Language, usage, and culture are always changing. Personally, I have evolved from identifying as Chinese-American in my childhood (because it was too hard to explain that Taiwan and Thailand were not the same to a bunch of white Midwesterners in the 90s) to now identifying as Taiwanese American. With the changes in language over the years, you may be wondering, “Is Asian American hyphenated?” As of 2021, The New York Times, Associated Press, Chicago Manual of Style, and other style guides no longer hyphenate Asian American or any of its derivatives, such as Chinese American, Japanese American ..read more

The Black Allyship @ Mochi (BA@M) column is an ongoing project that urges an awareness of racial injustice in the United States, particularly the oppression of Black people in America. The articles, resources, and opinions we share are a call to action, an open discussion, and a place to take a stance against anti-Black racism. “You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it.” — Grace Lee Boggs In memory of Grace Lee Boggs’ work with Black communities, we are seeking essays from BIPOC writers that ..read more

The author’s content and opinions have not been pre-reviewed, approved, or endorsed by Discover. Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa nearly faced over a century in prison for speaking the truth. She was criminally charged with 10 cases by the Filipino government, and in fact, some said it was imminent that she would be imprisoned. She’s been harassed and bullied, receiving up to 90 hate messages and death threats per an hour at one point. And yet, she still bravely perseveres, striving for truth.  “In order to keep doing my job, I had to be OK with going to jail for over ..read more

What happens to a dream deferred?       Does it dry up       like a raisin in the sun?       Or fester like a sore—       And then run?       Does it stink like rotten meat?       Or crust and sugar over—       like a syrupy sweet?       Maybe it just sags       like a heavy load.       Or does ..read more

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa nearly faced over a century in prison for speaking the truth. She was criminally charged with 10 cases by the Filipino government, and in fact, some said it was imminent that she would be imprisoned. She’s been harassed and bullied, receiving up to 90 hate messages and death threats per an hour at one point. And yet, she still bravely perseveres, striving for truth.  “In order to keep doing my job, I had to be OK with going to jail for over 100 years,” the journalist told the audience at the Sunrise House at the 2024 Sundance Festival ..read more

A few months ago, I came across a Reddit discussion on the subreddit r/asianamerican by the user DesignerPear3846, titled “‘Bing Chilling’ is starting to feel like the new ‘Ching Chong,’” addressing the viral meme of John Cena saying ice cream in Chinese. Although the meme originated in 2021, it has since been used in a variety of contexts as DesignerPear3846 noted, “Some Asian schoolchildren? ‘bing chilling.’ Asian products? ‘bing chilling.’ Asian celebrity? ‘bing chilling.’ An Asian-looking guy making a video? ‘bing chilling.’” “Bing chilling” is not the only instance where the punchline of ..read more

[CW: hate crimes, racism, anti-Blackness, police violence, assault, mass shootings]  As violence against Asian Americans continued to convulse our cities and reverberate worldwide in early 2021, our mainstream media stopped briefly to note one newsworthy moment that then quickly fell off our collective radar. Swept aside by the Atlanta spa shootings just over a month later, the incident was largely forgotten and rarely resurfaces today. But it has kept me up at night ever since.  On Jan. 31, 2021, a 91-year-old East Asian American man was brutally attacked in Oakland’s Chinatown. It ..read more

Although both Asian students and teachers still face barriers in the world of American education, positive changes in recent years have created hope for the future. I have witnessed some of these changes firsthand as an educator myself. In 2021, for example, I helped run creative writing workshops for Asian American youth aged nine to twelve. Since then, I have continued working with children in afterschool and summer camp settings, observing their increased cultural awareness and pride in their heritage. However, my perspective can be limiting because I am still an undergraduate student. To b ..read more

Asian Americans are the least likely racial and ethnic demographic to seek out care, which can make getting care for mental health concerns even more difficult in our communities. Many among us tend to shy away from emotional and mental health and wellness. Growing up, we might have been surrounded by adults who never broached the topics of feelings, identity, and selfhood, rarely going beyond asking if our day was good or bad. I, for one, recall being told that outbursts of emotion, both excitement in a gleeful way and big tantrums, were disruptive and unallowed “in this household.” Truly nam ..read more

In an early episode of Netflix’s “Beef,” Ali Wong’s character admits that growing up with her parents led her to repress her feelings. Her therapist responds, “When we’re stressed, we revert to the pathways we’ve created as children … But acknowledging this is just the first step. In order to create new neural pathways, we have to uncover what lies underneath our awareness.” Wong’s character, Amy, and many of us, have lived much of our lives repressing or ignoring what lies beneath. Childhood influences, experiences, and traumas have led us to be our own tiger parent, our own source of judgmen ..read more