Author: Time To Say Goodbye

Hello from the imperial U.S.A.!

Our special guest this week is the CHamoru activist attorney and writer Julian Aguon. Julian calls in from Guam to talk about his new book, The Properties of Perpetual Light, which comes out at the end of the month. (Pre-order it for you and a friend!)

Julian reads from the book and talks about: 

* Developing his voice as a writer and mixing genres: from poetry to political commentary to personal essay; 

* Guam/CHamoru identity and attempts to build solidarity with other colonized and indigenous peoples across the world;

* His work as a lawyer with Blue Ocean Law;

* Guam as a hotspot of climate change and militarization;

* How Guam, as a U.S. colony, is often stuck in the old and ongoing U.S.-China conflict.

For more, check out:

* Julian’s 2017 piece (In These Times) on Guam in the crosshairs of U.S.-North Korean saber rattling;

* Julian’s recent book talk at American University;

* Reporting by Chris Gelardi and Sophia Perez (The Nation) on how people in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are fighting U.S. militarism.

Thanks for listening! Please write in with questions and comments, and join our growing community: timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com, @ttsgpod (Twitter), https://www.patreon.com/ttsgpod.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

We discuss the unfolding row over an academic article by Harvard law professor Mark Ramseyer, who argues, without evidence, that “comfort women” across Asia were not coercively indentured by the Japanese imperial army in World War II, but had legally consented to sex work. (For background on this debate, check out Tammy’s paper from 2006!)

Though typically irrelevant to the rest of society (lol), Ramseyer’s is the rare academic paper to invite public attention and, subsequently, outrage. His bizarrely unsourced work has triggered questions about Japan’s wartime responsibilities, unfree labor, sexual slavery, and ongoing geopolitical tensions in East Asia. And also, as Jeannie Suk Gersen, Ramseyer’s colleague, wrote last week in The New Yorker, the struggle at Harvard? 

Thousands of scholars have spoken out against the article, including five historians of Japan (and friend of the show Chelsea Szendi Schieder) who compiled an extensive list of Ramseyer’s errors and mistakes—far longer than the original paper! (N.b., economists have denounced the piece, as have groups at Harvard.)

* History of the ‘comfort women’ question 101, starting in the 1990s, thanks to the public testimony of survivor Kim Hak-sun and the support of historian Yoshimi Yoshiaki

* What does this story mean, especially, to those in Korea and the Korean diaspora? 

* What does it tell us about legal academia, the prestige of Harvard, and how TF it could get published in the first place?

* What is going on with the far-right in Japan? (cf. friend of show Adam Bronson’s piece on Abe Shinzō in Dissent)

* Why should people in the US, or around the world, care about a story seemingly confined to South Korea and Japan?

Good materials on the comfort women:

* Embodied Reckonings by Elizabeth Son

* Lolas’ House by M. Evelina Galang

* Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

* A Cruelty to Our Species by Emily Jungmin Yoon

* Silence Broken by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson

* Comfort Women by Yoshimi Yoshiaki

* The Comfort Women by George Hicks

* Comfort Woman by Nora Ojka Keller

Some prints inspired by stories of the comfort women, by Tammy:

Thanks for tuning in. To further join the TTSG community, check out our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ttsgpod.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

We discuss the unfolding row over an academic article by Harvard law professor Mark Ramseyer, who argues, without evidence, that “comfort women” across Asia were not coercively indentured by the Japanese imperial army in World War II, but had legally consented to sex work. (For background on this debate, check out Tammy’s paper from 2006!)

Though typically irrelevant to the rest of society (lol), Ramseyer’s is the rare academic paper to invite public attention and, subsequently, outrage. His bizarrely unsourced work has triggered questions about Japan’s wartime responsibilities, unfree labor, sexual slavery, and ongoing geopolitical tensions in East Asia. And also, as Jeannie Suk Gersen, Ramseyer’s colleague, wrote last week in The New Yorker, the struggle at Harvard? 

Thousands of scholars have spoken out against the article, including five historians of Japan (and friend of the show Chelsea Szendi Schieder) who compiled an extensive list of Ramseyer’s errors and mistakes—far longer than the original paper! (N.b., economists have denounced the piece, as have groups at Harvard.)

* History of the ‘comfort women’ question 101, starting in the 1990s, thanks to the public testimony of survivor Kim Hak-sun and the support of historian Yoshimi Yoshiaki

* What does this story mean, especially, to those in Korea and the Korean diaspora? 

* What does it tell us about legal academia, the prestige of Harvard, and how TF it could get published in the first place?

* What is going on with the far-right in Japan? (cf. friend of show Adam Bronson’s piece on Abe Shinzō in Dissent)

* Why should people in the US, or around the world, care about a story seemingly confined to South Korea and Japan?

Good materials on the comfort women:

* Embodied Reckonings by Elizabeth Son

* Lolas’ House by M. Evelina Galang

* Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

* A Cruelty to Our Species by Emily Jungmin Yoon

* Silence Broken by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson

* Comfort Women by Yoshimi Yoshiaki

* The Comfort Women by George Hicks

* Comfort Woman by Nora Ojka Keller

Some prints inspired by stories of the comfort women, by Tammy:

Thanks for tuning in. To further join the TTSG community, check out our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ttsgpod.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from a Chinese banquet! (If only…)

0:00 - “주먹만한 얼굴” (tiny face obsession)

2:48 – Reply All

We discuss the story buzzing throughout media: the hosts of the Reply All podcast, while reporting on the exploitative labor practices at Bon Appétit, had their own exploitative, anti-union activism exposed last week. What does this say about class versus race politics and the unionization movement in media? Plus, thoughts on the podcast-industry bubble.

(By the way, we are aware of the irony of talking, on a podcast, about another podcast that got canceled after talking about yet another podcast, so don't bother pointing that out!)

38:15 – “Minari”

Writer/director Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” starring Steven Yeun, has just been widely released. Is it a story about successful US assimilation or migrant ambivalence? Is it a universal or specific Asian-American tale? What is the state of Asian-diaspora storytelling in 2021, and when is the Forever 21 saga going to be made into a television movie?

1:01:00 – Three listener questions

* On ableism in our discussion of Covid-19 and “working women” (from Reena)

* Mixed feelings about the “decolonizing food” movement (from Jackie)

* On academics tweeting about political causes (from Jenny)

Thanks for listening!

* Email us your questions: timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com

* DM us here: https://twitter.com/ttsgpod

Become a patron! https://www.patreon.com/ttsgpod

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from a Chinese banquet! (If only…)

0:00 - “주먹만한 얼굴” (tiny face obsession)

2:48 – Reply All

We discuss the story buzzing throughout media: the hosts of the Reply All podcast, while reporting on the exploitative labor practices at Bon Appétit, had their own exploitative, anti-union activism exposed last week. What does this say about class versus race politics and the unionization movement in media? Plus, thoughts on the podcast-industry bubble.

(By the way, we are aware of the irony of talking, on a podcast, about another podcast that got canceled after talking about yet another podcast, so don't bother pointing that out!)

38:15 – “Minari”

Writer/director Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” starring Steven Yeun, has just been widely released. Is it a story about successful US assimilation or migrant ambivalence? Is it a universal or specific Asian-American tale? What is the state of Asian-diaspora storytelling in 2021, and when is the Forever 21 saga going to be made into a television movie?

1:01:00 – Three listener questions

* On ableism in our discussion of Covid-19 and “working women” (from Reena)

* Mixed feelings about the “decolonizing food” movement (from Jackie)

* On academics tweeting about political causes (from Jenny)

Thanks for listening!

* Email us your questions: timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com

* DM us here: https://twitter.com/ttsgpod

Become a patron! https://www.patreon.com/ttsgpod

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello!

Special unlocked bonus Patreon episode today with entrepreneur, TikTok cook, and hip-hop head Jaeki Cho. He and Jay talk about Jaeki’s quick rise to TikTok fame via his Korean cooking videos, Asian-American hip-hop in the 90s and 00s, and the ways in which immigrants acquire, imitate and then incorporate language.

You can find Jaeki’s TikTok here.

And a Friday throwback video for all of you.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello!

Special unlocked bonus Patreon episode today with entrepreneur, TikTok cook, and hip-hop head Jaeki Cho. He and Jay talk about Jaeki’s quick rise to TikTok fame via his Korean cooking videos, Asian-American hip-hop in the 90s and 00s, and the ways in which immigrants acquire, imitate and then incorporate language.

You can find Jaeki’s TikTok here.

And a Friday throwback video for all of you.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from the angry depths of our work-from-home souls!

This Valentine’s Day week:

0:00 – Big, hearty thanks for subscribing and supporting us through our Patreon. Don’t miss the raucous Discord chat or bonus episodes with Anakwa Dwamena and Jiayang Fan.

4:40 – Why are women shouldering the extra work of the pandemic? Why are they the first to lose their jobs and get stuck with multiplying jobs at home? We talk about the NYT’s “Primal Scream” package of stories, the neoliberalism/second-wave-feminism debate between scholars Nancy Fraser and Melinda Cooper, and the radical, unfinished challenge of the welfare rights and Wages for Housework movements.

44:50 – More discussion of recent street violence in the Bay Area, thanks to solid reporting through a partnership between The Oaklandside and Oakland Voices. (+ part two here). Is this a Black–Asian thing? What’s the economic/pandemic backdrop? How do we avoid carceral thinking? (link to Oakland Voices piece here.

1:11:11 – Thanks to Stephanie for her question about identity-obsessed East Coast Asians versus “gentle, confident” West Coast Asians (lol). We talk about ethnic enclaves like Cerritos, the making of Flushing, and Andy’s time in Plano, TX.

Thanks again for listening and sharing. Reach out anytime at @ttsgpod or timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

Plugs!

Read Oakland Voices!

On Wednesday (4.17) at 1230P ET:

And on Thursday (4.18) at 8P ET:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello!

This week, fabulous guest Darren Byler. Plus, three questions from our very smart listeners.

0:00 – Friend of the show Darren Byler returns (don’t miss his earlier episode, from July, where he discusses his research on Xinjiang with Tammy and Andy) to reflect on what he (and Andy) heard on Mandarin Clubhouse over the weekend. There was a brief burst of discussion among Mandarin speakers of various ethnicities around the world, including many in the PRC, about what’s happening to Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Clubhouse has since been banned in the PRC, but the rooms continue to operate. 

Those interested in Darren’s work should read this recent piece on surveillance capitalism in Xinjiang. Darren had also written about the types of stories told by Han Chinese residents of Xinjiang, which are similar to those that emerged on Clubhouse this weekend. 

39:40 – As promised, we answer listener questions about: 

– Anti-Asian violence in the Bay Area (Cathy) +

– Asians and the return-to-school debate (Matteo) + 

– How to push the Biden administration left? (Milos)

Stay in touch! timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com / TTSG on Twitter

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe