Jenny Banh interview
Item
Title
Jenny Banh interview
Creator
Banh, Jenny
Relation
Central Valley Southeast Asian Successful Voices
Coverage
Fresno, California
Date
7/20/2017
Rights
Copyright has been transferred to Fresno State
Identifier
SCMS_casv_00002
extracted text
>> Interviewer: Hi. Could you give us your name, the date, and how you would spell your name?
>> Bahn: My name is Jenny Banh, J-e-n-n-y, Bahn, B-a-n-h. Today is July 20, 2017, and I give you verbal permission
to [inaudible] archive as well as site any and all books, forms, and media.
>> Interviewer: Thank you. Could you give us your name, gender, and birth year?
>> Bahn: I was born in-My gender is female. I'm not exactly sure my birth year, but maybe like 70s or 80s.
>> Interviewer: Could you give us your ethnic group?
>> Bahn: I am ethnically Chinese from [inaudible].
>> Interviewer: What did you major in your undergraduate years?
>> Bahn: My major is in anthropology. I think I [inaudible] in my major. My undergraduate was UCLA.
>> Interviewer: How many generations of your family has been in the United States?
>> Bahn: I am the 1.5 generation. So I am the first generation. My daughter would be the second generation.
>> Interviewer: And what were your mother and your father's highest educations?
>> Bahn: My father had third grade, no second grade education. My mother's is unknown. She went to nursing school,
but I don't know if she finished high school.
>> Interviewer: What were-do you have any idea what their GPA were or their GPAs were or anything like that?
>> Bahn: My major GPA was 3.75. My overall GPA I want to say was 3.3 or 3.4.
>> Interviewer: Okay, what was your ultimate degree aspiration?
>> Bahn: My ultimate degree aspiration, which I accomplished, was a PhD anthropology. I also have a Masters in
Cultural Studies in public policy emphasis, and I have another Masters in Anthropology, and my ultimate degree was
PhD, and I got a PhD at University of California Riverside.
>> Interviewer: What was your family's socioeconomic status? Were they a low status, working class?
>> Bahn: They were low working class. They worked in a Chinese restaurant. My father was a janitor, and my mother
was a sweat shell worker in New York for a long time and then later we moved to Ferguson, New Jersey, and
Belleview, Illinois where they worked in a restaurant.
>> Interviewer: What kind of high school did you attend, a public high school or a private?
>> Bahn: I actually from 1 to 6 went to Catholic school, and that was private, and then later on we moved to Dunbar
High School, and that's a public kind of upper middle class high school.
>> Interviewer: What would you say were the racial demographics at your high school?
>> Bahn: The racial and socioeconomic background of my high school was upper, upper middle, or upper class, and it
had everyone. It had all the different religions. Well, we had Muslim students. We had Christians. It was Korean,
Chinese, not so much Southeast Asian, East Asian, and we had Filipino, which is Southeast Asian, and AfricanAmerican. I found out later that there were immigrants from Caribbean or Haiti and Mexican, and they were, again,
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upper middle.
>> Interviewer: What would you say would be the majority of the ethnic groups at your high school?
>> Bahn: Probably at the time, white.
>> Interviewer: Okay. Do many Chinese people go to college, and why do you think that is so?
>> Bahn: Many Chinese people in China go to college. Also people-Hong Kong is one of the highest college-going
places. It's the highest IQ in the world. Chinese people, Chinese Americans are going to college in droves. A large
number of Chinese [inaudible] is going to college. Also within the subgroups, like Chinese-Vietnamese, Chinese-Lao,
Chinese-Cambodian, those kind of go higher than within their own ethnic people also go to college. So a huge
percentage, I would say at least 50 percent, probably more, are going to college, and not only are they going to college,
but they're also going to graduate school, going to law school, getting PhDs. A huge percentage of Chinese are getting
medical degrees and some part into engineering or medical. So one of the highest educated ethnic groups in America,
but also globally around the world because they're building a lot of Chinese universities in China, and those people have
been learning English since they were first graders, so we have over 1.3 billion people who are learning English. So
there's more Chinese people learning English than people in America. So those people will be the next wave of global
competition because it is a global competitive field now, and so those people are fluent in Chinese, fluent in Mandarin,
fluent in their native village language, yet also know English since first grade, so and they will also be going to college
as well. They'll be going to college in the United States in the elite Ivy Leagues, but they'll also be going into other
colleges all over, and so that wave is now but also coming. That wave is coming, and so China is, instead of going to
war, they have put all their money into education and transportation infrastructure, and you can see the proof is in the
pudding. Every generation the Chinese are getting more and more educated, and they're going to college.
>> Interviewer: What would you say would be the reasoning for this surge of Chinese people getting their higher
education?
>> Bahn: A lot of times people came here as immigrants, and immigrants have a fire in their belly to do well, to put
their heads down, and to succeed. Parents don't speak English. Parents didn't have the same opportunity, and so they
push their kids maybe as a tiger parent to do well, or even if they don't push their kids, the kids notice that their parents
are very poor, and their parents don't have any kind of-kind of social standing, and so the kids themselves push
themselves, too, like a fire because they don't want to be a janitor. They don't want to work in a Chinese restaurant.
They don't want to pick onions all day, and so the kids themselves are very motivated to do well and to move up a class
level. So they-and also I think that the main thing about the reason why Chinese people in particular do well in school is
they have a Confucius background. Confucius is a huge scholar in China that has influenced the global world and
particularly East Asia and not as much Southeast Asia, but very much East Asia, so Japan, China, Vietnam, Korea are
influenced by him, and Confucius says that you have to study. You have to learn more, work hard, and study, and so and
China also has a 2000-year-old examination system where historically there was a very poor person who became like a
very high position in China by studying. So they have a long exam system history where everyone is, good or bad,
brainwashed that you have to do well in school. You have to do well, and if you do well in school, you can actually take
exam and get to the highest position in China, and that's historically true. So there is such a reverence. It's a book
culture. It's a book culture that really reveres studying and doing well in school, and you see that all over. You see that
in Singapore. You see that in Hong Kong. You see that in Taiwan. You see that in Korea, in Japan, and you see that in
[inaudible]. Countries that are influenced by Confucius have an intense educational system that really pushes that
education is good just for itself, and so those are countries that get a lot of degrees.
>> Interviewer: Would you say that Chinese students have strong relations with their administrators or faculty?
>> Bahn: In general, Chinese-American students, Chinese people who come from China are, although privileged
economically, they don't, sometimes they have a cultural fear of talking. Chinese-Americans often are raised in Asian
families where they are told not to talk and not to interrupt their parents, and so they take that also, although they revere
their professors and respect them, they don't contradict them, and they certainly don't go to office hours or such.
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>> Interviewer: What was your favorite subject in school?
>> Bahn: Anthropology. I've been wanting to be an anthropologist since eight years old.
>> Interviewer: And what was your least favorite subject?
>> Bahn: Math.
>> Interviewer: Do you think you have reasoning for why these were your favorite and least favorite?
>> Bahn: I think it's-I'm a human. Anthropology is the study of humans, and so it's interesting to learn about other
humans. Math, because I just don't see the point of it, but now as an adult I feel like I do, I should know math more
because I could budget my money that I make better and do-see how I can petition myself. So now as an adult, I regret
that. I should have taken statistics. I should have taken econ class. I should have done basic finance to kind of live
better. So that was a mistake.
>> Interviewer: In your opinion, what makes a good professor that will help you learn and pass the class?
>> Bahn: Any good professor is one that reaches out, offers guidance, mentorship, and also knows your name and also
shows sort of like an interest in you. A bad professor is one, and I've seen many bad professors since I've been a
professor for sixteen years, is one who has no office hours, who doesn't care about the student, who doesn't help and
give guidance, and someone who just is there for the money.
[ Phone ringing ]
>> Interviewer: Personally would you say you have ever been mentored by a professor or by anyone else?
>> Bahn: Yes, I've been mentored a lot by Latino professors when I was at the University of California system and later
on by Dr. Yolanda Moses mentored me a lot, and I've had lots of mentors who helped me, who have literally gone out of
their way even though it's-For example, Dr. Tom Patterson, it was raining, sleeting, which is crazy, in Riverside, but I
remember him sitting there and talking to me for one hour in the rain after his work site, and he didn't have to. He
could've just rushed home because it was raining, but instead he talked to me, and Dr. Yolanda Moses has gone out of
the way to mentor me and give me a lot of advice and tell me what to do, and it is has made all the difference. Also
Eugene Anderson has told me that when he was going to fieldwork with his two kids, that it was worth it, and even
though it was scary, he feels it was the best time for his kids. His kids were the healthiest during that time, and it gave
me a lot of confidence and also solace because I was so frightened and terrified to go to do fieldwork with my kids, and
so that was something that was a huge thing to help me that actually you can do fieldwork with two kids and graduate,
and I did. I was the rare mother who graduated with a PhD with two kids.
>> Interviewer: What would you say were the general teachers' expectations for you?
>> Bahn: Neutral. Maybe like some-Oh, no, in sixth grade I had a teacher, Miss Walker, and she really like identified
me, and she kept saying, "Oh, are you be the vice president?" Maybe she did it off the hand. She was like, "Are you
going to be a Supreme Court justice?" And it just made me feel so good as a sixth grader, and I was like, oh, my God,
years later I still remember that she said that. "Are you going to be a Supreme Court justice?" And so, yeah, high
expectation from that sixth grade teacher, but also I guess some people have high expectations of me sometimes,
sometimes. [Laughter]
>> Interviewer: How did she treat you as compared to other students, and how did your co-ethnic peers treat you?
>> Bahn: My teachers treated me well. In Dunbar High School, it is a high functioning upper middle class school, and
so all those teachers know that those Asian students, those Latino students, those [inaudible] students will go to
Stanford. UC is the lowest, but Stanford, Yale, Harvard, and so that's the norm, and so they know that they're teaching
people who will go, I believe. So their expectation, I was an honor student, and so is extremely high.
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>> Interviewer: What were the notable media depictions of your ethnic group?
>> Bahn: Chinese-Americans, I watch a lot of Hong Kong films, but Asia-Americans, very lack of any positive
depictions. Of course, there's Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies, like Rush R movies, but in general very little. I wish
we had "Fresh off the Boat." I would have watched it. I wish-There actually was a Korean market show, had that allAmerican girl, and that was there, but that got cancelled really quickly. So it wasn't very high. There was Connie Chung
who was a journalist, and that was very inspiring, and in general there's a lack of Asian TV.
>> Interviewer: Do you feel you had sufficient academic preparation for higher education in college?
>> Bahn: In retrospect I would say yes. Dunbar prepared me very well. I don't think I had a huge issue in college.
Again, I'm someone who reads veraciously and got state writing awards and national writing awards. So I just-college is
a lot about writing, and so that's something I love to do, and so I don't know if it's my school or it's in my own
personality, but all of us did well. All of us graduated, and all of us got high G-like relatively good GPAs.
>> Interviewer: Were there any significant barriers you faced to achieve your higher education success?
>> Bahn: I was always [inaudible] to be an anthropologist since age eight, so I can't really say I had that many barriers.
Maybe a culture barrier is my parents often wanted me to come home from college and [inaudible], but I didn't come
home. I had to stay there sometimes, and then my mother-Well, it's not [inaudible]. I had to always like drive her
around, you know, twice a week, and later on when I moved back home after graduation, it continued. So I don't
consider that a barrier, but I had to always run my mom around.
>> Interviewer: Did you work outside of school, and if you did, how many hours?
>> Bahn: I was privileged, and also the timeframe. College was so cheap that I didn't have to work. I did work as a
research assistant, and that paid for my, for [inaudible] on game research, and that was a great experience. I recommend
people working research all the time because it's just a great experience, and I got paid for that. That was a lot of money
at the time because it paid my entire tuition.
>> Interviewer: So you did not work outside the school?
>> Bahn: I worked inside school. Yes.
>> Interviewer: Would you say that working impeded on your graduation in any way?
>> Bahn: No. It helped me.
>> Interviewer: If you were given work, a fellowship, or financial aid on campus, would that have helped you more to
graduate?
>> Bahn: I was given a fellowship and work. So, yes.
>> Interviewer: Were there any other-were there any barriers to your educational success-cultural barriers, educational,
or maybe financial?
>> Bahn: There might have been, but I don't remember them. So I guess they're not important.
>> Interviewer: How about structural or gender-wise?
>> Bahn: Structural I was benefited that the University of California was a very low price at the time and gender-My
father was a deep misogynist and a deep sexist, but he only had two girls, and so-and so-so, but he only had two girls so
that I just became I guess a "boy."
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>> Interviewer: So if your gender were changed, do you think you'd have a different experience?
>> Bahn: Yeah, if I was a boy, I probably could have done-I don't know. I've done everything I've ever wanted to do
always, although growing up, my parents never let me do sleepovers or leave the house. Yeah, probably. Maybe, but
who knows, right? I kind of did a lot of culture breaking.
>> Interviewer: Were you in charge of taking care of anyone other than yourself?
>> Bahn: My mom actually took care of two little girls next door to us while we were in college, and so sometimes we'd
take care of them a little bit.
>> Interviewer: Have you ever experienced any micro aggressions in higher education?
>> Bahn: Not that I remember, but I do remember that we were at an anthropology like barbecue, and one of the-This is
really dumb, but I just thought it was like sexist. They wouldn't let me grill, and they wouldn't give me the griller, and I
like, he would, this one boy, my fellow student, would only give the grill to another guy, and I was like, "Why? I can
grill just as well as you." So I remember that. I was like what is this?
>> Interviewer: Do you believe there's any effect of being a minority with white oppression or gender oppression on
you today?
>> Bahn: Asian women are often privileged because they're considered cute and desirable and something to consume,
but also on the flipside is they're also seen as dragon lady and cold, etc. So I think Asian women have, they have a
double edge, but it's much better than Asian males who are often seen as effeminate, and so they have to fight, Asian
men have to fight harder to be heard sometimes than sometime Asian women, but it depends on the circumstance.
>> Interviewer: So you would not say that you-anyone has caused you to be in fear.
>> Bahn: Not that I remember, but did I get mentored as much as in grad school as other white males? Probably not, but
I found my own mentoring by finding women of color and women and also sympathetic males to help me. So I made
my own circle network of help.
>> Interviewer: How did you feel on campus? Did you feel welcome? Did you feel like you fit in?
>> Bahn: I did. I felt welcome at the University of California and at Cal State, which I've been teaching at for 14, 16
years. It's very multi-cultural, Hispanic-serving colleges, so I've always felt welcome.
>> Interviewer: Was there anything else that hampered your graduation success?
>> Bahn: Well, for undergrad, nothing. I really, I probably should have gotten a higher GPA because-but again, you
know, looking back I have to be kind to myself. My parents only have-my father only has a sixth grade education. I
could've gotten probably straight A's, but it was a little harder. I don't think anything-Well, nothing that I can
acknowledge hampered my undergrad. At grad school, obviously it's had to be a fulltime student and also work. I
worked at five colleges. I had two kids. It was hard to support them. I had to juggle it all the time many different
schedules, and I had to go abroad for a year and a half and pay for that. So that was a barrier, but I found it a challenge,
and I just went through it, and if I compare myself to people who went through war or other barriers such as like
working at a sweatshop or picking grapes all day, you know, for sixteen hours a day, I really don't think that's a
comparison in that I was privileged. So a lot of people would often tell me, "Oh my God, how are you doing it? How are
you having two kids." Like all my core were saying, "How are you doing it with two kids? How are you working at five
colleges?" And I would say, "Because I have to because my kids like to eat," and also I would compare myself to the
Chinese restaurant I grew up in, and we worked all the time hard, and also I kind of think back at the wars that my
parents experienced. So I would, in a comparison level, and I always compare myself, good or bad, this is kind of good
or bad, I would say, "Well, we're not at war now," and I remember specifically in second grade or first grade, I was
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complaining to my mother two things. One, I complained that I saw someone cheating, and I was like, "Oh, no, it
doesn't matter if you cheat and you get an A, it's not as good as if you just do your best and get a B." So that effected me
and b, I was complaining once about multiplication. I've always had this like weird thing about math, and I was like,
"Oh, it's so hard, multiplication," and I was complaining. "Oh, it's so hard." I think I was maybe in third grade, fourth.
Anyway, this was Catholic school, and my mom said, "You know what was hard?" My mom said, "It's hard to be"someone threw a Molotov cocktail at her. So if you don't know what a Molotov cocktail is, it's like a beer bottle with
like kind of a paper or kind of like a rag coming out of your beer bottle, and you light it, and then you throw it at
somebody, and then it blows them up, and so I remember being shocked as a second grader going, "Whoa, that's true.
My multiplication is hard, but not as hard as someone throwing a kind of like firing like small mini bomb towards you,"
So, yes, mom, you were correct. I should not complain. So I guess I had not really complained, although I am a
complaining person, [laughter] but because of that, I've always had this in my mind that I remember that often like, "Is
this hard as someone throwing a Molotov cocktail at you?" And I have to say, "It's probably not as hard." So I just keep
going forward.
>> Interviewer: Would you say that anyone personally helped you with your success?
>> Bahn: Dr. Yolanda Moses, Eugene Anderson.
>> Interviewer: Would you say anyone in your family helped you with your success?
>> Bahn: They didn't understand. They're not educated, and so I think my sister was, she was, she wanted me to succeed
in my goals. So, she knows I wanted to be an anthropologist since eight years old. She was always worried that I
wouldn't fulfill my dream because, you know, when I got married and I had my daughter, she was like, "Oh, are you
going to finish?" And actually she went up to my husband at the time and said, "Do you think that because she's
married, I won't be able to finish my anthropology dream?" She was concerned about that, and she told my best friend
about that, and but I have a huge drive. I've had since eight years old to be an anthropologist. So I don't feel like
anything would have stopped me, but people were worried about, but they were encouraging, but also they wanted me
to stop school. So they thought that school-They couldn't see the money value in it, and I was in school two years for
Masters and eight and a half years for PhD, and so they thought it was a waste of time, and it's kind of like people call
often. They want you to make money really, and so they just see me as making money, and so that was always hard.
>> Interviewer: Were there any specific bridges to your success?
>> Bahn: Definitely a lot of mentorship. I surrounded myself with also first generation or 1.5 generation intensely
ambitious women. I have a lot of Asian girlfriends, and they're very ambitious just like me, and actually they also
[inaudible] got a law degree. My friend, Judy, and my best friend, Jennifer, they both got medical degrees. My other,
Lee, is, you know, very successful, [inaudible] jobs, real estate agent. So I have always surrounded myself with very
intensely ambitious and maybe they're not ambitious, but they're-they are ambitious, but they're driven people, too, to do
well.
>> Interviewer: Would you argue that your community helped you in any way?
>> Bahn: No. We were never part of the community too much. We went to the Shiite temple like once.
>> Interviewer: How was your family and your household environment, how would they view college in general? How
would they speak of it?
>> Bahn: My father working everyday in the restaurant would say, "Don't ever do this job. Don't ever do this job. Look
how hard I'm working everyday. I work every single day. I'm sweating," and I look at him, and his entire shirt would be
wet with sweat, and he's like, "You've got to well. You have to go to school. You have to go to-," and he would say to
me, like first grade he would say, "I work so had and even though we have no money, we're saving money for college
for you. There's money for you to go to college," and he would say that since I was in first grade. So obviously I knew
that I was-that's something that, you know, and my parents are breaking their backs for me to go to college. I better get
some grades to go to college.
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>> Interviewer: Were there anyone else in the community that helped you enable the success as in friends, other cultural
groups, or maybe any subgroups you're in, such as dance or any other activities?
>> Bahn: In Dunbar, everyone was the same generation as me, but some of them I guess were considered second
generation. They were born in the United States, and they were also very intensely dedicated to school because they had
parents who were actually younger than my parents, who were actually better educated. Their parents actually went to
college in maybe Taiwan or Hong Kong. So it was a different class level, but they were also intensely pushed, and
probably [inaudible] better because their parents went to college. For myself, I had to do it myself, but my sister went to
college before me, and somehow you just have to ask your other friends, "What is to succeed?" So I, myself, took upon
myself to study as a teen by myself because I heard that it was very important to get in college. So I bought my-I asked
my parents to drive me to a bookstore where I bought my own SAT cards. I took Kaplan SAT, and then I took, and then
I read my sister's complete-my sister did complete Princeton SAT review. I read all my sister's books and then for her
Princeton review, and then I took one-I asked my parents to take another SAT class, and then I was-and plus I enjoy
English a lot. So I just thought of it as no, this is a good way for me to learn better vocabulary, and I've always loved
words, and so the SAT is like you have to learn vocabulary, and so I thought, "This is great," and so I took it upon
myself to really study by myself and learn my own SATs, and so I always have flash cards. I brought them to me with
the restroom. I flipped through it, and I really enjoyed it, and so I scored in the ninetieth percentile in SATs in English. I
think I was like average for math, but it's something that I really enjoyed, and I took upon myself so my parents don't
know what SATs are. My parents don't know what these things are, but they paid for the program. So they knew. I just
told them it's important, and so I intensely, I just heard through the grapevine, "Oh, yeah, SAT is important." So I found
out how to study for it, and I always-I know because I did so poorly as a-I got straight F's when I was in kindergarten,
straight F's in first grade. So I'm not an easy learner. I'm not-I was in ESL. I'm not-and I got out of it after first year, year
one. [Inaudible] I was not, but I don't learn easily. I don't pick up things fast. I don't-all those things that people say I'm
an easy learner, I just don't, I'm the opposite of that. For me, I have to drill myself. I have to write it down, listen to it. I
draw pictures. I have to memorize, and then we go back, and I have to have study groups. I just know in my heart I don't
learn easily, and because of that I had to go out of my way to like pound it in my brain because I just don't learn like
other people. It's not easy. I forget, and it's not-it doesn't come easy to me. So because of that I have no, that's an issue.
>> Interviewer: What would you like to see in the future in colleges to help facilitate higher education success in your
ethnic group?
>> Bahn: I want there to be more ethnic clubs, more ethnic professors, more ethnic classes [inaudible] Asians. I would
love every person to take an ethnics study class, Asian-American study class, Asian women class, and that is something
that is really important.
>> Interviewer: Would you like-What would you be your thoughts on more college success workshops within your
community?
>> Bahn: I think that Asians are very quiet, and they don't ask for help, and they need to ask for help, and I think college
success workshop a, breaking through the cultural bind being a woman. So there should be like a networking workshop.
There should be a how to get a job workshop because when I graduated UCLA, I was on my own, and I applied to many
jobs. I didn't get any of those jobs, and I didn't know that you were supposed to be a certain way. I didn't know you were
supposed to do an internship before you graduated college. I didn't know that working was so eventful. I didn't know
having a network was so important. So a lot of things that the workshop should be help you get a job, find out stress
reliefs would be good. Those are things that would have been good.
>> Interviewer: Do you have any advice for the next generation or for the third generation?
>> Bahn: Yeah. Get a lot of awards. Apply, join an ethnic club or any kind of club. Get to the presidency. Be active
because most people are not active. So if you're just active your four years or three years, you will become president.
Just nominate yourself for president. So do that. Do internships. Create something new, such as this is in 2017, This
generation they are creating these videos. You're doing like infographic is something that when I was coming up would
have cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Nowadays you can do a free infographic website. You can do something
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that costs a couple, you know, ten thousand dollars in the 80s and 90s. Now you can do it free within like less than an
hour. So take advantage of those things. Create your own posters. Email 60 to 100 people individually. Ask for
mentorship. Ask for help. Also take more classes. Be involved in your community, a volunteer. Get a leadership
position and any type of opportunity you see. Do it. Intern in Washington. Intern in whatever you want to field. Do a lot
of self-care. Do meditation. Exercise every day. Create Facebook pages. Hike and nature. Nature is very soothing and
will help your spirit. Always exercise. Dance. Sing. Go to singing and dancing events. In California there's lots of free
events that you can go to. In California we have the art live things. Watch movies, Netflix. Just do nothing sometimes.
Just do nothing. Just lay down and just meditate or just do nothing. Have days of doing nothing. Sleep in. Have two
days of-I have a friend, Vanessa, who has a thing where every three months she sleeps in bed for two days. She doesn't
eat. She just relaxes and recharges that way. Have a motto. My motto is four things. My motto is reveal hidden stories,
which I got from [inaudible]. Two is use your scholarship and professionalism to help oppressed peoples, and I got that
from this University of Michigan professor. Three is to create what you don't see. So one of the things is something like
that drive me is a, LA is one of the most dynamic places on the planet. It is in California literally the sixth largest-Oh, I
think, is it third largest economy in the world, this little state? And why is there no book on anthropology in Los
Angeles? That is ridiculous. It's millions and millions of people. I found my students when I taught a Chinese ethnic
class, they're like, "Oh, how come there's nothing on LA? How come there's like tons of Asians here." So I had to create
what I didn't see. I created, added a book called "Anthropology of Los Angeles." I did an international global call out for
people who look at Los Angeles, and within one year of my call out, getting it, that book was published. So that's just
from when I don't see it, I will create it. So, for instance, there's no "Anthropology of Fresno." There's no "Anthropology
of San Gabriel Valley." There's no "Anthropology of Riverside." There needs to be. California is a dynamic place, and
it's a very different place. I will create it one day. My goal is also to create like, write and edit 26 books, and my last
thing is, let's see, so create what you don't see. Reveal hidden stories. Three is use your privilege and your education to
help out oppressed people and your research to help oppressed people, and the last one is to move culture. There are a
lot of people on earth that are doing great things, and they're moving culture in a positive way. I think overwhelmingly
it's positive, but I also see in this like present political climate, there's a lot of activists on the other side who are using
their activism to also move culture in a way that is demonizing immigrants, women, people of color, and LGB folks. So
I also see them using multimedia creating sites, doing viral videos. So I see them creating, moving culture in a way that
they feel to me is anti-immigrant way. So for me, I know that I have a privilege, and there is not a fight, but for me, I
can't just like sit down and just wait for stuff or put my head down as my parents always taught me. Put your head down
and just wait or don't say anything. This is probably not the time because I know that there's people who are doing that,
and something that I think that's very important in my life is that when I was a sixth grader, we had a Holocaust survivor
come speak to us, and she said that all her neighbors in her entire town looked on her Jewish family, and later on no one
stood up for her, and so she had to like live in a bathroom like a toilet outside for like a couple of days and to try to hid
and run, and she said nobody helped them, and she said that's one of the things that she wants to push, that a lot of
people, the majority of people in Germany, regular, everyday people stood by and let their neighbors be pushed into the
Holocaust and murdered and I never-so she really pushed on us, you know, if you can help people, try to help them, and,
you know, you have to stand up because most people won't stand up. So as a sixth grader, I was like very traumatized by
her story living in a bathroom and living in a toilet and her entire family was murdered, and so I think about that all the
time. A lot of people, maybe if they get an opportunity, they'll help, but I think most people won't help and most people
won't step up. I think they want to, but for whatever reason they won't step up, and so because of that, I feel like I have
to do a lot of things myself and create what I don't see and protect my own family but also my own people color family
and my own womanhood family, people who are oppressed because I believe that historically you can see sometimes
people don't stand up for other people. So I've also done things, you know, in coalition with African-Americans, with
Muslim-Americans. When the Twin Towers went down, I really knew that everyone's going to hate Muslim people. I
knew it, and they're going to be traumatized, and, unfortunately, they are like lots of murders of South Asians and
[inaudible] after that, a lot of Asian murders, lots of hate crimes against Asians, and so immediately, even though I was
pregnant, I think 6 months pregnant with my husband, we went to south central downtown LA and did a candlelight
vigil with, you'd never believe it, south central is demonized as a very unsafe place, African Americans, and now
predominantly Latino. We were there as a coalition of Asians, Latinos, African-Americans standing in coalition with
Muslim-Americans because we all knew what's coming down. We all knew Muslim-Americans would be like treated
really bad. So, you know, I didn't have to go six months pregnant to this vigil in solidarity, but I did because I know it's
important to show up.
>> Interviewer: Okay, thank you so much.
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>> Bahn: My name is Jenny Banh, J-e-n-n-y, Bahn, B-a-n-h. Today is July 20, 2017, and I give you verbal permission
to [inaudible] archive as well as site any and all books, forms, and media.
>> Interviewer: Thank you. Could you give us your name, gender, and birth year?
>> Bahn: I was born in-My gender is female. I'm not exactly sure my birth year, but maybe like 70s or 80s.
>> Interviewer: Could you give us your ethnic group?
>> Bahn: I am ethnically Chinese from [inaudible].
>> Interviewer: What did you major in your undergraduate years?
>> Bahn: My major is in anthropology. I think I [inaudible] in my major. My undergraduate was UCLA.
>> Interviewer: How many generations of your family has been in the United States?
>> Bahn: I am the 1.5 generation. So I am the first generation. My daughter would be the second generation.
>> Interviewer: And what were your mother and your father's highest educations?
>> Bahn: My father had third grade, no second grade education. My mother's is unknown. She went to nursing school,
but I don't know if she finished high school.
>> Interviewer: What were-do you have any idea what their GPA were or their GPAs were or anything like that?
>> Bahn: My major GPA was 3.75. My overall GPA I want to say was 3.3 or 3.4.
>> Interviewer: Okay, what was your ultimate degree aspiration?
>> Bahn: My ultimate degree aspiration, which I accomplished, was a PhD anthropology. I also have a Masters in
Cultural Studies in public policy emphasis, and I have another Masters in Anthropology, and my ultimate degree was
PhD, and I got a PhD at University of California Riverside.
>> Interviewer: What was your family's socioeconomic status? Were they a low status, working class?
>> Bahn: They were low working class. They worked in a Chinese restaurant. My father was a janitor, and my mother
was a sweat shell worker in New York for a long time and then later we moved to Ferguson, New Jersey, and
Belleview, Illinois where they worked in a restaurant.
>> Interviewer: What kind of high school did you attend, a public high school or a private?
>> Bahn: I actually from 1 to 6 went to Catholic school, and that was private, and then later on we moved to Dunbar
High School, and that's a public kind of upper middle class high school.
>> Interviewer: What would you say were the racial demographics at your high school?
>> Bahn: The racial and socioeconomic background of my high school was upper, upper middle, or upper class, and it
had everyone. It had all the different religions. Well, we had Muslim students. We had Christians. It was Korean,
Chinese, not so much Southeast Asian, East Asian, and we had Filipino, which is Southeast Asian, and AfricanAmerican. I found out later that there were immigrants from Caribbean or Haiti and Mexican, and they were, again,
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upper middle.
>> Interviewer: What would you say would be the majority of the ethnic groups at your high school?
>> Bahn: Probably at the time, white.
>> Interviewer: Okay. Do many Chinese people go to college, and why do you think that is so?
>> Bahn: Many Chinese people in China go to college. Also people-Hong Kong is one of the highest college-going
places. It's the highest IQ in the world. Chinese people, Chinese Americans are going to college in droves. A large
number of Chinese [inaudible] is going to college. Also within the subgroups, like Chinese-Vietnamese, Chinese-Lao,
Chinese-Cambodian, those kind of go higher than within their own ethnic people also go to college. So a huge
percentage, I would say at least 50 percent, probably more, are going to college, and not only are they going to college,
but they're also going to graduate school, going to law school, getting PhDs. A huge percentage of Chinese are getting
medical degrees and some part into engineering or medical. So one of the highest educated ethnic groups in America,
but also globally around the world because they're building a lot of Chinese universities in China, and those people have
been learning English since they were first graders, so we have over 1.3 billion people who are learning English. So
there's more Chinese people learning English than people in America. So those people will be the next wave of global
competition because it is a global competitive field now, and so those people are fluent in Chinese, fluent in Mandarin,
fluent in their native village language, yet also know English since first grade, so and they will also be going to college
as well. They'll be going to college in the United States in the elite Ivy Leagues, but they'll also be going into other
colleges all over, and so that wave is now but also coming. That wave is coming, and so China is, instead of going to
war, they have put all their money into education and transportation infrastructure, and you can see the proof is in the
pudding. Every generation the Chinese are getting more and more educated, and they're going to college.
>> Interviewer: What would you say would be the reasoning for this surge of Chinese people getting their higher
education?
>> Bahn: A lot of times people came here as immigrants, and immigrants have a fire in their belly to do well, to put
their heads down, and to succeed. Parents don't speak English. Parents didn't have the same opportunity, and so they
push their kids maybe as a tiger parent to do well, or even if they don't push their kids, the kids notice that their parents
are very poor, and their parents don't have any kind of-kind of social standing, and so the kids themselves push
themselves, too, like a fire because they don't want to be a janitor. They don't want to work in a Chinese restaurant.
They don't want to pick onions all day, and so the kids themselves are very motivated to do well and to move up a class
level. So they-and also I think that the main thing about the reason why Chinese people in particular do well in school is
they have a Confucius background. Confucius is a huge scholar in China that has influenced the global world and
particularly East Asia and not as much Southeast Asia, but very much East Asia, so Japan, China, Vietnam, Korea are
influenced by him, and Confucius says that you have to study. You have to learn more, work hard, and study, and so and
China also has a 2000-year-old examination system where historically there was a very poor person who became like a
very high position in China by studying. So they have a long exam system history where everyone is, good or bad,
brainwashed that you have to do well in school. You have to do well, and if you do well in school, you can actually take
exam and get to the highest position in China, and that's historically true. So there is such a reverence. It's a book
culture. It's a book culture that really reveres studying and doing well in school, and you see that all over. You see that
in Singapore. You see that in Hong Kong. You see that in Taiwan. You see that in Korea, in Japan, and you see that in
[inaudible]. Countries that are influenced by Confucius have an intense educational system that really pushes that
education is good just for itself, and so those are countries that get a lot of degrees.
>> Interviewer: Would you say that Chinese students have strong relations with their administrators or faculty?
>> Bahn: In general, Chinese-American students, Chinese people who come from China are, although privileged
economically, they don't, sometimes they have a cultural fear of talking. Chinese-Americans often are raised in Asian
families where they are told not to talk and not to interrupt their parents, and so they take that also, although they revere
their professors and respect them, they don't contradict them, and they certainly don't go to office hours or such.
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>> Interviewer: What was your favorite subject in school?
>> Bahn: Anthropology. I've been wanting to be an anthropologist since eight years old.
>> Interviewer: And what was your least favorite subject?
>> Bahn: Math.
>> Interviewer: Do you think you have reasoning for why these were your favorite and least favorite?
>> Bahn: I think it's-I'm a human. Anthropology is the study of humans, and so it's interesting to learn about other
humans. Math, because I just don't see the point of it, but now as an adult I feel like I do, I should know math more
because I could budget my money that I make better and do-see how I can petition myself. So now as an adult, I regret
that. I should have taken statistics. I should have taken econ class. I should have done basic finance to kind of live
better. So that was a mistake.
>> Interviewer: In your opinion, what makes a good professor that will help you learn and pass the class?
>> Bahn: Any good professor is one that reaches out, offers guidance, mentorship, and also knows your name and also
shows sort of like an interest in you. A bad professor is one, and I've seen many bad professors since I've been a
professor for sixteen years, is one who has no office hours, who doesn't care about the student, who doesn't help and
give guidance, and someone who just is there for the money.
[ Phone ringing ]
>> Interviewer: Personally would you say you have ever been mentored by a professor or by anyone else?
>> Bahn: Yes, I've been mentored a lot by Latino professors when I was at the University of California system and later
on by Dr. Yolanda Moses mentored me a lot, and I've had lots of mentors who helped me, who have literally gone out of
their way even though it's-For example, Dr. Tom Patterson, it was raining, sleeting, which is crazy, in Riverside, but I
remember him sitting there and talking to me for one hour in the rain after his work site, and he didn't have to. He
could've just rushed home because it was raining, but instead he talked to me, and Dr. Yolanda Moses has gone out of
the way to mentor me and give me a lot of advice and tell me what to do, and it is has made all the difference. Also
Eugene Anderson has told me that when he was going to fieldwork with his two kids, that it was worth it, and even
though it was scary, he feels it was the best time for his kids. His kids were the healthiest during that time, and it gave
me a lot of confidence and also solace because I was so frightened and terrified to go to do fieldwork with my kids, and
so that was something that was a huge thing to help me that actually you can do fieldwork with two kids and graduate,
and I did. I was the rare mother who graduated with a PhD with two kids.
>> Interviewer: What would you say were the general teachers' expectations for you?
>> Bahn: Neutral. Maybe like some-Oh, no, in sixth grade I had a teacher, Miss Walker, and she really like identified
me, and she kept saying, "Oh, are you be the vice president?" Maybe she did it off the hand. She was like, "Are you
going to be a Supreme Court justice?" And it just made me feel so good as a sixth grader, and I was like, oh, my God,
years later I still remember that she said that. "Are you going to be a Supreme Court justice?" And so, yeah, high
expectation from that sixth grade teacher, but also I guess some people have high expectations of me sometimes,
sometimes. [Laughter]
>> Interviewer: How did she treat you as compared to other students, and how did your co-ethnic peers treat you?
>> Bahn: My teachers treated me well. In Dunbar High School, it is a high functioning upper middle class school, and
so all those teachers know that those Asian students, those Latino students, those [inaudible] students will go to
Stanford. UC is the lowest, but Stanford, Yale, Harvard, and so that's the norm, and so they know that they're teaching
people who will go, I believe. So their expectation, I was an honor student, and so is extremely high.
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>> Interviewer: What were the notable media depictions of your ethnic group?
>> Bahn: Chinese-Americans, I watch a lot of Hong Kong films, but Asia-Americans, very lack of any positive
depictions. Of course, there's Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies, like Rush R movies, but in general very little. I wish
we had "Fresh off the Boat." I would have watched it. I wish-There actually was a Korean market show, had that allAmerican girl, and that was there, but that got cancelled really quickly. So it wasn't very high. There was Connie Chung
who was a journalist, and that was very inspiring, and in general there's a lack of Asian TV.
>> Interviewer: Do you feel you had sufficient academic preparation for higher education in college?
>> Bahn: In retrospect I would say yes. Dunbar prepared me very well. I don't think I had a huge issue in college.
Again, I'm someone who reads veraciously and got state writing awards and national writing awards. So I just-college is
a lot about writing, and so that's something I love to do, and so I don't know if it's my school or it's in my own
personality, but all of us did well. All of us graduated, and all of us got high G-like relatively good GPAs.
>> Interviewer: Were there any significant barriers you faced to achieve your higher education success?
>> Bahn: I was always [inaudible] to be an anthropologist since age eight, so I can't really say I had that many barriers.
Maybe a culture barrier is my parents often wanted me to come home from college and [inaudible], but I didn't come
home. I had to stay there sometimes, and then my mother-Well, it's not [inaudible]. I had to always like drive her
around, you know, twice a week, and later on when I moved back home after graduation, it continued. So I don't
consider that a barrier, but I had to always run my mom around.
>> Interviewer: Did you work outside of school, and if you did, how many hours?
>> Bahn: I was privileged, and also the timeframe. College was so cheap that I didn't have to work. I did work as a
research assistant, and that paid for my, for [inaudible] on game research, and that was a great experience. I recommend
people working research all the time because it's just a great experience, and I got paid for that. That was a lot of money
at the time because it paid my entire tuition.
>> Interviewer: So you did not work outside the school?
>> Bahn: I worked inside school. Yes.
>> Interviewer: Would you say that working impeded on your graduation in any way?
>> Bahn: No. It helped me.
>> Interviewer: If you were given work, a fellowship, or financial aid on campus, would that have helped you more to
graduate?
>> Bahn: I was given a fellowship and work. So, yes.
>> Interviewer: Were there any other-were there any barriers to your educational success-cultural barriers, educational,
or maybe financial?
>> Bahn: There might have been, but I don't remember them. So I guess they're not important.
>> Interviewer: How about structural or gender-wise?
>> Bahn: Structural I was benefited that the University of California was a very low price at the time and gender-My
father was a deep misogynist and a deep sexist, but he only had two girls, and so-and so-so, but he only had two girls so
that I just became I guess a "boy."
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>> Interviewer: So if your gender were changed, do you think you'd have a different experience?
>> Bahn: Yeah, if I was a boy, I probably could have done-I don't know. I've done everything I've ever wanted to do
always, although growing up, my parents never let me do sleepovers or leave the house. Yeah, probably. Maybe, but
who knows, right? I kind of did a lot of culture breaking.
>> Interviewer: Were you in charge of taking care of anyone other than yourself?
>> Bahn: My mom actually took care of two little girls next door to us while we were in college, and so sometimes we'd
take care of them a little bit.
>> Interviewer: Have you ever experienced any micro aggressions in higher education?
>> Bahn: Not that I remember, but I do remember that we were at an anthropology like barbecue, and one of the-This is
really dumb, but I just thought it was like sexist. They wouldn't let me grill, and they wouldn't give me the griller, and I
like, he would, this one boy, my fellow student, would only give the grill to another guy, and I was like, "Why? I can
grill just as well as you." So I remember that. I was like what is this?
>> Interviewer: Do you believe there's any effect of being a minority with white oppression or gender oppression on
you today?
>> Bahn: Asian women are often privileged because they're considered cute and desirable and something to consume,
but also on the flipside is they're also seen as dragon lady and cold, etc. So I think Asian women have, they have a
double edge, but it's much better than Asian males who are often seen as effeminate, and so they have to fight, Asian
men have to fight harder to be heard sometimes than sometime Asian women, but it depends on the circumstance.
>> Interviewer: So you would not say that you-anyone has caused you to be in fear.
>> Bahn: Not that I remember, but did I get mentored as much as in grad school as other white males? Probably not, but
I found my own mentoring by finding women of color and women and also sympathetic males to help me. So I made
my own circle network of help.
>> Interviewer: How did you feel on campus? Did you feel welcome? Did you feel like you fit in?
>> Bahn: I did. I felt welcome at the University of California and at Cal State, which I've been teaching at for 14, 16
years. It's very multi-cultural, Hispanic-serving colleges, so I've always felt welcome.
>> Interviewer: Was there anything else that hampered your graduation success?
>> Bahn: Well, for undergrad, nothing. I really, I probably should have gotten a higher GPA because-but again, you
know, looking back I have to be kind to myself. My parents only have-my father only has a sixth grade education. I
could've gotten probably straight A's, but it was a little harder. I don't think anything-Well, nothing that I can
acknowledge hampered my undergrad. At grad school, obviously it's had to be a fulltime student and also work. I
worked at five colleges. I had two kids. It was hard to support them. I had to juggle it all the time many different
schedules, and I had to go abroad for a year and a half and pay for that. So that was a barrier, but I found it a challenge,
and I just went through it, and if I compare myself to people who went through war or other barriers such as like
working at a sweatshop or picking grapes all day, you know, for sixteen hours a day, I really don't think that's a
comparison in that I was privileged. So a lot of people would often tell me, "Oh my God, how are you doing it? How are
you having two kids." Like all my core were saying, "How are you doing it with two kids? How are you working at five
colleges?" And I would say, "Because I have to because my kids like to eat," and also I would compare myself to the
Chinese restaurant I grew up in, and we worked all the time hard, and also I kind of think back at the wars that my
parents experienced. So I would, in a comparison level, and I always compare myself, good or bad, this is kind of good
or bad, I would say, "Well, we're not at war now," and I remember specifically in second grade or first grade, I was
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complaining to my mother two things. One, I complained that I saw someone cheating, and I was like, "Oh, no, it
doesn't matter if you cheat and you get an A, it's not as good as if you just do your best and get a B." So that effected me
and b, I was complaining once about multiplication. I've always had this like weird thing about math, and I was like,
"Oh, it's so hard, multiplication," and I was complaining. "Oh, it's so hard." I think I was maybe in third grade, fourth.
Anyway, this was Catholic school, and my mom said, "You know what was hard?" My mom said, "It's hard to be"someone threw a Molotov cocktail at her. So if you don't know what a Molotov cocktail is, it's like a beer bottle with
like kind of a paper or kind of like a rag coming out of your beer bottle, and you light it, and then you throw it at
somebody, and then it blows them up, and so I remember being shocked as a second grader going, "Whoa, that's true.
My multiplication is hard, but not as hard as someone throwing a kind of like firing like small mini bomb towards you,"
So, yes, mom, you were correct. I should not complain. So I guess I had not really complained, although I am a
complaining person, [laughter] but because of that, I've always had this in my mind that I remember that often like, "Is
this hard as someone throwing a Molotov cocktail at you?" And I have to say, "It's probably not as hard." So I just keep
going forward.
>> Interviewer: Would you say that anyone personally helped you with your success?
>> Bahn: Dr. Yolanda Moses, Eugene Anderson.
>> Interviewer: Would you say anyone in your family helped you with your success?
>> Bahn: They didn't understand. They're not educated, and so I think my sister was, she was, she wanted me to succeed
in my goals. So, she knows I wanted to be an anthropologist since eight years old. She was always worried that I
wouldn't fulfill my dream because, you know, when I got married and I had my daughter, she was like, "Oh, are you
going to finish?" And actually she went up to my husband at the time and said, "Do you think that because she's
married, I won't be able to finish my anthropology dream?" She was concerned about that, and she told my best friend
about that, and but I have a huge drive. I've had since eight years old to be an anthropologist. So I don't feel like
anything would have stopped me, but people were worried about, but they were encouraging, but also they wanted me
to stop school. So they thought that school-They couldn't see the money value in it, and I was in school two years for
Masters and eight and a half years for PhD, and so they thought it was a waste of time, and it's kind of like people call
often. They want you to make money really, and so they just see me as making money, and so that was always hard.
>> Interviewer: Were there any specific bridges to your success?
>> Bahn: Definitely a lot of mentorship. I surrounded myself with also first generation or 1.5 generation intensely
ambitious women. I have a lot of Asian girlfriends, and they're very ambitious just like me, and actually they also
[inaudible] got a law degree. My friend, Judy, and my best friend, Jennifer, they both got medical degrees. My other,
Lee, is, you know, very successful, [inaudible] jobs, real estate agent. So I have always surrounded myself with very
intensely ambitious and maybe they're not ambitious, but they're-they are ambitious, but they're driven people, too, to do
well.
>> Interviewer: Would you argue that your community helped you in any way?
>> Bahn: No. We were never part of the community too much. We went to the Shiite temple like once.
>> Interviewer: How was your family and your household environment, how would they view college in general? How
would they speak of it?
>> Bahn: My father working everyday in the restaurant would say, "Don't ever do this job. Don't ever do this job. Look
how hard I'm working everyday. I work every single day. I'm sweating," and I look at him, and his entire shirt would be
wet with sweat, and he's like, "You've got to well. You have to go to school. You have to go to-," and he would say to
me, like first grade he would say, "I work so had and even though we have no money, we're saving money for college
for you. There's money for you to go to college," and he would say that since I was in first grade. So obviously I knew
that I was-that's something that, you know, and my parents are breaking their backs for me to go to college. I better get
some grades to go to college.
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>> Interviewer: Were there anyone else in the community that helped you enable the success as in friends, other cultural
groups, or maybe any subgroups you're in, such as dance or any other activities?
>> Bahn: In Dunbar, everyone was the same generation as me, but some of them I guess were considered second
generation. They were born in the United States, and they were also very intensely dedicated to school because they had
parents who were actually younger than my parents, who were actually better educated. Their parents actually went to
college in maybe Taiwan or Hong Kong. So it was a different class level, but they were also intensely pushed, and
probably [inaudible] better because their parents went to college. For myself, I had to do it myself, but my sister went to
college before me, and somehow you just have to ask your other friends, "What is to succeed?" So I, myself, took upon
myself to study as a teen by myself because I heard that it was very important to get in college. So I bought my-I asked
my parents to drive me to a bookstore where I bought my own SAT cards. I took Kaplan SAT, and then I took, and then
I read my sister's complete-my sister did complete Princeton SAT review. I read all my sister's books and then for her
Princeton review, and then I took one-I asked my parents to take another SAT class, and then I was-and plus I enjoy
English a lot. So I just thought of it as no, this is a good way for me to learn better vocabulary, and I've always loved
words, and so the SAT is like you have to learn vocabulary, and so I thought, "This is great," and so I took it upon
myself to really study by myself and learn my own SATs, and so I always have flash cards. I brought them to me with
the restroom. I flipped through it, and I really enjoyed it, and so I scored in the ninetieth percentile in SATs in English. I
think I was like average for math, but it's something that I really enjoyed, and I took upon myself so my parents don't
know what SATs are. My parents don't know what these things are, but they paid for the program. So they knew. I just
told them it's important, and so I intensely, I just heard through the grapevine, "Oh, yeah, SAT is important." So I found
out how to study for it, and I always-I know because I did so poorly as a-I got straight F's when I was in kindergarten,
straight F's in first grade. So I'm not an easy learner. I'm not-I was in ESL. I'm not-and I got out of it after first year, year
one. [Inaudible] I was not, but I don't learn easily. I don't pick up things fast. I don't-all those things that people say I'm
an easy learner, I just don't, I'm the opposite of that. For me, I have to drill myself. I have to write it down, listen to it. I
draw pictures. I have to memorize, and then we go back, and I have to have study groups. I just know in my heart I don't
learn easily, and because of that I had to go out of my way to like pound it in my brain because I just don't learn like
other people. It's not easy. I forget, and it's not-it doesn't come easy to me. So because of that I have no, that's an issue.
>> Interviewer: What would you like to see in the future in colleges to help facilitate higher education success in your
ethnic group?
>> Bahn: I want there to be more ethnic clubs, more ethnic professors, more ethnic classes [inaudible] Asians. I would
love every person to take an ethnics study class, Asian-American study class, Asian women class, and that is something
that is really important.
>> Interviewer: Would you like-What would you be your thoughts on more college success workshops within your
community?
>> Bahn: I think that Asians are very quiet, and they don't ask for help, and they need to ask for help, and I think college
success workshop a, breaking through the cultural bind being a woman. So there should be like a networking workshop.
There should be a how to get a job workshop because when I graduated UCLA, I was on my own, and I applied to many
jobs. I didn't get any of those jobs, and I didn't know that you were supposed to be a certain way. I didn't know you were
supposed to do an internship before you graduated college. I didn't know that working was so eventful. I didn't know
having a network was so important. So a lot of things that the workshop should be help you get a job, find out stress
reliefs would be good. Those are things that would have been good.
>> Interviewer: Do you have any advice for the next generation or for the third generation?
>> Bahn: Yeah. Get a lot of awards. Apply, join an ethnic club or any kind of club. Get to the presidency. Be active
because most people are not active. So if you're just active your four years or three years, you will become president.
Just nominate yourself for president. So do that. Do internships. Create something new, such as this is in 2017, This
generation they are creating these videos. You're doing like infographic is something that when I was coming up would
have cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Nowadays you can do a free infographic website. You can do something
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that costs a couple, you know, ten thousand dollars in the 80s and 90s. Now you can do it free within like less than an
hour. So take advantage of those things. Create your own posters. Email 60 to 100 people individually. Ask for
mentorship. Ask for help. Also take more classes. Be involved in your community, a volunteer. Get a leadership
position and any type of opportunity you see. Do it. Intern in Washington. Intern in whatever you want to field. Do a lot
of self-care. Do meditation. Exercise every day. Create Facebook pages. Hike and nature. Nature is very soothing and
will help your spirit. Always exercise. Dance. Sing. Go to singing and dancing events. In California there's lots of free
events that you can go to. In California we have the art live things. Watch movies, Netflix. Just do nothing sometimes.
Just do nothing. Just lay down and just meditate or just do nothing. Have days of doing nothing. Sleep in. Have two
days of-I have a friend, Vanessa, who has a thing where every three months she sleeps in bed for two days. She doesn't
eat. She just relaxes and recharges that way. Have a motto. My motto is four things. My motto is reveal hidden stories,
which I got from [inaudible]. Two is use your scholarship and professionalism to help oppressed peoples, and I got that
from this University of Michigan professor. Three is to create what you don't see. So one of the things is something like
that drive me is a, LA is one of the most dynamic places on the planet. It is in California literally the sixth largest-Oh, I
think, is it third largest economy in the world, this little state? And why is there no book on anthropology in Los
Angeles? That is ridiculous. It's millions and millions of people. I found my students when I taught a Chinese ethnic
class, they're like, "Oh, how come there's nothing on LA? How come there's like tons of Asians here." So I had to create
what I didn't see. I created, added a book called "Anthropology of Los Angeles." I did an international global call out for
people who look at Los Angeles, and within one year of my call out, getting it, that book was published. So that's just
from when I don't see it, I will create it. So, for instance, there's no "Anthropology of Fresno." There's no "Anthropology
of San Gabriel Valley." There's no "Anthropology of Riverside." There needs to be. California is a dynamic place, and
it's a very different place. I will create it one day. My goal is also to create like, write and edit 26 books, and my last
thing is, let's see, so create what you don't see. Reveal hidden stories. Three is use your privilege and your education to
help out oppressed people and your research to help oppressed people, and the last one is to move culture. There are a
lot of people on earth that are doing great things, and they're moving culture in a positive way. I think overwhelmingly
it's positive, but I also see in this like present political climate, there's a lot of activists on the other side who are using
their activism to also move culture in a way that is demonizing immigrants, women, people of color, and LGB folks. So
I also see them using multimedia creating sites, doing viral videos. So I see them creating, moving culture in a way that
they feel to me is anti-immigrant way. So for me, I know that I have a privilege, and there is not a fight, but for me, I
can't just like sit down and just wait for stuff or put my head down as my parents always taught me. Put your head down
and just wait or don't say anything. This is probably not the time because I know that there's people who are doing that,
and something that I think that's very important in my life is that when I was a sixth grader, we had a Holocaust survivor
come speak to us, and she said that all her neighbors in her entire town looked on her Jewish family, and later on no one
stood up for her, and so she had to like live in a bathroom like a toilet outside for like a couple of days and to try to hid
and run, and she said nobody helped them, and she said that's one of the things that she wants to push, that a lot of
people, the majority of people in Germany, regular, everyday people stood by and let their neighbors be pushed into the
Holocaust and murdered and I never-so she really pushed on us, you know, if you can help people, try to help them, and,
you know, you have to stand up because most people won't stand up. So as a sixth grader, I was like very traumatized by
her story living in a bathroom and living in a toilet and her entire family was murdered, and so I think about that all the
time. A lot of people, maybe if they get an opportunity, they'll help, but I think most people won't help and most people
won't step up. I think they want to, but for whatever reason they won't step up, and so because of that, I feel like I have
to do a lot of things myself and create what I don't see and protect my own family but also my own people color family
and my own womanhood family, people who are oppressed because I believe that historically you can see sometimes
people don't stand up for other people. So I've also done things, you know, in coalition with African-Americans, with
Muslim-Americans. When the Twin Towers went down, I really knew that everyone's going to hate Muslim people. I
knew it, and they're going to be traumatized, and, unfortunately, they are like lots of murders of South Asians and
[inaudible] after that, a lot of Asian murders, lots of hate crimes against Asians, and so immediately, even though I was
pregnant, I think 6 months pregnant with my husband, we went to south central downtown LA and did a candlelight
vigil with, you'd never believe it, south central is demonized as a very unsafe place, African Americans, and now
predominantly Latino. We were there as a coalition of Asians, Latinos, African-Americans standing in coalition with
Muslim-Americans because we all knew what's coming down. We all knew Muslim-Americans would be like treated
really bad. So, you know, I didn't have to go six months pregnant to this vigil in solidarity, but I did because I know it's
important to show up.
>> Interviewer: Okay, thank you so much.
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