Introduction

“You must be good at math, Rachel, you are Asian,” something I have heard my entire high school career. It may seem harmless and even as a compliment through the master narrative, the most commonly portrayed perspective. Contrary to the master narrative, there is the counter-narrative, the point of view that is rarely discussed or represented in the media. Through the counter-narrative, stereotypes that Asian people are smart and successful can be quite harmful. As I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (2022), I could not help but notice the counter-narrative that the movie represents, but with hints of the master narrative found in its stereotypes. It made me reflect on Michelle Yeoh’s outstanding performance, but also her role as the tiger mom in the film. In this post, I will discuss the counter-narrative of the Asian-American or Asian-Canadian experience and stereotypes given to Asian people by the master narrative.

According to scholar Qin Zhang’s article, “Asian Americans Beyond the Model Minority Stereotype: The Nerdy and the Left Out” (2010), Asian people are not as represented in the media, but when they have representation, it comes with many stereotypes for men and women. The Asian woman is obedient, seductive, deceitful, or ruthless dragon ladies, while the Asian man is effete, isolated, and often a martial artist. Zhang asserts that although once Asian people were stereotypically less than White people, they are now seen as the successful model minority; “hardworking, intelligent, polite,” Zhang says. Barbara Lee, a writer/filmmaker who founded the Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF), also discussed the stereotypes given to Asian men and women in her presentation, “Asian Representation in the Media” (2022), including the stereotype of the model minority: law-abiding citizens who are polite and have high levels of success. These stereotypes are created by the master narrative and its representation in the media influences people to actually think this way. Lee also mentions #Elimin8hate, an advocacy arm of the VAFF because despite being the model minority, Asians still face racism and discrimination and deserve better representation through the lens of the counter-narrative.

@ubc_cap – Asian Representation in the Media

Everything Everywhere All at Once – the “True” Asian-Immigrant Experience?

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film about the Chinese American experience. Evelyn and Waymond Wang are immigrants who started their laundromat business and a family in San Fernando, California. This movie represents an Asian American family that I am familiar with: immigrant parents who own a small business, and their child who speaks fluent English and does not want to participate in every Asian tradition. Although I cannot speak on behalf of all Asian families who have immigrated to North America, this is the same family I grew up with. Although my parents are hardworking, they do not represent the model minority stereotype of Asians who are smart and studied their entire life. I believe this film did a great job of showing Asian American families that do not represent the rich and successful Asians stereotyped by the White norm, like another movie that Yeoh was in, Crazy Rich Asians by Jon M. Chu (2018).

A24 – Everything Everywhere All at Once Trailer

Kwan and Scheinert’s film represents the counter-narrative of Asian families in America, but they also have a common stereotype from the master narrative: the tiger mom. Tiger parents are authoritative parents who want to drive their children toward success. Their techniques, however, are often questioned because of cultural differences; tiger parenting may seem too aggressive in American culture. In the movie, Evelyn criticizes Joy for her tattoos and her weight. Evelyn was also raised with tiger parents since Evelyn’s parents disowned her when she chose to marry Waymond. Later in the movie, Evelyn is shown a universe where she and Waymond did not marry and they were both extremely successful. Evelyn’s parents were aggressive in their parenting by threatening to disown her if she chose to marry him, but it was for her own benefit.

A24 – Everything Everywhere All at Once Trailer

Contrary to popular belief, I was not raised with tiger parents. Zhang mentions that Asian Americans feel alienation and loneliness because of the stereotypes that are often portrayed by the media. Growing up, some of my friends have been hesitant to meet my parents, whether it was for a ride home or a sleepover. After reading Zhang’s article, I believe one of the causes is because of Asian representation in media. Although it may be the experience of some, the tiger mom is not the most common way of parenting, and it certainly is not generalizable to all Asian parents.

Why does this matter?

In this blog post, I discussed the counter-narrative given in Everything Everywhere All at Once, as well as the stereotypes about Asian people in the media that occur so often it is almost normalized. It is important to recognize the negative impacts that these stereotypes can have, whether they are considered “good” like being the model minority, although this stereotype has bad implications in itself, such as the nerd. Zhang argued that representations of Asian Americans in the media are the reason for the stereotypes which led to negative psychological effects for many Asian people. This is why media through counter-narratives are so crucial; it shows how these stereotypes are truly experienced by Asians, and that not all Asian people live the same life represented in master narrative media.

This Tuesday, there was the final CEL talk of this year, which unfortunately I could not attend. It is more apparent to me now that my first year at UBC is ending, and although it is sentimental, I am excited for the years to come for myself and all of my CAP peers.

The guest speakers were Janelle LaPointe, Norm Leech, and Sam Fenn. They talked about our present concerning colonialism, the future we should be working towards, and how we can work toward this goal. What I found interesting from the CEL talk is when Leech said that none of us have lived in a decolonized system. It made me think, we are reminded of the “history” of Canada and the ways Canada has attempted to reconcile. We should remember that this “history” is ongoing, and we still have changes to make for a decolonized system.

We need to remember that colonization is present in Canada, but what I wanted to talk about from this CEL talk relates to what we were learning in class a few weeks ago; Indian Horse. I cannot recall which class, but I remember a conversation emerged on Indian Horse being a fictional story. There was a debate on whether this book helped educate people about Canada’s colonial history and the impacts it had on Indigenous peoples, or if it was not because it is simply a fictional book. During the introductions at the CEL talk, Leech included in his introduction (presented by Professor Fedorick) that he draws on his experiences of being a recovering alcoholic and addict. I believe it is clear that Indian Horse may be a fictional story, but it is not far from the truth. Intergenerational trauma from the effects of colonialism is what many Indigenous peoples experience, similar to how Saul faced it in the novel.

This wraps up the Community Engaged Learning talks that we had once a month for the last two terms. I found them a valuable experience and I appreciate all of the speakers who have taken the time out of their lives to tell us about their experiences and passions.

In my first term, I remember in many of my classes my peers would ask if they should use “I” in our term papers, and rightfully so. What I knew about a research paper at that time is that I must have a stance, but I was also taught in high school that I should not use “I” in my typical 5-paragraph essays. For me, although it is not the newest (because I had research papers last term), using “I” in my papers is something I have not adjusted to.

Another thing that is new to me from these lessons is the modality. In Law 12, my teacher taught us to never use “could,” “should,” “would,” etc. She told us that using these words will not create a strong argument since it implies that the writer is doubting their opinion. In our previous lessons, we were taught that this modality of ambivalence will acknowledge other scholarly research while respectfully including our stance in the conversation, whether we agree or disagree with said scholars. Although I agree with my high school teacher to an extent, I believe you can make a convincing argument even if you use words with uncertainty. From what I have learned since the beginning of ASTU, it is essential to acknowledge these scholars (by citing them) and to be respectful of their stance.

Outlining has been a valuable part of this research project. For the conclusions, I have a lot left to learn but I will be implementing everything we learned in the last few lessons. Now that I know outlining, using I, modality, and conclusions from these last few lessons, I hope that my writing will be stronger in future assignments as well as this paper.

Last Tuesday, I attended the CEL talk on exploring refugee support with Nathalie Lozano-Neira, Wilfred Thariki, and Loren Balisky. Luckily, my Psychology lecture was optional on the 7^th because I had a midterm last Thursday. I decided that going to the CEL talk would be more productive since I wanted to see the speakers in person; I found that seeing the speakers live is much more impactful than watching the recordings.

In this blog post, I want to focus on media coverage of refugees since it is relevant to a recurring theme in our ASTU class: exploring the counter-narrative. Lozano-Neira shared her precarious and vulnerable experience with the media, mentioning that she and other refugees were featured in an article by the Vancouver Sun with explicit and personal information about their lives. Her experience was later taken out of the Vancouver Sun and put in a textbook, word-by-word, for people learning English. She was 15 at the time and did not understand the significance of being published in the newspaper. Something that was very influential to me was when she said that commodifying their stories and lived experiences was traumatic and violent in itself. I am appreciative and grateful that she was willing to share this with us. It made me reflect on how harmful it is to tell another person’s story as well as the extent of invalidating refugee experiences, especially in the way they are portrayed in the media.

Prior to this CEL talk, I had seen Lozano-Neira at a different talk with Francisco Fernando-Granados. Fernando-Granados talked about how they interviewed everyone, but only took photographs of the people who fit the physical characteristics of a stereotypical refugee. I believe the way they were represented was dishonest because they were reinforcing the status quo of what a refugee should be, creating the illusion that all refugees are the same despite their individual experiences and only associating their identity as being a refugee.

Although we learned about refugee identity and experience for most of Term 1 of ASTU, seeing Lozano-Neira and Fernando-Granados share their experience with the media truly changed my perspective on refugee identity. It is different to read about one’s experience and to listen to it first-hand, and I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to listen.

This term, my schedule does not align with the CEL talks and I cannot attend them in person. Instead, I watched the recording of it that was posted on Canvas. One thing that stood out to me from the talk was when Maya Preshyon said many corporations are owned by White men and including a few people of colour was their “diversity moment.” This does not come as a surprise because I felt that I have seen this happen often; people including minorities with the wrong intentions. Corporations will hire people, not for inclusivity, but rather to avoid backlash. Although this gives opportunities to some BIPOCs, these corporations do not have the right intentions which I find is one of the most important factors in diversifying public and private spheres.

I also attended the CEL debrief which I found super helpful. It was nice to hear what my peers thought about the CEL talk and I appreciated our conversations. During our debrief, we shared what felt like home and what we considered our community. To position myself in the talk, I felt fortunate to have a place that felt like home to me as I am a Korean person who lives in Coquitlam. There were many Korean people that I could relate to and speak my first language with. I also grew up eating Korean food despite living in Canada which was one of the things we discussed at the debrief; how food creates a sense of belonging and community.

I found this CEL talk to be inspiring, and it helped me reflect on myself. I raised questions for myself such as “did I grow up in a community where I felt I belonged” and how not everyone had this opportunity. Listening to Maya Preshyon, Gankal Sally Ka and Krystal Paraboo discuss the erasure of Black communities and their projects was really powerful. Once again, I am glad I was given the opportunity to hear their stories.

Use this post to develop some ideas for your term paper. What question are you developing? What do you think your answer might be? What draws you to your topic? What do you hope to accomplish with your essay?

To start this blog post, I wanted to mention that I feel nervous about this assignment. Throughout the term, we learned how to observe examples (in the close reading) and place scholars on a map about the literature we read in class. With this research project, I will feel more like a scholar because I am “filling in” the gaps on the map of scholars. That brings me excitement because it is what we have been working toward since term one, but that also makes me nervous about how I will do on this assignment.

The book I chose for our term paper is Indian Horse as I cannot stress how much I love this book. As one of my favourites, I am curious to see what scholars have said about it as well. For my research paper, I have been developing questions surrounding Indigenous peoples and how their road to success differs as a minority. We have not begun discussing this book in class and the only research I have done so far is checking the UBC library for keywords. I worry that my current topic is too broad and will not be feasible – as we talked about in our lecture – because our essays will approximately be 2000 words. I feel that talking about this book as a group and reading scholarly articles together as we have previously done for The Best We Could Do and Exit West will help me narrow my topic and maybe find the gaps in the state of knowledge.

Reflect on what you learned in Term 1 and some goals you have for yourself for ASTU in term 2. What would you like to learn? What will you do to enable that?

A goal that I have for myself as a result of term one is to pay closer attention to rubrics and guidelines for assignments. I also found that around the time of my first psychology midterm, I was not consistently updating my blogs. I hope that with the new weekly prompts, I stay on top of my blog posts.

In term 1, we focused on refugee identity and counter-narratives. From the readings listed on canvas and the UBC library link, I am assuming that in term two, we will continue learning about the counter-narrative but through an Indigenous perspective. I am excited to learn and discuss Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. I was first introduced to Wagamese’s literature in 9^th grade when my English teacher read us his short stories. In 10^th grade, my best friend was reading one of his books for her English class which was when I decided to read Indian Horse. No spoilers! But Indian Horse is one of the only books that have made me cry and feel such sympathy toward the characters. It has been a few years since I read it, but I know it is a fantastic book and I am looking forward to reading it again.

Reflecting on term 1 again, I felt I was not participating enough in class discussions. Because Indian Horse is one of my favourite books, I hope that enables me to speak up and contribute more during class.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/jmastu/2022/10/26/names-matter/

Jessica’s blog post, Names Matter, talks about “the significance of names and the consequences changing one’s name can have on someone.” Her examples are Jai from Thammavongsa’s short story and Barbara Lee’s take on “reclaim[ing] the name.” One thing Jessica said about names in Western culture is that they do not have the significance they may have on identity in different cultures. I agree with her statement.

My Korean name is “Hyunseo,” written as 현서 in Korean. Although Korean is its own language, Korea once used Hanja which is traditional Chinese. Each letter has its own meaning. In my name, Hyun means sunlight and Seo means auspicious. My parents gave me this name, as they wanted me to be a warm and kind person who prospers in life. My sister’s name, Eunseo, means grace (Eun), and book/writing (Seo) to make her a graceful and intelligent person. These names carry a lot of meaning as most names in Korean do.

When we immigrated to Canada, my parents westernized our names, making us Rachel and Stella. Rachel is a name in the bible. At church, my parents were given a list of names that they could give me, and chose whichever one was the prettiest. My sister’s name was chosen at random. Both of our English names do not have much meaning–their only purpose was to make it easy for others to pronounce. I found this funny because one of my names was given to me because of the beautiful meaning while the other was chosen for barely any reason at all.

One thing that Jessica mentions is the importance of properly pronouncing a name. Hyunseo is not an easy name to pronounce–most of my friends pronounce Hyundai as hun-die. It made me think that maybe my parents gave my sister and me a westernized name because they did not want our name with so much meaning to be said incorrectly.

Although this is just a random blog post, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people; or at least I am, as I write this blog post. A few months ago, I did a land acknowledgment for the first time in my political science discussion group prior to my mini-presentation. I wanted to begin this blog post with a land acknowledgment as well.

My high school was not very progressive when it came to acknowledgment and education involving Indigenous history. Before Covid-19, when my school would meet for assemblies, I heard land acknowledgments here and there. During my grade 12 year, two of my many teachers did a land acknowledgment at the start of the course. I did not hear it during any of the assemblies. My peers also had different political views from mine. I remember when a teacher would mention an Indigenous author or important news informing us about Indigenous peoples, many of my peers would roll their eyes wondering, “why are we still learning about this?” After watching the video of Audrey Siegl’s CEL talk, I wish my old classmates had the opportunity to attend one of her presentations, and that my high school had brought Indigenous guest speakers.

In Siegl’s presentation, she mentioned that the first water we existed in was in our mothers’ bellies and that we were once in our grandmothers’ bellies through our mother. I found this beautiful since it meant that we are connected to all our ancestors. Siegl also talked about what made her feel connected to her ancestors, her example being the knots that she uses today which were used thousands of years ago by generations before her. Indigenous people were assimilated, killed, and marginalized, and many generations could not continue due to those who were lost. We are taught about the history, yet many people still choose to ignore it. I feel grateful and fortunate that I could watch Siegl’s presentation and hope that grade schools will have more Indigenous guest speakers moving forward.

I learned that thinking about how we are all from our mothers’ bellies and that we all have ancestors can be truly impactful; perhaps impactful enough to make people reflect on Canada’s history more than my former peers did. Although we cannot change the past or even some people in the present, we can help more people understand the importance of acknowledging Canada’s past, and ensuring we never let it happen again.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/theasblog/2022/10/12/my-experience-with-the-academic-world/

In Thea’s blog post, she mentioned that high school left her ill-prepared to write a scholarly essay in university. She mentioned academic integrity and citation in high school, saying it was encouraged but not required. At my school, the teachers made it a requirement, but we did not understand why it was necessary. I never learned about citation as bringing honour to scholars until ASTU, which changed my perspective on why I should give credit.

As we dive back into the scholarly aspects of academic writing and reading Stumm’s Joining the Dialogue, I also began thinking, what other aspects of universities are different from my high school experience? Almost everything has changed from rubrics to expectations, from the types of questions we are asked to our paragraph structures. In this term, I found myself rereading rubrics and criteria countless times, spending way too much time on every sentence I wrote. Despite the efforts, my grades are significantly lower than what they were in high school.

At the start, I was discouraged by my results, but like Thea, I found that I also appreciate the professors I have met so far. Professors understand that many of us are new to academic writing and the environment in university. They have been helpful while getting used to drastic changes. I am also grateful for my peers, who may have had the same concerns as me. Knowing that I am not alone has helped me stay composed when trying new assignments.