This is a proposed panel discussion for the current Chinese 489 cohort to discuss our senior projects - which is especially important now to address the xenophobia against Asian Americans and misunderstanding and fear of China in the US. This presentation discusses the importance of examining various subjects pertaining to China (feminism, textiles, politics, and COVID) from a multilingual, multicultural perspective. It is important to have a multilingual/multicultural perspective because there is currently much anti-Asian sentiment in the US due to racism and xenophobia that stems from a fundamental lack of understanding. We have been fed a single-story about China, and now it's time to break down those barriers.
Elizabeth Nies-Greeley and I collaborated on a podcast on the #metoo movement in China. We did background research and interviewed peers in order to discover how Chinese history and traditions shape the #metoo movement, and how the movement plays out on social media. We will be presenting and answering questions with our peers.
For her episode, Nathalie conducted background research with the help of books and articles. She also interviewed two friends about feminism in China. After doing this and taking notes, she recorded and edited using Hindenberg. She then posted the podcast on Anchor and Soundcloud. Nathalie's podcast tended to be more about how Chinese history, social media, and censorship play a role in the Chinese #metoo movement.
In corroboration with Nathalie Gullo, a podcast was created investigating the Chinese #metoo movement. In the second episode, 视角 (Perspectives), I interviewed six Chinese individuals, four females and two males, ranging from age 16 to 49. In semi-structured interviews, lasting from 16 minutes to 50 minutes, I asked each interviewee about their perspective on the movement in general, about women speaking out, about the two news media examples I provided, and about the possible tension that is arising by Chinese society trying to reconcile the traditional values and the feminist ideas that the movement brings about. To represent the traditional values I used five idioms: 相夫教子, 贤妻良母, 人老珠黄, 残花败柳 and 水性杨花, which all describe the traditional roles and expectations for Chinese women. The interviews emphasized the impact these traditional values still have on Chinese culture, however they also show the ongoing transformation of their social customs from consverative to liberal and old-fashion to contemporary.