Matthew Kuangga, ASA 2, Week 6

For week 6’s theme of The Academic Awakens: “We Are One With The Force And The Force Is One With Us” I read the “My Kintsuki” reading by Wang Ping. From reading the poem we can get a sense that she is again suffering pressure from her environment in her career in academia. Still in Minneapolis, she is holding on to her career in academia even though she thinks and feels that this environment is very toxic for her – this is also indicated in the poem. Yet, she refuses to give in and thence maintain her professor standing at the University she is working at. Nevertheless, she tries to be good to other people around her. Because she realized that doing something like fighting hate with more hate will only cause further damage to one’s self. Also, the reading continues with her meeting up with a priest at a hotel to be blessed somehow, she also brought her children with her too.

So far, we as a class have went through 6 weeks of Asian American Studies and I have learned a few things along the way. From the various readings that we did, I am realizing of the great resilience and refusal of failure from these Asian women in academia. It seems like their passion in academia is virtually undefeated against the pressure of others in their toxic environments. But thence, I also see this as a warning for those who want to pursue a career in academia. That they are about to face a very toxic environment. But I think that wont always be a case as our reading seem to only portray the negative side of academia, while there are clearly many unmentioned positive sides to it. So my question is: Is pursuing a career in academia even worth it with all of this negativity and toxicity portrayed in our readings?

Source (APA):

Oprah You Get A. (n.d.). Retrieved July 25, 2019, from https://imgflip.com/i/xcj5s

Wang, P. (n.d.). My Kintsuki. Retrieved July 25, 2019, from https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/392140/files/folder/Weekly Readings/Week6?preview=6353503