K(no)w History, K(no)w Self Olivia Higa and Therese Santiago

Our third episode connects the cultural and historical overview of the first two episodes to the experiences of Asian women at Stanford. We talk about navigating Stanford’s campus as Asian female-presenting individuals, and we interview current Asian femme Stanford upperclassmen who comment on their experiences with fetishization and stereotypes.  Our guest speakers are East, Southeast, South and Central Asian, and our interviews with them revealed how the violence of colonialism and American imperialism in Asia is often reproduced in the dating world for Asian women. This episode covers many difficult experiences that Asian women at this school have had, but the purpose of this episode is not to highlight Asian victimization, but rather the strength, resiliency, and agency that these women have displayed in light of these circumstances.

In our second episode, we track the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes through racist, sexist media representation, specifically in film. We speak with Dr. Willam Gow, a Chinese-American San Francisco-based historian, educator, and documentary filmmaker. Our conversation provides a brief overview of Asian femme representation through the decades, from the films of Anna May Wong to recent productions, like Crazy Rich Asians, as well as stereotypes like the Lotus Blossom, Dragon Lady, model minority, ABG, and others that have persisted because of film misrepresentations. In our discussion about the model minority myth in particular, we highlight how harmful ideas like this have affected not only the Asian American community, but also other communities of color, namely the Black community.

Welcome to K(no)w History, K(no)w Self! The first episode of our podcast analyzes the history of Asian immigration to the U.S, through policies such as the Page Act of 1875, Expatriation Act of 1907 and the War Brides Act of 1945. We believe that understanding these policies, which greatly impacted Asian immigration, as well as the perception of Asian women in this country, is crucial to understanding the context behind the Atlanta shooting and other hate crimes against Asian women. In this episode, we interview Grace Poon Ghaffari (she/her), who is a sexual violence prevention specialist, anti-racist educator, trauma-informed healer, and a Ph.D. student. She also works at Stanford as the Assistant Director, Education & Outreach Manager for the Office of Sexual Harassment/Assault Education & Response. Our interview with her connects the impact of harmful legislation and Oriental tropes to our experiences as Asian women and potential solutions for healing cycles of violence.