{ "archive": "Asian American Oral History Archive — Tarita Foundation", "publisher": "Tarita Foundation", "version": "0.1 (first release, for review)", "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/", "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices", "records": [ { "id": "TOH-001", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-08-22", "display_name": "J. L.", "name_rule_label": "Initials only, as chosen", "age_grade": "16, junior", "generation": "First generation (born abroad)", "origin": "Beijing, China", "arrival": "2022 (\"when we first came to school here\")", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form)", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published)." ], "notes": [ "The contributor is the archive's editor and asked, on the form, to be shown by initials; the archive honours the form." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-001.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "Mostly Mandarin Chinese" }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "My mom cooks dumplings sometimes, but she also mixes some nights with some western food like steak or seared salmon. We mostly each Chinese styled food." }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "老干妈would probably be the most niche among more western communities since it's more of a chinese spice. I would say that most of my kitchen cabinet and most of the food my mom cooks uses mostly Chinese sauces." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "We go to whole foods for all the fresh foods but we go to a local chinese supermarket for all the sauces, spices, and Asian snacks that we like." }, { "question": "What happens in your house on a Sunday?", "answer": "Not, much, just a normal weekend." }, { "question": "Is there a word or phrase your family uses at home that does not really translate?", "answer": "特儿六. I might have gotten the words wrong but my mom uses it when I'm congested and I'm violently breathing into my nose to make sure the snot doesn't drip out instead of blowing my nose (sorry it might be a little disgusting)." }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "I played baseball because I'd always played it since I was younger growing up in China." }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "The question \"where are you from\" because quite often people want to use it to find out about your ethnicity rather than your nationality." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-002", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-08-23", "display_name": "Maggie Lee", "name_rule_label": "Full name, as chosen", "age_grade": "16, junior", "generation": "Second generation (born in the US)", "origin": "Seoul and Jeonju, South Korea", "arrival": "Paternal grandparents: mid-1960s; mother and grandmother: 1980", "heritage": "Korean", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form)", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published)." ], "notes": [ "The contributor agreed to be contacted and named both grandparents as people she would want interviewed properly; a follow-up recorded interview is a natural next record." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-002.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "We speak English at home, but I've made an effort to try to speak Korean with my mom." }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "A classic, classic dinner consists of rice, mandu (Korean dumplings) OR yangnyeom dubu (tofu), and banchan (Korean side dishes like kimchi). Either that, or we have gyeran bibim (rice, fried egg, soy sauce, and sesame oil mixed together) with jang-jorim (marinated beef) and banchan. Always eaten with chopsticks and shallow spoons!!" }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "Recycled glass jars (to store kimchi and other side dishes), a drawer full of instant ramen, a sujeo-ham (storage box on the kitchen table for chopsticks and spoons), and individual metal rice bowls." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "We do our regular grocery shopping weekly at our local stores, like Trader Joe's, Roche Bros, and Stop and Shop, but we also go to H-Mart in Burlington every two weeks or so (30 min drive without traffic)." }, { "question": "What happens in your house on a Sunday?", "answer": "When it's nice out, my family usually spends the weekend doing outdoor work, whether that's raking leaves, tending the garden, picking weeds, mowing the lawn, etc. We also go to church together on Sunday mornings." }, { "question": "Is there a word or phrase your family uses at home that does not really translate?", "answer": "noon-chi: the art of reading the room" }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "I played soccer and basketball up until sophomore year; my parents chose soccer because it's a really big part of the Natick community, and basketball was mostly me. Primarily, though, I'm a musician. My parents made me and my sisters play piano since elementary school, and I later chose to play the saxophone (kept playing piano up until sophomore year)." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "Respect and kindness. It was ingrained in us from an early age that we were to be respectful and kind to all people, and that started at home." }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "Are you from China or from Asia? North or South Korea? Why aren't you good at ________? Do you eat ________? (usually dog, or some other animal)" }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "Although my maternal grandmother had her bachelor's degree from one of the most prestigious universities in Korea (Seoul National University), she was forced to fully reset her life once she and her children (my mother) immigrated to the States. In Korea, she had been somewhat of a nutritionist and had her own cooking show (all the facts might not be completely right), but in America, she started back at square one, and opened an Asian restaurant (Chopstix, at a mall in Oklahoma)." }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "Dad's side: grandparents came to the US in the 1960s and moved outside of Cleveland, where my grandfather still resides\nMom's side: grandmother, mother, aunt, and uncle came to the US in 1980 and moved to Moore, OK where my grandmother's two sisters (and their families) were living. Now, that same family unit lives in Texas (Houston, San Antonio, and Plano/Dallas)\n\nI live in Natick, MA." }, { "question": "Is there something your family does not talk about?", "answer": "All my grandparents grew up during the Korean War, and it's still a pretty touchy topic, especially for my paternal grandfather." }, { "question": "Who in your family would you most want interviewed properly, and why?", "answer": "I'd like to interview both my grandparents (maternal grandmother + paternal grandfather)." }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "I want people to know how strong and resilient my family is. My mother's side of the family had to face extreme hardship, what with my grandfather passing away when my mother was young and my grandmother being a single-mom (with a strong support system, but she had to leave Korea to achieve it). My paternal grandparents had to walk across Korea during the Korean War, and after persisting and surviving the war, were able to build a life together in the States despite not knowing anyone." }, { "question": "Anything else?", "answer": "One cool thing is that I am related to Admiral Yi Sun-Sin (Korean military general who, despite being the underdog, won all his naval battles against Japan) and King Sejong (King of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty who created the Korean alphabet)." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-003", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-07", "display_name": "Peter He", "name_rule_label": "Full name, as chosen", "age_grade": "15", "generation": "Second generation (born in the US)", "origin": "China", "arrival": "Before the contributor was born", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form)", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published)." ], "notes": [ "The contributor's mother is named as willing to sit for an interview." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-003.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "Chinese" }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Rice, a plate of Greens, and a main course with a meat dish" }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "Chili oil, dumpling vinegar, soy sauce, msg" }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "Chinatown 25 mins" }, { "question": "What happens in your house on a Sunday?", "answer": "Watch a movie" }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Golf. My mom picked it because we lived close and it was a great hobby during Covid." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "All A’s" }, { "question": "When did you first understand that your family was seen as Asian American — and what happened?", "answer": "Idk" }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "Idk" }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "My parents moved here for school. Don’t quite know what their first job was though" }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "Cambridge mass" }, { "question": "What is one thing about America that someone in your family still finds strange, or funny?", "answer": "We miss the diverse food palates we consistently ate in China" }, { "question": "Who in your family would you most want interviewed properly, and why?", "answer": "Mom. She is supportive of the foundation and would gladly participate" }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "We came to America for a new perspective and we received one" } ] }, { "id": "TOH-004", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-19", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "Asked for initials but gave no name; shown as anonymous", "age_grade": "16, junior", "generation": "Second generation (born in the US)", "origin": "Mother from Shanghai, father from Guangxi, China", "arrival": "Before the contributor was born", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published)." ], "notes": [ "\"l ones using golgi berries\" is as typed; the contributor presumably means \"loves using goji berries\". Left as written." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-004.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "My mom and grandmother speak Shanghainese and mandarin, especially to eachother and I can understand it. My dad and his side of the family all speak Cantonese and mandarin." }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "My grandmother usually cooks the food, typically an assortment of dishes but always with stirfry bokchoy and rice. Because of the different times my family comes home, we don’t usually all eat together." }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "My family l ones using golgi berries, including me. In tea, in soups, in dishes etc." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "My family loves Asian supermarkets and shops but also goes to places like market basket a lot. Typically my mom goes to super 88 or H mart for groceries." }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Singing, my mom signed me up when I was really little because learning music and persevering through hard parts is a discipline." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "As an older child, I’m always expected to take care of my little brother and teach him and do everything in place of him because at the moment “he’s too young and needs guidance” despite me doing the same thing I’m doing now at his age" }, { "question": "When did you first understand that your family was seen as Asian American — and what happened?", "answer": "During Covid 19, some rude and hateful comments directed towards my family and I when we would go out grocery shopping" }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "My mom worked in pharmaceutical when she came." }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "My dad and mom originally were in Canada but then they split up. My dad went to New York City, and my mom came here to Boston. Then my dad and mom reunited in Boston." }, { "question": "What is one thing about America that someone in your family still finds strange, or funny?", "answer": "My family complains that everything here is really expensive and how the food delivery is not convenient at all." }, { "question": "Look around your house. What is one object your family would never throw away?", "answer": "I would never be able to throw away plushies I have, and I would be very upset if it vanished. Although it’s not very Asian the first plushie I got was when my family moved to New York." }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "Every family has its challenges when first immigrating and mine is no exception, but I hope people can remember that even though there may be challenges but there’s also a good outcome from it." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-005", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-19", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "Anonymous, as chosen", "age_grade": "17, senior", "generation": "Second generation (born in the US)", "origin": "Both parents from Shanghai, China", "arrival": "Mother came to Knoxville, Tennessee around 1989, to New York around 1992, returned to China around 1997", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published).", "Two photographs (New York, 1990s). The contributor wrote \"don't publsh the photos pls\". They are held and will not be published.", "The contributor's fuller answer on when the family came to the US, which names a parent's current city of residence; summarised in the metadata rather than published in full." ], "notes": [ "The family's household is in Shanghai; the contributor boards at school in Massachusetts and previously lived in Vancouver. Generation is recorded as the contributor ticked it." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-005.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "Both grandmas speak shanghainese and mandarin, Mom and dad speak mixture of Shanghainese, Mandarin and English, aunt and cousin speak english and I answer in whatever they speak to me in. Mom also speaks cantonese" }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Usually nanny cooks because parents don't like to. Dinner is usually braised meat/fish, chicken soup with morels/腌笃鲜, and at least one vegetable (豆苗，上海青，红苋菜) and rice." }, { "question": "Is there a dish your family makes that you have never seen anywhere else?", "answer": "百叶包，烤麸，年糕毛蟹，梭子蟹，" }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "dried morels, dried sea cucumber and abalone" }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "We shop at wet markets or grocery stores near our house in Shanghai, around a 15 min walk at most" }, { "question": "What happens in your house on a Sunday?", "answer": "There is no family day. I used to go to my paternal grandma's house and we would play cards and mahjong, but i don't see them much anymore" }, { "question": "Is there a word or phrase your family uses at home that does not really translate?", "answer": "老灵额- means something is nice/good xi le- refers to good food 搞七捻三- doing too much" }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "I played piano and golf when I was little. I think golf is associated with status. When I moved to Vancouver and realy liked to ski so that is what I do now at CA." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "To assimilate into American society/have white friends" }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "My aunt tried to start a fashion brand in NYC" }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "New York City" }, { "question": "Is there a story about your family that gets retold?", "answer": "My grandma tells a story of her dad being the director of a major hospital in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution." }, { "question": "What is happening in the photos you uploaded?", "answer": "first img- not a family photo, was taken in nyc around 1990s. mom is in the purple dress. second photo is a family photo, my mom, my aunt and grandma are in it. I don't know who the white man is. also around 1990s" } ] }, { "id": "TOH-006", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-19", "display_name": "P. M.", "name_rule_label": "Initials only, as chosen", "age_grade": "14, freshman", "generation": "Complicated / more than one", "origin": "Shanghai, China", "arrival": "1960s", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published).", "One photograph of the object (the grandmother's paintings) and five family photographs, with the captions above. Held until the contributor confirms in writing which may be published and how the people in them should be named." ], "notes": [ "The family story about the great-grandfather is published as the contributor told it; the archive has not verified it and does not present it as established history.", "The six photographs are the strongest visual material received so far and were described in detail by the contributor. Priority for a confirmation request." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-006.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "I only speak Chinese to my dad, I only speak English with my mom. Same rules for my maternal and paternal side. English for maternal, Chinese for Paternal. My dad speaks Shanghainese to his parents." }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "If it’s at my dad’s house in Shanghai, we usually have steak, mustard greens, eggs, and rice. When my mom cooks, we eat a large variety, usually clam chowder, or curry, or dumplings. I eat everything even though I am sometimes particular. My dad is like a vacuum cleaner, and my mom is probably the slowest eater in the world." }, { "question": "Is there a dish your family makes that you have never seen anywhere else?", "answer": "My dad makes these sugar and soy sauce pan fried eggs, they are the best thing in the world." }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "We have the most extensive sauce drawer known to man." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "In China, my dad goes to Sam’s store or another chain/sometimes to the fish market. In America my mom buys from Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Weee!" }, { "question": "Is there a word or phrase your family uses at home that does not really translate?", "answer": "Luo tang ji. It’s a more common Chinese way to describe someone who is soaking wet, but it’s something funny that me and my parents share. It means, ‘fallen into water chicken’." }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "I wrestle, I think I Kim with the sport a lot because my father used to be a martial artist and he did MMA and taught me kick boxing." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "They expect me to be myself as fully and honestly as possible, incredibly unseats of in Asian society but fortunately true for me." }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "I hate being asked if I speak Mandarin. Just wait for me to tell you please. Especially when I’ve either made it extremely obvious that I do, or have done the opposite by acting ABC. It’s just strange." }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "I don’t know exactly what neighborhood but my great grandmother kept her kids in their apartment in New York in a less than safe building." }, { "question": "Is there a story about your family that gets retold?", "answer": "My great grandfather was the head of Shanghai’s secret police under Chiang Kai Shek. He was assassinated by Mao Ze Dong for anti-part sentiments. This was what caused my great grandmother to take her youngest children and flee the country." }, { "question": "Look around your house. What is one object your family would never throw away?", "answer": "My grandmother’s paintings, she is truly the opposite of everything her family wanted their children to be. She is a true artist and beyond being bundled across the world by her mother she has emerged as a butterfly." }, { "question": "What is happening in the photos you uploaded?", "answer": "In one, my grandmother in her twenties stands next to her mother. In another my great grandmother is photographed in New York, another is my mother as a toddler messily babbling next to my grandmother. Both my mom and my uncle are together with my grandma in one. And finally a portrait of my great grandfather, head of the Shanghai secret police." }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "I want them to know of our uniqueness. How unapologetically creative we are, how much we have suffered to be able to create, and how happy we are to be together." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-007", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-19", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "Gave a name but did not choose how it should appear; shown as anonymous until the contributor chooses", "age_grade": "—", "generation": "First generation (born abroad)", "origin": "Hong Kong and Taiwan", "arrival": "—", "heritage": "Hong Kong / Taiwanese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published).", "The contributor's name, pending their choice of how it should appear." ], "notes": [ "Short record, but it contains a forty-year restaurant career and a story the family retells; worth a follow-up interview with the grandfather if he is willing." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-007.html", "answers": [ { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "They go to Hmart in Burlington a lot even though it’s kinda far away" }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "Since people still ask us where we really came from" }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "My grandfather worked at a Chinese restaurant as a cook for over 40 years after he moved from Hong Kong." }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "Boston, MA" }, { "question": "Is there a story about your family that gets retold?", "answer": "A story that gets retold is about how my mom really liked candy when she was younger so my grandmother hid all of the candy and sugar in a cabinet and my mom climbed inside of it and started eating it and then my grandma thought the munching sound was mice so she went to the kitchen with a broom and was ready to hit it but then found my mom instead." }, { "question": "Is there something your family does not talk about?", "answer": "There is a period nobody discusses" } ] }, { "id": "TOH-008", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-20", "display_name": "C. C.", "name_rule_label": "Initials only, as chosen", "age_grade": "14, freshman", "generation": "Third generation or later", "origin": "Father's side from Taipei and Tainan, Taiwan", "arrival": "Father's side in the 1960s", "heritage": "Taiwanese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published).", "Two photographs of the object (the grandfather's teapots). Held until the contributor confirms they may be published." ], "notes": [], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-008.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "My Ahma speaks mandarin to my dad and he answers in English usually. My brother and I were never taught Mandarin, but we are learning it in school. Sometimes I speak in Mandarin with my extended famiy." }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Rice, a beancurd dish, stir-friend vegetable, and either meat or fish. I am pescatarian so I don't eat the usual beef or pork, but everyone else does." }, { "question": "Is there a dish your family makes that you have never seen anywhere else?", "answer": "My Ahma makes this beancurd dish which I have never seen on a menu or at another persons house. It is a Taiwanese kind of beancurd so it is kind of rubbery. There is also pickled cabbage with it. It was my favorite dish growing up." }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "My dad has a lot of loose tea leaves and various appliances to make it properly. Some things I don't know the purpose of and I have never seen them else where in the US. He buys it when we are in Asia." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "For snacks and typical Asian foods we buy from Wee which is all online. However sometimes there is a special ingredient and we go to either H mart or Super 88 which is around a 25 minute drive." }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Tennis. When my dad was growing up he played tennis and soccer because his parents made him, so now my brother and I play these sports." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "Both my parents expect all A's, multiple instruments, sports, and extra activities." }, { "question": "When did you first understand that your family was seen as Asian American — and what happened?", "answer": "Since I'm Wasian, I always felt too White around one half and too Asian around the other. What made me realize that to other Americans i'm considered just Asian was when a boy at school said my lunch looked gross even when it was just rice and spring roll." }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "My Ahma and Ahgong lived in NYC. I think then New Jersey (if not right after NYC, eventually), then the Chicago in the suburbs. After my Ahgong died my Ahma moved back to Taipei for a few years. She then moved back to the US in Boston and now lives with us." }, { "question": "What is one thing about America that someone in your family still finds strange, or funny?", "answer": "My Ahma will talk a lot about \"those Americans\" a lot. Usually about what they are eating or their body." }, { "question": "Is there something your family does not talk about?", "answer": "My dad doesn't talk about is childhood. If we ask he gives very vague answers. My uncle on the other hand talks all about it and tries to tell us stories. My dad especially doesn't talk about his dad." }, { "question": "Who in your family would you most want interviewed properly, and why?", "answer": "My uncle, Mike." }, { "question": "Look around your house. What is one object your family would never throw away?", "answer": "My Ahgongs tea pots. They are probably the most valuable thing in this house to my dad." }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "My dad had a lot of trauma from his childhood having immigrant parents and that has affected my family, but not my brother and I. My parents try their best to not do what their parents did." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-009", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-21", "display_name": "Corrine", "name_rule_label": "First name only, as chosen", "age_grade": "18, senior", "generation": "Complicated / more than one", "origin": "Mother's side from Shandong, father's side from Wuzhou, China", "arrival": "\"They never did.\" The family lives in Shenzhen; the contributor grew up partly in Poland", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published).", "One family photograph (a ski trip in Bulgaria). Held until the contributor confirms it may be published." ], "notes": [ "The contributor writes \"I'm not Asian American\": a Chinese student at an American school whose family never emigrated. The archive keeps the record because the questions were answered and consent given; the catalogue records the contributor's own framing rather than assigning one." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-009.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "In my immediate family, we speak Mandarin, but my extended family speaks Shandong dialect and Cantonese." }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Rice, fried/cooked pork dish, greens, soup" }, { "question": "Is there a dish your family makes that you have never seen anywhere else?", "answer": "疙瘩汤" }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "鸡精" }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "My family shops at local groceries near our house, its usually within walking distance and isn't any major chains. Just stalls ran by individuals." }, { "question": "What happens in your house on a Sunday?", "answer": "My aunt and uncle sometimes comes over to Shenzhen, other times my dad would bring me back to Guangzhou or Wuzhou with him to see family." }, { "question": "Is there a word or phrase your family uses at home that does not really translate?", "answer": "保平安: my family is separated around the world and each individual travels a lot on their own, so this is something we often say to one another; it literally means to report that you're safe." }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Tennis, but at first I had to take ballet like every other girl back home." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "They expect me to put in my best effort into everything and to have good morals and principles." }, { "question": "When did you first understand that your family was seen as Asian American — and what happened?", "answer": "I'm not Asian American, but I did live in Poland for a long time and being in a nearly-all white community really deterred me from embracing my culture in public. I remember being referred to as one of the kpop-loving girls just because I was friends with a lot of Korean girls." }, { "question": "What is one thing about America that someone in your family still finds strange, or funny?", "answer": "My parents told me they could never move to America because they would forever be living in a foreign and scary land, but they wish for me to stay here for better opportunities." }, { "question": "Is there something your family does not talk about?", "answer": "My family rarely talks about conflicts or feelings between one another." }, { "question": "Who in your family would you most want interviewed properly, and why?", "answer": "My mom, because she single handedly raised my sister and I in Poland when she wasn't even fluent in English." }, { "question": "Look around your house. What is one object your family would never throw away?", "answer": "Old papers and notebooks for recording anything." }, { "question": "What is happening in the photos you uploaded?", "answer": "Its my immediate family, and we were all together on a ski trip in Bulgaria when I was around second or third grade (I think)." }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "My family has worked hard to get where they are and I'm extremely proud of that." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-010", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-21", "display_name": "Emma Zhao", "name_rule_label": "Full name, as chosen", "age_grade": "14, freshman", "generation": "First generation (born abroad)", "origin": "Shanghai, China", "arrival": "During Covid", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published)." ], "notes": [], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-010.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "Everyone speaks mandarin to each other" }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "My mom usually makes dinner. A weeknight dinner might be rice, sweet and sour pork ribs, tomato and egg stir fried, stir fried water spinach, and sometimes steamed fish or other seafood, or just soup." }, { "question": "Is there a dish your family makes that you have never seen anywhere else?", "answer": "My mom makes a lot of traditional Chinese dishes and often times she would switch recipe or ingredients slightly, but I wouldn't say there is a dish I've never seen anywhere else." }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "probably a jar of my mom's homemade marinara sauce." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "Often times, my family food shop at farms. Some are around half an hour away while some are closer. Other times we would just go to grocery stores near our house, usually around 10 minute drives or less." }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Violin, I chose it when I was younger because my brother played viola and I wanted to be like him. I also played piano when I was younger because my parents really liked the instrument." }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "Probably if I am able to read and write in Chinese." }, { "question": "Is there something about your family you did not understand until recently?", "answer": "Probably why my parents decided to move to the US in the first place." }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "My dad mainly does investing now in the US." }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "We first lived in Chestnut Hill, we recently moved to Acton." }, { "question": "What is one thing about America that someone in your family still finds strange, or funny?", "answer": "Sometimes, my parents find the tipping culture in restaurants quite different to China." }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "In a hundred years, I would hope that stories and memories of my childhood would be passed down. This includes the several years of covid, how days were before Chatgpt and apple phones were introduced, and many other stories of our family of 5." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-011", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-22", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "Anonymous, as chosen", "age_grade": "15, sophomore", "generation": "First generation (born abroad)", "origin": "Zhengzhou, China", "arrival": "A few years before the contributor was born", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published).", "The contributor's name, withheld at their request." ], "notes": [], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-011.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "All of my family speaks Mandarin Chinese to each other, including me. I answer them in Chinese. My brother is the only other family member who speaks English besides myself, and we speak English specifically to each other." }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Rice, tomato and egg, fried chicken chunks, stir-fried green beans, and banana milk." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "My family shops at either Costco or 88 Market. They drive around 20-30 minutes, sometimes more." }, { "question": "What happens in your house on a Sunday?", "answer": "We watch football and lounge, eat some favorite dishes at night like lamb skewers." }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Horseback riding. I picked it because I’ve always loved horses." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "They expect someone who’s an all rounder an everything, somebody that they can brag about." }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "“Do you only eat rice?”" }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "Redwood City, California. We now live in North Andover, Massachusetts." }, { "question": "Is there a story about your family that gets retold?", "answer": "My brother being the first one to come to America for education." }, { "question": "Who in your family would you most want interviewed properly, and why?", "answer": "My brother, because he’s seen things in America that I haven’t." }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "My parents worked extremely hard to get to where they are." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-012", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-22", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "Asked for initials but gave no name; shown as anonymous", "age_grade": "15, sophomore", "generation": "First generation (born abroad)", "origin": "Seoul, Korea", "arrival": "\"They're still in Korea… we never moved to the US.\"", "heritage": "Korean", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published)." ], "notes": [ "A Korean student at an American school whose family remains in Korea. Kept for the same reason as TOH-009: the questions were answered and consent given." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-012.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "Korean, English, sometimes Mandarin. I speak Korean to my grandparents, parents, and siblings. But I speak more english with my siblings." }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Rice, beef (usually) it's crazy how uncommon it is to serve beef in the states, sometimes fish, side dishes (like kimchi, bean sprout, soy sauce cucumber, seasoned vegetables, and a lot more). We almost never have chicken, which is most commonly consumed in America." }, { "question": "Is there a dish your family makes that you have never seen anywhere else?", "answer": "My mom makes \"Galbijim\" which is like beef stew or braised beef short ribs with radish, carrots, and with its rich, savory, slightly sweet sauce. I don't see this in many other countries." }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "We always have a container full of cucumber kimchi and cabbage kimchi. There are different types of kimchi and all are very distinct from one another (even in the slightest ways)." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "There are small to big markets everywhere in Korea so it is really easy to get fresh organic ingredients. There's multiple at a walkable distance near where we live." }, { "question": "Is there a word or phrase your family uses at home that does not really translate?", "answer": "\"Noon-Chi\" is almost but not entirely equivalent to \"social awareness\" or one's ability to read the room. This word is used very often in the house, for it is crucial to be able to comprehend our surroundings, and from understanding strive to be respectful." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-013", "kind": "interview", "date": "2026-09-23", "title": "Allen Zhang on two cuisines at one table, the question that never goes away, and what a family's own story does to a child", "display_name": "Allen Zhang", "name_rule_label": "Full name, with consent given on the recording", "interviewer": "Jeffrey Liu", "place": "Over Zoom (Cambridge, Massachusetts / Boston area)", "duration": "13 min 45 s", "iso_duration": "PT13M45S", "language": "English", "generation": "Second generation (born in the US)", "origin": "Santa Clara, California; parents from China", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Recorded interview over Zoom, the archive's first practice interview", "audio": "toh-002-allen-zhang.mp3", "recording_note": "Audio only, cut from the Zoom recording of a longer call; the conversation before and after the interview is not part of the record.", "summary": "Allen Zhang, 23, born in Santa Clara, California and schooled partly in China, on a family that serves barbecue ribs beside tomato and egg; on why \"are you Chinese or American\" is still asked even in Palo Alto and Cambridge; on the difference between a family story of voluntary immigration and one of flight, and what each does to the next generation; and on why a record of one family on one Monday is worth more to a future historian than any aggregate.", "about": "This was the archive's first recorded interview and a rehearsal of the question set. The interviewer and contributor know each other; the contributor was asked to answer as if to a stranger. Consent to publish was asked for and given on the recording at 13:22.", "transcript_note": "Transcribed by machine from the Zoom recording and checked against the audio. Speaker labels were corrected where the automatic transcript misassigned a question to the contributor. Timestamps are approximate to within a few seconds. Fillers are kept.", "held": [ "The rest of the Zoom call (a planning conversation before and after the interview), which is not part of the record." ], "notes": [ "The contributor is the Tarita Foundation's advisor on this archive and the interviewer's college counsellor; the interview was a rehearsal of the question set, which is why it opens with the questionnaire's own questions." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-013.html", "audio_url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/media/toh-002-allen-zhang.mp3", "transcript": [ { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "0:00", "text": "Okay, Allen, thank you so much for doing this interview. Uh, could you please state your name, age, and, uh, occupation, please?" }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "0:08", "text": "Yeah, of course. Uh, thank you for having me, Jeffrey. Uh, my name's Allen. I'm current- Allen Zhang. I'm currently 23, uh, old, a- and I'm a student." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "0:18", "text": "All right. Um, could you please, um, describe what fits your family best. So did you guys, you know, were you, do you guys, like, uh, are you guys from China and moved to the US, or w- what, what's kind of, um, your, your background?" }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "0:33", "text": "Yeah, yeah. Very interesting question. So I'm, uh, I was born in the United States. Uh, I was born in Santa Clara, specifically, um, in California. Uh, and then I moved back to China, actually, to learn Chinese for my elementary school and part of middle school. And then I moved back to the United States, and, uh, um, and I've stayed here ever since. But I travel back and forth from China to visit my family there as well. So I'm a bit of a mix, uh, which is a very interesting kind of situation, but I do classify myself as a Chinese American." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "1:02", "text": "Okay. Nice, nice, nice. Thanks for sharing that. Um, can you please describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house? Like, what do you guys eat? Are there any special traditions that you guys do? Um, you know, walk me through kind of what happens, what's going on." }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "1:15", "text": "Yeah, yeah. This is a very interesting question. So my family eats, uh, I would say, like, a very interesting combination of both, um, cuisines, like both Chinese and American cuisine.\n\nTo give you some examples, I would eat, um... I'll come home. So first of all, like, my mom would usually cook for me, um, and, uh, it's usually some sort of, like, a Chinese dish accompanied by some kind of, like, uh, American, like s- a kind of American dish. So I will have, like, barbecue ribs with, like, tomato and eggs, for example, like on the same day, which is kind of unusual. Uh, which is, I, I, I think fits my family background pretty well. Uh, my, like, um, I would say also, like, I use a variety of different utensils. I think this is also a very good judgment. Like, do you use chopsticks, um, or do you use fork usually, right? Like, um, and I think surprisingly, my family, I think, um, I use, um, mainly I use chopstick, uh, for my personal eating. But, like, when we have, like, a sharing plate, for example, and we still do this family style thing, uh, you, you have a fork that we use to grab things together. I think in China you either have a spoon for soup and stuff, uh, or you have, like, a, a chopstick that you, that we use to, to, to get things, right? So it's a combination of both." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "2:35", "text": "Thank you so much for sharing that, Allen. Um, just b- diving a little deeper into, you know, kind of what you guys, um, the cuisine you guys, you know, have each day. Um, is there, like, a- any dish in particular that your, your family makes that you've not seen anywhere else?" }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "2:51", "text": "Very, very good question. Um, honestly, not that I can think of- anything, like, too special." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "3:05", "text": "Have you seen any dish that you have at home that maybe none of your other friends have? Is there any dish that-" }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "3:14", "text": "Yeah. Uh, I was saying, like, we eat a lot of, like... well, not a lot, but, like, occasionally we eat, like, um, like, um, uh, intestines, like animal, you know, intestines and stuff like that. So for example, like, we do chicken liver, I think. I don't even know what the, what that is, actually. Just, like, something. You know, it tastes pretty good. Um, beef liver, uh, um, uh, beef heart, things like that. Uh, I think that's usually something that people don't consume, at least in my immediate friend circle. Uh, but it's something that we do." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "3:47", "text": "Okay. Nice. Nice. Thanks for sharing that. Um, let's just move a little bit beyond kind of, you know, the cuisine, the food topic. Um, let's talk more about, a little bit more about identity, right? Like, what is, uh, what do you get asked about being Asian American that you sometimes you feel tired about or that you're kind of you've been asked this question so many times and, and you feel like it's kind of a burden to answer, or you don't wanna answer th- this type of question? What is a, what is a question that you've been asked?" }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "4:19", "text": "Um, well, I think I was born in... So I lived in a very kind of liberal type of situation, uh, and a lot of my... I think the people around me are very used to this kind of Chinese American identity, uh, or, like, very used to seeing Chinese Americans around. Uh, for concepts who live in Silicon Valley, so there's a lot of, you know, like software engineers who work there, a lot of people who are there who are just, you know, Chinese Americans. Uh, so I don't really get kind of like questions that will, like, throw me off a little bit anytime, um, like very often at the very least.\n\nUm, however, I do think, like, the... A common question would be like, \"Okay, so are you Chinese or are you like American?\" Right? This is, like, still a very common question, I think, to this day. Um, which I think it's kind of interesting in today's society. You would think that, you know, like they- we've integrated very well into American society, but I, I, I think, um, to the general public still, um, there is a dissonance between China and US, and they don't see... If you're Chinese American, they don't really see you as full American. It's always Chinese or American, not Chinese and American, right? Um, I think that sentiment is still there, no matter how liberal of a place you are. I, I would classify like Palo Alto, for example, or Cambridge, Massachusetts as extremely liberal, but I would say the sentiment is still very much there." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "5:35", "text": "Thank you for sharing that, Allen. That's really something really personal. Um, so is there something in your family that you guys, um, don't really talk about, or is there something that you guys, like, you know, is, is more secretive about, you know, your family?" }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "5:51", "text": "Uh, no. I, I, I actually think this is a very interesting take that you can look into, which is the, the, the idea of, um, uh, the family narrative, right? Like, how would you describe your... Like, I think a family's narrative of how they've come to be, um, cha- really shapes, shapes, like, a, a person's perception, uh, of who they are, uh, and therefore how they will shape the next generation and the people around them, right?\n\nSo I would imagine... So I can share a couple stories. So number one about my family perception. So my, my parents are both, um, born in China, and they, they went to college in the United States. Uh, and they, you know, they achieve... I would, I would classify them as achieving the American dream, right? They work hard. Uh, they got educated, uh, and then they found a very good job. Uh, and, uh, they worked to af- buy their own home, house, uh, you know, do very well in their own businesses and et cetera, et cetera. So definitely achieving their American dream. But they didn't get lost in their Chinese roots too. They still travel back to China to see their parents, aka my grandparents, uh, and they have a very good relationship with the people in China, right? They can speak Chinese very fluently. They were not oppressed or anything when they were in China. They were still, I would say, at least upper middle class in China. There's no sort of political prosecution whatsoever in their age.\n\nSo, um, the narrative I hear is, \"Oh, you know, like in China at the time, there was not a lot of progress, so we moved out. Uh, but the Chinese people are still very nice, right? We're still Chinese. Uh, at least deep down, our roots were still Chinese. And then you came to America for the better future, which I hope you can treat this as your new home. But also you can move back to China from time to time to visit the people there, you know, to see what's out there. Uh, you can get the best of both worlds, so to speak,\" right? You can connect these two things together. Uh, that's the narrative my parents told me. It's a narrative of, uh, voluntary immigration. It's a, it's a, it's a journey of, uh, you know, um, the ascending period of both American and China. Uh, so the s- the sentiment is very much like very, uh, nice and warm, and the narrative that I grew up hearing are something very similar to this, right?\n\nUm, on the other hand, I have friends, um, whose parents are immigrated from China, uh, in a non, I would say, not super voluntary way, right? They were prosecuted politically. They were not very happy back in the, back, back, back in China. So when they come here, they obviously have a relatively, uh, I would say, a, a, a less positive or a more negative view on, uh, China. Uh, and I think that is still down to their, their, their, their, their, their kids. Uh, so I, I think this narrative, how you position yourself is gonna be very, very important. Yeah, so I, I think that's, uh, that's my general answer. Do you have any follow-up questions to that?" }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "8:34", "text": "Yeah. Yeah, I just really wanted to follow up on that. Like, kind of you talking about kind of, um, your family moving over and its family history. Um, on a larger scope, how do you think that Asian American history or learning about it at least has affected your perception of your identity or affected your perception of your family's immigration experience? Would you like to share something about that?" }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "8:54", "text": "Yeah, yeah, definitely. So I think it will make me feel more lucky that I am... So if you learn, uh, based on my understanding of Asian American history, um, the first group of Asian American who immigrated here, the Chinese Americans, who were basically more or less kidnapped here, um, or at least, you know, defrauded here, um, were railroad builders. Um, and, uh, they didn't have much, uh, with them back then. Uh, and, uh, they send most of their money back to China, uh, during, during that time. Um, and, uh, they did not, they were not part of the American dream. In fact, I think back days, back in the days, the, the concept of American dream hasn't existed yet, right? So, um, they were not achieving the American dream. They were not coming from a society where education is super, super highly valued. Uh, they were more or less exploited for their, um, hardworking and efforts and, uh, naivete, if you will. Um, uh, so that's the, um, that's based on my understanding the, the, the history of Asian American.\n\nUh, and then more or less coming forward, uh, there's the Chinese American, ch- the Chinese Exclusion Act, which is obviously extremely, I, I, I think, pretty harmful. Surprisingly, I actually learned about that in my history class, uh, which is something, um, you know, kind of, I, I think very meaningful to me at least. Uh, obviously one of the time, during the time when I learned it, it was not really, you know, it doesn't feel great. It's like, okay, so this shit happened to, to us back in the days. But I do think it's a very important moment in history that you learn about this kind of stuff. So that the history will not repeat itself, right? The, the same way we'll learn about, for example, like, uh, the Nazi Germany, the slavery, all these horrible things that we did to each other. Well, by we, I mean like human as a whole, did to each other, uh, in the past. Uh, only if the youth, right, at least when I was in high school, learn about this, we can, um, kind of, uh, appreciate... Number one, appreciate the, the life that we have currently, and B, avoid the same kind of mistake from happening, right? Uh, knowing the history is number, is part one of understanding who you are as a person, uh, what your identity is. Um, yeah. So, uh, that's generally speaking the, the, the, the, uh, the whole situation." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "11:02", "text": "Great. I think that's, you know, that's exactly correct. Like, I think cultivating the youth and, and being able to educate people about Asian American history is the way to go here. Um, okay, last question here. Um, in 100 years, right, what is one thing that you want somebody to know about your family? If there's one thing that you could tell, what, what, what would you, what would, what would it be?" }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "11:24", "text": "Um, I think w- what I hope, the, the reason why I'm doing this, uh, recording with you, um, and one of the things I think is very helpful is that when I look at, for example, a lot of times when people do these kind of like, um, uh... When, when people write about books and history, they talk about generalized situations, right? They talk about, uh, grand picture. The GDP declined, why? Like, what happened to the inflation, right? What is the general life of a common American? But it's very difficult to give a very specific example of how a family's lifestyle was at that time in that specific group, in that specific moment, right? I think that is very hard to truly understand. Um, and the, the reason is not because they don't want to, it is because they literally cannot find anything, right? There is no record of how John Smith's family did in 1875, uh, right, like on a given Monday. That just doesn't exist.\n\nUm, however, with what you're doing right now, which I think is a great thing, um, future historians, let's say 100 years from now, can know exactly what Allen's family looked like, you know. Uh, and perhaps they can help them to study to understand this period of history a little bit better, understand this period of like Asian American identity. How do people feel as an Asian American right now, right here, right? Uh, with a real example and not some kind of like abstracted things. Like the question you asked before, how does Asian American, studying Asian American history impacted the way I see my own identity, I think it's very hard for me to answer without seeing the life of a selected Chinese American, you know, back in, I don't know, like, uh, 1850s, right? Uh, because it doesn't exist. There's simply, there's no record of it. If I wanna find any kind of primary source document, uh, about this, it just simply... It's very difficult to find. Or if I see it, it's a, uh, obviously there's a selection bias, right? It's not very representative. Um, so, you know, uh, I, I do think it's a very, very nice thing that you're doing here." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "13:22", "text": "Great. Thank you so much, Allen. Thank you so much for, um, sharing that. Um, we really appreciate you, um, and your contributions to the archive. Um, uh, d- just last thing, um, are you okay with this being, um, published or, or shared on the archive for people to listen and view?" }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "13:37", "text": "Yeah. Yeah, no problem." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "13:39", "text": "Okay. Sounds good. All right. Thank you so much for, uh, participating in this interview, Allen." }, { "speaker": "Allen Zhang", "time": "13:44", "text": "Of course. Happy to help." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-014", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-24", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "Anonymous, as chosen", "age_grade": "15, freshman", "generation": "Third generation or later", "origin": "South Korea", "arrival": "Before or around the 1970s", "heritage": "Korean", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [], "notes": [ "Both grandfathers served in or around the US military, one for \"a very long time\"; the contributor has already interviewed one of them for a school paper. A strong candidate for a recorded interview." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-014.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "English only really." }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "It really depends to be honest. We do a good mix of Asian and American food. Some days its stir fry others its pasta or pizza." }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "We have a lot of powder stock for soups or dried mushrooms" }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "Uh Whole Foods and Wegmans" }, { "question": "What happens in your house on a Sunday?", "answer": "We go to church every sunday" }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Volleyball and I chose it because we have friends who do it. When I was younger I did piano that my parents signed me up for, but I quit." }, { "question": "When did you first understand that your family was seen as Asian American — and what happened?", "answer": "I didn't understand it in the moment, but I remember now that in 2nd grade this girl was doing the racist thing with her eyes, pulling them up." }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "Not asked, but everyone assumes I am Chinese or speak Mandarin." }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "My grandpa on my dads side was in the US Military for a very long time." }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "My dad grew up in Los Angles and my mom moved around a lot because her dad was in the military" }, { "question": "Who in your family would you most want interviewed properly, and why?", "answer": "I interviewed my grandfather a little for a paper I wrote about the Vietnam War" }, { "question": "Look around your house. What is one object your family would never throw away?", "answer": "we have these mugs from Tokyo Disney that my mom and her parents have saved and never used since they were little because my grandparents bought them when they didn't have a lot of money and so they are very special to my moms family." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-015", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-24", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "No name given and no choice made; shown as anonymous", "age_grade": "—", "generation": "First generation (born abroad)", "origin": "\"Somewhere in northern China\"", "arrival": "After the contributor was born", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [], "notes": [], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-015.html", "answers": [ { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Boarding student" }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "Usually 30 minute trips to Asian grocers" }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Piano , swimming, fencing, tennis. My mum made me do the first , the rest were by choice" }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "They have expected very reasonable things." }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "Teacher" }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "Somewhere in Virginia" }, { "question": "Is there something your family does not talk about?", "answer": "Not really" }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "We work hard and prioritize dedication above all else" } ] }, { "id": "TOH-016", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-24", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "Anonymous, as chosen", "age_grade": "16, sophomore", "generation": "Complicated / more than one", "origin": "Beijing, China", "arrival": "2021 (with a question mark)", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published)." ], "notes": [ "Under \"Anything you would rather we did not publish?\" the contributor wrote an apology for having no photographs of the house or the handwritten letters; nothing was withheld." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-016.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "Mandarin" }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Stir-fried pork with chili peppers, seaweed soup, rice? I don't really remember, but my grandparents prefer food with a bit more spicy" }, { "question": "Is there a dish your family makes that you have never seen anywhere else?", "answer": "No" }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "😭Not really, maybe the chili sauce made by my grandma." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "The nearby food shop? Like a supermarket...Around 10min driving" }, { "question": "What happens in your house on a Sunday?", "answer": "No" }, { "question": "Is there a word or phrase your family uses at home that does not really translate?", "answer": "haizi? It's a word from the Hunan dialect. This word means shoes, but if you say it in mandarine it means child." }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Piano, my mom picked it. A lot of children learn piano when they are young." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "Hope me grow up healthy?" }, { "question": "When did you first understand that your family was seen as Asian American — and what happened?", "answer": "People usually slow down their speech around my grandparents, because they don't really know English that well." }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "Huh sorry I dont know" }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "Wellesley, Beijing" }, { "question": "What is one thing about America that someone in your family still finds strange, or funny?", "answer": "They miss the food and some traditional festivals in China because all of their friends are in China right now." }, { "question": "Who in your family would you most want interviewed properly, and why?", "answer": "My grandparents? because I feel like I don't know them that well, like their experiences." }, { "question": "Look around your house. What is one object your family would never throw away?", "answer": "My great-grandparents' portrait of the deceased. My grandparents and my mom would be upset." }, { "question": "Anything else?", "answer": "Background and experience?" } ] }, { "id": "TOH-017", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-25", "display_name": "Daniel", "name_rule_label": "First name only, as chosen", "age_grade": "14, freshman", "generation": "Second generation (born in the US)", "origin": "Wuwei, China", "arrival": "2000s (\"I think\")", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published)." ], "notes": [], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-017.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "Mandarin and English" }, { "question": "Is there a dish your family makes that you have never seen anywhere else?", "answer": "No" }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "Costco mostly, Trader Joe’s" }, { "question": "What happens in your house on a Sunday?", "answer": "Church" }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Soccer, because my dad liked it and so did I" }, { "question": "When did you first understand that your family was seen as Asian American — and what happened?", "answer": "Like 7 years old and nothing happened" }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "Like are you ABC and no I’m not tired of being asked" }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "Postdoc at Northwestern" }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "Chicago, Il-> Arlington, MA" }, { "question": "Is there a story about your family that gets retold?", "answer": "No" }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "My dad went to qinghua" } ] }, { "id": "TOH-018", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-25", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "Anonymous, as chosen", "age_grade": "14, freshman", "generation": "Second generation (born in the US)", "origin": "Zhejiang and Anhui, China", "arrival": "Before the contributor was born", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [], "notes": [], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-018.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "We all speak mandarin" }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Rice, some kind of meat(usually chicken or beef) grilled veggie" }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "Ginseng" }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "Hmart and Whole Foods, 10-15min" }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Tennis, my mom picked it because she used to play" }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "dont fail school" }, { "question": "What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?", "answer": "My dad worked as a software engineer for amazon" }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "Massachusetts whole time" }, { "question": "Who in your family would you most want interviewed properly, and why?", "answer": "My mom because I keep finding out new things about her" }, { "question": "Look around your house. What is one object your family would never throw away?", "answer": "My moms tea collection" }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "My parents worked hard to get us where we are" } ] }, { "id": "TOH-020", "kind": "questionnaire", "date": "2026-09-26", "display_name": "Anonymous", "name_rule_label": "Anonymous, as chosen", "age_grade": "15, freshman", "generation": "First generation (born abroad)", "origin": "Shenzhen, Guangdong, China", "arrival": "2020, \"when I started middleschool\"", "heritage": "Chinese", "collected_via": "Student questionnaire (online form), school club drive, Massachusetts, September 2026", "held": [ "Contributor's contact details (never published)." ], "notes": [], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-020.html", "answers": [ { "question": "What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?", "answer": "My whole family speaks mandarin" }, { "question": "Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.", "answer": "Rice, a plate of tomato and eggs, pork, my moms cooks everything and it is mostly great, my dad sometimes cook." }, { "question": "What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?", "answer": "Other types of grains that would be put in rice." }, { "question": "Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?", "answer": "Usually we just go to market basket or sometimes h-mart." }, { "question": "What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?", "answer": "Cross country, I decided myself, my parents wanted me to do tennis or swimming." }, { "question": "What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?", "answer": "They expect me to do at least good in school and be outgoing to everyone even though I cannot be the most extroverted person." }, { "question": "What do you get asked about being Asian American that you are tired of being asked?", "answer": "Where am I actually from." }, { "question": "What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?", "answer": "Boston" }, { "question": "Is there a story about your family that gets retold?", "answer": "My brother said my mom's family was once one of the respectable person (political wise) thousands of years ago." }, { "question": "What is one thing about America that someone in your family still finds strange, or funny?", "answer": "Going to buy groceries everyday, in China we can order them to our appartment." }, { "question": "What do you want someone to know about your family in a hundred years?", "answer": "We are just an ordinary family from Shenzhen." } ] }, { "id": "TOH-021", "kind": "interview", "date": "2026-10-04", "title": "Furquan Saeed on Urdu at home, a dessert named for a window, becoming \"Asian American\" after 9/11, Partition, and Jackson Heights when it was Little Pakistan", "display_name": "Furquan Saeed", "name_rule_label": "Full name, with consent given on the recording", "interviewer": "Jeffrey Liu", "place": "Not stated on the recording; to be confirmed", "duration": "14 min 21 s", "iso_duration": "PT14M21S", "language": "English", "generation": "Second generation (born in the US)", "origin": "Born in Boston; family from Pakistan, raised in Dubai, with roots in Hyderabad, India", "heritage": "Pakistani", "collected_via": "Recorded interview by a Tarita Foundation student", "audio": "toh-001-furquan-saeed.mp3", "recording_note": "Audio only, complete; the recording begins with the first question.", "summary": "Furquan Saeed, 28, born in Boston to a Pakistani family that grew up in Dubai with roots in Hyderabad, on Urdu inside the house and English outside; on Hyderabadi biryani, dal, mutton from the halal butcher, and a family dessert called jali, named for the carved window screens of Indian palaces; on growing up Muslim American after 9/11 and only in high school coming to feel part of \"Asian American\"; on a grandfather who took a boat from India to Karachi at Partition in 1947, went back once by steamboat in 1953 and never again; and on Jackson Heights in Queens, Little Pakistan in the eighties, Bangladeshi now.", "about": "The archive's first interview with a contributor outside the interviewer's school, and its first South Asian American record. Consent to publish and to be cited was asked for and given on the recording at 13:59.", "transcript_note": "Transcribed by machine (Whisper large-v3-turbo) and read against the audio. Where the machine misheard a proper noun it is spelled from context: Pashto (heard \"Bakhto\"), haleem, nihari (heard \"nahadi\"), Tarita (heard \"TRIA\"). Fillers are kept. Timestamps are from the recording.", "held": [], "notes": [ "The spelling of the contributor's name is taken from the interviewer's file name (Furquan) and, for the surname, from the recording by ear (Saeed). To be confirmed with the contributor before the record is cited.", "Place and circumstances of the recording were not stated on tape; the interviewer should add them.", "The contributor's account of Partition and of Karachi as Pakistan's first capital is published as told. Karachi was the federal capital from 1947 until the move to Rawalpindi in 1959, which matches; the archive does not otherwise verify family history." ], "url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/entries/toh-021.html", "audio_url": "https://taritaarchive.org/voices/media/toh-001-furquan-saeed.mp3", "transcript": [ { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "0:02", "text": "Hi, Furquan. Thank you so much for joining us in this interview today. Could you please state your name and age?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "0:08", "text": "My name is Furquan Saeed and I am 28." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "0:12", "text": "Nice. Where were you born?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "0:14", "text": "I was born in Boston." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "0:16", "text": "Nice. And what is your family background like?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "0:19", "text": "My family is from Pakistan, but my parents grew up in Dubai." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "0:24", "text": "Nice. What languages or dialects do you speak at home and how many languages do you know?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "0:30", "text": "I only know two. I grew up speaking Urdu in the house and then, you know, English outside of the house. My grandma speaks a lot more because she grew up in like a mountain city in the north of Pakistan. So I think she speaks like two other, she speaks a little bit of Punjabi and she speaks Pashto, which is like a really regional language." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "0:53", "text": "Okay. What foods did you eat when you were growing up at home and what kind of, what did your, what did your parents cook?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "1:03", "text": "Oh, okay. Yeah. So my mom, my grandma did most of the cooking growing up. My grandma makes like Hyderabadi biryani. Like my family originally is from Hyderabad in India, or a lot of them are from there. So biryani is like kind of like the staple food of there. It's like this like really rich, like rice dish with meat. And then my mom made a lot of like basic staples. Like she made dal, which is made of lentils. We ate a lot of mutton growing up, which I know is like not that big in America, but like that's what they eat over there. So we would get it from the halal butchers. Um, and, uh, yeah. Um, my mom also is really good at making haleem, which is like a chicken, chickpea, like stew kind of dish. And then my auntie makes a really good nihari, which is like a really thick beef stew, which is really flavorful." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "2:00", "text": "Nice. Um, is there any dish in your family that you've never seen anywhere else?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "2:05", "text": "Oh yeah, there's actually a few. They're mostly desserts. So, um, there's a word in Urdu called jali. It means window. And basically like, if you think of like, like a 17, 1800s, like Indian palace, you'll see that they have like these like really ornate sort of like windows with like these like really precise carvings. They're like, because it's such a hot climate. They don't, they're not like these big windows you open up. They're like almost like these screens. And the word for that is called jali. And in my family, we make a dessert called jali. And it's basically like this almond, like sort of confection. Um, and then they're like dyed different colors and they're covered with silver and gold leaf. Um, and it looks like kind of like a window pane or a mirror, um, with different, like, or like stained glass with like different, like cut out carving." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "3:03", "text": "Yeah, that's pretty, pretty. I've definitely never heard of that before. Thanks for sharing that. Um, okay, we're going to jump into some, you know, um, just, uh, growing up questions in the United States. Um, when did you first understand that your family was seen as Asian American and what happened?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "3:21", "text": "Hmm. It's a good question. I think it was like, I think I started realizing this, I mean, the Asian thing specifically, well, you know, I grew up like, right, like I started going to school, like right after like 9-11. So it was like mostly like Muslim American, but then when it shifted to Asian American for me was like, when I realized that, um, I had a lot of stuff in common with like my East Asian friends at school and Southeast Asian friends. Like we had similar to like, you know, ways of thinking about food, like our families had like different, same, similar ways of like thinking about hospitality. Um, the academic pressure was like also kind of similar. Um, and then like, yeah, like, you know, there was just like, you know, like taking your shoes off, that kind of thing in the house. That was all like, that's when I started realizing, oh, it's not just like, I'm not just like, you know, Muslim American and Pakistani American. I'm like also within the Asian American community. Um, and so that's really when I started like feeling kind of affiliation or affinity with the term. Um, yeah." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "4:28", "text": "Nice. We kind of talked about like affinity and affiliation. Um, is there kind of a question that you've always been asked, but kind of get tired asking, get tired of being asked about?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "4:40", "text": "Yeah. Um, that's a really good question. Um, I think the question would be like, I mean, the question would probably be where are you from? Um, cause I get asked that a ton. Um, and the followup is like, oh, I've eaten so and such food from India. Um, but besides that, um, I guess I like, I've also been asked like, you know, like when did you move to America and stuff and I was born here. So that's always been annoying. Um, yeah, those kinds of questions. Um, or actually like, you know, there's like, like I got asked a few times, like, you know, like my relationship with religion and stuff, just because of like the sort of like 9/11 and sort of, um, post-9/11, like atmosphere, which I grew up in. So that was, that's also been like, you know, a reoccurring theme, but all these questions I'm very tired of answering." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "5:45", "text": "Thank you for sharing that. Um, I was just going to kind of ask a followup where, is there like anything in your family that, you know, is there any story that you've, you've, you've heard in your family, um, that you want to share that, you know, is, is maybe a surprise or people wouldn't often associate that with your family?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "6:07", "text": "Hmm. Um, that's a good question as well. Um, well, I think there's a lot of like, you know, like, I think a lot of people get a little bit like they, they don't, they don't really understand like the whole India, um, Pakistan partition split. Um, so like I said before, like my family is from Hyderabad, which is in India. Um, but they might, a lot of them migrated over when, um, India and Pakistan declared their independence in 1947. So what happened was that it was one of the most, um, largest and most violent, um, mass migrations in human history. And, um, they, like my grandfather kind of, he left on his own, uh, my dad's dad and just like took a boat from India to Karachi. And that's kind of like Karachi at the time was just like kind of small port city. Now it's like 23 million people. But at the time it was just like this port city. It was relatively small. It was a new capital initially of Pakistan before they moved it, um, and kind of like established roots there. Um, and then my other side of the family also moved from India, um, again, like had a family rift as well.\n\nSo it's like, I think, you know, like people like talk a lot, a lot about like the India, Pakistan, like, um, sort of like animosity, but what they don't necessarily realize is that a lot of Pakistanis are actually Indian origin and a lot of Indians are Pakistani origin. And there's a huge, like history of like migration and like mixing, but also like disruption, like families were like severed in two, um, people lost contact with relatives. Um, and like, they just never saw entire halves of their family over after, you know, for the rest of their lives. Like, I think my last time my grandfather went to India was in 1953. And again, he went by boat. He took a steamboat, um, up the river and saw his family. And that was in 1953. And then he never went back. Um, they ended up moving to Dubai, my, both my grandparents and like starting their families there. But yeah, it's just kind of crazy to think that, um, you would one day just leave your family and never see them again." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "8:32", "text": "Thank you for sharing that. That's, that's some really, you know, really interesting history. Um, on the topic of history, I just like to ask you a couple questions about Asian American history in general. Um, so kind of the first question is, these are quick fire questions, but, um, what is Asian American history to you and how have you, when's the first time you've kind of learned about it and have you ever like learned about it in school or taken any courses on it?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "8:55", "text": "Hmm. Yeah. Um, I don't think we really learned about in school. Um, what I like, like growing up, my conception of Asian American history was that it started in 1980, because that's when all the like, you know, the wave of like model minority immigrants started coming over. Um, in college, I took a class about immigration and migration and learned that the history of Asian American or Asian migration to the Americas went like centuries earlier. So that started first, like when I started thinking about, or like even knowing about this stuff, like apparently the first mosque in America was like, you know, opened in like the early 1900s. So again, like just like a part of history that I wasn't really aware of. I think the only thing we learned in school was the 1882 Asian or Chinese exclusion act." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "9:45", "text": "Thank you for sharing that. Um, just kind of a follow up question. What does Asian American history mean to you? And what do you think the purpose of learning about, you know, history necessarily of your own background is?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "9:57", "text": "Yeah. So I think that, um, well, Asian American history, to me, it's kind of like the story of the Asian diaspora in America. And it's important because one, it's like a really diverse community, right? I mean, like, like I said, like, I didn't really realize that I was even part of the Asian American community until like, I was like, probably like in like middle or high school. Um, and then, you know, I didn't like really understand what the greater, like historical arc of that community was besides the fact that, you know, like we were good at, we were supposedly, supposed to be good at school. Um, so I think that was something that I really like started thinking about more in high school.\n\nUm, so what it means to me is that it's just like this, like we all share a background because of our like diasporic nature. And we have all been through this sort of like long migration and maybe it's, it's for a lot of the times for very different reasons. And we're from different communities back in Asia and we settle in different ways here. But like, the point is that we're all like, kind of have this sort of like narrative of diasporic, like migration, and that's what connects us together. I think it's really important because, you know, I mean, especially now, like there's so much anti-immigration rhetoric going on. There's a lot of like, there's cancellations of visas that are really important to Asian Americans. And we're basically what we're doing is like reversing what's been like a several decade long trend of like, you know, um, like bringing the best and brightest, a lot of the best and brightest from like Asian countries and bringing them to America and like having, giving them like a lot of opportunities. So, um, and also like the other, the flip side of that is that like, you know, to know that there is like a history of Asian America in the US that was, is, does not follow that trajectory that like came way earlier, that struggled a lot, that was like, you know, involved in the trans-Pacific or transcontinental railroad that like, you know, was used as like subjugated labor force or like, you know, all sorts of different, like, you know, like underclass sort of positions. So it's really important to know about those just so that we understand the diversity, the strengths, and the resilience of this community." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "12:26", "text": "Thank you so much. All right, just to close up here. Um, if there's one piece of Asian American history that you wanted the world to know, what would it be and why?" }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "12:37", "text": "Hmm. Interesting. Um, that's a great question. I think it would be, I think it would be the history of Jackson Heights. Um, Jackson Heights is a, is a neighborhood in Queens and it became for a while in the eighties, it was called Little Pakistan because there were so many Pakistanis there. Um, I had an uncle there. I had several uncles who lived there actually. Um, and then it kind of dispersed. So it's interesting because like, one of the things that's really, really interesting about like, you know, American cities and like the way they renew themselves is that like different communities, like find a foothold in different neighborhoods, but then like a generation later, it's a completely different, like sort of community. Right. So now it's like all Bangladeshis. Um, but it's really cool to just like go there and see the last like vestiges of what I remember to be Jackson Heights, which was all like Pakistani restaurants, but then see like what's there now, which is like all Bangladeshi restaurants and Bangladeshi culture and Bangladeshi stores and stuff like that. Um, so yeah, I mean, there's like, it's a very, like, it's just like a history that like continues to move in a direction and you never like, you don't realize that you were part of this historical thing until that moment has passed." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "13:59", "text": "Great. Well, thank you so much for participating in our interview. Um, I just want to ask you if you're okay with this being shared on the Tarita archive and for people to kind of cite and use for their research." }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "14:08", "text": "Yeah, of course." }, { "speaker": "Jeffrey Liu", "time": "14:11", "text": "Okay, great. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for participating in the interview and I'll, I'll see you around." }, { "speaker": "Furquan Saeed", "time": "14:16", "text": "Thank you." } ] } ] }