Organization: Apex for Youth Ambassadors
Workshop 1: Branding, Asian-ness and Western Media
Workshop 2: Cultural Appropriation - Eastern and Western perspectives
Role: Curriculum development, Instructor
Debuting online Spring 2020 in response to Covid, Black Lives Matter and the rise of Anti-Asian Hate, the Apex for Youth Ambassadors (AYA) established their annual conference to facilitate a safe space for personal and collective reflection on their experiences as Asian youth through workshops and discussions.
We shared ways to engage with challenging emotions and situations, while grounding recent events historically and socio-culturally. I was glad to gather in the spirit of community with young people in that particular challenging cultural moment, to share my experiences as a Canadian-born Chinese female who lived in Asia for 9 years.
My workshop for AYA’s 2021 ‘InterASIANality’ conference, was entitled ‘Banana or Egg? Yellow or Golden? Asian-ness and Cultural Appropriation’.
Do you think it’s an act of admiration for non-Asians to have Asian tattoos, or people who cannot naturally have an afro or dreadlocks to wear these hairstyles? Should cultures from which American culture ‘borrows from’ just be glad that their culture is getting attention, even if it’s been white-washed or disrespected by being misrepresented?
In this education and discussion-based workshop, we’ll navigate the concept of InterASIANality by observing portrayals of Asian-ness using examples of cultural appropriation from American movies, music and fashion. The workshop will broadly discuss the portrayal of Asian-ness in American media, and Black-ness in Asian media. Our focus will center on better understanding when actions are genuine celebrations of cultural diversity, when they are ignorant and harmful, and how to navigate situations critically and diplomatically when the distinction isn’t so obvious.
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Other workshop facilitators: Asian Pacific American Center (APAC at the Smithsonian), Teens Helping Each Other (THEO), NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault (NYCAASA), Isabel An, and Skyler Chin.
Conference topics: HIV prevention, health equity, sexual health, allyship, intersectionality, cultural appropriation, fetishization and violence, arts activism, self empowerment and community, history and context of anti-Asian racism, myth of the model minority, storytelling and catharsis.