News
A&E
Opinion
Preview the ‘Grad Slam’ aimed at Grad students
Students express artistic skills on graduation caps
My studying abroad experience was enlightening
Page 2
Page 4
Page 5
NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Volume 160 No. 33 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
PHOTO VIA HISTORY SAN JOSE
San Jose’s Chinatown was located on Market Street prior to the fire which destroyed it in 1887. This Chinatown was on the present site of the Fairmont Hotel.
Documenting the AAPI experience Activists discuss project to showcase Asian American history
By Brandon Nicolas
enter someone’s presence,” Kwan said. She said the high school interns would research information on the internet, which would help her Last spring, the Community Advisory Board of the generate interview questions. Oral Histories Project received a $500,000 contract from “Our interview questions are standardized up to a Santa Clara County to document the oral histories of certain point, but when you’re asking people about their over 30 Asian American activists in the Silicon Valley specific experiences, we want to tailor it to what they area. have done,” Kwan said. The board chose Yvonne Kwan, San Jose State assistant After the interviewees are selected by the Community professor and program coordinator of Asian American Advisory Board and the research team has provided studies, to spearhead the project. background information, Kwan and the videography
STAFF WRITER
“He’s telling this story that has probably never been published or heard before and we’re going, ‘Oh my God, that’s what it was like during that time!’ We’re talking about human experience. Connie Young Yu Oral Histories Project community advisory board Asian American historian
The Oral Histories Project is split into two groups: The Community Advisory Board and the AAPI Perspectives team. Associate Student President Nina Chuang said the AAPI Perspective team is currently in the editing process of the project. The board consists of community leaders, legislators and activists who have made a difference in the county. They helped comprise a list of candidates to interview for the project. “These are prominent figures in our community who saw that during COVID-19 – a lot of our elders were passing,” Kwan said. “We also saw a rise and resurgence of anti-Asian violence.” The AAPI Perspectives team includes Kwan as the primary investigator, Chuang who leads a high school intern research team, a videography team and a creative director. “We essentially want to do our homework before we
team attend the interview scheduled by Chuang. “We’ll go through a range of questions that usually start with family origin, their schooling experiences, their interaction with their neighborhood – just capturing what life was like for them,” Kwan said. The interviews then delve into their respective histories as activists in their communities. Afterward, the videographers edit the video and generate a transcript that is then polished by the interns. Kwan separates the AAPI Perspective Oral Histories Project into two phases: the first phase includes the video recording of 36 interviewees, curriculum building for K-12 schools and the archiving of the oral histories that will be made available to the public. “It’s a community based, community centered project,” she said. Kwan said she is currently requesting a follow-up ACTIVISM | Page 3