Mission Statement
My blog is built around the preservation of Asian identity. I realize that the United States is a cultural melting pot but as an Asian American, I know next to nothing about my culture, traditions, nor do I keep up with the Chinese newspapers or the events going on in New York’s Asian community. Chinatown is presumably one of the largest Asian filled communities and as such, I will begin my research there. I eat in Chinatown occasionally and I participated in the Summer Youth Employment Program sponsored by the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) but it wasn’t until recently that I learned of the impact of these organizations on the Asian community. CPC alone provide services to Asian Americans which range from translating letters into Chinese to providing English and art classes to informing the Asian community about their healthcare benfits. Other organizations in Chinatown include the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV), Emblem Health Neighborhood Care, and the Asian/Pacific Islander Coalition of HIV/AIDS (APICHA), which all strive to benefit the welfare of the Asian community. As a student at Baruch, I am also aware that Baruch College has a large Asian population and numerous Asian interest clubs and organizations to match those interests. Therefore, my statement of purpose, the basis for blog, is to inform the public about Asian American communities in Manhattan, particularly in Chinatown and Baruch College, inclusive of all their traditions, habits, events, as well as hardships they may encounter.
As a first generation American, I am able to speak Chinese, but that is about the extent of my Asian heritage. There are traditions and customs that my family and I engage in, but the meaning behind those traditions are lost on me. For instance, I am not supposed to wash my hair on Chinese New Year, I cannot gift someone a clock or a pair of shoes on any occasion, and when visiting someone else’s house, I must never show up empty handed. These are practices I know to do, but when I ask my parents the meaning behind these traditions, they simply tell me, that is the ways things have always been done. Unfortunately, I think much of the younger generation, like myself, do not understand the true meaning behind our traditions and as such, cannot really truly appreciate or pass on our cultural heritage.
My goal is to build awareness among non-Asians and close the generational gap within the Asian community. In that respect, my targeted audience would be the younger generation of Asian Americans. My personal quest is to learn more about my heritage and culture and share my findings with other young Asian Americans like myself who are interested in the subject matter. As for the purpose of this blog, I believe there is a niche in this field and a need for this topic because there is a lack of news coverage in regards to Asian news. This blog would also serve to preserve the Asian culture and shed some light on what is going on in the Asian community, especially since it is not widely covered in the news. The main news channels seem to only have enough time to cover the pressing issues that will generate interest among their viewers and in doing so, fail to cover all aspects of the news. In addition, the language barriers in the Chinese newspapers only serve to widen the cultural gap. My blog will hopefully be the place that readers can go to stay updated with news in the Asian community as well in Asian countries. Informing the public about these events can also make them more tolerable and knowledgeable about what actually goes on around the world.
In order to generate quality content for this blog, I plan to interview organization leaders in both Baruch College and the non-profit Asian interest organizations listed above to generate a general understanding of their role in the Asian community and the struggles they face. I will focus on the community in Manhattan, specifically Chinatown and the clubs in Baruch College. I also plan to gather articles from Chinese newspapers and information from Chinese news channels to report the most accurate and up-to-date news. What would set this blog apart from all the other blogs is its specificity and target towards the Asian American community. One of the advantages in writing this blog is actually being Asian American and as such, I have unlimited access to this wealth of information. What also makes this blog special is the fact that this topic is not very much established on the internet and being so, I have few competitors.
That said, one of my biggest competitors covering the same topic is the Angry Asian Man. As his page states, his blog is about Asian America and he covers a wide range of topics from new Asian restaurants to Asians in the entertainment industry to upcoming events and instances of racial discrimination that he rants about to his readers, but all his posts convey an issue that he is angry about. According to his mission statement, this blog seeks to acknowledge the blatant racism that permeates in the United States, through an exaggerated perspective which only seeks to make the issues more open for discussion. One of the things I do like about his blog is the way he pays tribute to certain Asian Americans with posts titled “Angry Reader of the Week.” As the sole author of the blog, the Angry Asian Man highlights his so called “angriest posts” which are the most viewed posts instead of rolling feed and I think that aspect is unique to his blog. Although his blog is very simple, in both layout and design, Phil Yu, creator of Angry Asian Man, keeps consistent with his theme and stays true to his mission statement. My only comments would be that because of his wide coverage across the United States, he can’t provide a specific account of issues with interviews which is something that I will aim to do in my blog. I also dislike how the home page is not immediately accessible and how I have to click on this image before being directed to the blog. The Angry Asian Man’s blog is more comical and understated and I plan to take my blog in a different direction to make it more resourceful and entertaining.
My Editorial Plan
Types of Content:
My blog is interested in exploring the Asian American Communities in New York, specifically the borough of Manhattan, so I plan to include a mixture of different types of posts to accomplish this. The bulk of my blog will be separated into four main types of blog posts, as follows. I will aim to incorporate at least some sort of multimedia in each post.
Types of Posts:
– “Tea Time” or “Cha time:” This type of post is essentially a Q&A interview which will feature someone who is either very active in one of the nonprofit organizations I listed, or heavily involved in club activities around the Baruch College Campus. I will start with a little bit of their background, how they came to their position, if their parents had a role in it, what their role is in their organization but more importantly, what their organization does for the larger Asian community. For instance, I know that someone in CAAAV mentioned to me that some licensed Chinese vendors face police harassment simply because they can’t speak English. This type of post will probably be 500+ words.
-“What’s Happening in Chinatown:” This post will be relatively shorter than the Q&A interview posts but it will serve to cover either upcoming or current events in Chinatown, perhaps feature new restaurant openings or places to find cheap eats. This type of post will probably be around 250-300 words.
-“A Fortune Cookie Moment:” This type of post is named after that moment when you crack open a fortune cookie and a new truth is unveiled. I see this post as more of a “myth buster” type post which will feature articles about how fortune cookies are actually an American thing, how many of the foods you find in Chinese takeout restaurants are not actually in China, or how the proper way to use wasabi while eating sushi is not actually putting the wasabi on the soy sauce. This type of post will probably be around 250 words.
-“On the Other Side of the World:” This type of post is more news-related and probably longer than the previous, probably around 500+ words. It seeks to report news in Asia, and comment on the accuracy of the news. I am curious to see if the way that the Asian government permits their channels to report news is similar to the things we see in our newspapers, and draw a parallel. For instance, there’s an article in the New York Times about how the Hong Kong government released tear gas into a crowd of peaceful student protestors and I’m curious as to how they might report this incident from their point of view.
Frequency of Posts:
I will aim to post at least once a week, most likely Monday mornings, so I can have time over the weekend to work on my posts.
Time to Create Posts:
The interviews are probably going to take more time, probably hours to schedule a time and actually conduct the Q&As. As for the actual writing of the posts, I imagine it will take anywhere from one to several hours.
List of People to Interview:
-Student leaders in clubs and organizations in Baruch: I could look into the UCLA Club, Hong Kong Club, Japanese Club, Vietnamese Student Association, as well as other Asian-interest fraternities and sororities
-Organizational leaders in CPC, CAAAV, APHICA, and Emblem Health Neighborhood Care
-Perhaps the assemblymen or congressmen in charge of the Chinatown Manhattan District
-Restaurant owners for my “What’s Happening in Chinatown” themed posts
Description of multimedia for blog:
-Links to other articles or from other blogs that I can embed in my posts
-Recordings of different live events
-Lots of pictures of food, restaurants and people
-Videos of interviews that