Yellow and Brown Tales: Asian American Folklife Today

In this episode, Dr. Xiaoyan Zhang shares his initiative of and involvement in the celebratory event in December 2023 - the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. As we know that one of the dark sides of the US history is the legal discrimination of the Chinese and Chinese Americans through such laws as the 1875 Page Act banning Chinese women, and the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banning Chinese men from coming to the US. While the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 due to certain historical factors, stereotypes against Chinese and Chinese Americans have largely remained in the political and social life in the US. However, we do see progress in many aspects in everyday life such as, foodways, marriage, and religious life, in which Chinese Americans and other minority groups are increasingly integrated into the fabric of American culture and history. So, why and how was there such an event in the US congress in December 2023, and what made the White House issue a Statement signed by President Biden regarding this moment? Let’s learn some insider’s stories from this conversation.

In this episode, Dr. Juwen Zhang shares how he created this book, Epidemics in Folklore Memory: Tales and Poems from Chinese History (OJP, 2021), by putting together 30 tales and 30 poems from historical Chinese contemporary records, and translated them into English for the first time. He proposes the idea of folklore of epidemics, which should be studied from multiple perspectives, not just as texts, narratives, memories, but as something central to our everyday life, identity, ethics, and equal human rights. The tales and poems show that Chinese people have developed their traditions of preventing epidemics, not only through traditional medicine, but also through festivals to establish the views about nature and human health and to maintain healthy foodways, such as the Dragon Boat Festival, where the concepts of spirituality, health, community, and entertainment are intertwined. Dr. Zhang believes that we can and should learn a lot from our traditions; we can and should learn a lot from each other’s traditions; we can and should use tales and poems, and other folklore forms, to memorize the past, to make sense of what we are doing, to transcend us from one world to another, and to heal ourselves during a difficult time.

George Lai Sun was one of the many Chinese immigrants living and working in Salem, Oregon in the late 19th century and early 20th century, whose stories were luckily rediscovered, and whose name is now used for a downtown alley. In this episode, Kylie Pine from the Willamette Heritage Center tells her stories of scavenging pieces for this puzzle and bringing this forgotten history back to the public life today, because many Chinatowns in the US, including the one in Salem, Oregon were burned down in order to drive away the Chinese communities, and little records of their existence remained. Meanwhile, there has been a wide-spread narrative that during the Chinese Exclusion period the Chinese workers had to live in the basement where they worked and use underground tunnels to avoid being seen. Yes or no in Salem, Oregon? Let’s hear more of this needed story. 

In this episode, Margaret Magat talks to Kayla Sotomil, an independent ethnographic filmmaker as well as a mananalaysay (storyteller). Ms. Sotomil discusses her two films, The Modern Mambabatok: Lane Wilcken and Filipino Tattooing in the Diaspora, as well as her second film, called Rituals of the Diaspora: Lyn Pacificar, Katuuran, about a Filipina American shaman and folk herbalist practicing in East Hollywood, California. The episode touches on the role of rituals in Filipino American lives, whether it is to guide people to heal themselves and remember their loved ones in rituals of healing or connect individuals to their ancestors via the ritual of tattooing. Ms. Sotomil discusses her hope that viewers of her films will see what rituals can look like in the diaspora and reflect on the role of ritual in their lives. For her, rituals can offer “moments of extraordinary clarity and connection” in people’s everyday lives. 

Greg Nokes, a historian and former journalist, published his book, Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon (2009). He investigated the Hells Canyon Massacre in 1887 and presented many stories that had never been told before. Because of Greg’s book and his organization, a granite monument was installed at the site of the massacre in 2012, on which three languages are used to engrave these words: “Site of the 1887 massacre of as many as 34 Chinese gold miners. No one was held accountable.” In this episode, Greg talks about how he began his investigation and some of those stories, and the stories behind those stories. As Greg writes, “We owe the Chinese laborers a great deal. They prepare the land on which many of us now live. But their reward in the nineteenth century was too often mistreatment and abuse. The least we can do is fill the blank pages. We owe them their names” (p. 184). This conversation emphasizes that the experiences of the Chinese or any minority group in the US are an inseparable part of the US history, and that progress can only be made without forgetting the history.

In this episode, Dr. Myron Lee shares his family stories living with Chinese cultural heritage in Oregon from his grandparents to his grandchildren. Growing up in Portland and attending Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, Dr. Lee became a family physician and retired a few years ago. In this conversation, he shares some of his memories as a child, a college student, a doctor, a parent, and grandparent about how his family heritage has continued maintaining harmonious cross-racial relations within families and making contributions to the community, and how he has experienced and dealt with racial discriminations. It is a story of one person, as well as a story of many who are being Chinese or members of minoritized groups in the US.     

Kent Woo, Executive Director of NICOS Chinese Health Coalition in San Francisco, joins folklorist Dr. Nancy Yan to discuss the history of gambling and gambling addiction in Asian American communities. Woo describes the Chinese Community Problem Gambling Project, an initiative founded in 1998 to provide counseling and education to individuals struggling with gambling addictions and their families. This initiative counters targeted marketing to Asian Americans, especially elders, by providing them with resources to understand and overcome problem gambling. Currently, NICOS is studying the effects of the pandemic on problem gambling among San Francisco's Asian American populations.

In this episode, Juwen Zhang interviews Rou Rou Hutchinson, a Chinese  Studies Major student of Class 2023, President of Asian Coalition of  Equality, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. The conversation centers  on the film Shang Chi (2021) and its related issues about Asian American stereotypes and reconstructing Asian  American identity. Rou Rou also shares her personal stories of being  born in China, adopted into a Jewish American family, and growing up as a  Chinese/Asian American.

In this episode, Juwen Zhang interviews Cathy Huang regarding when and how early public reports of the celebrations of Chinese New Year began about 150 years  ago in the US. Cathy Huang is an independent historian of Chinese  American history. She initiated the project of Chinese translation of the PBS documentary “Asian  Americans," and co-produced a TV program on the history of Chinese  Americans at Sinovision which is a Chinese Language program in New  York.  She describes the early celebrations in California and New Jersey, discusses the anti-Chinese movement led to the Chinese  Exclusion Act in 1882 and the current anti-AAPI Hate, and expresses her  hope for the younger generations.

Join folklorist Dr. Margaret Magat and folklorist/ ecopreneur Dr. Wennifer Lin as they talk about the importance of treating water in a holistic manner, and her green business, The Water Brewery.   Dr. Lin talks about her research in Hawai‘i on midwifery, pregnancy and  birth empowerment and how ingesting clean, mineral-rich, restructured water promotes pre- and postpartum wellness for the mom, as  well as enhances the health of the developing child. She also brings  attention to the pollution caused by single-use, disposable plastic  water bottles, and its detrimental impact on our environment and our bodies.  Dr. Lin discusses the belief that water has  the capacity to hold “memory,” much like a computer chip. Listeners  will learn ways to improve water consumption, and various beliefs about  water and its crystalline properties.

In the wake of the pandemic which has given rise to AAPI hate and violence against our communities, this forum will push an open conversation about the urgency for Asian American folklore scholarship and perspectives in Folklore in spite of the noticeable lack of Asian American voices. How do we understand the current crisis of AAPI hate as one that can magnify the place and space that Asian Americans occupy in America?  How can the study of Asian American folklore situate Asian American identity within the American landscape?  This forum includes perspectives from the academy, public institutions, and community activists.

Participants in this episode: the hosts, Fariha Khan, Margaret Magat, Nancy Yan, and Juwen Zhang; and the other voices are Sojin Kim and Leigh Wynn. Thank you all for your permission to share this forum. 

BTS, or Bangtan Songyeondan, is a seven-member Korean male pop-group that has achieved immense global success since their debut in 2013.  In recent years, BTS broke into the American mainstream music scene with their English-language hits such as “Dynamite” and “Butter.”  While they are known for sharp dance moves and ever-changing fashion styles, it is their songs which address mental health issues and carry messages of positivity and hope that resonate deeply with fans around the world.  In this podcast, Dr. Grace Kao, IBM Professor of Sociology from Yale University and K-pop scholar, discusses the factors that have contributed to BTS’ global success and contextualizes it with other K-pop groups that have also reached international popularity.  We talk about their influence on popular culture and, of course, as members of ARMY (the name of BTS’ fanbase), we also share our favorite members and our favorite songs.

Join Dr. Margaret Magat in conversation with Herminia Meñez Coben, the first Filipina American to receive a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from University of Pennsylvania in 1973. Dr. Coben was also the first Filipina to teach Ethnic Studies and Folklore at California State University, Sonoma (1970 to 1985), teaching classes such as 'Native American Mythology', 'African American Folklore' as well as 'Asian American Folklore'. She went on to be the first Filipina American president of the California Folklore Society (now known as the Western States Folklore Society) and later taught 'Filipino Folklore and Society' at University of California, Los Angeles (1990-1991) before her retirement. In this episode, we will hear about her early graduate years in the Philippines, how she stumbled upon the field of folklore, her fieldwork among manongs (a Filipino term referring to elder males), and her birds' eye view of the historic Delano Grape Strike.

Join Dr Fariha Khan and Simran Chand as they talk about Simran's award-winning senior thesis: "Familial Sexual Education for South Asian American Undergraduates and its Implications on Sexual Well-Being."