Down with Your Own Instrument Fuller’s Asian American Initiative The other day, I had the opportunity to talk with Ken Fong and Daniel Lee, the Executive Director and Associate Director of Fuller’s new Asian American Initiative. I thought—and planned—on conducting an interview, the first of my editorial career. If every interview is the same as this one, I could really get used to this gig. I asked one question and received a forty-five minute answer. It was phenomenal, because these gents are bursting with passion and knowledge about the Asian American experience and its intersection with the Church.
Our “interview” was much more a conversation than anything else—though I sort of felt guilty of voyeurism as Ken and Daniel did most of the talking. They were constantly playing off each other’s thoughts and tangents, but always stayed close to the heart of the matter: equipping the body of Christ to address the Asian American experience well for the sake of the Kingdom. Below is part one of the conversation. The material was so good that I was reluctant to cut any of it, so we’ll bring you the second half in the next issue of the SEMI. -Reed Metcalf, Editor Reed: To start off with, can you guys give me the brief overview of what the Asian American Initiative is?
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Ken: Alright, the first step: the historical context is that Fuller, for the first time, is aiming to equip in relevant ways their Asian American students. We have always attracted Asian students, but there has never really been a dedicated way of saying, “Okay, if you feel called to an Asian American context, you need to understand and appreciate these things.” Let me put it this way: if I were an African American student coming through Fuller and never had the chance to take a course on the black church, I would turn
around and say, “You didn’t really equip me for my context.” To be fair to Fuller, though, historically Asian American students haven’t even asked these sorts of questions, so part of our challenge is to convince them that these [issues specific to Asian American culture] need to be taken seriously. Our mission is to raise up competent leaders to reach a new generation of Asian Americans in changing contexts. For instance, it used to be that the immigrant churches run by first-generation pastors were a sort of an oasis, a safe zone for Asian Americans. Now, though, we are assimilating at an unprecedented rate, so many young people don’t need that; they’re saying, “Why do I need to go to church? I don’t need that oasis. This actually feels like going backwards for me.” So the question was asked, “Will getting an MDiv or an MAT at Fuller be enough to deal with this?” We’re here to give you more than just that degree.
is funny because Asian Americans have been around for so long. I mean, Ken’s grandfather— K: My grandfather came over when Abraham Lincoln was president.
D: But when I first came to Fuller, my teachers were confused at the distinctions I was making in the various Asian American communities. They just didn’t know what to do with us. When talk about an Asian American program here first started, someone asked, “Well, what language would the program use?” Most of us can’t speak our traditional languages! I mean, I can order food at a restaurant—
Daniel: Fuller has tried to address this issue at different times as different waves of Asians—Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans—have flowed into campus, but nothing has stuck before, mainly because we did not have the faculty to support such an effort. We got a reboot with the Korean program, but people still saw—and still see—just “Koreans” instead of Chinese Americans or Japanese Americans or whatever. But we are a huge percentage of Fuller, so we have to address our various issues. We haven’t really known how to do that, which
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