Victoria So (BA, History)

Victoria So 蘇美馨 (she/her) is a 2nd generation settler of Chinese ancestry on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) & səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) land. In melding her studies in History with ACAM, she has learned how we can contest colonial narratives and reveal the agency, diversity, and resistance within community histories, and connect and engage with communities in doing so. This academic experience combined with her cultural heritage background has emphasized the importance of culturally relevant storytelling, accessible modes of learning, and community-engaged work, which she is grateful to have put into practice through her storytelling projects with UBC INSTRCC. At the end of the day, the dinner table discussions with her family and the vivid stories told by her elders are the root of her passion for storytelling and a key motive in why and how she does this work. 

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

I was unknowingly drawn to ACAM when I was looking for interesting History classes to take, and I stumbled upon my first class called “The History of Cantonese Worlds.” It was my first time delving into my family and community’s histories, as well as feeling like course content resonated with me—I could ask informed questions, fully participate, and feel a sense of belonging in an academic space. (Side note: Interestingly, my final project in the class was centered around the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, and in 2022-2023, I got to work with Catherine Clement on The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act project, 5 years after the fact.)

From there, I continued to take other classes whose topics I was personally interested in, and in being able to bring my whole self to class, I made connections along the way. Ultimately, it was the sense of belonging, the friendships I made, and the close-knit community that made me change my minor—that and the fact that in just doing my degree, I had almost completed my ACAM requirements already!

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

I took Professor Henry Yu’s HIST 485 and ACAM 390A back-to-back, and these classes changed the trajectory of my time at UBC. It was the first time I was truly urged to connect my personal experiences to my academic studies, and it changed how I saw group projects (which I originally avoided when I could). For my group projects, my classmates and I were honest and vulnerable, staying up late at times and chatting about our ideas, experiences, and upbringings. The projects evolved just like I did, and wouldn’t have been possible without the reflections with my group members. In the end, the projects became deeply personal and were imbued with parts of us. 

Professor Yu once told me that if he were to give the same project to three different students, they would all look different. Originally, I naively thought that academic research would result in some pre-determined outcome, but it was only by bringing our whole selves and our own unique experiences to a project, that we could make it truly meaningful. 

Have you completed any projects through or related to an ACAM course? 

Through ACAM 390A 2021, my group (An Xu, Josh Jamora, Moira Henry, and I) got to work with the Gulf of Georgia Cannery team and brainstorm a story-gathering campaign project by the name of “Fish Tales”. This was centred around the idea that the museum could not only engage and foster community, but enable a wider breadth of people to be represented within a museum space through the accessible topic of seafood consumption. 

After the class, we were given the opportunity to bring this project to life. Starting with interviews with family and friends, and social media posts that shared these stories, we found that these seemingly simple conversations around food could reveal so much about one’s community ties, cultural background, and migration history. Since then, the project has been taken up by subsequent cohorts of INSTRCC students, and has been created into a Fish Tales exhibit which you can see at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery! 

Links:

• https://gulfofgeorgiacannery.org/exhibits/fish-tales-exhibit/
• https://gulfofgeorgiacannery.org/explore/collections/
• https://instrcc.ubc.ca/fish-tales-community-based-story-telling-with-the-gulf-of-georgia-cannery/ 

Isa is a second-generation Chinese Canadian settler living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. She is graduating with a BFA in Creative Writing and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies. While at UBC she fell in love with storytelling through photography, film and radio, and has applied those skills to her role as Multimedia Production Coordinator at ACAM since her third year. She is interested in all facets of migration — from economic and political causes & implications, to the stories that emerge as a result. Outside of the office, Isa can be found stretched out on a sunny patch of grass and always trying her very best.

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

The summer before the first iteration of ACAM 320B: Health Among the Asian Diaspora in Canada, I had interviewed Dr. Benjamin Chung for CiTR’s for Asian Heritage Month programming. When fall rolled around and I needed an elective, I decided to switch into the class on a whim. The content of the course had an immediacy to it: we were in the midst of a global pandemic and I was also navigating my own health issues. And the class felt like a safe forum where I could discuss my own questions, experiences and opinions with my peers. Long story short I kept taking ACAM classes and declared my minor when I joined the student staff team to produce their ACAM dialogues podcast. I was drawn to the program by the interdisciplinary nature of the courses and flexible structure. Despite its position within the university institution, I found that both the content of the courses I took and my work as staff were deeply embedded within community work local to Vancouver, and so the program felt concrete and grounded.

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

ACAM gave me the framework to articulate and give context to the observations I had in the day to day, moving through the world as a second generation Chinese Canadian woman. Whether it was thinking about food, or health issues, or storytelling or cultural production, I found that there was space to explore this within the program. To be honest, it’s hard to begin to untangle all the different connections of ideas I encountered at ACAM. The knowledge I gained from a class would always go on to inform and give context to another subject in a different class.

ACAM has also given me a sense of community. From my classmates to my co-workers, the small cohort meant that there was a lot of familiar faces I’d see time and time again. Seeing how alumni continue to return to attend ACAM events, I’m struck by the closeness of the relationships which have developed in the program and how students, staff and professors all show care and respect for one another.

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

Don’t rush things just because you can!

Cari is a second-generation Chinese Canadian born and raised on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. She is in the B+MM Dual Degree program and just completed a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Asian Area Studies and minoring in ACAM, and will be continuing her studies at the UBC Sauder School of Business in the Master of Management program. After participating in a global seminar with ACAM 390A in the summer of 2023 which brought her to multiple cities in Asia, she decided to get more involved with the ACAM community, which included joining the UBC Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies (INSTRCC) as a student research assistant. Other than the academic work Cari was involved in, she was an avid dancer, spending much of her time in the studio and being a part of the dance community at UBC.

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

Even before I joined UBC, I remember one of my co-workers at the time telling me about a class called ACAM 390A where her friends got to travel to ASIA as a part of a class. As a grade 11 student at the time, I was very intrigued but did not look into it too much, especially since COVID-19 hit in my first year and the ACAM 390A was rearranged to be online/within BC. In my third year, after taking my first ACAM course, the course was brought to my attention once again and they were travelling to Hong Kong, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore. Since my family is from Hong Kong, and I had never been to the other 3 cities, it definitely caught my attention and I quickly applied. ACAM 390A is definitely one of the most exciting experiences I have had during my time at UBC, and I’m grateful to all the friends I made on the trip which made it even more memorable.

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

My first experience with ACAM at UBC was in ACAM 300: Dis/Orienting Asian Canada with Professor Laura Ishiguro in my third year. This class was so special in the way that we learned in such a different way than any other course I had taken thus far – it focused on in-depth discussion in small groups rather than just copying down lecture notes for the sake of memorizing history, and I learned so many new things about Vancouver and Canada despite having grown up and lived here all my life. From here, every other ACAM course I have taken has followed a similar fashion where our learning does not simply come from lecture slides and academic journal reading, but from thoughtful discussion between peers – something which I’ve really enjoyed and looked forward to.

Have you completed any projects through or related to an ACAM course?

After taking ACAM 390A led by Dr. Henry Yu, he brought me onto the UBC INSTRCC team as a research assistant, matching me with a community project with another ACAM alumni. Together, and in partnership with the Pacific Canada Heritage Centre – Museum of Migration (PCHC-MOM), we gathered stories from several immigrants in BC to share the untold IBPOC migration stories reflecting BC’s diversity over 50 years as a part of the Heritage BC’s 150 Time Immemorial Grant Program. This project is still in the works at this time of writing, but keep a look out for further updates from PCHC as the online exhibition is to be released this year!