s Kim Ji Young, Born 1982– a feminist novel addressing South Korea’s patriarchal culture.”17 The book propelled the private struggles of women into the public sphere and effectively popularized seemingly “controversial” opinions like sharing the housework equally between the husband and the wife.18 There were many fans who supported Irene for utilizing her platform to catalyze important conversations, but a large number of young male fans were adversely angered by blatant support for a feminist text and posted about burning their merchandise and photos.19 While feminists usually have to worry about personal safety when discussing feminism, figures like Irene have enough social capital to publicly bring up marginalized issues for mainstream

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Park, S. Nathan. “Why So Many Young Men in South Korea Hate Feminism.” Foreign Policy, The Slate Group, 23 June 2021, https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/23/young-south-korean-menhate-liberals-feminists/.

1 Jung, Hawon. “The Little Symbol Triggering Men in South Korea’s Gender War.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 30 July 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/ opinion/international-world/korea-emoji-feminism-misogyny.html.

14 Park, S. Nathan. “Why So Many Young Men in South Korea Hate Feminism.” Foreign Policy, The Slate Group, 23 June 2021, https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/23/young-south-korean-menhate-liberals-feminists/.

2 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

4 MOEL. “Female to Male Earnings Ratio in South Korea from 2010 to 2020.” Statista, KOSIS, June 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/641812/south-korea-gender-pay-gap/.

17 Tubiera, Alecsandra. “How Red Velvet, Bae Suzy and Gong Hyo-Jin Are Leading K-Pop and K-Drama’s Reckoning with Korea’s Sexist Culture.” South China Morning Post, South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd., 28 Sept. 2020, https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3103328/how-red-velvet-bae-suzy-and-gong-hyo-jin-are-leading-k?module=perpetual_ scroll&pgtype=article&campaign=3103328.

5 OECD. “Gender Wage Gap.” OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2021, https://data.oecd.org/earnwage/gender-wage-gap.htm.

6 Chaigne, Thaïs. “The South Korean Men Waging a Vulgar and Violent War against Feminists.” The Observers - France 24, The Observers - France 24, 14 Sept. 2021, https://observers.france24. com/en/asia-pacific/20210914-the-south-korean-men-waging-a-vulgar-and-violent-war-against-feminists.

7 Ibid.

18 Hu, Elise. “South Korean Bestseller ‘Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982’ Gives Public Voice To Private Pain.” NPR, NPR, 19 Apr. 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/04/19/835486224/south-koreanbestseller-kim-jiyoung-born-1982-gives-public-voice-to-private-pain.

19 Tubiera, Alecsandra. “How Red Velvet, Bae Suzy and Gong Hyo-Jin Are Leading K-Pop and K-Drama’s Reckoning with Korea’s Sexist Culture.” South China Morning Post, South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd., 28 Sept. 2020, https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3103328/how-red-velvet-bae-suzy-and-gong-hyo-jin-are-leading-k?module=perpetual_ scroll&pgtype=article&campaign=3103328.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

20 Politics and Current Events

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Destigmatizing South Korean Feminism 21

Artworks by Ashley La

Despite the growing anti-feminist movement in Korea backed by private companies, public institutions, and politicians, media and entertainment are helping to change the status quo.21 The intense anti-feminist movement has exposed systemic Korean issues, and citizens are realizing the need for more change. Feminists are uniting more than ever to ensure that female voices continue to be heard in the future. The

Despite the growing anti-feminist movement in Korea backed by private companies, public institutions, and politicians, media and entertainment are helping to change the status quo.

circulation, whether it be through voicing their opinions or sharing resources. Popular actress Gong Hyo Jin takes another approach to supporting women, and makes it a point to work with female directors who let her play strong female roles that go against the conservative way women have traditionally been represented. According to journalist Alecsandra Tubiera, Hyo Jin “believes it is important for everyone to realize the struggles women go through every day and how much they need to build themselves up to progress into womanhood.”20 Most of her characters develop as individuals throughout the story and expand their identities beyond motherhood or being a wife.

Hyo-jin’s movies are usually petitioned by anti-feminist critics who call for the deletion of her films on digital platforms and for cinemas not to screen them.

amplified fear and jugment prompted by the term “feminist” has forced women to endure intense backlash when utilizing the word despite its historical usage in addressing sexism and creating a more democratic society. Korean women are now fighting to destigmatize feminism and have started an online campaign amidst the ongoing harassment from anti-feminist groups.22 “Variations of the hashtag #I_Am_Feminist (# 나는페미니스트다 and #내가페미다) trended on Korean Twitter, with more than 35,000 tweets being posted on July 31.”23 The way anit-feminist scare tactics have only fueled the fight for Korean feminism shows that there is still hope for a more equitable society and that increased antagonism will only strengthen the prolonged fight for women’s rights.24

Alice La is a sophomore majoring in Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU. Having grown up in NYC’s multimedia landscape, she’s interested in all forms of journalism and loves writing pieces that touch upon her Asian American identity. Please contact her at al6900@nyu. edu with any questions or simply to share some horror movie recommendations!

20 Ibid.

21 Choi, Lee Hyun. “Misogynistic Hate Will Not Stop Korean Feminism.” The Nation, The Nation Company LLC, 9 Aug. 2021, https://www.thenation.com/article/world/an-san-feminism-korea/.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

This piece depicts the process of peeling a mandarin and is meant to represent “Metamorphosis”. The pandemic took a toll on all of us, especially the Asian and Asian American communities. When peeling a mandarin, it represents shedding the old to reveal the new.

The peel is the old, touched by many hands and holds many stories; some good and some bad.

But the sweet fruit inside is a new beginning and a chance to move forward and grow.

22 Politics and Current Events

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By: Julia Kim Julia is a junior studying Integrated Digital Media with an interest in digital art, animation, and UX/UI design!

Artwork by Julia Kim 23

LITTLE

DRAGON By: Deborah Kwong BO WANTED TO CRY, BUT HE HELD IT IN FOR THE SAKE was a ghost of his reflection that mocked him: the slanted eyes that OF HIS MANHOOD AND PRIDE. He gripped tightly against the didn’t sit well on his rounded head and the pudgy nose that only tails of his backpack and played with its rough nylon. His fingers left room for tiny lips. These were cursed reminders of his reality. traced against the curvatures of its loops, He leaned closer, eyes wider. He wondered, easing his mind from what had ensued. His what if.. what if he was different? Gone with It was a ghost of his reflection the clothes that held dust and dirt from other knuckles and face still stung, which were that mocked him physical remembrances of what had occurred. children. Perhaps, the reality he knew now However, his heart bore a heavier weight. would be better.

Angry, Bo kicked the dirt and watched it spew everywhere. He stood The figure behind the glass was what startled him. there ‘till the final specks settled.

“What are you looking at, old man?” Bo’s voice shook.

Looking up, Bo’s face stared at him, faint against the glass. It It must have felt pitchy. But the stranger gave no

24 Fiction and Personal Essays

acknowledgement as he sat at the edge of a metal bench. He and Bo were the only ones at the bus stop.

The old man was tiny. His bones were fragile. It felt as if in one push he would topple over and break into millions of pieces. The old man’s skin creviced and moved, like a withering paper lantern, with the burning fire underneath.

“I simply see someone that reminds me of the past.”

His voice was slow and trembling, like a worn book, filled with wisdom and adventures. The old man’s rrr’s slurred and meshed with other vowels. His accent was thick, and Bo hated it. It reminded him of his own.

“Well, there’s nothing to see here.” Bo wanted to end this conversation quickly.

“Boy, there’s so much to see.” The old man smiled.

It was one of those smiles that had no care in the world. His his eyes, and quickly, Bo wiped them away. teeth peeked, barely. However, Bo felt his anger resurface. Who was “I don’t know anyone here.” Bo’s voice felt strange as he this? An old man telling him who he was not? whispered it.

“I’m not a boy.” Bo He wanted to stay angry, puffed his chest, stood up The second you try to be a man, you’re sent off to war. but he felt like he was back in straighter, and had his eyes his grandmother’s lap, where locked defiantly with the stranger. He didn’t need to be lectured. he could say anything, and she would nod and tell him it was alright.

He was a man. However, the slight shuffle of his feet showed he was He could feel the coldness of her jade pendant in his hands again. still a child.

Even though she was gone, Bo could feel her by him. He felt safe. ”The second you try to be a man, you’re sent off to war.”

The old man spoke, “Neither did I, but yet I’m here.”

The old man’s eyes were now locked with Bo’s, and Bo And just like that, all the anger that came before was forgotten instinctively took a step back. The stranger’s eyes were unlike and gone. The tears finally came, and a culmination of years of anything else: a look of bottomless sorrow—mourning of his past neglect and pain came rushing out. and feelings that Bo could not fully decipher.

“I want to go back.” Bo’s voice quivered, and he stood there, Bo felt his anger escape. Instead, curiosity replaced it. sniveling.

“Did you go to war?” The words tumbled out.

His shoulders shook, and he felt his sinuses clog. Had he not “Not exactly.” The old man’s eyes glazed, milky, far away in been crying his eyes out, Bo would’ve been embarrassed. But he the galaxies above. didn’t care—not now at least.

“I escaped it.” He paused. He was remembering.

“I do too.” The old man answered faintly.

“It was cruel. The soldiers had us lie down on the ground, and So far, he had made no comments about Bo’s state. Instead, the they shot the ones who retaliated. I remember pretending I was old man patted on the bench next to him as if saying, come sit with dead. I had to bite onto my dead mother’s shirt me. Bo wiped his eyes once more before slowly I’ve learned to hide my tears walking next to the man and sitting down. to quiet myself and eat the grass to live.”

Bo felt his chest tighten. He didn’t know It came out as a whisper, almost lost in the what he had expected from the man—the bluntness shocked him— wind. but he felt the stranger’s words. Tears peeked from the corners of “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cry.”

The humiliation that followed Bo’s burst was impending.

“Why do you hide your crying?”

Bo contemplated his hands—stained with his tears. The old man’s words sent him into a whirlwind. He didn’t — no, he did know.

“I used to cry a lot as a child. I’ve learned to hide my tears.

Every time I did cry, my parents would tell me to stop.”

The truth was shaky, but that was enough for Bo to be at peace.

The old man looked up at the sky. He didn’t say much, but he didn’t need to.

“You can cry here.”

It was enough for Bo because as he sank his head, in his knees, next to the warmth of a stranger, he cried. He cried, and that was okay.

Deborah Kwong is a freshman, born and raised in New York City, and is studying an indivvidualized major (multimedia) at NYU Gallatin. She is a lover of storytelling, plants, and spreadsheets.

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Little Dragon 25

UNRAVELING THE COCOON Last Friday I walked into a coffee shop on my way to class. Tired and grumpy as per my usual mornings, the bottles and pastries looked like blurry shapes. With only my dreary eyes revealed through my mask, I stepped up to the front of the line and asked for my usual iced latte. I’ve seen the barista before, I thought. She had orange hair and a septum piercing.

By Shana Wu As I stared blankly at a high school white board during math class, my mind basked in the glory of New York City skyscrapers. The bustle of quaint coffee shops and big bright screens played through my head and lifted my lips into a smile. To escape the monotony of 6 am classes, passing by the same dreadful faces I’ve seen since elementary school, and the grey, lifeless walls — how magnificent a notion. The image of New York glowed like the promise of a fresh start.

Yeah, I probably accumulated an imagination of college that was doomed to meet disappointment.

But I longed for possibility. To obtain this dream I deliberately filled my high school existence with stressors that kept me up at night. There were clubs, grades, and SAT scores. Then there were the Instagram photos of parties from the night before that I missed out on. I stuck myself in a self-harming cycle that constantly regurgitated my own failure. I eventually blended into the shadows of baggy-eyed girls and boys with far-too-long backpack straps running on three hours of sleep.

But in my lone corner I reached my arms up and followed that beautiful promise all the way until my dream became reality.

The stench of piss and trash on concrete roads and musty questionable strangers surely woke me up. During my first week here, I clutched my jacket close to my body while staring at the ground as I paced through the dark streets to my dorm. But I could have looked past all of that, really, if I didn’t return to four blank walls accompanied by a deafening silence. Nobody told me about this.

26 Fiction and Personal Essays

The humans whom I once embraced without a second thought, the warm wet air, rude Chinese store clerk, and the cats who greeted me by the door of a different building in a different city across thousands and thousands of miles have transfigured into mere fragments of a distant memory. At times I long to step on another crunchy leaf on the way home from school, feeling the afternoon sun and crisp air on my face. This year is the first in nine years that I will bypass the Shanghai autumn. I’ll never again take any of it for granted.

“Order’s all done, would you like your receipt?”

She asked.

I shook my head. “Hey, your name’s Shana, right?”

Lately I muster through sunny days of class and deliberate socialization and manage to convince myself that I’m okay – it’s not so bad.

At night the darkness sweeps over my half of the room and my heart hangs heavy in my chest. Under my covers, my eyes reflect blue screens filled with grinning students who seem to have found each other, and there it goes screaming: that same voice of failure.

Taken aback slightly, I looked up for once.

“Yeah, it is,” I said.

“Oh, I love your hair! I see you all the time,” she said. I felt a tinge of warmth from our mutual familiarity.

“Really? Thanks! I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said while grabbing my coffee and heading out the door.

When I moved to NYC from Shanghai, my mirrors merely reflected the same body in a new world – a body that catches her own tears between her fingers. I like my hair, eyes, nose, and skin. But I wasn’t so sure about who they belonged to.

I grew up to believe that everything was subjected to change. In third grade I poked a caterpillar with a stick and chuckled at its strange body.

It almost seemed as if the caterpillar heard my mocks and hid away scared, soon wrapping itself away in layers upon layers and halting all movement. I was told that one day the cocoon of nothing would unravel into a pretty butterfly. But come to think of it, I never actually saw that happen myself.

If a dumb caterpillar is capable of transforming into a pretty butterfly, why couldn’t I?

The surprise lingered for a while from the fact that someone recognized who I was amongst these chaotic streets.

And for a split second, my soul was transported back to my days in those Shanghai classrooms longing for more. Even one person recognizing my name perhaps validated my existence and enriched my life just a bit that day.

Notes of longing and self-doubt continue to emerge almost cyclically. But each bite of a new cookie or interaction with a different soul inches my body towards acclimation. Although my reflection carries my same features, my lips turn upwards a bit more often every day. And perhaps humans all transfigure in this way: we build our lives through experiences embedded in an ongoing narrative that disregards the physical space occupied by our bodies.

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And perhaps my transformation won’t be quite as significant as that from a caterpillar to a butterfly, but I will continue to carve into this new city a hole that is the shape of me.

Shana Wu is a Sophomore studying Media Culture and Communications at NYU Steinhardt. Upon being born and raised in the U.S., she moved to Shanghai with her family at the age of 9.

Unraveling the Cocoon 27

BILLIONAIRE’S DREAM DREAM BILLIONAIRE’S

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but what does a god dream of?

DOWN THE

By: Angela Zhai

This painting was inspired by Hilma af Klint’s abstract work, and was done when I was taking remote classes from my home in Connecticut during quarantine. I was losing my mind a bit at the time from being cooped up so much, and I’m grateful that I had painting as an outlet for my energy and self-expression.

The painting itself features a lot of color and organic shapes, with a little bit of biochemistry influence (with the chromosome and organelles) and astrological influence (with the crescent moon and stars).

An upside-down hourglass further solidifies the idea of feeling disoriented and forced to watch time pass by in a timeline of itself.

No one is the same person as they were before COVID, and sometimes that feels alarming–as if we’ve diverged from some crucial timeline, or tumbled down into Alice’s daydream.

By: Yukki Qiu Yukki is a junior studying Marketing and Finance at NYU with a minor in Philosophy.

She’s too chicken to go to art school.

Angela is a senior studying Global Public Health with a concentration in Chemistry, and minoring in studio art.

She is interested in women’s health and epidemiology, as well as collage, ceramics, and painting.

28 Prose and Poetry

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RABBIT HOLE Billionaire’s Dream and down the rabbit hole 29

SINGLISH

By: Calista Tey

Though I once swore that I would not allow myself to be influenced by the typical Singaporean that spoke only Singlish, I found myself acknowledging Singlish as my comfort language here in another country.

My friends and I from high school on Speech Day

“Hawker Centre, Singapore” by shankar s. is licensed under CC BY 2.0

30 Prose and Poetry

This is as much of a self-introduction as it is one’s take on Singlish, the odd but extensively used language in the little red dot of Singapore. If you have not heard of “Singlish,” it is simply what I call the laziest form of English: an idiosyncrasy.

If British English with their exasperated ‘t’s form the classiest sound of English, Singlish would seem like an immature child still trying to grasp proper English. The caricature of proper English: humorous and quirky, while short and curt. The equivalent of asking your friend if they’re sure, is simply “Can meh?” in Singlish, and telling your friend that you knew for a fact you were right and that they were wrong in the first place, is just “See la!”. The peculiar mix of English, Mandarin, Malay, Hokkien and other dialects that comprises Singlish, is no doubt one of, or the most telling characteristic of a Singaporean.

the taxi driver, greeting neighbours, and found myself explaining to them common making friends were all most natural in Singlish terms and phrases that I used to Singlish. That was how Singlish worked despise but have now become my own, its way into my life and became a habit and even influencing them into speaking that I adopted with time. Though I once Singlish with me. Isn’t that the fun in swore that I would not allow myself to sharing and getting to know each other? be influenced by the typical Singaporean It breaks the ice, puts formalities aside, that spoke only Singlish, I found myself and opens up room for connection. This acknowledging Singlish as my comfort realization is the reason that I am now not language here in another country. That has as averse to speaking Singlish nor feel as if led me to reflect on how much the way we I have lost my genuinity anymore. Rather, speak represents who we are as individuals.

I have grown and pushed beyond the Coming here to New York has made restrictions I used to place on myself about me realize what Singlish can be like what kind of person I should be, and have beyond my perception of it. Speaking become confident in expressing myself with Singaporeans who I have met at NYU as who I already am. I am not subjecting has made me feel at home and I felt that myself to a black-and-white decision on speaking Singlish represented this shared speaking Singlish and letting that define connection and bond that we have in me. After all, we are multi-faceted in common. Moreso, there is a tendency for nature. But the question still remains: who Singlish to be exclusive. It has a distinctive decides what is a good language? intonation and specific nuances Singlish is a part of my identity. But that include borrowed words that is not all I speak, and this Singaporean Speaking Singlish, especially in from Malay and Hokkien, such as culture I have adopted is not all there is America, has felt humiliating to “Heng ah,” and “Buey tahan,” to me, as is the same for any other trait me, and it is exactly this sentiment (meaning “Thank God” and or characteristic or language, for any and that reflects my ongoing struggle to “I can’t take it” respectively) everyone. No one is monolithic. And I think embrace Singlish in its entirety, even if which makes Singlish unsuitable that is at the core of self-acceptance and in a professional setting and the will to keep working towards a better I have acknowledged its significance. incomprehensible as a general version of ourselves, that triumphs over way of speaking. In fact, Singlish all other noise and distractions holding us I once loathed the idea and use of has been deemed as poor or bad English used back from staying true to ourselves.

Singlish. Before I moved to Singapore, I among the lower class, or as the ‘language lived in Jakarta, Indonesia for ten years, of poverty’ that deters Singapore where I spoke American English with my from advancing economically. But that is not all I speak, and this friends in international school. In the Speaking Singlish, especially in Singaporean culture I have adopted local Singapore school I later attended, America, has felt humiliating to is not all there is to me, as is the same everyone spoke English that was nothing me, and it is exactly this sentiment for any other trait or characteristic like I’ve known before. Suddenly, grammar that reflects my ongoing struggle disappeared and sentence structure had to embrace Singlish in its entirety, or language, for any and everyone. no right or wrong to it. My culture shock even if I have acknowledged its came in the form of the teacher asking the significance.

Calista is a sophomore at CAS, majoring in Economics and class if we did the homework, “You all got Nevertheless, as I have been laughed Computer Science. She is from Singapore, loves to sing and is do or not?”, and my friends judging the at by my friends from overseas for saying a big fan of The Voice. She is hoping to travel and explore all way I spoke “differently like an ang moh.”

“Walao wei!”, which translates to “Damn the parts of the world, and go skydiving one day.

Consequently, I picked up Singlish to fit in it!”, and “Shiok!”, which translates to with the local people, even though deep “Amazing!”, in my unfiltered Singlish down I was averse to it. Ordering food at accent, we laugh and talk about how funny the Hawker Centre, having small talk with it is, rather than how embarrassing it is. I READ OUR BLOG

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Singlish 31

THE SYNECDOCHE OF BEING ASIAN AND AMERICAN By: Hanxi Zhu

experiences – they were not bullied for their ethnicity and did not feel the pressure to meet the expectations of being a perfect model minority. Similarly, I didn’t have to go through my cousins’ experiences

Even if it’s said out of genuine curiosity rather than malice, it parallels the remarks I used to hear when I was younger.

In a recent TikTok, Ka Laam Chaan, who was born in Hong Kong but had moved to the US a few years ago, stated that she “gives permission” to non-Asians who wear qipao. She cites that she’s an “Asian from Asia, not Asian American…we’re different,” and mentioned that “if you go to Asia, you know that we love it when people share our culture. We love seeing them in qipao!” The dichotomy between Asian Americans and Asians from Asia is, in part, caused by the different hardships they each suffer in their own continents, and her comments seemed to speak over AAPI and invalidate the AAPI identity.

As someone who was born in China and moved to a small town with a population of 8,755 people that was 97.78% white just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana when I was three years old, it was painfully clear that they saw me as a foreigner. I tried to stay quiet enough to not draw additional attention to myself and to escape the racist remarks, but I would slip up, saying “close the lights” and stumbling over pronunciations of English words. I mulled

32 Fiction and Personal Essays

over changing my Chinese name, hoping to save myself from the anticipated “how do you pronounce this” and to save other people from the trouble of asking. But no English name felt right, as if by taking on one, I would have to mold myself into playing a part that wasn’t me. So I decided to keep going by my Chinese name, a small act of defiance. To the Indianapolis community, my name would always be a metonymy – I would always be a representative of the entire continent of Asia, so I saw myself as an Asian in America.

I had already let them define my identity using cultural stereotypes that didn’t necessarily apply to me, but my name was an authentic part of my identity that I could control.

It wasn’t until I moved to Houston in freshman year of high school when I started seeing myself as Asian American. My school was 20% Asian, which felt foreign, and this time, I didn’t feel as ostracized. I wasn’t a character trope, the stock Asian serving to bump up my school’s points for diversity.

I didn’t need to use my race or ethnicity as

a form of subversion; cultural stereotypes were no longer prominent character traits that I felt that I needed to emphasize to try to control the characterization. I stopped feeling the need to prove myself as an American or to emphasize my “Asianness.”

While I still spoke in Mandarin at home, my reading grew rusty from lack of practice, and I forgot the classical Chinese poems that I could once recite. My ties to Chinese culture slowly shifted from relatives in China to the other Chinese people around me. I gradually shed the identity of “Asian” and started seeing myself as “Asian American.” As I became more accepted into this community, I knew that I was gradually losing my Asian identity.

When I call my relatives back in China, I’ve always been seen as a representative of America. I’m asked about what it’s like living here, if I could teach them English, and if I want to move back to China. Even if it’s asked out of genuine curiosity rather than malice, it parallels the remarks I used to hear when I was younger. I started realizing the differences between our

of going through the intense academic pressure of studying for the gaokao – the college entrance exam in China – or being bullied for academic inadequacy. I have always thought of myself as Asian, either from Asia due to nationality or America due to geographical identity. Perhaps because my childhood was spent structuring my individuality around being Asian, it was jarring to think that, to my extended family, I would always be seen as being more American than Asian. This label felt incongruous, as if I hadn’t “succeeded” in cultivating a wholly Asian identity.

While this gap between the experiences of my relatives and I may be lighthearted, confined to casual jokes tossed out during WeChat calls, the consequences of not recognizing each other’s distinct experiences can be damaging, especially when people speak over AAPI social issues. Ka Laam Chaan claims that she understands the racist comments from her time in America but she holds her opinion from the perspective of someone who grew up in Hong Kong, without experiencing READ OUR BLOG

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Asian American struggles firsthand and without the empathy to understand how childhood discrimination felt trivialized by her “giving permission.”

When I showed my mother the TikTok, she shrugged it off, saying that it was simply clothing. However, as someone whose race and ethnicity drew bullies’ attention, I found it questionable that people could take on – and be able to shed off – aspects

Reconciling the two aspects of being Asian American is often an unkind journey, with little representation in media and often without much support other than our peers. of Asian culture without the hardships of racial harassment. Reconciling the two aspects of being Asian American is often an unkind journey, with little representation in media and often without much support other than our peers. “Giving permission” to appropriate aspects of cultures – especially when AAPI are often not allowed to express those aspects themselves – invalidates our metamorphoses into finding our own identities.

Hanxi is a junior majoring in economics and classical civilization. She hopes that one day, microwaving popcorn will be considered a valuable cooking skill.

The Synechdoche of Being Asian and American 33

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Red Light, Green Light: A Look Inside the Netflix’s Hit Series “Squid Game”

BY LEANN MAI

NOVEMBER 5, 2O21

HOME ABOUT ART

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Green tracksuits. Masked pink men. Children’s games. These are all components of the latest, and one of the most popular, Korean dramas to air on Netflix: Squid Game. Set in modern-day Seoul, a series of challenges, obstacles, and internal conflicts are thrown upon a group of individuals as they fight for the chance to win a hefty sum of cash. What makes Squid Game so appealing to its audience, pulling in both avid K-drama watchers and outsiders alike, is its accessibility and social commentary on mass conformity and capitalism.

Released on Netflix on September 17th, the drama was released to provide virtually full access to anyone interested in watching, offering 37 subtitles and 34 dubs in different languages. With the wide range of languages for viewers to choose from, this makes interpretation …

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Confronting internal racism: Relearning what it means to be “beautiful”

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CURRENT EVENTS

BY SANDY BATTULGA OCTOBER 23, 2O21

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A Royal Marriage and Conservative Japan

BY NENE HAMADA NOVEMBER 4, 2021

For many months, Japan saw a modern version of Romeo and Juliet unfold, starring Japan’s Princess Mako, 30, and her long-term boyfriend and fiancé, Kei Komuro, 30. It was 2017 when Princess Mako, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Fumihito, announced her engagement to Kei Komuro, a commoner and a graduate of Japan’s International Christian University at which the couple met. Although the marriage of a Princess to a commoner signals the departure of the female royal from the imperial household, Japan was in a celebratory mood when the engagement was first announced. However, this was shortlived, as scandals surrounding the fiancé’s family background and mother’s financial debts heightened nationwide public disapproval of the marriage.

The couple’s plans were officially put on hold as Mr. Komuro’s image and his aptness as the husband of a Japanese Princess declined, and arrangements were further delayed as Mr. Komuro went abroad to study at Fordham University to pursue a law degree in 2018. In the face of public skepticism and media attacks, it seemed like the royal marriage would not have a fairy tale ending. However, earlier this month, the pair announced that they would formally tie the knot on Oct. 26, 2021, after 3 long years of being at the center of public scrutiny.

When I was younger, I was always very proud of the fact that my hair is not black but actually dark brown. This distinction was very important to me, and I was fiercely protective of my brown, not black, hair. All throughout elementary, middle, and high school, I attended predominantly white and upper middle-class schools.

Neither of which were categories that I fit into, so I was very aware of how different I was in comparison to my friends while growing up. I remember feeling decidedly less “pretty” than my blonde friends or green-eyed friends. But, one thing that I could cling to that bared some sort of resemblance to their kind of “pretty” was my brown hair. I remember one time in middle school someone commented on my hair, jokingly saying: “You’re not a real Asian, you don’t actually have black hair.” I felt proud that someone had noticed this small trait that offered a slight separation between me and “looking” Asian.

The traits that I wished to change the most while I was growing up were my tadpole-shaped eyes and flat nose. This sentiment was shared by my sister and I believed it to be a normal part of the adolescent experience. We often talked about simply getting a nose job or double-eyelid surgery; small prices to pay for an exponential increase in confidence. The idea that my unattractive qualities were tied to traits generally seen as belonging to Asians became thoroughly cemented in my head and I never questioned it.

I never questioned it until I visited Mongolia at the age of 15. My parents are originally from Mongolia and immigrated to the US around 20 years ago, thus, I was born and raised in the US. However, I was accepted into a student exchange program where I got the chance to stay in Mongolia for two weeks during the summer before my sophomore year of high school. The biggest culture shock that I faced, and the one that was least expected, was that everyone seemed to find me …

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STORIES

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Blog Highlight 5

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Animes Ending in Fall 2021 & Starting in Winter 2021!

MEDIA HIGHLIGHT

BY PHOENIX

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

check out our videos at youtube.com/nyugenerasian

2021 is a huge year for anime. Fans are anticipating the return of Eren Yeager and his final decision, the story of the mysterious student mentioned in Tokyo Jujutsu High, and what happens to Tanjiro after the Mugen Train Incident. Before the release of these coming anime, we are introduced to time traveling, superpowers and immortality in some famous anime this fall. Some of the anime are brand new and some are the sequels of the already famous ones, and anime fans are getting super hyped about these! Let’s take a look of some anime ending in Fall 2021 and starting in this coming winter.

Fall 2021 media team

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Media Editors: Marva Shi Caitlin Chien

MUSIC

The Return of Spring and IU

Media Team Members: Chelsea Li Alex Tran Victoria Ng Sabrina Ho

BY ALICIAZZZ JUNE 8, 2021

Lee Ji-eun, more commonly known as IU, is no stranger in South Korea. She debuted in 2008 with her single “Lost Child” at the age of fifteen and is recognized for her soft but powerful, unique voice and sincerity. She has also gained popularity as an actress, starring in hit dramas such as “Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo” (2016) and “Hotel Del Luna” (2019). Though she is a veteran in the K-pop realm with thirteen years of experience, IU’s songs are always at the forefront of discussions when they are released, and she never disappoints her fans.

After four long years of hard work, IU released her fifth album titled Lilac on March 25 of this year. In her self-interview on her Youtube channel (IU’s Palette), IU mentioned that …

This semester, our small team celebrated Generasian’s return to in-person activities by doing a food challenge in Manhattan’s iconic Chinatown district. Check out Caitlin and Marva’s affordable food recommendations for each other in this fun and fast-paced video!

BEHIND THE SCENES

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The Team Blog Editor: Michael Lo Blog Deputy Editor: Jihoon Yang

36 Blog Highlight

Bloggers: Sandy Battulga Phoenix Chuang Nene Hamada LeAnn Mai Calista Tey Shana Wu

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Media Highlight 37

co-president

marva shi

chelsea kwak

amy dai

deputy editor-in-chief editor-in-chief

chanel pulido

EBOARD

secretary treasurer

FALL 2021

alex tran

hana pak

38 Meet the Eboard

ellen liu

deputy art editor

thea wang

art editor

layout editor

joanna feng

caitlin chien

charlene tan michael lo

media editor chelsea li

blog editor

jihoon yang

marketing director

victoria ng

deputy

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