Rice Paper Fall 2018

FALL 2018 NEWSLETTER

A semi-annual publication of the Indiana University Asian Culture Center

From the Corner of 10th and Woodlawn Melanie Castillo-Cullather, Director, IU Asian Culture Center This fall semester, we turned 20!! In honor of the founding of the Asian Culture Center two decades ago, several enjoyable, fun, and enlightening activities were held during IU’s Homecoming Weekend. We are grateful to the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs, IU Office of the Bicentennial, Residence Hall Association, IU Asian American Studies Program, College of Arts and Sciences, and other academic units including the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, English and the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering for their incredible support in celebrating this milestone. The festivities included a symposium, welcome dinner, banquet and program, and alumni brunch and board elections. All of these events were dedicated to recognize the outstanding contributions of our Asian American alumni, students, faculty, and staff. In addition, we hosted and featured our alumni on Hearabouts: Asian American Midwest Radio on WFHB for the October and November editions. In this issue and for next spring, we will remember and share that memorable homecoming weekend, especially for those who were not able to attend, by publishing the speeches of our guest speakers and transcripts of the radio interviews, and posting responses to our next big question: What would you like to see happen at the Asian Culture Center in the next 5, 10, 15, and 20 years?

Many of you may remember that day when the center opened on October 3, 1998. The air was cool and crisp, the surroundings in vibrant fall colors. It was drizzling, but that didn’t interrupt the festivities, nor did it dampen the spirits. The opening ceremony held at the Courtyard of Collins LLC was welcomed and attended by a jubilant crowd of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and community members. There was even a lion dance! You could see and feel the excitement in the students’ faces with their big smiles. Everyone was giving hugs and high fives. It was a historic event! The day finally arrived after many years of group meetings, strategizing, and protesting. The opening of the Asian Culture Center marked the celebration of a huge accomplishment, revealing the power of student activism.

In the two decades since our opening, the center has worked hard to be faithful to its mission and commitment to students, faculty, and staff: listening to their needs and aspirations, acting as a voice for their concerns, and providing a space for community engagement.

We are inspired by what our alumni and students created.

They built not only the physical space for people to gather, but they also constructed a strong foundation of values for diverse ideas to develop and flourish. They planted the seeds that we at the ACC try to continue to nurture and grow each day: Community building, embracing and reaffirming cultural and ethnic identities as an Asian American and/or Pacific Islander, and serving as an inclusive resource and It was not easy to build the center from scratch, but you all made it possible through your kindness, support, inspiration, hard work, generosity, and most of all, encouragement!

From all of us at the ACC, thank you for everything that you do for supporting the center and our work. Here’s to many more years!

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IU alumni attend the 20th Anniversary Banquet after presenting earlier during the Anniversary Symposium. From left to right, Professor Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Dr. Jules Lin, Dr. Yuko Kurahashi, Khai Yang, and Dr. Paul Park.

Dr. Jules Lin

Khai Yang

Dr. Yuko Kurahashi

ACC staff members gather before the 20th Anniversary Banquet. From left to right, Dr. Sarah Moon Stamey, Kevin Phan, Anna Wagner, Hibah Butt, Aisha Shabbir, Keiko McCullough, Monica Luu, James Paulson, and Tara Kim.

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Dr. Ellen Wu: History of the ACC Associate Professor, Department of History Director, Asian American Studies Program Asian Culture Center 20th Anniversary Celebration Anniversary Banquet and Program Keynote October 12, 2018 Good evening everyone!

It’s really a thrill to celebrate tonight with so many old and new friends this monumental milestone: The 20th anniversary of the Asian Culture Center at Indiana University Bloomington.

In my mind, the ACC is unequivocally the heartbeat and the glue of the Asian/Pacific/American community—(yes, I’m mixing metaphors here!)—not only on campus but in the Bloomington community more generally.

The ACC embodies in every way the mantra that participants in the original Asian American Movement of the 1960s and 70s lived by: “SERVE THE PEOPLE.” To offer a little historical context: The Asian American Movement was one of the social justice movements of the Sixties and the spark that ignited “Asian American” identity in the United States. (It’s probably the LEAST KNOWN of the 60s movements—and quite possible you’ve never heard of it.)

Inspired by Black Power and the opposition to the Vietnam War, the “first wave” Asian American Movement exploded in 1968 and lasted through much of the 1970s.

Across the country, people of Asian ancestry energetically denounced racism and imperialism at home and abroad.

They championed solidarity with “Third World” peoples everywhere, and they pushed for more equitable and just ways of living.

One of the KEY IDEAs that propelled the Asian American Movement was to “SERVE THE PEOPLE.” In other words, to take on meaningful work that would benefit the community, especially those who were most vulnerable, disenfranchised, and invisible. Today, we call this work “social justice.”

Movement activists defined “community” in the broadest sense, connecting the challenges faced by Asians Americans to all people color at home in the United States as well as around the planet. Participants in the Asian American Movement took up the mantra of “Serve the People” in lots of different ways. They called this “one struggle, many fronts.”

The Asian American Movement generated a robust press and vibrant artistic production alongside campaigns for affordable housing for the poor and elderly, community-relevant education (including Asian American Studies), affirmative action, accountability for police brutality, and an end to US military invention in Southeast Asia and imperial domination worldwide.

Thirty years after the birth of the Asian American Movement, the Asian Culture Center opened its doors to SERVE THE PEOPLE of Indiana University and the Bloomington area. I remember very clearly during my years as an undergrad at IU many of us really hungered to have a community anchor such as the ACC. We dreamed of having a space of our own where we could be ourselves and share and learn and eat in a comfortable and supportive environment. We had glimpsed this in La Casa and we knew what an asset it was for Latinx students.

So many of us contributed to the push for an Asian Culture Center in all kinds of ways: some shouting in public, bullhorns in hand; others in computer labs, meticulously drafting the arguments needed to persuade the administration to back us; and many behind the scenes—designing flyers, chalking sidewalks, preparing snacks—shouldering the invisible labor that undergirds EVERY social movement.

Fast forward twenty years later. I am so pleased and proud to attest all of the amazingly rich and dynamic programming that the Asian Culture Center offers today VASTLY EXCEEDS our wildest dreams. I don’t think any of us who lobbied for the ACC could have imagined the sweep and impact that it has had over the last twenty years.

Personally, as the director of the Asian American Studies Continued on page 4

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Program (which in itself owes its very existence to the advocacy of the ACC), I cannot imagine doing my job without the partnership, support, and the listserv of ACC. ACC is like the cool older sibling who gives us rides to the school and the mall and lets us hang out with her friends.

Every year Asian American Studies and ACC work together to coordinate speakers, programs, and special events. In Spring 2019, ACC and AAST are partnering for the first time to offer an Asian American Studies course on Contemporary Issues in Asian America which will include hands-on field trips to community sites in Indianapolis and Chicago. This is precisely the kind of inspiration and engagement that the Asian American Studies program aims to spark.

So, in a nutshell: the Asian Culture Center is the living embodiment of the Asian American Movement that launched in 1968: locally grounded yet globally oriented, social justice minded, forward-thinking, and a welcoming and inclusive community space that “SERVES THIS PEOPLE.” This celebration is a marvelous inspiration to us all to go forward in our respective lives and continue to SERVE THE PEOPLE in all our different ways, humble and magnificent.

THANK YOU to Melanie, Sarah, ACC staff and students, and all of the alumni & friends who have carried out this ethos, past, present, and future. How wonderful it is to be part of a community that continues to strive to SERVE THE PEOPLE.

Dr. Paul Park on Political Advocacy, Continuing to Fight for Social Justice Joyce Lam, Student Assistant, IU Asian Culture Center (Below is a transcript from a radio interview aired on HearAbouts: Midwest Asian American Radio on WFHB Community Radio.)

Dr. Paul Park is a 2004 graduate of Indiana University who is an expert in Global Health and a healthcare advocate.

Currently, Dr. Park serves as the Director of Implementation for NCD Synergies, a nonprofit organization that focuses on providing support to policymakers in low income countries. Dr. Park is also a Clinical Instructor in Medicine, a Department of Global Health and Social Medicine Affiliate at Harvard University, and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His work includes strengthening health delivery systems and providing healthcare in communities in Guatemala, Rwanda, and the Wampanoag Native American reservation. In this interview, Dr. Park speaks about his start in political and social advocacy from his time at Indiana University and how that has trickled into his current work. Dr. Park was interviewed by Joyce Lam, a student assistant at the Asian Culture Center at Indiana University Bloomington.

You founded and served as the first Asian American Association Political Advocacy Chair at IU. Could you tell us more about the position and how it was established?

At that time, I was a junior in undergrad in Bloomington.

I’ve always had an interest- and I always knew that there was a part of me that would get easily excited and just enthusiastic and fired up when it came to issues surrounding social justice. And, at that time, there was a shirt that actually came out from Abercrombie&Fitch that was very much promoting racist stereotypes towards Asian-Americans with caricatures and slogans. Abercrombie did not immediately remove the shirt off the shelves. So, there were protests across the country, especially on the east and west coasts, and in Indiana, there was a small group of students from various Asian student groups. I got there, and you know, I wasn’t really involved in Asian student groups. You know, I’m from Indiana; originally,

5 I actually didn’t really have any Asian friends until coming to undergrad, and so, it was definitely a foreign concept to have Asian friends. But, I was, you know of course, upset and angry by the t-shirt campaign by Abercrombie, but I also told myself that I needed to get more involved, and I needed to do something about this. I can’t continue to be angry on the sidelines, and I approached Melanie at the Asian Culture Center. She was very excited to meet me, and she was supportive and introduced me to the president of the Asian American Association, who was also very interested in having more of a political advocacy stance and culture within the organization. So, she decided to establish this new position and invited me to the board, so I agreed. That was really the start of my involvement. I would say, in the beginning, there was an uphill battle of trying to get students within the organization and across campus to become active, come to call-out meetings, you know. There definitely wasn’t an easy start, but, you know, as we were steadily able to raise awareness about different issues on campus, then we were steadily starting to get more participation, and political advocacy and activism became a legitimate part of the Asian American Association on campus.

Since leaving IU, you’ve embarked on a long medical journey that gave back to many communities. What inspired you to be involved in these altruistic endeavors?

cultivated not just a stronger awareness and compassion for those who are suffering from social injustice, but also an awareness and empowerment that I, as an individual, am able to do something. I can lead and gather additional support and try to make a difference and try to overturn and reverse some of the social injustice that’s happening, whether that’s individual or systemic. So, today, with my work, I very much view it as in line with the advocacy work I did at Indiana University. Except now, as a physician and a public health specialist, I can, one, provide direct care to those who have been neglected by the system and those who are falling through the cracks and aren’t able to access healthcare, which is what I do believe is a human right. Additionally, I’m able to work at an advocacy level; you know, I’ve been able to spend time advocating for greater access to healthcare both in the U.S. and abroad on Capitol Hill and at international meetings and from the World Health Organization and other global entities. And the tradition has continued, I really do believe that the values and the leadership skills that I was able to cultivate through the Asian Culture Center at Indiana University and the Asian American Association really are still with me to this day, and has allowed me to continue to fight against social injustice.

Obviously when people ask me why I’m doing what I’m doing now, you know, one core value that drives me is the fight against social injustice, and I think that is a common theme you’ll see across many fields of advocacy. I think one thing that some of my peers today are surprised to hear is that I always tell them that my interest in fighting against social injustice did not start with healthcare disparity; it actually started with racial disparity. So, this really comes back to my time in undergrad, my time growing up in Indiana and high school and middle school and etc., facing racism head on and dealing with it first on a personal level and then ultimately at Indiana University on a systematic level. And that really

Dr. Paul Park (BS, ‘2004) presents as a part of the 20th Anniversary Symposium. His presentation was entitled, “From Racism to Health Care Disparity: Empowering Communities Through Social Justice.” Dr. Park examined the causes and consequences of global health inequity from racial, socioeconomic, and anthropological lenses. He also shared his first hand experiences building and empowering communities in Guatemala, Rwanda, and the Wampanoag Native American reservation through strengthening health delivery systems.

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Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia on Family Reunification and Current Immigration Policy Hibah Butt, Student Assistant, IU Asian Culture Center (Transcript from a radio interview on HearAbouts: Midwest Asian American Radio on WFHBCommunity Radio) Professor Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia is a 1996 graduate of Indiana University who is an expert on immigration law and focuses on prosecutorial discretion, the intersections of race, and national security. She has written numerous law articles and essays and is now working on her book examining immigration enforcement and discretions during the first 18 months of the Trump administration being published next year. Professor Wadhia was interviewed by Professor Ellen Wu who is an Associate Professor of History and the Director of the Asian American Studies Program at Indiana University Bloomington.

To begin, what attracted you to immigration law?

I was a political science major, and one of the first classes I took was called Politics and Disobedience. It was life changing and it was the beginning of a really rich curriculum that I was able to take advantage of while I was here at IU. I had always known I wanted to be a Civil Rights Lawyer while I was learning about the Civil Rights Movement, and the role that judges and lawyers played in making decisions about a person’s rights or justice. I was very moved by this.

I wanted to use law as a tool for social change, and when I went to law school I took Immigration Law and I really fell in love with an Immigration statute. I knew this was the area that I wanted to work in, and I haven’t left it since.

Something we both have in common is that we both grew up in a household of immigrant parents. Could you also talk about how that has also shaped your approach to your work?

I am the child of Indian immigrants and my father came here and ended up in Dayton, Ohio. He married my mother in India and she came to the United States as the spouse of a green card holder, which is a very family-based immigration system. It is a reminder that family has long been at the heart of out immigration law and policy. When Congress wrote the law, most of the visas went to families and relationships. I don’t know how much my parents being immigrants shaped my decision to be an Immigration Lawyer, maybe not so much. The story has certainly mattered as I observe and reflect law and policy today as a scholar and practitioner.

Having the context of history in regard to immigration law, what is at stake right now in the immigration debate?

As we sit, we still have the code and it has not been changed in the age of Trump. As a legal matter there are largely only four ways to get a green card: through families, employers, through something known as the diversity lottery, or as a refugee. Family is the primary vehicle that is used. This still remains our statute today, and the challenges we see concerns some of the policies we have seen impacting the family-based processing, but the family-based immigration is still very much the same. The words of senior officials cannot change the law, most major changes to immigration law require an act of Congress.

I am really intrigued by your work at the Center of Immigrants’ Rights Clinic in Pennsylvania, can you tell us how that got started up, and what are some of the day to day things that you and your students do at the clinic?

Penn State Law was looking for someone to run and direct an immigration clinic, and it was an incredible opportunity to write the mission statement and to bring the skills I had to apply it in a teaching environment. I wanted students to understand the role of the legislative lawyer and the relationship between immigration law policy and politics. In the early years a lot of our work took the report of our policy work and special registration for an institutional client like the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Over time, our work expanded into community outreach and education as well as providing legal support in individual pieces. The Center of Immigrants’ Rights Clinic has been a great opportunity for our students because they were able to work with different types of clients.

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The column where we seek answers to one of those questions that just seems to stick around

Potsticker Question: What are things you want to see happen for the ACC in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years?

“I would like to see a greatly expanded space for the ACC within the next 5-10 years.”

“I want to see the ACC continue to empower students and help them explore their identity -- and build great relationships along the way.”

“I hope that in the future, the Asian Culture Center will continue to bridge the barrier between languages, cultures, and communities in Bloomington and around the world. I also want the Asian Culture Center to continue to teach the human condition and reiterate empathy for everyone.”

“In the next 5 years, I hope to see that the ACC becomes a more prominent voice and presence in the Bloomington community. I also hope for a strongly knit community within the ACC and beyond for those that have left. I can’t wait to see what the future holds!”

“I’d want to see even more Asian-American writer, musician, and artist talks and discussions. I also always love seeing more South Asian representation especially Bangladesh and Sri Lanka heritages that often get forgotten. I want to see Hearabouts continue to grow and to spread its reach throughout the Midwest, where Asian-Americans could especially benefit from hearing their stories on the radio. Also, I love the film series and would love for that to continue to grow, and of course, any time I can get free food is a good time. But most of all, I want to see the ACC continue to be a space where Asian-Americans can explore their complex identities, be proud of who they are, and be around people who understand them.”

“In the next 5 to 10 years, I would like to see more offerings in ACC class/experiences such as Asian languages, Asian arts, Asian cuisines... etc. Also, It is going to benefit the ACC and the community more if more people could come and visit the ACC. Ultimately, a new and bigger home for the ACC would be a brilliant dream for anyone who loves the ACC. For example, dedicated classrooms for ACC classes and tutoring would be great!”

A semi-annual publication of the Indiana University Asian Culture Center

Tune in to HearAbouts: Midwest Asian American Radio on WFHB. With a mix of interviews, discussions, and music all featuring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), Hearabouts is a forum for discussion and dialogue around issues of importance to the Bloomington community and beyond.

IU Asian Culture Center 807 E. 10th Street Bloomington, IN 47408 812-856-5361

Please think of us during this gift-giving season! The IU Asian Culture Center provides services, resources, and programming free of charge to the IU and Bloomington communities. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the ACC to support our programs. Checks should be written to the IU Foundation with “Asian Culture Center� in the memo or you may donate online via our website.

Thank you for your support!

asianresource.indiana.edu acc@indiana.edu @asianculturecenter @ACC_IU

Director: Melanie Castillo-Cullather Program Associate: Sarah Moon Stamey Graduate Assistant: Keiko McCullough Publication Layout: Kelly Fan