In March, The San Diego Asian Film Foundation screened two films at San Diego State University, in celebration of Women’s History Month, and a panel discussion followed.  "The Fact of Asian Women" recasts three generations of Asian American, Hollywood femme fatales: Anna May Wong, Nancy Kwan, and Lucy Liu.  "A Hand Up" is a short documentary that reveals the surprising genesis of the Vietnamese American nail industry and how it has provided a stepping-stone to the American Dream for these immigrants.  SDAFF writer Jessica Chang attended the screening and discussion.

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By Jessica Chang, SDAFF writer 

It is easy enough for me to relate to the two films being shown tonight. Being female I can relate to the typecasting and stereotypes confronted in Celine Padrenas Shimizu’s “The Fact of Asian Women“. As a child of Asian-American immigrants, the theme of immigrant struggles in “A Hand Up” by Jodie Hammond strikes a familiar chord.

As I watch the two films, I look around into the attentive silence of the diverse crowd of about 65 and wonder if others could understand.

“[Promoting] diversity, awareness and understanding in the community,” that is the purpose of the event according to Greg Toya of the SDSU Cross Cultural Center.

After the movies, a panel, including Women Studies professor Huma Ahmed Ghosh, Women’s Study Graduate Student Charlene Tran, and director Hammond, began a lively round of Q&A.

“What are the roles Asian-American women play in society today?” I turn around to see a woman of Latin-American descent. She continued, “I mean does the culture suppress the woman? Is she forced to stay home or not go on to higher education because of cultural restraints?”

Ghosh answers, “Women [are] expected to work and fulfill cultural needs.”
From personal experience as a 2nd generation Asian-American, Tran relates that she is torn. While one parent expects her to stay home and marry, the other pushes her to excel in school.

“Among the women I interviewed,” adds Hammond, “very few of them would want their daughters to be manicurists. They want their daughters to go to college.”

SDSU student Tien Quach recounts his personal experience as a child of immigrant parents who worked in nail salons much like those documented by Hammond in “A Hand Up.”

“I thought it was degrading. I didn’t understand why my mother had to do this.” Quach says and then adds thoughtfully “Now I have a sense of pride. It helped me understand why.”

More questions were asked and answered. A young Caucasian student tells her own encounter at a Vietnamese nail parlor and then asks hesitantly, “What do manicurists really talk about in Vietnamese while they’re doing your nails?”

It was as the laughter subsided that I realized the impact of programs such as Filmfest. It’s as Ghosh says, “The films that we saw today really shattered all the stereotypes that we have about Asian-American women.”