Journey with us as we unlock a riveting chapter in immigrant history – the captivating tale of Japanese Picture Brides. This forgotten story, brimming with strength, resilience, and the indomitable human spirit, promises to take you to a bygone era, revealing the socio-political fabric of Japan and the United States that fostered this unique matchmaking practice. We explore the landscape of legislation, like the Gentleman's Act of 1908 and anti-misgeniation laws, that shaped the lives of these women, as well as their own aspirations and hopes that led them to cross an ocean.

We then set sail for the Hawaiian Islands, uncovering the traditional Japanese practice of Omi-Ai and how it morphed into the picture bride process in unfamiliar territories. Navigating through the role of intermediates and the exchange of photographs, we expose the stark realities that often welcomed these brave brides upon their arrival in Hawaii and the impact of the sugar plantation industry on their lives. The courage of these women as they carved out their lives on foreign shores will both inspire and move you.

In our final leg, we honor the enduring legacy of the picture brides, who despite the odds, forged a path in male-dominated industries. We also delve into the darker side of their stories, examining their unfortunate association with prostitution and the involuntary sex work some were coerced into. Culminating our journey, we share the poignant story of Dorothy Matsushima, a picture bride whose legacy of love and strength echoes across time. Despite spending 36 years apart from her partner, Mike, Dorothy's life story is a testament to the resilience and determination of these women. Join us in honouring this often overlooked chapter in history.

HIGHLIGHTS

(04:11 - 05:52) Motivations and Challenges of Japanese Migrants

(08:18 - 09:43) Military Service Impact on Japanese Hawaiians

(18:45 - 20:34) Exploitation and Stigma of Sex Work

(25:18 - 26:17) Mike's Family, Marriage, and New Friends

(28:14 - 30:08) Dorothy's Life and Loss

Keywords: Picture Brides, Japanese Picture Brides, Immigration History, Gentleman's Act 1908, Anti-Misgeniation Laws, Omi-Ai, Intermediates, Photographs, Sugar Plantation Industry, Gender Inequalities, Prostitution, Involuntary Sex Work, Dorothy Matsushima, Mike Matsushima, Resilience, Strength, Love

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Welcome back. Kesen has embarked on a new direction. Join Kesen and a range of guest speakers this season as we document, research and discuss contemporary Asian issues through Asian Studies.

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It’s been a little over a week since China moved to ban Clubhouse. Although Clubhouse does not release data on its user-base the amount of Chinese users has noticeably seen a reduction. Nonetheless, conversations continue among users. This week in particular I highlight a couple of the conversations that I’ve been privy to.

There’s also obviously been growth of spaces on the Platform that are no longer based on the app’s free-flowing speech and ideas values, but instead, replaced by those who have come exclusively to promote the CCP Partyline and strongly object to those who are in opposition of CCP and it’s actions.

While many conversations even surrounding the topic of China and Uyghurs are rarely allowed to occupy the stage anymore, it’s saddening and quite irritating to the ears to listen to Chinese nationals loyal to the party charge onward talking about economic developments and betterment’s due to the, let’s face it, ongoing genocide of an entire peoples and culture. Let’s listen.

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This week's episode is a particularly deep one for myself as it's still sometimes a memory that's living on currently through dealings and interactions that I wish would already be over. Before I end up having my mouth sealed with whatever agreements that have will be reached (If any), I felt it was super important to document my experience that I've kept to myself for years when it really felt on silent ears. I'm grateful for the lessons that I was taught through these experiences (by Myself, don't think otherwise) and the value of self-love and creating and maintaining boundaries in a relationship.

This draft is super rough and hasn't gone through audio-processing like all my episodes normally do. I'll eventually pull the audio file and process it and replace it over the next few days if everyone has time to wait. There are no events in this Episode that should really trigger anyone with the exception of a couple parts containing violence which I'm sure you we're probably expecting from the title of the podcast. 

As always, voice messages link is included in the description, and feel free to reach out to me on social media or through email if you'd like to chat or share your story. Hang in there!

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What if the hottest app on your phone was a potential time bomb for privacy and security concerns? Picture this: an app that's taking the world by storm, yet banned in one of the most populous nations on Earth. Welcome to the unique world of Clubhouse, a social media platform that's as intriguing as it is controversial. We're going to dissect this digital phenomenon, uncover its unique appeal and question the potential red flags that have surfaced in recent times. From its recent ban in China to the ramifications of its data retention policies, we're about to put Clubhouse under the microscope.

Now, let's delve deeper into the complexities surrounding Clubhouse. We delve into the challenges that Chinese users face when accessing Clubhouse, and discuss the elephant in the room: data retention and encryption. With the app's peculiar onboarding process requiring you to sync your entire address book, we examine the potential privacy implications. We also explore the fact that Clubhouse is not open source, which raises serious questions about transparency and accountability. Join us as we navigate through this fascinating yet controversial new wave of digital social interaction. Get ready for a no-holds-barred discussion on the global impact of Clubhouse.

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This episode is a very raw account of a close friends experiences with substance abuse and how our friendship brought the four year struggle to the surface. Substance abuse is becoming increasingly popular in our communities, especially prior to sexual activity and for some, a as a coping tool during this drawn-out Pandemic. While we all know it’s growing popularity, there seems to be a general lack of conversations among our community on how we can tackle these issues, and how we should refrain from reacting with fear, stigmatization and labels. dJyrbWPTUBDaah16V0PA

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Unfortunately, due to personal and external circumstances out of my control I won’t be able to complete this project by the end of the semester. That being said, I’m taking the time over semester break to prepare to undertake this one next semester ensuring that everything is setup. I’ve also decided to take this Podcast for a more personal spin and dive into some different topics over the holiday season that may be added to this series or branched into their own. This episode I talk briefly about what’s happened, as well as how I’ve been dealing with COVID and some of the topics I plan on diving into. Thanks for listening and make sure to check out my blog at https://kesen.wang

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This week's episode is the rough draft of my Storycorps style interview with a close-friend recalling his HIV diagnosis, the emotions and his experiences with his status in the years after.

This particular take is a rough edit of our term project, so there is much work to be done. The goal of this edit was to extract the essential parts of the interview and arrange them in chronological order.

For the final draft of our Storycorps submission I will do further editing and chose more appropriate background music, as well as compression of the audio. All recording was done with Anchor, which enables live recording of interviews in browser. Editing was completed with Logic Pro, as I'm more familiar with the tool, previously using Logic for songwriting and mixing.

The topic was important to me and I feel its an even more important issue not only within the LGBTQ community, but every community as HIV is a condition which still comes with an excessive amount of Stigma, despite endless advances in treatment and prevention. For anyone listening, I encourage you as well to follow my Multimedia project this term on The Impacts of Coronavirus on Men Living With HIV. If you are someone living with HIV in Canada and you'd be interested in talking to me on your experiences during the pandemic please reach out to me via email.

Disclaimer: In respecting the individuals wishes to remain anonymous audio contained in this podcast has been modified and names used are entirely fictional in order to protect the identity of the speaker.

Of course going into this project I expected that there would be some hiccups or bumps along the road, just not this early. In this episode I discuss how the project is going, some things I’ve been working on and exploring the possibility I might have to change topics. I’ve also been spending some time designing the website, at https://kesen.wang

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This is a short, two-minute Audio Tour that I've created for my Podcast/Audio Journalism Course at KPU. There is a combination of publicly available audio effects, as well as audio I've extracted from Videos during my time in Taiwan. Since it's only two-minutes that we are given, I've had to make things extremely brief. I talk about my first impressions of Taiwan, the end of my long-term relationship, as well as songwriting during that time.

Trigger Warning: There's a slight reference to drug use but nothing more. I talk about how I spent a lot of time songwriting and using Logic to record; at the end of the recording, there's a short clip of a song I wrote, which pushes it a bit over the two-minute mark. Hope you guys like it. For those who enjoy video, feel free to check out the video accompaniment to this episode: https://youtu.be/tWB0ZnXMQFE

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