NOW Live from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

Hi, my name is Stephanie Chang, and I was one of the four interns at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American (APA) Program this past summer.  I originally hail from a Northwest Chicago suburb and am currently in my third year at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign pursuing a degree in history and political science.

As an intern, one of my primary roles was assisting the staff in developing outreach planning geared toward APAs in the D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia areas.  The APA community constitutes about 3.5% of the D.C. population and is rapidly growing.  It is important for us that these communities have access to our educational resources at the APA Program.  We encourage multiculturalism, awareness, and understanding within the greater D.C. area.

I had the privilege of working with groups such as AALead and the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows in conjunction with the RACE: Are We So Different? exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History.  Together with another intern, I facilitated discussion regarding race with children and young people. I found the experience thrilling and it has surely whetted my appetite for APA activism.

Another intern, Andrea Park, and I started planning a complimentary website for an upcoming APA exhibition. We hope to develop a website that will be interactive, engaging, and informative.  We hope to incorporate contemporary and historical perspectives using APA events from the past and present. We envision the website to be a medium for the public to connect with the exhibition.  This website has the potential to be great and I wish the best of luck to the future interns who will continue with this project!

In addition to these two projects, I have also been researching my potential senior thesis topic for my college coursework.  I am exploring the subject of picture brides and the sexualization of their identity. Picture brides, an entity that most Americans know nothing about, were some of the first Japanese and Korean women in America.  They were arranged into a marriage by the sole exchange of pictures. When they arrived in America, they were complete strangers to their husband, the customs, and the land.  It was an undoubtedly terrifying experiencing for all the brides. What I hope to explore in my research are the specific ways in which these brides countered stereotypes of picture brides, and how they were able to contribute to early APA activism and women empowerment within American society.  It is an absolute honor to be able to conduct this research here, at the Smithsonian.  I have plenty of information to bring back to my university to continue researching.

My summer at the APA Program was amazing. It has given me the chance to not only work with the top APA academics and members of the community, but also provided me with an outlet to hone my writing and research skills.  It was quite difficult to leave this program and head back to school, but I will forever be thankful for the people I have encountered and the wonderful things I experienced.  I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards all of the APA Program staff and fellow interns, as well as all the other colorful characters that I met during my time in D.C.  See you all again, someday!