From Identity to Inspiration: Reflections on Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

From a range of cultural traditions and life experiences, these eight Tufts community members have—in recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month—shared with Tufts Now elements of their backgrounds, their identities, and their scholarship—and the ways in which each of those elements of who they are informs and illuminates the others.

Lessons Across Generations

My research encompasses people with HIV, individuals in the criminal legal system, food and healthcare inequities, and the effects of anti-Asian racism. My parents were my inspiration—and also MTV’s The Real World! I’m half-kidding, but I did first learn about HIV from watching that show as a kid, and it sparked my interest in public health and advocacy. But it’s my parents who really fostered my interest, through their emphasis on the importance of community service and civic engagement. Also, growing up Chinese American, there was a strong cultural focus on education in our household. Now that I’m a parent myself, and I see the recent rise in anti-Asian racism, I think about how I can use my interests, my research and teaching skills, and my focus on community to contribute to a better world for my son—and to instill in him some of the values my parents handed down to me.

—Kimberly Dong, Assistant Professor, Public Health and Community Medicine, School of Medicine

The Difference a Generation Makes

There is something philosophical in me that is Asian. I say a daily prayer of thanks to all my mentors, and there are 25 of them, from kindergarten through my time as a first-generation college student to present day. What I have done in my scientific and artistic career is beyond what my parents thought was even possible. When I was growing up in Toronto, Canada, the Asian population was small—about 5,000 in a city of 1.5 million, at the time. On Sundays, my family would go to Chinatown and meet other families to have dim sum. The parents played Mahjong, the kids went to the penny arcade. As a child, being Chinese was not something that made me fit in with other kids. Interestingly, Toronto now has half a million Asians among its population, and my nieces and nephews are experiencing something very different with many of their peers being Asian Canadian. It’s extraordinary.

-Daniel Jay, Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Asian American Health

I’m trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist, and for most of my 22 years at Tufts, I worked in HIV, nutrition, and global health. Then, the pandemic hit. Like everyone else, I took stock of what I was doing. The incidents of anti-Asian racism that occurred around that time—some of which directly affected my school-age daughter—really hit home. I partnered with local organizations serving Asian American communities, and now I’m exploring the health effects of anti-Asian racism as well as the impact of a Chinatown community art project on residents’ well-being. I’m also studying why Asian Americans experience delayed diagnoses of Parkinson’s disease. That topic is personal, as my mother, a first-generation immigrant, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s very late, despite multiple visits to physicians over the years. So working to understand the cultural and systemic challenges that Asian Americans face in getting care and treatment for Parkinson’s disease is important to me.

—Alice Tang, Professor, Public Health and Community Medicine, School of Medicine