Styles, narratives, culture, music.
This is SAMPLR magazine, snippets
of content in different creative realms
that showcase the beauty of Asians. We
strive to cultivate a creative space that
best represent individuals in the pan-
Asian community and their intersec-
tional identities.
In this issue, we
want to start off this
magazine by setting
the tone with chic
portrait photography
and fashion trends,
having
Asians
in
Diaspora
recreate
those trendy looks.
We then get more
personal with narra-
tives and cultures in
later sections of the
magazine.
We strive to uplift
voices of Asians in
Diaspora.
However,
this magazine is by no
means perfect. With
very limited resourc-
es, there is only so
much we can show-
case thru SAMPLR
and it can be difficult
to perfectly depict the diverse repre-
sentations and uplift all the under-
represented voices in the community.
We hope this is the start to a positive
change!
Special thanks to my friends who
contributed and helped me out on this
personal project! Happy Asian Pacific
Islander Heritage Month!
9
Thursday May 30, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Nothing wrong about speaking my own language
Last January, a professor from Duke Uni-
versity sent emails to her Chinese interna-
tional students, asking them to not speak
Chinese and “commit using English 100%
of the time.” She stated that several faculty
members are searching for students who had
been speaking in Chinese in public spaces.
In the emails, she also stated that they were
“very loud,” and that the students are not
taking the chance to learn English seriously,
thus missing professional opportunities. It
was that professor in specific who got media
attention, but it should not be forgotten that
she was a messenger for many other faculty
members who thought the same way.
I found this incident especially relatable, as
I once had been concerning if I was seen as
so-called “FOB.” Short for ‘fresh off the boat,’
it is a slang referring to immigrants who have
yet to abandon their culture and language and
assimilate into the society in the diaspora.
Personally, as an international student, I am
not a big fan of my country of origin. My early
experiences with living in a heteronormative
atmosphere where anti-
quated cultural practices
such as the Confucian
hierarchy and authorita-
tive patriarchy are still
abided by have strain
had strained my iden-
tity as a Korean. This is
why I initially wanted to
erase Korean aspects of
me and fit into the so-called “American” cul-
ture. However, as soon as I realized that this
“American” thing was selective exclusion and
hostile to certain foreign cultures after all.
People like to seek excuses to target minor-
ities. They bring up superficial words to deny
their racist undertones. The faculty members
brought up “noise” and volume to justify their
selective hostility against these students.
Even though many international students
like me and those at Duke decide to pursue
a higher education that primarily teaches in
English, it does not nec-
essarily mean that we
are willing to give up
our native language and
freedom of expression.
Living in a country that
preaches heavily on basic
civil liberties, it should
be up to the individual to
decide which language
they would like to speak. This incident seems
to suggest otherwise. While I am condemn-
ing the professor who wrote the email in par-
ticular instead of the people who primarily
warned the Chinese students, her decision
to uphold her colleagues’ words and ways of
conveying them was inevitable of criticism.
She does not recognize how problematic and
offensive it is to specify a certain language as
loud and rude.
Living under institutions where systemic
oppressions are so prevalent, incidents like
this doesn’t surprise me. No one problematiz-
es the English language itself when domestic
students, especially white and privileged stu-
dents, speaking loudly in “proper” English.
This reminds me of a similar incident several
years ago when one student publicly com-
plained about Asian students being loud in
libraries. They are just unmannered students,
not unmannered “Asian” students. This is all
hate speech targeting the non-Western lan-
guages and cultures.
One thing I still do appreciate is that the
professor has reassured me that there’s noth-
ing wrong about an international student
speaking native languages, and I will do so
even more publicly without any doubt.
SUNGMIN CHO
MiC Columnist
We strive to uplift
voices of Asians in
Diaspora.
SAMPLR: APIA heritage month 2019 zine
SAMUEL SO
Summer MiC Managing Editor
Read more at michigandaily.com
People like to seek
excuses to target
minorities