UIC announces newly created Global Asian Studies major | UIC Today - UIC Today

Anna Guevarra, founding director of GLAS. Photo credit: Hunter Atha

For the first time this fall, University of Illinois Chicago students can major in and earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in global Asian studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The program engages in an interdisciplinary study of Asia and transoceanic and transnational Asian diasporas and is the first of its kind in the Midwest. 

The aim of the GLAS program is a better understanding of the globalized world and to redress some of the shortcomings of a limited focus on either area studies (Asian studies) or ethnic studies (Asian American studies) alone.

Global Asian studies also includes a study of new immigration patterns and historical shifts in the U.S. and globally. These include an emphasis on anti-Asian, anti-Black and anti-Arab/Muslim racism.

The idea for the program began more than 30 years ago when students pushed UIC to offer more courses related to Asian American issues and more representation on campus.

Since 2010, UIC has received Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions grants from the U.S. Department of Education’s Minority-Serving Institutions program. AANAPISI grants have helped support the growth of GLAS. Currently, 21% of UIC’s overall student population is Asian.

A celebration and panel discussion, “GLAS Major Takes (F)light: Paying Tribute to a 30-Year Movement,” involving alumni and community members will be held Oct. 7, 4-6 p.m., in the Cardinal Room, Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted St.

Anna Guevarra, the founding director of GLAS and a co-principal investigator of the UIC AANAPISI Initiative at UIC, will lead the discussion.

She recently spoke to UIC today about the program and her work.

Can you discuss the major and the thinking behind its development as an independent major?

The BA in global Asian studies provides students with an interdisciplinary perspective on the study of Asia and transoceanic and transnational diasporas. The major draws from the humanities, social sciences and the arts and prepares students for a critical analysis of Asian and Asian American history, politics, economy and culture with a curriculum anchored by intersectional social justice frameworks. It is the first degree-granting program in Illinois that uniquely offers curricular content that draws from Asian studies and Asian American studies.

How does the major fit in the Global Asian Studies Program?

The Global Asian Studies Program developed following a merger of Asian American studies and Asian studies with the intellectual and pedagogical mission of addressing our social worlds and dissolving the artificial boundaries between these two fields. The major provides a curricular arm for understanding these dynamics and prepares students to engage and critically understand the globalized world in which we live. This also includes a study of new immigration patterns and historical shifts in U.S. and global racial formations, such as Islamophobia and anti-Arab/Muslim racism, among other issues. 

Can you discuss the history leading to the new major?

In 1991, students began to rally for an Asian American studies program and formed the Asian American Collegiate Organization. In 2010, after years of maintaining pressure, the administration established the Asian American studies program and minor. At the same time, UIC received the first five-year AANAPISI grant that designated the campus as a Minority-Serving Institution. Three years later, the Asian American studies and Asian studies faculty began to meet to explore a merger. Coupled with faculty hires made through the Chancellor’s Cluster Initiative that enabled the growth of the program, this eventually led to the formation of the Global Asian Studies Program in 2016. This fall, the first cohort of students will be welcomed by a program that has 5.25 FTE (full-time equivalent) faculty, several affiliated faculty members, a Bridge to Faculty postdoctoral researcher, a curriculum that is critical, intersectional and comparative in its approaches and engaged with the community. Most importantly, the first cohort of students will learn about and benefit from the long legacy of student activism that built this program, as captured by these milestones.

2018 GLASapalooza celebration with Prof. Guevarra and the GLAS 300: Global Asia in Chicago capstone course students L to R: Front row: Shukdri Ideis, Hyemin Park, Nathan Diaz; Back row: Jeffrey Chan, Elena Guzman, Ainsley Adique, Lillian Xie, Vivian Jin, and Anna Guevarra Photo credit: Hunter Atha

What need does it fulfill for students, and how many students are in the cohort?

The BA in global Asian studies fulfills a longstanding demand from students to major in a field of study that speaks to their lived experiences and histories. It provides a culturally relevant curriculum that gives students the analytical tools to frame and contextualize these experiences and place them within longer histories and more complex geographies and politics. This need has also been recognized by the state with the passage of the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act, which mandates the teaching of Asian American histories in public schools. GLAS is currently beginning an AANAPISI-funded high school to college pipeline initiative, which will also strengthen and extend the reach of this legislation and potentially increase the number of majors and minors in GLAS. From the minute we announced the major, students have declared it, so we expect to see a continuing upward trajectory.

What can students expect as part of the major?

Students will have an innovative curriculum anchored by three thematic areas: empire, migration and diaspora; culture and the arts; society, politics and the state. The students will learn from and work with award-winning and dedicated faculty whose expertise represent the fields of American studies, anthropology, art history, communication, criminology, law and justice, education, English, ethnic studies, gender and women’s studies, history, linguistics, political science and sociology. They can expect a curriculum rooted in the community where students can engage in research or work as interns in community organizations. They can expect to gain research skills that will prepare them to work and thrive in today’s diverse and globalized world. They can expect to be part of a program committed to building community and maintaining a strong student-centered focus. They can expect to be welcomed by a student advisory board or even be invited to become part of it.

Tell us about your work in Uptown and how it relates to the new major?

My work in Uptown began with the Dis/Placements: A People’s History of Uptown project that I co-founded with Gayatri Reddy. This is a collaborative, digital, public history project that traces stories of everyday peoples’ resistance in the wake of urban “development” in the North Side Chicago neighborhood of Uptown. Uptown has long been a portal for working-class people, immigrants and refugees, including those from Southeast Asia. The project explores the multiracial solidarities and movements that developed in response to multiple displacements that people experienced, and the ways that they fought back and built resilient communities. The project helps to understand the histories that produced these migrations and places Asian Americans’ lived experiences concerning experiences of other racialized, poor and marginalized communities as they navigate struggles around education, housing, health care and access to human services. In other words, this project is very much in keeping with the goals of the GLAS program and major, providing one among other faculty-led projects that students can engage with to see how these global and local histories and politics intersect and play out in the context of Chicago.  

For more information about the Global Asian Studies program, contact glas@uic.edu.

RSVP online to the GLAS Takes (F)light: Paying Tribute to a 30-Year Movement event.

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Led by Hong Kong, Asian stocks on track to suffer worst month since Covid began - CNN

Hong Kong CNN Business  — 

Asian markets are careening toward their worst month since the Covid pandemic began, hit by a mighty US dollar and rising global recession fears.

The MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index — which captures 10 major markets across Asia, excluding Japan — has fallen 12.8% so far this month, on track to post the biggest drop since March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic had wreaked havoc on global markets.

The index is also set to end the third quarter down nearly 14%.

Among major stock markets, Hong Kong and South Korea have had the worst month so far, down 14% and 12% respectively.

For the quarter, the Hang Seng (HSI) Index has tumbled 21% so far, headed toward its worst quarter in two decades, according to Refinitiv.

Concerns about a global recession and hawkish policies by central banks around the world have weighed on investor sentiment.

The US dollar surged to a fresh two-decade high on Wednesday against a basket of major counterparts, boosted by the Fed’s policy tightening. The soaring greenback has sparked further fears of capital outflows from Asia’s emerging markets.

A pedestrian carries shopping bags in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

There's a 98% chance of a global recession, research firm warns

The Chinese yuan hit a record low of 7.2674 against the dollar on the offshore market earlier this week. It rebounded on Thursday after reports of possible central bank intervention.

The onshore yuan, which trades in the tightly managed domestic market, bounced back on Friday to 7.11. But the offshore yuan, which trades more freely overseas, fell again on Friday. It traded at 7.108 per dollar around 1:15 a.m. eastern time.

The Japanese yen and the Indian rupee also hit all-time lows this week.

Visitors at Nankin-machi in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2022. Japan's gross domestic product grew at an annualized pace of 2.2% in the second quarter of this year, as consumer spending picked up following the end of coronavirus curbs on businesses. 

Soichiro Koriyama/Bloomberg/Getty Images

How the United States is exporting inflation to other countries

“The US dollar’s one way upward journey continues to drive safe-haven flows and keep concerns on Asian equities elevated,” said Manishi Raychaudhuri, head of Asia-Pacific Equity Research at BNP Paribas Securities in a research note this week.

“Foreigners continued to sell Asia equities,” said Citi analysts in a separate report on Friday. They noted that Taiwan, Japan, India, and South Korea have seen nearly $5 billion in total foreign outflows this week.

BEIJING, CHINA - APRIL 08: Chinese President Xi Jinping buttons his jacket at a ceremony to honour contributions to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics at the Great Hall of the People on April 8, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

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China's economy is in bad shape and could stay that way for a while

Nevertheless, Raychaudhuri expects some silver linings for Asia.

“Some tailwind for Asian equities is coming in the form of post Covid reopening – in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and potentially in China,” he said.

There is also some good news from China this week.

On Friday, China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index showed the country’s factory activity unexpectedly grew in September, boosted by recent stimulus measures and a fading heat wave, according to a statement by the government. The PMI rose to 50.1 in September, returning to expansion territory after contracting for two straight months.

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Anti-Asian hate crimes are scaring Chinese travelers away from the US - CNN

Editor's Note — A version of this story appears in CNN's Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country's rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

Hong Kong (CNN) — Cannon Yu lives in Shantou, Guangdong province.

In the past, her sales job at a packaged-foods company took her to business conferences all over the world. But she hasn't left China since early 2020 and is taking her sales calls online instead of in person in Thailand, Germany, Morocco and elsewhere.

While most countries have reopened their borders and resumed travel back to previous pre-Covid levels, China has remained extremely conservative in its approach and continues to adhere to a stringent and uncompromising "zero-Covid" policy.

While those policies keep Chinese people in, they also keep most foreigners out, making it less likely for people like Yu to interact with people from other countries.

And although China still hasn't announced a plan for removing quarantine and other roadblocks for international travel, Yu can't wait to get back on the road and travel again.

There's one exception, though -- she has major reservations about visiting the United States.

How the East looks at the West

Scott Moskowitz, geopolitical risk analyst for APAC at the decision intelligence company Morning Consult, says that state-controlled media in China has played up examples of anti-Asian violence in the US in order to make its citizens less interested in going there.

It's "a strategically curated ecosystem that over-reports and sensationalizes negative foreign news compared to the tight controls on coverage of challenging or disturbing domestic instance," he says.

And Yu's beliefs bear that out.

"They look at people discriminately (there)," she says. "Not only for Chinese, but for Black people. It's very difficult to get fair treatment for all people in the United States."

She adds that she has spoken to friends who have visited the US, claiming that they were detained and searched by customs agents before being allowed to leave the airport.

Yu is one of an increasingly vocal community of Chinese travelers who say that anti-Asian discrimination in the US has made them afraid to visit someday.

This month, Morning Consult published a study on this exact trend. Their findings, based on a survey of 1,000 adults, showed that "a plurality of Chinese have little to no interest in US travel," with violence and anti-Asian discrimination both cited as factors.

According to Morning Consult's data, 22% of mainland Chinese respondents are "not interested at all" in visiting the US, with an additional 23% saying they are "not that interested."

Of the survey respondents, 57% say that violent crime is a primary reason they don't want to go to the US, while 52% cite terrorism, 36% say petty crime and 44% say they are concerned about anti-China bias by locals.

Mass shootings are another specific concern, with "those who have seen, read or heard about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas" earlier this year "far more likely to cite violent crime as a reason not to travel" to the country, Morning Consult says in its report.

Instead, some Chinese travelers are now looking elsewhere, with destinations in Europe clearly preferred over the US, according to the survey.

In the wake of anti-Asian hate crimes, "United Shades of America" discusses the need for Asian Americans to have a greater voice in bridging divides. The series airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.

The rise of violence

Amid the pandemic, there has been an increase in anti-Asian harassment around the world, much of it the result of misinformation or misplaced aggression about the origins of Covid-19.

The nonpartisan coalition Stop AAPI Hate provides a place for people to report harassment and attacks.

Perhaps the most covered anti-Asian hate attack in the United States since the start of the pandemic was the "Atlanta spa murders," during which eight women in three different massage parlors were shot and killed by Robert Aaron Long, a White man. Six of the eight victims were Asian, and Long was charged with hate crimes in addition to the murders.

Last year, New York Congresswoman Grace Meng introduced the Covid-19 Hate Crimes bill, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden.

Meng, who is of Taiwanese descent, represents parts of Queens, the diverse New York City borough that is home to many Asian Americans.

These incidents -- which range from street harassment to physical violence -- get significant coverage outside of the US, including in China.

Current geopolitical tensions aren't helping. Moskowitz says that the perception that the US is China's biggest rival has only heightened attention to stories of anti-Asian discrimination or violence in the country, even though similar incidents also take place elsewhere.

"This differential is especially exaggerated in terms of (Chinese state media) reporting on the US as compared to Europe and other places. Some of this is strategic and intentional, curated in order to diminish the appeal and soft power of the country China sees as its great rival, both politically and ideologically," he tells CNN Travel.

"There are strong perceptions in China that there is a lot of global bias against their country," Moskowitz adds. "Personal and national identity are very strongly tied in China so there may be concerns that more macro and political grievances and resentments (both real and perceived) with a country will be turned back towards the individual when traveling abroad."

How to change perceptions

Although changing the way Chinese travelers see the US won't happen overnight, it's not impossible.

"The results of this survey specifically suggest that travel companies and destinations should double down on safety-related messaging in marketing campaigns targeting Chinese consumers," says Lindsey Roeschke, travel and hospitality analyst at Morning Consult, who co-authored the survey with Moskowitz.

She adds: "Travel brands should provide pre-departure information on safety tools and tips. Those who want to take additional action may consider providing access to safety-oriented tour guides or a designated personal safety representative during travelers' stays."

Some countries have given specific warnings to their citizens about US travel, specifically as it relates to gun violence.

In 2019, the group Amnesty International issued an alert to people exhorting them to "exercise caution and have an emergency contingency plan when traveling throughout the USA" due to gun violence.

As for Cannon Yu, she's still eager to travel anywhere outside of China once it becomes less difficult.

Despite everything, she is still curious about the US and hopes to eventually see it for herself.

In particular, there's one place on her bucket list -- Las Vegas. "I want to gamble," she says. And then, after a pause, she continues: "I want to make friends."

Top image: Asian American community leaders place flowers on a memorial for murder victim Christina Yuna Lee after an anti-Asian hate rally in New York City. Photo by Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

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Confessions of an Asian Diversity Hire - New York Magazine

Illustration: Manshen Lo

It’s not like they put a sign on your desk that reads “Diversity Hire.” You just know, with a certainty as deep as earliest experience, that your race played a role in the scouting, the interviewing, and the hiring. How much of a role you’ll never know. Did your race gild the lily of your impressive résumé? Or was it the cheat code that allowed you to catapult over candidates who were better?

In 2022, when corporations, especially in the creative industries, are so eager to diversify their ranks, being Asian has become an asset of great value in the office. Sure, Asian people have problems, too. Horrible hate crimes were committed. The former president tried to blame COVID on the Chinese. As a result, there has been a tendency among Asian Americans in recent years — particularly assimilated, educated ones — to group themselves with other oppressed minorities. But I see myself as someone who has won the race lottery. As a light-skinned East Asian man, I have never been randomly stopped by the police, and no doorman has ever assumed I was the delivery boy. None of the serious indignities and disadvantages of being a minority in America has been inflicted on me, yet I have accrued all the benefits of being a person of color, particularly when it comes to my career. Coveted jobs have miraculously landed in my lap. Raises and promotions come at a frequent clip, while my chances of being fired are low. I sometimes think this is what life must have been like for white people in the recent past, like in that old SNL sketch where Eddie Murphy disguises himself as a white man and New York City turns into a carnival of parties and free stuff.

On the Cover

The difference is that the white people in the sketch don’t know that Murphy is Black, while the white people in my life don’t realize I am, if not white, then about as close to it as one can get. One of my parents is white. I also enjoy certain markers of status; I had a good, private education, which later proved useful in introducing me to the kinds of white people one encounters in the more exclusive enclaves of the white-collar workforce. Who knows where I would have ended up without this exposure? I grew up in a place where white people were so scarce as to be special, which meant that when I arrived in this country for university, I was befuddled by the many varieties of whites, all intimidating, all in possession of some innate talent for living from which I was excluded, from the guy at the deli counter to the boarding-school kids. But total alienation evolved into familiarity with white Americans, which is how assimilation works if you have access to those institutions and white family to fall back on. One day, you realize you know how to speak, how to behave, and how to discern, and what was once alien is second nature.

At first, office life was similarly isolating. When I first entered the workforce in the mid-aughts, the white bosses, who always seemed so large and loud, naturally preferred the younger versions of themselves. As an Asian with a more delicate armature, I felt like a minnow among manatees. I remember the white boss at a later job, who otherwise remained aloof from the proletarian members of the staff, venturing to my desk one day to ask me an important question: Did I know the Wi-Fi password? I suspect he thought I was the tech guy.

These experiences left only the faintest scars on my psyche. They were well worth the trade-off that appeared later in my career, when a lack of diversity became a crisis for politically aware companies. Around 2015 came a palpable shift, a sense of doors opening that had previously been shut. Emails were returned; jobs were obtained. Then, in subsequent years, in a great rush, from several companies at once, recruitment, sometimes for positions for which I was patently unqualified.

Yet even if this is how things used to work for white people, I still feel like an outsider. One of the ways I’m certain I’m not white is that I do not enjoy the white person’s carefree relationship with the world. No matter what I achieve, I am always reminded that I can never fully become the person I want to be because there is a slippage between who I am and what I signify, the latter of which will always be subject to the projections of white people. I remember attending a meeting at a former job where we discussed improving diversity at our company. I was the only nonwhite person there, and my boss, who was feeling defensive after hiring yet another white man, cited my presence as evidence that he had a good track record when it came to recruiting minorities. If I had had any delusions that I was in that room for my hard work and brilliant ideas, they would have been dispelled. I was, in truth, an object of condescension.

But I knew that already. Even if the person who made this proud confession had not been someone whose opinion of me carried great weight, he had the power to humiliate — and a humiliation is what this was, albeit a minor one. And even if this person had hired me for myself alone, even if the thought of race had never crossed his mind, it would have crossed mine, because that extra layer of racial consciousness cannot be peeled away.

No matter. A modest price to pay for the perks of near whiteness. I do not possess the white gift for assuming I have earned what I have gotten, but I have gotten it all the same. There are all sorts of winners in a racist society, and I am one of them.

Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the September 26, 2022, issue of New York Magazine.

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Why Does Asian Identity Revolve So Tightly Around Food? - Grub Street

Art: Susan Chen

Last year, I visited a relative’s house in New Jersey. He and his wife grew up in Bangalore, and a recent kitchen renovation set the stage for the reveal of a larger transformation that had been quietly underway for years. They detailed the many moves that had gone into building their ideal pantry, spice routes forged with relatives back in India, tireless expeditions to local Indo-Pak grocery stores until the choicest brands and items had been identified through trial and error, the studied deployment of an Instant Pot in such military action that fresh yogurt and ghee were always on hand, not to mention dal and rice. As I took in this simulation — a Bangalore kitchen, painstakingly re-created — I felt a twinge of anxiety. It seemed improbable that I’d ever meet someone who would be interested in shaping a life and a kitchen that so poetically transports a person to that other place. Not that I desired such an outcome, exactly, but nevertheless I felt its unlikelihood as a loss.

If you are a member of the Asian diaspora in America, the push-pull around foodstuffs may be a tension you recognize. On the one hand, there is the desire to maintain a connection to the ancestral land. On the other, a sense that too much weight is placed on food as a source of meaning and identity. There’s an impulse to share and celebrate all the culinary wonders of an inheritance and to bristle when some wellness influencer mispronounces turmeric or khichdi.

The formula is written into our mythology. Consider the lunchbox moment, a narrative trope in which the Asian kid realizes her Asianness, her difference, when she is bullied in the school cafeteria for the “exotic” meal her unwitting parents have prepared. Flashforward to adulthood: Food becomes a mode of reclamation from the white bullies (who now probably fetishize those same dishes they once mocked, all that pungent kimchee and curry) as well as a thread to the parent and the lost country. In both scenarios, food holds the key to a sense of self.

on the cover

Why, though? Surely other minority groups possess their own lunchbox moments while Asian communities possess diverging legacies. But Asian food has crowded out Asian languages, arts, philosophies, and other cultural binding agents to become an object of jealous focus that must be protected from Alison Roman–esque neocolonialists who dare use yogurt or fish sauce. If the Twitterverse is to be taken seriously, the common American mistake chai tea — two words that mean the same thing — holds the source code for all second-gen South Asian pain, offending even the many well settled among us. Offline, “boba liberalism,” to borrow a neat term for consumption-based Asian American identitarianism, plays out via a reservation at some new “It” restaurant or a purchase of the right book.

After the hyperregional Indian restaurant Dhamaka went up in Manhattan last year, a tone of reverence crept into the voices of South Asian foodies trying to snag a table, as if a meal might contribute not only to one’s social currency but to one’s self-development. Then there are the many food-centric memoirs and identity-focused cookbooks that promise Asian American readers self-knowledge, community, and a lifestyle glow-up of the most profound order, all in the space of a few hundred pages. “A beautiful, holy place, full of people from all over the world who have been displaced in a foreign country, each with a different history,” the artist Michelle Zauner called the Korean food chain H Mart in her blockbuster 2021 memoir, Crying in H Mart, a text that shows the undeniable poetry of the relationship between food and the self. Zauner, whose father is white and mother was Korean, speaks little Korean, she writes, yet feels an almost excruciating intimacy with certain dishes that remind her of her deceased mother. This quest to heal a loss — of a parent but also an ethnic identity — takes place in a literal grocery store.

In the digital sphere, Asian food culture is often performed in front of others in WhatsApp chains, Instagram posts, and Twitter rants. Sometimes it can seem as if make-believe countries have been drummed into existence for commercial purposes. One example has stuck with me, an error in an Instagram caption by a food influencer who originally hails from an Indian state that borders the one my parents are from. She’d posted a photo praising a delicacy named after a city in my family’s state. The item comes from there. But in her caption, she laid claim to the dish. She said it was her people who had invented it, though the evidence to the contrary was right there in the name. I wondered if this person actually believed the dish must belong to her simply because she’d anointed herself a purveyor of Indian delicacies to non-Indian consumers. What struck me was not only how convenient the error was for her purposes but also how convinced she must have been of it to make it, how susceptible to an altered, cleaner version of reality, one where India is a unitary thing, not divided by region, language, caste, and ethnicity. Food, as a medium, feels singularly effective as a means to sand the edges off a homeland, to turn that mythic place into a smooth commodity rather than an unknowable, dissonant land.

The appeals of food are also shortcomings as a foundation for identity. Food is a quick way to engage with a culture; it’s literally consumed! It poses simpler challenges, perhaps, than learning a lost language or filling great gaps in historical knowledge. The consumable nature of food allows it to be stolen by onlookers and outsiders, its meaning cheapened and diluted. Anyone, after all, can make a curry or a pork bun if they want to—or buy one.

Moreover, food’s deep associations with comfort and nostalgia offer a shortcut that is deceptive. If being a good Asian American progressive means participating in soothing food theater, there is less need to consider one’s heritage with a sense of ambivalence or question the harmful hierarchies within Asian diasporic communities. Food makes displacement the point of commonality. And it’s a misleading one — we all experienced it, so we all must face the same challenges.

At some time after that moment in Jersey, I realized that the search for the self through cuisine is often a source of anxiety with questionable results. No matter how hard I tried, I could not replicate the dishes my parents made in our home every night when I was growing up. I couldn’t figure out how to manage my grocery lists so those dishes would ever be anything but a novelty item to be made when I had huge swathes of time and energy. I realized that I couldn’t be somewhere else. I could only be where I was. And I began to relax, to let go of a need to stay rooted in some contrived way. I was born in America, and I was going to start making food in a different way from the people who brought me here.

It so happens that my energy has turned elsewhere. Lately, I have been revisiting myths from my childhood that hold some promise of wisdom. One feels particularly insistent: the story of Eklavya, a talented low-caste boy who is casually exploited by the heroes of the Mahabharata. Eklavya perseveres to become an excellent archer, but Dronacharya, the royal teacher, demands that he saw off his thumb so Prince Arjuna can maintain his superiority. In this difficult, gemlike parable, I see a map to understand the nature of the Indian caste system, still ruthlessly at work today, and of power dynamics worldwide. I feel at turns awed by the narrative sophistication and distressed by the view it offers — of society but also of my place in it. Like so many of the best stories, this one leaves a rich and bitter aftertaste that all but resists an audience. One must work hard to appreciate it.

Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the September 26, 2022, issue of New York Magazine.

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Asian Pacific American Advisory Commission Launches Pennsylvania Asian Pacific American Jewish Alliance - pa.gov

September 29, 2022

Today, the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs and the American Jewish Alliance launched the Pennsylvania Asian Pacific American Jewish Alliance at an event at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History.

The Pennsylvania Asian Pacific American Jewish Alliance (PAPAJA) is part of a joint effort to help Asian Pacific Americans and Jews work together to fight hate crimes and discrimination, which increased at alarming rates during the pandemic. The project will build ties between these communities across Pennsylvania and create opportunities to work together to eliminate hate and discrimination.

“We unite to fight the Antisemitism and Anti-Asian hate targeting these two communities, build deep understanding between each other, and cultivate knowledge on unique common struggles, for example, the myth of the model minority and the myth of dual loyalty,” said Stephanie Sun, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. “By starting conversations and sharing knowledge, we can begin to break down the walls that divide us and support each other to create real change in Pennsylvania.”

Pennsylvania and has experienced an increase in hate crimes over the past several years. These increases in Pennsylvania are not an anomaly; states across the nation are seeing the same trend. It is also important to note that hate crimes are also overwhelmingly underreported. At one point, the U.S. Department of Justice estimated that nearly two-thirds of hate crimes are never reported.

“I am the child of a Holocaust survivor who, like so many, fled hatred in their home nations and arrived in America to be able to worship as we please, excel in our work, live without fear of violence and provide for our families,” said Alan Hoffman, American Jewish Committee Philadelphia/Southern NJ President. “Today, with growing hate, everyone needs to realize that our very American democracy is at stake.”

In addition to the commission’s work to launch PAPAJA, the Wolf Administration is taking action to combat bigotry and reduce hate crimes in Pennsylvania.

Governor Wolf has instructed the Pennsylvania State Police and other members of the Wolf Administration to join efforts by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and the Anti-Defamation League to track and fight hate crimes.

Additionally, the Wolf Administration has awarded more than $15 million in Nonprofit Security Grants in 2022.

The Nonprofit Security Grant Fund Program, administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), was established to provide grants to nonprofit organizations who principally serve individuals, groups or institutions that are included within a bias motivation category for single bias hate crime incidents as identified by the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics publication. The categories include race/ethnicity/ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. Governor Tom Wolf secured an additional $5 million in his final budget for the program.

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Asian Stocks Follow Wall St Higher After UK Calms Markets - U.S. News & World Report

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Asian Stocks Follow Wall St Higher After UK Calms Markets  U.S. News & World Report

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‘Chosen’ Screenings To Highlight Importance Of Asian American Representation - Forbes

The documentary Chosen follows five Korean American candidates who campaigned for Congress in 2020. In a historic win, three of the candidates were elected in 2020 and one was reelected. Marilyn Strickland (Washington), Michelle Park Steel (California) and Young Kim (California) became the first Korean American congresswomen, while Andy Kim won reelection to New Jersey’s third congressional district. David Kim, a second-generation Korean American immigration attorney, who ran in 2020, was narrowly defeated, and is currently running again to represent California’s 34th district.

To highlight the importance of Asian American representation, attorney-turned filmmaker Joseph Juhn will screen his film at various venues in the coming month, including a nationwide college tour that includes screenings at UCLA and UC Berkley. Chosen will be screened on Oct. 1 at The Robinson School for Public Awareness and Community Engagement (SPACE), a not-for-profit group with the goal of building a more equitable Los Angeles. The film will also be shown on Oct. 6 at First Progressive Church in LA and on Oct. 20 at Oxyarts at Occidental College, in conjunction with the exhibit - Voice a Wild Dream: Moment in Asian American Art and Activism, 1968-2022.

“I will be screening the film in over 20 college campuses and community organizations throughout September and October and thus far college students have reacted with strong enthusiasm for the film,” said Juhn.

After a recent screening in Philadelphia a high school student approached Juhn to say, “Watching your film, I felt like I was seen on the screen for the first time.”

Juhn hopes that Chosen will serve as an inspiration.

“I’m curious to see if Chosen can also inspire other Korean Americans, Asian Americans, people of color, to run in their communities, no matter which ideological spectrum they fall in,” he said.

Based in New York and Seoul, Juhn has more than once found inspiration in stories of the Korean diaspora. Juhn previously made the film Jeronimo about a second-generation Korean Cuban who became a vice minister under the Castro government.

Juhn was inspired to make Chosen after reading an article about the number of Korean American candidates running for office in 2020. He considers it essential for the Korean American community to be reflected in decisions made by Congress. Such decisions affect Korean Americans, but they may also shape policies that impact the future of the Korean peninsula.

Chosen is scheduled to have a theatrical release in Korea on Nov. 3.

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Inflation is here to stay despite rising interest rates, Asian business leaders warn - CNBC

A woman shops inside a Garcia's Supermarket store in Quezon City, Philippines on Sept. 5, 2022.

Iya Forbes | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Inflation in consumer goods will persist as a "new normal" as the global economy undergoes structural changes, Asian business leaders warn.

While rising interest rates might eventually temper asset prices, deglobalization and decarbonization could continue to drive up costs for everyday goods, said V. Shankar, chief executive of emerging markets investment manager Gateway Partners. 

"Inflation is here to stay come hell or high water, irrespective of what the central banks do because there are some structural, intractable problems that have led to higher prices," Shankar said Monday at the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore.

"Despite helicopter money and zero interest rates, the reason why the price of goods stayed down for so long is because of a vast efficient manufacturing agent called China, and the integration of global supply chains."

That integration paved the way for cheaper goods. But now, catalyzed by the pandemic, there are new threats to interwoven global supply chains as countries look to bring back manufacturing to their own countries or to countries they are friendly with, Shankar said.

In July, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen touted the need to boost supply chain resilience through "friend-shoring" — doing business with countries that share values with Washington.

This collapses globalization and increases prices as manufacturing will no longer be based on numbers and cost considerations, Shankar added.

There is an inevitable train wreck and the politics and societal pressures are colliding with economics so inflation is here to stay.

V. Shankar

CEO, Gateway Partners

Decarbonization efforts will also contribute to higher prices, Shankar said, as there is not enough supply of components for climate-friendly goods to meet demand.

For instance, the global production and consumption of graphite for electric vehicle batteries was 1 million tonnes last year but in 10 years, that could rise to 5 million tonnes. There is no indication where that extra production will come from, Shankar says.  

"If you look at the fossil fuel industry, they are investing at a pace as if we are transitioning to a net-zero economy by 2035 whereas the renewable industry is investing at a pace of roughly a third of what is required for net-zero by 2050," he said. 

"There is an inevitable train wreck and the politics and societal pressures are colliding with economics. So, inflation is here to stay."

Ho Kwon Ping, executive chairman of Singapore's multinational hospitality group Banyan Tree Holdings agreed, saying higher interest rates are not the new normal, rather, zero or low interest rates were "abnormal."

"I think a real abnormal situation was the period we went through where central banks and others perhaps now, in retrospect, reacted too strongly and we had too long a period of zero or even negative interest rates," Ho said. 

"The world is going, in my view, back to probably a long-term situation of low interest rates, and hopefully, low inflation, but zero inflation, zero interest rates, that's the abnormality, and not the future that we're looking at."

U.S.-China tensions

Whether it is deglobalization or decarbonization, underscoring these concerns is the growing rivalry between the U.S. and China, the potential splintering of global trade and business into two blocs, and having to take sides.

Ho said many business leaders in Asia-Pacific and other parts of the world have had to start "scenario planning" to mitigate potential sanctions on China. 

Even China itself is preparing to be self-sufficient in key areas such as securing enough energy, food and critical goods supplies, Ho adds. 

"What I think is really strange is this very aggressive, decoupling between China and the rest of the world, from each other," Ho said. 

"For those of us who have operations in over 20 countries, I'm just having a hard time trying to figure out where I'm going to be getting pressure from — in order not to do business with certain countries or to do business with certain companies. And to be caught in this situation. I think it's very uncomfortable." 

The world's business leaders may have to abandon "the luxury of thinking" that the U.S. and China will get back together, Ho said.

Chairul Tanjung, chairman of CT Corp, one of Indonesia's largest conglomerates, urged countries to consider a new framework of working better together. 

"Now, everybody, every country strives to solve their own problem, trying to 'win' the situation," Tanjung said.

He added that a crucial way to move forward is to focus on critical global issues such as climate change.

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A Guide to Traveling Asia: Flight Deals, Hotels and Cruises - The New York Times

International airfares aside, the region that has long been a value-lover’s paradise will once again offer a range of tempting bargains.

The Asia travel pause at Kensington Tours, where monthly sales figures were recently up 80 percent over the same period in 2019, is officially over. Travelers are going to Thailand despite the rainy fall season. They’re booking temple stays in South Korea. They’re going to India at the last minute.

“Vietnam is absolutely bananas,” said Jessica Vandermey, a director of sales at Kensington Tours. “And I’m getting amazing reviews from clients being at Angkor Wat with a handful of people versus the masses.”

After a costly pause in travel that in some places stretched to more than two years, much of Asia is back. Though China remains closed to tourism and Japan has been fine-tuning its policy on independent travelers, hotel and tour operators are reporting strong growth. Intrepid Travel said it’s sending as many Americans to Asia as it did in 2019. At Minor International, a Thailand-based hospitality company that manages Anantara, Avani, NH and other popular hotel brands in the region, bookings have already doubled 2021 totals.

“Consumers have moved beyond revenge travel and are making travel part of their everyday lives again,” said Brett Keller, the chief executive of the online travel agency Priceline, where hotel searches in Asia have nearly tripled in the past year. “This mind-set is taking them beyond the near-border travel they were limited to in the past two years and back to incorporating long-haul, international trips into their lives.”

As in the rest of the world, the pandemic has ruptured the travel landscape in Asia. Rock-bottom prices on flights to and from the region are rare. But the place that was always a value-lover’s deliverance will offer travelers even cheaper prices on the ground for things like hotels and possibly fewer crowds at iconic attractions.

More expensive flights

The first hurdle to travel in Asia — getting there — may be the costliest, at least compared with bargain fares available before 2020. Priceline is tracking round-trip tickets globally to the region at 53 percent more expensive this year compared with 2019, when the average price was about $731.

China’s closure has grounded flights that exerted some of the biggest competitive forces on fares in Asia. Some of the world’s top business destinations, including Shanghai, Taipei and Beijing remain closed or restricted.

According to the aviation analytics firm Cirium, flights scheduled between the United States and Asia are down 54 percent between August 2019 and August 2022. United Airlines, for example, flew around 1,100 flights in August 2019, but was down to 482 in August 2022, according to the company.

The frequency of business-focused flights “had been such a downward force on airfare,” said Scott Keyes, the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, a subscription service that finds bargain airfares. “So many folks were buying cheap flights to Beijing to go on to Hanoi or Bali. Without those flights operating, you don’t see the same number of cheap fares.”

He estimated a good deal today would be 30 to 40 percent more expensive than in 2019. Recently, the service flagged $775 round-trip tickets to South Korea from the East Coast of the United States. In 2019, a comparable fare might have been as low as $550.

“I think until we see a real broad-based reopening of major economies, that will be the new normal,” Mr. Keyes added.

Selling for less than $1,100 round trip, the cheapest trans-Pacific fares searched on Priceline were for airports in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. For example, Priceline recently listed round-trip fall flights between New York and Bangkok from about $830.

Once you arrive in an Asian capital, regional low-cost carriers may provide inexpensive ways to get around. A recent one-way from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok on Malaysia-based AirAsia in early October, for example, was priced at $62 before extras such as seat assignments.

Other low-cost carriers in the region include IndiGo, based in India, and Australia-based Jetstar, which has had recent operational problems, stranding thousands of Australian travelers in Bali last month.

As with any low-cost airline, foreign or domestic, check the cancellation policy as well as inclusions — seat assignments, food and checked bags are usually extra — to ensure it is the best offer compared with other competitors in the region.

Deals on the ground

On the ground, other expenses may be lower. According to Priceline, average hotel rates are 7 percent cheaper than 2019, when the average rate was $120 a night. Hotels under $100 a night are plentiful in Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Vietnam and the Philippines, with the best deals under $50 a night in Varanasi, India; Kuchina, Malaysia; Da Nang, Vietnam; Iloilo City, Philippines; Phnom Penh; and Pattaya, Thailand.

A bit more buys more. At Avani+ Samui and the new Avani Chaweng Samui Hotel & Beach Club, on the island of Ko Samui in southern Thailand, a package that includes two nights at each hotel starts at $143 a night and includes airport pickup and transfers between the two hotels.

A deal at FCC Angkor by Avani in Siem Reap, Cambodia, includes an airport pickup, transportation by tuk-tuk to and a guided tour of the temples of Angkor Wat, breakfast and lunch or dinner for two and a couples spa treatment from $129 a night.

Tours can be a good way to stretch your budget. EF Go Ahead Tours has a new 14-day trip to Thailand, hitting Bangkok, Chiang Mai and the island of Phuket from about $3,100, or about $220 a day, including hotels, tours, most meals and internal flights.

G Adventures offers a 10-day tour in Vietnam from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City starting at $999 a person.

Explore Worldwide is offering an eight-day tour of India’s Golden Triangle — including Agra, Karauli and Jaipur — from $840 a person. The eight-day Highlights of Laos tour, starting at $940 a person, visits the French colonial city of Luang Prabang, the capital city of Vientiane and the limestone mountains around rural Vang Vieng.

Japan remains popular and group tour operators are racing to fulfill demand. EF Go Ahead Tours has a 14-day Japan trip that starts around $5,300.

Some travel advisers are proposing South Korea as a substitute with comparable culture and culinary intrigue, but a lower cost of living. A G Adventures eight-day trip in South Korea, including visits to Seoul, UNESCO World Heritage-designated parks and temples, and the seaside city of Busan, starts at $2,249.

Independent travelers in South Korea will find a temple stay at a mountain monastery in Seoul from about $50 a night, including Buddhist rituals and meals from the cultural tour organization Templestay.

Future cruises on sale

Big-ship cruises historically have been a cost-effective way to visit many destinations. But the checkerboard of closures and Covid regulations in Asia make it harder for ship companies to sail as they had in the past.

Consequently, several have postponed their departures in the region to spring and even fall 2023. Celebrity Cruises, for example, operated two ships in the region before the pandemic. Now it is targeting September 2023 to make its return.

To fill some of those ships departing in the future, several cruise lines are offering deals on 2023 and 2024 itineraries.

As of late September, Princess Cruises was offering a five-day sailing in South Korea and Japan next June from $497 a person, visiting Tokyo, Kobe and Kagoshima in Japan and the island of Jeju in South Korea. To reserve it, the line requires a $100 refundable deposit.

Norwegian Cruise Line is offering an 11-day sailing in December 2023 between Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, visiting Singapore and Vietnam en route, from $1,356 a person, marked down $900 as of September (the sale is scheduled to run through October). An 11-day trip around Japan in October 2023 costs $1,919, down nearly $1,300.

In November 2023, Celebrity is planning several ambitious Asian itineraries, including 14 days in Thailand and Vietnam, recently starting around $1,400 a person, or $2,200 off while cabins last.

Anyone booking that far in advance should read the fare rules carefully and look for flexible terms and cancellation policies. In the case of the Celebrity trip, according to a recent search, the line required an additional $386 a cabin to make the deposit fully refundable up until about two months before departure.

Elaine Glusac writes the Frugal Traveler column. Follow her on Instagram @eglusac.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places for a Changed World for 2022.

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