Transformative Hope

Transformative Hope - Religious Responses of Asian American Elders to Racism

Funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, Transformative Hope is a video series for Asian American elders to address the surge in racism that the broader community is experiencing. Although younger Asian Americans may experience hate incidents as racial trauma, Stop AAPI Hate researchers find that elders (60+) deal with racism, hate, and violence differently. Emerging from a collaborative partnership between APARRI and the Asian American Research Initiative, this video project offers a public storytelling collection featuring Asian American knowledge-bearers and religious practitioners.

Each Transformative Hope video features a different religious and ethnic perspective. From summer 2021 to spring 2022, Russell Jeung (SFSU) and Tammy Ho (UCR) interviewed elders and religious leaders in the United States who had experienced forms of everyday racism, such as stalking, name-calling, physical assault, and temple vandalism. Each video shares how Asian American elders interpret these kinds of events, cope with pain and hurt, and use their religious resources (teachings + practices) to move forward.

Our first set of videos feature the following perspectives:

  • Japanese American Buddhist (Shin and Soto Zen): in English
  • Vietnamese American Buddhist (Pure Land): in Vietnamese with English subtitles
  • Filipino American Catholic: in Filipino with English subtitles
  • Korean American Christian (Methodist): in Korean with English subtitles
  • Chinese American Christian (Methodist): in English with simplified Chinese subtitles
Transformative Hope responds to the crisis of escalating anti-Asian violence and racism (2020-present) by highlighting our community’s religious and racial diversity. We hope you are inspired by witnessing the resilience and resistance embodied by Asian American elders, and we welcome you to share your own stories about anti-Asian racism and the pandemic with Stop AAPI Hate. We aim to foster more informed interfaith conversations by offering this archive that spotlights the concerns and experiences of different religious and racialized communities within the United States. Each video teaches about resistance to racism, models resilience, and offers healing from each interview subject’s own cultural background and in their own language.

Rev. Noriaki Ito & Duncan Ryūken Williams

Ven. Thích Từ-Lực

Reverend Noriaki Ito & Duncan Ryūken Williams

Venerable Thích Từ-Lực

Noel Gella Quintana & Fr. Julian Jagudilla

Rev. Dr. Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan

Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee

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