Qi Chen A04 WEEK4

Thursday, April 19, 2020

Qi Chen,

ASA 002 A04 

Week 4 Blog
 

Appeal to Others with Our Influence

After reading “Who Killed Soek-Fang Sim”, I recalled a conversation I had with my best friend, Vivian. At the start of the coronavirus event, she was constantly delivering on social platforms (like Snapchat). Even if she kept calling for donations from people around her, people remained no response. She was quite irritated at people's indifference and constantly questions whether the people around her are kind adequately. I understood her justice, but I told her because she doesn't have enough influence. Her words may encourage me to donate for others, but not everyone around her. In contrast, during this period, Lady Gaga's One World fund-raising campaign raised $127.9 million on April 18th. Does this prove that if we want to modify groups' opinions with our power, we have to be powerful and influential enough?

(One World: Together at Home' highlights, 2020)

 

After reading “Who Killed Soek-Fang Sim”, I recalled a conversation I had with my best friend, Vivian. At the start of the coronavirus event, she was constantly delivering on social platforms (like Snapchat). Even if she kept calling for donations from people around her, people remained no response. She was quite irritated at people's indifference and constantly questions whether the people around her are kind adequately. I understood her justice, but I told her because she doesn't have enough influence. Her words may encourage me to donate for others, but not everyone around her. In contrast, during this period, Lady Gaga's One World fund-raising campaign raised $127.9 million on April 18th. Does this prove that if we want to modify groups' opinions with our power, we have to be powerful and influential enough?

In this chapter of del reading, I noticed a detail. Before Soek-Fang Sim died, the author dared not stop her colleagues from mocking at her. Until the author faced a similar experience, and she began to think about whether the Sim felt the same pain at that time. She began to speak for the dead. In fact, she is a successful person: “she was the most published and publicized author on the campus.” Her poems are touching and resonating, and those with shared emotions can experience the pain of minorities, whether the readers are the same as her, immigrant women of color, or others. Her sufficient literary ability and her great influence as a writer enable her poem to spread and attract people's attention. “The poem went viral on Facebook,” the author states.

Many times we are dissatisfied with a phenomenon and want to fight for ourselves or others but have to bear it. But when we are influential enough, we are able to call others actions in varying degrees.


Question: How do people react to “celebrity effect?”

                                                                                                                Reference

Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp.71-76.