Event

Back to Yellow Peril: The Historical 'Othering' of Asian Americans through Laws

Tuesday, May 10, 2022
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Radmacher Room

Ada Cheng will discuss various laws and regulations that have contributed to the construction of Asian Americans as “other” in this country.

She will include personal stories to highlight the myth of the model minority, the image of the perpetual foreigner, and the negative impact of these images on Asian Americans. 

An educator-turned artist, storyteller, and creator, Ada Cheng uses storytelling to illustrate structural inequities, raise critical awareness, and build intimate communities. She has created numerous storytelling platforms for BIPOC and LGBTQIA community members to tell difficult and vulnerable stories based on their lived experiences.

Cheng has worked with numerous community organizations, including Chinese American Museum of Chicago, National Cambodian Heritage Museum, Japanese American Service Committee, i2i: Invisible to Invincible Asian Pacific Islander Pride of Chicago, and Center on Halsted. She has worked with AAPI communities through her various storytelling platforms, particularly Talk Stories: An Asian American/Asian Diaspora Storytelling and Dare to Tell: Queer Asian Storytelling. She has regularly partnered with Center on Halsted for April Sexual Assault Awareness Month and October Domestic Violence Awareness Month, providing necessary platforms, such as Am I Man Enough? show, for people to critically examine the impact of toxic masculinity. She features community members as storytellers and brings these events to community spaces for critical engagement and alliance building.

Cheng has been a speaker with the Illinois Humanities Speakers Bureau since 2019. She is currently a visiting associate professor in Asian American Studies at Northwestern University as well as an adjunct faculty at Dominican University. 

Online registration is closed.