Asia Pacific Forum

Historian Karen Ishizuka depicts the origins and trajectory of the Asian American Movement in Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties (Verso). Her history, drawing from both oral narrative and cultural documentation, explores the formation of Asian American activism and identity during the Long Sixties. She discusses her research and reflects on the state of Asian America today, and how it has evolved since the days of Yellow Power.

GUESTS:

Karen Ishizuka, author, Serve the People

A clip from a "Amplify the South!," a panel at the 2016 World Social Forum in Montreal, coordinated by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Michelle Chen and Gretchen King of Community Media Advocacy Centre/CKUT Radio discuss community radio as both medium and movement across the Americas and the Global South.

GUESTS:

Gretchen King, Community Media Advocacy Centre/CKUT Radio, Montreal

Some readings from recent live events at Asian American Writer's Workshop. Featuring Moustafa Bayoumi, David Mura and Aimiee Suzara.

MUSIC:

"Shruggy Ji" by Red Baraat

"Chnang Jas Bai Chgn-ainj (Old Pot, Tasty Rice) from Cambodia Rocks!" by Ros Sereysothea

At detention centers across the country, hundreds of South Asian migrants are already experiencing what Donald Trump has threatened. They're being deported en masse,, and advocates say that their asylum claims are being unfairly rejected despite the political persecution they face, leaving them to be quietly deported to death.

DRUM Organizer Fahd Ahmed says that about 85 detainees from South Asia have already been sent back and the US is colluding with Bangladeshi authorities to deport them despite the risk of persecution.

GUESTS:

Fahd Ahmed, Executive Director, DRUM- Desis Rising Up & Moving

Amid the global panic over North Korea's suspected nuclear developments, one issue that's lurking in the background is the legacy of World War II and the nationalistic tensions still overhanging Asia's geopolitics. In the backdrop is the issue of the comfort women, the Korean victims of military sexual slavery who are still seeking justice 70 years later. Recently the governments of Japan and South Korea tried to put the issue to rest with a backdoor deal, but the survivor community is outraged at what they see as a deeply inadequate compensation plan intended to silence them.

Simone Chun of the Korea Policy Institute discusses how the still unresolved struggles of South Korea's comfort women play into the Pacific rim's politics today.

GUESTS:

Simone Chun, Fellow Korea Policy Institute

Poetry exploring the outer limits of identity, from Dark Matter (courtesy Laura Flanders Show) and Asian American Writer's Workshop's Mouth to Mouth Open Mic last September.

GUESTS:

Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian, Dark Matter Poetry

Kay Ulanday Barrett, poet and activist, kaybarrett.net

Sabrina Ghaus, Pakistani American poet and organizer

Transfixed by a historical dream, journalist Huan Hsu decided to set off on an adventure to chase after a family legend of buried porcelain treasure: legend had it that his ancestors, fleeing the Japanese occupation in China, had buried a masses of precious porcelain deep underground, hoping to return one day to retrieve it. Well, that never happened, and Huan's family was scattered around the world, fanning off to Taiwan or America,. But after growing up in the West, Huan threw himself into this hunt for family lore and wrote The Porcelain Thief, a family history that spans the entire course of modern Chinese history, exploring the role of art, war, and beauty in forming the identity of China today.

GUESTS:

Huan Hsu, author, The Porcelain Thief