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Anh Phoong is a personal injury attorney who has become an icon in the Bay Area and beyond with her massive billboard campaigns and slogan, “Something wrong? Call Anh Phoong.” The child of Chinese-Vietnamese immigrants, Anh had humble beginnings growing up in San Jose and Sacramento. Starting at community college, she made her way towards law school after being inspired to pursue criminal justice. Anh graduated as valedictorian of Lincoln Law School and passed the California bar. After being turned down for a public defender job, she decided to start her own law firm specializing in personal injury. Far from an “ambulance chaser,” Anh has built a successful practice based on her skills as an attorney. When she shrewdly pursued an aggressive billboard campaign during the pandemic, she skyrocketed to success and has now become a ubiquitous personality all across California. -- Sponsored by Stem Social https://stemsocial.io https://instagram.com/stem.social Also sponsored by Lost Soul Courier Collective - call or text (415) 275-1922 for free Narcan delivery in San Francisco https://lostsoulcouriercollective.org For more info contact @traceyh415 -- For promo opportunities on the podcast, e-mail: historyofthebaypodcast@gmail.com -- Produced by DEO @deo415, videography by @mvp_kingced --- History of the Bay Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZUM4rCv6xfNbvB4r8TVWU?si=9218659b5f4b43aa Online Store: https://dregsone.myshopify.com Follow Dregs One: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1UNuCcJlRb8ImMc5haZHXF?si=poJT0BYUS-qCfpEzAX7mlA Instagram: https://instagram.com/dregs_one TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@dregs_one Twitter: https://twitter.com/dregs_one Facebook: https://facebook.com/dregsone415 00:00 Introduction 01:41 Parents immigrating from Asia 04:45 Criminal justice 07:48 Dregs' law background 10:49 Public defender's office 14:32 Applying to law school 20:36 Representation for Asian American women in law 23:56 Passing the bar exam 27:25 Starting her own law firm 39:19 Personal injury cases 44:50 Billboards 51:32 Expanding the business 56:49 Billboard costs 1:02:37 Becoming an icon 1:06:09 Competition 1:09:29 Putting yourself out there --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historyofthebay/support

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Important Resources: APSC 4 Action Toolkit Asian Prisoner Support Committee Website | Instagram Purchase Arrival: Freedom Writings of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Transcript: Cheryl: Good evening! You were currently tuned in to APEX Express. I'm your host Cheryl Truong, and tonight is an AACRE night. What is AACRE, you might be asking. Comprised of 11 grassroots, social justicegroups, the Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality Network — AACRE — leverages the power of its network to focus on long-term movement building and support for Asian Americans committed to social justice. Speaking of AACRE groups, APEX Express is proud to be a part of the AACRE network.  Tonight. I have the incredible honor to introduce you all to some very special friends of mine, members of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee APSC, which is also one of the 11 groups with the AACRE network. These individuals are among the most incredible people I've had the privilege to know. And tonight we'll be delving it to their stories and the important initiative that they're leading which is called #PardonAPSC4?  Their journey is not only one of immense resilience and courage, but also a Testament to the importance of community care and how community based approaches keep us safe way more than surveillance institutions or police ever will. So join us as they share their stories and also stick around to learn more about APSC's newest anthology, Arrival: freedom, writings of Asian and Pacific Islanders, where you can actually find some of their art and writings in physical form. So to start here with us, are Maria, Peejay, Bun, and Ke who put the four in APSC4. Peejay, do you mind kicking us all off with what the #PardonAPSC4 for campaign is all about?  Peejay: So APSC 4 are staff members at APSC and we all do different work at A PSC but our primary is helping our community. In general, fighting deportation, helping folks come home and reintegrate to society and supporting them with other needs that they may have, right? Mainly just to become successful citizen and. APSC4, despite our work, we all have backgrounds in incarceration, we're impacted, which means we're also at risk for deportation. And the campaign is born out of a desire to keep us home to fight our own deportation. And so we need the Governor Newsom to actually issue a pardon so that we can continue to do this work and stay with our family. Because otherwise, they would eventually, deport us. And as immigration is a very hard thing to deal with, and there's not a lot of options, especially with folks with convictions. And pardonness for us is like mainly the only thing that can help us stay home. And APS v4 mainly is to, it's a campaign to ask community members to support us, that mean elected official, that mean community members that you know, family members, anyone who's willing to support us, and basically uplift our campaign as well as reach out to elected and to Governor Newsom and encourage him to pardon us so that we can stay home and do this work. Cheryl: Thanks Peejay. You're literally hearing about the campaign directly from the people who are leading the way. So we know about APSC 4. We've heard a little bit about their campaign. But I also want you all to know about the people within APSC 4. And this is very in theme, especially with APSC's upcoming anthology Arrival, which captures stories of Asian American Pacific Islander individuals inside prisons, or who have been detained by ICE or have been recently released from ICE or prisons and as well as stories from impacted family members. So until you all get your hands on that, which is available for purchase now at Eastwind Books of Berkeley Berkeley. Which you can get at asiabookcenter.com. I would love to introduce you all to the beautiful, incredible, inspiring people of APSC 4. everyone's nodding their head. It's really cute. So let's start with,, maybe Ke, do you want to introduce yourself? Let our listeners know, who are you? Who are your people? Where do you come from?  Ke: Hi, my name is Ke Lam. My first, that's my full name is Nip Ke Lam which means in finishing my father's business in my language. So I'm Chinese Vietnamese. I also am a refugee baby who came here when I was four years old to America. So my people are all the impacted folks, all the juvenile lifers. And everyone that's trying to make a change in their life and looKeng for a second chance.  Cheryl: Thank you so much. I love that. Maria, do you want to introduce yourself next? Who are you? Who are your people?  Maria: Hi, my name is Maria Legarda and I'm the reentry consultant for APSC. My people are impacted folks, incarceration, immigration, detention, the survivors and, the resilient women who are still inside, those are my people. And my APC family and the community members who work towards change to improve our communities. People just didn't decide one day to commit crimes, right? There's always a reason behind because of events that led to that. People that make changes in the community to help it make it better for them to have that. Those are my people too. You know what else? I forgot what the question was.  Cheryl: Maria, you answered. Everything perfectly. The question was who are you and who are your people? And you answered it by giving a huge list of who your people are and I think that's very definitive of who you are as a person. But is there anything else you want to add to that, Maria?  Maria: I think that covered it all.  Cheryl: Beautiful. All right, Peejay, do you want to introduce yourself?  Peejay: So I am Peejay, real name is Borey Ai, but I go by Peejay, and Peejay has been in my life for many years longer than I can remember, but it has shifted and shaped in different forms, but I answer to both now, and I am a child refugee, I'm Cambodian, my family escaped the Khmer Rouge when it happens, and then I immigrate to Thailand to find refuge, and my mom and my dad met there, and so I was conceived and was born in Thailand, came to the United States when I was five, and yeah, and then got in trouble, trying to resettle into the, to the new environment, new culture, and I end up in prison. I share that to say that my people are folks who are impacted, people who I can relate to, and my experiences, so the refugee folks community And, my elders at CERI, obviously APSC and AACRE are all my community members and anyone who is in a fight, like where I'm learning, as I sit in a lot of different coalition spaces, doing my work, as an advocacy with APSC, and I've learned that a lot of community members are sharing the same work, sharing the same values, sharing the same goals, and the people that I'm in community with, so they are my people. And yeah, just like with Marie, like anyone who's striving to make changes to better our community members who are impacted is my community.  Cheryl: And last but not least Bun.  Bun: Hey, y'all! Thank you. My name is Chanton Bun, but I just go by Bun. I'm a, I was born during the genocide in Cambodia. I grew up in the refugee camps. Came to the U. S. when I was about six or seven years old. I'm formerly incarcerated. I'm a father of three boys. Grandfather Yeah, I'm the reentry coordinator here at Asian Prince Support Committee. And I also mentor at risk youth in our community. My folks are the incarcerated, the formerly incarcerated, the community the youth that is growing in our community now. And just supporting our community through a lot of these traumas that we still  Cheryl: It's so interesting hearing all of you introduce yourself because I work a lot with the APSC four members just through AACRE. But and I just learned that bun is a grandfather.    Bun: Yeah, I was gonna say that I'm not that old, but I am a grandfather.  Cheryl: All right now is that we've had the chance to hear from each of you about your backgrounds and the communities that you represent and the people that you carry with you. I would like to delve a bit deeper into your personal stories. Each of you have faced unique challenges and experiences that have shaped who you are today. Could you each share with our listeners a bit about some of the hardships that you have all encountered along your journey?  Bun: Oh, I can go.  Yeah. Growing up yeah, I grew up in the refugee camps. So I was faced with like starvation not knowing what safety was, there was, living in the refugee camps. There were so many I saw so many people hurt or walKeng in almost dead. I think I was numb to it coming to this country. I was faced with bullying a lot and being discriminated against. Being poor wasn't really. And I didn't realize we were poor because in the refugee camp, we were poor. So like coming here, we had, we had a roof on our head and food and, family all around the fear of, somebody coming into our house, just taKeng our stuff or, doing what they want because we were in refugee camps when I came to the United States. I didn't realize we were poor for a long time. But the bullying and the discrimination was really hard. I remember even the school discriminated against us because I guess they didn't know where we're from. One of my memory was me and my cousins and an uncle, we went to school and we all wore slippers. They called our parents to come pick us up and say, you guys cannot wear slippers. You need shoes. And like our parents didn't realize that we're like that's what we wear for shoes. So that's one of the first like memories. I knew that we didn't understand the U. S. And then, you know, Keds around the neighborhood. We're just picKeng on us because we didn't speak English or we didn't understand the rules we were, and then it was just like a bunch of us Keds. Cause when I came to LA, I lived in an apartment with about 25 of us living there because our cousins and stuff, all we came from Texas, our cousins were here. And we just wanted to be together because we've been separated for a while. And all we knew was me, my uncles, and my cousin, we walked everywhere together. Some of us caught on caught English earlier, so we understood more, some didn't. So we're just guiding each other. And then when we were bullied Our parents told us to just take it. And we knew that in, in the refugee camp we had no power. We took whatever they wanted. I remember getting robbed like three times a week and they're taKeng our pots and pans. So like keeping quiet was a thing. So we just kept quiet and we didn't trust authorities at all. Never complained to the principal or the teacher at all, but then we grew into That, that, that, that fear grew into anger and the need was protection. So the boys in, in, in my family is nah, we're not taKeng this no more. And we just started defending ourself, fighting and just or my thought, and I'm pretty sure like all my, my, my uncles and my cousin's thoughts were like, we got to protect. Each other because we can't walk home crying all the time or we can't walk home seeing our cousin walk home crying. So we just said the next time we're going to fight back and whatever the consequences and the cost. The consequences of coming home, like the teacher calling like, Hey, you're going to fight. That's what the consequences because our parents was like against fighting against violence. But, the consequences of getting detention in class wasn't, that wasn't nothing to us. We were scared of coming home, but that, that led into a lifestyle of violence, a lifestyle of feeling that I need protect myself from everything and don't matter what the situation was. And, it tumbled into joining gangs for protection and in the gang lifestyle. overtook that fear and we just, gravitated to it because it gave us strength. It gave us a sense of, sense of brotherhood, a sense of safety, a sense of I'm not going to get hurt no more. So that's how my life spiraled.  Cheryl: Yeah, the interesting thing about radio is that y'all can't see their faces when Bun was telling the story, literally everyone in this room right now, we're nodding their heads, and y'all can't see that because it doesn't translate into radio. Ke, I saw you nodding your head a lot. Do you want to share your story?  Ke: My story is very similar to probably Bun's and Peejay's being come here as a refugee baby. I don't remember my whole journey to America. I just remember my journey in America. I just, I remember growing, we moved around a lot in California. We came into San Francisco, moved around. I remember home for me was the barrier, but predominantly San Francisco. And we moved all over the city. We lived in Chinatown, 100th Point, Petro Hill, Sunset. I remember as a Ked parents separated when I was about six. No, in and out of relationship when I was seven. So they, they basically wasn't around for me or each other. They dealt with, dealing with trauma. My mom lost her parents on the way to America. Yeah. My mom's parents was actually murdered by pirates in the open South China sea. So she dealt with that and she did not deal with that to cope with that. So she, she did what she did best. And that's, is finding an end jobs and then dealing with a husband who was abusive. And so we live when we moved to patrol Hill. We got our place got robbed all the time. We ended up having to put bars on our doors and our windows. I remember my mom would say, don't go outside. Knows anytime of the day. So I basically was like in a prison in our little apartment. And I had to run this. I remember trying to go to school one time by myself and I got jumped multiple times. I remember they, they do rocks at me. They do run eggs at me. They push me push me down. They didn't let their dogs chase after me. So the funny joke about that, I said, I was grateful for them because they actually made me really good at track and field, so I was able to run real fast and jump fences, so that was, I like, I was grateful for that. But I took, the route to school was only five minute walk, but it took me 30 minutes every day to, one each way to come to go to school and come home, just so I could avoid my bullies. I remember one time they actually caught up to me when I was like eight years old, and I had to, I had really no choice but to fight. And after that day, after they jumped me, after I fought one of those guys, I remember I was standing over the Ked that I fought, and I saw the parent just yelling at me like how you let that chink, that Chinese Ked, that chink beat you up. And then I saw his friend walKeng up to me like they about to assault me, and I'm like, I'm about, I'm, I'm about to get messed up, but instead they congratulated me. They said good job, welcome to the neighborhood. And so I'm like, from that day on, I normalized violence. Violence is the way to solve your problems, and it's also the way to be accepted in the neighborhood. And that's, and that opened my eyes to, everywhere I looked, there was violence, all different forms of violence. My mom was gone all the time. She was never home. I became a parent. My mom had my second, third oldest my brother. And I end up becoming a parent at eight years old, raising my little brother for a whole year by myself because the neighbor was some old elderly Asian couple just didn't care about him. He had diaper rashes and I just took care of him. I built a lot of resentment towards my mom. I'm like, you abandoned us. You abandoned me. You abandoned my brother. What Kend of mother are you? I remember I went out, I stole diapers, stole formulas, stole food, also begged for money at the streets not in the neighborhood, but, different parts of the cities and yeah, it just, I, it felt, I felt like my mom didn't care. My dad was never around, he was out of the picture, so I didn't even think about him. My teenage years. I became really good at sports, played a lot of sports growing up. At the age of 15, we moved to Richmond, California, where I got introduced to the gang lifestyle. I didn't know nothing about gangs. It was the first time I actually grew up, I went to a school where there was a lot of Asians. In San Francisco, all the schools I went to were predominantly Blacks and Mexican and Pacific Islanders. And I didn't know, certain words meant certain things, and then I learned what a blood and a crib is. I didn't know what that was, because I remember growing up in San Francisco, we used the word, the term blood all the time as a form of, like family. And so when I went to Richard and they were like, what's up? I was like, what's up, blood? And they were like, just cuz. I'm like, cousin? I was confused. I didn't like, I didn't know what that meant. But then I didn't know that by me hanging out with them that their enemies also became my enemies. And and then I remember if I walked around by myself, their enemy would try to attack me thinKeng I was one of them, which I wasn't. And so I became a wannabe at the time and I like associate with them. I started KecKeng with them. But one thing that drew me really close to the gang, the Asian gang, was that our story was very similar to each other. They understood my story, understood this story. We all struggled. I remember growing up, I had to be a translator for my parents, my mom. She would take me out of school and I resented her for that. Why? I didn't want to learn English. And so that was, and that just came on as I got older. That resentment came and then I committed my crime when I was 17 years old because I was trying to show my homeboys like you got to show me love. I'm gonna be there. I want to be the best I could be. I wanted a name for myself. I wanted that respect. And I didn't think about the consequences at the time. My life was on, it was on the road down destruction. So I didn't care about myself and I didn't care about nobody else and I didn't care about my siblings either at the time. And so that's what ended up happening to me before, growing up as a Ked. Cheryl: What about you, Peejay? Peejay: Yeah, I think what Keechi said, like my life And Bun and his similar, like I came here when I was five and then like I got bullied right away, right? Like at the earlier stage. And at the time I didn't even, I didn't even understand it, even know what it is. And I think like this one story Kend really highlighted my introduction to bullying. I was in the park, a bunch of Keds laughed at me, right? They're laughing, right? And so I'm like, at the time I didn't know they were laughing at me. They were just laughing. And so I laughed. I thought they were laughing, because we're friends or something, right? They liked me. So I laughed too. I didn't know what that was laughing about, but one of the Keds got angry and came up and punched me in the face. I realized, he punched me in the face, he was screaming and yelling at me, I didn't know what he was saying but I understood right then and there he wasn't laughing with me, he was laughing at me. So what happened, I laughed too, so it got him angry, learned right away, What like bully was right and then I wasn't like well accepted, share the same story of like most Southeast Asian community, we get spit on we get beat up, in school and things like that. But I think the message I got, most deeply about I'm not wanted, is, we talked about that the Cleveland elementary school shooting, that was where I was with the first school shooting in the United States where Southeast Asian community was targeted by, And I lost my cousin during a school shooting. But that was like a big statement, some dude showed up in the, in the playground, climbing up the roof with an AK 47 and shooting at us, right? They were like telling me, that's a big statement you're not wanted, for me it was like, I grew up in a very bad environment as it is, where there's a lot of gangs, there's a lot of violence, a lot of shooting, a lot of, stuff happening in the neighborhood and then, getting constantly bullied all the time and, spit on and tell you that you're not wanted to go back to your country. And then when that happened, I just shut down, I didn't believe that my environment is safe anymore. And I, obviously when you're in a refugee camp, like when I go you don't feel safe, you know what safety is, right? So I grew up never feeling safe, right? And I was moving around. And so that led me to gangs, right? Like he, I joined a gang. I felt the love in the gang. The bully stopped, and they started giving me hugs, showing me love and as someone who craves acceptance, since the day you step into a new country, just wanting to belong somewhere that felt really good, and I was a Ked. I was like, man, I felt so good. Like I felt like I belong somewhere. Like people care about me. This is my family. And for me, like that, that bought me into this idea, like this is what most of my life is about. I'm going to give everything for these, for the homies. And, the Ke, I agreed to commit a crime, At 14 and end up in the prison system as one of the youngest juvenile lifer, and I was pretty much raised in the system. I think I spent more time in prison than I've been home, been out on the street. So everything I learned, in prison, right? And then I came home as an adult after 20 something years. And not like trying to just, as an adult in a new society with not a lot of experience. So fortunately, people like he, people like Bun, Maria, who does this work, that's why APC4 Reentry Program is so important, right? Because people like me didn't know how to use a cell phone, didn't know how to turn on a computer, didn't do a lot of stuff, right? I've learned a lot of stuff in prison. So I have a lot of advantage as I was investing in myself and doing my programming to earn my parole, but even still this stuff, I didn't know, and I imagine people it was worse than both of I was to have some knowledge and have a lot of access that I did, but I'll show you, I'll show you to say it's hard, it's hard in our work, help transition. I remember he took me shopping, show me how to use Bart, how to use public transportation. The trajectory of my life would have much been different. If I grew up in a different environment, like that's something I was clear about. And so now like we try to create those environment for our community because we'll know better. We learn from our past experience and now like giving back to our community. Is, for me, it's like, for me, like this work is my life, like it's my life because I've lived through it, like someone saved my life, I didn't want to make it home without people showing up, doing this work. So I feel like for me giving back and continuing this work is part of the commitment. Creating change and giving back, but I feel like I was meant to do this, like I, I came home with a purpose, I went to prison with absolutely no clue, just trying to survive. And I came home with a purpose. I feel like I have some Kend of meaning in my life. So that's Kend the short summary of my life. I like my connection to APS C is my work and my work is my life. Cheryl: (Peejay I think your genuine passion for what you do really shows, and I'm sure our listeners can feel it too.) Maria, please. We would love to hear your story. .  Maria: For me. Unlike Peejay, Ke, and Bun, I wasn't a refugee, during the war. I immigrated to the U. S. During the time when the economic the economy in the Philippines is not doing great. I was born during the time of the Marcus dictatorship. That was during Ferdinand Marcus regime in the Philippines where we were under his dictatorship for 30 years. During that time, growing up. I had siblings and my younger sister became ill, with my parents being gone all the time taKeng care of my sister. It was a difficult childhood, from what we were used to, and just the changes. In our lives. And at that time, my parents did the best that they could to support us, all three of us, but because they don't know actually what was going on with my sister, right? It was difficult for a parent to see their child. Child suffering, and she was young. She was only four. So at that time, I was left to take care of my brother. And it was the two of us, fending for ourselves. It took a toll on my parents, and the time spent with me and my brother and my sister were very limited. And I felt abandoned. This was our life before, my sister got sick. We were happy. We're going on vacations summer. By the beach, even if it's just, right there, you go to the beach with your chocolates and you just hop on the, the side of it's the islands, right? So we had fun. We just stopped doing all those things. And the only thing we knew was my sister was sick. That was it. My parents didn't know how to explain something that they don't know either what was going on. So I guess that my expectation is such a young age is, my parents were in my world. So expecting them to tell us like what was going on and the feeling of that abandonment and that unworthiness being unloved and cared for really was there, it's just there, but I never manifested it because I didn't know how to, but I knew what I was feeling inside. And so when parents fought my sister's condition got worse and eventually at the age of 10, she passed away, so my parents would, my parents, other than the heartache, the heartbreak of losing a child was left with huge financial debt. In, in our culture, the eldest takes care of the family, right? So at that time I was going to school my parents provided for us that we can still go to school. It was hard. We managed it. We went through a lot, but in the end my parents did the best that they can for me and my brother. So I, I had the opportunity, to come to the U S. And I came here by myself without any contingency, any plan, but the idea that maybe when I get there, then I'll figure it out because I see a lot of people leaving the Philippines, coming over here, finding work. So I'll also do that. And that was the trend during that time. In the 90s, a lot of people were immigrating to the U. S. to find like a better life, right? And so when I came during that time I mentioned that longing, the attention, that abandonment. And so I was here alone and I met someone. I met someone and everything that I needed, that person listened to me. He cared. He loves me. He actually, somebody does actually care how I feel. And so I never thought that he would be the person to hurt me. And so we were talKeng like really getting to know each other. And then six months, we decided to meet. And on the day we met, I became a victim of sexual assault. And Again, the, it was worse, there were, I don't even have words for how, I felt after the betrayal because my whole world just shattered, and being alone here, it wasn't, it's not like the Me Too movement that we have now. Back then, we don't speak of it. And one thing I did at that time that I tell the women now, the young women, it is not your fault because I met him. Do I really know him? No. Growing up in a culture where you just don't go out with somebody you don't know, right? That was the time then people were meeting chat rooms, online dating. So I carried that guilt with me that it was my fault. For a long time, it took me a long time to really process that it wasn't my fault. It was done to me. I didn't ask for it. But I carried that. So drugs were the only thing that I was able to cope with because it made me numb. It made me forget. It gave me that false sense of power that I can take control back of my life. Not knowing that once I use drugs, I, it, I become numb to it all. And that eventually led me to incarceration. And so now after years of self introspection and just understanding what has, what the challenges and, the difficulties and all the heartbreaks that I had went through in life, going to self help groups and hearing the other survivors overcome it And stepping out of that that it was my fault, having to hear that the first time is what broke me free from that. Now, in my line of work, I can easily recognize it, because I was there. I know how it felt. And I always I've been, blessed to be able to grant that space, that safety space for our folks, men and women, when they share their struggles, because I've been there. I know what it's like. So I do, I'm passionate about my work because I've seen how I've turned things around. I saw myself, how I picked myself back up. I saw myself when I was really down that at the end of the day when people around you care enough to get to know you more than your past, you're going to get through it, and my, work in APSC And Ke would be the I came out of detention and Ke was one of the first one of the first people that I met other than Nia, Nia was a volunteer at that time with APSC and being undocumented it was hard for me to get anything. So Ke was there from the beginning. This is what you need to do. Don't worry. I'm going to walk you through it. And without Ke. guiding me through those steps it would have been much harder. It was already hard, but this was going to be extremely harder if he didn't give me the guidance. He didn't know what was going to happen, but he knew something to guide me. So that's why that's how I Eventually got to work with APSE because the first time they had their internship program, I think five minutes into posting it, I already submitted my application because I knew that the journey that I was taKeng on at that time as an undocumented immigrant, I know that there's going to be ways that I'm gonna, I have to find another way. Because I'm not the only one, and I know a lot of women coming home, men and women that are coming home are going to need their IDs, are going to need their social security, are going to need all their documentation, and who's best to explore them, right? Than me. Why? Because right now, this is where God has me, right? He has me on this path to help people. So let's get it done. And so that's why I stay with my APSC because I believe in what they do for a community because they started with me.  Cheryl: Maria!. That is such a beautiful point. And I think that last sentence that you shared is really why I admire the work of APC. So, so incredibly much, like not only is it work. For. Impacted folk. But it's also led for and by impacted folk who really understand the experiences of what it's like. And when your work is led by those who have truly experienced the impact firsthand. You approach people with a level of empathy that makes a real difference. And I'm listening to the things that you've all shared. You know, it's clear that what often matters most are the things that people like me who have never been behind bars often take for granted, you know, it's things like. You know your stories of needing Ke to. Teach you how to navigate BART? How do you secure your ID? What's a. Social security number. And the emotional support that comes with helping someone reintegrate into society. I truly don't know where a community would be without the incredible work that you all do with APC for.   Now I'm eager to learn more about the impactful work that you're doing within our community. What has been some of the most rewarding aspects of your work in. Reentry support and mentorship. Time is a factor. So maybe we could hear from maybe two of you. Bun: I think the most rewarding about re entry for me is, Watching the person I'm helping know that they have support, in my life there was nothing out there to support us other than gangs. But just. Watching them know that they have support, empowering them and their family to understand the system understand a person when they're coming home with family relations, and also relationships with their Keds because a lot of us have been incarcerated for so long. Just that, like he always say the first 90 days are important to show them the support that they really need because like myself, I was lost. I was like a loss, the last person coming home. I didn't even know how to cross the street. It took somebody to come take me to cross the street and walk me down the street because I wouldn't do what I was like, I can't do it. It's terrifying. But yeah just. A lot of folks often think like reentry is like a, no, we have to go get you a job, get you this. And those are important too. But the important thing is the little things like, teaching, teaching somebody how to answer their phone, teach them how to, setting up their calendar, teaching them across the street, walKeng, maKeng decisions when we're ordering stuff, taKeng them shopping, letting them shop for themselves. So these are the little things that. A lot of us and especially myself, I could speak for having anxiety, it was a really big anxiety of learning how to navigate society when I came home. I think a lot of our folks in reentry and. And it's crazy. Often, like when we take them on everybody in RedsKens is thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm like, what are you thanKeng me for? This is what you deserve, and then you'll hear it. They'll thank us all day. And we want to relate to them. This is what you deserve. This is what all of us deserve when we're coming home. This is what all of us deserve when we're growing up in our communities is this support from people that looks like you. People come from the same background, people that understand you. That's what really give me a lot of joy when I do my work is to seeing folks know that they do have support from folks that have been through it and folks that look like them, folks that's been through things like them. So that's my biggest joy when I do this work,  Ke: I like to jump in real quick I remember when I came home before all the rest of my colleagues here. I had no one like no one knew how to navigate the system. No, I like I came home with a loss of status. So I didn't know that I wasn't American that, I got released from immigration. And it just Kecked me out. And then it's I want to go get an ID. And it's we need two form of IDs. And I'm like, what do you need? They need, they said, we need a birth certificate or a passport. And I said, I have neither, no, neither one. And they said, what about a green card? I said my green card is no good no more. According to what they told me. So I'm like, I have no former I. D. I couldn't get I. D. And it took me a while to get I. D. And just learning how to navigate barred and everything. It was I have a lot of gray hairs behind it. I have my head on, so you can't see, but it was really difficult to navigate. And then it's I had no one that looked like me that went through that process, right? And there was no program for A. P. I. folks that's coming out to have that support. And I'm so grateful for Asian Prison Support Committee for giving me that, for opening that door for me to learn this process, but also to receive the help. And I think for me, the highlight like Bun named a lot of the great stuff. I think for me, the it's my way of maKeng amends for the harm that I caused. That's why I do this work. I can, I could have left this job for a really good trade job, get great money, maKeng six figures a year, but I'm like, I need to get back, because that, this is my way of healing myself, not just the other person, it's just, it's Kend selfish to say that. But I if I can't heal myself, how can I help heal the next person? And that's why I do this work. And I remember one of the guys I picked up from immigration, he's he had a choice of his family and us, formerly incarcerated folks, to pick him up. And he's I'm grateful for you guys to pick me up. And I'm like, why? He said, because you guys understand me. You guys understand if my family came, it would have been a such a disconnect with them because they wouldn't understand it was like you have to do this, you have to do that. And then this is what you should do is but for us like we know what to do, and then we understand like choices, being incarcerated for decades and coming out like choices is really difficult for us, people tell what do you want, and we like, I don't know. We was limited to what we had inside. And so that's why I keep doing this work. Like with the rest of them, it's like giving back, but also at the same time healing. We're on this healing journey together.  Cheryl: I know I only said two people, but I really watched the way Maria's eyes fricKen sparkled when I asked this question. Maria, I want to know what has been the most rewarding part of worKeng at APSC?  Maria: Am I that I'm easily read? No, because the one thing and he and by with no we had a client, she had a drug past these two, she was, she had a, oh my god, I said that backwards past drug use. And she worked on actually worKeng on getting her substance abuse, counseling. So we help her get through it online classes register for her use gift cards to get that online classes paid like every avenue that we could think of we helped her get that in the same time. She was trying to get custody of all her children. And so walKeng her through her online classes and being there by her side, like just cheering her on, you can do this. And so with her heart and mind into it, she was able to do it. She graduated. She finished it. And at the same time it was just getting hit with left and right with different problems, around getting custody of her child children. But because she has the support of a PSE. She said, I would have never been able to get through all this if not for your weekly calls that you check up on us. It doesn't matter whether it's me, whether it's Ke, Bun, because it's a, it's an effort, a team effort, right? Me and Bun would go there when she needed us, as a support. And so when she finally finished her school she was able to go to an internship. And now she works for another nonprofit organization, and she actually refers clients to us now because she became a substance use counselor. And then on top of that, gained custody of her three Keds. How much more work an AP has to do, right? With family reunification, that's what it's all about. It doesn't matter what your past was, it matters like how you're going to move forward. Yeah, your past, they're always going to bring it up, right? Because you have a record. But what they're not going to be able to take away from you is what you go from this point on, from that abusive relationship, and you were able to take it out, and you're able to do something with your life and get your Keds back, and now you have a home for them. That's what the work is about. It's not just about helping people, when they first come home, but it's that care that you nurture them in their journey. That's why our job is not eight to five, unfortunately, and it doesn't, our job doesn't stop after six months. They become family to us and that's really what APSC is about, and that's one of the joys seeing her graduate, become a counselor and have her Keds back. So that's our APSC, one of our stories, our re entry stories that really we talk about it all the time.  Cheryl: I could speak the praises of the incredible work that APSC 4. Does forever. But until then we have to take a quick music break. To our listeners. If you take anything away after hearing these stories, it's that we need to collectively demand that governor Newsome, pardons APSC 4 for. Formerly incarcerated leaders like the APSC four are at the heart of our movement. They're compassion and resiliance inspire us all to create change in our communities. And yet despite their work and transformation. Maria Key bun and PJ remain in this immigration limbo and are at risk of being detained by ice and deported. Uh, deporting APS. Core staff would devastate our community.  So please join me in urging governor Newsome to take action now to pardon APC for. To protect them from deportation by going to this link. bit.ly/APSC4 for all in capital letters. It'll also be linked in our show notes.  Once again, the link is bit.ly/APSC4 this is an all capital letters. This is a direct link to the APC for action toolkit, which will give you different action items you can do to join us in. The fight to part in APC for. There's a call script for governor Gavin Newsome. Demanding the protection of APC for there are sample tweets you can send out. There is a petition. You can sign there also graphics you can share on social media. So please, please check out this link. You could even do this during our music break. Once again, the link is bit.ly/APSC4 N all capital letters. When we come back, we're going to be tackling broader issues and systemic change.  So don't go anywhere.   Cheryl: And we're back. You were listening to apex express on 94.1, FM KPFA and online@kpfa.org. You were just listening to change the world by baby Chris. We have currently with members of APS C. Maria Key PJ and bun. And the first half of the show, we delved into their personal stories, struggles and advocacy efforts. But in order to give you all a comprehensive understanding of their stories. We need to talk about the broader systemic dynamics that are at play. So let's dive back in.   Bun: For me immigration need to look at what we've been through and also what California said, we got a second chance. We earned our second chance. We have proven that we are change, and we, APSE4, have proven that coming back to the community, we are an asset to our community. I think they need to really look into that. Folks that have been have proved themselves through the board, through finishing their term, that we all deserve a second chance. If a citizen deserves a second chance, why not us? And what is the difference, other than we were born somewhere else? Our lives, our family, our communities here. So yeah, they need to really look into what a second chance  Ke: mean. I don't think there's anyone in the world that has not made a bad choice in their life or a mistake. Like to be defined by the worst day of your life for the rest of your life. Like, how is that just, especially in a country that is You know, the pillar of human rights, we say who built America, immigrants built America. How do we make America great again? We save our immigrant and refugee community. That's how we make America great again. It's not by, I look at it when you put people through the immigration system, it's like slavery all over again. Prisons, no different. It's like slavery all over again. If we talk about humanity, we talk about a just system. We talk about second chances. We talk about people. These are people that are incarcerated, not numbers, not products. not just a person that made a terrible choice, these are people, mother, father, grandfather, aunties until we start seeing people as people, we will continue to dehumanize them. And yeah, yes, we made some bad choices in our life. But at the same time, like Bunce said, we are redeemable. Just give us that second chance to show you. And that's what APSC's Board has been doing. We've been showing everyone that we, yeah, we own it. We, yeah, we take accountability for what we've done. At the same time we're showing you that we're not that same person anymore. And put it out there for everyone is yes, look at, don't always look at the harm that people cause, but look at the reason why they made that choice. And if you understand where they came from, it'll tell you why they did what they did, but also you give them that chance, they can show you that they can make a difference. Yeah, I know like  Peejay: the way I see life now, and this is Kend of like mind boggling to me because a lot of people like are conservative or very smart. We're educated. And then, to me, it's if you truly value peace, right? You truly value people's lives. Community, right? You have to treat everyone equally, the same, right? We start treating people differently, you create division, that's how you divide us. California isn't supposed to be a state that is full of division, it's supposed to be, the value is that we're all together, right? We're from all walks of life, and a melting pot, right? Of cultural and diversity, and that's what makes it so amazing and beautiful, and you can find anything here in California from any part of the world. Like we made California an amazing place, right? So then, like, when you see about the anti Asian hate, like, all the movement about solidarity, then you turn around and say, okay we're going to treat these people differently and just deport them because they committed a crime, but then we're going to say, like, all these other people, they redeemed themselves, too, but we're going to give them another chance, to me, that would make no sense, right? You're creating division, we're people, we should treat everybody the same. And we all have, it's not like we didn't earn it, we're not talKeng about giving people a chance to give a chance we're giving people a chance to earn a chance. And then we have proven ourselves. And I think that's a testament, like I'm going to keep living my life the way I live my life. I'm going to keep pushing and helping people because that's what I'm meant to do. And I don't think that's going to change me no matter what people think of me, but I think if people really put money where their mouth is, then they should really more solidarity, like watching people differently when we're trying to bring people together. I don't know. That's, maybe that's too simple, but to me, it's no brainer, if you want to pull us all dirty, then do it. Stop talKeng about it,  Cheryl: maria, did you have anything you wanted to add?  Maria: I second everything that Bun, Ke, and Peejay mentioned, second chance is, to me, it's, we weren't born here, right? But, our community is we're helping our community become safe. We're helping our community thrive, and I'll look at that. Cheryl: I  Maria: got distracted, but they would someone that never had a conviction, what are you doing to help your community thrive? So the only difference between me, but he and Peejay is that we had a conviction. But we're here to serve our community, and yet at any given day, he can just pick us up and deport us. And then what happens, who's going to continue to work, because like I said, our jobs not eight to five, and it doesn't last a six month program. It's a lifetime. No. So who's willing to pick up that responsibility, because we are. So I hope that, in the near future, like the policies and the immigration see past the conviction. And see us that we matter, took us a long time to regain that work to believe in our own worth, because we're now we know what our value is, and we fight for our freedom to stay here to not get sent back to a country we've never been in, because now we know what our value is. We know our community values us, our family holds us dear. And without our work in the community, who's going to save the children, the youth, who's going to help the elders, who's going to bridge that gap, because there are more and more people that's going to be in and out of the system. And who's going to help them. And that's, that's my hope that, one day they see us as equals, and not just. immigrants who are not born here.  Cheryl: I hope that by this, after hearing all of these incredible stories of APSC4, you all know how important and integral that Boone, Peejay, Maria, Ke are to our community. I know just from my own experience that They are core members of my own community, and I don't know where our community would be without them. Learn more about PartinAPSC4 in the show notes. I want to thank all of you so much for coming on our show tonight. Thank you all so much for being here, for sharing your stories, and for continuing this really incredible work that y'all are doing. Yeah, we'll see you on the next show. Thanks, everyone! Thank you, have a good night!  Ke: Alright, bye!  And that's the end of our show. Learn more about the incredible work being done by Apsu for, by checking out the show notes. Don't forget that the APC for action toolkit is also available at the link bit dot Lee slash APC. that's the number for all capital letters. And it's also available in our show notes as well.  And also don't forget to check out the new anthology published by Asian prisoner support committee. APC called arrival freedom, writings of Asian and Pacific Islanders. This anthology was several years in the making.  And offer us an intimate insight into the lived experiences of AAPI communities, entangled within the criminal legal system and immigration. From tales of resilience, amiss adversity to profound reflections on identity and belonging, arrival explores themes of war, memory, prison, transformation, healing, and the pursuit of home.  This is available for purchase at Eastwind books of Berkeley. www.asia book, center.com.  Cheryl Truong: Apex express is produced by Miko Lee, Paige Chung, Jalena Keane-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar. Shekar, Anuj Vaidya, Kiki Rivera, Swati Rayasam, Nate Tan, Hien Nguyen, Nikki Chan, and Cheryl Truong   Tonight's show was produced by me, cheryl. Thanks to the team at KPFA for all of their support. And thank you for listening! The post APEX Express – July 11, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

Listen to ASCO's Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “The Road Less Traveled: Perspective From an Australian Oncologist” by Stephanie Hui-Su Lim, Medical Oncologist at Macarthur Cancer Therapy center in New South Wales, Australia. The essay is followed by an interview with Lim and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. Lim shares her thoughts as an oncologist dealing with a patient that has decided not to continue with treatment.  TRANSCRIPT Narrator: “The Road Less Traveled: Perspective From an Australian Oncologist” by Stephanie Hui-Su Lim  He had been diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer in his late 30s and was responding well to first-line treatment. Physically fit, with a good tolerance to therapy, there was no stigma of sickness or telltale signs of cancer lurking around him. His partner usually attends with him, offers polite nods, few questions asked, but you could sense her underlying nervousness and fear of the unknown. Between the short phrases of broken English and the interpreter talking, consultations were usually pleasant, the right questions were asked, and I would end the consultation by asking how his family was doing back in Vietnam. Born to Chinese-Vietnamese parents in a city on the outskirts of the capital, he migrated to Australia 10 years ago. He worked hard, exercised, ate a healthy blend of an Asian and Western diet, and check-boxed all the requisites to build a good life. On this occasion, his cancer was slowly progressing although remained largely asymptomatic. His optimism stayed stable, and he kept his full-time job. I discussed switching treatment. “Do you have any questions?” As I shuffled the consent form, information sheets in Vietnamese, pathology form, imaging request, and follow-up bookings, I waited for the interpreter on the other end of the phone to speak. COVID-19 was still lingering, and our face-to-face interpreter service had largely been replaced by phone calls. My now 40-year-old patient, alone today in the clinic room, looked at me and the care coordinator, then spoke something to the phone. The voice on the other end said he has no questions, he is “keen to get on with it.” “Ok then, we'll get him to sign here, and I'll need your healthcare interpreter number too.” An exchange of words ensued, perhaps some things were repeated over. Then my patient smiled, and waited. “He says thank you doctor but he doesn't want any treatment.” It was not the answer I was expecting. I had explained his slow disease progression, multiple lines available, and good tolerability of treatment, maintaining his quality of life and maximizing survival. I had gone through the projected life expectancy at this point, which was still measured in the order of short years if we pursued all standard therapies. “Can you ask him again? That he does not want any treatment?” Perhaps the interpreter had not relayed what I said. Perhaps I had not emphasized the benefits of continuing treatment. Perhaps there were misplaced reasons for declining evidence-based treatment, the clues of which I had learned to pick up quickly, gleaned from conversations over family dinners from my own family of migrants. When my patients decline treatment in a context where the clinical benefits clearly outweigh potential harm, I often feel I have not done enough. If I spent more time talking them through their decision making, guiding them through hypothetical what-if scenarios, then would we have gotten to the same page? Was I sure they were compos mentis? Should I call the other listed relatives and have the same conversation with them? In his case, he had made a capable and informed decision. We are used to the well-trodden path of exhausting appropriate standard treatment before transitioning to a best supportive care approach. However, when patients choose the less traveled path where their cancer journey and life expectancy are truncated by choice, we may struggle to understand their decision. I felt a sense of frustration at his polite declining of potential years of life and unfairness when the next patient, unfit and exhausted of all therapies, begged for more treatment options or anything that could give them another extra day. I sought to try to better understand the reasoning behind his decision. I have encountered many culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) patients throughout my journey as an oncologist and personal experiences in my own migrant family. Our health district has one of the most diverse populations in the state, with one in 10 having limited English proficiency. Almost half the population speak a language other than English.1 We often see as many interpreters as patients in the waiting room, multiple extended family members crowding into small consult rooms, and multitude of language translations of patient booklets being the only recognizable information to new patients in an otherwise foreign cancer center. I understood the importance of cultural awareness, and that cultural differences feed into decision making. But what were the beliefs, concepts, and cultural norms that shape what they do and value? An Australian study investigating the attitudes of Chinese migrant patients toward cancer identified several key areas including the nondisclosure of a poor prognosis, importance of family in mediating between health professionals and patients, incorporation of Chinese culture–specific treatment, importance of interpreters, and psychological and spiritual support.2 Chinese patients use combat strategies on the basis of traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese beliefs of food to maintain health, exercise with Qigong, Feng Shui/spatial organization, and ancestor worship.3 Chinese illness conceptualization includes concepts of karma, fate, and retribution.4 There are recurring themes that arise, with another study highlighting the importance of the Chinese beliefs in fate and luck, ying and yang, stoicism as a coping mechanism, importance of family, fear of losing face, and denial of diagnosis as a means of protecting the family. A common thread of family playing an essential role, rather than a patient autonomy approach, was evident. There is a need to incorporate these beliefs into culturally appropriate programs.5 Sadly, not much is known about the cultural impacts on patient decision making. Research into race, culture, and ethnicity is thought to be too restrictive.6 Research investigating interventions to improve patient-centered care and participation in the treatment process in CALD has found positive effects of culturally tailored video and patient navigator interventions.7 A recent review also found patient navigation as an effective strategy in improving patient care, from screening through to diagnosis, treatment initiation, and likely also in the active treatment and survivorship phase.8 Importantly, cultural barriers were evident. An Australian study looking at CALD needs in outpatient cancer clinics highlighted the importance of recognizing language-related needs and care teams adapting practices and available resources to make it work for CALD communities.9 Work in other CALD groups has also focused on the triadic relationship between the patient, the patient's family, and physicians.10 Latin American women who were less acculturated deferred to their families or friends to make treatment decisions, highlighting the importance of familism as one of the most culturally specific values for Latinas. Loyalty and solidarity among members of the family are integral to decision making. Asian and Latino patients are seen to have a higher rate of patient passivity because of cultural norms that respect physician authority.11 A systemic review of cancer beliefs in minority populations, the majority based in United Kingdom and United States, found low health literacy, fatalism, and stoicism as common themes.12 Decision making in a systematic review, with a predominant African American minority group, found the themes of spirituality, fatalism, and acculturation to be important in the treatment decision process.13  Ultimately, all these cultural beliefs and concepts feed into how patients decide which treatment road they wish to take. Shared decision making models in ethnic minorities have taken into account human values recognized across different countries and the relation between these.14,15 As clinicians, we often focus on the disease, with the goal being to get rid of as many cancer cells as we humanly can and prolong our patient's life expectancy while maintaining quality of life. I often feel we require tangible goals which can be measured in time and percentages, hazard ratios, and survival odds at 2 or 3 years. For the patient sitting on the opposite side of the desk, who are only single points on a Kaplan-Meier curve, goals may be very different, shaped by their own cultural values and beliefs. What numerical value can we place on traveling overseas back home, enjoying conversations over family dinners, rather than going to the cancer center for the next cycle of treatment? My patient had decided his goal was to return home to his family in Vietnam. I saw him in clinic several times, each time gaining more of an understanding of his decision. I spoke to his partner, we obtained a face-to-face interpreter. We discussed culturally appropriate support groups. He was active in local community groups who provided spiritual and existential support. I enquired about herbal remedies, which he had been on preceding his cancer diagnosis and continued with our pharmacist's approval. We turned to discussing where he was going to be living in Vietnam, potential complications during the flight home, provision of a medical letter, and copies of his tests. He remained uncertain about the prospect of further treatment, that it was hard to access good medical care and did not offer any answers about whether he planned to seek out treatment in the big city hospitals back home. He reassured me he would be fine. Every time I see a CALD patient, I remember my patient who politely said no, thank you. I wondered if he ever accessed any treatment, how quickly his disease progressed, when and how he died. My initial frustration has evolved into the understanding of how important it was for him to be surrounded by family. I found solace knowing he died with family by his side. The treatment he wanted could not be offered through an intravenous drip or medication. It could only be found in the safe familiarity of family. Every time I see a CALD patient, I try to create a culturally familiar place for them to be treated and place their decision making amid their cultural beliefs, norms, and values. The theme of last year's World Cancer Day is “Close The Care Gap.” Language, literacy, ethnicity, race, income, education, socioeconomic status, and geographical location are just a few of the factors that contribute to the cancer care gap. We need to have cultural sensitivity in mainstream health care and respect the differences that feed into the decision to accept or decline treatment in ethnic minority groups. Ethnic minorities are defined as nondominant groups, connected by a shared cultural heritage, values, and often language. It is important to note that this is also a relative definition, and my patient in Australia falls into the CALD group, but would be the dominant group back in his home country of Vietnam. Health and illness are not only visceral but also a social and cultural phenomenon. Sometimes, it is recognizing that closing the care gap does not bring us to the same destination, but to walk the road less traveled with them. As the years pass and I reflect on my patient's cancer journey, I have come to understand that as his doctor, it was my job to ensure he understood his disease and treatment options. However, perhaps even more importantly as his doctor, it was my honor to support him down the path he had chosen. Dr. Lidia Schapira: Hello and welcome to JCO's Cancer stories, the Art of Oncology, which features essays and personal reflections from authors exploring their experience in the field of oncology. I'm your host, Dr. Lidia Schapira. I'm a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. With me today is Dr. Stephanie Lim, a Medical Oncologist at Macarthur Cancer Therapy center in New South Wales, Australia. In this episode, we will be discussing her Art of Global Oncology article, “The Road Less Traveled: Perspective from an Australian Oncologist”.   At the time of this recording, our guest has no disclosures.  Steph, welcome to our podcast, and thank you for joining us. Dr. Stephanie Lim: Thank you very much for having me. Dr. Lidia Schapira: Let's start by talking a little bit about the role of writing and reflection for us in oncology practice. Tell us a little bit about what led you to write this case up and then to decide to share it with your colleagues.  Dr. Stephanie Lim: Yeah, so writing is definitely a creative outlet for me. I also love to paint, and I think there's so much art in the oncology space. There's so much storytelling, the rich and diverse stories that our patients live out in their cancer journey. So I think for me, writing definitely is an avenue for me to process the patient scenarios, to distill what I've experienced emotionally with the patient in front of me, and really to put it down on paper. It's almost a debriefing exercise as well for me sometimes. It's quite cathartic to write and to paint, and I find it's also a way to remember a patient. So if there's something I really don't want to forget, I think writing is a way to almost memorialize that patient's scenario and that patient experience. Dr. Lidia Schapira: Very beautifully said. So with that, let's go to the case in the particular patient that you chose to write about. And in my reading of your essay, I think you have a message. What is that message for the reader?  Dr. Stephanie Lim: So I think let's take a step back and just go through some of the themes that really resonated with me, that took me quite a few years to go through and think through before I actually wrote it down in this essay. In fact, this essay is an amalgamation of quite a few cultural and linguistically diverse, or CALD patients that I've met and looked after over the years, and those themes just kept recurring.  The first is patients when they said no to treatment. As a clinician, I struggle. I struggle with that when patients flatly refuse what I sincerely feel is the best treatment option for them. I feel frustration, disappointment, even anger and sadness, almost grieving that lost opportunity for potential life lengthening years that the patients may otherwise have. In fact, I was listening to one of your other podcasts the other day, “Knuckleheads”, which, again, resonated with me because it was, again about another story of patient refusal and a different story, but the same theme. And I think when you add the CALD population into it, which is really the theme, the message of this essay, you add another layer of complexity, another layer of cultural diversity and differences to an already complex decision making process. So those two things really sort of challenged me over the years.  And I think the other pervasive theme is that human side. We always talk about the art of oncology, the humanistic aspect, but it's true. So I think the importance of the patient's story and really just paying attention to the background and that lived experience. Someone once told me, medicine, it's a humanistic enterprise, it's not just about numbers and medians. In fact, in the essay I mentioned that the patient in front of me is really just one point on a Kaplan–Meier curve. Medians to them don't really mean very much. There's really no value that we can place on time spent with family. Or in this case, when I tell a patient they've got progression, or try and outline and map out the next treatment plan, and then they turn around and ask me, “Okay, doc. So can I hop on a plane, fly across to the other side of the world and spend three months with my family? Because that's what I want to do.” So I think there's that struggle of trying to really do what's best for the patient in terms of medians and survival and quality of life, but also trying to balance those things that are really hard to put a value on.  I hope the message of this essay is that we can try and understand, identify these things, pay attention to patients, listen to their stories, and really help appreciate those choices. So it's certainly by listening to them and really trying to understand more about CALD and the concepts and values behind their decision making. I've grown to appreciate the choices they make and really helped to support them down what I called the path less traveled, a very unfamiliar path that I otherwise wouldn't have chosen for them.  Dr. Lidia Schapira: So let's unpack all of these wisdoms that you've just told us about. The motivation is clear, the intentions are clear. Let's talk a little bit about your discomfort as an oncologist, because I'm sure our readers and our listeners have experienced that when a patient gives you an informed decision to refuse treatment, why do you think it makes us so uncomfortable? And why did it make you so uncomfortable to have your patient say, “Thank you very much, I understand you, but no thanks”? Dr. Stephanie Lim: Yeah, I think as clinicians we want the best for our patients. And I think a lot of the time that is what's best in terms of survival, what the evidence says we should be doing, weighing up the pros and cons of treatment. And we map out the lines of treatment for our patients while trying to maintain a quality of life and take into account all their wishes, of course. But I think sometimes we might get carried away with what we want for them or what we feel is best for them. But listening, if you really spend time asking what they really want, it might be something as simple as I just want to spend more time with my family rather than coming to the chemo suite for another infusion. I think as time goes on I'm doing a lot more listening, a lot less talking.  When I started out I was telling patients medians and this is what we're going to expect, this is the 50% survival rates, and a lot of time patients look at me and it means not very much to them. So I think for us there is a root that in our minds we've mapped out for them which we sincerely feel is the best for them. And I think when they refuse that it can be quite frustrating, but also I think, challenging because as I said, it's a path that's unfamiliar. When patients go from diagnosis to, “Well, I actually don't want any treatment,” really they shorten their- as I think I put in the essay, intentionally shortening their survival and choosing best supportive care when they're not there yet is something that I still struggle with, especially in my younger patients. Dr. Lidia Schapira: So let's talk a little bit about that. And I'm just challenging you in the best possible collegial way here when we talk about honoring our patients autonomy and providing sufficient information for them to really give us informed consent based on being aware of their choices and trade offs. And yet when those decisions don't conform to what we think we would choose or what we've recommended, there's disquiet. And yes, we know that the patient ultimately is the main decider on what gives their life value and meaning, but it's difficult for us. Can you talk a little bit about how you resolve this tension in your practice? Even if a patient is very fluent in your primary language, that's almost a detail. It complicates things here. But it's not the only thing that really, I think, is so challenging and feels so difficult sometimes for the oncologist.  Dr. Stephanie Lim: Yes, I think in the CALD population, there's several other layers of complexity. So yes, the patient is ultimately the person receiving treatment and yes, they are the ones who should be deciding what they want. I think in the CALD population it's more complex because we talk about patient and clinician shared decision making, but there is this triad of family physician and patient relationship that exists in a lot of CALD populations, not only in Southeast Asian or South Asian, but perhaps even in the Latin American population, and that importance of families. So there is not just a patient and a physician, but there is also the whole family that is making that decision.  To complicate things in Asian culture, there is also this autonomy that's given to the doctor. So that belief that the decision making in some ways should be delegated to the health professional because they're the ones who know what they're doing. And a lot of my Asian patients might say, “Well, you're the doctor. You should be telling me what to do.” So I think it's a balance between respecting that, if that is their belief, respecting that doctor autonomy, but also taking into account that triad of decision making with patients, family, and even the wider community. So I think certainly in a CALD population, my approach would be to really understand why they've made that decision, to involve the family in that decision making, perhaps to see the patient over time, over multiple consultations, which we've done with this particular patient in the essay, and really just to understand what the barriers are or what their reasons are for going down a different path to what I've recommended. And I think once that's all unpacked, I think it becomes quite clear and it gets us to the same page. Dr. Lidia Schapira: So, Steph, if this patient had been 65 or older, do you think it would have been easier for you to accept his decision to say ‘no' to treatment and go home to be with family, whether or not access to any treatment is available to him there? Dr. Stephanie Lim: That's a good point. I think I personally do struggle more in my younger patients, patients closer in age to me at a similar stage of life, they have young children, and I think a lot of it is because they are so fit. We feel that they can tolerate so many lines of treatment. I'm almost grieving that lost opportunity, lost time that they may have with their children or their family. So I think definitely in the younger patients, it resonates with me more. I struggle more with that. Having said that, it's still a struggle when older patients who are fit for treatment say ‘no'. But definitely, I agree with you. I think the younger patients definitely are harder to manage.  Dr. Lidia Schapira: I was very impressed in reading your essay with the fact that you remained curious about the person who was your patient. You were curious and engaged and wanted to learn what he was thinking. And you not only wanted to make sure that he understood his options medically, but you wanted to understand the context, as you say, who else was influencing the decision, and still wanted to preserve the relationship. Tell us a little bit about how that evolved over time and what you learned and how you brought yourself to a place where you could accept this, at least not be distressed by his refusal of treatment.  Dr. Stephanie Lim: So I think, again, a lot of it was listening to his stories. Over time, that conversation shifted from me trying to tell him that if you have this treatment, this is what we expect, this is what we could gain. These are the survival years that you potentially could benefit from. So I think the conversation, over time, shifted from that to a focus on his values, other support systems, whether it's the support communities that were in place, the importance of even complementary or Chinese medicines that he was also pursuing, basically trying to unpack all that. And I think our conversations shifted from a lot less talk about treating the cancer to treating him as a person and what he needed.  So I think over time, I basically sat back and listened to him and what he wished to do. And over time, that conversation then evolved into, “Okay, you're going to leave, so how can I best support you?” And even then, I was trying to see if he was going to seek treatment overseas. I was ready to call someone at the other end of the world to say, “Here are the medical records. This is what can be done for him.” But I think over time, I've come to realize that definitely was not his priority. He needed to be with family. He wanted to go home. And as a clinician, as his treating clinician, I think my job was to support him through that and try and understand. So I think over time, just spending that time listening to them, I did understand. I did struggle with it. But I think ultimately, I was at peace with his decision.  Dr. Lidia Schapira: In the essay, you mentioned that your family also migrated to Australia. Do you think that their experience in some way has shaped your attitude towards understanding cultural and linguistic differences? And if so, how?  Dr. Stephanie Lim: Yeah, thanks for asking that, Lidia. So I was born in Southeast Asia. In fact, I grew up in Brunei, on Borneo island, which is in the heart of Southeast Asia. My dad is Bruneian. My mom is Malaysian. I did finish off my high school in Australia and did all my medical training in Australia. So this is through an Australian lens. In fact, the reviewers wanted me to include that, to point out that CALD is a very relative definition. But I think I class myself as a 1.5 generation Australian. So I hope that I do have some insights from my background and my upbringing to understand a little bit more about the nuances, to be able to pick out some of the subtleties when I see patients, when I talk to patients, that complex cultural belief that underpins all their decision making. So I think that definitely, I hope, has enabled me to be more sensitive and to be able to pick out some of those nuances that helps me better understand and frame a patient's decision making. Dr. Lidia Schapira: And ultimately, did you feel all right with your decision and your patient's decision? Dr. Stephanie Lim: Yes, I did. So I think ultimately, the goal is to create this culturally safe and appropriate place for patients where they're comfortable, where the clinicians are also comfortable with that final decision that we reached. And I think we got there. But my hope is that with all future patients, that we can create this with the help of patient care navigators, patient translators. It comes from a systems level, a team level, and definitely an individual level to understand, identify these concepts, as I pointed out in the essay, to reach a point where we feel that the patients have had a culturally safe and language appropriate care, that we've explored all the avenues, all their concepts, all their beliefs, and we've reached the decision that we're both comfortable with. Dr. Lidia Schapira: Well, Steph, it's been a pleasure to chat with you today, and I know that I did, and I know my colleagues have learned a lot from reading your story and wish you all the best. And thank you for sending your work to JGO. Dr. Stephanie Lim: Thank you, Lidia, it was a pleasure chatting to you. Dr. Lidia Schapira: And until next time, thank you for listening to JCO's Cancer Stories, The Art of Oncology. Don't forget to give us a rating or review, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find all of ASCO shows asco.org/podcasts. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions.   Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.  

Send us a Text Message.How does the tapestry of our upbringing weave into the person we become? Will Vuong, a respected mental health social worker and founder of Wellspring Counseling, joins us to unravel the threads of Asian Australian identity, shaped by a childhood in Adelaide with Chinese Vietnamese migrant parents. His personal narrative of intergenerational trauma and the pursuit of a career in social work sheds light on the deep-seated influence of cultural expectations and parental survival stories. As Will elucidates the transformative power of addressing mental health, we peel back layers of identity complexities and the resilience born from them.https://www.wellspring.net.au danabaltutis.com, mytherapyhouse.com.au, https://mytherapyhouse.com.au/your-childs-therapy-journey/ https://www.danabaltutis.com/services

Send us a Text Message.Today's episode features Aydin Quach(he/they).MA student in History @UBC and Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity @USCWe talked about:1. What does being "CHINESE" mean in the Diaspora?2. Aydin's upbringing as a Chinese Canadian growing up/living in Vancouver, Canada3. Harmonizing Chinese/Asian identity with Queerness4. Asian Joy and our right as immigrants/descendants of immigrants to have that without guilt His BioI was raised in what is now known as Vancouver on the traditional, ancestral, and stolen territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, səlilwətaɬ, and Skwxwú7mesh First Nations. I am an uninvited settler on their land. I come from a family of immigrants to Canada who themselves were immigrants to Southeast Asia, having lived in Southeast Asia for generations. My mother's family is part of the Stateless Chinese population in Brunei Darussalam and my father is Chinese-Vietnamese from Vietnam.   Drawing from my own identity as part of the Sinophone diaspora, I became interested in understanding how those who have complex migration histories understand their own identity. This is how I first got into the discipline of History and considered it as a prism through which I could develop and magnify my research questions. Questions around what is “Chinese” across the Sinophone diaspora are of particular interest to me.  This extends of course as well to other intersections of my identity as well such as my position as a Queer Asian individual in academia.Research Areas- Sex, Gender, the Body, and Sexuality - Modern East and Southeast Asian History- Migration Studies -Queer Theory- Sensory Studies- Musicology- Music History- Cultural StudiesMy research primarily pertains to the research of culture, sex, gender, and sexuality both in a historical lens as well as a contemporary sense. I am interested in how culture develops and how culture shapes our perceptions of self. I bounce back and forth in my research between the historical past and the present as part of an ongoing effort to research how identity and culture are intertwined. Below you will find a briefing about my current projects.CURRENT PROJECTSHardening Men: Masculinity, Nationalism, and Leadership in Post Colonial Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia)I am interested in how manhood and masculinity are constructed through military service. Moreover, how is masculinity co-opted into being an issue of national security for newly created countries in Southeast Asia?Follow Aydin TwitterInstagramWebsite Support the Show.Thank you for listening! Help this podcast:1. Follow us on Instagram @whatkindofasianpod 2. Share our episodes with friends and family3. Subscribe to us on your streaming platform4. Leave us a rating and review on Spotify and Apple Podcast5. Buy Us a Coffee! (Supporting us financially really helps but it's definitely not required, do it if you can) All the links!https://linktr.ee/whatkindofasianareyoupod

Send us a Text Message.Today's episode features Aydin Quach(he/they).MA student in History @UBC and Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity @USCWe talked about:1. What does being "CHINESE" mean in the Diaspora?2. Aydin's upbringing as a Chinese Canadian growing up/living in Vancouver, Canada3. Harmonizing Chinese/Asian identity with Queerness4. Asian Joy and our right as immigrants/descendants of immigrants to have that without guilt His BioI was raised in what is now known as Vancouver on the traditional, ancestral, and stolen territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, səlilwətaɬ, and Skwxwú7mesh First Nations. I am an uninvited settler on their land. I come from a family of immigrants to Canada who themselves were immigrants to Southeast Asia, having lived in Southeast Asia for generations. My mother's family is part of the Stateless Chinese population in Brunei Darussalam and my father is Chinese-Vietnamese from Vietnam.   Drawing from my own identity as part of the Sinophone diaspora, I became interested in understanding how those who have complex migration histories understand their own identity. This is how I first got into the discipline of History and considered it as a prism through which I could develop and magnify my research questions. Questions around what is “Chinese” across the Sinophone diaspora are of particular interest to me.  This extends of course as well to other intersections of my identity as well such as my position as a Queer Asian individual in academia.Research Areas- Sex, Gender, the Body, and Sexuality - Modern East and Southeast Asian History- Migration Studies -Queer Theory- Sensory Studies- Musicology- Music History- Cultural StudiesMy research primarily pertains to the research of culture, sex, gender, and sexuality both in a historical lens as well as a contemporary sense. I am interested in how culture develops and how culture shapes our perceptions of self. I bounce back and forth in my research between the historical past and the present as part of an ongoing effort to research how identity and culture are intertwined. Below you will find a briefing about my current projects.CURRENT PROJECTSHardening Men: Masculinity, Nationalism, and Leadership in Post Colonial Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia)I am interested in how manhood and masculinity are constructed through military service. Moreover, how is masculinity co-opted into being an issue of national security for newly created countries in Southeast Asia?Follow Aydin TwitterInstagramWebsite Support the Show.Thank you for listening! Help this podcast:1. Follow us on Instagram @whatkindofasianpod 2. Share our episodes with friends and family3. Subscribe to us on your streaming platform4. Leave us a rating and review on Spotify and Apple Podcast5. Buy Us a Coffee! (Supporting us financially really helps but it's definitely not required, do it if you can) All the links!https://linktr.ee/whatkindofasianareyoupod

Learn how to attract friends easily, connect with anyone, even the boring. Subscribe @xojoannaalexis Inquiries xojoannaalexis@gmail.com Watch The Video https://youtu.be/vBkhQdoQsus Chapters 0:00 Manifestation 1:00 #1 Law of Assumption 1:57 #2 Be Unapologetic 2:43 #3 Seek to Understand 3:20 #4 No Ego Amigo 3:55 #5 Minimize Impact 4:44 Subscribe Quotes From Books Mentioned Diary Of A CEO By Steven Bartlett 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think By Brianna Weist What I am... lately - May 2024 Reading Wearing Eating Using (for beauty) Using (to film) About You know deep down, you are meant for more and you feel called to something greater. Joanna Alexis inspires you to have the audacity to go after your dreams, love yourself big, have unshakeable faith, turn your pain into purpose and change the world. She is your dose of boss lady energy, soulful wisdom and fun times. FAQ What's your star sign? Leo Sun, Pisces Moon and Sagittarius Rising What's your human design? Mental Projector 6/2 What's your ethnicity? Chinese-Vietnamese

In this episode of Student Affairs Voices from the Field, Dr. Jill Creighton welcomes Andrew Hua, a Chinese Vietnamese higher education scholar and practitioner currently serving as the Director of Student Affairs Case Management Services at the University of California, San Diego. Andrew's journey into student affairs began as an undergraduate student involved in leadership activities, leading him to pursue graduate programs in student affairs. He initially worked in residential life roles and later transitioned into case management. The conversation delves into how case management adapted to remote and hybrid models during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on building strong relationships with students even in virtual settings. Andrew shares his unexpected transition to the interim director role at UC San Diego and the challenges he faced during this significant shift in responsibility. Mentorship, support, and collaboration are highlighted as crucial aspects of professional transitions in student affairs. Andrew also discusses his decision to pursue a Doctorate in Education (EdD) while managing his leadership role and the challenges and rewards of such a commitment. Throughout the episode, Andrew's journey exemplifies the importance of mentorship and support during career transitions in student affairs, as well as the significance of building rapport with students and colleagues, even in remote or hybrid work environments. He emphasizes the value of seeking and accepting support from mentors and peers when navigating transitions. Please subscribe to SA Voices from the Field on your favorite podcasting device and share the podcast with other student affairs colleagues! TRANSCRIPT Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:02]: Welcome to Student Affairs Voices from the Field, the podcast where we share your student affairs stories from fresh perspectives to seasoned experts. This is season nine on transitions in Student Affairs. This podcast is brought to you by NASPA. And I'm Dr. Jill Creighton. She her hers your essay Voices from the Field. Host welcome back to another episode of Essay Voices from the Field. Today we are heading to sunny Southern California to meet Andrew Hua. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:30]: Andrew is a Chinese Vietnamese higher education scholar and practitioner. Currently, Andrew Hua serves as the Director of Student Affairs case Management Services at the University of California, San Diego. Before starting at UC San Diego, andrew served as a higher education professional at the University of California, Berkeley and Washington State University. He received his Master of Arts in Student Affairs administration degree from Michigan State. Go Green. Go Spartans. And he received his bachelor of arts in sociology degree from the University of California, Riverside Go. Highlanders. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:59]: In addition, Andrew is the 2023 2025 Asian Pacific islander knowledge community cochair Andrew's various experiences in cris management, behavioral threat assessment, nonclinical case management, residential life, Greek life, student conduct conference services, and student government, along with his desire and passion to learn for developing students holistically as leaders, citizens and scholars in a safe and welcoming community is the foundation of his student affairs experience. Personally, he'd like to share that he's a huge Disney fanatic and loves photography. So you could say that his hobbies are going to Disneyland and taking pictures. However, he has other Hobies as well. He enjoys playing volleyball board and video games and going on foodie adventures and hiking. Andrew, so thrilled to have you on SA voices thank you. Andrew Hua [00:01:40]: I'm excited to be here with you as well. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:01:42]: We learned from your bio you are not only the current co chair of the Apikc for NASPA, but you are also transitioning in other areas of life with a recent permanent position and also doctoral studies. So a lot going on for you in the transition space. But as we like to start each episode before we get into the journey, would love to know your come up story. How did you get to your current seat in higher ed? Andrew Hua [00:02:05]: Yeah, it's not a traditional pathway. I would have to say. I'll share that it started off traditional. As a young undergraduate student, I got involved in leadership, had the opportunity, had great mentors, advisors, and he said, have you ever thought about doing something like we do and doing student affairs? I was like, I have no idea what that is. And from there, it started with exploring graduate programs and then applying and getting in. So I went to Michigan State University, which was awesome. Go Spartans. And then from there, all my background has been residential life, so res life at Michigan State residence, life at Washington State residence, life at UC Berkeley, and then my transition from Berkeley to where I'm at now the University of California, San Diego, is case management. Andrew Hua [00:02:54]: It was a unique space. I wanted to get back to Southern California, and I started exploring different opportunities and found myself as a case manager. I saw transferable skills and over. In three years, there's been a lot of transitions from case manager to now serving as the director of the Student Affairs Case Management office. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:03:13]: That's an incredible jump in three years to go from the individual contributor role to leading the entire team in such a short span when it was kind of a new functional area for you, but also kind of not, because what ResLife staff member is not doing case management and maybe just not calling it. Andrew Hua [00:03:27]: That 100% agree with you. I think Res Life has given me so many opportunities in understanding different areas and field of work. It felt really good to transition to that. But you're right. I would say it was one I think most folks face this. I transitioned in 2020 from Res Life to case management. A whole new field of work, kind of. And then from 2020 to 2023, I was working remotely hybrid, somewhat in person. Andrew Hua [00:03:56]: So lots of transitions and even transitioning to being interim director. Then director has its own transition too. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:04:03]: Let's talk about doing case management in the hybrid and remote space, because I think case management especially is one of the areas of student affairs where there may be some hesitations from leadership to be okay with that because of the sensitive nature of what these types of cases can be. We're seeing students who are having mental health emergencies. We're seeing students who have personal crises. And there can be something impersonal about doing that level of connection with another person through the Internet. So tell us about how you navigated that. Andrew Hua [00:04:32]: Yeah, it was very interesting. I think we've all adapted in 2020. Students had to adapt, professionals had to adapt, and the only way to connect was virtually. So I think we had to find a way to find that connection. And one of the connections I was able to build is how do we build rapport with students? Get to know them as if we were getting to know them as if they were sitting right across from us, getting to know who they are as a person, getting to know what their interests were, understanding what their challenges are and what are their primary and I guess primary priorities when they come meet with us. Right. It's not about let's talk about anything and everything. It's about what do you need at this moment? And I think that's where I felt the students felt like they were being heard. Andrew Hua [00:05:13]: We've continued to do hybrid now because that's what the students want. We've done assessment. They've said majority of time we would like to have zoom. Do we do offer in person. But the students choose that because it's convenient. It allows them to be in the space that they're most comfortable, not in an office that they're not familiar with. And they also get to choose the time much more conveniently to them. They have to walk across campus, take in travel time. Andrew Hua [00:05:37]: So I think all things that I think about leadership, my leadership and my supervisors, when we have conversation about how do we conduct our work, if the students feel safe in their space, there's less risks of them spiraling or their mental health being flared up, and we're able to kind of navigate that with them. Of course, we do run into some of the situations where students do end up having a cris over the phone or over zoom, but we have our resources intact, right? That's where we'll de escalate. We'll do our best to contact resources off the side, whether it's contact another team member via teams, zoom, et cetera, to help us get the resources to the student if we know where the student is at that moment. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:06:19]: So it's allowed you to work faster? In some ways, yeah. Andrew Hua [00:06:22]: More efficient and effective ways at times. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:06:24]: You mentioned that you took on an interim position before becoming the director. How did that know? Andrew Hua [00:06:30]: That was a unique situation. I was not expecting. I did my role as the inaugural case manager and outreach specialist at UC San Diego. And my role. I was learning, and I felt really comfortable after a year. And I was ready to meet for my annual performance evaluation with my supervisor and say, like, I'm ready for more. Ready to look at what does it mean to be a case manager that takes on the designee responsibilities of my director when they're out of the office. And then I went into that meeting, and my director shared, you know what? I have some news to share with you. Andrew Hua [00:07:02]: I have actually accepted another position. I'm like, I didn't even get a chance to share about my goals for the next year, et cetera, because the next thing that came up was, Andrew, we've talked to leadership, and we think you'd be great to serve as the interim director. And I was shocked. I was like, it was one year in. Granted, I received positive feedback for my performance throughout, but I was not expecting that. So I had a moment of pause before I actually accepted. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:07:27]: Think the more realistic way is you were freaking shook. Andrew Hua [00:07:32]: You are absolutely correct. I was I was not expecting I was like, I've done one year in this field, they're asking me to be interim director. I was like, okay, let's chat about that. What does that look like? So I was shook. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:07:43]: That is a really different conversation than. Andrew Hua [00:07:45]: The one you expected to have 100%. So granted, it was a great opportunity. And I did get to sit down and talk about, like, I really enjoyed working with my supervisor. And I said, I will accept it under one condition, is that you continue to serve as a mentor. And that the leadership that is still here that I will report to, also will serve as mentors too. Not just supervisors, but mentors to mold me into a great leader. Why take on the interim role? Dr. Jill Creighton [00:08:15]: That is a really amazing ask. We talk a lot in negotiation skills about things you can ask for that is not necessarily based salary, like vacation days and other types of things. But asking for someone to serve as a mentor is a really great pro tip, especially if you're taking on something that maybe you have your own reservations about. Andrew Hua [00:08:33]: Yeah, 100%. And I can tell you, they all agreed. They're like, absolutely. We will continue to serve as mentors and consult as you navigate this water until this day. I still have mentoring moments with them. Like every month, we have something scheduled with my previous supervisor and the leadership here at UC San Diego. So it's not gone. It still continues, even though I have taken on the permanent role. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:08:56]: When you take on an interim role, and especially in the way that it was offered to you, it doesn't really give the team a lot of transparency. That can feel a little bit scary to the team when all of these changes are happening suddenly. How did you navigate the waters of moving from a fellow case manager to supervising others? Who were your direct peers and maybe had no idea this was coming? Andrew Hua [00:09:15]: Yeah, that was a tricky area to kind of navigate. But in much reflection, I did inquire why me? Why my position? Why am I being selected? I think that was important for me to understand. And what was shared with me was my inaugural role. The student affairs case manager and outreach specialist. That was the starting point. The future and strategic plan was eventually this role would become the Assistant Director or would eventually become the designee overall for any Director responsibilities. When the Director was out and the entire team knew that when they did their search for the position, the entire team knew that the Student Affairs Case Manager and Outreach Specialist role was going to evolve into something of leadership. So I think that's when it made me feel a bit more comfortable with knowing that the team knew this. Andrew Hua [00:10:05]: They all had opportunities to also apply for the position and show interest. I think the other piece for me is I took it in my own responsibility to connect with my colleagues. I checked in with them and shared hey, of course, when the announcement was made, I connected with them afterwards and said, I wanted to check in with you. How are you feeling about the decision? What are some challenges that may be coming up, or how can I best support you in this interim phase? My colleagues actually embraced me. They're very happy. They're like, we are so happy that we have an interim director. We've seen what this department has been like when there is an interim director, and some of them shared with me that they're glad that they didn't want it. We had no plans. Andrew Hua [00:10:48]: They did not want to be the room director. So glad you accepted. We will happily work with you. And I think the year that I got to spend with them was awesome. We collaborated on so many projects, so they knew who I was, they knew how I worked, and in no way, shape, or form was their conflict. It was all collaborative and learning, and most of them had skills that I learned from that helped me kind of build on the interim position. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:11:11]: The interim year is starting to come to a close. It's time to think about whether or not that permanent position is something you want to do or don't want to do, because you had the opportunity to learn over the course of that year. Tell us about how you made the decision that, yes, you do want to go for the permanent position. Andrew Hua [00:11:27]: Yeah, that was a lot of thinking. I knew when I accept interim role, it was also a place of, like, I feel like I'm interviewing for this position too. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:11:39]: For a whole year. Andrew Hua [00:11:40]: For a whole year. And I also was in a place of, I'm going to look at this opportunity as interim to decide whether I would actually enjoy this work. I was going to look at this interim opportunity to also understand if this will propel me for future professional opportunities. And I think both were yes. Right at the end of the day, I enjoyed the work. I enjoyed that this pathway was probably going to lead to new opportunities for my next career step. I enjoyed working with the staff that helped support students. I do miss working with students quite often, but this gives me a different level of work, and there's a different type of feeling when I'm able to support my staff and they are coming back. Andrew Hua [00:12:22]: During our Kudo sessions. We appreciate your leadership. We appreciate the opportunity to work with you and your consultation. These are folks that have done case management much longer than I have. Some of my colleagues come from a social work background, and when I am able to provide my expertise and we are working together to provide an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approach, it feels good. So I think overall, those are a couple of things that came to mind. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:12:47]: You decide to go for the role, you do have to do a full, real search to get the position. What was that like to go from being a person who was leading the team to a person who is now interviewing for your own job again with that team and with your supervisors? Andrew Hua [00:13:03]: That was a fascinating experience. In my interim role, we had vacancies, and I had to hire a couple of folks as well. So I hired those folks, and then in turn, they have to decide whether I get to continue or they interview me. And my feelings were kind of mixed. Right. Is that there's a fear because as an internal candidate, they get to see everything. As much as we'd like to ensure that it's unbiased process in any hiring, recruitment, there's some bias that I believe does permeate into the space of like it comes into feedback and how we see others. But overall I'm laying out there and they can see everything, whether I present it in the interview or if they've seen it in the past in the work that I've done. Andrew Hua [00:13:43]: I think the other piece was also excitement. It was an opportunity for me to share the great work that we've done and share where we can go. Because I have had some time internally to think about strategically, if I were to take on the interim director position, lead this department at full capacity, where could it really be? So those were kind of the two mixed feelings. I was going in and then of course, it's kind of awkward going in and you see all the familiar faces and you have to like, let me tell you how I do my job, or how I think the job can. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:14:11]: Be done, or here's how I think I do the job. And then maybe what they're receiving from you is not aligned with their experience with you. It's a weird place to navigate. Andrew Hua [00:14:20]: Yeah, absolutely. Every has their perceptions and thoughts. So yeah, it's a unique experience to be in. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:14:27]: You get the position, you're sitting in that seat now. What was the transition like for you from moving from the interim space to moving to the full time space? Andrew Hua [00:14:35]: I'll be very honest, it wasn't too big of a transition. I felt like I was already doing the role at full capacity. If anything, I felt comfortable making long term decisions. So there were things that we tested out in the interim. I was like, we're just doing this interim, we're going to pilot it during the interim. But now coming out of interim and being the full time official director, I was like, it worked, let's make it official. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:15:00]: Stick it. Andrew Hua [00:15:01]: Yeah, let's stick with it, put it into place, iron it out, cement it in. And those practices are in and they run so efficiently and effectively. So I think most of the part it's just like, okay, now I can put yes permanent stamp on it. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:15:15]: All the while you're doing this interim position, this job search internally, you're also pursuing the Edd, which is taking up a ton of time and energy. How's that going? And how the heck are you balancing that with taking on this brand new and very big job? Andrew Hua [00:15:32]: I don't know what I was thinking. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:15:35]: I think someone may have cautioned you in that regard. Andrew Hua [00:15:39]: I've had great mentors who cautioned, but also said that they would support me in whatever decision I go with. And I will say there were a lot of things that were coming to mind. I had applied during my interim phase and I got in during my interim phase and I said yes to the Edd. So it was kind of like a weird situation where I said yes to Edd, even though I knew I didn't have the official position, because I was like, this is always something I wanted to do. I always wanted to get my doctorate. I wanted to also get back into classroom and learn. I also wanted to be innovative. And then some of that is for me as an individual, I needed some structured learning and structured growth opportunities, and the Ed program provided that. Andrew Hua [00:16:23]: And I think it came down to be like the reverse round. Like, I am in the Edd. Do I take on this director role permanently? Because I could have gone back and been the assistant director. Because during my interim role, I also made some changes to my old position as strategically set in stone in the past. So, yeah, I was like, I said yes to the Edd. I feel good about the director role. I'm going to say yes to this, and I will say I have not regretted it. It has been tough, it has been exhausting, but I have not regretted the decision because I honestly think it has only made me a better leader and a better director and a better student affairs professional. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:17:03]: What are your strategies for finding time to be a person or to take care of yourself while you're doing these things? For those of you who can't see Andrew put out his. Andrew Hua [00:17:14]: You know, that's a good question and a hard question. I think I started off pretty strong in my first year of my doctorate and also the official director role by sticking to a routine. And I had support from my supervisors and leadership. Right. It's at 05:00 p.m.. There's no contact for me. We are non clinical case management and work related stops at five. And I've seen this where my leadership has told other leaders on campus, like, you will not hear from Andrew until he comes in at 08:00. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:17:44]: A.m., that is amazing support. Andrew Hua [00:17:46]: Yeah. When I saw that email, I was like, I feel I can fully put my work from eight to five and really be myself after that time. Right. And I think the balance after 05:00 is where does education and fun time go? And that's been a bit of a challenge. But my first year again, right, I had a structured set up. I had a number of hours. I would do some studying, and then after that, I can watch TV, I can play games, I can do whatever. Of course, schedules change up where friends come in town and we make modifications. Andrew Hua [00:18:16]: But I think that's the biggest thing is that my leadership supported me in my academic journey and I was dedicated to finding balance in my life. Now year two, and now almost going to year three, there's been a couple of changes, transitions, but all still the same goal of trying to be like, no, at five, I'm done 08:00. I'll come back the next day and then stick to my studies at the evening as much as I can. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:18:40]: And we're looking at Dr. Hua 2024, right? Andrew Hua [00:18:42]: Oh, you know, possibly if I really hunker down, it could be 2024. If not, it will be early 2025. So fingers crossed. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:18:53]: We'll say hashtag Dr. Hua class of 2025 or sooner. Andrew Hua [00:18:58]: Yes, I will take it. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:18:59]: You're also taking on the role of running for and being elected the co chair of the NASPA Apikc while you're doing this interim and now director role and while you're doing this Edd program. So you just kind of were like, bring it on. I want all the things tell us about that journey. Andrew Hua [00:19:17]: I feel like you got my resume somewhere. Yeah. I'll be very honest. All these decisions were also encouragement from mentors people I respect, and also during my interim phase, which is very unique for those who know how KC election works. There's, in between KC chair appointments, they do an election. So you have elect year if you are selected. And during that time, I was interim and, you know, exploring opportunities. I had people saying, you would be awesome. Andrew Hua [00:19:48]: You should nominate yourself to go be a co chair. We have another colleague that would be awesome to team up with. So having spoken to my co chair, who is Michelle Chan now, and we found some common ground and some excitement behind potentially being co chairs, and we went for it. I was like, in a day, someone else probably will nominate themselves, we will go through the ballot and I might not get it, and that's fine. Why not put my name in the hat, see what happens? Little did I know, name got pulled. Yep. I am now the co chair. And I was like, oh, boy. Andrew Hua [00:20:24]: So I took the year of being a chair elect for KC as seriously as possible and learned as much as I can. It is a lot of work. Kudos to many of my previous Apikc, NASPA Case, NASPA Apikc co chairs. Y'all do a lot that is not seen. So kudos to those folks and how do I manage it all? I try to find a balance with my co chair, and I go back to previous co chairs and be like, give me your tips. What have you done? What can I do better? So it's a lot. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:20:52]: I think what we're hearing from you is that the leadership in the KC space is truly a service to the profession. I know that when we think about leadership development theory and different ways of leadership, oftentimes we think of the figurehead as having decision making authority and number of other things. But while that is true, especially in the KC space. The corralling and consensus building is really one of the most important things that the KC chair can do. I always view you all as the stewards of the KC for the time that you're elected. I talked to Shakura Martin about their journey to the NASA Board chair recently. They said it's a stewardship of the organization, it's not Shakura's agenda. And the same thing is true for the KC roles. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:21:32]: It's Andrew's Stewardship of the KC. Not Andrew's Agenda for the KC. Andrew Hua [00:21:36]: It truly is not my agenda. The leadership team are great folks who are motivated, excited, who want to give back, who want to engage. So it's really supporting some of their ideas. And of course, our constituency, when the constituency speaks and shares their ideas, we'll both look at ways on how we can incorporate, how we can make it come to life. So truly, I think the other way I navigate is taking on this co chairship is my amazing leadership team does amazing job. They are awesome. So their excitement, their drive also excites me and pushes me to continue to push forward with all the responsibilities of being a co chair 100%. It is not my agenda. Andrew Hua [00:22:16]: It is all about what our community needs. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:22:18]: You have been a tremendous guest for the theme of transitions. Given all of the transitions going on in your world, what advice do you have for listeners who are going through their own transitions in their professional life, in their service life, or in their life life? Andrew Hua [00:22:33]: I think for me, the biggest thing I learned is not to do it alone. Every transition comes with its challenges. And for those who are great higher ed and student affairs folks, challenge and support, right? Balance it out. Find the support to help navigate those challenges. I have mentors that are outside of this country that I connect with that help support me as well. So I would say don't do it alone. And you have people around you that are rooting for you to go through that transition and they'll be right there beside you. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:23:01]: It's time to take a quick break and toss it over to producer Chris to learn what's going on in the NASPA world. Christopher Lewis [00:23:07]: Thanks, Jill. So excited to be back in the NASPA world and as always, there's a ton of things happening in NASPA and I always love being able to share with you some of the great things that are happening. 2024 NASPA Institute for New AVPs is coming up January 25 to 27th in Atlanta, Georgia. The NASPA Institute for New AVPs is a foundational three day learning and networking experience designed to support and develop AVPs in their unique and challenging roles on campus. The Institute is appropriate for AVPs and other senior level number twos who report to the highest ranking student affairs officer and who have been serving in their first AVP or number two position for not longer than two years. It sounds like something that you would love to be a part of. To learn more about, go to the NASPA website under Events and click on 2024 NASPA Institute for New AVPs. So, in January 2024, january 27 through the 29th in Atlanta, Georgia, is the 2024 NASPA AVP Symposium. Christopher Lewis [00:24:18]: The NASPA AVP Symposium is a unique and innovative three day program designed to support and develop AVPs and other number twos in their unique campus leadership roles. Leveraging the vast expertise and knowledge of sitting AVPs, the Symposium will provide high level content through a variety of participant engagement oriented session types. This professional development offering is limited to AVPs and other number twos who report to the highest ranking student affairs officer on campus and have substantial responsibility for divisional functions. Additionally, Vice Presidents for Student Affairs and the equivalent who are presenting during the Symposium may also register at a discounted rate and attend April 20 eigth through the 30th of 2024 in Doha, Qatar, is the 18th Annual Manassa NASPA Conference. The Manassa NASPA Conference provides student affairs practitioners with the knowledge and skills to effectively address and support college students. Higher education is witnessing a wide array of challenges, especially in the area in the era of fast technological evolution. Thus, this three day conference by NASPA and the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia Manassa area is an opportunity to connect with colleagues regionally and abroad to talk about these emerging technologies. The conference is going to provide space for discussing innovative ideas, adaptive approaches, use of technology, best practices, lessons learned, and provide tools to understand the next generation of student affairs. Christopher Lewis [00:25:57]: If you want to know more about this great conference and travel to the Middle East to meet so many of your colleagues, go to the NASPA website and check it out for yourself. Every week we're going to be sharing some amazing things that are happening within the association. So we are going to be able to try and keep you up to date on everything that's happening and allow for you to be able to get involved in different ways. Because the association is as strong as its members and for all of us, we have to find our place within the association, whether it be getting involved with a knowledge community, giving back within one of the centers or the divisions of the association. And as you're doing that, it's important to be able to identify for yourself where do you fit? Where do you want to give back? Each week. We're hoping that we will share some things that might encourage you, might allow for you to be able to get some ideas that will provide you with an opportunity to be able to say, hey, I see myself in. That knowledge community. I see myself doing something like that or encourage you in other ways that allow for you to be able to think beyond what's available right now. Christopher Lewis [00:27:10]: To offer other things to the association, to bring your gifts, your talents to the association and to all of the members within the association, because through doing that, all of us are stronger and the association is better. Tune in again next week as we find out more about what is happening in NASPA. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:27:31]: Wonderful as always to hear from you, Chris, on what's going on in and around NASPA. Andrew, we have reached our Lightning round segment. I have seven questions for you in 90 seconds. Andrew Hua [00:27:42]: Oh, boy. I'm ready. Here we go. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:27:44]: Question number one if you were a conference keynote speaker, what would your entrance music be? Andrew Hua [00:27:49]: I would choose finesse by Bruno Mars. I don't just I feel like I would walk up with some finesse. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:27:55]: Number two, when you were five years old, what did you want to be when you grew up? Andrew Hua [00:27:59]: Oh, when I grew up, I'll be very honest. I wanted to be a dinosaur. I wanted to walk around like a trex. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:28:07]: You can still do that? Andrew Hua [00:28:08]: I still do sometimes. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:28:10]: Number three, who's your most influential professional mentor? Andrew Hua [00:28:13]: That's a difficult one. I have a lot of mentors that have inspired me to do many different things, so I unfortunately, cannot just provide you a name. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:28:22]: Number four. Your Essential Student Affairs. Christopher Lewis [00:28:24]: Read. Andrew Hua [00:28:24]: I'm reading too much right now, so there's too much in my doctoral program to read, so I can't pick one. Sorry. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:28:30]: Number five, the best TV show you binged during the pandemic. Andrew Hua [00:28:34]: I would have to say I've jumped back into Criminal Minds, and Criminal Minds is just something I really enjoy. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:28:40]: Number six, the podcast you've spent the most hours listening to in the last year. Andrew Hua [00:28:44]: In the last year, honestly, the quickest thing for news for me is up first. I like to try to get little bits and get on it. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:28:51]: And finally, number seven, any shout outs you'd like to give, personal or professional? Andrew Hua [00:28:55]: Personally, I would probably just shout out my parents. I wrote it in my application. I write it in my dissertation everywhere and my work, that they are truly who inspired me to be a disruptor in education and how to disrupt some of the systematic challenges and systems of oppression. So they're my personal shout out and professional shout out. I would have to say there are a number of folks from Glinda Guzman, Sonny Lee to Alison Satterland, all folks who have inspired me. And if I'm able to shout out you, Jill, you have influenced me in many ways and also inspired me to do many things. So those are a couple folks. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:29:34]: It's been a wonderfully, rich conversation to talk to you about your transitions today. If others would like to reach you after the show, how can they find you? Andrew Hua [00:29:42]: If folks want to reach me, there are two ways I recommend finding me on LinkedIn. You can try to find me with my LinkedIn name, which is H-U-A-N-D-R-E-W just my last name, hua. And then Andrew. Or you can contact me via email, which is ah u a@ucsd.edu Andrew. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:30:00]: Thank you so much for sharing your voice with us today. Andrew Hua [00:30:03]: Thank you. This was great. Thank you for having me. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:30:06]: This has been an episode of SA Voices from the Field, brought to you by NASPA. This show is always made possible because of you, our listeners. We are so grateful that you continue to listen to us season after season. If you'd like to reach the show, you can always email us at savoices@naspa.org or find me on LinkedIn. By searching for Dr. Jill L. Craighton. We welcome your feedback and topic and especially your guest suggestions. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:30:31]: We'd love it if you take a moment to tell a colleague about the show. And please, like, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening now. It really does help other student affairs professionals find the show and helps us become more visible in the larger podcasting community. This episode was produced and hosted by Dr. Jill L. Craighton. Produced and audio engineered by Dr. Chris Lewis. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:30:54]: Guest coordination by Lu Yongru. Special thanks to University of Michigan, Flint for your support as we create this project. Catch you next time.

Have you noticed that FREEDOM is now thought of as old-fashioned and unessential by many Americans in a place known as the “Land of the FREE”? It's almost as if one would easily trade it in for a bowl of soup, like Esau of the Bible. Join us as we interview Kim Parker, an American of Chinese-Vietnamese descent and a former refugee whose family experienced the difficulties and oppression of living under communist rule firsthand. Fleeing to America (a risky journey) through a sponsorship by a Christian church in a small Texas town not only provided Kim and her family with the freedom and opportunity to thrive, but it also brought them to Christ and gave them a profound appreciation for America. Kim graciously shares her knowledge of history and helps us gain a bird's eye view of our present situation here in the States. Kim Parker is now a clinical social worker with a doctorate in education and is the author of a self-help memoir-- East Meets West: Parenting from the Best of Both Worlds. She is also the co-founder of the Association of Christians in Health and Human Services (ACHHS).  PERTINENT LINKS:  Memoir: East Meets West: Parenting From the Best of Both Worlds Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/dWqVWfA Association of Christians in Health and Human Services: Website Link: www.achhs.org

Kenny Phan is a Chinese Vietnamese coach in the San Gabriel Valley. His family moved from Vietnam to America in 1980. Kenny graduated from Monterey Vista Elementary, Garvey Intermediate, and Mark Keppel High School. In 5th grade he pick up basketball and never looked back. Currently, Kenny runs the Mofufus Basketball league and has done so since 2001. The league has become a staple of adult recreational basketball league in the SGV. In 2014 he started coaching his daughter which lead to him training and coaching youth basketball. Basketball has taught Kenny life lessons and provided many opportunities, great memories and experiences that he remembers to this day.Instagram: @mofufus_basketballWebsite: www.mofufus.org__________________SGV Master Key Podcast:www.sgvmasterkey.cominfo@sgvmasterkey.com

On this episode Tinker Toy Soldier (US Intel Leak Hebrew French Russian Chinese) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/man-behind-the-machine/message

Growing up in a Chinese-Vietnamese family, Alex Wong (Lana dining, Sydney) was privy to the world of Italian food through his best friend's mother, and his own mum who would dish up Asian remixes of Italian staples on weekends. Little did he know at the time but it would build the foundation and understanding to cook Italian food professionally underpinning it with Asian ingredients and techniques, to make dishes sing, and the critics are taking note. https://lana.sydney Follow Deep In The Weeds on Instagram    https://www.instagram.com/deepintheweedspodcast/?hl=en Follow Huck https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/ Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer) https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/ LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork Deep in the Weeds is a food podcast hosted by Anthony Huckstep in conversation with chefs, food producers and members of the hospitality industry. An Australian Food Podcast from the Deep in the Weeds Network.

In this sub-series learn my top strategies to handle job interviews confidently; even if you are an introvert or think modestly about your abilities. Love my podcast? Sponsor for just 0.99 cents a month: https://anchor.fm/markinmanilacamblyesl/support or buy me a coffee & help me continue making FREE content for you: https://buy.stripe.com/dR67vtcTvbubefmcN2 Thank you for caring! Register for Premium Masterclass 60 Minute Coaching Podcasts: https://coachmarkinmanilanlpcoaching.company.site/Coach-Mark-In-Manila-Premium-Podcast-Interest-p504880048 Understand ANY Accent With 'Audio Ace' Coaching MP3 Program: https://coachmarkinmanilanlpcoaching.company.site/Coach-Mark-In-Manila-Accent-Ace-Audio-Coaching-Pre-Launch-Interest-p509219010 High IELTS Score - Magoosh Prep: https://track.flexlinkspro.com/g.ashx?foid=156074.11490.826499&trid=1261319.160955&foc=16&fot=9999&fos=5 Money back guarantee ESL English or career coaching session: http://www.eslbusinessenglishexperts.com http://www.initial-impact.com Ask Me: https://t.me/eslbusinessenglishexperts Expert in Coaching French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Brazilian ESL speakers and business professionals from UAE - Dubai, Abu Dhabi - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Tokyo, Moscow, Seoul, Bejing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Madrid, Germany. ESL English & Careers Newsletter: https://coachmarkinmanilanlpcoaching.company.site/Coach-Mark-In-Manila-Wealth-Health-ESL-English-&-Career-Success-Creation-Newsletter-PLUS-FREE-Instant-Money-Creation-Links-p495003506 IELTS Online Courses. Take Mock Tests From Home - Get Your Dream IELTS Score Use My 10% Off Link: https://i.preptical.com/login?ref=17760&apply-promo=initial-impact IELTS Written Tasks or OET Writing Checked, Corrected and Graded: https://coachmarkinmanilanlpcoaching.company.site/x-10-Tasks-IELTS-OET-Writing-Correction-And-Feedback-Service-p504806078 IELTS or OET Speaking Checked, Corrected and Graded: https://coachmarkinmanilanlpcoaching.company.site/x-10-Speaking-Recordings-IELTS-PART-2-OET-Recorded-Speaking-Correction-And-Feedback-Service-p504782211 https://bookshop.org/lists/coach-mark-in-manila --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/markinmanilacamblyesl/message

Lily Trieu is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees and grew up in Southwest Houston, Texas. Currently she serves as the Interim Executive Director of Asian Texans for Justice, a statewide nonprofit with a mission to connect Asian and Pacific Islander Texans to meaningful civic action to build personal and political power. This month we talk about her Chinese-Vietnamese heritage, family journey and pivot from more than a decade experience in corporate life to education and advocacy. Referenced Materials in the Episode:  Asian Texans for Justice ATJ Instagram   "Minority Rule: How 3 Percent of Texans Call the Shots for the Rest of Us" - Texas Monthly  "Ahead of elections, Asian American and Pacific Islander organizers try to break down language barriers" - Texas Tribune Asian American Organizations in AustinFollow us on Instagram: @AsianinATX Follow us on TikTok: @AsianinATX

Eden Full Goh is the CEO and Founder of Mobot, a venture-backed company that automates testing of mobile apps using robotics technology. Previously, Eden built products that spanned the energy, healthcare and government sectors at Palantir Technologies and Butterfly Network. Eden also founded and scaled SunSaluter, a global non-profit that has deployed an open-source solar panel tracker design in 19 countries, impacting 17,000+ people. Eden was part of the inaugural cohort of the prestigious Thiel Fellowship, which provides a $100,000 grant for young people to build world-changing products instead of sit in a classroom. Before receiving a Thiel Fellowship, Eden studied Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science at Princeton University. In this episode, you will learn: Eden's upbringing as a child of Chinese Vietnamese immigrants in Canada How Eden's early love for building things and participating in science fairs were important for her future success How being an outsider forced Eden to develop the necessary skills to adapt to any new environment You can follow Eden on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/edenfull/and learn more about Mobot at https://www.mobot.io/

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight on APEX Express Host Miko Lee interviews Cathy Ceniza Choy author of Asian American Histories of the United States. Show Transcripts [00:00:00] Opening: Asian Pacific expression. Unity and cultural coverage, music and calendar revisions influences Asian Pacific Islander. It's time to get on board. The Apex Express. Good evening. You're tuned in to Apex Express. [00:00:18] Jalena Keane-Lee: We're bringing you an Asian American Pacific Islander view from the Bay and around the world. [00:00:22] Miko Lee: This is Miko Lee. And in August, I had the wonderful opportunity of hosting a live event. One of the first live events. That KPFA was offering at the back room in Berkeley. And it was an interview with Catherine Cinzia Choi on her new book Asian-American histories of the United States. So take a listen to the interview. You're going to hear some clapping and some noise because it was a live audience. we hope you enjoy it and find out more information at our website kpfa.org. take a listen welcome to KPFAS live virtual event. I'm Miko Lee from apex expressed in your host for tonight. A big round of applause to our producers of K PFA events that are here. Kevin Hunt, Sanger, and Brandy Howell in the back of the room. Wow, it's so great to be in front of a live audience. Thank you to Sam Rudin and the back room. This amazing glorious space for hosting us this live evening. Okay. Y'all we're coming back. We're coming out. We're still pandemic land. People are in their beautiful masks, but we're coming back and KPFA has a few more upcoming events. I wanna do a land acknowledgement, and I want to acknowledge that K P F a is located on unseated, Cho Chino speaking, Lonni land known as the Huk, as journalists and community members. We have the responsibility to engage critically with the legacy of colonists. Colonialist violence and to uplift the active and ongoing indigenous struggles connected to the land that we are gathered on tonight. If you wanna check out more, go to native land dot California, and if you live in the east bay, I'm asking, do you pay the Shmi land tax, which is led by indigenous women, find out more about Ante's work of reation and returning in indigenous lands to the people establishing a cemetery to reinter stolen alone, ancestral remains and building urban gardens, community centers and ceremonial spaces. So current and future generations of indigenous people can thrive in the bay area. Thank you so much for joining us. We are honored tonight to welcome author Cathy Cenzia Choy. Cathy is currently a professor of ethnic studies at our own UC Berkeley, and she has published multiple books around Asian American identity. And is here tonight to chat with us about her latest book, Asian American histories of the United States. Welcome Cathy. Yes. Thank you. Okay. I'm gonna do anode to the great poet Chinaka Hodges, and ask, who are your people and where do you come from? [00:03:19] Cathy Cenzia Choy: I am the daughter of Filipino immigrants born and raised in New York city. I've been in Berkeley since 2004, and UC Berkeley has been a very important institution and community for me. And it's just such an honor to be. Your presence today and tonight I wanna thank you Miko for taking the time to, to host this. I wanna acknowledge my family and friends who are in the audience, my husband and my daughter are here. And I'm so pleased about that. And I feel like I'm with my people right now. [00:04:03] Miko Lee: what are the legacies that you carry with you from your ancestors? [00:04:11] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Wow. These are really Deep questions. I know. I feel like I care, even though sometimes I'm not aware. All the details. I feel like I carry the histories of my ancestors, even though, as I write in the book. So many of us in including myself didn't grow up knowing much about Asian American history because it wasn't taught to us in our schools. And even with that I feel my ancestors' presence with me. And I especially thank my mother Petri, za and other family members for also making that presence alive in so many ways while I was growing [00:04:57] Miko Lee: up in New York city. And are there certain elements that you carry with you on the daily? [00:05:05] Cathy Cenzia Choy: I don't know. In terms of the daily, because now I'm at this point in my life where I've had many experiences and I. Learned more to own my voice. And I feel owning that voice like through speaking and through writing is something I've learned and carried from them. But it took me also some time to, to get to this point. And even though I've talked to so many people in public spaces I always feel still some, some. nerves every time. [00:05:50] Miko Lee: So maybe it's self-expression and passing on the torch to the next generation around storytelling, around [00:05:56] Cathy Cenzia Choy: teaching. Absolutely. I think one of the things that I try to impart in, in my teaching at UC Berkeley at university of Minnesota twin cities, where I had taught for six years prior to coming to Berkeley, I try to impart that, that lesson of learning to, to cultivate your confidence and to own your voice. [00:06:19] Miko Lee: Your book is such an interesting collection because you're talking about some deep Asian American history stories, and then you're intertwining it with your own personal stories. And I wonder if you could speak a little bit more about your personal family story and your her story and how that intertwines with Asian American, her story. [00:06:39] Cathy Cenzia Choy: One of the things that is different from in terms of this book compared to my previous two books, is that it was intended for a very broad audience. And given what Asian Americans have been going through in this country since 2020 in many ways it was also born out of some very difficult, challenging circumstances. And I've experienced like many Asian Americans have experienced since 2020, a level of fear and anxiety and grief, at what has been happening with the surgeon anti-Asian violence, its relation to coronavirus related anti-Asian racism and. all of this has infused a different approach to writing in this book. And I write in the first person, the second person in one chapter on, on world war II. And I write in the more traditional third person which is typical and scholarly history books. So when I write in the first person, I share personal experiences that are intertwined to these histories. And this includes some of the fear and anxiety I was already mentioning. And that concern about the surge in anti-Asian violence and that when I see those stories on the media I see my family members, I see my elders and. in the book. I talk about how I've talked to my children and I realize that they see me. And so that's one personal experience, but my husband is. And his family's history is also on the, in the book. There's one chapter titled 19, 19 declaration of independence and 1919, that declaration of independence is referring to the declaration of. Korean independence, both in Korea against Japanese imperialism but also a Korean Congress that came to Philadelphia in April 19, 19. And my husband's parents on his father's side were among those Korean independence activists in the early 20th century. And I share experiences also how we've tried to pass on Asian American history to our children. And I talk about a moment where we brought our son to the Japanese American Memorial garden in tan Farran, which is now a shopping mall, but used to be a horse racing track and then was converted into an assembly center or what they would call a relocation center which forcibly relocated Japanese Americans here in, in the bay area there before. Forcibly incarcerating them in internment camps during world Wari. So there's quite a bit of my history, my family's history in this, even though the, of, it's not the, all of the histories that I talked about, you're [00:09:50] Miko Lee: telling part of your family stories, but then you're also telling a bunch of personal stories, small stories of people to help really illuminate a moment in history. And I'm wondering how you went about the process of selecting those individual stories to help shed light on a bigger [00:10:03] Cathy Cenzia Choy: issue. Yeah that's a great question. I think that's one of the challenges with history, which has story in it history and is about communicating stories and the choices we make matter. So I chose stories that I felt reflected key moments events, groups in Asian American histories over the past almost 200 years. And the idea also was that in selecting these stories, many of which came from research, I had done in the past and also my teaching. But I also wanted to create this feeling in the book of engaging and inviting readers to think about what stories would they want to include and not to cut it off and say, these are the stories we need to know, but rather these are the stories of. People's families and communities. And what are the stories of your families and communities? [00:11:09] Miko Lee: So in a way, it's an invitation for the readers and the audience members to look at your personal stories and how they intertwine with Asian American [00:11:17] Cathy Cenzia Choy: history. Yes. I hope that one of my hopes is that the book is as accessible as possible and that it is shared across an incredibly diverse audience. Also multi-generational and it would mean a great deal to me, for people to share the histories in this book with their elders and people of their generation and younger generations. [00:11:44] Miko Lee: And speaking of stories and connections, one of the biggest connections of a API community is around our food. people. It doesn't matter where you are, people know about Asian food and Asian Pacific Islander food. And you have a whole section in your book that is an interlude around food. And I'm wondering if you can just read the bolded sections of the interlude to the audience as a teaser, and then we'll talk about it some [00:12:08] Cathy Cenzia Choy: more. Okay. Yes. I'd love that. Okay. We, [00:12:13] Miko Lee: so for those of you that haven't read the book, , here's a little bit of a teaser of what the book has to offer Yes. And just the fact there, there's an interlude in the book. Which is also do you wanna talk about that now or after you pretty different? [00:12:19] Cathy Cenzia Choy:  It's just it was, getting at a point that I had made earlier about how I wanted to write differently. I also felt compelled to write differently. And there's an interlude in the book and it's entitled 1965 reprise the faces behind the food. And I'm going to read an abridged version because this way of reading, it makes it like a shout out poem.yeah. So 1965 reprise the faces behind the food. This is for the Asian American faces behind the food that nourishes Americans and enriches American cuisine. The general public knows. So little about Asian American people, but our food is everywhere at one's exotic and mainstream. This is for Larry. I Italy on the Filipino American farm workers who started the grape strike in Delano, California in 1965. This is for Dawn Baan and those who champion labor history. This is for the over 300,000 Asian migrants, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino, whose labor made sugar production, Hawaii top industry. This is for the Chinese workers who transformed tens of thousands of acres of California, swamp land into airable land, and who applied their ingenuity to orchards from Oregon to Florida. This is for the Chinese, Japanese and Filipino workers in the canned salmon industry of the Pacific Northwest. This is for the Japanese fruit and vegetable farmers. This is for the Asian, Indian, agricultural workers. Many of whom found work in California's fields in the early century. This is for the restaurant workers like chinch wing, who started working at an Americanized Chinese restaurant in 1936 in New York city. This is for the food service workers in cafeteria. This is for the writer and migrant worker, Carlos bloon. This is for de leaping sound who in 1956 became the first person of Asian descent elected to serve as a us representative and champion the farmers of his Southern California district. This is for Thai American. Who have a complicated relationship with Thai food because they are often conflated with it. This is for the monos. Mono is a term that conveys respect for Filipino elders in the 1920s and 1930s, they followed the crops from California to the Pacific Northwest. The Mons demonstrated their militancy. The 1965 grape strike was not an exception, but rather a singular point on a continuum. In the age of COVID 19 Asian Americans continued to be the many faces behind the food, using their creativity and leadership to promote communal care during a critical time. This is for Hannah DRA, a self-identified Pakistani American Muslim, and the co-founder of transformation. A technology platform that redistributes leftover, prepared food from restaurants and companies to places that need them like homeless shelters. This is for heart of dinner, whose mission is to nourish New York, city's Asian elders with love and food every week, the irony of Asian Americans producing America's food and enlivening, the overall food experience and the context of hate and violence has not been lost on them historically. And in the present day in March, 2021, people gathered at North Dakota state university in Fargo to protest against anti-Asian hatred. One poster red love us. Like you love our food. [00:16:51] Miko Lee: Thank you so much. Yes. Can make some noise. That's good. And if I may add, this is for. Adding all of your stories so that our Asian American history and tapestry can become richer and deeper. Thank you so much, Kathy, for sharing that. Now talk about why you wanted a kind of musical interlude in the middle of the book. [00:17:15] Cathy Cenzia Choy: It had to do with the histories the multiplicity that I emphasize in the book that there are multiple origins of Asian American history. And we should refer to these as Asian American histories, because my approach in the book is less about a linear, a traditional linear approach which can sometimes suggest causality or. Progress all the time and rather than take a linear approach. One of the things that's distinctive about the book is that the first substantive chapter begins with the year 2020. And the book concludes with 1869 and then each of the chapters. So it goes back in time and each of the chapters moves forward and back in time. So one of the chapters is titled 1965. And it's about the faces of post 1965 Asian America. And it's referring to the immigration and nationality act of 1965, which dramatically changed the democratic the demographics of our country. And. Yet, it was difficult to weave in seamlessly the story of Larry Italy and the Filipino farm workers and how important that grape strike was in, in Delano, California. And I thought to myself I don't ne I, I don't wanna put a, another chapter entitled 1965. So I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do this interlude and then, and write in a different way to give people a break from the style and then encourage you to give shout outs of your own. [00:18:57] Miko Lee: Thank you. Speaking of Larry Iley who in a bunch of your book, you talk about erasure or as Helen Z talks about missing in history. What are those moments that are MIH? And Larry I. Long is one of those many stories we always hear about Cezar Chavez and the great boycott when it was actually a Filipino man, Larry Ile that you write about. And I'm wondering after doing this exhaustive research for your book and as a professor, what are some kind of key missing in history moments? Do you think stand out in Asian American Pacific Islander history? [00:19:30] Cathy Cenzia Choy: There are key moments in every chapter in this book. In the first chapter on, on 2020 I talk about the disproportionate toll of COVID 19 on Filipino nurses in this country. And so one of the things that's MIH, which I've tried to address in my own research and was the topic of my first book was why and how the Philippines became the world's leading sending country of professional nurses and a specifically to, to the United States. And so in, in every chapter, the chapter after 2020 is one on 1975, and it's about Southeast Asian Americans and the refugee experience, but also the descendants of refugees in Southeast Asian immigrants. And so much of their stories are MIH because we are familiar with the Vietnam war, but often from the American perspective. And we, the. Participation of and Laosian Americans were part of a secret army and a secret war. So there's so many instances of that in every single chapter where this I, ideas of erasure secrecy being overlooked like Larry Ile who worked closely with Suor Chavez for years, they were director and assistant director of the U F w but many of us yes, know that story. [00:20:58] Miko Lee: I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the great former photojournalist quirky Lee and his impact, because I think one of those things about missing a history are those that have stood up to try and tell that story again, and you profile quirky. Can you tell a little bit the audience about Corky Lee and what he did. [00:21:14] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Yeah, well, thanks for giving me the opportunity Corky Lee was one of the most important, I think photo journalists of the late 20th and early 21st century and is such a pioneer in Asian American journalism. And he is just one of the over 1 million people we have lost in the United States as a result of COVID 19. And I wanted to honor his memory in the book. He was well known for taking a photograph of a sick American after nine 11 and so many sick Americans in our country after nine 11 were targeted for anti-Asian violence, they were conflated with the stereotypical image of what a terrorist might, might look like in our country. And so we took this photograph of a sick man wearing a red turban with the United States flag draped around his shoulders. And the other thing he's also very well known for is something that is a major theme in this book, which is the theme of erasure of Asian American history and experience in the overall us experience and that era. one of the key moments is in 1869 with the completion of the building of the first transcontinental railroad, which took place at a Ary summit in Utah. And this is a very important moment in, in the history of our nation as a symbol of our modern progress that, enabled us expansionism across the continent. And eventually also into the Hawaiian islands and Asia and Chinese workers at were. About 90% of the labor force of the central Pacific here in the Western region of building [00:23:17] Miko Lee: my family that railroad. Yes. Yeah. My ancestors built that railroad. [00:23:21] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Yes. I re we talked about that briefly and there might be other descendants here too of the railroad workers. And when they finally met at Promentory summit, there was a celebratory photo it's quite known and there was not a single Chinese worker in this photo. Not a single Chinese worker and quirky Lee. When he was in grade school, he remembered, learning about Chinese participation in the building of this railroad. And so he looked at that photo and he noticed that absence and erasure. And so I believe it was the hundred and 45th anniversary of the building of. that railroad. And he rest staged that iconic photograph. And this time he included the descendants of the Chinese railroad workers and other Asian Americans. And it was a joyous moment. And he referred to these moments, photographic justice. [00:24:24] Miko Lee: I love that whole even ethos of photographic justice. And you wrote in your book that was a 2014, that's so recent that this has happened. It's just this and also one person. And it also shows the power. Hello, ethnic studies, professors in the house, the power that he, this one, man heard this story and said, why isn't this being told, right? [00:24:46] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Yes. And that's the, one of my hopes for the book is you'll notice that in, throughout the book in the various chapters, I oppose these questions. No questions for us to think about. It's not solely about here's the experience and here are the dates and the years and the events, but it's the way we all participate in history, but by what we choose to remember to reflect upon and how we use that historical knowledge to, to move forward, [00:25:20] Miko Lee: next up listen to girl gang by Rubia barra That was girl gang by the amazing Ruby Abara. [00:27:26] Miko Lee: You are tuned into apex express on 94.1 K PFA and 89.3 K P F B. Now let's get back to my interview with author Kathleen. Cinzia joy. [00:27:41] Miko Lee: Keeping on with this conversation about erasure and representation, you quote this study by Nancy Angwin, who is amazing. That is it really recent last year, 2021 study that says 40% of films have no zero Asian American Pacific Islander representation and of the films that do have representation over 25% of the characters die, violent. talk to us a little bit more about what does that say? How is that connected to erasure? What does that mean to the broader multicultural universe? What does it say about Asian Americans? [00:28:19] Cathy Cenzia Choy: In that chapter I'm gonna paraphrase since I'm not directly reading from it, but in that chapter, I reflect on that study and those statistics. And one of the things that if you wanna look directly at that study because in the notes, there's the URL to it. You, you will read that those statistics are juxtaposed with statistics about anti-Asian violence in 20, 20 and 2021. And I posed the question in that chapter. Are you, are we human? If we're not portrayed in a dignified and humane way. in popular culture. And if the only representations or the major representations of you are as, one dimensional flat stereotypes. And if it gets to the point where you're so used to the narrative on screen, that you can expect that Asian or Asian American character to die and not make it, what does that do to our psyche and how we view real world Asian Americans. So I didn't share this in the book, but when my children were younger, I actually had this experience. We, we brought them to this action film and this Asian American character was on screen. and I remember putting my head down thinking, oh I really hope this character doesn't die. and I turned to my son who was quite young at the time, and I tried to like, prepare him for that. And then the character did die in, in, in the film. So it's that feeling of why are we seeing such similar stories over and over again? And how can we begin to change that narrative? [00:30:14] Miko Lee: Connected to that and connected to your earlier book about Filipino nurses. One of my pet peeves, I love watching doctor shows as just totally fluff. And one of my pet peeve is that there are never enough Asian doctors and I am in the bay area. Every single one of my doctors is Asian. So I've always been like, this is such I don't understand. And especially with how many Filipinos are in the medical profession. So can you expand a little bit more of that and bringing in your last book, which is empire of care, nursing and migration and Filipino American history? [00:30:50] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Yes, I oh the present the past present and future of American nursing is inextricably linked to the presence of Filipino American nurses in this country. And Filipino American nurses have been in the United States for six. Decades. Many of them are immigrants, so they were born and raised in the Philippines, but the United States has been their home and they have made this incredible contribution to us healthcare delivery. And California we are one of the beneficiaries of their labor they're in hospitals, they're in elder care. And in the book I mentioned the Emmys, I forgot what year that was, but one of the co-host Michael Shay actually, said can you believe, Hollywood is a diversity problem and can you believe they did 15 seasons of ER without one single Filipino nurse? And have you been to a hospital in this country? And I feel also that frustration and that irony and it's, I have to say it's. It was especially painful since 2020 because Filipino nurses and other Asian American healthcare workers were also among the targets of anti-Asian violence. And hate in this country, even while they were wearing medical scrubs. For example, there was testimony given and there's one hospitalist in, in New York who I I quote in, in the book who, who talked about this paradox that here they are contributing to the health of our nation and putting their lives on the line yes. Through exposure and dealing with this hate and violence. And he said, it's really challenging being. celebrated and villainized at the same time. And that's the problem when so much of our common understanding or what we think is an understanding of Asian Americans is based on stereotypes. Because stereotypes are flat. They're one dimensional. They dehumanize even the most seemingly positive ones. [00:33:13] Miko Lee: Okay. I wanna talk about a different topic, which is in 1997, time magazine released this cover and on the cover where all these cute Asians, and it said the model minority. And I remember being in school and my teacher bringing that in and showing that magazine cover the class and pointing to me and I just had this like visceral gut reaction to it. Can you talk about how the model minority, the whole ethos of model minority has been used as a tool for white SuPM. [00:33:49] Cathy Cenzia Choy: I, I appreciate you phrasing the question that way. The model minority stereotype, which is a myth is such a complex stereotype. And some people might say, the model minority is about Asian Americans being smart and economically successful. And what's wrong with that? Isn't that positive? Isn't that the best kind of branding any group or could ask for. And it is a tool of divide and conquer. It is a tool of white supremacy which is, I think the way I understand. You're phrasing of the question because it too has a history. And part of that history is emerging in the late 1960s during civil rights and other, social movement protests, and having media stories quoting academics as experts contrasting Asian Americans as successful model minorities who don't complain. Don't ask for government help pull themselves up by their bootstraps in contrast to black Americans. And it was really direct like that now in, in contrast to African Americans who are protesting and demanding justice and change from the government this is a. Strategy of divide and conquer and prevent us from seeing. So in some ways it's another form of erasure that I talk about in the book that there's this longer history of Asian American and black solidarity and friendship living in neighborhoods together, working together in organizing [00:35:39] Miko Lee: together, [00:35:39] Cathy Cenzia Choy: organizing together work, interracial relationships and families. And we're [00:35:45] Miko Lee: talking about you, Grace Lee [00:35:46] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Boggs yes, I right. Grace Gracely BOS is certainly, part of that, one of many right. One, one of many who was married to James Boggs, a a black auto worker and author and activist. And they were married for a long time and together created. Summer which was this community, youth based organization and out of that love and marriage and mutual activism created something which is relating to another main theme in the book of resistance. It's like that creative spark like Detroit summer to create community gardens and to paint murals and to have intergenerational dialogues and to move forward in, in the most hopeful and an inclusive. Possible. And that's just one example. [00:36:42] Miko Lee: Yeah. I appreciate how in the book you're talking about erasure, you're having resistance stories, and then you did bring up talking about mixed race and global adoption. And I know your former book was around global families. So I am you share some really lovely tidbits in there, like about Punjabi Mexican communities that I think maybe folks don't know about, or maybe folks in the bay area went to go see the amazing Bonura ballet folk, Loco production that told that whole story in dance that Joti sing and Zenon Beon did. But you also talk about Kip full books' book about Hopper's mixed race folks. So do you feel that and your own kids are mixed race? My own kids are also mixed race different Asian ethnicities together. I'm wondering. Okay, sorry, this is a long question, but I'm thinking back to years ago, the amazing performer David photo Moto did a production where he came out, dressed in Scottish. It came out, dressed in entire Kabuki outfit with a kimono and a face, and he did a whole entire Kabuki dance and then picked up his bagpipe and played a Scottish bagpipe. And it was such a great combo of his two cultures that he meshed together and that he was sharing about himself with the audience. So with that being said, and with your both personal family story, and you're having written this book, what is your take on cross racial adoption and mixed race folks being a bridge to the future? [00:38:17] Cathy Cenzia Choy: well, so it's an interesting way of saying that because I think in that chapter, which is titled 1953 mixed race lives I don't necess, I do say they're about our future because our future is multiracial. And we know that since the 2000 census and in the most recent 20, 20 census we know that an exponential number. The largest growing group are of people who I identify as more than one racial category. But one of the key things I key points that I make in that chapter is that being a mixed race and multiracial is not solely about our future, but it's also about our past and our present. and we have a multiracial past. And that includes some key examples in the, in that chapter are early 19th century Chinese and Irish marriages and in New York city and east Bengali Puerto Rican, African American, west Indian families and communities in Harlem and Filipino and Irish multiple generational families in new Orleans. And you had mentioned, P Punjabi Mexican Americans from Texas to California and MES Filipino, Mexican family is especially in Southern California. That is just as much about our past and our present as, as well as our future and the adoptees also figure in, in, in that chapter and 1953 each year serves as a touchstone for going back and forth in time. 1953 is referring to the end of the Korean war and how foundational the international adoption, especially by American families of mixed race Korean and American children, born of us servicemen and Korean women. How important that group was in terms of transforming the United States into an international adoption nation to. Which, which leads the world in terms of internationally adopting children. And even though Russia, Guatemala Romania, Ukraine are also major sending countries of adoptive children to the United States. Most of those adoptive children are from Asian countries and Korea plays an important role in that history, but so does Japan and Vietnam as, as well. And they're an important part of Asian American history that I also think tends to be marginalized in our understanding of the Asian American experience. [00:41:09] Miko Lee: Okay. My last questions before we open it up to our lovely audiences, juicy questions is what would you like readers to walk away with after reading your book? [00:41:20] Cathy Cenzia Choy: I would love for readers to walk away with a more. nuanced and deeper understanding of Asian American histories and to reflect upon how relevant that is for this moment. This is a moment when so many of us are confronting so many different existential crises from climate to economic insecurity, but since 2020 for Asian Americans, this this dual crises of the pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian hate has really made an impact on so many of us and our communities. And I believe that understanding Asian American histories, understanding them as multidimensional human beings, who are part of the American experience Is one important step to, to reduce and end this violence. Thank [00:42:24] Miko Lee: you. Okay. We're passing out cards. Do we have, oh, we have some collected. Rolling. Does anybody have any questions? Does anybody have any questions? Oh, wow. [00:42:34] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Yeah, jump in the [00:42:35] Miko Lee: card. Okay. I read this. Can you talk a little bit about medical scapegoating, which you mentioned in your book? [00:42:44] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Yes. One of the things that we are observing since 2020, and since COVID 19 has become a pandemic, is that medical scapegoating of Asian Americans. And in the book, I talk about how there's a long history of anti-Asian medical scapegoating that is as old as the oldest migration. Oldest mass migration of Asians to, to the United States. And in the second half of the 19th century Chinese and by extension Chinese American bodies were blamed for smallpox outbreaks. Japanese immigrants were blamed for typhoid. South migrants were associated with hookworm. And what this does is that it scapegoats people, it dehumanizes them and makes them targets for egregious forms of violence. And that what we are experiencing today is not new. And this relates to that point about kind of one of my hopes for the book is that learning and engaging about these histories is really important. To end this medical scapegoating and the violence that accompanies it. [00:44:02] Miko Lee: I think people don't even realize that China towns were burned down during those times, too. [00:44:07] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Yes, I in addition to erasure and resistance violence is a third major theme, of the book and violence means many different things. We, in the media, it often focuses on the most egregious forms of violence like mass shooting. But the anti-Asian hate incidents and violence have ranged from bullying and harassment in schools, spitting on Asian Americans name calling I'm telling Asian Americans to go back to where they, they came from and you were referring to arson and burning down of Chinatowns and , this was something here in California and in, in the Pacific Northwest the method of anti-Asian violence was all often in the form of expulsion of Chinese from their communities through arson shooting stoning threats, [00:45:04] Miko Lee: right. You talked a little bit in the beginning, and this is an audience question. You talked a little bit in the beginning about the order of the book and we had you read the interlude and you said that it was done in a different order, starting with, 20, 20. Can you talk a little bit more about your thought process in creating the book in this kind of non-linear time structure? [00:45:24] Cathy Cenzia Choy: In the preface I write and also in the acknowledgements I give thanks to my students over so many years at university of Minnesota UC Berkeley especially but also other institutions that earlier in, in my career, I've learned so much from my students, from listening to them from engaging in dialogue about what we're reading. And in spring of 2021, I taught this class on Asian American history in the age of COVID 19. And some of the students were telling me that they really appreciated having taken previous courses in Asian American history, but how sometimes the courses they would go in that linear approach and then primarily end. Maybe in like the 1980s or maybe the, the glass class would be here, are these contemporary issues now related to all the things that we've talked about. And they were just voicing, some concern about how is history relevant today. And so I played with the chronology using a non-linear approach to make this point that Asian American history is relevant. Now, it's relevant in 2020, it's relevant in 1975. It's relevant in 1953. It's relevant in 1869. And it's relevant right now. And we're all we're all a part [00:46:59] Miko Lee: of it. So I'm gonna combine a few questions here. And this one is really about the different waves of Asian American immigration and how those impacted the storytelling. And I think. The different, there's different immigrant communities have gone into really specific fields for instance, Chinese laundries and, Vietnamese nail salons, Cambodian donut shops. Can you talk a little bit about how the storytelling is connected to the different waves of immigration first generation second, third generation? [00:47:35] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Yes that's a great question. And the book is not organized that way in the sense, like this year represents a particular wave and so does the next year. But there are particular chapters in the book that refer to immigration waves. And one of the chapters not the 1965 reprise, but there is a chapter 1965 about the faces of post 1965 Asian America and 1965 referring to the immigration act. Of 1965 is often considered this a major wave and a new kind of immigration that was different from late 19th and then early 20th century waves of immigration. Because by that point, immigration policy had created preferences for highly educated persons with needed skills. And one of the reasons why we are seeing so many Asian immigrant professionals in the United States is not an outcome of our innate ability in stem. But is also an outcome of but is an outcome of immigration policy. It's not in any ability there's quite a bit of training, that, that goes into it. And I actually didn't have much talent in the stem fields, even though I write sometimes about them like, like nursing but in the chapter, 1975 trauma and transformation, I talk about waves theory and how there's often the conceptualization of three different kinds of waves to describe Southeast Asian refugees to the United States with. the first wave beginning immediately after the fall of psych on in 1975 tended to be this wave of people who Southeast Asians who had connections to the us military there, I had worked with them and were more highly educated. And that was part of the first wave. And then the second wave, which is sometimes referred to as the boat people, even though a number of Asian American studies scholars have criticized the use of that term because it obscures their heroic will to live, but more, more, much more di diverse, ethnically a lot of Chinese Vietnamese people of farming backgrounds from rural areas in contrast to the first and then like this third wave that, that came later that involved groups like ations and even later than that also immigrants through immigration policy as opposed to, to refugee policy. And what I also point out is that these kinds of conceptualizations are important. They help us, understand historically some major changes in terms of Southeast Asian American demographics in this country. But I wanted to emphasize, so I write in the book, waves are constantly moving and taking different shapes. And in 2000 there was a new group of refugees who were resettled in Minnesota. And this is a living history and that newer waves of refugees are coming from Myanmar and Butan and who are working in places like. The state of Iowa and working in our meat packing plants and who also have been exposed disproportionately to COVID 19 because then president Donald Trump had invoked the defense production act to keep meat, packing plants open. So waves are important, but they're not set and they're always moving and flowing like our histories [00:51:16] Miko Lee: as a follow up to that. One of our audience members has a question about how many immigrants have when they first arrive have been exploited in their labor positions. And they're wondering if you could share some positive stories and I M I wonder if you could share with the audience about uncle Ted and what he did with donuts [00:51:35] Cathy Cenzia Choy: well, I think. it isn't it isn't as though there are positive and negative stories, oftentimes when you are really deeply engaging with these histories and these stories, there's often these moments that might be negative and then others that are more positive. And I think that adds to the humanity of people. And so just to give an, the example of the Filipino healthcare workers, some of 'em are nurses, but are also working in elder care. And some of those conditions that they're working in are very challenging. It's very challenging to be a caregiver. And at the same time, so many of them also take pride in their. I don't wanna portray them as just solely being, having a negative experience. They're proud of their caregiving and we need to care for our caregivers a bit more in this country. In terms of positive stories, so one thing I'll share is there's this and this is an example. I, I feel of resistance and that creative spark there's something called the south Asian American digital archive SAA D and they have this project called the first day's project. And it's a project where immigrants, regardless of immigrants from around the world can share their story on this digital platform to describe their first days in, in the United States. And. Even though these first days have a mix of like positive and negative aspects. I have to say while reading these stories it brought just smile and joy. For me and reading these stories that are so unique and universal at the first time, same time. And so one of the stories was of this young girl who was nine years old back in, in the early 2000 tens and she was from Nepal. And so she came from Nepal and she was. I imagine they were, they landed at SFO and then they had to go to San Pablo and she wrote she said I was disappointed that what I saw wasn't like, TV shows of New York city with all those tall buildings and all that fun stuff, but she took her first Bart ride. And she said that was just so amazing. She had never been on this kind of faster public transportation that brought them from San Francisco to San Pablo and something like 40 minutes. And then she said, she was working really hard. She was like nine years old. And then she became, because her, both her parents were working, I believe in the fast food industry. And she had a younger sister, so she had to learn how to cook for her parents and her. Her sister and even some extended family. And so she said I learned English from like watching, watching the joy of painting with Bob Ross. Wow. Yes. And then she said she watched shows with Rachel Ray and em, Emerald Lagosi like on food network and, and she said like she wanted to become, she learned from those shows. She wanted to become really famous. And so she would do the cooking in like she was on her own food network show in front of the audience. Her younger sister, [00:55:00] Miko Lee: so cute. So cute and shout out to VIN G and bar go, who founded that and also run the Berkeley south Asian radical history walking tour. If you haven't been on that, you should because it's amazing. I am sad to say that this brings our evening to a close. Thank you so much for joining us. I wanna just say that back in the corner, we have the most amazing east wind books, our local bookstore, yay. East wind books. And we didn't touch on one of the questions that I wanted to ask, but about Asian American, the terminology, Asian American Pacific Islander actually. Expressed a whole episode on that interviewing Harvey, Don, who is the founder of east wind books and is a fellow professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley. [00:55:49] Cathy Cenzia Choy: And one of the veterans of the strike is also here from the late 1960s both that took place in San Francisco state college as it was then as, as well as UC Berkeley. And that's part of the reason why I have my livelihood and is it part of the legacy? This book is part of that legacy. [00:56:09] Miko Lee: So check out our legacy Asian American history is of the United States by our amazing guest, Kathy Cena Cho, you can get the books and get autographed back in the corner. We thank you for supporting independent bookstores. [00:56:24] Cathy Cenzia Choy: Thank. [00:56:31] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for joining us, please check out our website, kpfa.org backslash program. Backslash apex express. To find out more about our show tonight and to find out how you can take direct action. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world. Because your voices are important. Apex express is a proud member of the acre network, Asian Americans for civil rights and equality apex express is produced by Miko Lee, Jalena Keane-Lee, Paige Chung, Hien Nguyen and Nate Tan and with special editing by Swati Rayasaman. Thank you so much to the KPFA staff for their support. Have a great The post APEX Express – 10.27.22 Cathy Ceniza Choy appeared first on KPFA.

Mia joins the podcast to discuss a wide range of topics including a Chinese/Vietnamese mixed upbringing, having an effective work/life balance, how to overcome challenges and have gratitude for that journey, and more. Topics include ⁃ How to feel comfortable as your authentic self ⁃ Appreciating the struggles and having gratitude for the lessons ⁃ Cultivating discipline and motivation ⁃ Trying to live in the present rather than focusing on the future ⁃ Overcoming the fear of rejection ⁃ The thrill of getting out of significant debt and the resilience built as a result ⁃ Not getting overwhelmed with numerous life choices in our 20's If you enjoyed this conversation, you can find out more about ComebaCK at @thecomebackwithck on Instagram.

Welcome back to Season 4! Join editor & host, Ryan Smith, as he interviews Bang Co, Vice President for Membership & Expansion, about Chinese & Vietnamese culture for Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Hollie Ha is a second-generation Chinese Canadian who is on the journey of learning and connecting more deeply with her heritage and family.She is the host of the Holding Heritage podcast in the Comox Valley, focusing on refugee stories, family relationships and bridging generational gaps while keeping the understanding and appreciation of Chinese-Vietnamese heritage in North America.On the podcast Hollie talks about her parent's experience immigrating to Canada, finding a balance between cultures and holding space for storytelling.You can listen to episodes of her Holding Heritage podcast at: holdingheritage.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dave Ngo is a first generation Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant and entrepreneur. His first career was in tech, but he soon realized it wasn't for him. After his younger sister's suicide, he's decided to take his path in his own hands and start his own business ventures. He now has a bartending company that does Fortune 500 Events like Google and Facebook and some weddings. He's also venturing into real estate to create his life by design and live a life with freedom and success – on his own terms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jaigon Orchestra vocalist Ket joins me to discuss the evolution of his band and musical journey, from Grade 8 guitar-playing in Vietnam, moving forward with music and production, his Chinese-Vietnamese background, inspiration from the movies towards his work, and slightly more philosophical conversation about purpose and meaning. You can find out more about Jaigon Orchestra here; https://www.facebook.com/jaigon.orchestra https://open.spotify.com/artist/4HGrrevENLsGCTS9bwqUrm?si=zS9VLMqkT_CenGzE9tRtPQ

Would a 14-year-old daughter join her mom for a podcast conversation? We are thrilled Summer Yang joined her mom, Vanessa Yang, for this episode of Let's Have This Conversation. This season we are featuring mother and daughter relationships so inviting Vanessa and her daughter, Summer, is perfect. As a high school freshman, Summer is thoughtful and mature beyond her age. Summer is already a seasoned YouTuber with her own channel where she offers her fresh perspective and analysis of Chinese dramas. Transition describes Vanessa's life. At 2-years-old, she is a Chinese Vietnamese refugee landing in Malaysia while her father secures her family's passage to Germany. Eventually, her life journey leads her to the United States where she becomes an accomplished CPA and hybrid “tiger” mom. Recently, she has the courage to take a hiatus from her professional career to become a podcaster! Our professional and podcasting networks intersected and I knew I wanted to invite Vanessa to join our show.Listen to Vanessa's story of life changes and accomplishments. Enjoy Summer and Vanessa's sincere and connected relationship as they chat with us.Explore Vanessa's podcast and Summer's YouTube channel mentioned in this episode:Vanessa's podcast is “1st Mentor Podcast”. This educational and stimulating podcast explores soft skills, life lessons and general knowledge for teens and young adults. They can listen by themselves or together with their parents. She explores a variety of topics including: Personal Development, Finance, Health and Wellness, Foreign Languages, Diversity, Travel, Career Preparations, General Knowledge and many other topics that are normally not covered through their education in school.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1st-mentor-podcast/id1554036380Summer's YouTube Channel name is “Worship Asian Drama”.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBYTXeDNbhf2wm9gYFy3q0A/about Connect with me.My email is LHTCpodcast@gmail.comFollow and direct message me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lets_have_this_conversation/

(S5, EP2): Alex Jenny (She / They) joined me for this episode as part of the 5th season theme, "Our Becoming: An LGBTQ Asian Experience". Alex is a Chinese-Vietnamese American trans woman, licensed psychotherapist, social worker, drag artist, host of "The Moment" produced by A Queer Pride and is known as "The Drag Therapist" through her social media platform. In our conversation, we talk about the response to the anti-Asian violence, the barriers that transgender / trans folks of color often face in accessing affirmative mental health care in her work in therapy, and the cis-hetero & white structures that gatekeeps the social work and mental health profession. Alex shares her experiences in her journey as a trans woman and her relationship with her mom and family's community, along with her relationship in the Chicago drag community. Be sure to follow Alex on IG @alexjenny_. // Bio: Alex Jenny was born in Grand Rapids, MI to Chinese Vietnamese parents, both refugees who escaped from Vietnam After establishing her professional career as a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker in LGBTQ, affirmative practice and trauma recovery, Alex also became a local Chicago drag performer and that's how Alex Jenny was reborn. She was nominated for 2020 Best Drag Queen of the Year by Chicago Reader. She then integrated her therapy work with her drag and became known as The Drag Therapist. She hosts a talk show called The Moment, produced by A Queer Pride, that highlights trans artists and celebrates queer and trans joy, healing, and authenticity. She also teaches a class at the University of Chicago on Intergroup Dialogue, anti-oppression education, and group facilitation. She has been featured by them., Refinery29, Greatist, PinkNews, GoPride, Made of Millions, Windy City Times, and Ask Dr. Nandi. She has worked with the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, Rutgers University, Grand Valley State University, Tennessee Tech University, University of Tennessee, Macalester University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Amazon, The Hideout, The Voice Lab, Plume, Dame, Unbound Babes, Chicago Black Drag Council, The Gala Pride and Diversity Center, and Instagram. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/banhmichronicles/support

Sushi is often a high culinary art form and its popularity continues to grow. Since the countries first sushi roll was served in Little Tokyo Los Angeles in the 1960s, is has grown into a multi-billion dollar a year industry. Interest in the cuisine is fueled by creative chefs, who push boundaries and take painstaking steps to ensure the best customer experience. One example is Billy Ngo, founder, chef and partner of Kru Restaurant in Sacramento, whose innovation and emphasis on quality has garnered loyal customers and rave reviews. As Leilani Marie Labong from SacTown Magazine put it, Billy “has fine-tuned an unofficial M.O. to bring as-yet-uncharted experiences to his hometown.” Billy’s ascendance as one of the region’s top chefs is remarkable, considering his journey. “We were very lucky to have the life that I had and the opportunities I had growing up here with my parents coming over here,” he remarked. “My parents are Chinese, but they're from Vietnam. Born in Vietnam. They had to flee because of the Vietnam War. And my mom was pregnant with me when they got on the boat, escaped, landed in a refugee camp in Hong Kong, and that's where I was born.” Billy arrived in Sacramento as a baby, and he admits his early work career was more focused on earning money for stereo equipment than being a top chef. As a teen, he spent many laborious weekends preparing shrimp for later use. Other jobs included busing tables and washing dishes. However, over time, Billy’s interest in sushi grew. This spark was fueled by his work with high achieving chefs, including Taka Watanabe, Taro Arai and Randall Selland. Through this experience, he saw changes in how sushi was being presented. From a rigid, predictable menu came food with a flair, and a chance for every chef to roll something amazing and unique. He founded Kru Restaurant in 2005, putting optimism over a firm foundation of success. As he put it, “it was all done with band-aids and pennies.” Fortunately, Kru has grown, as more people became enchanted with Billy’s groundbreaking cuisine. Billy cited using great ingredients as a key, and that includes the foundation of sushi – rice.  In fact, California rice is used in virtually every roll of sushi made in America. Billy gets his rice from grower Michael Bosworth in Yuba County, and said he’s impressed with the sophistication of farming; the scale and hi-tech nature that one must see to fully appreciate. He has carried forth this approach of sourcing local ingredients, and forging relationships with the farmers and ranchers that grew them. “We're so lucky to be in this region in Sacramento with so many things being grown here locally,” he said. “Knowing where it's coming from and having the relationship with the grower or the rancher or the farmer. Any questions you have, it's easy.” Billy said his current priorities are to keep Kru and his other businesses, including the employees, going as reasonably as possible during the COVID-19 restrictions, although he can’t wait for a better day. “This is so different,” he commented. “I’m very thankful that we're still able to offer food to-go. But part of the magic and why I fell in love with this industry, is seeing the faces, hearing the sound, hearing the laughs of the dining room and the clang of pans in the kitchen, you miss all that. And I can't wait for that and I think hopefully soon we'll have that energy again, inside the building.” Episode Transcript Jim Morris: The first sushi served in America was in the 1960s in little Tokyo, Los Angeles. From its humble beginnings here, it is now a powerhouse generating billions of dollars a year. The Sacramento Valley provides virtually all of America's sushi rice, and this region has some outstanding sushi. Ian Scharg and his family are regular customers at Kru Restaurant. Ian Scharg: We like the freshness and quality of their food. Everything is very interesting that they make. Sushi is, to us, a form of artwork, fresh fish, and we feel like it's a healthy choice for lunch or dinner that we like to enjoy as a family. Jim Morris: Time to take a closer look at sushi and a fascinating chef, Billy Ngo. Welcome to Ingrained, The California Rice Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Morris. Proud to have worked with California farmers and ranchers for more than 30 years to help tell their stories. And along the way, I've had the good fortune to visit with culinary icons like Julia Child and Thomas Keller. Jim Morris: I first met Billy Ngo 14 years ago, and continue to be amazed at his work ethic and pushing culinary boundaries. Billy, do you ever get a chance to sleep? Billy Ngo: I try to as much as I can. I mean, definitely not 24 anymore when I first opened the restaurant. Jim Morris: Yeah. You have come a long way since then. So, I want to ask you about the very beginning. And I know you've immigrated to America at a very young age. You were from China, then in a Hong Kong refugee camp, and then you came over now to be a star of Japanese cuisine in Northern California. So, from what you've heard from your family, can you tell me a little bit about their existence prior to getting to America? Billy Ngo: Yes. Absolutely. I don't remember much because when I came over I was a baby, so I don't remember much. But the stories I hear from my sisters and my parents was, it was a struggle. We were very lucky to have the life that I had and the opportunities I had growing up here with my parents coming over here. So, my parents are Chinese, but they're from Vietnam. Born in Vietnam. They had to flee because of the Vietnam War. And my mom was pregnant with me when they got on the boat, escaped, landed in a refugee camp in Hong Kong, and that's where I was born. Billy Ngo: And then from there, we were able to come to the United States, to America. And just hearing their stories though, just really, really, really grateful and thankful to be here and to be able to have the opportunity to do what I wanted to do. I know it was funny, going along with that whole thing, with the story, you're like, "Oh, you're Chinese-Vietnamese doing Japanese food." But I mean, I joke around with this all the time. Well, the first job I ever had was at a pasta shop, Kru might be a pasta shop. Billy Ngo: But actually, first job I had was at Fuji's as a bus boy, and then dishwasher, and then sushi prep. And actually it was just a job at first, but then I actually fell in love with the cuisine. Jim Morris: So, we're both from South Sacramento area. I went to Kennedy High School, but I graduated in 1981, when I think you were actually born in 1981. So, tell me about this area. I have a lot of memories about South Sacramento. It's kind of a gritty, hardworking area. And did that shape you in any way, the fact that where you lived? Billy Ngo: Oh, definitely. I grew up in South Sac. It wasn't easy, but a lot of experience growing up in that kind of neighborhood just makes... I don't know. It makes you a little tougher, a little stronger. It kind of made who I am, I feel like. Jim Morris: Some of those early jobs, you've mentioned some of them, but Fuji, which was a great restaurant, and then Taka's and Mikuni. Tell me some of those early jobs you had and some of the different things you did in the restaurants. Billy Ngo: First off, at Fuji's was actually just being a bus boy. Got a job there as a bus boy/dishwasher. Fuji's amazing. Wish they were still open. The food was so good there. Jim Morris: It was awesome. Billy Ngo: So good. They were around for a long, long time. But just, you get to see how the food scene changed in Sacramento over the last 20 years. Fuji's was huge. They had a elevator, full bar, they had downstairs, they had upstairs that fit giant parties. But they had this tiny sushi bar that sat seven seats, sushi bar. And it just shows even though Japanese cuisine was really, really popular, sushi wasn't really popular back then. I think this idea of eating raw fish or whatever it is. And then to see it expand, explode the way it is now, it's everywhere. Billy Ngo: And then I think a big part of that was with Taro at Mikuni's helping blow it up and then making it fun and exciting. And it was really, really cool to have a opportunity to work with Taro's at Mikuni's to see what they were doing there. It was very, very outside the box at the time, what they're doing. And that's what's good about the whole culinary scene. Things change, evolve, and then it's not competition. There's never bad competition, it's good competition because it pushes everything, everyone to be better. Jim Morris: Can you remember the first fish you ever cut, and some of the things you learned from that? Billy Ngo: First fish would have to be... I would say salmon. That's the easiest fish, salmon. And then shrimp. People see all the other sushi Ebi. You see at sushi restaurants, the boiled shrimp, it looks so simple, but it's so much work. At Fuji's, the first position I got in the sushi bar was just sushi prep. And I remember I had to go in there at 8:00 AM every Saturday, Sunday to prep all the shrimp for the week for the two sushi chefs that was working there. Billy Ngo: And the shrimp doesn't come straight like that. They come with their shell on, head, everything you have to... And this was cases of it. You have to sit there and skewer each shrimp so when you boil it, they stay straight. Because otherwise when you cook shrimp, it the curls up, right? So you sit there, you have to skewer hundreds of shrimp, and then you have to boil them, then you have shock it in ice water. Then once it's cool, then you got to peel it, then devein it, then you got to split them open. And then you have to cure it and then you have to package it, wrap it up. And then, at the time, freeze it and then the sous chefs will pull it out as they need it. And that was done every week. Billy Ngo: But it was something so simple that... That's what makes sushi so cool, or hard too, that a lot of people don't understand. Sometimes like, "Oh, sushi chef. You don't even cook anything. What do you do?" But a lot of it is what you see being done at the sushi bars, is all the prep's done. But 95% of the work is done before all that. Jim Morris: Man, I would have a nightmare about being surrounded by shrimp at night or something like that. So, when did you know you wanted to be a sushi chef and go out on your own? Billy Ngo: I would have to say when I actually worked at Mikuni's. I hate to say it, but at first, when I first got the job, it was fun, but it was just a job. I didn't care. I think I first got my job was 15 and a half with a work permit. And when I was in high school, being the busboy/dishwasher. And then started learning sushi probably right when I graduated high school and I was going to Sac City College. I didn't care, it was just a job. Billy Ngo: I was super young, I just wanted to get a paycheck to go hang out and buy parts for my car, buy a stereo system for my car at the time. And I was working at Fuji's. And I think during that time, Mikuni's was just opening up Roseville and everybody's talking about Mikuni's and sushi. And I had a friend that worked there. Actually, I think they were looking for more staff members because they just opened [inaudible 00:07:12]. I think they were looking to expand some other spots. Billy Ngo: And he just hit me up. He's like, "Hey, why don't you come check out this place? We need sushi chefs. Just come and check it out." And he got me an interview. And the interview was the craziest interview I ever had because it wasn't an interview. I got the date and time, I went there, I was ready to sit down, get asked all these questions. They sat me down at the sushi bar, and Taro was working. And he was like, "Hey, what do you like to eat? Do you like to eat this stuff?" And he just started feeding me. And then he was like, "Okay, when do you want to start" And that was it. Billy Ngo: But then just seeing the ambiance, the atmosphere was really cool because working... I didn't have much experience in sushi or even food at the time. I grew up really, really, really poor, right? So, we ate a lot of home cooking at home or a lot of junk food. I loved junk food growing up, fast food and all that stuff. So, a lot of stuff was different to me. And was working at Fuji's, that's my first experience of Japanese cuisine or seeing how everything was done there. Billy Ngo: The chefs that I worked with, trained with, were super, super traditional, super old school. And that's how I had it ingrained in my head. This is how sushi should be. This is how food should be. You need to do it like this. No sauces, nothing. It's like this. It's like very formal. And I go here and then all these guys have bandanas, bleached hair, they're like rock stars, they were like bartenders behind the sushi bar. And everybody looked like they're having a great time. Billy Ngo: Seeing all these young people eating or hanging out, then you see the chefs I was like, "This looks fun." I was like, "Yeah, I want to work here." And I think that was the turning point and actually working there. It was just seeing all these things. I was like, "What are you guys doing? You guys are putting this hot mayonnaise on this." And doing all this. It was just different, but then it tasted good. And it was cool. And that's when my mind kind of opened up. It was like, "Oh, this is actually fun." And that's when I was like, "I want to do this." And I want to learn as much as I can about it, instead of just being a job." Jim Morris: And you were at the California Culinary Academy I believe, about 20 years ago? And how did that help the whole process? Billy Ngo: It was something I wanted to do for myself. I think the culture has changed a lot too in this industry. Everything's changed a lot, from the food scene to just the culture. I think back then it was crazy, it was really hard. I mean, doing it ourselves, but back then there was no iPhones with cameras on it, there was no Instagram or all this stuff or YouTube. So, back then, it was really hard. Billy Ngo: You really had to learn what you needed to learn by working under chefs, or you wanted to see what a chef or another restaurant's doing, you literally have to drive there or fly there and make a reservation, eat there, and then take notes in your little notebook. Probably at that time, I just wanted to learn as much as I can, to be as good as possible, bounce around, work in different places. Billy Ngo: And at one point, I just felt stuck and I couldn't... It was hard to learn too at the time. A lot of chefs were still old school. They don't really teach or whatever it is. Why? I don't know. Job security, whatever it is. You usually just get stuck doing the same thing at each place. And I just felt I wanted to get better and I wanted to learn how to cook as well, not just do sushi. So, I went to culinary school. Jim Morris: I think one of the formative things that occurred to you early on, was working at The Kitchen with Randall Selland, which is an excellent restaurant in Sacramento. Tell me about that experience. Billy Ngo: It was really cool. It opened my eyes there. I think right before I went off to culinary school, I had dinner there. Taka actually bought me dinner there for my birthday right before I went off to culinary school. Going there blew my mind what they were doing. And it was fun, but it was super serious. And I remember after dinner, I talked to Randall. I was like, "Hey, I'm going to culinary school. I'm moving going to be back in Sacramento 16 months. I have to do internship. I would love to do it here." Billy Ngo: He said, "You just come back here when you're ready, when you're done." And I took him up on the offer. Came back, worked with him, internship for three months. And I ended up staying I think another six more months after that to work with them. And there, just learned the importance of ingredients. They never skipped on quality at the kitchen. They only wanted to bring in the best and treat it the best. And their relationships with their farmers and purveyors was awesome, seeing that interaction. Billy Ngo: Because working at a lot of these other old school restaurants I worked in before, some of them... Restaurants ultimately is a business, but everything's a business, down from the farmers, to the ranchers, to your purveyors. And I always see some of the old chefs or owners I worked with, they like to haggle with prices, this and that. And working at The Kitchen, I learned that I've never seen them haggle. All they would say is, "Just make sure you give us the best." Billy Ngo: And that was the big thing I've learned is everybody needs to make a living. If you're going to haggle about stuff, it should be about the quality, not the price. And that's a big thing for me that I learned from there. You get what you pay for. You should never, ever haggle. And then good cuisine, good food starts with good ingredients. Jim Morris: I'm going to ask you a little more about working with local farmers in just a moment. But first, I'm visiting with Michael Bosworth, rice grower in Yuba County, who supplies Billy his rice. And Michael, how long has that happened? And tell me a little bit about your friendship and working relationship with Billy. Michael Bosworth: We've been supplying Billy since 2006, and that's the year that we started direct marketing our rice. He was our first customer, I think Randall Selland at The Kitchen was our second customer. It's been a great relationship over the years. We've worked with Billy at Kru and then also on all of his other restaurant ventures. Michael Bosworth: I've learned a lot from him. We actually transitioned from supplying him organic medium-grain rice, to organic Calacarri short-grain rice, because he wanted to elevate the food that he's doing and we wanted to help him do that. So, it's been really great to work with him and we've all learned a lot. Because we're at that same age and kind of started getting going 15, 16 years ago. And so, it's been great just to watch him grow as an entrepreneur and a restaurateur. And his food was always amazing and it just keeps getting better and better. And so, it's great to be working with somebody that is constantly striving to improve. Jim Morris: What's your favorite dish at Kru? Michael Bosworth: That's really tough. He has a really great sushi roll that's kind of off-menu called the Ziggy Roll. It's wrapped with soy paper. Obviously has some really good rice in it, avocado, soft-shell crab, and fish eggs. So, yeah. It's really great. And it's just one of my favorite things. The texture components are awesome, the flavor's really great. So, yeah. That's my go-to. Jim Morris: So Billy, you have taken the effort to go to the farms directly and seeing how it's grown. Michael Bosworth in particular with rice, that's a key ingredient in sushi. How important is it to understand how that is produced, and to get the best quality for what you're doing? Billy Ngo: I think it's very important. And we're so lucky to be in this region in Sacramento with so many things being grown here locally, and just knowing where it's coming from and having the relationship with the grower or the rancher or the farmer. Any questions you have, it's easy. You're not talking to a rep. Jim Morris: What's your first impression when you saw the rice farm? I mean, when I take people out for tours, their mouth is normally open about the space that is involved, the technology. What were some of your observations? Billy Ngo: I would say exactly the same thing. Blew my mind the whole process of how huge the fields are and even the technology, the GPS, everything that's going into it. I just thought it was a big pond. But seeing how everything operates, it's really, really cool. Jim Morris: And it's really important to be as efficient as you can in a place like California with land values and other factors, the water situation, so that the growers do a great job with their efficiency. Before we learn more about the restaurant, its dishes, and even a discussion about fast food, I wanted to talk with another top chef in Sacramento to get his impression of Billy Ngo. Jim Morris: I'm visiting with Patrick Mulvaney, one of the outstanding chefs in the Sacramento region, a pillar of farm-to-fork, somebody very passionate about what he does. And that also seems to feed Billy Ngo. Tell me a little bit about your experience with Billy. Patrick Mulvaney: Well, we love Billy's food, right? And it's just so great to be going... We call Kru the chefs restaurant, right? Because you go, not only is Billy welcoming and all his staff bring you in, but what you see is a lot of chefs who are off work, who want to go somewhere for really good food, clean, and not have to ask for what you're looking for. Billy is probably one of the kindest, most gentle chefs that I know. Always gracious with everyone that he goes to. Patrick Mulvaney: Sometimes when I come into the restaurant with my daughter, he'll bring out a little appetizer for us and usually has some kind of shellfish, which I'm allergic to. And he'll put it down in front of me and say, "Oh, I'm sorry, you can't eat that." And my daughter immediately grabs it from me and says, "That's quite all right, we'll have another." Jim Morris: Billy, Let's talk about Kru. You opened the restaurant in 2005. What does that name mean? Billy Ngo: It means raw in French, but with C so we just changed it to a K. A lot of the guys that worked with me when we first opened the restaurant, we've been friends for years. The whole staff. When we would get off work so, we always hit up these places with a group of five of us or seven. So it was kind of like the crew. And then when we opened the restaurant, that was like the crew, crew. So, that and [inaudible 00:16:40]. That's what the meaning behind it is. Billy Ngo: And also I wanted a French word because it is sushi, but we impact so many other techniques and cuisines into our food too. We just wanted to make really good food. Jim Morris: The old location was a different atmosphere, a great one, but a different atmosphere than what you have at this new location. And I remember coming in several years back and John C. Reilly was sitting in there. I don't know if you remember that, but... Billy Ngo: I do remember that, but I can't remember... I was just so star struck. I remember you were still in there that time that... yeah, it was really cool to have him sitting right there in the corner table. Jim Morris: I wanted it to say hello, and I was too chicken to do that. Do you have a favorite John C. Reilly movie? Billy Ngo: I love all his movies, actually. Jim Morris: I'll name a few and tell me if you like these. Talladega Nights was awesome and Chicago, which was way different, but that was great too. Billy Ngo: Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, it was funny meeting him in person because he was so chill instead of... It was completely different than what I thought he would be like. But it was awesome having him in. Jim Morris: So this new location of Kru, it feels very big city to me. What were some of the goals as you got the restaurant together that you wanted to accomplish? Billy Ngo: That restaurant was the first location. Opened that place when I was 24 years old, crazy budget. I don't even know how we did it. To think of it now, how we opened that place up. It was all done with band-aids and pennies. And to be here, I'm really grateful and thankful. We wanted a space that matched the food and also a bigger kitchen for us to make the food even better. Jim Morris: Tell me about the dishes that are here at Kru. How much are planned, how much are kind of freelance and what are some of your goals? Because there are some pretty interesting combinations of food that you offer. Billy Ngo: The factual food is just a combination of everything that I like. And just me growing up in Sacramento, California, being a Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant, that's what culinary school learned classical French, but then worked in a Japanese restaurants, but then ate Chinese food and Vietnamese food at home. But loved happy meals McDonald's and stuff like that. So, we just want to do a really, really good food, but still adhering to what the basis should be in the sushi. Billy Ngo: But the small plates want to do really cool stuff, utilizing local ingredients, pushing the boundaries. And wouldn't be here to this day without the team, from employees of past and present. Everybody really helped to turn this place into what it is. Jim Morris: The Sunshine Roll, I think is one of the most popular that has apples in it as well. Tell me a little bit about that roll. Billy Ngo: I would say a signature dish for the sushi bar, it would be that roll because that's our top selling roll, but it's kind of what we do. When you read the ingredient lists, a lot of people are like, "What's your favorite roll? What do you suggest?" I'll suggest that roll. Wow, that seems like a lot. But it's sounds a lot when you read it, but you can really taste all the ingredients. You can taste apple, you taste lemon, you got to taste spicy tuna, there's fried leaks, there's cilantro, there's fish. It's not just the mesh, it's cool because there's a lot ingredients, a lot of textures, a lot of flavors, but you can actually taste each one. Jim Morris: So sushi, correct me if I'm wrong, literally means vinegared rice. So how important is rice in the equation? Billy Ngo: This is something that a lot of people don't know and understand. They think of sushi and the first thing you think about this raw fish. But even the word sushi is straight up means rice and vinegar. Rice is the most important ingredient in sushi. You can't have a good sushi without good rice. And then sushi is without the rice and then the fish is [inaudible 00:20:11] or, I mean, compliments to really... In Japan, sous chefs have to learn for years, you just have to wash and make the rice and prep veggies, before putting stuff together. So the rice it's very, very important, most important that a lot of people forget about. Jim Morris: So tell me about some of your other ventures, everything from dog food to other restaurants. You're a busy guy. Tell me about some of those please. Billy Ngo: We have Kodaiko Ramen, a ramen shop in downtown, then we have Fish Face Poke Bar, and then we have Healthy Hounds Kitchen, where we actually do human grade dog food. All these restaurants, I just want to do projects that I feel that actually could help the community instead of just opening another business, just to open the business, just to do something. If you already have something, we don't need to do it. That's how I think about business-wise like Healthy Hounds. Billy Ngo: We all love our pets. Our animals are like our kids, so we want to do something really good food for the pups. And it's fun doing that project too, because even the dog food I work with Michael on the rice, and we use his rice there too. Jim Morris: It has been a difficult time with COVID and restaurants have been really hard hit in terms of the businesses that have really had some challenges. So, tell me a little bit about that and some of your priorities and staying open, and you have dozens of people that work for you too. Billy Ngo: Yeah. I think that the biggest priority was actually just trying to keep as many of our staff employed as possible. And then at some of the other business was a little harder than others. Kru, we're very fortunate, we've been here for 15 years, we have a very loyal following, we're very, very thankful for that. And just even just doing our to-go business was good enough to keep a lot of our staff employed. That was the main goal. Billy Ngo: And the other places that were like Kodaiko we just opened that very new. And even that area got hit very hard with Golden 1 not being open and all the venues, so many places closing. And over there, the goal there was to keep our managers employed, but there's no way to not lose money. It's just lose as little money as possible, but don't close the shop down. You want to... I don't want to go induced coma. I was like, just go to sleep, have a heartbeat, but don't die. Jim Morris: How much will you rejoice when things are much, much better? And hopefully that day is coming soon. Billy Ngo: I can't wait. This is so different. Putting food in boxes, very thankful that we're still able to do that to-go. But part of the magic and why I fell in love with this industry, is seeing the faces, hearing the sound, hearing the laughs of the dining room and the clang of pans in the kitchen, you miss all that. And I can't wait for that and I think hopefully soon we'll have that energy again, inside the building. Jim Morris: I can tell you have a lot of compassion. So, tell me what drives you because you work a lot, you have a lot of different business endeavors, and you keep charging up that hill. So, what motivates you? Billy Ngo: I just want to keep pushing, do good. And before younger had a lot of energy, but now I see so many people working with such great employees and team members. And like I said, Kru would that be the way it is or where it's at without employees of the past and present. And then you see a lot of people with so much talent and stuff, you can see the next generation. And now I want to keep pushing, keep doing cool things to help the next generation if they want to open a restaurant or do this, or be the best chef. Jim Morris: So we're doing this interview outside with masks and distance outside of Kru. And I can see another sushi sign, just a few feet away. So, the popularity of sushi is that going to change? Do you think it's going to continue to grow? Billy Ngo: I think it'll continue to grow, because it's just such a different food and the social aspect of the experience, is really fun and just the food it's anything you want. It could be really healthy for you, or it could just make a roll with cream cheese and deep fry it, and then it'll be delicious. It's anything you want to get this it's just so vast I don't think it's going away anywhere. Jim Morris: And you mentioned healthy and things that might not be fully healthy. So, you have to tell me what's your go-to junk food? Billy Ngo: I'd say Mexican food, Jimboy's. It killed me when there was a Jimboy's right here on 20th street. They had a drive-through and I used to hit that up multiple times a week on the way to work. And when they closed, it broke my heart. Jim Morris: Oh yeah. Jimboy's is the best. And for those that aren't in this area, they have the cheese on the outside. It's just a little greasy, actually it's way greasy, but it's awesome. So, have you ever had a Happy Meal or a Big Mac or what are some of the other favorites? Billy Ngo: I just had a quarter pounder a few days ago. Jim Morris: Yeah. Billy Ngo: I'm a junk food King. Jim Morris: You got to live. Billy Ngo: Yeah. But also I live also one thing is too, that I'm sure a lot of people don't know, but finding out more now, there's a lot of these chefs they don't like to cook for themselves. We do all this cooking and prepping at work, when we get off, we want something quick. We'll throw a hot pocket in the microwave or stop by McDonald's and we just want to scarf that thing down and then lay down. Jim Morris: That will wrap up this episode. Thank you to Michael Bosworth, Ian Scharg, Patrick Mulvaney and of course, Billy Ngo for his time and expertise. Remember, you can find out more and listen to past episodes at podcast.calrice.org. We welcome your comments. Thanks for listening.

Host: Kyle Leung (@kyle.lhkhk) https://linktr.ee/whatkindofasianareyoupod Guest: Joanne Van (@jovananne) https://www.instagram.com/jovananne/ https://joannevan.com/ https://www.theqoos.com/ Today I talked to Joanne Van, a digital marketer with an ethnic Chinese Vietnamese-American background that was born and raised in America.  Her parents were born and raised in Vietnam (Diaspora Asians in their own right) that identifies more with being Chinese than Vietnamese. The interesting part of this would be that both Joanne and her parents actually never step foot in China. We went into the reasons why Joanne's parents felt like this and how that contributed to Joanne's own journey with her identity and cultural understanding of her own Chinese-Vietnamese culture mixed in with her Asian American identity. Joanne is also one that is very into Asian culture/media and we go into why that is and what she gets out of that. We also talked about her passion for creativity and business that led her to her career in digital and social media marketing. We talked about how her parents took that as it is not your normal career path. Last, we also talked about KPOP as Joanne is part of a company that is heavily involved in the KPOP music industry/community. She recommended a few KPOP acts to check out as well. Thank you for listening and make sure to follow the podcast on your streaming platform and also on Instagram at ＠whatkindofasianpod. Also, make sure to give this episode and the podcast in general a share to your friends and family. Last, please send me feedback for the podcast! I would love to read them!Credits:Theme Music Intro: m-train-dpa.wav by hkmtrhah / Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) / https://freesound.org/s/371934/Outro: Cinematic industrial outro by Drakensson / CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication / https://freesound.org/s/447538/--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/whatkindofasianpod/message

Entrepreneurship is in Jenny Poon's DNA. Her parents own and run a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant in Minnesota and they worked hard so that Jenny could go to college and get a good job. They didn't want her to have to start a business like they did.  But, that's exactly what she did. Jenny's been running CO+HOOTS, a co-working space in Phoenix,  with her husband for more than 10 years. During that time, she's found several opportunities to give back to her community by helping fledgling entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Now, Jenny has launched HUUB,  which is a platform to provide entrepreneurs from all backgrounds with resources and training for success.Hamid and Jenny talk about growing up with immigrant parents, the stress of starting a company, and how to solve some of the country's biggest problems. 

Host: Kyle Leung (@kyle.lhkhk) https://linktr.ee/whatkindofasianareyoupod Guest: Joanne Van (@jovananne) https://www.instagram.com/jovananne/ https://joannevan.com/ https://www.theqoos.com/ Today I talked to Joanne Van, a digital marketer with an ethnic Chinese Vietnamese-American background that was born and raised in America. Her parents were born and raised in Vietnam (Diaspora Asians in their own right) that identifies more with being Chinese than Vietnamese. The interesting part of this would be that both Joanne and her parents actually never step foot in China. We went into the reasons why Joanne’s parents felt like this and how that contributed to Joanne’s own journey with her identity and cultural understanding of her own Chinese-Vietnamese culture mixed in with her Asian American identity. Joanne is also one that is very into Asian culture/media and we go into why that is and what she gets out of that. We also talked about her passion for creativity and business that led her to her career in digital and social media marketing. We talked about how her parents took that as it is not your normal career path. Last, we also talked about KPOP as Joanne is part of a company that is heavily involved in the KPOP music industry/community. She recommended a few KPOP acts to check out as well. Thank you for listening and make sure to follow the podcast on your streaming platform and also on Instagram at ＠whatkindofasianpod. Also, make sure to give this episode and the podcast in general a share to your friends and family. Last, please send me feedback for the podcast! I would love to read them! Credits: Theme Music Intro: m-train-dpa.wav by hkmtrhah / Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) / https://freesound.org/s/371934/ Outro: Cinematic industrial outro by Drakensson / CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication / https://freesound.org/s/447538/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/whatkindofasianpod/message

Michelle Matthews is a BIPOC environmentalist, artist, designer, and photographer, who was born in Iran to a Chinese/Vietnamese mother and a Black/Caucasian father, and her family was among the last ones to be airlifted from Iran during the Islamic revolution in February of 1979. Traveling back and forth between her home in Hawthorne, CA and her high school in West Los Angeles, Michelle noticed how the quality of the landscape impacts the quality of life. She has spent most of her career working as a creative at nonprofits such as the ACLU, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and Sundance Institute, host of the Sundance Film Festival. She is proud to bring her non-profit creative vision and landscape management experience together in her role as Executive Director of Arlington Garden, a free public garden in the heart of Pasadena, CA. http://www.arlingtongardenpasadena.org

Busca con las manos y no con los ojos! Translation: Look with your hands and not with your eyesHow many times have you heard your parents tell you this? Another favorite of mine is, “Si fuera culebra, ya te hubiera mordido” Translation: If it was a snake, it would have already bitten you. In this episode, guests Carol and Cynthia join me to discuss the phrases their parents repeated and how they contributed to the creation of their individual businesses. Carol and Cynthia are the example of boss babes everywhere. They both own their own businesses and have built successful careers in providing unique services to men and women by turning their dreams into reality. We talk about the traditional home remedies Mama Banh shared plus the focus on service from Papa Banh. We explore the lessons of 1st generation and 2nd generation Chinese-Vietnamese teachings, love for food, and a greater commitment to the community. Please leave a 5 Star rating if you enjoyed this episode and a review! Send us a message about your family traditions. Website: whatdichos.comEmail: hola@whatdichos.comIntro Theme Music Credit: Mariachiando - Doug Maxwell / Jimmy Fontanez

THE SONG OF GREAT JOY "Iha" Prajñāpāramitā - BÀI CA ĐẠI HOAN HỶ "I-ha" Bát Nhã Ba La Mật Đa Based on the Vietnamese translation of the “Prajñāpāramitā-Hṛdayam” Sutra as edited by BHIKKHU THÍCH TUỆ HẢI on August 8, 2019, the lyrics for “The Song of Great Joy” were composed by Milam Sudhana on August 6, 2019 and enhanced on October 18, 2019. In Sanskrit, "iha" has 3 different meanings: "here," "now" or "in this world." This term had been missing in the classical Chinese-Vietnamese translations of the Heart Sutra for many centuries, and thus, this verse had been previously translated into Vietnamese as "O Sariputra" (instead of "Here, O Sariputra" or "Now, O Sariputra" or "In this world, O Sariputra"). Recently, in the new Vietnamese version of "The Core-Essence of the Prajñāpāramitā" edited by Bhikkhu Thich Tue Hai on August 8, 2019, the "iha" verse was expressed as "O Sariputra, in this very vivid presence" -- it is the very vivid momentary presence when the practitioner deeply immerges in the sphere of the five aggregates as being Empty-Void and where all dharmas emerge as Empty-Signlessness. "This very vivid presence" is not even slightly before or after; each and every momentary presence of reality, of the realm of truth, is constantly changing and refreshing itself. ....... THE SONG OF GREAT JOY: "Iha" Prajñāpāramitā (Translation of the Vietnamese lyrics) Why did it have to take us more than a thousand years To find one word Just one word In the Heart Sutra? Why is it that this word has been lost for more than a thousand years Yet no one saw it Right in the Heart Sutra? O Sariputra Iha... iha... iha... Sariputra! Iha... is it right here, right in this place, right in this world? iha... is it right now, at this point in time, right in this instant? Iha... iha... iha... Sariputra! Iha... is this very vivid presence, not even slightly before or after! The Core-Essence of Prajñāpāramitā radiates luminously... luminously... luminously........ When the word "iha" appeared After being lost for more than a thousand years In the forest of words. Iha... iha... iha... Sariputra! Iha... Emerging Naturally and Serenely O! Joy... joy... great joy! O Sariputra! Iha... iha... iha... Sariputra! Iha... is the immaculately pure vivid presence, the quiescent and empty presence, the emergence of Empty-Signlessness. Iha... is the utterly complete reality in existence, without a rift as small as a thread of silk, with not even a chance to be dissimilar! Iha... form is Empty-Void Iha... Empty-Void is form Iha... all dharmas emerge from Empty-Signlessness Iha... non-arising, non-ceasing, undefiled, untainted, pristine, blazingly bright Perfectly Complete! Iha... Prajñāpāramitā Iha... The Perfection of All-Transcendent Wisdom gone utterly freely beyond right in this very vivid presence Thus no shore is there to be crossed! When the Master taught Dharma on his lion seat The beginning of a song of great joy Rain of nectar falling........... Iha... iha... iha... Sariputra! ha / sariputra / sarva / dharma / sunyata / alaksana / anutpanna / aniruddha / amala / vimala / nouna / na paripurnah. Iha... in this very vivid presence, all dharmas emerge from Empty-Signlessness! Iha... non-arising, non-ceasing, undefiled, untainted, pristine, blazingly bright Perfectly Complete! Thus, to speak of the Perfection of All-Transcendent Wisdom is to Emerge Vividly in the realm of truth: Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone utterly freely beyond, perfectly awakened, svaha! When the Master taught Dharma on his lion seat The beginning of a song of great joy Luminous golden, luminous golden, blazingly bright... vast expansive, vast expansive, luminous golden........ Iha... iha... iha... Sariputra... Iha... iha... iha... Sariputra...

How to 10X Your Income With Repeat and Referred Business Repeat and referred business is a sure tactic to grow your business 10x. Despite that, not many are looking into it.  A reliable tactic to increase income is to use repeat and referred business. Gia Le, a successful real estate agent in Australia, whose heritage is Chinese-Vietnamese,    uses this strategy with great success. However, before she got into real estate, her career started in finance and insurance sales through the automotive industry.  Gia wasn't always the top salesperson she is today.  Working for Australia's largest automotive holding company, she was almost fired in her first three months as an insurance and finance consultant.   Selling using out-dated methods  Early in her career, Gia attended several training programs offered by her company. She learned a variety of  selling techniques and rehearsed the scripts but they proved to be ineffective.. These original methods sounded rote to the more sophisticated customers and the techniques were perceived as out-dated and insincere.    The dealership was a very fast-paced environment, sometimes having to close sales within two or three hours, and she was struggling and fighting.  In Australia, a dealership makes more money on the finance and insurance than on the vehicle itself and accounts for nearly 60- 70% of the dealership's profits.. Gia knew if she didn't start performing her time at the company was going to come to a close.  It was then the right mentor appeared.ia recalls, “He pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, Gia stop trying to focus on the sale. Why don't you just start focusing on the people and realize that we're selling more than just finance and insurance.'” It was in that moment that she understood she was there to solve problems and provide a service.   “I truly sold nothing.The only thing I truly sold was a promise, an opportunity and above all, a relationship. The moment I started connecting and focusing on my client's pain, empathizing with them and gaining their trust through the art of storytelling, I was basically closing nearly 70% of all the clients who walked through my door.” Sales is about selling an opportunity, and above all else, relationship. #SalesSuccess  Working at such a fast pace, she also understood the need to act quickly. “Nobody was in a dealership to waste their time because time is the most precious commodity anybody ever has.”  She knew if her client walked away they didn't want to work with her.  It was in these moments she decided not to give away her business card.  “I would never give out a business card because any seasoned consultant should really understand that, yeah, (them taking your business card) is a consolation prize. It's their way of saying, I'll take something off you and I'm going to go away. I'm going to leave you living in hope but hope doesn't pay the bills.”  Knowing she needed to make a connection in those fleeting moments in order to close a sale, she became proficient in understanding the client's needs, addressing their concerns and offering a solution.  Gia worked for the dealership for seven and a half years and at the age of thirty, decided she no longer wanted to work seventy hours a week and wanted more flexibility.  She wondered what else she could do with the sales skills she had.  By then, Gia was working with a life coach and with real estate's flexibility and use of her sales experience, they thought it was the perfect answer.  Gia was a real estate agent for about a year when she noticed that using the emerging digital platform to market properties was being underutilized in Australia.  “The use of social media four years ago was only just starting to blossom.  I started a digital agency after I saw that opportunity. I made $500 in my first month after making big dollars in finance.  Now, my digital agency is growing across Australia. We're now in Asia.”  Growing the business through repeat and referred business  Gia credits the growth of her business to her sales background.  As her company continues to grow she is still selling and understands that referrals don't happen by luck.  From the beginning, repeat and repeat business was her focus and she set the tone for her employees. “I kept telling everybody across the company I wasn't the best consultant or the best sales woman, but I was certainly the most disciplined and process-driven. I always played the long game with every single client. It's all about having a strategy and being disciplined. It's making sure that system is bigger than yourself.” Gia took advantage of the downtime when It was during these early days Facebook and Google were increasing in popularity as a sales tool. While other salespeople were busy Facebooking and Googling for new clients during their downtime, Gia  was busy prospecting.  “I was busy following up with all my old clients because I understood that 90% of my sales were going to happen before they even walked in the door to see me again. The moment they walked in, I knew they were there for a reason. I'd made a conscious decision to make sure they remembered who I am, what I do, where I am, and I was truly memorable.” These clients had walked through her door, not just for the product, but for her.  One gentleman was  really happy with her service and it seemed to be a normal transaction.  However, the next day, he came back to her office with his son and asked if she could offer him the same deal. . His son then referred her  services to his circle of friends and each one asked her to duplicate the original sale. It was then that Gia understood the power of repeat referral business.  She had made business easy for her clients and they never had to reach decision fatigue. Because of Gia's diligent preparation, her clients didn't have to waste time doing the research for other customer relations managers. She provided the hope, opportunity, trust and relationship they were looking for. They received her promise of excellence. So how can you create a process to increase your business referrals? “You've got to have a service based ethos. If you're not customer-focused, no matter what process you put in place for repeat business, it's going to fail you because nobody is going to refer you. Get that foundation right first. The next step  to creating that repeat business was I made sure that relationship started after we finalized the first transaction.”   When she was still at the dealership, other salespeople didn't speak to their clients once a deal was made but Gia sets herself apart by providing touch points throughout the year.  Her clients received a gift so they knew she was sincere about winning their business. A thank you card was sent within thirty days. On their birthday, their card was hand-written and they received personal  phone calls on their anniversary. These systems were automated so the dates automatically appeared in her calendar. Discipline matters Not many salespeople would want to be in touch with their clients that thoroughly. It takes a lot of discipline to make a series of follow-up. It's easy to be sidetracked with everything that's going on, so it's important to stay true to what you need to do and just do all of them.  Gia saw herself as a business within a business. She kept a strong KPI and place incentives to motivate others to reach their KPIs as well.  Not everyone has the tenacity to stay in sales. Some others would come and go. But you can make yourself as the rock and be that consistent face that every client would see in your industry, then you will have the most respect. People would come at you asking for deals and your idea because it's you who stayed the longest and you know the ropes.  Staying connected is also the key. Their sale only begins when clients have signed the contract. Gia would assist them when they want to make a claim due to an accident, thus enabling her to influence and make an impact on the clients over what they would choose to replace the vehicle with. At the same time, she is also able to refine the contract and make more money from the dealership. It's all because she stayed connected and earned their trust.  Along with her team, they put much effort into romancing their clients, being committed to transacting with them, and starting a relationship with them in the end. They go beyond what they offer. They also try to help clients who have poor credit ratings.  There are millions of ideas every single day but discipline and consistency do the tricks in growing your business using repeat and referred business. If you decide to make 10 phone calls a day to old clients, then, by all means, do it.  “How to 10X Your Income With Repeat and Referred Business” episode resources Give Gia Le's digital agency website a visit to see her sales strategies, tips, and tricks that have been helpful in her career. She also has her own company site that you can check out.  For other sales concerns, you can also reach out to Donald via LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Use these practical sales tips and let me know how it works for you.  This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It's a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can also call us at (561) 570-5077.  The episode is also brought to you by Sales Live Miami. It's an event put on by a group of friends and it's designed to help sellers and sales leaders improve their sales game. It's going to be this November 4-5, 2019 in Miami, Florida. Come and join us. You can find more about this event on The Sales Evangelist website.  We want you to join us for our next episodes so tune in to our podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks at Audible as well and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free trial.  Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

This week on 6PI, we welcome one of our most highly sought after guests Phi Long to the show! Mitch and Long take time out of their busy and lazy lives to review their recent trips to Ninh Binh and Ha Long Bay, discuss the beautiful scenery of the area, get a history lesson of Chinese/Vietnamese dynasties from Long, and we go over some of our MUST DO things in both cities. Also, know-it-all boat guides, the never-ending airplane ride, crappy hotel food, and Long’s hatred of climbing steps. Plus, financial death by Hot Pot, the quickest tourists girls ever?, underhanded environmentalists, and Mitch is a raisin in the sun.  Go follow Phi Long on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_philong98/

The 2019 Emerging Voices Fellows meet for a last meal and talk to Fellowship Manager Amanda Fletcher about their experiences in EV, commenting on the impact their mentors, master classes, and professional editing sessions had on their writing. Featuring Dare Williams, Judy Choi, Anthony Hoang, T.K. Lê, and Fajer Alexander Khansa. With a cameo from little Lucian. ** Dare Williams is an HIV-positive poet, artist, and activist native to Southern California who is currently working on a poetry collection confronting the erasure of queer culture. Judy Choi lives in LA with her 11-year-old son and is currently working on a novel based on her Texas childhood. Anthony Hoang is writing a novel about a Chinese-Vietnamese family set in 1970s Vietnam and present-day America. T.K. Lê is from Westminster, California. Her current collection of poems is inspired by the Lambretta her father threw into the ocean in the hours before he left Vietnam in 1975. Fajer Alexander Khansa was born and raised in Lattakia, Syria, and Tokyo, Japan. He is working on a short story collection.

On RIGHT IN DC today, our guest is my dear friend Rick Manning, the President Americans for Limited Government. A long time public affairs professional, Rick served as the Public Affairs Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Labor during the George W. Bush Administration, where he was twice recognized by the Secretary for Exceptional Achievement. Born and raised in southern California (but don't hold that against him), Rick graduated from the University of Southern California working his way through school running political campaigns. Shortly thereafter, he became a state lobbyist for the National Rifle Association for nine years responsible for the southeastern United States, Maryland and New Jersey. At NRA, Rick worked closely with local groups to pass the groundbreaking concealed carry law in Florida which has subsequently served as a national model. A veteran of dozens of corporate communications and grassroots campaigns, Manning has emerged as a leading voice in the conservative community with columns appearing in The Hill, Investor’s Business Daily, FoxNews.com and other major publications across the nation. Rick lives in Chesapeake, MD with his wife and he is active in his local church. On the show, we discuss: • The historic North Korean Summit • Why it Is summit consistent with President Trump’s view that America needs to focus on America first • Is this the right time to go into the negotiations for this summit • The Chinese-Vietnamese nexus in previous negotiations • His thoughts on the end of the Mueller investigation • Connections between the power players in Washington, DC and how much personal relationships prevent trying to limit government • Why members of Congress should spend more time in their district than in Washington, DC • The value of the idea of moving the Capitol to different places in America every 10 years • Why the unelected staff on the Hill are the real power in Congress and how to stop this • The reasons government agencies/departments should be moved out of Washington to different areas in America • How electronic voting is rife with fraud and the value of face-to-face conversation • Should conservatives engage in a the public debate about socialism • His in-depth analysis about the Paid Family Leave Act and how it will be disastrous for small businesses and women MORE Americans For Limited Government https://getliberty.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LimitGovt Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericansForLimitedGovernment/ - - - - Follow Gayle Totter: https://gayletrotter.com twitter.com/gayletrotter www.facebook.com/gayle.s.trotter/ instagram.com/gayle_trotter Support Gayle's RIGHT IN DC Podcasts: www.patreon.com/gayletrotter

As the cultural and economic displacement of low-income people of color intensifies in New York and throughout urban America, the parallel strivings of Asian- and African-Americans force activists to deeply consider their alliances and how to navigate battle lines.  This week on Third Rail we examine the state of Black-Asian relations in gentrifying New York through a rich conversation with Cathy Dang. Ms. Dang just completed her tenure as Executive Director of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, which is building grassroots community power across diverse poor and working class Asian immigrant and refugee communities in New York City. The child of ethnic Chinese Vietnamese immigrants, Dang spent her childhood in her parents' nail salon in pre-gentrified Downtown Brooklyn.   First Segment: Dang shares her personal stories growing up as a social justice-minded witness to the complicated relationship between asian store front entrepreneurs and their mostly Black and Brown customer base.  Second Segment: we examine what are the common interests between Black and Asian folk in New York, and what threatens to keep us apart.   Third Segment: we of course, Tell ‘em Why We Mad.    Intro and Outro theme Music: “City Survival” by MC K-Swift featuring TreZure Empire. Episode Music: “Tanzen”, KieLoBot

For Angela and me, video games means more than your typical button mashing experience. In fact, video (and computer) games brought many of our nerdy selves together during dark times of the white heteropatriarchy and its systems of oppression. “Do you game?” may be the life-changing question we all need to ask as we venture through different worlds during our journey to find the people who truly resonate with our personal mission. Tune in to hear how gaming has played a huge role in helping us battle through our childhood days and how it has led us to discovering online and offline communities that reflect our need for Asian diasporic representation and solidarity. So, what do you say? Will you join us in this episode? Angela Wu is a first-generation, Chinese-Vietnamese photographer and botanist from the Bay Area. Angela's background is in ecology and botany, and she has her own photo business as well as working as a lab technician in plant-based pharmaceuticals. Angela's work intends to provide a means to bring representation to people of color in media. When she's not working in the lab or taking photos, you can find me gaming online! 0752AM.CO instagram.com/0752AM twitter.com/0752AM gaming links: battlenet id: seven52am#1179 steam: seven52am

A year after participating in the first such Tet parade on Bolsa at in Westminster, a contingent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese plan to march again. We talk again to Gina Masequesmay, from CSU Northridge, about the planned march and whether or not this year's event, slated for 9:00-noon on 5 February, is happening with less controversy than the previous year.

In the 11 October 2010 edition of Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, we talk with Lingan University Visual Studies Prof. Sophia Law (right) visiting from Hong Kong. We ask her about her project documenting and analyzing some 800 pieces of artwork originally collected by Garden Streams, a local community project, from the Hong Kong detention camps of Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese refugees in the 1980s and early 1990s. How did she become interested in the issue, and what does she hope will come out of it?