ACAM320B

ACAM320B

What is the role of culture in defining health for Asian Canadians? How do the experiences of Asian Canadians affect their health? Watch our course trailer featuring instructor Dr. Benjamin Cheung to learn more about this course!

In 2024W, ACAM_V 320-B_001 will be offered on Monday and Wednesday from 12 PM – 1:30 PM. The course is taught by Dr. Benjamin Cheung, a lecturer in the UBC Department of Psychology.

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A Message from Our Director

Dear ACAM Community,

This latest edition of The Current goes online during a time of uncertainty, anger, and distress for many Asian Canadian communities. For those of us on the ACAM staff team, the COVID-19 epidemic and the wave of anti-Asian racism it has unleashed has been difficult to witness, experience, and hold. Amidst daily reports of racist graffiti, verbal abuse, and physical assault directed towards racialized Asians, many Asian Canadians are also vulnerable frontline workers, or experience numerous barriers in accessing social services and economic supports. While the COVID-19 epidemic has shown the depth and extent of anti-Asian racism, we also need to remember that it exists alongside other forms of racism: the global protests currently taking place in response to the killing of George Floyd and recent incidents of police violence against Indigenous peoples demonstrates the urgent need for solidarity as we support, and learn from, movements against anti-Black and anti-Indigenous violence.

Although much of the campus is currently closed and classes will remain online at least into the fall, ACAM remains dedicated to community building at a time when many of us are feeling isolated and disconnected with each other. Our staff have been organizing online check-ins focused on mental health and well-being, and our upcoming (online) events will offer other ways to connect with members of the ACAM community. We are also honoured to be part of the C19 Response Coalition, an initiative led by the Hua Foundation to provide and translate updated and accurate information related to the COVID-19 pandemic in multiple Asian languages.

Going into the fall, ACAM will continue to provide platforms for community-engaged learning, dialogue, and reflection. This coming academic year, we will be introducing two new courses that address issues related to COVID-19 related racism. In Term 1, Laura Ishiguro from the History Department will be offering a course on “Not Just the Past: Asian Canadian Histories for Our Times” (ACAM 300); in Term 2, Ben Cheung from the Psychology Department will be offering a course on “Health Among the Asian Diaspora in Canada” (ACAM 320B). ACAM will also continue to offer ACAM 250 (Asian Canadians in Popular Culture with JP Catungal) and ACAM 350 (Asian Canadian Community-Based Media with Al Yoshizawa). We will be posting more information about these courses in the days to come; please check our Approved Courses List for updates on other ACAM-eligible courses.

At a time when different forms of racism are exacting a heavy toll on Asian Canadian communities, ACAM is deeply grateful to the students and alumni who have been serving vulnerable communities and speaking out against violence and injustice. Our faculty, through their research, teaching, and public engagement, have been helping to shape our understanding of these dangerous times. We are inspired everyday by community partners, members, and elders who have shown leadership and care by mobilizing resources, advocating for the vulnerable, and tending to our hearts, minds, and souls. We will be sharing more of these stories in the days to come on our social media channels.

Thank you for reading The Current – we look forward to connecting with many of you in the months to come as we move forward together.

Stay healthy, safe, and strong.

Sincerely,

Chris Lee
ACAM Director

Kihan Yoon-Henderson (BA, Human Geography)

I am a Human Geography major with a minor in Asian Canadian and Asian Migration studies. I grew up in an intergenerational household as part of the Korean Canadian community in Vancouver, on the unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. My time in both programs has allowed me to think deeply about interrelated histories of place, particularly in relation to the intersecting dynamics of colonialism, militarism, migration, gender and processes of racialization. Likewise, I hold a passion for considering political and intimate relations with animal, plant, and nonhuman worlds. While pursuing my degree at UBC and at Yonsei University in Seoul, I am grateful to have had the chance to deepen my familial relationship to the Korean language, as well as to diasporic and postcolonial literature, art, and visual culture.

What is a favourite memory or story you have from ACAM?

My favourite memory of ACAM was participating in the 2018 global seminar in Kaiping and Hong Kong, which was also my formal introduction to the program. It was a profound experience of learning and of being together. I was so inspired by all my peers on that trip and the people we met. The group I was part of was tasked with creating a 360 degree virtual reality video project which would enable diasporic communities to re-establish connections with ancestral homelands. We struggled a lot with thinking about how to use VR to do so without replicating the voyeurism somewhat inherent to the form, wanting to engage in conversations of displacement alongside familiarity as well. I remember gathering in our dorms and watching and reviewing the works of Trinh T. Minh-ha and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha for strategies on how to hold all these things in meaningful tension — just one of many small but expansive moments of being together that I won’t forget. There was a lot of laughter and joy on that trip too.

Why did you declare a minor in ACAM? What drew you to the program?

I had heard about ACAM from my close friends who were part of the program, and later realized that I was already on the road to completing an ACAM degree given where my interests had led me to. I was so excited when I realized this because I knew the ACAM program was a tight knit community, committed to thinking about similar issues alongside one another and collectively. I also was immediately drawn to the interdisciplinary nature of the program, and the different forms of creativity, storytelling, language, and knowledge sharing that ACAM honours.

What is one piece of advice you would give your first-year self?

I might say to consider things as a process. This is something I would also say to my graduating self!

Ruth Fusako Cezar (1923-2020)

The faculty, staff and students of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program are deeply saddened by the passing of Ruth Fusako Cezar (nee Nagata) on May 27, 2020. Ms. Cezar was one of the 76 Japanese Canadian students forcibly removed from UBC in 1942. During the war, Ms. Cezar and her family relocated to Edmonton and then Toronto. She eventually graduated from Trinity College at the University of Toronto before embarking on a long career in management.

Along with her late sister Mary Kato, Ms. Cezar was featured in the film “A Degree of Justice,” which was produced for 2012 convocation at UBC for the Japanese Canadian students of 1942. Their interview describes some of their experiences following the events of 1942. We are grateful to Ms. Cezar for sharing her stories so that the injustices of the past would never be forgotten.

Ms. Cezar’s biography can be found in the Degree of Justice Yearbook.

“A Degree of Justice: Japanese Canadian UBC Students of 1942”

ACAM would like to extend our sincere condolences to Ms. Cezar’s family and friends. She is deeply missed.

 

 

Sen Canute (BA, Cognition and Brain)

Sen Canute is a multiracial multidisciplinary yonsei creator based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. They are a recent UBC graduate with a major in Cognitive Systems (BA, Brain and Cognition stream) and minor in Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies. They’re interested in community based media, digital storytelling, and leveraging interactive mediums for education.

Why did you declare a minor in ACAM? What drew you to the program? 

A couple years ago, I took on creative consulting work for a project called “East of the Rockies”. It was the first time I had ever engaged with the Japanese Canadian internment outside of a familial context, and I found the process to be extremely gratifying both creatively and personally. Around that time, I heard about ACAM through a friend and decided to take English 480 with Chris Lee. I fell in love with the material immediately and was so excited about the program I last minute switched all my computer science courses for ACAM classes and decided to pursue the minor despite already being in my fourth year. It was probably the most impulsive decision I made in my undergrad, and definitely the best one.

What is one piece of advice you would give your first-year self?

Stop being so scared of doing the things you wanna do. You’re allowed to do stuff that make you happy and you’re allowed to forgive yourself for failing. Have some faith in yourself, it’s gonna be okay!

Have you completed any projects through or related to an ACAM course? If so, could you share your experiences and, if possible, share a link to your project.

I’ve had the pleasure of working on a number of projects through ACAM, often alongside my dear friend and partner in crime Yuko Fedrau. Shortly after meeting in English 480, Yuko and I created two channel video installation piece called “Remainders,” about Japanese-Canadian students who had been wrongfully expelled from UBC during WWII. We then went on to work on a short documentary called “RICECAKE,” for ACAM 350. The doc followed Shay Dior of the House of Rice and their experiences navigating the queer Asian drag scene in Vancouver and was shown at both Vancouver Queer Film Festival and Vancouver Asian Film Festival. Shortly after, Yuko and I put on an art exhibition about mixed identity called “Canned Foreign,” with queer hāfu artists Reiko Inouye and Rose Butch. Finally, I incorporated my learnings from ACAM into the capstone project for my major and developed an augmented reality remapping of Vancouver’s historic Japantown (Powell Street). Leveraging the immersive capabilities of AR, Reimagining Japantown was, for me, an exploration of time, space, place, and cultural memory. ACAM provided so many opportunities for me to create and connect with incredible folks who encouraged and challenged me in ways I will always be grateful for.

Arrthy Thayaparan (BSc, Combined Major of Science)

Arrthy recently graduated from UBC with a Combined Major of Science degree and a minor in ACAM. Growing up as a Tamil Canadian woman on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-waututh nations, Arrthy has found an immense passion for analyzing society through a postcolonial lens and in assisting marginalized communities share their stories. With these interests in mind, she will go on to continue her studies as a Master of Journalism student this fall.

Why did you declare a minor in ACAM? What drew you to the program? 

I was initially in the Asian studies program and only came to hear of the ACAM minor from another UBC student while studying abroad in Singapore. While I truly enjoyed my classes in Asian studies, I think that ACAM was perfect for me in challenging my knowledge and allowing me to engage with complex ideas of colonialism, transnationalism, and so much more. Through meeting others and discussions in the classroom, I have come to realize that I am not alone in relearning and rediscovering my own culture and identity as an Asian Canadian. As such, I owe it all to ACAM for helping broaden my horizons and welcoming me into their diverse community.

Have you completed any projects through or related to an ACAM course? If so, could you share your experiences and, if possible, share a link to your project.

What is truly unique about ACAM courses is that they challenge you to critically analyze course content, society, and history but also encourage us to share our learning through a creative format. As a STEM student, these types of projects were a breath of fresh air that allowed me to use skills I haven’t accessed since high school. Some of my favourite projects have been a group project for ENGL 348 with Dr. Danielle Wong called “Pagitan” and a solo final film for ACAM 350 with Al Yoshizawa called “Without the War”. “Pagitan” was a visual recreation of the postcolonial 3rd space in the Philippines and the feelings of loss felt by those stuck within that dimension. Parts of that project was published in The Talon’s zine “Resurgence”. “Without the War” was an experimental collagesque film that explored my own wonderings of what life would have been like had my family not had to escape the Sri Lankan civil war. Much of my life has been shaped by this tragedy, and I am grateful for having the chance to delve into it deeper. Without ACAM and it’s supportive community, a lot of the work that I have created would not at all have happened. As such, I am grateful for the many opportunities that have made my undergraduate at UBC so much more worthwhile.

Yuko Fedrau (BA, Art History)

Yuko Fedrau is a recent UBC graduate who majored in Art History, with a minor in Asian Canadian/Asian Migration studies. She loves analyzing any kind of culture—whether it is visual or literary—through a queer and postcolonial lens.

Why did you declare a minor in ACAM? What drew you to the program?

In April two years ago, I decided to attend an event called the “Annual ACAM350 Community Screening,” where, to my understanding, several student-produced documentaries and short films were being shown to an audience. My friend Sunny happened to be acting in one of the films, and I decided to attend since I was on campus anyways. I went in, expecting to quietly attend and slip out unnoticed, but I realized that I already knew half of the people in the crowd. It was as if all of the Asian kids from every different friend group that I had were all sitting together. I immediately felt like I belonged in this community, even though I didn’t even know that it existed before. The short films started playing on the big screen. Each film dealt with themes of Asian diaspora in one way or another—whether it was by interviewing real people in the community, or by portraying a fictional narrative. I had never seen so many films that were so relatable before, being played one after another, with a cheering and whooping audience reacting to every tearjerking or funny moment with such force that can only be called…familial. With this crowd, I knew that the goal wasn’t to watch a shiny, well-produced film. The audience wanted something deeper, more profound than that: the goal was to tell a story that everyone could relate to. I immediately knew that I needed to take this class next year, and somehow make it count for something in my degree.

What connections and ideas were you able to foster through ACAM?

My experience with ACAM began and ended in an introspective place. My first ACAM class, “English 480: Asian Canadian and/or Asian Transnational Studies” with Chris Lee started with an exercise in storytelling, where we were asked to share the narrative of our own, and our families’ lives in varying lengths of time. The goal of this exercise was to critically examine what types of stories we tell about ourselves, which details are deemed more/less important, and how this shapes other’s understandings of our past. Beginning with this exercise coloured the way I viewed everything I learned in this program. By the end of my degree, I was able to apply a critical lens on the knowledge I was receiving from the institution, where I learned how to treat historical information with a healthy dose of suspicion, as well as a generous dose of empathy and care. Additionally, I was able to get a better perspective on what larger global forces shaped my life experience—how it shaped the difficulties that I had, growing up mixed-race in a mainly white environment, but also, what privileges were simultaneously granted to me.

Have you completed any projects through or related to an ACAM course? If so, could you share your experiences and, if possible, share a link to your project.

ACAM’s emphasis on the use of media, art, and literature to tell stories produced a well of creativity within me that I thought had long dried up since transferring out of Emily Carr in my first year. Often working together with my creative partner-in-crime and fellow ACAM graduate Anne Canute, I was able to complete many artistic projects with the support of the program. Our first project together was a looping video installation piece called “Remainders,” where we combined cinematography with archival photographs, telling the story of Japanese-Canadian students on UBC campus before the internment. For Al Yoshizawa’s e also worked on “RICECAKE,” a short documentary about the queer Asian drag scene in Vancouver (which was shown at both Vancouver Queer Film Festival and Vancouver Asian Film Festival), and finally, “Canned Foreign,” an art exhibition featuring two other queer hāfu artists: Reiko Inouye, and Rose Butch. It was only because of the trust, acceptance, and faith in creative expression that the ACAM community fostered that I was able to release my passion onto these projects, and transform them from ideas into reality.
Interview about Ricecake: https://ricepapermagazine.ca/2019/08/interview-with-director-yuko-fedrau/ Article about Canned Foreign: https://www.ubyssey.ca/culture/hatch-2019-Canned-Foreign/

Amanda Wan (BA, English Language and Literatures, Honours)

amanda (they/them) is a queer han chinese settler based in the unceded, occupied territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-waututh nations. They create poetry and artwork about sad ghosts and queer love. Their BA Honours in English and minor in Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies (ACAM) culminated in a thesis project titled “Mourning through melancholy: an aesthetics of racial melancholia and queer desire in Asian diasporic literatures and visual cultures.” This project was a meditation on the psychoaffective legacies of imperial violence that haunt Asian diasporic bodies, particularly in the film Spa Night directed by Andrew Ahn, alongside postcard-photograph series “Souvenirs of the Self” by Jin-Me Yoon. They will be continuing this work as a Master’s student in the UBC Department of English Language & Literatures.

Why did you declare a minor in ACAM? What drew you to the program?

I was drawn to a space where I could connect with others who share a desire to cultivate community and transform reality towards a more loving world. I arrived partly from a place of sorrow, around the injustice and oppression that I did not see reflected in classroom discussions. Yet I’ve since learned so much from people who carry deeply varied, yet interconnected, experiences and ways of being. This has been generative and humbling for me, and even after graduation I will continue to feel grateful for the people who make this program what it is.

Name an ACAM faculty member whose class had a significant impact on you and share why.

There are too many to choose from, but I will name Dr. JP Catungal. He beautifully embodies an ethics of care and community kinship in his teaching and research–both in the CSIS450: Queer/ing Asian diaspora sexualities course that I took in 2018, and elsewhere. (Others I’m grateful for: Professors Chris Lee, Danielle Wong, and Y-Dang Troeung.)

What is one piece of advice you would give your first-year self?

Remember that you are beloved.

Vanessa Chan (BA, English Language and Literatures)

Vanessa is an English Language and Literature major with a minor in ACAM who struggles to write about herself and is going to do her best. As a second generation Chinese-Canadian settler growing and creating on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)people, she’s interested in multifaceted and interdisciplinary storytelling, particularly through the use of archival work. She’s spent most of her undergraduate career supporting students in mentoring and coaching programs, and is excited to go into a career that will let her explore histories, community work, and education at various levels.

Why did you declare a minor in ACAM? What drew you to the program? 

When I found ACAM, I found a program that would let me do multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary work in areas that were meaningful to me. I think I knew very early on in my undergraduate career that I was curious about stories and representation and voice. This was my chance to take, study, and share stories that I wouldn’t normally see in the English curriculum.

Name an ACAM faculty member whose class had a significant impact on you and share why.

I want to thank Dr. Renisa Mawani; taking her sociology course on using historical research and specifically archival research has had the largest impact on my final years at UBC. Not only did she invite me to speak about my final paper at ACAM’s panel “Encountering Asian Canadian Archives” at Congress 2019, but this course became the precursor for the directed studies that she sponsored and helped me create. That course became a sort of capstone project that allowed me to reflect on my experiences in ACAM 350 and ACAM as a whole. I will forever be thankful for the opportunities she has granted me.

What is one piece of advice you would give your first-year self?

In second year, the advice I jokingly said I’d say to myself was “you can never catch up on readings.” And while not much has changed in terms of how slowly I read, I think my advice now would be to take it slower. Achievement isn’t just measured in your grades, but what you’ve learned and how you can use that knowledge and those skills in the future. Rushing it and making yourself hate the work you love just isn’t worth a number on a piece of paper.

Have you completed any projects through or related to an ACAM course? If so, could you share your experiences and, if possible, share a link to your project.

For HIST 485 with Dr. Henry Yu I created a tabletop game based on Japantown during the 1907 Anti-Asian Race Riots. It was an archival research project but also a creative project. I think it’s the best representation of what sorts of amazingly rigorous yet accessible scholarly work can be done through the ACAM program. You can find the scene text, pre-made characters, and move sets here: https://vanessachan.ubcarts.ca/activities/in-their-shoes-historic-tabletop-game/

Tintin Yang (BA, International Relations)

My name is Tintin! I am a recent grad from UBC with a BA majoring in International Relations and a minor in ACAM. During my time at UBC I worked and volunteered for the AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre and volunteered at CiTR and Discorder. Some of my interests are: media, technology, critical theory, and politics.

What is a favourite memory or story you have from ACAM?

My memory story from ACAM was my time in ACAM 390 in Kaiping and Hong Kong. I don’t think I’ve heard the word “heritage” so many times in one summer, but it was such a rewarding and influential experience. Though my favourite memories from that trip was the time spent biking in rice fields and exploring Hong Kong.

Why did you declare a minor in ACAM? What drew you to the program?

I was drawn to ACAM because I had no idea something like this existed in university. I was shocked that there was a program that so specifically drew from the experiences and writing of Asian American/Canadian scholars. Though eventually I realized it was more than scholarship coming from people who I could identify with, but that ACAM was to its core an interdisciplinary field which really appealed to me. ACAM opened me up to so many perspectives regarding race, colonialism, politics, and literature that I likely wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise.

What is one piece of advice you would give your first-year self?

Follow what really interests you and that will serve you more than what you think you should be doing!