2010: From East To West: Journeying Through The Lives Of Asian-Americans In Champaign-Urbana

                                    
Transcript: From East To West: Journeying Through The Lives Of Asian-Americans In Champaign-Urbana (produced in 2010)

Introduction [00:00:00] The following is a production of University Laboratory High School in Urbana and Illinois Public Media. 

Interviewee [00:00:28] The very fact that there’s an Asian-American cultural center, the very fact that they have Asian-American studies is because of the students. 

[00:00:37] I know. I’m not just representing me. They don’t say [unintelligible] and they say Asian. 

Interviewee [00:00:43] I saw a lot of issues of being embarrassed for being Korean. So I didn’t have an interest in learning about Korean history or about learning about any of that stuff. It was just so such like I was just trying to fit in and just blend in. 

Narrator [00:01:07] The United States has long been known as a country of immigrants, but the struggle to blend into the melting pot has never been easy. For over 150 years, people of Asian descent have worked to make a place for themselves in the U.S., including Midwestern towns such as Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The Class of 2013 at University Laboratory High School in Urbana conducted more than 20 hours of interviews with 16 recent and past community members to hear their perspectives on how the presence of Asians and Asian-Americans in our community has changed over time. Illinois Public Media proudly presents their stories, and from East to west, journeying through the lives of Asian-Americans in Champaign-Urbana. I’m Maria GAO, and I’m here at semester school. The United States was a dominant power in the 19th and 20th centuries, and its culture has influenced people around the world since the mid-19th century. Many Asians have wanted to come to the United States to make a better life for themselves and their families. From the Chinese and Japanese to the Filipinos and Koreans. However, many found themselves facing obstacles and living a life quite different from the one they had imagined. 

Interviewee [00:02:26] Well, I grew up in China. All this turmoil is the Japanese invasion, the Sino-Japanese War, and then the Civil War. You know, it’s just all these things happened. You just don’t feel safe. But you just have to adjust your environment. 

Interviewee [00:02:44] The only occupations open to the Chinese were the lowliest jobs because they could not work elsewhere, and so they could only wash clothes or cook people’s food or work as servants. We were not allowed to be anything else, and so we chose to open a laundry, which was the easiest thin g to do. 

Interviewee [00:03:10] My mother’s father. My grandfather came to this country to be a teacher in a Chinese school in San Francisco, and he taught there for several years and was teaching there when my mother and her mother came to this country. They lived together in San Francisco for a few years, and then my grandfather was asked to go into business with two of his relatives in Chicago to open a Chinese laundry. He thought that this would be a short term business proposition that would help him make money and get ahead. So he left the teaching job and went to Chicago to run this business. As it turned out, during the first few years, both of the other relatives won because of illness. And the other one, I don’t know why both decided to leave and go back to China and my grandfather bought them out and was the full owner of this business when the Depression hit. So he wound up spending the rest of his life running that business, trying to pay back the loan that had been taken out to start the business. He wound up never going back to teaching, but running that business until he was too old to do so. 

Narrator [00:04:28] Asian immigrants were also treated unfairly by the government. From 1790 until the 1950s, there were a handful of laws and regulations that limited and prevented Asians from immigrating. Naturalizing in obtaining the rights of U.S. citizens. In addition, many Americans did not welcome people of Asian descent to their communities. Some Americans feared that their jobs would be taken away, resulting in a lower standard of living, while others were simply not accustomed to seeing new and foreign faces. 

Interviewee [00:05:01] When I went to high school, I remember there was two incidences. One was I was chosen to represent the school in debating. And my teachers had selected me for the principal said, No, we can’t have a Chinese girl representing the Eastern High School. Then the second incident was there were two of us who had the highest grades in the high school, and the other girl was chosen because the principal again said, Oh, well, you have to choose one. So he chose the other girl over me. I remember that very clearly. 

Narrator [00:05:42] During in especially after World War Two, many important changes were made in immigration laws. Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which had previously barred Chinese immigrants, as well as a long standing law that limited naturalization to free whites. Finally, in 1965, an immigration act was passed. It eliminated immigration quotas for each country and opened the door to immigrants from around the world. 

Interviewee [00:06:09] In 1965, the United States really changed all the immigration legislation. So for a really long time, starting in 1924, primarily immigration really ended. There was a big wave of European immigration, a little bit of Asian immigration from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. And then a lot of people didn’t like all the immigration. There’s a lot of competition for jobs. There was a lot of racism and a lot of discrimination against European immigrants. And so immigration ended in 1924. But in 1965, all these laws begin to be reexamined and reopened. And for the first time since at least 1924, if not much earlier, Asian immigration was reopened to a large extent. So at first, the 65 act gave priority to different categories, including family reunification, but also professionals. So the United States needed doctors, nurses, engineers, scientists. So my parents, who were finishing up medical school, had opportunity to come to the U.S. to do a little bit of their training. And then they had always thought about going back to Korea afterwards. But because the law had changed and because they were allowed to stay and just a standard of living at that point was much better in the United States. And they always said its opportunities were better, the educational opportunities for their children would be better. They just basically decided to stay. And I think for at least for my mom’s family, a lot of her family siblings started to come to the United States, too. So it wasn’t as if all their family was was back in Korea and they would never see them again. Actually, sort of was for different reasons, a more comfortable for them to come and stay. 

Interviewee [00:07:45] When we left, we had a small business card because, you know, the proverbial saying that we have to look for greener pasture. So they trade me not in looking for greener pasture. What I learned here is that you should be industrious. If you want to make money, you should learn how to work hard to earn. 

Interviewee [00:08:15] By the time I finished my college, I was 19 and immediately I went back to graduate school and I finished my Masters when I was 21. I took a job and my idealism of practicing social work and social welfare was getting very disappointed because of the bureaucracies and all the rules and regulations. I just started getting very frustrated and I said, the best thing will be for me to go overseas and encounter some new challenges. That one was not really supported by my family and especially my parents, and they refused to give me even a penny. But I was determined to come to US. So it will be surprising for you to learn that I did not spend any money to come to the United States. I worked on a ship as a deckhand, and I came up to Marseilles in southern France and from Marseilles to Calais in those days. I hitchhiked and then came to London and did all kinds of odd jobs and saved money and paid for my passage. So why United States is because it opened up a lot of new things, the challenges. And of course, U.S. was more of a place to be.

Narrator [00:09:55] After 1965, many immigrants came to the United States to seek new opportunities. They often gave up comfort and security and their mother countries only to encounter cultural barriers and isolation in the U.S.. Many had a hard time adapting to American society. 

Interviewee [00:10:19] First, you know, it’s a strange world for them. Speaking the language, finding jobs, how to follow the rules, what to do to get benefits that you’re entitled to. How do you register your child in a school? How to help with your son and daughter with, you know, homework. When you don’t know the language. 

Interviewee [00:10:40] I remember the first semester I was struggling, even though I could speak well, but I couldn’t understand very well because people use slang. Those things I learned from the textbook actually didn’t really people didn’t really use. People don’t say, How do you do? So at that time I couldn’t comprehend. So I start to feel like, is it because they don’t like me? You know, I start to have those self doubt and language barrier was definitely one of the reasons. 

Interviewee [00:11:13] It’s mostly the memories that I never want to get back to. But I remember this like I walked into the cafeteria and all these people were sitting in groups eating lunch. I didn’t know where to go and I didn’t have the nerve to go up to them and say hi. So I just sit…sat in this corner where nobody was sitting, and I opened my lunchbox and I just started eating. But it was really awkward. I felt really lonely, even though the cafeteria was full of people. I never want to feel that again. It was really hard. Knowing that I didn’t have any friends and I couldn’t understand anything. 

Interviewee [00:11:53] I have seen people that just refuse to change. They still want to do things the old way. They won’t try other food. They just want this. They would do things their own way. They’re just not willing to open the door and try different things. They still expect certain treatment, like, Listen, I’m a professor, I need respect. You know, I’m older, I deserve this. And there are that group of people then variation. That’s okay. I like them too. And but then there’s the other half is that, Oh, we’re in America. Let’s have a beer. You know, we’ll do whatever. So and we’ll go to pop idols. We’re just like everybody else. So I think I am like everybody else. 

Interviewee [00:12:43] We think that we have many identities because of our upbringing. We have Germans, French, Canadians, Americans. But deep down, we feel that we are still Vietnamese. And it will never be taken away from us. This place, you know, or the countries we live. 

Interviewee [00:13:05] I think a lot of people here see Asian as we don’t complain much. We work hard. You gradually earn respect. You don’t want it. You don’t demand it. You just earn it. I am very careful now that since I come here, I deliver what I promise. I am punctual because I know I’m not just represent me. They don’t say [?]. They say Asian. 

Interviewee [00:13:30] The issues that are affecting Asian Americans today is they have to adapt to a new culture. They have to learn the language. They have to find jobs. And most of the time, because they don’t speak English, they can’t commence their education and their background. So, you know, they’re underemployed. And then the other issue is usually to make ends meet. Both father and mother have to work and the children are left without adult supervision and upbringing that parents usually provide. There are so many issues. And like the issue of intermarriage, which was something that never occurred before and now is happening with increasing frequency. 

Narrator [00:14:17] While Asian immigrants dealt with cultural and language barriers, their children often struggled to define their own identities. Growing up, the second and third generation Asian-Americans had to find the balance between an unfamiliar American environment and their Asian heritage to get an understanding of themselves. 

Interviewee [00:14:35] I mean, I don’t want to be cliche, but it’s very Amy Tan. I think my parents, who were immigrants, were struggling to understand their experience. You know, they were struggling with their jobs. They were stressed. They were struggling with English. They couldn’t really navigate a lot of the things that were new in America. And so me growing up in America, and that’s all I knew, I think we just had very different perspectives. You know, if they were called a name, they would just say, well, just work hard and we’re immigrants. And so we’re just guests here. And I would be like, But this is where I’m from. And so I would get more mad or I would feel more frustrated about things like that. So I think our perspectives are just very different. Even today, they’re just very different. And I know that they could never understand and I could never understand they had gone through a war, but things like dating and things like, you know, wanting to go, I’ll go to the football game. I mean, all those kind of American things. And, you know, very strict in a stereotype about, you know, study hard. You have to get all the straight A’s. And if you didn’t get an AA, they would be really mad. And I think a lot of what they expected from me, I felt, happened at a cost because I couldn’t talk about my identity or try to figure out how to deal with the racism or just all that other stuff that they they’re just not able to help me go through. 

Interviewee [00:15:50] I remember that right next door was a German family, the Hafiz and the mother, who I think had some psychological problems, but that she referred to me as the little Jap and was extremely racist and said delegating things to me often. But despite that, I seemed to spend a lot of time with her kids and even though where they were quite a bit older, although I do recall one time one of the kids hit me really hard in the head with a large clown that had sand in it. Have you ever seen those? They are like punching bags. You knock them down. And he took it and he hit me in the head with it. He was quite a bit older, so.

Interviewee [00:16:36] I had always, from the time I was little, I always wish that I had someone else to to identify with. You know, so you go into a school, nobody looks like you, particularly in junior high. It got very painful. There were still, you know, so again, blond, blue eyed around the popular girls, had the combs in their back pocket. That was that time with the, you know, hair that was just smooth. And they were all taken there. You know, I was in there combed and combing it. And I got to the point was like, I’m going to wear one of those combs. So I put it in my back pocket. One day I tried to use and it got stuck in my hair. I just I don’t have that kind of hair. To me at that time, that was a deficiency. That was something saying, you don’t have the right kind of hair, you don’t have the right kind of anything. You know, I had I was very thin and my eyebrows weren’t thin. They were thick. And you’d think, well, these aren’t important things. My, why can’t you deal with that? They are important things, particularly when you’re getting teased for them. Your self-esteem, your ability to even develop one is being undermined daily as you go to school. I was cornered by a group of boys who called me spider monkey. Every time I walked through the hallway, they would yell this name and comment on how skinny I was. Wiry hair. At one point it it got to a point where they had actually cornered me and I couldn’t get out of there. So that was, you know, pretty harassing. I remember going home and writing in a book once, I’m never going to be beautiful, but there are other things about me, but I’m going to have to accept that I’m not pretty and this kind of thing. And, you know, for whatever you can say about the importance of physical beauty, to have it shoved down your throat that you’re not just because you don’t look like everyone else, that is also an unacceptable situation. And then, you know, I grew out of it and in high school a little bit, I think some of these people that had cornered me came up to me in the great. The greatest story I have is, is the culture is getting a little more ethnically diverse. People are figuring out, oh, well, maybe I’ll just treat these people decently. You know, one of the boys who had corner me and who had been just one of the most brutal teasers, he asked me out on a date in high school. I said, You’ve got to be kidding me. It will be a cold day. And you know where? Except I didn’t say, you know where before I go out, go out with you. What makes you think I am any different person now than I was back then when you were cornering me? And he just stood there stunned. I remember the stairwell. I remember what it looked like, and I just walked away. That was great. It was difficult. They grew up in a very predominately white area of Cleveland, but not very many people of color. So in a high school graduating class of 330, there was maybe two African-American students in my class and three Asian-Americans, including me. And it just wasn’t diverse. When I grew up in that community, it was really hard because there weren’t mother Korean-Americans that I knew who went to high school with me. It was difficult for me to feel like I could fit in at that time. In the seventies and eighties, there weren’t really many Asian-Americans on television or in movies that I would see, aside from really bad stereotypes. I was very aware when I when I was very young of not being white. And I think I really struggled with that growing up, feeling embarrassed about my parents not feeling like I fit in. It would be very difficult for me to go back there and just think that there are just a lot of feelings of being an outsider. I still, at age 43, search for ways to help me connect to my Indian heritage. And I love it. And I have a strong group of Indian women friends now, and it is wonderful to share Chai with them. And I have learned to make chai. You know, you don’t get together with Indian women and not have chai. I like that. It’s comforting to know that this tradition will be upheld and that it’s important and that it’s just an incredible way of being together. Same with getting up and going to these dances with my friends. They’re educating me on the proper way of wearing this and that. And I can’t say, exactly why, I suppose, but these things are extremely important to me. I feel sort of randomly Indian sometimes, and I mean that because I don’t have the tradition background that some of my American born but fully Indian friends have had. And I long for that. I just think it’s interesting that I still search for that. This must be something important and and wanting to identify somehow with one of the other. 

Interviewee [00:21:44] I still feel this way today. I think the Korean immigrant community, as probably many immigrant communities, there’s sort of markers for how authentic you are. So if you can’t speak the language, then already you’re getting to be too Americanized. I saw a lot of issues of being embarrassed for being Korean, so I didn’t have an interest in learning about Korean history or about learning about any of that stuff. It was just still such like, I’m still trying to fit in and just blend in. And so I think once I realized that all those experiences were actually negative, like it was wrong that I had to feel that way, it wasn’t something that was wrong with me. It was something that was wrong with the media or that was wrong with society that I felt such an outsider that that was not my problem. That was, you know, the way that other people’s hang ups and other people’s prejudices. Then I began to start to discover that on my own. But it took me a while because I think, you know, I had all these hang ups and I still didn’t like there are Korean-Americans I met from Los Angeles who were bilingual, who had been to Korea many times, who were totally, like, comfortable with that part of their identity. And so coming from a very white community and feeling very alienated about it just didn’t feel like I had that in to the community, which I know now is all like, it’s all constructed. It’s all like, you know, I’m just as Korean as anybody. It’s just a different kind of Korean. But at that point, I felt like there’s a certain way to be Korean, and I just I’m not that way. 

Interviewee [00:23:10] I speak very dear Vietnamese in my heart. And in my belief, but the belief is changing. I treasure my freedom. I more straightforward. So I really am. But Vietnam is still there, so deep in my heart. And I love this country. You know why? Because when I work in the field in the county, I drive and I see the growing of season, the corn and soybean, and I see the attachment to the land. That way I feel it. And now when I hear that the national anthem, I read to feel emotion so that I know I’m American. 

Narrator [00:23:51] As Asian-Americans have become a part of our society, one issue many have encountered is marriage across cultures. Both individuals and family members often have to compromise and gain an understanding of each other’s backgrounds. 

Interviewee [00:24:05] They both were working for the United States Geological Survey in Casper, Wyoming. I know that my mother noticed my father, and I think my father noticed my mother, and they began dating. All I know is that the Japanese-American family was not particularly happy about the marriage. And even worse, my mother’s family was quite unhappy about her wanting to marry a Japanese-American. And the story my mother tells us that her church would not marry them. And so they went out of state to be married. Then they were married in Colorado. So the racism at the time, even in the early 1960s, was such that it was miscegenation or mixed race marriages. Cross-racial marriages were not tolerated. 

Interviewee [00:24:55] It was never a problem with my sisters. But my father, of course, was really concerned. He couldn’t face face to face with me. So I remember he’d go out to the McDonald’s around the corner and call me on the phone and talk to me and warn me about having a Caucasian girlfriend, because he said, What are you going to do for food? And I said, Dad, I eat a hotdog, just fine. What are you going to do with kids? Because they’re going to look funny because people will be laughing at them. I said dad I’m not having kids. So basically, I’m just happy that anybody would go out with me. And Ellen was super nice. And so all my family loves her and it’s working out really great. 

Interviewee [00:25:37] It’s not been easy all the time. I think any interracial relationship is going to any relationship is going to, you know, I think just men and women or even same sex relationships, there’s always going to be conflict. I think my whole identity as being Asian-American, he was very supportive of it. Of course, he can’t understand it. He doesn’t understand why I have a lot of conflict with my mother. He’s very close to his mother. I mean, they’re just very close. So our upbringings are very different. And it’s been frustrating. It’s been we’ve thought a lot about it. But I think I’ve come to a point where I’ve accepted that he is supportive, but he will never really know what it’s like. And so that’s what my Asian-American friends are for. I mean, I go to my sister, I go to my other friends when I need to talk about my mom or I need to talk about something racist that happened. Because if I want to know, find someone who really knows what it’s like. He’s just I mean, he loves me and he he is mad, but he doesn’t it doesn’t hit him in the gut in the same way. That’s just me. And I think if you just accept people’s what they can do and what they can’t and it’s not it’s not intentional. It’s not because he doesn’t love me. It’s just that we’re very different in that way. But it’s, you know, it hasn’t been easy all the time. 

Narrator [00:27:08] In the years immediately following World War Two, very little Asian or Asian American influence could be seen in East Central Illinois. While walking across the University of Illinois campus, one encountered just a handful of students, faculty and staff of Asian descent. Few courses, if any, on Asian history or culture were offered at that time. Some of our interviewees recalled what it was like to be a part of this community in the late 1940s to early sixties. 

Interviewee [00:27:37] When I was in Illinois, I wanted to learn a little bit about Asian history and I searched the whole catalog and there was not one course in Asian history. What they taught in school was American history and European history. Practically the rest of the world did not exist. Africa did not exist. Latin America did not exist. And Asia didn’t exist. So that I couldn’t even take a course in Asian history. Although eventually they did organize one, and I know the professor was taken and pulled from teaching another course, and he didn’t know that much about Asian history. He just went to the encyclopedia and he would just recite the encyclopedia. Because when I went to the library and look at the encyclopedia, it was almost word for word what he said in his lectures. So there was nothing. Asian American studies, of course, did not exist because it only began after publication of my book. Then I started it in City College. 

Interviewee [00:28:54] I was in the dormitory first when I came here in Urbana-Champaign. The Cosmopolitan Club was kind of a motley group of 40 students, mostly from Asia and Europe and Africa. It was sort of United Nations you know. A lot of the excitement we had is that we are a fraternity, yet we are not the member of the Inter Fraternity Council. There was no Asian-American group whatsoever. We are completely isolated. I was the sort of most senior member of the Korean student. There are about a half dozen students, among Koreans here on the campus. They are all isolated. Isn’t that sad? That’s why my experience in Cosmopolitan Club was very important, because that’s where I met the Chinese, you know, and the Japanese and African-Americans, all kind of different people there. That time there was no Asian-American culture saying, no, there was no nothing, absolutely nothing about the Asian American. Remember 1953, You know, that’s another era, man. 

Interviewee [00:30:00] In 1965, when I came to the University of Illinois, the only Asian faces I saw and smiled at and got smiles back were international students. I did not know any Asian-American students. I did not know any Asian American staff, clerical or otherwise. And the only Asian face people I saw as a group were professors, and some were Asian-American and some were Asian, but not many. When you looked across campus, you did not see Asians as a prominent racial group. 

Narrator [00:30:46] However, one interviewee recalled how the University of Illinois influenced his work in journalism and subsequently affected change for the Asian American community. 

Interviewee [00:30:57] Yeah, I went to graduate school in Champaign-Urbana and it literally opened my eyes to the American press, the freedom of the press. And in turn, it affected Korean-American journalism. Because I am the first one who founded a Koreatown weekly in 1979. That’s the first national English language newspaper for Koreans in America. It’s a because I met Wilbur Schram, and Fred Siebert. Fred Siebert was the dean of the School of Journalism. And Dr. Wilbur Schram was the director of the Institute of Communication Research. This is the birthplace of communication research in America. And also, Fred Siebert is a long time defender of free press. And these two are the incredible landmark figures in American journalism. And the luxury I met the both of them, and they literally changed my life. And I went through Fred Siebert class. It’s a history of free press in the Western world. And that, in turn, led me to fight for free press in Korea. And I went on a worldwide campaign. I used a lot of Fred Siebert’s book to campaign and against the closure of all this Korean dairy in Korea. My life in Illinois was a really eye opening chapter. 

Narrator [00:32:27] With the new wave of immigration. After 1965, the situation gradually changed. By the late 1970s, the presence of Asian students on the Dubai campus was growing, just as others had been mobilized by the civil rights and ethnic consciousness movements during that time period. Asian-American spots to be recognized at the University of Illinois. 

Interviewee [00:32:49] The years of activism before anything existed. There are a couple of big things that really changed the university in 1992. In May of 1992, there was a big student takeover of an administration building. It was led by Latino students. But Asian-American, African-American white students, Native American students were part of it. And they they sat in an Henry administration building, and the campus police had to come in and they dragged them out. It was really big in the press. And I think after that, there was a lot of awareness and impetus for the administration to start to take some of these demands seriously for Latino students and Asian-American students. So that was a big rupture, I think, in campus history. In 1992. So I think these things, which have long histories and have long effects for students for good and bad, I think are pretty important for the community. 

Narrator [00:33:44] By the late 1990s, the collaborative efforts of student organizations and interested faculty resulted in the formation of the Asian-American Studies Program at the U. of I. The mission of the program is to give students opportunities to learn about the history and culture of Asian Americans. In 2005, an Asian American cultural center was opened. The center increased awareness of Asian-American experiences and issues. And since then it has provided students with a multitude of resources to explore their diverse heritages. 

Interviewee [00:34:19] I think the Asian population, after the 1965 legislation, started increasing at a rapid rate. But as the new Asians are coming in, that is a great deal of problems. Issues connected with their treatment. And it took almost 40 years or 35 years for University of Illinois to establish a Asian-American studies program. And at that time, we had a movement which started with some faculty members, including myself, a good student group who were championing for for an establishment of Asian American studies. And we had a chancellor at that time who was receptive. And so he invited four or five faculty members to anthropologists, one political science and myself, and said that give me a good Asian American studies program and of quality and don’t worry about the resources. And so when we met, we decided that we will embark on a project to go to the strongest Asian studies program east of California. And believe it or not, this program is now considered to be one of the strongest programs in the country. 

Interviewee [00:35:41] The students at the University of Illinois have been remarkable because they fought their primal instincts given to them by their parents to not be active in social welfare, to just get good grades, to go to grad school, be a doctor, be an engineer. But they did all that. But they also became active. And the very fact that there’s an Asian-American cultural center is because of the students. The very fact that they have Asian-American studies is because of the students. It’s not because of faculty who wanted to do that. It was the students. And the students surprised themselves when they were so successful. 

Narrator [00:36:28] Over the years, the Asian population at the ABI has continued to grow considerably. While their visibility on campus and success at academic endeavors are now often expected. Several of our interviewees reminded us that the other facets of being Asian are not always considered. 

Interviewee [00:36:45] When I came for my job interview, it was like in November. But I knew that it was a college town I knew was in the Midwest and from the Midwest. I like college towns in terms of just the campus itself. When I was visiting, I was very surprised at how many Asian-American faces I saw, like walking on the quad. So that was different because Wisconsin Asian-American students are only 4% of the student body. So it’s very white. It was very, very white. So all the Asian-American students were just like, look for each other, you know, we would just be like, oh my gosh, I can’t deal. So we would just like, gravitate towards each other. When I got here, there were just like everywhere. So I think that that was an adjustment. It’s almost like because there’s so many you don’t have that urgency to find each other and to like talk and to work together. So I think that’s sort of the double edged sword, is you have a lot more, but then you don’t realize, hey, maybe it’s important to learn about Asian-American studies or to talk about why we need classes in this or why we need a cultural center, which at that point there was no cultural center and the studies program was brand new. So I think that urgency of why it’s important. You kind of had to take a step back and start to talk to people about, have you ever thought about this? Or wouldn’t it be nice if, you know, we learn more about this in high school or earlier or all these things? So that was a big adjustment that you had more, but it’s almost like you had to start to educate them at a very basic starting point about some of these issues. 

Interviewee [00:38:05] I think that on campus at least, you run into people who have a better sense of who Asian Americans are, what their identity is, how they fit into the broader community, and not only because of the program, but also because of the Asian-American Cultural Center, also because of some of the things the administration has done, like having this kind of ethnic, cultural night early on in a student’s career, as well as eliminating the chief and things like that. This has brought together people who, when I got here, would not have been working together or thinking together. And I think just the educational level of what different groups are doing and what they’re about is much more there than when I when I first got here. 

Interviewee [00:38:49] I think they’re really open minded, like everyone in Champaign-Urbana, pretty much. If any like Asian, did anything bad not many people would assume that all Asians are bad. It’s more like, Oh, that particular person was crazy and that’s why he or she did it. So really generous about different races. Different cultures. Very open minded. 

Interviewee [00:39:11] In the 2002 to 2003 on campus, there was a series of attacks on women, and a proportion of those attacks were on Asian and Asian-American women. So these were ranging from robberies, assaults. There were sexual assaults, there were rapes. And I was just terrified. I mean, it’s always terrifying to think about being a woman walking alone at night. But it just seemed like Asian American women were being specifically targeted, perhaps for stereotypes that were small. We wouldn’t fight back, we wouldn’t yell all these things. So I took a rad class, which is a self-defense class, or aggression defence. I loved it. So I took that a couple times because I felt it’s so stressful to think about. A lot of Asian-American women I know didn’t want to take it because they didn’t want to think about it. But I felt that it was important because if you are smaller or if you are seen more as a victim, to be allowed to be able to, like, yell and to say no. So actually last semester I took it again just as a refresher, and I took it with like six other Asian-American college students that I knew. And I just called them out and they all took it and it was like, so awesome because we just got to yell and be strong. 

Interviewee [00:40:12] Asian-Americans, when I was a student, were known as passive, peaceful, really nice, quiet kids. Now, I don’t know that any of my friends would describe me with those words. Not passive and certainly not quiet. But most of the students, I think, typically fell into that category, mainly because it was too easy to fall into that category. If you did nothing, you just perpetuated that thought. 

Interviewee [00:40:45] It’s difficult for Asian-American students at the University of Illinois to be recognized for any difficult experiences they have because they do so well academically. And so I think an academic program is easy to justify because you can have great research and books and professors and classes and a degree. But for Asian-American students who don’t struggle in the same way that African-American students or Latino students do with finishing their degrees or thriving, you know, on a campus like this one, I just think that the the rationale was always, why do Asian-American students need a support center? You know, they do better than white students on testing and on grades and on completion rates. And it’s true. I mean, statistically, you can look at all these numbers and say that they do better. So I think the argument to say you have to look beyond those statistics to say what happens when Asian-American students are walking on the quad and someone calls them a chink or something happens and they don’t know what to do with it. There was a production, Cambridge production of Grease, and I think one of the songs use the word Chink or Jap or something, and it’s just like, how does that feel when you’re, you know, just enjoying a show and then something like this happens and where do you learn about it? I think all those qualitative experiences, the administration has to understand that you have to look at that just as much as if a student makes it through four years and is successful academically. And so it just was a longer battle, I think, to get people to understand that Asian-American students still have a unique experience that’s very much tied to race and culture that you don’t see when you just look at statistics. 

Interviewee [00:42:17] I think one of the things might be that there is a myth about the Asian-Americans role as a model minority. All hard working kids, all good Asian-American kids are excellent in math and science, and they are going to be in computer science and they are going to be the best kids in medicine and whatnot type of things. I mean, that is a fallacy. That’s a myth. Sure. A large number of Asian kids are hard working, but no different than any other immigrant kid. If you look at the United States history, immigrant children, first generation and second generation were always very hard working and took their studies and took their roles very seriously. Now what happens is that this kind of setting up of all Asian kids as being super students and super kids and well-behaved kids, that puts them into disadvantage because if they slip a little bit, they are immediately chastised. They’re immediately branded, Oh, you’re an Asian kid. You’re supposed to do well, in math, how come you’re not doing it? So I think we need to accept that every ethnic group has got their own kind of things, but there’s no stereotyping. I think we need to focus less on stereotyping. 

Narrator [00:43:55] Though Asian Americans have come to feel at home on the University of Illinois campus and in the local community, they still face racism in subtle and not so subtle forms. They continue to work to show that they are not outsiders, but are instead a rightful part of American society. 

Interviewee [00:44:14] I think, you know, when a society like ours where there is an emphasis on acceptance of diversity, although it has not been completely achieved yet, at least we have reached the stage of tolerance. Crosses are not burned on the premises of Asian churches. It was only a few years ago even a built an Asian church. I’m sure the crosses would have been there. So I’m saying is that there is a tremendous amount of tolerance which has come about. And I think that certainly is a phenomena which we can be proud of. Diversity, finally is not being seen as deviance. Like the days when I was here earlier, we were seen with exotic names and exotic recipes celebrating the foreigners. But now we are not foreigners. We are integral part of this society. And that means we have got both the rights and responsibility. 

Interviewee [00:45:17] I think that, well, in terms of the scholarly or academically, U of I has a very large population of Asian or Chinese faculty, and that really, really a very strong foundation for many of the research program and academic program there. So the contribution of the Chinese community to the U. R PHI environment, in my humble opinion, is tremendous. But on the other hand, if you’re looking to the contribution of the Chinese community to the local community wise, then the situation is a little bit different. You know, Chinese people usually we tend to we think that we should take care of our own business first. And often time we feel like we are immigrants and create a situations that we don’t really want to get involved with the community events or even the politics of the American society. That’s true in many places I have been to. Even if you look at the political landscape here, Chinese population 2 to 3% or more. But in terms of the, you know, involvement or people serving in the Congress level or even the local, you seldom see, you know, Chinese people involved. So I would say if something I think in terms of Chinese community as a whole, we should sense that we are not an immigrant anymore. You know, we should be consider ourself really a citizen of this society. 

Interviewee [00:46:59] I assume there’s an undocumented population in the city. It would be something to find out if there is an undocumented population of Asian migrants here. If it does exist, and I’m pretty sure it does, then that information would be, I think, highly surprising to people and would tell a story about Asian America that people often want to ignore. And so people try to focus primarily on Latinos, but want to deny the fact that, in fact, there are large numbers of Asian undocumented as well. And knowing that information, I think, really changes people’s perspectives of how they think about race in America and their own awareness of their community. 

Narrator [00:47:48] And as the Asian population at the University of Illinois has grown, so have the signs of Asian influence in the local community. 

Interviewee [00:47:56] I have noticed that it’s easier to buy rice and tofu and Asian food products even in a regular grocery store. It’s so much nicer to have all the different Asian ethnic restaurants. In 1965, there were three Chinese restaurants, and those were the only Asian restaurants that were here. Three, three. I think there’s three on one block in campus town. It’s just wonderful in the services. When I was here in 1965, I had to look for somebody who could cut Japanese hair. And when I went into a beauty shop, they would go, Oh, no, look who just walked in. And I would say, Not to worry if you don’t know how to work my hair. I’m not coming to you. You know, I just came to check because I’m new in town and they would always suggest somebody. But they they would cut it. And then when I needed a perm. Oh, my God, No, I can’t work Asian hair. And I said, I don’t want you to work my hair. I want you to tell me, you know who can do it? Well, I’ve been here, what, 40 years? And I have had, I think, just a handful of people who have done my hair. Well, now I’ve got it easy because I have a Korean woman doing my hair and I know she knows what she’s doing, but it’s services like that that have expanded. I mean, you can go into Meijers or Kmart or Schnucks and get Asian vegetables and fruit. And that’s just the difference from 1965 when there was nothing to now when there’s there are just riches. 

Interviewee [00:49:59] It seems like all I actually see is that it’s growing. It’s always growing. Just like even just in the Filipino community, it’s growing at a fast rate. And I think even among the other Asian Americans, it’s like it’s also I see more and more of, you know, other Asian Americans, too. So. 

Interviewee [00:50:21] Well, I’ve noticed since my adulthood that there are many more Asian Americans just around. Like if I go to the grocery store occasionally, see some Asians. When I was growing up, there weren’t any. I remember, I guess even in this community, I don’t see that many. Maybe it’s the time of day I go to the store, but I just, you know, I see I see a number. I see quite a few more in the campus area if I come through campus town. 

Interviewee [00:50:54] Something that’s very necessary, I think, for people to grow with an understanding of one another. It’s a message that I would have loved to have had as a child. As I walk in the schools these days, that would have been a dream for me as a young kid. I don’t think I would have been called spider monkey in, you know, whether or not I got the comb through my hair. I’m very happy for my two kids. In any classroom, there’s going to be some Asian Americans, some African-Americans, some kids coming from other countries, regardless of what their ethnicity is. I like that that’s a given for them even in the last ten years. I’ve noticed a stronger presence of Indians. I don’t know if I’m noticing it because I want to. But in our school, many of our families are Indian families. I guess I’m not surprised that we find Indian families at private schools. I think it’s certainly the Asian-American presence has increased. 

Interviewee [00:51:54] With the tremendous economic shift in the world that’s taking place with China’s growth. Learning the Chinese language has become an immediate need in the, you know, educational process for people in Urbana-Champaign. And without the Chinese population that has come here to be able to teach Chinese. And it’s not only Chinese people who are teaching the language, but it’s predominantly Chinese people who are teaching the language. The diversity that the Korean-American community and the Filipino community and all of them have brought, obviously in terms of food, ranging from food to traditions to religion to culture, to the students. And just the immigrant population are drawing interest and attention to the global world outside of the campus. I think that students here can get Asian-American that is so enriching not only of their lives, but for their future educational goals. 

Interviewee [00:52:54] Any time there is a presence of another culture in town and then a culture which is going to hold on to some of its traditions and create events around those traditions, and especially public ones where, you know, not just Indians are going to these things, but maybe friends of of the Indian families. It affirms that those traditions are extremely important and will be kept. It exposes the wider community to and I do mean wider community to other ways of living. It’s an extremely important message when you can go to a D’Andrea dance or you can go hear Indian classical music and that it’s there and then it’s operating and it’s very live. It just means simply that anybody in the community that is going to have an idea that there are other ways of expressing living and life and that there is not one way and that there are many things we share. And sometimes these very, very similar things that we share are expressed a little bit differently. And. 

Narrator [00:54:22] Asian and Asian Americans have come a long way in their search for equal opportunity and justice in the United States. Like other nonwhite groups, they have faced discrimination simply because of differences in appearance and culture. However, the perseverance in adapting to American society and fighting for equal rights has led to notable progress since the arrival of early Asian immigrants. They have shown the value of diversity and continue to exemplify the qualities of being Asian-American. 

Interviewee [00:54:54] Being Asian-American or being Korean-American is really a complex experience. It’s not about speaking Korean or living in Koreatown or being down for some cause. Just any experience, any identity. Experience encompasses a range of everything. So to say I am a young woman doesn’t necessarily mean anything particular. It’s just maybe part of what people experience. But it doesn’t define you by like ten things or whatever. You know, I realized for myself that I have a very complicated experience, which I’m glad for because I think I can consider lots of different things. Whereas if I had grown up in Koreatown, never left it, my exposure to other people or to thinking about working with other people or talking to other people, being friends with them, or just leaving that space doesn’t happen as easily. So the tendency to be like you have to only be these three things to belong is not there as much. 

Interviewee [00:55:42] I personally feel, and I’m committed to the fact that diversity is the part of humanity, and the more a community is reflected that diversity, the better. It is a garden with just one flower, one species, or a garden with all different species. A salad only would let us, or a salad with all different vegetables. I think especially with a global nature, you know, there’s no rigid boundaries between countries and I think the whole cosmopolitanism rather than provincialism. 

Interviewee [00:56:19] I love the fact that being sort of a bi ethnic person has made me unique, especially unique growing up. I guess in a way it’s made me feel special. It’s presented some discomfort, which has certainly built my character. It’s helped me understand, you know, the troubles of other people. And, you know, it certainly has not come without its joy for all the pain it caused. It also wasn’t a bad thing either. You know, I enjoyed the trips to India. I enjoy the message that having a mom from Danville and a and a dad from India working together. It’s a strong message for a kid, I think. You know, for a while I was more self-conscious, but I totally as I grew, I delighted in the uniqueness. 

Narrator [00:57:25] We hope you’ve enjoyed from East to West Journey through the lives of Asian-Americans in Champaign-Urbana. This program was produced by University Laboratory high school students Vicki Chang, Leif Haig, Christina Harden, Sanjay Koshy, Bessie Michaels, Sherry CU and Shruti Vaidya. The Executive Producers Amber Vehicle, Linda Lee, Emirates, M.S. Drive. Interviews were conducted by the 2013 University Laboratory High School freshman class. Stories were contributed by Paula. Sara Bongo. Paul. Nancy Goodall. Ha ho. Hannah Kuan Kyung Wanli. Sharon Lee. David Lin. Yuki. Oberlin. Arturo. Mala. Gaia. Roland Mallory. Kent Ono. Lila Rama Gopal Hermia Su Betty Sung, Tom Wei and Humphrey Yao. For more information on this project, please visit our website at Illinois Youth Media Dawg. This program was directed by Dave Dickey of Illinois Public Media and University Laboratory. High school teacher Janet Morford. I’m Maria Gao, and I’m Maritza Mestre.