‘Nancy Wang’

In honor of Independence Day, we’ve created a special Fourth of July showcase, featuring 40 original stories from Americans of diverse backgrounds, faiths and colors. We invite you to celebrate the 4th of July with these rarely told stories recalling the contributions and the struggles, the successes and hopes in search of the amazing identity that is America.

Each year, the Fourth of July gives us all a wonderful chance to celebrate America’s deeply prized values—liberty, freedom and equality. We mark the occasion with picnics, parades and BBQs, and we express our patriotism with flags and songs. Amid the fanfare and fireworks, however, we don’t always have the opportunity to reflect more deeply on the ideals on which our nation was founded. We don’t often have the chance to consider our progress toward equality for all men and women, and to explore the diversity that is the hallmark of the American identity.

Lucky for us: artists have been doing just that for centuries. From Thoreau to Springsteen, writers, artists and storytellers have shared their perspectives on America’s promise and inspired their countrymen to keep working toward the attainment of a truly free country for all. With that in mind, we’ve created this special Fourth of July video showcase to celebrate America’s independence, its promise of equality for all, and the beauty and challenge of diversity.

We invite you to visit our Showcase Page where our artists of the spoken word — professional storytellers –tell their stories for the 4th July — or for any time.

As the immigration debate rolls on—and as our nation marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month this May—we listen to the stories of Nancy Wang, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, as she describes her family’s challenges in the new world.
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With the U.S. Senate expected to take up broad immigration reform this year, the immigration debate is likely to heat up once again.

Folks on both sides of the debate are intensely passionate about this emotional issue: those opposed to reform are naturally concerned about jobs, especially in this faltering economy where unemployment remains at an all-time high. Those in favor cite, among other reasons, America’s tradition of giving new people —“the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free”—opportunities in the new world.

While the modern debate focuses almost exclusively on Mexico, nearly all immigrant groups to the U.S. have been the subject of contention. For centuries, immigrants from Europe, Africa, Central America and Asia have faced hardship and hostility in the United States. The Chinese were one such immigrant group that faced great difficulty for more than a century. And though they were subject to highly discriminatory housing and employment laws—and to outright mob violence and harassment—Chinese immigrants fought to make their own living, and along the way, made tremendous contributions to America’s infrastructure, economy and culture.

As our nation marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May, we take a look back at the Chinese experience, through the stories of Nancy Wang, a Chinese-American woman who grew up in Chicago and comes from a family that arrived in California by boat from China in the 1850s.

In her stories, Wang explores the struggle her ancestors had to be accepted and to make a living, first as immigrants and later as second and third generation Americans in California. Wang’s stories reveal often overlooked instances of de facto and legal discrimination while also examining her own personal, family history. Wang’s stories give us a personal look at American immigration, and show how one group of immigrants were ultimately made stronger by the challenges they faced in a country that often struggled to deliver the opportunities it promised.

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“Immigrant Story.” Nancy Wang traces generations
of her family’s experience in America.

(Please be patient as the video may take a few moments to load.)

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“Mom’s Story.” In this remembrance, Wang explores
her relationship with her mother, and her parents’
experience as Chinese immigrants.

(Please be patient as the video may take a few moments to load.)

A corresponding lesson plan suitable for use in high school – adult learning environments is available free of charge by visiting RaceBridgesforSchools.com. This lesson plan will help students of all ages become aware of the discrimination and resilience of Chinese American immigrants who sought to find a unique Asian American identity.

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STORY CREDIT:

Copyright ©2010 Storyteller Nancy Wang. Used with permission.

CHICAGO (March 1, 2010) – The JustStories initiative, an 8 year-old Chicago area festival that explores diversity through the performances of professional storytellers, is expanding its outreach with a new video web site, racebridgesvideos.com

Debuting on March 1, racebridgesvideos.com features high-quality digital videos of professional storytellers, such as Michael McCarty, Susan O’Halloran and Arif Choudhury, as they share original and personal stories about race, identity and family. By sharing these engaging stories through video, this project seeks to promote understanding and to bridge racial divides.

“These stories are not just about race. They speak of belonging, resilience, the desire for inclusion, and hope—things we all feel as humans, regardless of race,“ says Derek Simons, creative director of Angels Studio, a Chicago-based communications agency devoted to bringing the races together and building bridges of cooperation between different faith groups using the digital and expressive arts. “With the videos, we hope to share these messages with all kinds of people, young and old, whether individually, in classrooms, faith communities or even businesses.”

The storytellers featured on racebridgesvideos.com are both male and female, and represent the wide fabric of American diversity; they are African-American, Jewish, Hindu, Native American, Cuban, Irish, and so on. Their stories are often very personal, such as Syd Lieberman’s “Aunt Helen,” while others are dramatizations of historical people and events, such as Linda Gorham’s “Rosa,” which describes Rosa Parks’ famous stand against segregation.

Simons and the Angels Studio team have been organizing the JustStories Storytelling Festival and other live events around Chicago for the last eight years. They are also responsible for the educators’ resource,RaceBridgesForSchools.com, which provides teachers with lesson plans and other classroom materials to help students explore differences and build inclusive, welcoming communities.

About Angels Studio, JustStories and RaceBridges

Angels Studio is a communications ministry of the Roman Catholic Order – the Society of The Divine Word. This community serves people of faith, or without faith, around the world, in the belief that there is a rightful and just place for all God’s Children at the table of life. Angels Studio produces the RaceBridges and JustStories initiatives. The universal mission of these projects is to unite people of all faiths, people of no particular religious faith, and all people of goodwill to work at the unfinished business of building bridges across racial and class division.