Asian Outlook | Fall 2017 Issue 2

ASIAN OUTLOOK Vol. XXXIII, Issue 2

Trump’s Asia Tour • Remembering Danny Chen • SASE Banquet Photo by Reuters/Carlos Barria

ASIAN

Volume XXXIII, Issue 2

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opinions 4 | SASE Banquet: The Human Element | Michael Messina 6 | Life of a Nursing Student: Vivian Lee | Benny Louie 10 | Advice for Student Performers | Darren Fugu Yu

arts & entertainment 12 | Highlights of Trump’s Asia Tour | Tod Dotia 16 | Remembering Private Danny Chen | Alyssa Boyle

conscience 20 | Hot Dog Bao Recipe | Michelle Pao 22 | Short Story: When the Bell Rings| Nina Ocampo

letter from the editor...

Dear Readers, The weather’s cooling down and the semester’s almost over!

Doesn’t time fly fast? Finals and term papers are upon us all once again, and we’re probably all dying right now. Stay strong!

I’m sure that everyone will triumph in their final academic struggles before winter break. The end of the year is drawing near; 2017 has been tough in many ways. Things may not seem to be improving at present, but I bet we’re all ready to turn the tides in 2018!

People usually take the time to reflect on themselves before the new year arrives, and I’ve been thinking back on my year as well.

Personally, I got caught in some hectic stuff at the beginning of the year. AO helped keep me steady as I worked to sort things out. I learned a lot from both those personal issues and from being Editor-in-Chief so far; I’m a stronger character now. I did not set out to become Editor-in-Chief, but I couldn’t ask for a better team to work with. Everyone on my E-Board has been full of energy and passion. I can tell that they want the best for AO and I’m grateful to have them all; I’d be lost without them!

Lately, we’ve been reviewing what has worked for AO and what we could improve upon or change. Our brainstorming has been pretty wild, too. I’m not at liberty to reveal what ideas have been thrown out there, but we’re excited to bring brand new features and initiatives for AO next semester!

In the meantime, we have another great issue for you to enjoy right here thanks to our amazing contributors and everyone on our E-Board. Of course, a big thank you to ASU and the subgroups CASU, BUJA, PAL, VSA, TASC, and KASA for supporting us like always. Last, but definitely far from the least, thank you to all of our readers! We appreciate you more than we can express and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Nina Ocampo Editor-in-Chief, Fall 2017

ASIAN OUTLOOK EXECUTIVE BOARD FALL 2017 editor-in-chief

Nina Ocampo Secretary Michael Messina copy editors Benny Louie Brandon Ng Alyssa Boyle layout editors Camille Guo Michelle Pao Mengshu Ye business manager Tiffany Tung publicity manager Htat H Ei

EDITORIAL POLICY Asian Outlook is the art, literary and news magazine of the Asian Student Union of SUNY’s Binghamton University. Originally conceived and created to challenge, redefine, re-imagine and revolutionize images and perceptions associated with Asians and Asian Americans, Asian Outlook also serves to protect the voice of those in the minority, whether by ethnicity, gender, and/or political orientation. All matter contained within these beautiful pages do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board. Asian Outlook reserves the right to edit submissions and publish work as deemed appropriate. Prospective contributors are encouraged to discuss their work with the editors prior to submissions.

Articles may be submitted as an e-mail attachment to ao.editor@gmail.com. All artistic and literary pieces may be submitted to aoconscience@gmail.com.

CONTACT POLICY Uninvited contact with writers and contributors is forbidden under punishment of pain. Please direct all questions, comments and complaints to ao.editor@gmail.com. interested in contributing?

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SASE BANQUET

The Human Element

By Michael Messina

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S WE DIVE HEADFIRST INTO AN EVEREVOLVING AGE OF TECHNOLOGY, the human element has become more important than ever. Binghamton’s Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) recognized this, hosting their second annual SASE Banquet on November 4th, 2017. Students went to mingle with peers, network with future employers, and develop abilities that will last a lifetime.

SASE itself is a national organization with chapters from California to Texas to right here in Binghamton and everywhere in between. The mission: cultivate Asian heritage students interested in STEM careers.

Our University’s SASE executive board is 13 strong, boasting talent such as President Derek Ting, Vice President Irene Yip, Treasurer Jennifer Komain-Eng, and Secretary Wei Cheng Lin to name a few. SASE Banquet is a professional event in which students meet with peers, professors, and representatives from several powerhouse companies in a professional setting-- as well as enjoy food and live entertainment!

As guests funneled into Old Union Hall, conversations sparked. Many a resume and professional inquiry were

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shared as companies Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and IBM were met with an endless stream of endlessly ambitious students. Attendees also conversed amongst each other, mingling with SASE members from Lehigh University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University at Buffalo, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and, of course, Binghamton University. After the initial breakout session, guests sat down to eat accompanied by an incredible Chinese Yo-Yo performance by Ted Lam, an inspiring and anecdotal Keynote speech by Professor Elmore, and a crowd-pleasing dance performance by Binghamton SASE President Derek Ting himself! Each table was also given a random object to sell to the entire room via on-stage sales pitch, producing hilarious results. (My table scrambled to find the unique benefits of a floppy Speedo swim cap). The event concluded with another round of networking, this time with a twist: small notes with fun tasks printed on them were distributed to encourage interaction with new people. After receiving the tasks of “take a selfie with a SASE President” and “compliment a professor’s outfit,” I found myself in casual and insightful conversations with students and faculty alike. The simple, silly game did its job marvelously as the entire room seemed to move in an exhilarating whirlwind of handshakes, laughs, and first introductions. Although initially nervous about networking, the welcoming environment allowed me to leave my comfort zone with far more grace than I ever have before.

There is nothing more human than sharing a meal with a close friend or new acquaintance. Sadly, in a world where food is fast and machines are placed behind the McDonalds counter, that simple yet powerful social experience is often overlooked. SASE Banquet reinstated that timeless tradition, fusing it with the tools necessary to succeed in the modern professional world and empowering students with the ability and opportunity to make connections.

Thank you SASE for arming the next generation of incredible people with the people-skills needed to be incredible!

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Life of a Nursing Student: VIVIAN LEE Transcribed by Bennie Louie

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HY DID YOU CHOOSE TO COME TO BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY? I got into the Nursing program in Binghamton and I always knew that I wanted to do Nursing. I also thought it would be a great experience to live away from home for college. I got into every school I applied to including the CUNYs and privates like NYU but I eventually settled for Binghamton because of its Nursing program and the cost.

You’re a Senior now. How would you describe your college experience?

Busy. You know how everyone usually says that Junior year is the busiest? Well, I think my Senior year is actually the busiest because I’m overloading with 24 credits, two research classes, and clinicals in addition to my classes as a Nursing major. I’m also on two executive-boards. It’s fun though; I like keeping myself busy, but I kind of wish I had Senior year to relax.

How do you think being a first generation ChineseAmerican affected your experience here?

I’m only the second child in my family to go to college in the U.S. after my older sister. I feel like being one of the first people in your family to go to college is difficult because I have no one, other than my sister, to help me out with the college process. It’s hard because a lot of Nursing majors have people that are nurses in their family or are doctors whereas me? I will be the first nurse in my family. It’s difficult because a lot of

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people find jobs through connections and family, but I don’t have that. It definitely makes me afraid that I’m not going to find a job after graduation, so there’s definitely some uncertainty about my future being a first generation student. It makes me try even harder. I am setting the example for the rest of my family for years to come.

That within itself is a lot of pressure, but I’m proud in all of my accomplishments that I have made through my hard work.

What got you interested in the Nursing major?

I really like the older population because of my grandpa. He inspired me into considering Geriatric nursing. I really enjoyed taking care of him as a kid. I would help him out with things… and whenever a member of my family was sick, I would help take care of them… Nurse them back to health in a sense. I think to be a Nursing major, it has to be innate. You really have to love it to do it. I like Nursing because there’s so many other things you can do as well. Besides being a registered nurse by the bedside, there is N.P. , a Nurse Practitioner. It is a higher level of nursing;

you can prescribe drugs and make your own critical decisions that a regular R.N. does not have in their realm of practice. That’s actually what I’m leaning towards. You can also continue through research. I might go for my Ph.D. , but I’m still contemplating because I want to consider my family and the workload. I like how there’s a lot of different fields and specialties: Geriatrics, O.B. Nurses, Pediatrics, Emergency Nurses…

If you decide to go to Graduate School, will you take it at Binghamton?

Binghamton does have a master’s program for Nursing, but I’m probably going to work for a few years first as an R.N. and then go back to school, hopefully in the city for my master’s. But coming back to Binghamton is definitely an option. A lot of my professors tell me the N.P. program at Binghamton is good.

Would you consider all the work you’ve done through the years as a Nursing major hard?

I think calling it hard is an understatement. To give you a little

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background about what the Nursing major is about: There’s clinical hours, which is twice a week roughly from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. There’s also lectures after clinical hours for another 2-3 hours. It’s pretty spaced out so it’s not too bad but I’m also in two research classes which also takes up a lot of time. I also don’t have a car so it’s stressful finding rides to clinicals. I have definitely learned how to manage my time wisely throughout the years in college and even though there are many hours of work outside of just lectures, I will probably miss my undergraduate years.

If you had the choice, would you have chosen another major besides Nursing?

I think Nursing is definitely the only choice for me. I’m really happy that I knew I wanted to do Nursing coming in.

I know a lot of people come into college undecided, but I was fortunate enough to get into the Nursing program and stick with it. A lot of the professors here really care about you. I don’t know about how it is in other schools but in Decker, most of the professors support you and are available when you need help. The class sizes are also reasonable and you see familiar faces in the nursing program since we are not as big as some other schools, like Harper.

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What club activities have you participated in?

I like this question. As a freshman, I was involved with SSS which is the Student Support Services for first generation students. I was in TASC (TaiwaneseAmerican Student Coalition) for two years, during my sophomore and junior years, first as an Events Coordinator intern and then eventually as the actual chair. Senior year I decided against re-joining TASC due to my workload. I was also in MEM, the Mary E. Mahoney Nursing Support Group for three years. I joined as an intern my Sophomore year and became e-board my Sophomore Spring semester as Events Coordinator. Now I’m Vice-President of the club. I love it because it’s a growing Nursing support group. We started out as a relatively small group but have grown to become a successful organization. We collaborate a lot with the Nursing Student Association (NSA) and the Nursing Learning Community (NLC). I decided to join MEM because it is a minority Nursing group and I think that really connects to me… trying to help other minorities get into Nursing or just support anyone interested in Nursing.

(Left) Taiwanese American Student Association (TASC) Eboard (Below) Delta Epsilon Mu (DEM)

Why did you decide to join DEM? I’m in Delta Epsilon Mu (DEM), the professional pre-health fraternity. I’m the historian for it, taking pictures and staying connected with the frat’s alumni. I joined because it is a pre-health fraternity and I saw it as a way to spread the word of Nursing. Prior to me joining, DEM didn’t have many Nursing majors. I found it as a way to bring Nursing into the fraternity.

Now there are more Nursing majors in DEM. I’m pretty happy about that because we are one big family and we help each other out. I also found it really beneficial to know people from other pre-Health majors. I was able to meet some cool alumni and friends through DEM that I otherwise would have never met through the small world of Decker.

Is there anything you wish you could have done or didn’t do throughout your college experience?

If I were a freshman again, I’d probably want to start some nursing classes that were available such as nursing research. I started research Junior year and I feel like I could have learned a lot more if I had started earlier and done it through my four years of college. I’m kind of learning everything new on my own right now. I wished I knew

about other learning opportunities on campus or at the hospitals in Binghamton.

Other than that, I’d tell myself to have fun at college. I got a 4.0 GPA freshman year, but didn’t really join any clubs. Grades are important, but I would want to try and have more fun in college rather than study all the time. I think having that first-generation mindset to excel in school work and support my family encouraged me to do well in school. However, there should be a balance between work and play. I genuinely do care about my GPA as it’s really competitive in the city to find a nursing job. Also, as a freshman I didn’t really know about fraternities because they scared me. I joined DEM as a Junior so I felt I joined pretty late but I’m glad I did anyways.

What advice would you give to other freshmen about college?

I would tell them to care about their GPA because it is much easier to lower your GPA than to bring it back up. If you’re planning to get into research, get into it early. Concerning greek life, I’d tell them to look into it if they’re interested, especially the professional fraternities. Lastly, I would recommend freshmen to seek out opportunities and be active on campus!

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Advice For STUDENT PERFORMERS

By Darren Fugu Yu

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EAR READERS, This piece is dedicated to my performer friends, who I encourage to also share what they know, as well as to new performers who want to make an impact.

I hope you’re doing well. In the advent of realizing I’m a goto guy for performances, I decided to share what I know to help other performers down the line. I’ve been on stage countless times, but to be honest, I still get nervous before every performance and there’s still a lot for me to learn. Nonetheless, I hope you’ll be able to take away something of value from this.

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“To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”

- Ludwig van Beethoven Practice I have a theory. The media you consume helps to determine what you’re good at. If you read a lot of Wikipedia articles, you’re probably better at summarizing ideas and determining key points for a variety of subjects.

If you like Buzzfeed and Cracked, you might prefer organizing your thoughts in lists. Vlogs and celebrity interviews might help you learn more from conversations, and so on.

There’s no reason why performing would be the exception. One of the best ways to become a better performer is to be an audience member. You’ll learn what moves audiences during performances, and it’ll help you think about what you could do for the audience. If you’re watching performances, chances are you’ll be inspired to do one yourself anyway.

Try to watch many shows, so you can assess a variety of shows and audiences. If possible, record yourself too, so you can learn performing from your past self.

Before The Performance Despite what people have seen of my personality onstage, I get nervous before every performance . The nervousness usually comes in the form of unpleasant physical symptoms, including lightheadedness, stomach pain and a racing heart.

Before my first performance for over 200 people, I was pretty much freaking out. I legitimately felt like hurling and it wasn’t a feeling that would go away. There was a magician performing for the same show, and I talked to him about how I was feeling.

He told me he also gets nervous before performances, and gave me this advice: “5 minutes before your performance, tell yourself you’re excited.”

You can’t suppress emotion, but you can reframe it.

It may or may not make the unpleasant side effects of nervousness go away, but being nervous shows that you care. If you care, you can be just as excited and courageous when you’re onstage.

“Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’

‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.” - George R.R. Martin On a side-note, prior to the performance is a good time to assess how the audience responds to different performers, so you can adapt accordingly. Also, talking

to other performers usually helps to lessen the effects of nerves before a performance.

During The Performance This is super important if you want to distinguish yourself as a performer.

If you watch “Got Talent” or “The Voice”, you pretty much already know this. Your personality is part of your performance. It’s not just what you’re performing. It’s how you greet the audience, what you say before you start, how you thank the audience, how you interact with others offstage, and everything else.

This is the most common mistake I see performers make.

They don’t make eye contact with audience members. They don’t use the stage to their advantage. They don’t hold onto their sense of humor which is one of the main gateways to creativity. These are all things that I try to think about in addition to what I’m actually performing.

Art is arguably the most advanced form of communication and sharing. Personality goes hand in hand with art, especially for performing arts since they’re the most public. That’s why people become so invested in the personal lives of celebrity artists. To be expressive of only one and not the other is extremely limiting for a performance.

As weird as it sounds, I believe that you can practice your personality, at least onstage. The more you perform, the more character you develop as a performer. I have onstage habits of praising other performers, asking the audience how they’re doing, shouting people out, and saying something cocky before I begin my performance (usually “I’m gonna show you what a human being can do.”). These are habits I’ve picked up over time, because they engage the audience and are a lot of fun. As you perform more and more, you’re bound to pick up your own.

After The Performance Thank people onstage and offstage. Also, if anyone recorded your performance, definitely view it. It’s very different from the audience perspective. This will help you be your own critic, which is paramount as an artist.

This goes without saying, but my last piece of advice is just to practice a ton. More performances and variety naturally means more experience and recognition.

That’s all I have. Thanks so much, Readers.

P.S. Extra thanks to every organization that gave me an opportunity to perform. - Ghost -

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Highlights of Trump’s Asia tour

By Tod Dotia

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(Associated Press Photo) US President Trump and First Lady arrival at Beijing Airport

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RESIDENT TRUMP RECENTLY WRAPPED UP HIS FIRST 12-DAY MARATHON TOUR OF ASIA – the longest overseas tour to the region by an American president in 25 years since George Bush in 1991 – seeking to address three concrete foreign policy issues regarding (1) trade, (2) North Korea nukes and (3) IndoPacific regional security . His tour across six cities in five nations, started from Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and ended in Philippines. Just as how he has always love to represent everything about himself in superlatives: biggest, best, highest, strongest, President Trump declared his first Asian tour as “tremendously successful.” And just as everything else he had tweeted or announced, every statement coming from him need to be fact-checked.

Beside the fact that it is completely baffling what he actually achieved -- like most things that our president undertakes – Mr. Trump treated his diplomatic tour as a grand pageant of his own personal charisma and physical stamina. “A lot of people said it’s almost physically impossible for someone to go through 12 days,” he added “Anybody that took the bet, pick up your money, OK?” The trip revealed and reinforced what we have known about Trump, soaking up pomp and pageantry, adept in the art of flattery while cozying up to autocrats by ignoring troubling issues of human rights and skimming over touchy subjects such as commitments on North Korea, China trade practices or South China Sea dispute.

“America first, bilateral first” After withdrawing US out of the 12-country TransPacific Partnership (TPP), the cornerstone of Obama’s Asia policy, during his first week in office and continually reject multilateral trades in the name of “America First’ to ensure fair and reciprocal bilateral relations that reduce US trade deficits. The remaining 11 countries of the Pacific Rim agreed in APEC summit in Danang, Vietnam to move ahead with the pact without the US. This might create huge burdens for US business community reaching out to multiple Asia-Pacific economies, “Regional trade deals such as the TPP are the most effective way to facilitate exports to multiple markets by establishing uniform rules of the game, and therefore to increase jobs back home,” according to Steven Okun, chair of the American Chamber of Commerce Singapore’s TPP task force.

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While vowing “we are not going to allow the United States to be taken advantage of anymore” at APEC summit, Mr. Trump offered no firm commitments or specific remedies other than a vague willingness to “make bilateral trade agreements with any Indo-Pacific nation.” At each stop, Trump emphasized the US trade deficit with the host country; specifically US trade deficit with China in 2016 was $309.6 billion.

To prove the success of his bilateralism approach, he trumpeted his trip had resulted in deals worth “at least $300 billion, possibly triple that figure,” without elaborating on the details.

After all his tough presidential campaign talk on trade and accusation of China “raping” the US economy and labeling China as the currency manipulator, Trump shied away from confrontations of China trade practices but even took a step further, flattering and cajoling China for their act.

“I don’t blame China. Who can blame a country that is able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit,” he elaborated “If their representatives are able to get away with it, they are just doing their jobs. I wish previous administrations in my country saw what was happening and did something about it. They did not, but I will.”

Bilateral flattery Lacking specific diplomatic strategies and political substance, but Trump’s trip got terrific friendly photo opportunities.

Trump began his tour on Nov 5 in Tokyo with a round of golf, hamburger accompanied by Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who gifted him baseball caps with embroidered gold letters “Donald & Shinzo, Make Alliance Even Greater.”

During a toast at a state dinner “When you play golf with someone not just once but for two times, the person must be your favorite guy.” Abe has gone out of his way to coax Trump since his election. Previously, Abe also made his way to Trump Tower

“I don’t blame China.

Who can blame a country that is able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit.”

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with a gift offer of $4000 golden golf club weeks after his election.

South Korea’s welcome ceremony at Seoul’s Blue House featured soldiers dressed in colorful costumes and a gaggle of children jumping and shouting in glee upon Trump’s arrival. President Moon Jae-In celebrated Trump’s oneyear anniversary to Trump presidential victory, “I believe it has not been one year yet, your time in office, but you are already making great progress on making America great again, as you have promised on the campaign trail,” noting the rise in US stock market.

But the most lavished reception came from China, knowing how responsive US president is to flattery, Red carpet treatment for Trump was especially grandiose compare to previous presidents, even by Chinese standards. Trump and the First Lady was greeted with children waving American flags jumping up and down chanting, an ornate state dinner in a room decorated in gold from floor to ceiling and lit with chandeliers. Trump and his wife were given a private tour of the Forbidden City, Beijing’s historic imperial palace.

“They say in the history of people coming to China there has been nothing like that. And I believe it,” Mr. Trump described President Xi as “a very special man,” lauding their “great chemistry.”

“It was red carpet like nobody I think has probably ever received and that really is a sign of respect perhaps for me a little but really for our country,” Trump spoke of his experience in Manila, Philippines.

Dodging complexities Trying to maintain “a great relationship” with Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump abandoned human rights abuses, an issue that many of his predecessors have emphasized while overseas. Last year, Duerte described Obama as a “son of a whore” over press questions that Obama might challenge him on human rights. Duerte has been responsible for a bloody war on drug, featuring extrajudicial killings of 3000 drug addicts or dealers without due process.

South China Sea territorial dispute and China”s President XI’s dispute were also

left unchecked. Issues of civil liberties and press freedoms in China and Vietnam were also unheard of.

After bringing up Russia’s alleged meddling in US’s 2016 presidential election at APEC summit in Danang, Trump declared, ““[H]e said he didn’t meddle,” and “you can only ask so many times. I just asked him again. He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did. Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it.”

Trump made clear of his disdain on three former leaders of American intelligence agencies, specifically John Brennan (former CIA director), James Clapper Jr. (former national intelligence director) and James Comey (FBI director Trump fired this year). “I mean, give me a break — they’re political hacks. You have Brennan, you have Clapper, and you have Comey. Comey’s proven now to be a liar, and he’s proven to be a leaker, so you look at that. And you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with that.”

In brief, Trump’s Asia tour was more of a lavished excursion and much less of a diplomatic exchange or any inkling projection of power. Asian leaders played to Trump pomp interests, and our president warmly embraced them - extravagant red carpets, fancy meals, elaborate ceremonies, military parades, cannons, and the flattery of foreign leaders – rather than project US leadership and power in Indo-Pacific region where China is surging in power and economics.

https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-asiatour-wrap/4113075.html http://time.com/5006936/donald-trumpchina-vietnam-philippines-korea-japanapec-asean/ https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Trumps-Asian-visit/Xi-Jinping-bests-Trump-inAsia-Pacific-diplomacy?page=1 https://www.japantimes.co.jp/ opinion/2017/11/16/editorials/mixedreviews-trumps-asia-tour/#.WhIqXUqnHid

(Reuters) Trump and Duterte bonded at Asia summit

(Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) Trump and Asian leaders joined hands during the 31st SEAN Summit in Manila on November 13, 2017

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Rembering Private Danny Chen

By Alyssa Boyle

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HIS OCTOBER MARKS SIX YEARS SINCE THE DEATH OF PRIVATE DANNY CHEN. Danny Chen was an Asian American soldier serving in the United States army who ended his own life as a result of incessant racial violence and bullying by his military superiors.

Chen’s parents came from China and raised him in Chinatown, Manhattan. Upon moving to a housing project in the Lower East Side in Chinatown, Chen also faced both physical and verbal assault while he was in high school.

Chen was the only Chinese-American in his unit upon joining the U.S. military. As a result, he was constantly harassed and hazed. Chen was forced to do significantly more exercise than the others in his unit.

This included doing push-ups or hanging upside down with water in his mouth, as well as doing very excessive sprinting. Chen was also constantly taunted about his ethnicity; soldiers often used ethnic slurs and threw rocks at him. As he stated in February 2011, “They ask if I’m from China like a few times a day. They also call out my name, Chen, in a goat-like voice sometimes for no reason.”

For the most part, this hazing was initiated

by Chen’s higher-ups, and so he was unable to report the problem. Liz OuYang of the civil rights group OCA-New York stated, “It was incumbent upon the officer, the highest leader in this platoon, to take action… Had he reported it to higher-ups, there is a great possibility that Danny may still be alive today.”

Much of the racial discrimination and harassment occurred while Chen was stationed in Afghanistan in the fall of 2011.

A group of Chen’s superiors tormented and tortured Chen on a near daily basis over the course of about six weeks. He was ordered to crawl across the ground while his superiors threw rocks at him and called him a string of racial slurs. These slurs included “gook,” “chink,” and “dragon lady.” He was also ordered to sprint with sandbags, and forced to simulate a sitting position while other soldiers would kick out his legs. Chen’s superiors all subjected him to extreme physical and emotional torture as the only Chinese-American soldier, and no one stepped up to put an end to the violence.

On Sept. 27, 2011, Chen was dragged from his bed across about 50 meters of gravel and accused of breaking the hot water pump. He

Danny Chen, Danny’s mom Su Zhen Chen, Danny’s dad Yan Tao Chen, New York, NY, April 2011. Courtesy Of Banny Chen

was forced to crawl along the gravel-covered ground while the other soldiers threw rocks at him. On Oct. 3, a shot was heard in a Kandahar guard tower, and Chen was found dead of what was described as “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

Initially, eight soldiers were charged with multiple counts of negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter. However, the investigating officer recommended the top count of involuntary manslaughter be dropped for five of the offending soldiers.

Naturally, this move led to lighter sentences, eliciting immense anger from the AsianAmerican community.

The soldiers that tormented Danny Chen until his death have been let off lightly. Asian Americans have been serving alongside American forces since the Battle of New Orleans in 1812, and yet discrimination and racism still continue to take lives and tear apart families of the Asian American community. This instance of racial violence may remind many of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American beaten to death in Detroit with a baseball bat right before his wedding. This is not just one instance of racism and prejudice. Racial violence and

Danny Chen, Amy Chen, Banny Chen, Ada Chen, Chinatown Manhattan, New York, circa 1998. Courtesy Of Banny Chen.

aggression is still a very serious issue in the Asian American community, and the lack of discipline against the oppressors only allows the problem to continue. After all, failing to stand up for the oppressed is the same as supporting the oppressor.

America is a country that was built upon the values of equality and freedom, and so it is socially favorable to ignore instances of inequality and racism. Americans with privilege fail to recognize that not all Americans are treated with the same dignity, and many would prefer to convince themselves that these problems don’t really exist. In order to expose racial violence and inequality, there are annual riots organized to remember Danny Chen and how he was abused up until his death while serving our country solely because of his ethnicity.

Military leaders need to be held responsible for the mistreatment of American soldiers, and hate crimes need to be taken much more seriously. By advocating for change and spreading awareness of the racism and violence that continues to go unpunished and unnoticed, America will hopefully one day be forced to live up to its promise of freedom for all Americans.

Sources http://www.democracynow. org/2012/1/9/death_of_private_danny_chen_military http://nymag.com/news/features/danny-chen-2012-1/ http://www.nbcnews.com/ news/asian-america/fiveyears-later-pvt-danny-chens-family-fights-keep-n655991

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Conscience 18 ASIAN OUTLOOK

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Hot Dog Bao at Binghamton: A Recipe

By Michelle Pao

20 ASIAN OUTLOOK

Not your stereotypical recipe nor your stereotypical bun.

Ingredients: 1 cup of milk, from the endless supply that the dining hall seems to have.

1 ½ tablespoons of salt, defined on urban dictionary as a distaste about a situation and is priceless 3 ½ cups of bread flour, which looks suspiciously like something else 1/3 cup of sugar, to balance out the salt and give energy to those suffering in CHEM 111 12 hot dogs, for what Hot Dog Bao has no sausages 1 large white egg, so that bao is fluffy as clouds +miscellaneous baking materials that you will probably find laying in the community kitchen First step. Take a step back and realize you are not the only one in this school craving the buns from chinese bakeries or their sweet egg tarts. The price of these “desserts” on campus are outrageous. But, reality hits that Chinatown is four hours away and you can still make authentic chinese food with the help of Google.

Second step. Go to the kitchen table and start adding the milk, egg, sugar, bread flour, and salt to a mixer bowl.

Use some random “communal” spatula from the cabinets to stir this sweet mixture until it is dough. Look at you.

You’re making dough in college! Now you can stop penny pinching and finally buy that smoothie from Red Mango you have been longing for.

Third step. After 15 minutes, you should let the the yeast from your mixture ferment and develops the dough, causing it to rise. Cover it with half of a wet bounty paper towel (because you’re cheap, or thinking economically

sound) and wait for it to rise 1.5x, as you would like your GPA to do the same.

Fourth step. While you’re waiting for the rising (Why does this sound ominous? I promise I know how to bake ;), cook the hot dogs over the skillet. You wish you were those hot dogs right now. Binghamton weather isn’t treating you well.

Fifth step.

Once the dough has risen, stir for 5 more minutes like you did at your lab last week. This technique always gets rid of air bubbles. After, cut the dough into 12 equal pieces.

Sixth step. Preheat the oven to 350°F. WARNING: Do not go in it even though it is freezing outside and the only other safe haven is Bartle Library.

Seventh step. Roll the dough into a 10-12 inch rope and keep the middle thicker than the top and bottom. I guess you can say this is your body after gaining weight- a mysterious pudge increases.

Eighth step. Roll the rope around the dog and place all 12 on the baking sheet. Keep them a few inches apart, just like how you need space from studying all the time. Let the buns rise for another hour. Waiting hurts and is like waiting for a seat to be open in that gen ed class you want.

Ninth step. Bake those buns (for 14 minutes)! No more college brownie mug cooking hacks. You suffered through the wait and strain and now you’re treating yourself.

Devour the dog, and realize all the ingredients from Wegman’s may have been cheaper at Walmart instead.

Sources: http://thewoksoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/chinese-hot-dog-buns-7.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/736x/cd/c9/e9/cdc9e94d3edc0c7dc631e22d44cffd4c--cooking-photography-flour-photography.jpg

Vol. XXXIII, Issue 2

21

WHEN THE BELL RINGS

By Nina Ocampo

Photo by David Clifford on Unsplash

22 ASIAN OUTLOOK

Y

ou’re walking home from a long day out. It’s late at night, way past midnight, and your night vision is even worse than usual since you’re walking on a path in a dense forest whose canopy blocks out the moonlight. From whatever glimpses of the sky you can get, the moon shines half full and the stars twinkle brightly. The cool autumn air tickles your skin.

The changing colors of the leaves would look amazing in the daytime, and the beaten path is one you’ve traversed on more times than you could count. You’re completely by yourself, and you feel at peace with the nature around you. However, the more you walk, the more the air seems to chill around you. You try stopping for a bit, but that only makes the air seem colder. So you press on.

Suddenly you hear a faint ringing in your ears. Where is that coming from?

You’re deep in the woods, nowhere near anything that could be making a sound like that. You fish your phone out of your pocket and check for any hidden alarms or suddenly videos playing . Your search turns up nothing. The ringing doesn’t go away. Maybe you’re just hallucinating because you’re tired. You whack the side of your head to bring yourself back to your senses, but to no avail. It only gets louder.

Oddly, it seems to be coming from inside your head. The sound reminds you of one of those huge bells that chime on top of towers.

The ringing in your head becomes deafening. You find it difficult to concentrate on your thoughts with the noise. You hear something crack behind you. You turn around. Your eyes lock on a deer whose hoof has pressed on a thin tree branch. The deer stares back at you and

flees. Nothing unusual is visibly there, but you feel an ominous presence around you.

Gravity’s pull on you strengthens. You feel yourself weighed down by a powerful aura of negativity.

The sense of pain and hatred emanating from the air now overwhelms you. The forest life falls silent. You continue to walk, your pace speeding up with every second that passes, hoping that the feeling will just dissipate. It doesn’t. Eventually you find yourself running as fast as you can.

At some point, you start hearing leaves crunching with your every step; you’ve wandered away from the main trail, but the presence remains.

No matter what you do, the presence only grows stronger. You know you can’t just keep running fruitlessly forever. So you stop in a clearing to catch your breath.

A creaky sort of grinding noise joins the ringing. The nonsensical chorus is all you can hear now. You realize that stopping was a mistake, but you’re exhausted now.

You feel something looming over you. You have to run again, and now. However, you trip on a protruding tree root and fall to the floor face-first with a loud thud. You attempt to scramble to your feet, but the pain proves too much for you to bear. The most you can do is turn yourself around.

A gigantic skeleton flashes into view from seemingly nowhere, yet your gut tells you that this was the presence that followed you all along. It towers over you with bloodshot eyes in its sockets looking hungrily down at you. Its hand picks you up and holds you in the air. The grip is too tight; your body refuses to move. It opens its jaw around your head. You’re gazing into nothing but bones now. You realize that this is the end. . .

Vol. XXXIII, Issue 2

23

Asian Outlook

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