The PublicAsian OCTOBER 2013 VOLUME 20 ISSUE 1
A VOICE FOR THE ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN COMMUNITY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
APA ISSUES AT LARGE by Marissa Laliberte
FUELING AWARENESS FOR INVISIBLE ISSUES F.U.E.L.: Forging, Understanding, Empowering and Leading conference sought to inform students about “invisible issues” that do not gain enough publicity, such as mental health, racism and domestic violence. This year’s FUEL: Forging, Understanding, Empowering and Leading conference sought to inform students about “invisible issues” that do not gain enough publicity, such as mental health, racism and domestic violence. About 70 students gathered in Stamp Student Union on Oct. 12 for the Asian American Student Union-sponsored leadership conference to hear a keynote speaker, attend workshops in various subjects, watch spoken word performances and discuss what they learned. Conference co-director Ashley Zhan said AASU chose the theme to address a variety of issues that often go ignored. “I hope students understand and become aware of issues and get why they’re relevant to their lives,” the senior physiology and neurobiology major said. “So many people are affected… but they are not always talked about in society, especially in the APA community.” The conference began with a keynote speech from Mee Moua, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Moua, who was the first Hmong American woman in state legislature as a Minnesota Senator from 2002-11, described the difficulties of going from a refugee camp in Laos to growing up in Midwestern America. She said her peers constantly failed to see past her race. Asian and Pacific Americans are often seen as “perpetual foreigners,” Moua said, and it can be difficult to find an identity with either culture. She encouraged listeners to be activists and speak up with issues such as immigration and discrimination. After Moua’s speech, students could attend one of three workshops addressing racism, mental health or immigration. Co-director Joanne Liu, a senior government and politics major, said the workshops gave attendees options based on their interests rather than forcing them to focus on one theme. During the immigration workshop, students learned information about immigration legislation like the DREAM Act. Attendees watched a movie, discussed personal experiences and listened to Olivia Chow, online organizer for Reform Immigration FOR America.
>>>FUEL, PAGE 7
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POPULATION IN JAPAN HITS RECORD LOW by Jin Kim
Japan, a nation that once increased its workforce by 37 million within two generations and became the world’s second largest economy, faces a crisis resulting from a reversal of its population growth. Japan suffered its largest recorded annual drop in population, according to statistics published late August by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which has kept track of Japan’s population since 1968. The ministry recorded a 0.21 percent decline in population, a decrease of 266,004 people, making the fourth consecutive yearly decline in Japan’s population. “I feel concerned for our parent’s generations,” said University of Maryland Japanese language instructor Makiko Inoue. “They really worked hard, and they supported their parents with a good workforce, but our generation can’t support them.” Inoue, who has taught at the university for eight years, worries about her parents, who live in Omuta, a Japanese city with one of the highest ratios of senior citizens. “That city is really struggling,” Inoue said. “There is no younger generation to really support the huge amounts of older citizens there. It’s a problem of the nation.” University of Maryland alum and graduate student Hiroko Nishimura had similar concerns for her grandmother, who lives alone. “They’re aging and they’re not really getting much because there’s so many of them,” Nishimura said. Japan’s senior citizens aged 65 and over topped 30 million this year while the number of people aged 14 and younger hit its lowest point at 16.6 million, while the birth rate suffered similar figures, falling for its fifth consecutive low to an all-time low of 1.1 children per woman. The population crisis has reached the point where adult diapers are outselling baby diapers in Japan. According to the National Institute on Aging, a division of the National Institutes of Health, the population of people aged 65 and over worldwide will exceed the population of children aged four and younger within the next seven years.
>>>JAPAN, PAGE 5
KOLLABORATION DC UMD CONFUCIUS BRINGS TALENTED APA INSTITUTE HOLDS ARTISTS TOGETHER “KUNLUN” SHOW >>>PAGE 6 >>>PAGE 7
INTERNATIONAL CHRIS QUACH STUDENTS ADAPT TO STARTS HIS YEAR U.S. LIFESTYLE ABROAD IN THE U.K. >>>PAGE 8 >>>PAGE 11
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