New SAPAAC swag is on the way! In honor of 2024, the Year of the Dragon, we're selling two stellar LIMITED EDITION t-shirt designs inspired by the dragon and created by SAPAAC board member Jennifer Xiong, '22. All funds raised through t-shirt sales will go directly towards supporting club events and initiatives.
The shirts feature a unique dragon with elements gathered from different depictions of dragons across multiple Asian cultures. In one design, a newly reimagined SAPAAC logo appears with the dragon superimposed over the Stanfod Quad archways. The second features a SAPAAC-branded stamp, similar to an artist’s seal on a traditional Asian painting.
We are taking preorders for t-shirts that can either be:
1) picked up at SAPAAC's AAPI All-Class Reunion at Reunion Weekend on Saturday, Oct. 26
2) shipped directly to you in late September/early October (shipping fee of $9.95)
T-shirts are 100% moisture-wicking polyester with a tear away neck label for comfort and double-needle stitched for durability.
$30 each or get the full set for a SPECIAL BUNDLE price of $55. Place your order by Sept. 15!
About the Designs
SAPAAC’s two LIMITED EDITION t-shirt designs are centered around a dragon, the Chinese zodiac of 2024, and embodies SAPAAC’s Asian American oriented mission. They were designed by SAPAAC board member Jennifer Xiong, ’22. The following are her notes on the designs.
The designing process started with the dragon itself. Much like our languages, traditional textiles, and cultural practices, the depictions of dragons vary across different forms of art, from paintings to embroidery, and even architecture. As SAPAAC is composed of Asian American alumni of all backgrounds, it felt important to me that I draw inspiration from the depictions of dragons across multiple Asian cultures.
The two strongest influences were the dragons of China and Laos. The latter is particularly important to me as a Hmong-American with various cultural influences from Thailand and Laos alongside my Hmong heritage. The head of a Naga is an image I always grew up with as my father, a traditional Hmong musician and instrument maker, designed and carved his own dragons from wooden boards to adorn his xim xaus (Hmong erhu).
DESIGN #1 - STANFORD DRAGON ARCHES
The first design is a play on the SAPAAC logo, overlaying the dragon onto the outlines of the Stanford arches. Seeing has dragons have also served as architectural motifs across Asia, it felt fitting to imitate the arches with the body of the dragon similar to how Thailand uses dragons alongside staircases.
Additionally, I added clouds to ornament the dragon arches. Like dragons, clouds have also varied throughout different classical artworks of Asian countries. I sketched a variety of clouds referencing artworks from different Asian countries and compared different cloud shapes with the dragon arches.
DESIGN #2 - GOLDEN DRAGON
The second design, featuring a golden dragon with a stamp-like SAPAAC branding shows the whole body of the dragon. As a Japan-based artist, the stamp itself was inspired by hanko which are used in Japan in place of written signatures. Of course, this is not limited only to Japan as stamps are widely used for similar purposes in other Asian countries and cultures, too.
It felt poetic to stamp SAPAAC onto the design as a form of branding.