Although Ezra Vogel, chairman of the Committee on East Asian Studies, said he believes courses in Asian American Studies should be offered, he said that hiring someone within the Committee to teach them is not a high priority. To overcome this problem, Asian American students organized to develop bibliographies, slideshows, and other resources relevant to history. Last spring, after four years of work, students in the AAA and members of the Bureau of Study Counsel reestablished a House seminar on Asian American Identity and Experience. It had been taught only three times before at Harvard.

The seminar provided an opportunity for students, predominantly Asian American, to examine and share their own and their families' experiences as they related to such topics as Asian immigration to the U.S., the development of Asian communities, the Japanese internment experience, images and sterotypes, assimilation and identity. One student wrote in his final evaluation of the course:

I have become more sensitive to the situations of Asian Americans and other minorities who are often less fortunate than I. This experience has been very enlightening, and what I once felt to be a less-than-objective study has educated me in a way that few other classes will ever be able to. My only regret is that few students here will ever be able to incorporate this seminar as part of their Harvard curriculum.

Again, as a result of the organizing of students and Bureau members, the Asian American seminar is being offered this fall. This year's course also includes discussions on Asian women, the Asian Movement, and Asian American Studies. In addition, a course on Asian American creative writing will be offered in the spring to present the rich traditions of fiction and poetry that Asians have developed through their experience in America and more importantly, to encourage students to write creatively of their own experiences.

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In a university such as Harvard, whose traditions, food, social life, arts, and academics are so overwhelmingly Eurocentric, there is little institutional support for Asian Americans to explore and clarify our own distinct identities and experiences. Many of Harvard's Asian students come from suburbs where we were among the few Asians in our neighborhoods. We have had few role models from whom to gather pride in our history and heritage--we learn to relate exclusively to the majority experience and wish to be white. For those of us who have grown up in Asian communities our alienation and culture shock are very painful. We are told that Chinatown is dirty, unsafe, and smells of garbage. We see that the only interests the majority society has taken in our communities have been in our restaurants, occasionally the martial arts, and now condominium conversion.

The only support for Asian Americans at Harvard has come from the Third World organizations here and other Asian American groups in the Boston area. Harvard did not recognize Asian Americans as a minority group with a history of discrimination until 1976-77. Four years later in his 1980 Commencement Address on minorities at Harvard, President Bok failed once to mention Asian Americans. Asian Americans, however, have been active in the anti-Bakke, divestiture, and Afro-American Studies movements and have played a leading role in working for a Third World Center.

Throughout the fall, the Asian American Seminar organized a series of evening presentations to celebrate our culture and to share our identities and histories. We presented slideshows such as "Images of Asian Women" and "Reparations and Redress"; and films such as "Wataridori, Birds of Passage" about the lives of three Issei--first generation Japanese-Americans, and "Cruisin' J-Town" about the Japanese-American internment. In addition we produced an Asian American cultural night of music, poetry, and film.

Through these activities we have affirmed our pride in the richness and diversity of the Asian American experience. At the same time we have tried to raise the entire community's awareness of Asian American history and culture. The images of Asian that we present are different from those found in Jordan Marsh, Fu Manchu, and the Hasty Pudding Theatricals because they come directly from our people's experience. Being Asian is not chic or exotic; it is an identity integrally tied to a history of contract labor, violence, and exculsion. It is an identity linked to the development of supportive organizations family associations, and self-sufficient communites. It is an identity that has directly maintained the foods, languages, and cultures of our homelands and simultaneously contributed to the industrialization, agricultural development, and wealth of America. It is a personal identity that is rooted in and reflects the history and culture of a people. And most of all, being Asian in America is an identity of which we are immensely proud.

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The sixth and final presentation organized by the Asian American Seminar will be given tonight, from 7 to 9 p.m. in Science Center A. The program will feature a slideshow on the development of Asian communities in America and a discussion about Boston's Asian community. It is an opportunity for everyone--Asians and non-Asian students, faculty and administrators--to learn about Asian American history.

Jane Bock '81, is concentrating in the sociology of race relations and is president of the Asian American Association.

Peter Nien-chu Kiang '80 is the teaching assistant for the Dunster House seminar Asian American Identity and Experience and is a coordinator at the Asian American Resource Workshop in Chinatown.