Leave your shoes at the door. Explore Asian American Identity.
For my digital module, I decided to turn many of the posts into a magazine format. I think there is the potential to streamline the process of making a print version of the website in case we want to feature some of our best work on the website. I used Adobe Indesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator to make my design for the magazine.
A____ A______ written by Tommy Chaisuesomboon ______ Welcome, one and all, to the first meeting of AA. Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves. I’ll start. My name is Tommy Chaisuesomboon and I’m an Asian American. See, my problem began when I was born because Buddha decided to create me in his image: Asian. He didn’t take into account, though, that I wouldn’t actually be in Asia, but instead, put me in the womb of some woman who for some reason, saw America as a land of opportunity.…
I’ve always been that kid in class. Not the troublemaker, or the class clown, or even the teacher’s pet (well, sometimes). No, I knew that people knew my name because they didn’t know my name. I always held my breath when teachers took roll and read out the last names starting with C because I knew there would be an inevitable pause between they would blurt out some semblance of a response. My existence since Pre-K has been an endless series of introductions, reintroductions, requests to pronounce my name, requests…
I used to bring to high school lunch a plastic container filled with rice and some slices of sai ua, an aromatic, spicy sausage from Northern Thailand. My mom often got entire rolls of it shipped to us through her sister in Los Angeles. These sausages came directly from Thailand, a 12,000-mile journey that normally ended in my stomach. The unboxing ceremony during lunchtime was never quite eventful whenever I brought sandwiches or pasta but whenever I opened my plastic container filled with rice andsai ua, I knew I’d be…
The 2017 East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU) conference took place at NC State in Raleigh, North Carolina. Being only 2 hours away from Davidson made it an easy choice for our group to attend. I especially wanted to try to network with people and organizations from different campuses to learn how various groups spread news and information among various social channels. It’s always a great chance to get to meet more people. There were different panels at each slot of time, each of them offering their own experience.…
Many Asian Americans can find it difficult to talk about their mental states (see Washington Post’s article For many Asian Americans, depression is an unfamiliar word). Mitski Miyawaki, self-described “half Japanese, half American but not fully either”, sings about depression, loneliness, love, and other forms of melancholy in her fourth studio album Puberty 2. At 26 years old, her work reflects that of a young woman still in the throes of uncertainty. Her voice captures the pain, however subdued it may seem, that adulthood depression can bring. Her singing can…