Epic Movement

Your Asian American Story

March 16, 2021silverio.gonzalez@cru.org
Asian American History - Author

OUTCOMES

To begin to listen well to another person and ask good questions.

To connect to or engage with an Asian American individual’s story.

WHY?

As we continue to learn more about Asian American history, we want to have a better understanding of where individual stories come from and how we are currently making history.

Here’s my words and heart
What story am I telling?
Hear my words and heart

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The following questions are designed to help you understand the Asian American story via the Asian American Quadrilateral (Dr. Daniel Lee). Go through this resource answering the questions for yourself. Over the next week, interview someone else of a different ethnicity and share their story in your next discipleship group.

You can start with the questions in any order you choose or choose a circle and ask the associated questions. The aim is to learn about an Asian American story.
Feel free to ask additional or follow up questions as you make connections to what you are hearing. See also the Unpacking Stories resource for further explanation of the AAQ.

Asian Heritage

(Depending on where someone is in their own story, they may want to answer these questions from the heritage they’re most familiar with)

  1. What are some family traditions or rituals that you have?
  2. What are foods that remind you of childhood? What memories do you have associated with this?

Migration Experience

  1. What is your family’s or your own immigration/migration story?
  2. What generational differences or similarities do you notice?

American Culture

  1. When was the first time you saw someone who looked like you represented in the media or a position of influence?
  2. Code-switching is to customize the style of speech to the audience or group being addressed. An example would be talking about Black Lives Matter with your immigrant parents or the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation. What ways have you had to “code-switch” in different environments?

Racialization

  1. What were some negative experiences you’ve had or comments you heard growing up regarding your ethnicity?
  2. We’ve touched on the model minority myth. What are some seemingly positive things that are actually harmful that you’ve heard, personally or generally, regarding Asian Americans?
  • What did you learn about yourself?
  • What feelings surface as you reflect on what was heard?
  • What is a meaningful takeaway from your interview?
  • What additional questions do you have for the interviewee?