Yung to share experiences of Chinese-American female life

A Women’s History Month lecture will be presented by the Women’s Studies Department of Georgia College & State University will be led by Judy Yung Tuesday, March 8 at 4:30 p.m. in room 2-70 in Arts & Sciences.

Yung, professor of American Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, will speak “Unbound Feet, Unbound Voices: A Slide Talk on the History of Chinese American Women.”

Yung is a second-generation Chinese-American woman, born and raised in San Francisco’s Chinatown. She is a recognized leader in the field of Asian American Studies, and has many published works. “My slide talk draws from two books that I have written on the subject: Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (an overview history of their lives) and Unbound Voices: A Documentary History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (an anthology of their writings, oral histories and stories),” Yung said, in a recent press release.

Based on archival research, oral histories, published and unpublished writings and photographs, both books document how two generations of Chinese women were able to unbind their feet and socially restricted lives and make a home for themselves and their families in San Francisco from the Gold Rush years through WWI. The lecture will tell the stories of eight Chinese-American women.

“In telling the stories of eight Chinese- American women, I discuss how their immigration and lives were shaped by transnational links between China and the U.S., by their acculturation but inability to assimilate into American society and by race, class, and gender constraints, to which they responded with resourcefulness, agency, and resilience,” Yung said. “Although many of them had to go through hard times, they ultimately triumphed in the end and realized their American dreams. Why and how they were able to do so are the lessons that we can all learn from their stories as told in their own words.”

Dr. Susan Cumings, professor and coordinator of the Women’s Studies program, said Yung was her first choice to invite to dive this year’s Women’s History Month presentation.

“I heard about her through the Organization of American Historians, with whom she is a Distinguished Lecturer.,” Cumings said. “When I learned more

about her work, I was intrigued because she’s an interdisciplinary scholar. She’s really an interesting thinker, and has been a pioneer both among historians and Women’s Studies scholars in bringing Asian American women onto our scholarly radar, so to speak.”

Cumings said it is important that our celebrations of Women’s History Month do two primary things.

“We want to celebrate the accomplishments of and reflect the diversity of American women,” Cumings said. “Dr. Yung is a great scholar-teacher and is also the first Asian speaker we have invited since I’ve been here. This seems a particularly good time, too, since we have a relatively new Asian Student Association.”

Dr. Beauty Bragg, assistant professor of English said the lecture may help to break Asian women stereotypes.

“We tend to have the image of Asian women as passive,” Bragg said. “[Women may gain] an understanding of the importance of voice and in turn, learn to articulate our points of view as women. Our point of view has been deemed unreliable, emotional, and irrational. The lecture affirms for other women what they think is real, and other women have the same thoughts.”

While the event is sponsored by the Women’s Studies Department, it is also co-sponsored by the Coverdell Learning Institute and the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.

“There are two reasons we got involved,” Allia Carter, director of the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. “It’s a really good current issue, and it educates not only about women, but Chinese American women.”

She also says that since it is a visual lecture, it will help people grasp a better understanding of the topic.

“This lecture will allow people to actually see through another person’s experience,” Carter said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 4 2005. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry