
The Need To Radically Reimagine Our Identities Outside of the Gender Binary
Education Justice
Gender Justice
Gender & Sexuality
Written by / 作者:Mavis Tang and Julia
Jun 5, 2023

Education Justice
Gender Justice
Gender & Sexuality
Written by / 作者:Mavis Tang and Julia
Jun 5, 2023

News
Housing
Economic Justice
The lack of affordable housing is a crisis around the world, from the United States to Canada to China to the United Arab Emirates. Data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows that average rents in Toronto have increased roughly 72% from 2001 to 2021 while median family income has gone up by only 33%. This discrepancy between income growth and rent prices is reflected in many cities in North America such as New York City, as well as beyond: Beijing and Abu Dhabi were named the two most expensive global cities for renting in 2016 by Global Cities Business Alliance. The UN has assigned Special Rapporteurs to address this worldwide problem, who have concluded that a large contributing factor to this crisis is the financialization of housing. This aspect of the affordable housing crisis is often missed in policies and strategies aimed at alleviating the problem. Popular understanding of the housing crisis argues that the problem can be addressed by providing more supply: by building more houses and apartments. In reality, the financialization of housing, one of the key drivers of unaffordable housing, is a problem inherently caused by the market. As such, it cannot be solved by market solutions.
Feb 24, 2023

On November 8th, 2022, US House Representative Barbara Lee was reelected in California’s 13th district, which covers Oakland and parts of the East Bay area. In 2021, Representative Lee introduced H.R.3518, a bill that calls for the federal government to provide aid and assistance to people affected by exposure to Agent Orange during the period of US war in Vietnam.
Dec 16, 2022

Open Letters
Our mothers, our mothers. I told my friend once that no one breaks our hearts like our mothers. I’m sure my mother would say no one breaks her heart like me. Is there any other relationship so full of expectations and dreams and disappointments? If there is, I do not think I want to know. I write this article thinking of my mother, trying to respect her in my own way. I give her first look and veto powers for this essay, and I hope that is enough for her to not look at me with that frown of disapproval. Why reveal so much of yourself, I can already hear her saying. Why reveal so much of Us? Why do I want to expose my pain and hurt and anger to the world?
Oct 16, 2022

Open Letters
Written by: Shengxiao “Sole” Yu
Jul 25, 2022

Education Justice
CW: misogyny, racism, sexual violence
Jun 23, 2022

Racial Justice
Written by: Shengxiao "Sole" Yu
Jan 29, 2022

News
Written by Kelly Ko
Jan 9, 2022

Education Justice
Racial Justice
This article was translated into Chinese and published on WeChat through a collaboration with Chinese for Affirmative Action
Jan 2, 2022

News
Open Letters
Written by Jess Fong
Dec 31, 2021

Open Letters
Education Justice
Written by 辰曦 (Chen Xi)
Dec 20, 2021

Dec 4, 2021

Education Justice
Authors: Henry Hsieh with Dihua
Oct 5, 2021

Education Justice
News
Author: Wan Ting
Sep 6, 2021

Open Letters
Growing up in an Asian American household, I was always judged by my family. My parents always noticed flaws with things I did, especially with my body and clothing. I was either perceived as oversexualizing myself and my body or I was seen as being too tomboyish and “dressing like a man”, there was never an in-between.
Aug 27, 2021

Racial Justice
News
We at the Xīn Shēng Project are each tied to a Chinatown in some way. Some of us grew up and/or worked in a Chinatown in New York City, Boston, the Bay Area, Chicago, Houston, or Los Angeles. Others drove from the suburbs to the nearest Chinatown for dim sum, Chinese school, dance class or kung fu. Many of us have grandparents who live, or once lived, in a Chinatown.
Aug 10, 2021

Education Justice
Racial Justice
As an increasing number of states banned “critical race theory (CRT)” from public school classrooms, it has been so upsetting to see how Asian Americans connected our community trauma (Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants, for example, who have left or even fled communist regimes) to CRT influenced by partial and mischaracterization of CRT. When I wrote the article Five Myths of Ethnic Studies half a year ago, I didn’t anticipate the misinformation and mischaracterization of CRT to be a recurring theme in the education field. Could I find more nuanced, balanced information about CRT on WeChat? I decided to find out.
Aug 2, 2021

Education Justice
Racial Justice
I loved going to school when I was younger. Even though I moved around numerous times during my childhood, there were certain things I could always rely on in a classroom. I knew I would be able to hear the sound of pages turning during reading time, experience the satisfaction of writing on a whiteboard, and be taught by somebody that I looked up to. Each of my teachers helped me learn more about the joy of reading and nurtured my desire to learn.
Jul 24, 2021

Education Justice
Written by Dihua
Jul 6, 2021

Open Letters
Written by Mavis Tang
Jul 3, 2021

Education Justice
Racial Justice
Written by Serena Deng
Jun 27, 2021

Education Justice
Racial Justice
Dear Sisters:
Jun 26, 2021

News
The other day, my apolitical grandma, who voted for the first time in her life back in 2020’s presidential election, told me she was thinking about who she was going to vote for in New York City’s mayoral race. The Democratic primary is June 22, and, with barely a month to go, her apartment has been flooded with campaign ads, political endorsements, and promises. Her current choice? Andrew Yang. “Why?” I asked her. Unsurprisingly, she says, “Because he’s Chinese!” My grandpa chimed in, “We have to vote for the Chinese guy because we’re Chinese.”
Jun 17, 2021

Open Letters
Dear 爸爸妈妈,
Jun 11, 2021

Racial Justice
News
Palestinians’ Protests
Jun 1, 2021

Racial Justice
News
CW: racial violence
May 29, 2021

Open Letters
by Christine Pan
May 5, 2021

Share on WeChat / 在微信上分享这篇文章 (Resources at the bottom)
May 3, 2021

Open Letters
Content Warning: suicide, depression
Apr 24, 2021

Racial Justice
News
CW: hate incidents, murder
Mar 21, 2021

Racial Justice
Angelo Quinto was a 30-year-old Filipino American who was killed by police during a mental health crisis.
Mar 2, 2021

Open Letters
When I recited ancient Chinese poetry as a child, I always found these types of expressions difficult to understand. Now I know: no matter how the centuries have changed, the emotions that people feel are—more or less—the same.
Feb 21, 2021

Racial Justice
News
As the spread of COVID-19 and tense China-America relations amp up xenophobia and Sinophobia, we have compiled the following list of resources that respond to recent hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) covered in the media, as well as community organizations for AAPI that you can support. A great actionable is choosing at least three of these phenomenal organizations to donate to, and maybe even volunteer at one! Even a small donation helps.
Feb 11, 2021

Education Justice
As an international Chinese adoptee, I grew up with a single white mother who didn’t have all the resources to help me learn about my culture, heritage, or history. Although my mom did her best to help me understand the adoption process and the separation between me and my birth culture, growing up in a multi-racial household meant I had to confront the realities of being Chinese American without having a mentor who had experienced this before. It was hard for me to look myself in the mirror and accept that I truly belonged anywhere.
Feb 6, 2021

Open Letters
Education Justice
I’ve been grappling with my ethnicity—my Chinese-ness—before I even fully knew what “ethnicity” was. When I reflect on the importance of ethnic studies in my life, I’m reminded of childhood memories tinged with shame, of trying to figure out parts of myself that never quite felt whole. Most of all, I’m reminded of how my Chinese-ness colored my experiences in ways that I could never fully explain to my parents.In elementary school, I turned in a personal narrative about how desperately ashamed I was of my smelly noodle lunch after my friends made fun of how strange it looked. Luckily for the narrator, her friends eventually came around and one day asked to try her strange noodles. Turns out, they loved how strange Chinese noodles tasted, and profusely thanked her for introducing them to the wonders of Chinese food. Multiculturalism at its finest—that essay should have been plastered all over the school district website. I also completely made it up. What could have possibly motivated nine-year-old 婉婷 to fabricate an entire personal narrative that hinged on how she solved her racial inferiority complex?
Feb 6, 2021

Education Justice
Chinese is an ancient language family full of rich meaning, where even everyday terminology is more poetic than its English counterpart. For example, in Standard Mandarin—which is only one Chinese dialect of many—a common term for “careless” is “粗心," which literally means “thick heart.” A common term for "sad” is “難過,” which literally means “hard to pass.” And a common term for “metaphor” is “暗喻,” which literally means “dark comparison.”
Feb 1, 2021

News
Armed rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol during Congress’s scheduled certification of the 2020 presidential election results required by state and federal law [source, p.7] on Wednesday afternoon. As of Wednesday, January 13, at least 85 arrests have been made. At least five people, including a Capitol Police officer, have died, and dozens more were injured. [source]
Jan 15, 2021

Jan 14, 2021

Open Letters
With the holidays coming up and families reuniting (virtually and in-person), The WeChat Project is publishing some reflections from young Chinese Americans and Asian Americans. Together, we reflected on navigating intergenerational conversations and relationships this season. Here is what we have to say:
Dec 27, 2020

News
Open Letters
By now, most Chinese Americans have seen Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn’s anti-Chinese tweet and reckoned with the 24,400 retweets endorsing the idea that “China has a 5,000 year history of cheating and stealing.”https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4eab7a_6cfd9db7cf9740d28f3c71d6fd78713d~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_987,h_526,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/4eab7a_6cfd9db7cf9740d28f3c71d6fd78713d~mv2.pngI want to commend the Chinese Americans who have organized against Senator Blackburn’s blatant racism. On Wednesday, December 9th, Chinese Americans held a protest in Washington D.C. and a second protest was planned for Saturday, December 12th, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dec 15, 2020

News
My grandfather immigrated to the United States when he was a teenager to reunite with his father and start a new life. At the time, post-war Hong Kong promised no stable life, and my great-grandmother struggled to make ends meet. In America, though they remained low-income immigrants their entire lives, and their lives were definitely unstable due to the nature of the jobs — seamstress and waiter — they had, this country gave them the opportunity to build an even better life for successive generations — my parents and me — than staying in Hong Kong would have.
Oct 26, 2020

News
“Can you help us file for unemployment? Your dad and I can’t figure out all this complicated English paperwork,” my mom implored me in Mandarin.
Oct 25, 2020

Education Justice
This is the second article in The WeChat Project’s series on affirmative action. To learn more, read the first article in our series.
Oct 22, 2020

Open Letters
Dear readers,
Sep 21, 2020

Open Letters
Education Justice
The following is a letter that a second-generation Chinese American student from California sent to her family.
Sep 2, 2020

Racial Justice
TW: violence, sexual assault, r***
Aug 29, 2020

Racial Justice
Aug 24, 2020

Education Justice
News
On Thursday, August 13th, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said that Yale University’s undergraduate admissions process “illegally discriminates” against White and Asian students in violation of federal civil rights law.
Aug 16, 2020

Open Letters
Racial Justice
Education Justice
Growing up in a New Jersey suburb with a large Chinese American population, I was always taught that there is one key to success in America: hard work. The Chinese immigrants in my community were proof positive that the American Dream was real and that with hard work you could get anywhere. Many of them, including my parents, had come to the US with almost nothing. They struggled through graduate programs on scholarships or TA-ships or odd jobs, started from the bottom rungs of corporate ladders, furnished their own clinics and advertised their own private practices. With hard work, they graduated, received promotions, and amassed clients and patients. They told me these stories so I would remember how lucky I was to be growing up in a beautiful town with everything I could possibly want, and so I would remember that I, too, had a duty to work hard and carry their success forward.
Jul 29, 2020

Open Letters
Despite being born in North America, I am still incredibly connected to my Chinese culture. I am both Chinese and American and I do not minimize either identity. I do not go to China often, but whenever I do, I feel like a foreigner wearing the wrong skin. One time, on a trip to China to visit relatives, my mother decided to meet up with one of her old university friends. At the time, the One Child Policy was in effect, but this family friend had two children. Her eldest was a girl, like me. Her youngest was a boy. She paid a fee to be allowed to have another child. As my mother had her hands full with just raising me, teasingly, she commented that having two children must be impossibly tiring. The response made me regret the cosmic accident of my sex. I wished to only have one child. But my firstborn was a girl, so I had no choice. She turned to her daughter and said, “I hope this one does not have to go through all that pain, and has lots of sons.” The message rings clear: girls are deadweight to families, to society.
Jul 18, 2020