When I first moved to Washington in 2018, my mom and I would frequent a small nail salon for manicures in our free time. It was a small, beautifully decorated place owned by a sweet Vietnamese couple. When I found out that this place closed a couple years later, I realized how truly hard these […]
Fanon and Confinement of Asian Culture
Frantz Fanon is a renowned philosopher known for his work on decolonization and racism. His description of the objectification of colonized cultures is reminiscent of cultural appropriation of Asian cultures, indicating the intrinsically tyrannical nature of colonization and the confinement of Asian cultures into stereotypes. In Franz Fanon’s work Racism and Culture, which portrays the […]
The Taste of Crabs
This photo above shows me holding up a crab from the store that we buy all of our seafood from. My dad staunchly refuses to buy seafood from anywhere else- whether it be Costco’s or even the Asian supermarkets populating Washington, he insists that this is where the real deal is. Before immigrating to the […]
Influence of AAPI in America
As a high school student who frequently uses socials, whether it be TikTok or Instagram, one thing that stood out to me since I first came to the US was the lack of AAPI representation in the media. But living in Los Angeles, a state with a high Asian population, it felt as though their […]
Circle and Rectangular Tables
I grew up eating at circle tables. In both restaurants and in my home. The best part about circle tables was the fact that you can talk to anyone. Unlike rectangular tables, which limited the amount of people you could talk to to only those sitting right next to you or across from you, circle […]
Language Barriers and Asian Immigrants
The only words I knew in English were “hello” and “oops,” when I first immigrated to the US. My parents, on the other hand, were rather proficient in English. It wasn’t the fact that we couldn’t understand English that made navigating this new world difficult, however. Language barriers extend beyond simple knowledge of language. Cultural […]
AAPI in Technology
This week, I want to highlight some of the AAPI technology leaders that are the forefront of this rising industry. From Zoom (founded by Eric Yuan) to Nutanix and Instacart, AAPI entrepreneurs are creating innovative solutions and disrupting industries across the board. In particular, Zoom, which blew up in popularity due to quarantine during the […]
The Glass Ceiling
What is glass ceiling for Asian Americans? The term glass ceiling refers to the barriers that face Asian American women and men in the workforce. Sometimes, instead of “glass ceiling”, it is called “bamboo ceiling.” This metaphor describes the difficulties that they face with breaking into higher levels of leadership or influence in a company. […]
The Role Culture Plays in Finances for Asians
A few weekends ago, I was sitting on my living room couch, scrolling through social media while the rest of my family bustled around the house. It was a typical day of lazing around- until something caught my attention on my Tiktok feed. It was a video of a post someone made, about how “Filipino […]
Asian Experiences- Model Minorities
What is a model minority? When I was in fourth grade, living in California, I vividly recall the first time I encountered the “model minority” stereotype. I was smiling from ear to ear, ecstatic about the A+ I received on my math exam. I happily told my friend sitting next to me in class the […]