@api #005

essay

A Year of Pretending to be Japanese page 3

interview

@api

e x c l u s i v e

w i t h

Sandy Cheng

C h a i r o f t h e A J ET N a t i o n a l C o u n c i l page 6 people

Faces of API AJET page 2 review

HOME:WORD

page 5

@api

issue #005

Faces of API AJET National Co-Representatives

Mariko Cook (沖縄県), API AJET National Co-Representative 2014-2015 Hello APIers!

My name is Mariko Cook, and I’m wrapping up my second year as a CIR on the lovely island of Okinawa. Some of you may know me from being Block 11 Representative this past year or perhaps from certain posts on our Facebook group. With Aimee leaving to go back to the U.S. this summer, I was asked if I had any interest in becoming the next National Co-Representative for Asian Pacific Islander AJET. I, of course, said yes! Having worked alongside Albert David and Aimee since last summer, I believe I can contribute a lot to the group and already have a number of new ideas in mind. Feel free to add me on Facebook or email me at api@ajet.net anytime!

I’m looking forward to getting to know you all and to better improve our community across Japan! よろしくお願いします!

Albert David R. Valderrama

(茨城県), API AJET National Co-Representative 2014-2015

Greetings, everyone!

My name is Albert David Valderrama. I am an ALT-PA in Ibaraki Prefecture and co-founder of Asian Pacific Islander AJET. Over the past year, we have been able to extend our reach to more and more areas across Japan, and we are constantly looking for more ways to reach out to all of the current JETs, as well as potential JETs and JET alumni around the world. We began as a small group of people hoping to make sense of the A.P.I. experience in Japan, which seemed vastly different from the generalized foreigner experience often touted in guidebooks and testimonials. From that, we have grown into one of the largest AJET Special Interest Groups in the country.

We are excited for the year ahead, and we hope you join us in sharing our experiences together.

Let’s make this year into another great year.

2

@api

issue #005

A Year of Pretending to be Japanese Reflections on Identity, Self-Confidence, and the Harms of Passing written by Aimee Wenyue Chen (山梨県)

S

omething I’ll never forget and look back on with quite a bit of laughter: on my very first day in my designated prefecture, when my supervisor took me to the bank to open an account, the lady at the counter thought my supervisor and I were married. She took one look at us— one male and one female, both “Japanese” and appearing close in age—and asked us if we were opening a joint account.

Of course, I don’t doubt that my looking Japanese played a part in that assumption. Being of Asian—especially East Asian—descent in Japan is an interesting experience. As I speak Japanese and have been told that I have an accent close to a native’s, my foreignness was not something that was usually revealed by my skin color or by the way I spoke. My foreignness was something that I could mostly control—I could decide to let others know, or I could be invisible. I decided to be invisible, and to “pass1” as Japanese.

That decision was made early in the

first year in my designated prefecture of Yamanashi. It was easier, I thought. I’m a chameleon. It’s less hassle. And I didn’t want to always, always have to explain. So then I began copying mannerisms and ways of speaking. I scrutinized the reactions of people I talked to, to see if I “gave away”

1 “Passing” is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of social groups other than his or her own, such as a different race, ethnicity, caste, social class, gender, intelligence, age and/or disability status, generally with the purpose of gaining social acceptance or to cope with difference anxiety. (Wikipedia)

3

@api

issue #005

my disguise. I worried if a person paused at something I said, because it meant that I spoke with unnatural wording, or had an unnatural intonation, ultimately revealing that I was a foreigner.

That year, I hated being treated differently. That year, I hated needing to explain who, and what, I was. That year, I was uncomfortable in my skin, and years of comfort in my identity as a Chinese-American were stripped away at the uncomfortable realization that identity is so often defined by the identities of those around oneself, and that without selfconfidence, identity is hardly comforting or stable at all, but rather, something buffeted from all sides, thrown this way and that at the judgment of others. It was a year of anxiety.

Somehow within the next two years, I stopped caring. That first year of anxiety was so stressful that I completely rebelled against it. I became more comfortable in my skin, and didn’t care if I used the wrong word for “milk” for a particular situation (was it miruku or gyunyu?). I realized that it wasn’t so much that I couldn’t be myself because others wouldn’t let me be, but because I wouldn’t let myself be, that was making me so anxious and unhappy.

I began using humor as a way to deal with awkward situations, and jumped at the chance to explain why it was possible for me to be both Chinese and American when it seemed like the listener cared to know. The more confident I was in my

skin, the less people questioned me, and simply let me be.

It was at that point, ironically, that I seemed even more “Japanese” to other Japanese people. I remember my surprise when, as I told a friend’s Japanese neighbor that I was a foreigner, that he began to argue with me and insisted that I had to be Japanese. Because he refused to believe me, I countered that I was an alien, sent from up above.

To this day, I’m still not sure if he knows what country I’m from.

However, the point of this article isn’t that one needs self-confidence to pass off as Japanese. The point is that, for many of us who came from countries where our skin color or our names revealed our ethnicity as an Asian minority, we probably have to re-evaluate how we understand our identity and how we express that to others when we come to Japan—when many of us become “invisible” foreigners.

I don’t regret my anxious year of pretending to be Japanese: it forced me to question and reevaluate myself to discover what I really thought of myself, and what others thought of me. And it’s important, I think, to be cognizant of what people think of you, and why. It’s more important, however, to be able to put that aside, and to live your life.

Sometimes it’s a struggle. Sometimes I’m not sure I can always find humor in the uncomfortable situations. But it’s always a meaningful journey—and that’s what counts.◆

I decided to be invisible...

Aimee Wenyue Chen was the 2013-2014 API AJET National Co-Representative alongside Albert David Valderrama. She has moved 12 times, lived in 3 countries, and speaks 4 languages. After three years, she will be finishing up her time as a CIR in Yamanashi, and starting graduate school in New York.

4

@api

issue #005

Home:Word

was produced in 2010, and was rereleased in 2011 as a Deluxe Edition, as well as a Japan Edition. It features a collaboration of songs written and performed by Taiyo Na, a spoken word artist and Asian American community leader in New York, and Magnetic North, a rap duo that formed to write songs for an Asian American rally at UC Berkeley in 2003. These artists are storytellers, and each song is a lullaby for anyone feeling far from home.

As an Asian-American listener, I found many songs genuine, comforting, optimistic, and empowering. It’s easy-listening, and one of my favorite feel-good albums to put on when I’m struggling or feeling defeated. All right, I’ll say it: it can be sappy. I think a commonality amongst APIs is that we care… a lot. But we conserve it for the right moment, and that makes us seem cold. So we pour our hearts out in sappy songs. In short, if you love, you will love this album.

Many songs on the album can get emotionally deep, especially if you can relate, so I’ll start with the fun stuff: “Summertime” is a light-hearted fun tune, and reminds you to go to the nearest beach for a BBQ and soak in the sun! For me, living in Fukushima, that is a few hours east to Iwaki City, or two hours west to Niigata.

“I Got My” features Jin, the first API solo rapper signed to a major record label in America.

This is a power song, inspiring you to get out into the world and do something amazing with what you got with the crew who’s got your back. Got it? It makes me want to get out and climb Mt. Bandai!

Of course, what’s an API album without yearnful love songs?

There’s something hot about unspoken passion, whether it’s happening to us, or the character in the Korean drama you’re currently watching. It takes a while for a pair

review written by Cat Dinh (福島県)

to get lovey-dovey, but we looooove watching the process.

“Lalala” is a silly love song, withTaiyo celebrating strong women, Theresa Vu fumbling over her lyrics because she gets awestruck, revealing those embarrassing, but adorable moments of vulnerability (swoon), and Derek Kan being cute, skipping and lalala-ing with the featured singer Ruth Cho. I like a guy who can skip and tra-la-la.

“New Love” is a 3 minute R&B drama that brings together two broken-hearted souls that swells into a climax that either ends happily, or…

So love, much drama-rama.

Good luck with your romances and relationships, dear APIs! *** But here we are, at some of the heavy stuff: “Fukushima” is a haunting ballad for victims of major disasters, and expresses support

and compassion for those who still need help. This song basically sold me the album, especially soon after 3/11. Another insightful thing about it is that it expresses anger against the injustices of terrible government handling during emergency disasters and racial jokes that have been told while victims are still in recovery.

“I’m Here” is a song that inspires compassion, when one tries to understand parents, friends, lovers in the aftermath of conflict, which is usually silent, or hidden under the guise of something else.

I am glad when the teachers at my school still talk to me because I haven’t yet figured out how to understand Japanese people when they’re silent with me.

Lastly, “Home:Word,” the title single, makes you want to call mom and dad, your sibs, or chosen family. Add to that being surrounded by ads about nostalgia and furusato everywhere in this country, it’s no wonder that the single was #2 on iTunes in Japan. ◆

5

@api

@api

issue #005

e x c l u s i v e

w i t h

Sandy Cheng

C h a i r o f t h e A J ET N a t i o n a l C o u n c i l interview by Albert David R. Valderrama (茨城県)

figure out what I could do in Japan, my friend mentioned the JET Programme. So I looked at that. The deadline was in about a week and a half. I wrote up an application, I applied, I got through, and I came.

Why Japan? ’ve always had an interest in Japan ever since I was really small. The main reason is because my family background is Taiwanese, which means that from my grandmother and grandfather’s generation, most of my family can speak some Japanese because the Japanese were in Taiwan for a period of time.

My own dad, his brother, and his sisters, all of their work was also related to Japan, so they all studied in Japan for a month or three before returning back to their home country.

When I grew up, all our family vacations were always Japan. In high school, I studied Japanese for five years. Then, obviously after high school when I studied pharmacy, I couldn’t do any Japanese, so there was a big blank there. After that, I decided I really wanted to try Japan.

I

A Brief Introduction y name is Sandy Cheng. I was born in Taiwan, but when I was three years old, we moved to Australia, so I grew up in Australia. In university I actually studied pharmacy, so after I graduated I actually worked at a hospital as a pharmacist for a while. And then, I decided I wanted a change, and I decided I wanted to come to Japan. I figured my pharmacy license would not work in Japan, so when I was trying to

M 6

How did you start your involvement with National AJET? had been doing two years of junior high school at that point as an ALT, and I felt like I wanted to add some more things into my timetable. I wanted to do some different things. The AJET Rep at the time, he posted about the opening, so I thought, “Why not? I’ll try something different.”

I

@api

issue #005

At the time, I didn’t have that many goals that I can specifically say. I just wanted to try to challenge myself and see what else I could do.

And I went for it, got it, did it. So, it’s been one year of doing AJET Block Rep, and it’s been so much more than I could have expected it to be. It’s been really challenging as well–lots of sleepless nights, lots of work, but very, very rewarding. I don’t regret the decision at all.

It’s been a really great experience. I’ve met a lot of great people. I definitely developed a lot professionally, I believe. We’ve had a really great council this past year.

I

“I want to keep moving S AJET forward...”

What made you think about running for AJET Chair? his year I like to think we’ve made a lot of progress. We have made a lot of progress. The changes with CLAIR recently have put a lot of people off AJET. Our perspective on it is obviously very different from what the general JET view is. I want to keep moving AJET forward even if we don’t have the same relationship with CLAIR as before. From the current National Council perspective, there are so many things that we can still do as well. If National Council members didn’t do something, I had the feeling that it might just stop right there.

I talked to some other council members.

The new Vice Chair (Xan Wetherall) and the new Treasurer (Aaron Gilling) were actually also last year’s council members. We said we would do this together, and we would keep AJET going even grander than before.

T

What are you looking forward to the most as AJET Chair? really want to be able to lead the new council in doing more than what we managed to achieve this past year. It’s not something I can say, “We’re just going to do this and this and this.” It’s going to be direction for the new council. This is what I’m hoping.

One thing I really want to get to is the website–really make it a useful tool. Currently it’s quite difficult to navigate. Hopefully we can change it to something that’s more useful for people, in terms of resources, opportunities, and things like that.

What advice would you give to JETs that want to get involved in AJET? peak up! They can always start getting involved right now.

There’s a volunteer form where we gather everyone’s information–what kind of abilities they have, what kind of projects they’d be interested in–and we contact people on a need basis.

But even if we don’t contact them through those, people are still very much encouraged to participate in the local AJET chapter events. Each block is always in contact with a prefectural chapter representative, and we’re always trying to promote more community within the JETs and to participate in more block events. So if anyone is interested in helping with that, I don’t think any Block Rep is going to say no.◆

Sandy Cheng is a fourth-year JET Programme ALT in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. She was the 20132014 AJET Block 6 Representative and Director of Sales and Marketing for the National Council.

Cheng began her term as the 2014-2015 AJET Chair in June of this year. For more information about the Association for Japan Exchange and Teaching (AJET), please visit www.ajet.net.

7

Contributions by: Aimee Wenyue Chen Mariko Cook Catherine Dinh Albert David R. Valderrama Special Thanks to: Sandy Cheng Edited by: Mariko Cook Albert David R. Valderrama HOME:WORD album artwork Š2010 by Magnetic North & Taiyo Na, Home:Word Sound. Image is used for demonstration purposes only.

@api

@API is a publication compiled in partnership with the Asian Pacific Islander Association for Japan Exchange and Teaching (API AJET). The views expressed by @API contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the API AJET Special Interest Group.

All contents retain their copyright to the respective contributor(s) and are printed by @API under special permission. @API Layout & Design Š 2014. All rights reserved.