Preserving Chinese American History

Race Against Time: Saving the Largest Archive of Chinese American History From Fire

During the late 1970s, Charles Lai and John Kuo Wei Tchen started to collect the abandoned belongings of Chinese Americans in New York's Chinatown, a historical neighborhood dating back to the 1870s. Eager to learn more about the community's history, they collected items from Chinese elderly "bachelors", "men who went to the US when exclusionary laws still prevented women and family members from joining them", as well as items from old businesses that were closing down due to the expiring of the city's 99-year leases. Items ranged from photographs, costumes, and typewriters to art, most notably pieces of sculpture. These items, although simply considered trash by most, even by the inhabitants of Chinatown, were in fact essential in painting the picture of historical Chinese American culture. As more and more items were collected over the years, some notable items being the "papers and possessions of Hazel Ying Lee, a WWII pilot and the first Chinese-American woman to fly for the US military" and "a Pan Am Airlines bag from Richard Nixon's historic 1972 China trip", many began to see the historical and cultural significance of the collection, which eventually led to the creation of the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). In January of this year, however, a fire broke out in the building where the museum is located. While nothing was damaged by the fire, the subsequent firefighting efforts left the collection drenched. A rescue was made to recover the pieces, and the community, as well as other organizations, helped raise $23,000 for MOCA and their recovery efforts. Luckily, the collection was transported to freezing facilities (to prevent water damage and mold) just in time, as the city was put on lockdown due to COVID-19. The museum and its efforts are intensely important, perhaps now more than ever "amid rising xenophobia, tensions between the US and China and increasing American nationalism" as a result of the virus. The museum's president, Nancy Yao Maasbach, remains hopeful, intent on seeing the museum expand even further, stating "Nothing can replace looking at real artifacts, at family albums, hearing oral histories, seeing the documents from all these milestones in Asian history...That's the importance of this collection". 

Dressed to Impress (Men): Japanese Women's Forced Dress Code

Japanese Women Rebel Against Painful Dress Codes

In Japan, the dress code for many businesses is very strict, especially for women. Women who work in many formal Japanese businesses and firms have to either wear uniforms, or more often than not, follow a very conservative dress code, both of which require them to wear short, but very painful heels. In the formal business setting, "More than 60% of Japanese women with jobs have been forced to squeeze their feet into heels at work or have witnessed colleagues having to". Ishikawa Yumi, a funeral parlor usher stated that she had to go about her 8-hour shift in heels, remarking how "Women have always been told to follow the dress code, even if it causes pain", being told to endure the pain. Many young women like Ms. Ishikawa are even deterred from wearing glasses in the workplace, their bosses claiming they are unflattering (even when their male workers can openly wear them). In addition to her complaints on Twitter about women being required to wear heels in the workplace, Ms. Ishikawa was also able to gather "18,800 signatures on a petition calling for a ban on employers requiring women to wear high heels, which she submitted to the government last June" as a result of the popularity of her Tweet. However, the petition has not received any formal response since its submission last year. A former labor minister who received the petition even stated that it was "necessary and appropriate” for women to wear heels for work. However, despite the dismal government response to the petition, there have been gradual changes within some businesses in Japan. For example, Japan Airlines has announced that its female flight attendants can swap their heels for heel-less shoes, and that they can wear trousers instead of skirts if they would like. Ms. Ishikawa has also started to collaborate with a shoe company to produce "chic heel-less shoes" for women to wear for work. She hopes that the rules regarding footwear will gradually begin to change in the future.

Myanmar's Wizards

Magical Spells are a Booming Business in Myanmar

Within recent years, Myanmar has seen an increasing interest in magic and the occult. From historical times, Buddhists have believed that one can be granted supernatural powers by practicing extreme piety. Burmese weizza, or wizards, who claim to "apparently fly, turn base metals into gold and attain immortality" as well as "to perk up [individual's] profits, make them more attractive, banish evil spirits and remove tumours" have received many more followers, especially within the last decade. Under politician Ne Win, chairman of the Burma Socialist Programme Party, weizza were marginalized as he feared and envied them and their supporters, worried "that they might overthrow him by, for instance, [by] raising an army of ghosts". His fear was so extreme, that he even "banned their magazines and books, and had portrayals of weizza scrubbed from films and other media". As political power was ceded to civilians after Myanmar's military regime was dissolved in 1988, weizza gained more prominence within society. With the abolition of media censorship within the nation in 2012, weizza have been able to reach a larger audience by using social media, broadcasting their healing demonstrations through Facebook and Youtube, acquiring many more clients, as well as students who wish to learn from them. Being that Myanmar's healthcare system is "rickety", many still turn to weizza to be healed of their ailments, often remarking that the ceremonies performed have cured them and have been successful.