Under Fire by Christy Fong and Denise Fong

Katie is a Han Chinese student and settler of Cantonese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese descent, born in the United States on the land of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area and raised in Shanghai, Taiwan, Toronto and Vancouver. She is currently studying and working on the unceded, ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish peoples. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Media Studies with a minor in Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies. Through her studies, she is interested in the intersection of media and technology and the community.

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

As someone who never had a place to call my hometown, like many, I was confused about my identity. As a kid, when I was living in Shanghai and Taiwan, I always felt proud of my American and Canadian background…more so than my Chinese blood. It wasn’t until I moved to Canada and then back to China that I learned to appreciate my complete identity. In my first year of university, I learned about ACAM through various channels. ACAM 350 was a core plus course in BMS and I learned more about ACAM from student class visits. After taking ACAM 350, I realized that there were so many other people with similar struggles and thoughts. I was able to talk about topics that I always wanted to talk about and was curious about. I was fascinated by each and every one of our discussions. When I learned that other courses I really enjoyed counted towards the ACAM minor, I knew this was a program I wanted to be involved in. 

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

Don’t worry, let life take its course and everything will work out 🙂 

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. 

Over the summer of 2020, I took ASIA 495: Folklore with Adheesh Sathaye and created a short film documenting how my grandma’s food brought the family together during the pandemic. In the same summer, I also took HIST 480 with Henry Yu and explored the food in Chinatown through a pitch for a media project. The combination of these two courses and the projects created through the classes brought me a lot closer to my family during this pandemic than ever before. I was able to learn about their migration story and their experiences in Canada— things we never would have talked about without my ACAM courses. The film from ASIA 495 was a finalist and received honourable mention for the Emerging Media Awards. Here is the link to the film: https://youtu.be/36TBzf571b8 

Kristy Lin is a second generation Chinese Canadian born and raised from Vancouver, graduating from UBC with a major in Asian Area Studies and a minor in Asian Canadian Asian Migration Studies (ACAM). Growing up, she’s always been interested and curious about many different aspects of life and so through both Asian Studies and ACAM she was able to learn from many disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, sociology, film and media but through the lens of Asia. One of her favourite memories from her time at UBC is studying abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul. Apart from her studies, she loves travelling, learning about different languages and cultures, and documenting her life experiences and journey on social media platforms such as Youtube and Tiktok.

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

One of my favourite memories and also most valuable experience is being introduced to the INSTRCC student team through some of the courses I had to take as part of my ACAM requirements. INSTRCC stands for the ‘Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies’ at UBC, and through my involvement there I was able to work alongside very inspirational and hard working students that shared similar goals of mine to bring Chinese Canadian stories to the public through digital media. Through my role at INSTRCC I was able to work on various short films that were screened at the ‘A Seat At The Table’ exhibition in Chinatown and at the Museum of Vancouver, as well as working on programming for both exhibitions and future UBC courses. Everything was a learning experience for me and I am very grateful for this opportunity and for the individuals I have met through this experience. 

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

Declaring a minor in ACAM in a way served as an extension of my major, which was in Asian Area Studies. I focused a lot of my studies on East Asian popular culture and contemporary society, but ACAM allowed me to more deeply explore the roots of my own identity as a Chinese Canadian and also to better understand immigration outside of just my own personal experience with it. Through this, I was able to learn more about my parents and the way they raised me, and how that changes the way I am today. Many of the courses also focused on digital and new media, and as someone who is more interested in media arts and technology I was naturally drawn to many courses from the program. 

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

Through ACAM, I started to really understand and also practice the idea that stories from minorities are worth telling. Whether it is your own personal story or the story of your friends and family, they are all worth sharing and have an audience. I worked on many projects that involved interviewing my own family members which allowed me to unlock parts of their lives that I would have never gotten to know about if not for ACAM. 

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

Before the pandemic took over the world and all courses became virtual on Zoom, I registered for a Global Seminar course that was able to fulfill my last few ACAM requirements. This course is led by Professor Henry Yu and was originally a summer travel course to Asia to learn about ‘The History of Chinese Migrations’ (HIST 482). Because of the pandemic, we were no longer able to travel but the course gave me lots of opportunities to speak up from my own personal experience as a Chinese Canadian raised under immigrant parents. Being the shy and introverted person that I am, the combination of the course discussions and the ability to attend class from the comfort of my own room allowed me to finally come out of my shell after 4 years at UBC. I am very grateful for this course and this opportunity, as well as Professor Henry Yu and his constant encouragements that eventually convinced me that my own stories and experiences are worth sharing. 

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

Don’t worry too much about your future and who you will be because you are exactly where you need to be in the moment. Even if you can’t seem to figure life out, remember that in failing to find what you love to do, you will find what you don’t and that is progress too. 

Gillian is a recent graduate of English literature and Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies who has lived, worked, and studied on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) people. Her experiences as a second and third generation Chinese Canadian have fueled her interests in the early waves of Chinese migration to North America, in particular the mid-twentieth century.

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

My favourite memory of ACAM was taking part in ACAM390 during the summer of 2019. We travelled and ate our way through Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, and it really was a highlight of my time at UBC. It was my second time in Hong Kong and first in Southeast Asia, so getting to see these places through different perspectives was a very exciting and impactful experience. 

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

In one term, I took three English literature courses that were also ACAM courses, so it made sense to apply for the minor since I was fulfilling the credits already. But what really drew me into the program were the conversations we were having in the classes on different diasporic experiences and the book selections. I felt like I could truly resonate with the course themes in a way I never could with other courses I took before. 

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

Dr. Laura Ishiguro! I took both HIST305 and ACAM300 (History of British Columbia and Dis/Orienting Asian Canada: Asian Canadian Histories for Our Times, respectively). As someone who went through the BC public school system, it was so refreshing to take classes that focused on less reported histories and stories, and those two classes completely reframed my knowledge and perception of what is often considered British Columbian and Canadian history. 

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

Expand your knowledge beyond the books you are already reading and relax a bit more.