All too soon first year is almost over and a fun and educative way of celebrating is by having students of all streams of the Co-ordinated Arts Program (CAP) share and talk about major works they partook in at a CAP conference. However, this CAP conference was more interesting that I thought it would be. I had the privilege of listening to the great presenters like Clara Chang and Kihan Yoon-Henderson from Panel A and also Vanessa Chan and her group from Panel B.
One of the presentations that caught my attention was “Avatar: The Bending of a Traditional Narrative”. With this, Vanessa Chan started by giving her readers a little historical background of the Avatar. Avatar, the Last Airbender, integrates or combines the styles and techniques of both Anime and American cartoon and relies on the representation and the symbolism of other cultures. This anime/cartoon has however received praise for acknowledging both gender and cultural issues. One of the presenters talked about a girl called Toph. Toph is a twelve-year-old blind girl. On the other hand, she is presented as someone who is not limited because of her blindness. In as much as she is blind, she has great abilities such as feeling the vibrations in the ground through her feet and also being her own lie detector by feeling the pulse of one’s heart to see if they are lying or saying the truth.
Mapping these great ideas to my ASTU class adds on to the practical examples of the concept of ‘Overcoming Disabilities’. In this context, Toph breaks the stereotype of being labeled as limited because of her blindness. Furthermore, relating this to Helen Keller, Toph’s experience with her blindness and her disability has made her one of the most prominent characters in the anime/cartoon.
Another issue the presentation covered was the fact that The Last Airbender embraced all cultures or, in other words, promotes cultural diversity. This, however, influences the thinking of watchers at all ages.
In all, the CAP experience has been great. Learning and exploring topics I did not even know were academic such as archives, autobiographies have been interesting and educational. Before CAP, the word archives was always ‘prehistoric objects that have great historic value’ and is hence stored or kept safe in the museum for public viewing. However, I have come to realize that archives have more to it than just mere objects. The relevance of archives does not end at documenting the lives of people but also sheds more light on the educating the public on certain issues and giving voices to the marginalized. CAP overall has definitely impacted so much in my life.
