Our Stories: AAPI Heritage Month & the Stanford Community

It's Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and we wanted to hear from diverse voices around the globe about your experiences being AAPI. The pandemic and recent violence around the country have sparked active discussion about the AAPI experience—and we want to hear what it means to you to be Asian American or Pacific Islander.

In a few lines (or up to two paragraphs) please share your thoughts:

* What does your culture/heritage mean to you (however you want to define it)?
*As someone living in the U.S. or abroad, how does this manifest in your daily life—or how do you wish it would manifest?
*Are there ways you celebrate and preserve your culture/heritage?

Some potential themes to help get you started:
Identity / Pride
Preserving Culture, Heritage or Language
Family Relationships (your parents, grandparents, children)
Fitting in (or not) as an American
Erasure / Invisibility
Anything else you’re interested in sharing!

Your entry could be a reflection about growing up in the United States, your time at Stanford, or your life/career today.

Please share your story here.

Anti-Asian hate event ft Helen Zia, Gary Locke, Neal Katyal (5/25)

Anti-Asian Hate and Systemic Racism

Saturday, May 22, 2021. 4:00-5:30PM PST

Virtual Event

Price: Free

Please register here.

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Hosted by the AAPI Alumni clubs of Dartmouth, Stanford, Brown, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. This panel during AAPI Heritage Month will focus on the resurgence of anti-Asian hate/violence and the opportunity it presents for AAPIs to help change systemic racism in America. An underlying theme for the event is “to those whom much has been given, much is expected”; what can Ivy Leaguers do to help make it so?

Featuring panelists Neal Katyal (Dartmouth B.A., Yale J.D.), Former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, who has argued more Supreme Court cases in U.S. history than has any minority attorney; Gary Locke (Yale B.A., Boston University J.D.), First Chinese American governor in U.S. history, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Ambassador to China during the Obama administration; and Helen Zia (Princeton B.A.), activist, author, journalist, and key figure in the Asian American movement.

This panel is moderated by the president of the Asian American Journalists Association, journalist Michelle Ye Hee Lee of The Washington Post.

2021 Stanford Alumni Lunar New Year Celebration presented by SAPAAC (2/5 - 2/13)

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Stanford Lunar New Year is open to all alumni! Whether it’s your first time celebrating or you've been celebrating your whole life, you are welcome to come as you are, and take part how you wish.

Grab your “festival pass” now, and browse our selection of live events and offerings to be festive at your leisure. Event recordings & more will be on our Stanford Alumni LNY Virtual Scrapbook, where we invite you to add your unique memories, family traditions, & greetings to our alumni community!

Festival Calendar At-A-Glance

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Scroll down for more event details and times, and the link to the LNY Virtual Scrapbook.

Click Here to Register for your Festival Pass!


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Fri Feb 5 at 5:00 pm PST (8:00 EST)
Jackie Low's New Year Dumplings Demo!
In this workshop, Jackie Low ‘15 will demonstrate how to prepare and cook a traditional Lunar New Year’s dish - dumplings (vegetarian)! She’ll talk about the significance of foods in the celebration of Lunar New Year and teach people how to prepare, fold, and cook dumplings. You’re welcome to follow along however you would like. (And don’t worry, you have plenty of time to perfect your technique before New Year’s!) 

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Sat Feb 6, 3:00 - 4:00 pm PST (6:00-7:00 EST)
Poems and Paintings: Lunar New Year Traditions and Cultures Retrospective
A 60-min time travel to trace the cultural and traditional roots of Lunar New Year through ancient Chinese poems and paintings. Hosted by Dr Tingting Qu, MS '19.
Dr. De-yin Jeng will be introducing two well-known poems related to Chinese New Year and share with all some relevant information about them.
Prof. Ken wei Teh will illustrate 2-3 paintings relevant to Lunar New Year and share a few behind-scene stories of creating these paintings.

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Sat Feb 6, 4:30-5:30 pm PST (7:30-8:30 EST)
Cantonese Social Mixer
A casual social mixer combined with organizers sharing Cantonese culture for the Lunar New Year. All are welcome, especially if you speak or want to learn to speak Cantonese.

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Thu Feb 11, 7:00-8:00 pm PST (10:00-11:00 pm EST)
Star Fruit & Watermelon
You are warmly invited to join us for a bilingual, intergenerational storytelling event to honor the Lunar New Year. Co Tran ‘17, mother Tu-Anh, and grandmother Loc will be sharing two stories from their history - The Star Fruit Tree and How the Watermelon Came to Viet Nam - along with their wishes and manifestations for you as we begin a new year.

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Sat Feb 13 @ 12:00-2:00 pm PST (3:00-5:00 EST)
Festival Finale
Come one, come all! Drop by our virtual street festival to socialize with friends old and new, and get a "taste" of a variety of traditions and special surprises throughout. Breakouts led by fellow alumni will showcase cultural storytelling, musical offerings, and PRIZES that you must be present to win.

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Stanford Alumni LNY Virtual Scrapbook
View & add your own entries! Check back daily for new festive content, greetings and views from Stanford alumni all around the world, and to share your thoughts with our community. Contributing is simple: visit this webpage and use the password to sign in, view, & add messages, photos, links, & more (no separate account setup is required).

Click here to visit the scrapbook!

Password: StanfordLunar

APA Literature Book Club: Know My Name (01/24)

Save the date: SAPAAC Book Club - Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Sunday, January 24, 2021. 4-5:30PM PST

Virtual Event

Price: Free

Please register here.

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SAPAAC will host a book club over Zoom on Chanel Miller’s memoir, “Know My Name”. She “gives readers the privilege of knowing her not just as Emily Doe, but as Chanel Miller the writer, the artist, the survivor, the fighter.” (The Wrap). In the memoir, she discusses her Asian American identity in relation to her identity as a woman who’s experienced sexual assault and seeking redress through the legal system. Our book club discussion will center her identity as an Asian American woman and discuss Asian American feminism more broadly.


See this NYT op-ed: Why It Matters That ‘Emily Doe’ in the Brock Turner Case Is Asian-American.

We encourage you to read the book beforehand. But if you’re interested in the topic and don’t get a chance to read/finish the book, you’re still more than welcome to join!

Should 10+ members sign up, we will divide into breakout rooms. If you are interested in co-moderating or have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Angela Zhang (’16) at zhangela18@gmail.com.

APA Literature Book Club: Minor Feelings (6/26)

Minor Feelings Book Club, hosted by Prof. Christine Min Wotipka (AM '99, PhD '01)

Friday, June 26th, 5pm PT

Virtual event via Zoom

Click to RSVP

Interested in reading and discussing books by APA authors and meeting fellow Stanford alumni? Participate in the first SAPAAC summer reading group!

Our first book discussion will be on Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. Minor Feelings is a book that examines racial consciousness in America through the lens of the Asian American author/poet’s own experiences. It is simultaneously emotionally honest, humorous, provocative, and gripping all at once.  

Professor Christine Min Wotipka (AM '99, PhD '01) of the Stanford Graduate School of Education will host the book club. After an initial opening statement, you'll be moved into breakout rooms for further discussion. 

Zoom details will be shared with attendees prior to the event.

Questions? Contact Angela Zhang ‘16 (SAPAAC Board) at zhangela18@gmail.com. 

SAPAAC Summer Book Clubs (Summer 2020)

Interested in reading and discussing books by APA authors and meeting fellow Stanford alumni? Join a SAPAAC summer book club!

We will also coordinate other book clubs (of 5-10 people) which can get together for online discussion(s) this summer. We’ve selected 6 books to choose from below as a starting point. If you’re interested in participating, pick a book and indicate your availability. A Book Club Leader will reach out to set a time and share a Zoom link. 

  1. America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo 

  2. Amnesty by Aravind Adiga

  3. How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

  4. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

  5. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

  6. The Peculiar Afterlife of Slavery by Caroline H. Yang

We are looking for Book Club Leader to help set up and facilitate discussions. Commitment is light with a requirement of one book discussion. Here’s how it’ll work: 

  1. We’ll connect you with your group of 5-10 SAPAAC members

  2. You’ll solidify a time for the group to get together and share a Zoom link. 

  3. Prepare questions and facilitate discussion. 

  4. If the group is interested, you can continue meeting to discuss other books.

  5. Let SAPAAC know how your discussion went.  

The SAPAAC Book Club is not only an avenue for you to discuss APA identity and literature but also for alumni to (re)connect with one another. To that end, we will aim to include alumni across different years and geographic locations to help facilitate new interactions. 

To sign up for a book club, please fill out this form by June 20th. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email Angela Zhang at zhangela18@gmail.com.

 
Please feel free to share with other Stanford alumni! They’ll need to sign up for SAPAAC through the Stanford Alumni Association (free of charge) to receive this newsletter and access the form.

Racism & Resistance: Roundtable on Asian American Experiences in the Pandemic (5/12)

The United States has witnessed a troubling increase in violence and racist incidents targeting Asians. This special event will bring together scholars and activists to share with the Stanford community the history of discrimination against Asians in the United States; the current challenge of the pandemic; and what we can do about it today

Read more