Combating Asian Hate
Society of Heart’s Delight mission originally began as an effort to address a local concern: that many adult Chinese immigrants are disconnected from social resources and aren’t actively engaged with the local community. We created Society of Heart’s Delight (SHD) in March,2020 to assist in placemaking and bridge-building. the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated this problem of Chinese immigrants being isolated from the rest of communities. With the rise in Asian hate crime, our Chinese members have suffered disproportionately: restaurant owners had their windows smashed and hate speech and microaggressions became so common that members came to expect to endure a barrage of hate speech whenever they went out. Ultimately, many members became afraid of getting out their homes. We quickly responded to the community needs by curating variety events and programs to lessen worries, equip with credible knowledge and build alliance with diverse local communities. Among our outreach initiatives, the following represents examples of original events and programs related to Anti-Asian Hate:
Programs & Events
Hear directly from our Leaders on Safety and The Law
April, 2020
SHD hosted the very first anti-Asian hate online event with law enforcement leaders for the Chinese immigrant community in the Bay Area at the beginning of the pandemic. The guest speakers were San Jose Chief of Police Eddie Garcia and Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
More than 300 people attended the event and the enthusiasm that followed demonstrated a strong desire among Chinese immigrants in Santa Clara county to engage and become more informed.
Details: https://youtu.be/IHFXe54dlzk
Yellow Peril Redux: Reflections & Actions
May 2, 2021
SHD invited professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois Springfield and the founders of their project to share the origin of Yellow Peril and the history of Chinese Americans. We reflected on the Anti-Asian backlash we face today and discussed actions going forward.
Details: https://youtu.be/tmIk75j0Na0
In September, 2022, SHD is honored to build partnership with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. SHD is one of the main contributors for the project “Yellow Peril Redux: From Coolies to Concentration Camps, Trade Wars, and Coronavirus” Which is sponsored by the UIUC.
Prevention and Solidarity - United Against Hate -Partner with City of San Jose
Nov 17, 2021
City of San Jose office of Racial Equity invited SHD representing chinese immigrant community to explore the intersectionalities of hate directed towards API communities, including LGBTQ discrimination and religious-based hate.
Speakers include: Vincent Pan (he/him) is the co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action,Sera Fernando (she/her/siya) is the Chief Diversity Officer for Silicon Valley Pride and a Senior Management Analyst for the Santa Clara Office of LGBTQ Affairs.Huy Tran is a board member and former board president for the Vietnamese American Roundtable.Harbir Kaur Bhatia, Founder of Ik Onkar Bridges and Fan Wu, author and cofounder of SHD.
Details: https://youtu.be/OccxAnDT8jM
City of San Jose office of Racial Equity invited founder of SHD, Michelle Zhang, along with Vietnamese and Islamic community leaders to share various resources and stand together in solidarity for the United Against Hate Week. November 16, 2022.
Details: https://fb.watch/huiLe_wchB/
Tech for AAPI Online Rally
April, 2021
As one of the main organisers, SHD worked with four Chinese immigrant tech groups to host this online rally. Speakers include: Deb Liu, CEO of Ancestry, Vijay Bharadwaj, VP at Netflix, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, Suzanne St. John-Crane , CEO of the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley, Evan Low, CA State Assemblymember, and Pat Tietgens, Cofounder of SHD. more than 800 people attended the rally live, we raised $2505, all donated to stopaapihate.org/ and go fund me Support the AAPI Community Fund.
Conversation with Chief Assistant District Attorney Jay Boyarsky
April, 2021
SHD invited member Attorney Clay Zhu (successfully sued the Trump administration in response to the former president’s executive order banning WeChat, and started the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance) in conversation with the Chief Assistant District Attorney of Santa Clara County, Jay Boyarsky. Boyarsky is a true expert on hate crimes prosecution and a strong ally in response to the surging attacks against Asian Americans.
Details: https://youtu.be/JzOeEYNcFAA
In-Person Fireside Chat With Emmy Award-winning TV news anchor and author Dion Lim
May, 2022
In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, we invited Emmy Award-winning TV news anchor and author Dion Lim as our guest to share how she has been bringing critical stories of violence against Asians into the light on ABC news. the leading LGBTQ host and producer Michelle Meow of The Michelle Meow Show moderated the discussion.
Details: https://youtu.be/k120485EN6I
Online Chinese American Historian’s Presentation
May, 2022
Our very own Chineses American historian Connie Yu (author of Chinatown San Jose) provided a presentation to share Chinese American history in San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley.
Details: https://youtu.be/F_cNu5vOJgk
Combating Asian-Hate by hosting Civic Engagement Series
Election Countdown Conversations
August 23, 2020 - October 19, 2020
A four-part round table miniseries leading up to the election of 2020 in order to enhance civic engagement among Chinese immigrant communities. Guest speakers included California State Controller Betty Yee, California Senate candidate Ann Ravel, California State Assemblymember Evan Low, Santa Clara County Supervisors Susan Ellenberg and Otto Lee, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, and San Jose City Councilmember Dev Davis.
Highlight and impact:
Social media article (in Chinese) reached more than 6000 views across different platforms.
Combated against the misinformation and rumours spreading heavily on Wechat.
Details: https://youtu.be/TJj10ol6MUc
San Jose City Council Apology Resolution to the Chinese American Communities
Worked with the city of San Jose for the San Jose City Council Apology Resolution to the Chinese American Communities for the City’s role in the acts of injustices against Chinese immigrants and their descendants. Our articles: interview with resolution initiator councilmember Raul Peralez; article covering the ceremony, and the article of translation of the whole resolution in Chinese received more than 20,000 views.
Ask an Officer - Partner with San Jose Police Department
July 2020 - Ongoing
SHD‘s partnership with the San Jose Police Department produced this original program in Mandarin Chinese, which helps the SJPD to reach out to local Chinese immigrants directly about matters of public safety, hate incidents and reliable resources.
It is an ongoing program, we have already published 5 episodes. The episodes, “How to call 911” and “How to respond to hate incidents” received more than 8,000 views on YouTube and WeChat.
This ongoing project became a pilot program for SJPD and led to the expansion of outreach to multiple other communities.
Details: https://youtu.be/T4kPIzfBrPM
Online training for Chinese small businesses on safety and prevention
Since the pandemic began, the anti-Asian sentiment has been growing. Not only individuals but also small business owners and storefront owners have experienced hate violence, threatening phone calls and vandalising in Santa Clara County. Many of the small business owners experiencing this type of hate violence are new immigrants who have very limited resources to seek help and obtain reliable information. We Partner with SJPD to present online training for Chinese small businesses in Santa Clara county about safety and prevention. We provide simultaneous interpreting (mandarin Chinese) during the event in order to reach more underrepresented immigrants.
Details: https://www.instagram.com/p/CefCcQfJXK
Assist SJPD for the “Safe Place” Program
SHD worked with SJPD to partner with asian immigrants storefront owners for their “Safe Place” program. This program is a citywide initiative designed to assist the victims of hate crimes in overcoming the barriers in reporting all types of hate crimes through a collaboration between the community and the San Jose Police Department.
Combating Asian-Hate By Bridging Divides
Chinese Immigrants in Silicon Valley and Beyond - A Journey Through Photos and Stories
Ongoing program
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, anti-Asian and anti-Chinese rhetoric and behaviors have surged. This photoblog is an effective way to showcase the wide range of Chinese immigrants and promote interracial and intercultural communication and understanding. It also highlights the contribution Chinese immigrants have made to local communities. Some examples:
LGBTQ events and articles
SHD is in full support of LGBTQ+community. We host LGBTQ theme events every Pride Month, publish articles about local LGBTQ organizations and resources, publish articles written by LGBTQ members, empower LGBTQ with tools and resources. Michelle Zhang, founder of SHD, openly lesbian was invited to the governor Newsom’s governor’s mansion for the California’s Legislative LGBTQ Caucus celebration 20 years of Progress party. Michelle also collected and curated content from LGBTQ groups across China for Global Pride 2020.
Various Community Partnership Events
In partnership with diverse local nonprofits, such as Veggielution (local renowned community), Mosaic, Visual Philosophy (local art community), School of Arts & Culture (Mexican community), Chopsticks Alley (Vietnamese community), Mosaic, etc., To deepen mutual understanding and built friendships with diverse cultural groups. This is an ongoing project. We are planing to partner with Iranian, Japanese, Indian and more communities for cross- cultural events in San Jose and Santa Clara county.
Some examples: https://yuyuanshe.com/cooking-with-your-hearts-delight
Fireside Chat Talk
Society of Heart’s Delight invites diverse leaders, creatives and change-makers across various industries for in-depth conversations on a wide range of interesting and meaningful topics with our members each month. For example, we invited Emmy Award-Winning documentary director, Hao Wu to share his award film 76 Days about the onslaught of Covid-19 in Wuhan; Renowned Chinese- British author Xinran about record history and connect China and the west; renowned attorney Ann Ravel to talk about sexual harassment in the workplace–holding the powerful accountable; Matt Sheehan, China expert, fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace about China & California relations…
Details for past talks: https://yuyuanshe.com/firesidetalks
People Sending Love Campaign
SHD cofounder Pat Tietgens Calls to Action invited allies of the Non-Asian community to inscribe a sign with the Chinese characters 你们有我, or else the rough equivalent in English: “I’ve got your back”. Within hours, half a dozen people posted signs. The “I’ve got your back” campaign is part of a larger social media project that Pat is running. She cites a rationale for her project that both compelling and utterly Californian: that one way to fight the hate and negativity on the internet is to flood it with messages of love.
https://medium.com/@mark.ernstmeyer.frank/from-china-with-love-3110afb3efda
Mask Donation
SHD donated 5,000 surgical masks to the Valley Medical Center Foundation and an additional 5,000 masks to the RNPA Union at the beginning of pandemic, when PPE was scarce and hospitals and medical professionals were in dire need of PPE.
We worked closely with a group of 20 of our attorney friends in China who heard about the urgent need. They personally donated over $5,000 USD worth of these essential supplies for us to deliver to the people who need it most.
We donated another 2000 surgical masks to a clinic in Monterey and Chinatown Community Development Center （华协中心）in San Francisco.
Details:
Combating Asian-Hate By raising Cultural Awareness
SHD Original Articles
SHD also publishes original articles in both Chinese and English written by our members about various topics like immigrants' stories, local history, culture and so on on our website and social media platforms (WeChat, Facebook, Linkedin) to cultivate a greater sense of belonging, reaching thousands of people. Currently, our articles range between 400-10000 views.
Some examples: original article “History will remember this day! City of San Jose officially apologized to the Chinese Community” received more than 12000 views.
Book Reading
We have hosted monthly book clubs with our community members to increase their exposure to literature on systemic racism, Chinese American history, and other American social issues through readings. Books like:
The New Jim Crow, Born a Crime- Trevor Noah, My Beloved World - Sonia Sotomayor, Reds- Ted Morgan, The Chinese in America-Iris Chang, The Premonition-Michael Lewis. Etc.