#cigc week4

Last Names - Domics

A funny video by one of my favorite Youtube Animator, Domics that I rewatch for background noises while I work until it struck me to link it together with the lecture from Global Disclosure. 

Growing up, my full name was something I was both confident and afraid people would be confused with.

Quah Phaik Hoon.

(Qu - pronounced as the first sound of ‘Quill’ + ‘ah’) (Phaik - pronounced as a subtle word of ‘Big’ - don’t enunciate the ‘g’) (Hoon - Hoon!)

Yep, many, many people have mistakenly pronouncing it even when I was in my home country, let alone when I came to the UK to study. I knew from the get-go, not having an English name was going to be a... difficulty. So instead of introducing myself with my full name, I just went with ‘Hoon’.

Saved everyone the hassle, saved everyone the time, saved me the embarrassment.

I love my name, no doubt, but back when I was younger, I surely did wish I had a different name. People at school wouldn’t stop making fun of my name (for childish reasons, too!) and my brother, being the lil’ tough older brother he was, would try to make me feel better even when he was going through the same thing too.

I remember one time they made fun of my name, referring my name to part of a food or something, I was close to tears. My brother, too. And in my household, we were born and raise to be proud of our names - to get people to pronounce it right and to not let people just call us by ‘whatever they wanted’. My mother told me my name is for me to be proud of who I am. It’s a medal to wear around my neck, not to let people call it whatever and disregard it.

So it made me and my brother upset.

Years went by and I watched this video by Domics - I felt exactly what he felt.

Similarly, now when I watch it, I still laugh - but I’m proud of my name and will stick by it. Of course, I still introduce myself as ‘Hoon’, because it is my name and it is easier. Plus, nicknames are easy; Hoon! But if someone does ask for my full name, I won’t feel embarrassed one bit to teach them how to say it right.

And not to stop halfway because I’m embarrassed, but to keep going until they pronounce it like how my mother would when she’s calling for me.

Daniel Etter is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, feature writer and film maker currently based between Barcelona, Spain and Berlin, Germany. He is a graduate of the German School of Journalism, holds a master’s degree in political science, a university diploma in journalism and is a recipient of the Kathryn Davis Fellowship for Peace.

- Taken from Daniel Etter’s personal website

Daniel Etter’s photograph collection: Exodus, 2015 was shown as one of the examples during Global Disclosure’s lecture. I found his photos moving, touching even with just a single image. The phrase a picture holds a thousand words could’ve never been more fitting to this. As someone currently living in another country far from home, although nothing can compare to the feeling of the people he photographed, I empathize with it.

And there’s a sense of gratitude each time I look at these photos. In today’s age, the modern age, we’re so quick to forget the things we should be grateful for. If you have a roof over your head, you’re alive and breathing, you’re healthy and able, that’s already so many things to be grateful for that we tend to forget. We have a home, we have things that people would die for and we’re not being appreciative about it. We ignore our loved ones until it’s too late or until they’re all you have left.

To think about it, to see these pictures are not only moving but it motivates you and inspires you to keep living the life you’re given when you’re blessed. We are so blessed to be living the lives we have and sometimes we forget that.

Week 4: Global Disclosure // 05.11.2018

This week’s topic was Global Disclosure, which I found refreshing considering I was a foreigner in the city of Birmingham, having flown 15 hours away from home to listen to a lecture that reflected much to a feeling I’ve felt one way or another since I got here. Well, in regards to discussing and openly talking about race, being Chinese in the United Kingdom... was indeed scary.

First thoughts were definitely, “I’m so much more different than them.”

Second: “Will I be treated differently?”

Third: “I just want to go home.”

It didn’t come one by one, it all came at once. Which was hard to compute with such thoughts coming at once but... well, I had to come to the UK to further my studies, a place I thought would be good for me to grow as a graphic designer and broaden my experience. Which then led me to think, do people crave feeling out of place, trying to break down the walls of their comfort zone to somewhat, force themselves to grow?

I mean, I would say I was growing quite well in Malaysia, but what is it with the mentality of coming to the UK alone, would make me a better designer? Or a better person? I think somewhat it has to do with feeling gratitude of what I used to have at home that I don’t have here. And linking to those emotions, I could relate to most of what Ally talked about during this lecture. Racism (I haven’t exactly had my hand on experiencing it, but I have heard numerous stories about the people in my community being mistreated just because of their race), culture appropriation.

It was weird. I didn’t quite get it, but I found it interesting that Ally discussed a little on White Privilege. It’s one thing for people of other race to acknowledge white privilege, but it’s another when a white person admits of such thing exists. That just confirms how much it does exist and how arrogance is a wonder for people who refuse to acknowledge it exists.

New Study Confirms Depressing Truth About Names And Racial Bias By Jacqueline Howard, HuffPost US

"Students with stereotypically "black"-sounding names tend to be labeled as troublemakers by teachers. Job applicants with such names are less likely than their white-sounding counterparts to get called in for interviews. When residents with "black"-sounding names contact their local government for information about schools or libraries, they are less likely to receive a response. “

That was taken from the article above, which... is sad. How can a name, something that you wear around your neck like a medal, a seal that your parents put you with for the rest of your life could be something that already forms prejudice by the sound of it? It felt unfair. It didn’t feel right, either.

I’ve heard from a friend, from her experience, that people without English sounding names had a harder time being employed. Which, was ridiculous when I heard it but when she described it further, it just felt unfair.

That also leaves me to think about racism that exists in the designing industry or how we as designers are evolving to grow out of it.

While writing this post, my mind strayed off to a thought of:

“Does race come into mind for certain job scopes?”

Like, we’ve always heard of asians becoming doctors and surely a specific race should be working in this job and so forth. All of this preconceptions does effect in their every day lives with such judgement that’s put forth before you even get to voice out what you truly want to do.

Speaking from experience, as a Chinese Malaysian that wanted to do graphic design and arts for a living, to have supportive Chinese parents, to me, was normal and something that I’m grateful for. On the other hand, I have a friend, similarly in the situation I was in, except, parents that weren’t so accepting of her choice in wanting to pursue graphic design.

“This won’t earn you money.”

“Chinese people are not meant to do arts. Becoming a doctor is better.”

And with that, she was pushed into studying dentistry and hadn’t had her say in pursuing her initial career choice. Granted, in Asian countries, parents are the ones paying for our education, compared to in Western countries, the children are much more independent working part time jobs to help pay for their tuition fees - nothing wrong with both, just different upbringings and environments.

However, that shifts the mentality as well.

I find that in the Western country, things are much more open and direct in communication than in Asian countries. We tend to keep things all to ourselves and majority of the time, confrontation isn’t a common thing to bring upon. Of course, we, as a community and part of the world is moving forward but it’s a slow process. Continuing on with that, I had a chat with a friend who lived in England and he said that the parents here (in the UK) allow their kids to pursue what they wanted as a job - to do what they loved most. Definitely there will be the similarities to Asian parents but that’s not so common than in Asian countries.

This leads me to think that as much as we want to believe that all humans think a certain way, based on the race we’re born into, it already shapes our perceptions on certain things and issues. But what we can do is acknowledge our differences and accept them, then we could maybe live in a world that sucked less with so much preconceptions.