In 1993, Amy Tan’s award-winning novel “The Joy Luck Club” was brought to the screen. It was the first major motion picture to feature an all Asian-American cast to tell an all-Asian-American story. While the original film revealed what it meant to be a mother, the anticipated sequel will follow the four daughters into their journeys of motherhood. To help tell this next chapter of mothers and daughters (and now grandmothers), original screenwriter Ronald Bass will be reuniting with Tan to bring to life the next generation of these four families. Tan’s narrative bridges the generational gap between four Chinese women who immigrated to the US and produced four American daughters. What struck Asian audiences was its reflection of their own family and even more so, recognizing a face they’d never seen on screen before. The film follows Wu Jingmei’s first Joy Luck Club gathering since the death of her mother, where she is expected to take her mother’s seat at the mahjong table. The Joy Luck Club was her mom’s, Suyan Woo, creation– an evening full of playing mahjong, sharing stories, and hoping for luck. Surrounded by her aunties, Ying-Ying, An-Mei, and Lindo, they reveal the stories that compose her mother’s past. As they unveil the secrets of their deceased friend, they also disclose the hidden stories of their own past life in China. These vignettes of both the mothers’ and daughters’ lives display a common anxiety of never understanding the other— a universal fear that mothers and daughters are forced to confront. For the film industry, The Joy Luck Club broke the standard roles that at the time were available to Asian actors. The actresses who had played the daughters, Ming-Na Wen as Jingmei, Rosalind Chao as Rose, Tamlyn Tomita as Waverley, and Lauren Tom as Lena, were previously typecasted to small, side character roles that fit the Asian stereotype. “Asian American women were objectified,” said Chao. “Pretty was really all they cared about.” Their involvement in the “Joy Luck Club” opened new possibilities for these actresses, leading them later to roles in the hit show “Friends” and to voice Disney’s first Asian Princess Mulan. Additionally, the young actresses were each paired with an on-screen mother who was played by a pioneer of Asian American cinema: Kieu Chinh as Suyuan, France Nuyen as Ying-Ying, Lisa Lu as An-Mei, and Tsai Chin as Lindo. As the sequel’s script is being written, the original leading cast is in talks to return to their roles, as mothers and grandmothers of their families. The sequel will hopefully provide young, aspiring Asian actors with the opportunity to introduce the next generation of Joy Luck Club members and to continue the legacy the original film had established. Editors: Cathay L., Leila W. Photo Credits: Everett Collection

On February 24, after years of threats and escalating tensions, Russian forces advanced into Ukraine, plunging millions of Ukrainians into the middle of conflict and tragedy; in this digital age, we were able to watch day by day as the tragedy unfolds and see how lives of Ukrainian people had been irrevocably changed. An estimated 8-12 million people were displaced, with a reported 6.5 million fleeing the country as refugees. Through this digital verse, we watched what followed: nations in the western world flinging open the gates for Ukrainian refugees, implementing unprecedented measures to accommodate them, with their actions heralded and passionately pleaded for by news anchors and journalists as they reported on the war. The online world gave me the platform to watch all of this unfold and as I did, I realized the blatant bias and prejudice prevalent in the media coverage, the political response, and the treatment of refugee communities. It showed me that the western world had decided that there was a “right” kind of refugee, and it was one that looked like them. It hadn’t been hard to notice, having spent my teenage years as a young Muslim POC watching news coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2014, hearing Western/European politicians use dehumanizing, minimizing phrases like ‘aliens’, ‘foreigner’, ‘illegals’, and ‘migrants’ [which they have since the 2014 crisis rapidly took a negative tilt], callously replacing the word refugee, villainizing the entire Syrian population, adopting hostile policies and attitudes toward refugees, proudly showing images of barbed wire and fenced borders in construction guarded by armed soldiers. The headlines took an incredibly cruel turn during the 2014 refugee crisis, writing headers like: ‘The Swarm on our Streets’, ‘Halt the Asylum Tide Now’, and ‘Calais Crisis: Send in the Dogs’ in thick, black font. It was during this period that I experienced an incredible amount of racial prejudice and Islamophobia. Yet, when the same tragedy occurred in Europe and the Ukrainian people fled to the western world and beyond, it was a completely different situation. Unprecedented measures were taken to handle the influx of Ukrainian refugees, with the European Union enacting a completely new programme that gave all Ukrainian nationals the right to live in, work, and receive access to public services in any European country for the next three years. In the UK, programmes like ‘Homes for Ukraine’ were adopted–a volunteer hosting policy— which gave UK residents the opportunity to host refugees in their homes for six months. What a thing it was to witness and the complex feelings it brought– elation at the rapid action taken to protect and provide for refugees and horror at the complete policy change the western world had taken. In watching this, there was this sense of justified preferential treatment, something which seems to pervade the western media and political narrative on the Ukraine War. A constant othering of refugee communities accompanied by racist language or implications that Ukraine refugees are morally, civilly, and/or intellectually advanced. Louis Bourlanges, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the French National Assembly, was quoted numerous times stating, ‘the Ukrainian refugees will be “an immigration of great quality, intellectuals, one that we will be able to take advantage of”.’ The Bulgarian Prime Minister echoed similar sentiments when he was recorded, stating that “these are not the refugees we are used to… these people are intelligent, they are educated people”. The arrogance of these leaders to completely devalue the abilities, talents, and strengths of millions of refugees as though they are just a commodity. Justifying their blatant prejudice to bring in more ‘valuable stock’ [while also dehumanizing Ukrainian refugees] simply on the shallow presumption that European heritage equals intellectual superiority. In the UK, an ITV journalist reported from Poland, “Now the unthinkable has happened to them. And this is not a developing third-world nation. This is Europe!’ From America, Charlie D’Agata, a foreign correspondent for CBS News reported: “This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — a city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen.” These quotes, especially western media coverage, imply that this is the first war or conflict to come to Europe since WWI and WWII, that since then such violence and destruction have only existed in developing nations when that is simply not the case– there are many examples– 1990 Balkan/Yugoslav War, the Troubles in Ireland 1968-98 and Bosnian War 1992-1995. Yet these messages continue to imply that western or European nations have elevated above such acts. Professor Moustafa Bayoumi, effectively said: ‘the implication [made by western media platforms] is clear: war is a natural state for people of color while white people naturally gravitate towards peace.’ The right kind of refugee-a phrase perfectly summing up this arrogant western act of distinguishing the profoundness of a community’s agony, civility, and displacement based on nationality and ethnicity. Editors: Blenda Y. Chris F. C., Rachel C.

Humanity has been known to experience a distinctly universal longing for navigating outer space evidenced by countless manned and unmanned space missions taking flight in the last several years. The Artemis I launch under NASA is set to be only the first in a series of missions designed to form a long-term human presence on the moon. The decades-long plan, according to NASA, is to “lead humanity forward to the Moon and prepare us for the next giant leap, human exploration of Mars.” The Artemis mission will also land the first woman and person of color on the moon. Jessica Meir, the astronaut in question is the daughter of Israeli and Swedish immigrants and holds a Ph.D. in Marine Biology. Artemis I is an uncrewed mission that would allow NASA to exhibit the capabilities of their Space Launch Systems (SLS) and the Orion crew capsule. However, technical issues had resulted in the initial launch on August 29, 2022, to be rescheduled to September 3 because of a faulty reading on a sensor. These missions have very specific launch windows largely due to two primary reasons: 1) the movement of the earth and the moon, and 2) maximizing fuel efficiency. On September 3, a two-hour window to launch the mission was set at 2:17 PM EST. However, this was also aborted because of a hydrogen leak that NASA was unable to repair in time. There are two other launch windows available on September 5 and 6, however, NASA has decided to call off the launch as of now. In a webcast interview, NASA Chief Bill Nelson said that the mission managers would convene later to discuss a future launch opportunity and potentially move the rocket back to the assembly building for further troubleshooting, meaning that the launch may be postponed to October. The Artemis mission is a landmark in the history of human space exploration with the program's goal to increase female representation in the program being a key point. Another part of the Artemis mission is to study how radiation affects the human body and what NASA can do to protect their astronauts better on future long-term missions. For now, all we can do is wait and watch how the mission unfolds in the coming months and the anticipated Artemis III in 2025, which will be the first manned moon mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The U.S. is divided. It is a nation wildly divided on nearly all political fronts. Most intimate to me is the eruptive debate surrounding education. Last year, conservative activist Christopher Rufo took to using the term “critical race theory” to oppose anti-racist education efforts in the public school system. This can be marked as an inciting incident, as the conservative community has raised the alarm that critical race theory is being used to teach children that “they are racist, and that the U.S. is a racist country with irredeemable roots.” The opposition to these sentiments are the forces pushing forward progressive curriculums that actively encourage classroom discussions centering around discrimination as well as general diversity and inclusion initiatives. With such heated debates over the nature of the American education system, lawmakers are taking an active cue as discussions centering around this “critical race theory” and its place in the classroom are occurring in multiple states. It is necessary to objectively examine these pieces of legislation and determine what they could mean for the future of American education, and by proxy, America. For the purpose of brevity and clarity, this article will focus almost exclusively on dissecting Texas’ House Bill 3979, signed in June by Governor Greg Abbott and to be put into action in September. The reasoning behind examining HB 3979 is that it is more pertinent to my experiences as a Texan youth who spent a large portion of their academic career in the Texas public school system. Bear in mind, however, that this restructuring of education is not an isolated incident. In some states, it has already been implemented. A Misunderstanding of CRT Critical race theory (CRT) is a modern academic concept whose main tenant proposes racism as a social, collective concept - one embedded into the legal and principle infrastructures of society rather than something simply based on individual bias. It is not a newfangled discipline, as the idea emerged in the 1980s and there decades worth of commentary and essays on the subject. In essence, the theory points to racism as a systemic issue. However, the broad rhetoric used in the legal landscape, specifically in HB 3979, vastly applies to anything pertaining or in reference to “controversial” current events. It is worth noting that this bill aims to limit discussions beyond race, extending to sex. Other states, such as New Hampshire, are even more inclusive in their anti-CRT policies, as HB2 limits classroom rhetoric concerning race, sex, creed, familial status, and more. Ultimately, these actions contribute to the reduction of academic commentary on both social justice and current events. A major critique of CRT, as reflected in HB 3979 and house bills of a similar nature, is that CRT teaches racial inferiority or superiority. Educators cannot push forward the narrative that one race is “inherently superior to another”. However, this is an unfounded concern as CRT doesn’t attempt to teach racial inferiority or superiority, it simply addresses what perpetuates racism. Clearly, the aim of these bills isn’t to directly discourage the teachings and tenants of the traditional concepts of CRT, but rather to discourage discussions on how discrimination occurs in the modern day. This misuse of the concept invalidates claims made to ban it. For example, Gov. Abbott’s call to “abolish critical race theory in Texas.” CRT is not taught in the classroom, so as it stands, this legislature is less an attack on CRT and more one on social justice as a whole. Idaho’s HB 377 possesses the same discrepancy, outlining CRT as part of an overarching group of ideas focused on discrimination that are not to be touched upon in the classroom. Conversely, Florida’s banning of CRT is more literal, but also more vague - and suffers the same issue of combating an imaginary problem. K-12 schools simply do not teach advanced modern theory in their social studies classes, and even if they did: educating students on concepts does not mean directly sponsoring said concepts. The purpose of schools is not to indoctrinate. It is to educate. This is not a minute difference. This marks a dramatic shift from the banning of a singular academic concept to the banning of a very wide body of content and traditional learning standards that are often implemented in social studies curriculum. As students, we participate in socratic seminars, peer discussions, and research papers that require awareness of modern society or the ability to link class concepts with what we know about the world around us. In history lessons that focus on discrimination and social injustice, that ability is often utilized in class. HB 3979 and its adjacent bills aim to eradicate those essential academic skills. Harmful Messages & Reductive Education What is interesting about these bills is that they aim to reduce discrimination by actively ignoring it and its implications. Many of the off-limits teaching items in HB 3979 are warranted - no teacher should encourage the idea that one race or sex is superior to another, nor that one has intrinsic morals. However, the item that stands out specifically is the final one in this list: meritocracy or generally positive traits stereotypically held by certain demographics cannot be called racist or oppressive. This is odd because meritocracy does hold historic precedence in the context that it was used to discriminate against people (e.g. in the case of the Model Minority Myth), and it is still the focus of contemporary discussions, even in casual circles. If this bill passes, then such discussions, mainly the historic and objective facts of the matter, would never arise in a youth’s academic education. Therefore, there is a less astute understanding of how that youth’s society is the way it is. This is indicative of a larger failure with anti-CRT bills. Education is a tool that equips students with resources about the world around them, which in turn, will help them form the future. By ridding important, controversial aspects relating to current events, as well as the historic contexts from which such controversy is born from the curriculum, this effectively leaves a student with general ignorance pertaining to the social climates of their world. What’s more is that the idea of ambivalence can work to corrupt certain morals. HB 3979 emphasizes that discussions of controversial current events must be discussed with a variety of perspectives, which is already a well-enforced and widely accepted teaching standard. However, controversial events that involve discrimination are at a risk of being skewed to promote hatred rather than to actively decry it. Take George Floyd’s death. Would including a wide berth of perspectives on it mean proposing the idea that his drug abuse warranted his treatment, as Derek Chauvin’s defense team suggested? It is, after all, a differing perspective of a situation in which a man was terribly mistreated and brutally murdered by police authorities. The primary concern held by those opposed to CRT is that it isn’t patriotic. It paints America as irredeemable or corrupt. While these ideas could hold true in certain areas, at the end of the day, CRT is not a belief set. It is a theory, and one that is worth hearing, even in simple, broad strokes, because being a student means learning. What these bills encourage, ultimately, is ignorance. Perhaps the most harrowingly ironic twist is that this blatant attack on CRT inarguably proves it. By suppressing discussions on dicrimination and refusing to accept it in these spaces operated and sponsored by the government, these bills in effect become vehicles from which systemic racism is perpetuated. For racism’s most common form is not, in fact, outwardly malicious behavior, but rather, willing ignorance. Ignorance is bliss, but one man’s bliss could very well be another man’s curse. Editors: Amber T., Evie F., Sarah H., Rachel C., Raniyah B.,

When I first started becoming interested in fashion, I was overwhelmed. Style seemed to have a stringent set of rules: acquire these basics, wear these colors, and the most daunting of all for me, dress for your body type. Because, in all honesty, I don’t like thinking about my body. I don’t enjoy remembering the fact that I take up space or that there are creases where they shouldn’t be and no curves where they should be. So, I learned to cover up my frame - drown myself in chunky textiles and billowing t-shirts as part of what I dubbed my own personal style. All this for the sake of voiding my own shape from my head, and therefore, from existence. There are several basic body types - rectangle, pear, apple, and hourglass. Variations exist, but most fashion blogs circle back to these basic shapes. The female body has been historically described in shape-based categories, which may be a testament to the habit of corporations manufacturing products to accommodate non-existent problems. My point is that it doesn’t seem plausible that every single person fits into some predetermined template - however, it should be noted that many emphasize that body shapes are very broad categories that center around vague characteristics, not necessarily one’s entire body. However, this is not a caveat I had when I was first introduced to the concept. I was taught, via these descriptions of my general physique, that there were parts of myself I should minimize and qualities that I needed to emphasize, or even manufacture. It seemed easier to cover everything else up instead. Now, I move forward with greater cultural consciousness. The world declares, “All Bodies Are Beautiful!” It screams this in brightly colored signs in storefront windows and online ads depicting models with cellulite and company mission statements with words like “confidence” or “natural beauty” and “self-esteem”. It is a world of commodification we live in, where even activism is marketed to us in dainty, aesthetically-pleasing graphics. But there is hope to be found in general society, isn’t there? People do not judge based on body shape, people do not think you are any less worthy of love for taking up space, and people do not try to sell you anything based upon this fact. And yet, how many conversations have I overheard where people complain about their own weight, decry their formally fat selves as uglier or less worthy of love, and complain that they feel less pretty due to weight gain? We have conflated an intrinsically human quality with undesirableness and ugliness, and there is this innate yearning to be the right shape all the time. Not too thin, not too fat, just right. We want to fit a mould. This strange, conditional hatred we have towards ourselves is crushing. I wonder to myself, why is everyone body-positive until it is their own body? I suppose this is the inherent pitfall of body-positivity; the “positivity” part. It is an exhausting performance of joy at the human body, putting it on a pedestal so high that it feels like a strange fascination. We have never stopped obsessing over our bodies, the obsession simply took on a seemingly different connotation. A Brief History of the Body Positivity Movement The body positivity movement has a far-reaching history, dating back to the Victorian era as part of the first wave of feminism (1850s-90s). The Victorian Dress Reform centered around the frustrations of Victorian women concerning tight-lacing and also the popularization of bloomers. Tight-lacing was a sort of body-modification practice, where women would bind their waists to fit a desirable size - which at the time was 17-18 inches. Body positivity resurfaced again as part of the Fat Acceptance movement in 1967, with a landmark event called “fat-in”. 500 people came together in New York’s Central Park to protest bias and stigma against fat people. That same year, an article entitled “More People Should be FAT” was published in the Saturday Evening Post. It was written by Llewelyn “Lew” Louderback in response to the discrimination his wife faced and is cited as one of the first public defenses of fatness in mainstream culture. “Body positive” emerged as a term in 1996, when Connie Sobczak, psychotherapist and an individual who had herself been through treatment for an eating disorder, founded the website, thebodypositive.org. This website offers resources created with the intention of helping people feel good about their bodies by taking the focus off of losing weight through unhealthy diet and exercise efforts. The Body positivity movement as we know it today began to gain traction around 2012, correlating with the rise of social media. It initially focused on challenging unrealistic beauty standards - at least, for women. It should be noted that, while non-female individuals face the same types of challenges in learning to love their bodies, movements and activism surrounding this concept mostly center around the female body. In my own opinion, this is not unexpected - the female body, in the eyes of patriarchal society, is built to be marketed, even to women themselves. This is nothing unsurprising, but it is easy to forget that everyone can face insecurity about their own body. In an article interview with Tigress Osborne, chair of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, she states, “many of the most popular Body Positivity role models only have ‘imperfect’ bodies when they take off their clothes and draw arrows pointing to their imperfections. Visibly fat influencers - those who are undeniably fat no matter what they’re wearing - also have their own followings, but they deal with more harassment, more account bans, and more pushback for ‘glorifying obesity.’” Simply put, this type of modern body positivity is largely performative and often disregards the roots of the movement. Additionally, loving yourself is no easy feat, as despite the constant encouragement of all body shapes, it is easy for praise to seem hollow or biased (or even forced). How many times have I seen a fat person, simply existing in an online space, and seen comments like “I bet you give such great hugs!” or “checking to make sure the comments are passing the vibe check.” It is these strange fascinations with sheltering and pigeon-holing people with a certain body type that feel almost dehumanizing - and that is the problem with body positivity. We are always searching for something to obsess over. It seems like it simply isn’t enough to be satisfied with our bodies as extensions of ourselves, to love them for what they provide to us. Enter Body Neutrality The term “body neutrality” seems to have popped up online around 2015. It became more popular when Anne Poirier, an intuitive eating counselor and eating disorder specialist, started using it to help clients build a healthier relationship with food and exercise. Body neutrality is essentially about prioritizing the body’s function rather than its appearance. The key difference between body neutrality and body positivity is that body neutrality leans into the thought that it doesn’t matter if your body is beautiful or not. It completely erases worries and anxieties over one's body by invalidating the thing that causes these problems - a hyper-awareness of our own physiques compared to others who are labeled “the ideal”. Body neutrality erases the ideal, placing all bodies as worthy of respect because they achieve their primary function of keeping us alive. Now, this isn’t to say there is no merit to body positivity - it all comes down to perspective. Body positivity works when affirmations are genuine, not fetishistic. Body neutrality, to me, is the concept that rises in opposition to the inauthenticity and dehumanization of the modern body positivity movement. For me, the road to loving myself did not come from a full 180º, ‘fake-it-til-you-make-it’ mindset, but rather, a gentle acceptance. This is what worked best for me. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it works for everyone. The journey to loving our own bodies is fraught with complications. There is no one correct way to look, and no one correct way to come to this revelation. I think, at least, we can all begin with thanking our bodies for all they do for us - oxygenating our blood, digesting our food, and regulating our breathing. The human body is truly a temple, and there is an undeniable sacredness to this part of ourselves. Editor: Amber T., Amshu V., Raniyah B.

Pakistan is currently in the depths of a humanitarian disaster. Its routine yearly monsoon season, which is typically welcomed by farmers as a lifeline to crops and seen as a relief by citizens from the scorching summer, is now bringing extreme catastrophe and adversity to the country. With one-third of the country underwater, the monsoon rains have escalated into large-scale floods and landslides, bringing the death toll to more than 1,282 since June. The displacement and disruption it caused have rippled to a nationwide scale, affecting about 33 million people; of which 3.4 million are children in grave need of immediate medical assistance due to increased risk of diarrhea, water-borne diseases, skin and respiratory illnesses, and half a million are people in displacement camps. The floods have caused the country’s life to halt—more than 1 million homes, 2 million acres of crops, 17,566 schools, 3,000 miles of roads, and 900 health facilities are now destroyed or damaged, showing how this humanitarian crisis is multifaceted and all-pervasive in its impact. One of the worst flooding events of this century and unprecedented in Pakistan, these floods are only another manifestation of climate change. The monsoon season that brings rain from the southwest winds in the summer has been exacerbated by faster rates of evaporation at sea and added moisture. As a result, it is bringing Pakistan a rate of rainfall that is nearly 3 times the national average of the last 30 years. Glacier melting routes during the summer are well connected to Pakistani rivers, and have therefore contributed to flash floods in villages. Furthermore, Pakistan’s government was ill-equipped to deal with such large-scale flooding, because of its constant political turmoil, poor economic growth and inflation control. Pakistan’s latest flooding disaster will be felt in decades to come and arguably puts the country’s economy into turmoil. Agriculture—the sector that employs 40% of workers in the country—is unfortunately the one that will suffer direct consequences from floods. Inflation, already at a 47-year high before the flooding, is now likely to be afflicted with upwards pressure from the raging food crisis, adding to the vulnerability of Pakistan. A $1.1 billion loan has subsequently been secured from the International Monetary Fund to assist the country in reviving and recovering from this deleterious natural disaster. As the crisis is labeled as a Grade 3 Emergency—the highest level of internal grading, allowing for the highest intervention—the World Health Organization has also released $10m in support, and the UN $160m. Various countries have also pledged support for the flood relief, with the U.K. allocating £1.5m, and the U.S. allocating $30m in humanitarian assistance. The latest emergency in Pakistan is just another stark reminder of the ever-looming presence and damage of climate change. Shamshaya, a 105-year-old resident of the Pakistani district of Swat Valley, exclaimed that she has never seen flooding like this in her entire life. The devastating impacts of climate change are not just emerging, they are already here. Editors: Lang D. Photo Credits: Shutterstock This article was originally written in September 2022

The same innocence I carried as a six-year-old follows me today, at age 16. At six years old, you would’ve seen me playing with Barbies, wearing rainbow shirts and horizontally striped skirts, and enjoying my naivety. Today, I still look the same, despite puberty and a dramatic style change from rainbow shirts. My Vietnamese skin is still pale, and my child-like smile remains the same. I get unicorn ponchos as gifts from my family members, even as a senior in high school, and I often receive things in pink, probably because of the Barbies I used to play with. Today, my older relatives (and older people in general) speak to me as if I was six, except that my Vietnamese was slightly better when I was six. Usually, after finding out I’ve spent the majority of my life in an American education system, they’ll immediately switch their register, speak a combination of Vietnamese and English, and act as if I am the same naive six-year-old. My family simply looks at me like I am that six-year-old. Except I’m not the same anymore. The same pale skin I have, the child-like smile I embrace, and the youthful features I own no longer define who I am, what I know, and what I’ve experienced. I’ve adapted to different viewpoints on stigmatized topics as a result of American schools and culture. While my first instinct would be “I don’t need to talk about this right now,” I’d probably circle back to the conversation, trying to defy the delicate standpoint I am upheld to as an Asian girl. I’ve spent a vast portion of my time in school facing the “innocent ” remarks. “Shut up, go back to doing calculus homework.” The stereotypical perception of me, spending all of my time quietly working on calculus and having no sense of awareness of the world, isn’t who I should be, nor should it be the view that my relatives have on me either. It strips away my social autonomy — because I have to be quiet and polite for the western perspective, I am back in my child-like state. For the youthful appearances as East Asian Americans (and Southeast Asian Americans, to an extent), why should it be our countenances that be the determiner of our received registers? With the influx of anime and K-Pop, we Asians , a group of collective ethnicities, are confined to one label: adorable. What my ethnicity reinforces is gilded — my “cuteness” may look golden from the western perspective, but the reality is that I am undervalued because of the “weakness” that is associated with the small, pale, Asian girl stereotype, and it’s tiring. I’m tired. I’m tired of feeling like I have to prove something to the greater population — that I am more than the submissive “Madame Butterfly,” or the sexually alluring “Dragon Lady” seen on TV. I’m tired of feeling like my entire existence is catering to the Western narrative of seeing me as anything but a normal human. Lastly, I’m tired of feeling like the only conversations I have with my family members is akin to someone speaking to a toddler. Editors: Leandra S. Photo Credits: Jing Li / Pew Research

gilded age one. California welcomes me home. I know every West Coast dreamer first came to search for gold or make it, as if our yellow bodies could instead become it, alchemize into something beautiful. If not worth saving. My mother used to say citizenship like it was holy. Her only daughter’s spine a bridge spanning oceans, a countdown until we could cross the Pacific to be whatever we wanted to be: fluent & unafraid. Owners of American gold. two. The most valuable thing about my body is what the law says it can be. & so I inhabit Seoul like it’s a temporary thing. I graduate to dreaming in English, I juggle passports in both hands at strange airports. When I grow up I want to be American. America rarely wants me back. Lonely morning in Los Angeles, the sun an egg yolk cracked yellow, which is to say, wounded, & I’m writing in the language my family can’t read & I’m wielding citizenship like it’s a weapon like it means I have a right to be here & it’s midnight in Seoul, too late to call home. three. Sophomore year move-in, my roommates and I eat up miles of sun-bleached freeway & spit out the gravel. Foot on the gas, praying nobody pulls us over because half of us are from another country, but even that depends on your point of view. I’m trying to find home, or an H-Mart to cry in—whichever one comes first. four. And what did come first, home or the imitation we built in honor of it? There must have been a home, surely, some other place I must have come from first, before I could never go back. The past a foreign country & long ago. To belong, to be longing for a homeland that only exists in the imaginary. Seoul isn’t a place so much as whatever I need it to be. My mother raised me to leave, knowing her voice would one day be strung thin over the telephone line, carved up in static. & still she used to tell me don’t forget your English. I hammered thin my tongue until it caved at the root: no mother tongue but an orphan’s, instead. What I need Seoul to be is the closest I can ever get to you. Mom, look at me, I don’t know what to say. I’m walking through language just to get to you. five. I introduce myself hyphen-first, ampersanded, stranded. My skin betrays me, false gold. Citizened & unpersoned. Editors: Sam L., Nikki J., Nadine R.

On Aug. 13, Michelle Yeoh received an honorary degree from the American Film Institute (AFI) at the conservatory's commencement ceremony for the Class of 2022. The ceremony, which took place in the Hollywood TCL Chinese Theater, awarded Yeoh a Doctorate of Fine Arts for her "contributions of distinction to the art of the moving image." Yeoh, born in Ipoh, Malaysia, is of Chinese heritage. She has become one of the most prominent Asian stars in Hollywood after her debut appearance in "The Owl vs. Bombo" (1984). Her extensive filmography contains more than 70 screen credits and internationally recognizable roles, including Wai Lin in ""Tomorrow Never Dies"" (1997), Yu Shu Lien in ""Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"" (2000), and Eleanor Young in ""Crazy Rich Asians"" (2018). Her initial claim to fame was occupying dual roles as being both an actress and her own stunt performer in Hong Kong martial arts films. She has continued to play an active role in movies, most recently filming fight scenes with martial art moves and rigged wires for "Everything Everywhere All at Once." The two hour film, released in March, stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, a Chinese-American laundromat owner with financial and familial problems. Evelyn is deeply flawed, but she saves the world after encountering strange versions of herself from alternate universes. The movie is a combination of action, dark humor, science fiction, and absurd fantasy, which has struck a chord with global audiences due to its thematic explorations of Asian American identity, generational trauma, and love. In the past, Yeoh has been vocal about the need for diversity and inclusion in the film industry, and she has paved a path for representation by bringing to life complex Asian characters on screen. Her role as Evelyn Wang is merely another demonstrative example. To this day , her flourishing career is one of the best examples of Asian excellence in Hollywood, and the doctorate is a deserved recognition of her talent. Yeoh is being recognized by the AFI alongside Lawrence Herbert, the inventor of the Pantone color system, who received a Doctorate of Communication Arts. Both received their degrees in a live streamed ceremony on the AFI Conservatory website. Editors: Chris F., Chelsea D., Leandra S., Lang D.

On July 22, Iraqi demonstrators stormed the Council Representatives of Iraq building in the Baghdad Green Zone–an area housing several government buildings including Iraq’s Parliament–in support of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, denouncing Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, who was nominated by the Coordination Framework (CF) to be Prime Minister of the new Iraqi Government. This unrest was triggered after a ten-month political deadlock after al-Sadr’s party won the largest number of seats in the federal elections, but was unable to form an effective national government since he did not have the two-thirds majority required for electing new leadership. Sadr and his supporters advocate for a national majority government, contrary to the CF, which is largely regarded in the country as a pro-Iran coalition. Following Mohammad Shia’ al-Sudani’s nomination as prime minister, Sadr’s parliamentary bloc resigned en masse ceding control to the CF. Frustrated, Sadr supporters forced their way into the legislative chamber, announcing a sit-in until further notice. ""We don't want Mr Sudani,"" said one protester to a journalist. Protestors demanded that Sudani’s nomination should be withdrawn, accused him of corruption and weary of his close ties with the former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Sudani served as Minister of Human Rights under Maliki’s premiership from 2010 to 2014 and received his prime minister nomination from the CF led by Maliki’s State of Law and Popular Mobilization Forces’ Fatah alliance. The sit-in is intended to derail “Iran-backed groups'' efforts to reform the government, presumably due to past tensions from the Iran-Iraq war. This approach has been used by Sadr’s supporters in the past, when they broke into parliament once before in 2016, demanding similar political reforms from the then prime minister Haidar al-Abadi. The Iraq Ministry of Health reported 125 people were injured in the violence–100 protesters and 25 members of the security forces. Al-Sadr, despite not being present at the scene, seemed to be supportive of his followers’ efforts tweeting that “[the sit-in is] a great opportunity to radically challenge the political system, the constitution, and the elections."" However, the United Nations’ Secretary General, António Gutteres, has issued a statement calling for immediate “steps to de-escalate the situation, avoid any further violence, and ensure the protection of peaceful protesters and State institutions.” Editors: Amshu V., Chris F., Amber T., Uzayer M., Lang D. **Written August, 2022**

At its genesis, Omicron was considered a milder version of COVID-19, having a lower mortality rate and symptom-severity than Delta, the strain that preceded it. Data from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases based in South Africa reported the discovery of BA.4 January 2022 and BA.5 about a month later. Both of which have similar symptoms to Omicron. Nevertheless, the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that severity of symptoms fluctuate due to age, vaccination history, and/or underlying health conditions. In March of this year, another Omicron subvariant BA.2 otherwise known as the “stealth” variant in Europe, was estimated 1.5 times more transmissible than the original Omicron strain which experts said was likely “usurp it as the globally dominant variant.” In China, BA.2 and, most recently BA.5, led to a series of strict lockdowns and curfews in hopes of curbing infections. Drastic measures to limit transmissions have been seen in places such as Shanghai. Following the government's “Zero COVID” strategy, residents were reportedly forced to remain in their households for weeks, unable to buy groceries and basic necessities due to shortages and delays amongst the lockdowns. Other countries across Asia have and the world continue to see a rise in cases, however most have switched to a “living with COVID” policy as the U.N. says Zero COVID is not sustainable, and the WHO pushes for countries to continue to roll out vaccines, and enforce mask mandates where needed. Experts have reported that BA.4 and BA.5 appear to demonstrate stronger resistance to vaccines and antibodies. Several vaccine manufacturers are currently in the process of including a COVID-19 Omicron component in COVID-19 vaccines, thereby better protecting against subvariants. Modified boosters, according to the FDA, hopefully will be available in early fall. Health professionals advise staying up-to-date about information, data, and vaccination opportunities, strongly spotlighting the necessity of receiving a vaccine and/or booster. These new mutations require vigilance and attention; everyone must do their part to minimize infections.

“Dad, I’m going to wear nail polish tonight.” My dad looks up from his laptop. “Bu yao chou mei,” he replies simply. Don’t be so vain. I have envied the long, colorful nails of the other girls in my class for months now. All the beautiful girls with golden-colored hair have them. I don’t have vibrant, golden hair, but I’m convinced maybe pretty nails will make my muddy, brown locks not so noticeable. I look down at my own nails--wince in distaste. My hands are small, and my nails are short—trimmed down to nimbly fly across the black and white keys of the piano. I decide that one day when I’m no longer playing the piano, I will grow my nails long and rounded, like the other girls, and I will paint them the most beautiful color. Maybe a dark pink, like a mysterious rose. Or a pale blue, like the sky after a fresh downpour of rain. Just no drab, dark colors—dull like my hair. Drab like my eyes. Later that night, I am sitting on my best friend’s bed. We’re both burrowed under her fluffy blankets, our faces illuminated by the warm light of her lamp. I watch her carefully dip the small brush of the polish bottle into the swirl of baby pink and trace a line down her fingernail. The smell of the polish immediately hits, and I crinkle my nose, but the brushstrokes are mesmerizing. Stroke by stroke, I watch her fill in the rest of her nail—like a painting. A pale blue of the sky like I had always dreamed, dotted with little pieces of white. I admire the beautiful, light colors on her fingers; her hair is black like mine, but it might as well be more gold than all those girls I see at school. She notices my intense gaze and grins. “Want me to do you?” “I—” “Don’t worry, I have a clear one with small gold stars. It’s very subtle, and it’ll look great on you.” My mouth becomes dry. My father’s words echo in my head. Bu yao chou mei. Don’t be vain. Don’t indulge in such a trivial act to change your own image—don’t be selfish. But there is a mighty beast clawing from inside, yearning for those mesmerizing light colors to be painted on my fingernails, covering my short nails. Diminishing my not-gold hair. After a beat of silence, I breathe, “Okay.” She grabs the new bottle, and pulls my hand into her lap. When she opens the bottle again, I am overwhelmed by the smell that seems to burn a path up my nose. But I don’t crinkle my nose this time, and instead shift my focus to my friend’s steady hands as she fills my small nails with gold stars. When she finally finishes both of my hands, I look down and lose a sigh. She had painted a little piece of the universe onto my hand. Like a glimpse of the night sky. “You like?” I grin back. “I love it.” But our moment is interrupted by a knocking on her door. It’s my dad. “Time to go home,” he says with a smile. “You girls had enough fun for the night?” My stomach shrinks in dread and guilt. She squeezes me in a crushing embrace as we bid our goodbyes. And as soon as the chill of the night air hits me, I am lifted from my haze. I look down at my nails, at the gold stars, and then cross my arms for the rest of the way home. My father glances at me on the car ride home. I am not selfish. I will not mess so trivially with the body my parents gave to me. Bu yao chou mei. I am not vain. As soon as the doors close behind me, I run into the bathroom. I turn the faucets on as hot as I can bear, and run my hand under the burning stream, rubbing my fingernails furiously. But the stars don’t come off. As panic rises within me, my heart starts to pound and I tear out tissues and soak them in soap. But no matter how much I scrub, I can’t seem to wipe the universe off of my hands. With tears burning in my eyes, I let out a sob and scratch at my nails. My father cannot see. My family cannot see how I was so selfish to use my time splashing colors on my hands and trying to change what was given to me. I am not vain. The scratching seems to work—little pieces of the tiny gold stars begin to break off. I keep scratching and scratching and peeling, until my fingers are raw and a few of my fingernails have started to bleed. I feel no pain. Only a fist closing around my chest, as I picture what my mother and father would say if they had seen those stars that didn’t belong to my hands. With most of the polish off, I turn off the faucet and stare at the sink, watching the little gold stars wash down the drain. The little pieces of the universe. That night, I keep my window curtains open. As I lay in bed, under my covers, I stare out the window, at the dark expanse of the universe, and the sparkling stars sprinkled peacefully across the night sky. - Yi-Ann I decided to write this story to delve a little bit into the earlier crossroads I arrived at in disparities between two different cultures. In this piece I explore the views on materialism in Chinese and American culture, and the emotional turmoil many other young Asian American girls out there have also felt at some point. Western cultures are more built on individualistic goals—such as wearing what you like, protesting what you want, chasing your own passions—while Eastern cultures revolve around a collective vision—how your actions affect the community, how your life is not just your own but also part of your family and culture’s. This is where values of familial respect and dignity come from. This difference in worldviews affected me a lot in how and when I could feel good about myself; and in sharing this piece, I hope other girls out there whose views on their self worth, indulgence, or beauty have been challenged by two different worlds may hopefully feel less alone.