Interview witH college student Chew
Chris Fong CheW
He/Him/His
Ethnicity: Chinese American
Occupation: Music Student at Berklee College of Music
Location: San Jose, California & Boston, Massachusetts
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"We are in very turbulent times right now and it's really hard to stay hopeful but we need to keep an open mind and try to learn every single day. Educating yourself is really important to understanding one another and building a better society."
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July 26, 2020, 4:00 PM PDT
By Jessica Bhalerao
How were you affected by the pandemic?
Chew: For me personally, I was a work study [student.] I guess I was basically furloughed because school shut down and a lot of students did receive some form of care package money through the university, even though most of us wouldn't qualify for like how normally we would qualify because of our tax status or what not but our university was able to pass out several cares grants. my school shut down back in April right after our spring break and it was definitely rough trying to figure out those classes, because a lot of the professors had to suddenly in one week rethink their schedules, rethink their classes and their class structures, and how things were gonna [be done]. It was definitely some things were improvised and schedules were a little bit weird.
Music majors require in-person collaboration. How has your academic experience changed online?
Chew: There's certain things like, for example, performance courses that it's really hard to play with each other online. There's no possible way to do that in the digital space. The online learning environment is a big adjustment for everybody.
What was the experience of moving from San Jose to Boston like culturally?
Chew: [It was] a bit of a culture shock in some ways because the Bay Area is very, very diverse. And that is not to say that the East Coast isn't diverse at all, but definitely the demographics are very different and the culture is very different. And I think there are certain things that I realized about the Bay Area, how it felt like I was like, wow, it's a bit of a bubble sometimes. I grew up in this very unique space. I have not—personally through traveling around the U.S.—have not found another place quite like it.
What are your thoughts on the idea of the Asian American community being the model minority when so many from our community continue experiencing the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on education (especially low income students)?
Chew: I think it's mostly been a term used to separate Asians and Asian-Americans from like other minorities and also as a way to kind of divide us up. I think there's a lot of racist motivations behind the model minority because it invalidates a lot of the struggles of Asian-American community.
What are your concerns as an Asian American music major in such changing times?
Chew: I think representation has been a big thing. A lot of representation of Asian Americans in the media and how we’re viewed and also seeing Asian Americans in different roles in the arts and entertainment industry. I think it’s been getting a lot better though because of—especially in the entertainment industry, there’s a lot more Asian actors, Asian musicians, and what not. And they’re not just Asian musicians in a singular genre like classical for example. There’s Asians all across the board.
How do you feel about universities' financial responses to the pandemic?
Chew: It definitely is a hard line to walk because the pandemic—no one can really control [anything]. It’s a tough spot for both students, because we feel like we’ve been pushed out and thrown out into the situation and also it’s a tough spot for universities that have to maintain their financial stability as well maintain the facilities as everything is being shut down. I know a lot of students are deferring so they have to deal with the fact that they’re not going to get money and tuition as much and they’re not going to be able to have certain financial resources that they normally would have in a normal school year.
How do you hope the education system improves because of the inequity in access to educational resources highlighted by the pandemic? + Final Thoughts
Chew: My hopes for education is that we’ll be able to take a more equitable approach to it to rewrite a lot of the narratives and understand that a lot of the narratives were skewed toward different perspectives and a lot of our curriculum is skewed toward different perspectives and that we’ll be able to rewrite those narratives to be more diverse, be open to lots of different perspectives and ideas. Hopefully coming to terms with the Asian American community can understand where we stand in this racial narrative of our country. And also that we want to address the fact that—because of the model minority myth and what not—we’ve been separated from a lot of minorities and we’ve also done our part in separating ourselves from other minorities and elevating ourselves above other minorities sometimes. And hopefully there’s an understanding that, at least for myself and people like myself that were trying to come to terms with that and the harm that has been caused by those narratives like the model minority myth and what not and the issues within the education system, and that we hopefully can come together over this and be able to overcome these racial divisions within our society and also within the systems of our society as well.