Author: Zhida Song-James, Xin Su
The “Community Empowerment” Internship Program 2021 was sponsored by the Association of Chinese Americans for Social Justice (ACASJ) and the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA) and lasted for 3 months from March 15, 2021 to June 15, 2021. Six interns were selected to participate in the program and five successfully completed the program.
During the 3-month in the program, they worked together on the project “Historical Record of Chinese Americans” that help elevate the voice of Chinese Americans by writing/editing research articles of history of Chinese Americans, researching civil rights and social justice issues, building websites to promote the awareness of contributions from Chinese Americans historically. Two Interns were involved in website building and article posting and four interns edited and translated articles.
Eight authors from Historical Record of Chinese Americans served as volunteer advisors to the interns. They were Steven Chen, Qian Huang, Fan Jiao, Ann Lee, Xi Luo, Zhida Song-James, Xin Su, and Willam Tang (list by last name in Alphabetical Order).
In total, the interns read, edited/translated and posted thirty-five articles with a cumulative word count of approximately 100,000. Those articles have been published in Chinese previously on subjects of Chinese American history, achievements and contributions by authors of Historical Record of Chinese Americans.
The program is a unique learning experience through the process of serving the community. As intern Audrey described, through the program, they learned about the history of Chinese Americans, “a subject I have been curious about for a long time mostly because it seems to be left out……in most classrooms.” Those articles, contained information about the Chinese American experience that Chinese American youth were largely not aware of. Ella had similar experience. She found herself teaching other people facts about what she had learned from reading these articles. Many of her friends were impressed by the contributions of the Chinese in America, and surprised that they never learned about the subject in schools.
Interns said, they learned about the harsh, backbreaking work that the first Chinese immigrants did to survive in this country, the amazing achievements and contributions of Chinese immigrants, as well as decades of anti-Chinese legislation to keep the Chinese subservient and powerless, and serious of laws to keep the Chinese from entering the country. They shared the history of Angel Island, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the model minority myth. They concluded that “early Chinese-Americans, despite facing hardship from every corner of this new land, persevered and faced these challenges with dignity and determination. Chinese are like phoenixes, rising stronger from the ashes.
The program educated interns in many ways. They not only learned history but also become advocators to change, starting from educating younger generation through K-12 education. Joyce specifically pointed out that a case of a Chinese American mother sued San Francisco Board of Education after her daughter was denied admission just because of color of her skin was never taught in a school, although it was before well-known Plessy v. Ferguson. Michelle’ summery speak out for all involved: learning about the integral figures and events in Chinese American history which never taught about in school has inspired people to continue the fight for equal representation in society and for Asian American history to be included in the K-12 curriculum.
As completion of the “Community Empowerment” Internship Program 2021, four interns were awarded a Scholarship. Resources like “The Historical Record of Chinese Americans” will continue to enable young generations of Chinese Americans to understand that our community has contributed to this country just as much as any other group. Then, these young generations of Chinese Americans would be proud of their roots and charge forward to achieve even more greatness.
what an effort by the team!! this project is historic! Education o father about our history is important, education others who may have an adverse view of us are much more important. Thi project combined with this year’s Hate Crime Act and the AAPI Heritage Month has accomplished both!! thanks for your work! Fight on!