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“Men of Iron and the Golden Spike” EASC Virtual Colloquium

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Thursday, March 11th, 2021

On March 11th, I attended the East Asian Studies Center’s virtual colloquium about the “Men of Iron and the Golden Spike” symphonic performance. This event was led by Wei Su from Yale University, who also helped write the symphony. He started out with an introduction to himself and the performance. Then, he played us the entire performance and after held a Q&A where we could ask him questions about himself and/or the symphonic piece.  “Men of Iron and the Golden Spike” is a symphonic performance celebrating the 150th year since the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. Many of the workers on the Transcontinental Railroad came from China; unfortunately, many of these workers died while constructing the railroad. Additionally, there has been a lack of commemoration for these Chinese workers as the US has kept quiet about the Chinese workers that came to the US and helped work on the railroad. Su wanted to commemorate these workers for all the hard work and sacrifices they made for the railroad to be completed as well as bring awareness to the controversies around the construction of the railroad.

I really enjoyed this virtual colloquium. I had never seen an entire symphonic performance before, so it was a new and interesting experience for me. Also, I was not aware that many workers for the Transcontinental Railroad were Chinese and how dangerous it was to construct the railroad due to the mountainous region they were building through. As a Chinese major and East Asian Studies minor, I am always looking for events that will teach me more about East Asian culture and history.

“Creating, Preserving, and Reengaging the Paris Agreement on Climate Change” (Academic)

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Thursday, November 12th, 2020

Andrew Light, a Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Atmospheric Sciences at George Mason University, discusses the Paris Climate Agreement in his lecture with the Center of Ethics and Human Values at OSU. Light explains the history of what the UN has done in terms of climate negotiation and how this history led to the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015. He also discusses the possible future of the role of the United States for climate change participation whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden were to win the 2020 presidential election.

I really enjoyed Light’s lecture and thought he was really engaging. As I get more invested in the topic of climate change, the more interested I am to watch lectures like this one. Additionally, I am in the middle of writing an essay for my Geography class on the role of the U.S. in climate change policy. In my essay, I plan to discuss the Paris Climate Agreement because I think it is important to think about the impact of the U.S. leaving the agreement. Now that Joe Biden has been announced as the President-Elect, it will be interesting to see what actions he takes in terms of climate change policies and negotiations.

Pan African Voices in the Era of BLM: Intergenerational Diasporans Speak on their Experiences in America (JEDI, Academic)

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Wednesday, October 21st, 2020

On October 21st, I attended a zoom call on Pan African voices. This lecture focused on identity and diaspora in America for African immigrants and African-Americans. I found two speakers, Keji and Emmanuel Latio, especially interesting. Their parents moved here from Africa and they talked about how they struggled with the identity of “black vs. African”. Emmanuel mentioned that his parents, although black themselves, were “anti-black” because of how they spoke towards African-Americans. He said that they talked down to them for the difference in culture, and in turn, Emmanuel said he grew up thinking it was bad to be “black”. As students who grew up in America with immigrant parents, they struggled with whether they should identify as black or as African. I found this topic interesting because I am a white female with non-immigrant parents, so I never felt as though I struggled with that sense of identity here in the U.S. I think this session was important for me to go to because I learned a lot more about identity and what people like Keji and Emmanuel go through as they grow up here in the states.

 

Human Rights Pasts and Futures: Pandemics, Racism, and Colonialism (Academic)

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Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020

On September 23rd, I attended a live zoom meeting with the Society of Fellows to hear guest speakers talk about racism and other human rights issues in the year 2020. This meeting is a part of their “digital dialogues” series. Issues covered include the Black Lives Matter movement, anti-Asian racism in wake of the pandemic, and the Hong Kong protests. There were three guest speakers who spoke on the different matters: Iyko Day, Tiffany King, and Shui-yin Yam. Dr. Day spoke about anti-Asian racism and the pandemic, Dr. King spoke about the BLM movement and protests, and Dr. Yam spoke about the Hong Kong protests. I found this digital dialogue to be extremely interesting because it summed up some of the largest events occurring in the U.S. and also caught me up with what is happening in Hong Kong. Because of the pandemic and the BLM movement, I sort of forgot about what was happening in Hong Kong and forgot to keep up with any new updates. The protests there have calmed down mostly due to the pandemic, but many are still protesting while keeping a distance from one another. Sadly, the police have weaponized the pandemic to stop people from protesting and using it as an excuse to arrest them, even if they are social distancing and wearing masks.

Virtual International Film Series: The Farewell

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Thursday, April 30th, 2020

When I saw that the Office of International Affairs was screening The Farewell live on Facebook, I was really excited. I have wanted to see this movie since it came out, but sadly haven’t found the time and have kept pushing it off. I enjoyed the movie a lot and one of my favorite aspects of the movie was that it was mainly in Chinese. This may seem like a small detail but I feel that this added authenticity to the movie and showed the directors and writers commitment to portraying Chinese culture correctly. As a White-American, the cultural norm of not telling the elderly that they are sick was strange to me, but I was interested to see both sides of the debate. The Farewell was a beautiful, yet heartbreaking, film about family, culture dynamics, and internal struggle. I am currently majoring in Chinese and minoring in East Asian Studies, so I try to take any opportunity to learn more about East Asian cultures.

Getting Caught Up on the Headlines with Sam Stelnicki

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Thursday, April 4th, 2020

On April 4th, I attended the Zoom session led by Sam Stelnicki where she discussed current global news. As an IS major, what’s happening around the world is very important and interesting to me. However, between COVID-19 hitting the US hard, Ohio State going online for the rest of the semester, and being quarantined in my house, I haven’t been keeping up with global news as much as I should due to stress. We started by taking a small quiz, where I knew some answers and not others. For example, I knew France had considered bakeries as essential businesses, but I was not aware that New Zealand had considered the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy as essential services. Although it seems that the only news occurring right now is related to COVID-19, it isn’t the case. Some non-coronavirus related news we learned about is that Putin postponed a referendum dealing with his presidential term, the flower industry in The Netherlands has been in crisis since Brexit was announced, and Turkmenistan has reported zero COVID-19 cases despite its close proximity to Iran. I really enjoyed this zoom meeting because we were able to discuss international news not dealing with the pandemic, but also domestic news that was dealing with the pandemic.

International News Trivia (Social)

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March 2, 2020

As someone interested in International news (hence my major) and cookies, I went to this event not only to test my own knowledge on the current events of the world and to munch on some insomnia cookies, but to also learn about events in which I hadn’t heard of or knew very little about. Bella went with me and we had a lot of fun with other IA members. The cookies were delicious and I felt I learned more about global events. This event was mainly centered around the global pandemic, COVID-19. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the details, so this event really helped me learn more about the problem. Although school is online for the rest of the semester, I think more of these events should be done next year, either in meetings or as IA events. I think this tests the students’ knowledge as well as teaching them facts they didn’t know. It’s also a fun way of doing this.

Taste of OSU (Campus)

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February 21, 2020

Bella, Tobi, and I decided to go to Taste of OSU to try foods we have never eaten before. Our floor RAs in Smith-Steeb were actually giving out free tickets (10 each) to those who signed up fast enough so we were all able to eat for free. Who doesn’t like free food? Since we arrived early at the beginning, it wasn’t too crowded yet and we didn’t have to wait in long lines. The first place we stopped was at a Taiwanese food booth where I got an egg dish with some spicy sauce on it. Next, we headed upstairs in the Union and into the Grand Ballroom, where most of the booths were. We tried all sorts of dishes from countries around the world: Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Japan, Germany, and many more. Personally, my favorite dish was the bulgogi from the Korean Student Association. It reminded me of the exchange student I had during senior year of high school. I remember the first Korean dish we made together was bulgogi. The bulgogi KSA made was better, though. We also enjoyed watching the performances some of the culture clubs put together. After the first hour, it started getting extremely busy in the Grand Ballroom, so we decided to leave. I think Taste of OSU is an event I want to go to next year as well because it was interesting and fun to try new foods and learn more about different cultures.

Let’s Taco ‘Bout it (Academic)

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Saturday, January 11, 2o2o

I decided to go to this event because one of my biggest fears is failure. I am such a perfectionist when it comes to success and achieving my goals that I constantly feel the pressure of possible failure. When I heard about this event, I thought it would be best for me to attend to hear some advice and stories from others who have also feared failure as I have. In the beginning, we ate burritos and chips from Chipotle (thank you for those, it was delicious), and then started a game of kahoot that asked a couple of questions about stress, school, and failure/success. After each question, the LCs would give short personal stories from how they have struggled with these topics and how they have learned to overcome these struggles. They also allowed us to share any stories or struggles we are going through. It was nice to hear other people talk about similar struggles as it made me realize that I can get through all of this just like they have. It also made me realize that I am not as alone here as I once thought. Being so far from my friends back home has made it hard for me to find people I can talk to. However, I am starting to get more comfortable with my friends and I am more able to talk about the struggles I am facing.

Lunar New Year Lantern Making (Social)

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Thursday, January 23, 2020

As a Chinese minor, the lantern making event sounded extremely interesting to me, so I went along with Tobi and Bella. At first, we were the only ones there, but soon a lot more people came and I was happy to see others take an interest in the event as well. I chose to make my lantern red and black, common colors during Lunar New Year in China. I also added gold Chinese characters onto my lantern. Some phrases I wrote on my lantern were “恭喜发财” (wishing good fortune), “新年快乐” (Happy New Year), and “心想事成” (may all your wishes come true). This event was a bonding experience for me with other IA Scholars I haven’t been able to talk to that much. As much as I struggled with the liquid glue, I really enjoyed this event and I think it was able to let some of my stress go for an hour.