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ISSUE 4

Answer [Feel free to use this space to reflect and write
down your answer!]:

Let me give you my answer as Polyphony’s
editor-in-chief. In order to get this issue - ourwhopping 4th print version - out, it is safe to saythat we have definitely gone through some roughwaves. Everyone, including me, has been rather
occupied by the busyness of life; from extended
seasons of silence to the recent chaos of getting
the creative brain cells to work, it’s surely been awhole rollercoaster ride to gather these pieces,
artworks, and visual elements together, lay themout, and make this issue into a reality. At one
point, it was even uncertain as to whether or not
a 2023 print version would be released; we had to
ask for extensions, reschedule deadlines at later
dates, and all that jazz.

Letter fromthe Editor
Hi [reader]!
It’s been a while. You might be wondering who I
am, so let me introduce myself for a bit. My nameis Kayla, a 4th-year student who’s been going
through waves of immense appreciation for mylife right now as well as fumbling doubt over thewhat-could-be’s in a few years' time. Everyday, mymind seems to be occupied by all sorts ofthoughts, starting from what I am in the mood to
eat to what my future is going to look like. Having
gone back to “normal life” with me being able totravel and move around without much
restrictions, I feel like there is so much for me todiscover — the freedom and privilege that I holdin my hands is both liberating, yet overwhelming
at times. All in all, life has been a little weird - andthat is to say the least.
What about you? How have you been? What haslife been like for you? Are you on the same boat asme - one that voyages between rough waves before
finding its way to cruise through calm seas?

As you can see, it has been quite chaotic. But,
that’s what life is like sometimes. And that iswhat this issue is centered on. It wasn’t
intentional for this to be our leading theme, but
the articles in this volume seem to be prettyaligned with the complexity of experiences andof the everyday. We’ve got wonderful pieces
about one’s journey with remembering the past,
the blur surrounding the meanings of home andidentity, honest and vulnerable reflections on
one’s own experiences… Let me stop here before
I spoil.
Above all, our 4th print issue would not havebecome a reality without the help, patience, andcreativity of our beautiful team: Chok Jia Xuan,
Shan Min Kha, Sonava Tadao, Alyana Morales,
Joan Silole, Chigaemazu Ibegwam, Kha Nguyen,
and the rest of the editors-writersphotographers-artists who have contributed
their time and skill to help us out. You’ve not only
helped breathe life into this issue, but into
Polyphony!
As you start flipping through pages, reading thewords written, and absorbing the emotions
present within, I hope that you are able to lookback on your own experiences and find comfort
in the weirdness of life.

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ISSUE 4

Table of Contents
4 - Lending Thoughts from a Mango TreeJia Xuan Chok

7 - When Home Doesn’t Feel Like Home: A
Self- Reflection of Reverse Culture ShockNazrya Tachiara Azla

9 - Repetition || No language sings fullMattie Balagat

10 - The Obscureness of the Meaning ofHome and Identity

13 - When People Die Dyeing
Alyana Q. Morales
15 - A Living Past

Jnifar G. Yumi

Kayla Guevara

17 - Comic
Ekaterina Ivanko

18 - Narratives of a South Vietnamese
Father and a Laotian Mother: On Memories
of War and Transnational Perspectives on
LifeKieu An Nguyen

22 - Not yet Titled || Insomniac || Tamta tanka
24 - じいちゃんの庭 / Grandpa's Garden
Shusei Fujikawa

26 - Swamp Fairy
Ekaterina Ivanko

27 - Social Media’s Impact on Urbanization
and Gentrification
Tran My Vien

31 - Getting Real with Climate Anxiety
Jia Xuan Chok & Kayla Guevara

33 - Reflecting on Four Years of University
Graduating Class of 2023

Shan Min Kha

OCT 2023

ISSUE 4The Team
Editor-in-Chief: Kayla Guevara
Layout Editor: Kayla Guevara
Assistant Layout Editor: Jia Xuan Chok
General Editors for the Issue:
Jia Xuan Chok
Joan Silole
Olaedo Ibegwam Chigaemezu
Kha Nguyen
Sonava Tadao
Shan Min Kha
Credits to Shan Min Kha for the cover photo andKayla Guevara for the doodle illustrations.

Special thanks to other contributors:
Articles:Shusei Fujikawa
Nazrya Tachiara Azla
Mattie Balagat
Jnifar G. Yumi
Shan Min Kha
Tran My Vien
Kieu An Nguyen
Alyana Q. Morales
Graduating Class of 2023
Visual Materials:
Ekaterina Ivanko
Sonava Tadao
Doodle Illustrations:
Kayla GuevaraSpecial thanks as well to all the food, things andpeople that kept us sane throughout this journey.

The Polyphony Student Journal is the first student-run literary platform at Okayama
University’s liberal arts program, the Discovery Program for Global Learners (GDP).
This year is Polyohony’s 4th year in running.

Check out more content from us on our blog and Instagram account:
Blog
discoverypolyphony.com

Instagram@polyphony_gdp

If you are a student of GDP or Okayama University, feel free to submit your work to beconsidered for publication at polyphonygdp@gmail.com.

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ISSUE 4

Lending Thoughts from a
Mango
Tree
– Diary Entries of A Tree and A Person
Words and Visuals by Jia Xuan Chok
In my reality, trees and people both have their own ways of documenting life. I decided to take a thirdperson perspective and peek into their diary entries (don’t ever do that in real life), weaving their stories
into a reflective interspecies dialogue that explores how they entangle with one another beyond thegrounds of proximity. Identity is formed and changed throughout the process as they mix up.
“Precarity is the condition of being vulnerable to others. Unpredictable encounters transform us; we are not in control, evenof ourselves.” – Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

Tree, 18th of July 2021
Have you ever taken a moment to observe your surroundings, or perhaps lend us an ear or feel us around?
What everyday dramas are unfolding within your neighborhood ecosystem? The duration of which I’ve
stood here has eluded my memory, but today is just another day standing here, in the backyard of a fellow
human's house, amidst a bustling community of squirrels, bees, Malay civets, Black-naped Orioles, afamily of sparrows, fungi, ferns and an assortment of greens. Today is another day continuing ourpolyphonic assemblage that makes diverse lifeways. Each of us have our own way of living, nurturing
nature under our unique way of caring. Apart from self-subsistence, a healthy micro ecosystem takes fromthe individual function of each organism. For example, I’m in charge of regulating the temperature, thebees work on pollination, the squirrels in fertilization and planting seeds, and the ferns in providing
microhabitats as well as air filtering. All of this happens under the frequent surveillance of this person,
who we have come to believe to be the daughter of the house owners.
This person spends most of her time sitting by the window-side desk on the second floor, and she is staring
at me again. For how long, I couldn’t remember, but I just let her stare because it’s not like I can leave, and I
think everytime she does that, something is going on inside her head.
Person, (date undocumented)
Drenched in the evening glow of this day, the green mangoes reflected a golden hue that captivated mymind, and it felt like an invitation to write about it.
The green mango tree outside of my bedroom window has gone virtually unnoticed for the past years; notto my dad though – he has been patiently waiting for the many forces of nature to co-produce the being of
this tree. So, when it started dropping mango bombs on the roof of my verandah, it landed a sonorous
crash inside my mind as well. All of a sudden, its presence turned into a prominent statement, as if yelling,“HEY!” - a thread that ties a tree and a girl to a journey of collaborative identity construction.
I find myself observing the tree more and more, woven into their history at the same time theirs woven
into mine – a human-nonhuman conversation unspoken yet palpably alive, birthing a quiet
metamorphosis from an ignorant consumer to a careful conservationist.
Very often, I stare at the tree with tangled thoughts, spouting rhetorical questions. Little did I realize, theseason my dad and I started planning ways to harvest the unreachable mangoes in the tree before they
make holes on our verandah roof, was the day I unconsciously self-enrolled in the school of multispecies
entangling art. Now and then, I think about the mango tree that sprouted from the seed discarded througha nonchalant swing of an arm, buried by elusive squirrels, nurtured by the efforts of all forces; the mango

OCT 2023

ISSUE 4tree now missing from my vicinity as I reminisce the rustling of its leaves far away from home in Japan,
where I study abroad.
I still remember how back home in Malaysia, retired individuals often sit under a tree in the late afternoon
to catch up on the latest village gossip while children pillow their forehead with an arm against the trunkof a tree as they close their eyes and count to ten during a game of hide-and-seek. Village gatherings
almost always happen near the presence of towering trees. People bond through fun, laughter, and food,oftentimes forgetting these nonhumans - the taken-for-granted creators of social landscapes - thatbrought them together. It is under the shade of a decades-year-old tree that stories are passed on.
You see, trees might not go places, but they are secretly threading history and transforming hearts – theybring conversations to places and exist as an indispensable part of conservation dialogues. It doesn’t
matter if they’re clad to the ground because even so, they travel with time and imaginaries. They become
the root of inspiration for many globally circulating stories of climate action and initiatives. “We mustfight against deforestation or else we’ll be doomed!” rallied environmental activists around the globe. A
symphony of tangible life – trees, clean air, animals – joins with the intangible essence of our identities,
yearnings, fears, and hope for the morrows. Amidst this unruly interplay, conservation finds its defiant
dance.

Tree, 2nd of January 2023
The self-awareness as a lonetree beckons the question ofwhether my presence speaksof substance. How the ecoemergency puts meconstantly in anxiety andelicits frequently the urge to
do something, even as I’malready straining against thetethers of my own
limitations. There’s only somuch I can contribute as one
tree in a grand cosmic
drama, and so I think about
the trees who are weaving
stories in the world’s biggest
forests and whose existencecollectively affects the global
climate, landscapes, andoceans. It’s hard to imagine
removing a pebble from theshore of a still body of water
without making the wateraround it move; the sameway it’s hard and terrifying
to imagine what kind ofeffect the disappearance of
one thing on the surface ofearth can have on all
dwellers because we’re allsomehow moreinterconnected as you think.
Hence, I often imagine what
would happen if I, a small
mango tree in somebody’s
backyard, were cut down ordied… Would it even matter?

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ISSUE 4

What significance do I, a single tree, have on the biosphere? And then I spiral into a burrow of frustration.
Person, 24th of July 2023
So often, we trivialize the power we have in morphing the system that instigate changes on our naturallandscapes and fail to recognize the interconnectedness of our own world-making projects and those of
the others. We live in a continuum where nature shapes us and vice versa. A lot of people don’t see that
there is this world alongside theirs, only visible if they slacken their pace and feel around with their senses
and sensibilities. It’s vast, slow, colorful, interconnected, creative, vulnerable, and contaminated.
“Progress means: humanity emerges from its spellbound state no longer under the spell of progress as well, itself nature, by
becoming aware of its own indigenousness to nature and by halting the mastery over nature through which nature
continues its mastery.” – Theodor Adorno
I must say it’s challenging to stay afloat with tragic allegories weighing you down, but the thing about being
young is having the passion to romanticize a hopeful future amidst an emergency-yet-to-turn-absolutecatastrophe. The famous Japanese matsutake’s survival skills serve as a testimony for signs of hope at theend of the world. I saw how nature is both vulnerable and resilient – a vessel of possibility and hope thatallows me the courage to dream a green fantasy.
Tree, 22nd of August 2023
When the fruits in my hair began to ripen once more, the person stuck a thingamajig – two broomsticks
connected with a green net tied at the end of the second stick – out of her window until it reached a goodbunch of mangoes. She pulled and pulled and pulled and the mangoes submitted to the embrace of thegreen net.
Person, 22nd of August 2023
“Thank you for the fruits, Mango Tree,” I expressed my gratitude quietly in my heart. A silly thought
surfaced in my head, and I half-shouted, “Thank you for the fruits, Mango Tree!”From then on, that is, when I developed the habit of speaking to inanimate objects, I started to notice that
it was more than simply the fruits that I care about now. I hear them speaking and caring for each other ina polyphonic ensemble, and I think, maybe they can hear me.
Tree, 2nd of September 2023
A few months after I questioned my identity, two saplings crept up from the ground on both sides of me! I
became aware of my ability to, in part, nurture the growth of other beings, as well as my growth owing to
the nurture belonging to theirs, hence becoming is always becoming with something else. Existing with the
becomings and becoming-withs of all beings, I venture into a hopeful future of multispecies co-existence
and collaborative survival.

References
Powers, R. (2018). The Overstory. William Heinemann.
Robbert, A., & Mickey, S. (2013). Cosmopolitics: An Ongoing Question. The Center for Process Studies, Claremont, CA
Political Theory and Entanglement: Politics at the Overlap of Race, Class, and Gender October 25, 2013.
Tsing, A. L. (2005). Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Amsterdam University Press.
Tsing, A. L. (2021). The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton
University Press.

OCT 2023

ISSUE 4

When Home Doesn’t
Feel
Like
Home:
A Self-Reflection of Reverse
Culture ShockWords and Photos by Nazyra Tachiara Azla

It all started exactly 4 years ago when I set footin the land of the setting sun, Japan. Before
embarking on a one-year exchange program, I
and 25 other participants were equipped with a
lot of knowledge, such as how to manage
expectations, deal with stress and language
barriers, and face culture shock. One of thelessons we learned on how to handle culture
shock was to suspend our judgment and observeas outsiders. Everything went smoothly, andlittle by little, I began to understand and become
familiar with Japanese culture.

A year passed, and I returned to Indonesia.
Among all the things I learned, there wasnothing that reminded me of re-culture shock— that readjusting to my own culture was way
harder than learning a new one. It was a battleof emotional and psychological stages to fit inagain with my original culture.

Home. A word that often evokes feelings ofcomfort when used in phrases like "it feels likehome." For me, home is Indonesia. But what if
Indonesia doesn't feel like home anymore,
where it does not provide that sense of comfort
that it normally does?

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ISSUE 4The lost sense of belonging. I felt like I didn't
belong to any community. In Japan, people saw
me as a foreigner from Southeast Asia; mybehavior and thoughts were associated with
Southeast Asia. But when I returned to Indonesia,
people saw me behaving like a "foreigner" withmy way of socializing, expressing feelings,
communicating, and thinking. They said I
couldn't use what I had learned in Japan. This
made me feel very lonely and lost, as I thought I
didn't belong to any particular community.

The last challenge I had was how I became
judgmental. After returning, I questioned a lot
about my own home country – why people
behaved and acted in such manners, or why they
thought in a certain way. For example, inIndonesia, people don't like to stand in line forsomething, but in Japan, we could wait in line fora restaurant for 45 minutes or even longer. This
disparity in behavior perplexed me.
Looking back on my journey, I found pricelesswisdom. I learned that confusion is okay and thatit's a normal part of life. The discovery of how torely on myself and believe in my abilities was likegoing on a quest to uncover who I truly am.
Exploring different viewpoints expanded myunderstanding of the world, and I cherished theskill of not being quick to judge others. And
through it all, I conquered the challenge of fittingback into my own culture, like solving a puzzle
that made me feel at home again.

At the end of this chapter, it took me roughly twomonths to adjust to the culture of my homeland. I
realized that being somewhat confused helped me
grow. I honed the ability to lean on myself anddeveloped profound self-trust. The kaleidoscopeof perspectives I encountered enlightened me,
and the invaluable skill of suspending judgment
was etched into my being. At the end of the day, I
finally embraced the challenge of reintegrating
myself into the tapestry of Indonesian culture.

OCT 2023

Repetition
I want to want little.
To dream like a seed,tucked into earth, perchancea seasonal sunshine. Greet
the Serendipitous
earthworm and the curiosityof rainwater. I wish to residein the permanence of touch.
I have two hands to love
what I have known.
Oh wind which sends thespore home, which caresses
the tops of trees! Teachme this gentle song!

ISSUE 4

9

Poems and Visuals by Mattie Balagat

No language
sings fullNo language sings fullWithout the heave of presence
Being now-with. TranslateThis lightness where we've
Settled, to each a name.

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OCT 2023

ISSUE 4The Obscureness of the Meaningof Home and Identity
Jnifar G. Yumi
1. homING — In this class, it has been used as a verb
rather than just a noun, as the process of internalizing
several external factors into our lives.

When we travel or live abroad, we are closely observed by the people in those places, just as we learn fromand adapt to their cultures. Over this course of time when we are abroad, we often come across thequestion: what is home? For 1.5 or second-generation migrants, they are often asked, “where are you
from?” or “where are you from, really?” For them, it is a question that disguises as curiosity about theethnic background of the person being asked. How is the process of homING done for them? How has theidentity of child migrants been formed by their parents, who were also migrants in a foreign country? For
this paper, I have interviewed a GDP student and took his case to probe into the literature review of thecourse readings.

My interviewee, Junayeed Matin, is a 22-year-old second-generation migrant from Bangladesh to Japan,
where his parents moved for work purposes thirty years ago. In our conversation about his experienceliving in a foreign country, he shared about how his parents shaped his identity, how he formed his own
definition of home, and how the constant changes in his environment affected his sense of belonging.

Jnifar G. Yumi (JGY): To start with, what was the initial reason behind your parents' migrating to Japan
specifically instead of having other options?
Junayeed Matin (JM): My father wanted to pursue his higher studies, PhD, with a scholarship. Since hefound that opportunity in Japan, he completed his degree in Dentistry here and he went back to
Bangladesh to open a clinic to practice his dentistry. Not being successful in that attempt, he thought hewould find better opportunities in Japan, so he moved here with my mother, after which my brother and I
were born.
JGY: Did you visit Bangladesh with your family often, or have you stayed there for a long time?
JM: When I was in the third grade, my parents moved back to Bangladesh for about two years, and wesettled again in Japan after that. Since then, I have been visiting Bangladesh every year with my parents,
but the last time I went back home was in... 2018... Woah, I just realised it's already been so long!
JGY: Time flies, doesn't it? Talking of time, your mother must have faced difficulty following your father toa foreign country, right?
JM: For sure. She’s very close to her family and made many sacrifices to migrate overseas, accompanying
my father. She sometimes used to complain that if she had gotten her college degree, she would have had a

OCT 2023

ISSUE 4professional life too and wouldn't find it so hard to make friends in the local society, and she doesn't reallyhave close Japanese friends here. Not knowing the language was a real struggle for her initially. I realised
my mother gradually learnt to hide her feelings, which was how I think she was changed by migration. My
father is more expressive compared to her.
JGY: I agree, it must have been so hard. Moving on, do you feel like how your parents made you learn yourmother tongue has shaped your identity?
JM: Of course. Though I was born in Japan, you know there are issues with citizenship procedures here,
and I always feel like Japan is not my home and Bangladesh neither, but at the same time, I feel both are myhomes. It's a weird feeling, you know? Like a tug of war. Also, if my parents hadn't supported me inlearning Bengali, I wouldn't feel connected to my roots, culture or my family there.
JGY: Hmm, I wouldn't have understood this before but since I came to Japan, I also have been feeling thistug of war. Where do you find yourself in a scenario where you are told that home should grow from inside
out, not outside in?
JM: Well, I'm a mixture of both; that’s what makes me unique, hahaha... I was introduced to my culture by
my parents, and a strong emphasis was put particularly on religion by my mother, who read the Quranregularly to both of us. In contrast, my father never said anything that we MUST follow Islam strictly. He
believes in his religion but prefers not to make it a big issue. He is more into other social activities likecricket and he introduced me to it, which is why I'm a devoted fan of cricket. You know it's a big part of ourculture in Bangladesh. So, religion and culture make up my social identity. As for living norms and abiding
by society's values, I go with the flow here, adopting the societal values from my surroundings.
JGY: Nicely worded. So has migration made you a stronger person?
JM: I would say yes. It taught me to be emotionally very strong. I never grow a strong attachment to one
particular place.
JGY: Is that a positive thing?
JM: Hahaha… if you see it that way, then yes. It's easier for me to move around without growing much
attachment to one place. But not having any solid attachment for any place makes me feel weird. The
hardest part is leaving behind the people in your life, but I overcome that after a few days. Right now, theplace I'm most attached to is Okayama. (laughs!)

Adams (2014) classifies identity as personal, social, and relational. One’s identity is simultaneously sharedand singular, which is what I uncovered through the interview. Migrants carry values and beliefs to theplaces they go, especially second-generation immigrants, who become walking social remittances andliving connections between different cultures and nations. Hence, the challenge of travel is learning how toimport and export culture and identity with tenderness at the delicate point of adolescence. With this, I got
a glance at the perspective of transnational mothers (a rhetoric by Kačkutė, 2016) as Junayeed’s narrative
represented a mother who followed her husband to a foreign country and faced a crisis between her
traditional mothering practices back home and in the host country.
One notable characteristic was how Junayeed made attachments, particularly with people, but only
temporarily; his experience justifies Kelley’s theory that a full commitment to a specific home is notpossible, too painful or undesirable (2013). My interviewee has recognized that this experience made him
emotionally stronger. Just like Boccagni mentioned in his interview with Les Back (2017), my interview
revealed that people truly are archives of their past, which plays a significant role in their version of
HomING and how their identity is formed. For my interviewee, he was not losing himself more to others
and identified a stronger character within himself. When asked whether home should grow from the insideout or outside in, he stated he is a mixture of both, forming cultural hybridity - a mixture of two cultures -11

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ISSUE 4of identity (Asadu, 2018), which made him mentally and emotionally stronger in that process. Thishybridity does not force him to choose one singular identity, but rather settle in a rational and compatible
sense of himself. He had unconsciously talked about the concepts of identity and belongingness, andalthough these two terms are often used with the same meaning, they are different in theory.
According to Anthias (2006), one may identify with the society or culture that surrounds them, but not feelthat they belong in the sense of being truly accepted or being a full member of such. Alternatively, one may
feel they are accepted and 'belong' but may not fully ‘identify’, as in the case of Junayeed in Bangladesh. The
term belonging is a vast and nuanced concept. Whether through tangible or intangible means, people canestablish a sense of 'belonging' in various ways; it is normally related to emotional connections and the
feeling of being 'at home', which often indicates a sense of comfort and security (Yuval-Davis, 2006).

Additionally, how Junayeed talked about his father and his passion for cricket helped me relate back to theidea of social connection and social remittance in gardening mentioned by Hondagneu-Sotelo (2014).
Junayeed indicated how he and his family transferred new ideas and knowledge in the form of cricket,
food, and mother tongue from their communities of origin in Bangladesh. He even opened a circle at
Okayama University, where he closely engages with social remittance, adding up to construct his social
identity. Lastly, he shared he is not in conflict with his identity, but with his attachments and where hebelongs. He seems to be quite experienced in the act of embracing something new and the art of letting go.
I hope and wish that once he grows into an adult, he would find a deeper meaning of home andbelongingness in the years to come.

To conclude, this interview has been enlightening for me, hearing about experiences from someone close tome. Never having travelled before coming to Japan, he broadened my view on the ambivalence of homefrom the perspective of an immigrant. The insight from this interview proves that it is possible to have atransnational identity in a satisfying sense. My conversation with Junayeed highlights that it is indeed
possible to cultivate a fulfilling transnational identity, which involves the capacity to adapt to diverse
environments and navigate the experience of being an outsider. It also entails constructing a strong senseof home and identity through social connections, feelings of belonging, and a high level of adaptation tovarious cultures and societies.
References
Adams, B.G. (2014). 'I Think therefore I Am... I Think On
the Diversity and Complexity of Identity'. Tilburg
University.
Anthias, F. (2006). Belongings in a Globalising andUnequal World: Rethinking Translocations. The Situated
Politics of Belonging. Retrieved from https://www.
researchgate.net/publication/265280705_Belongings_in_
a_Globalising_and_Unequal_World_rethinking_translocations/citation/download
Asadu, P. A. (2018). Identity construction and belonging of
second-generation Ghanaian immigrants in the
Netherlands. Social Justice Perspectives (SJP). Retrieved
from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/46582
Boccagni, P. (2017). Migration and the Search for Home:
Mapping Domestic Space in Migrants’ Everyday Lives.
New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.

Kačkutė, E. (2016) “Mother Tongue as the Language ofMothering and Homing Practice in Betty Quan’s MotherTongue and Hiromi Goto’s Chorus of Mushrooms”:
Survival Strategies and Identity Construction of Migrantand Refugee Mothers” (56-74). Toronto: Demeter Press.
Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2014). Paradise Transplanted:
Migration and the Making of California Gardens. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press.
Kelley, C. E. (2013). Accidental Immigrants and the Searchfor Home: Women, Cultural Identity, and Community.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2006). Belonging and the politics ofbelonging, Patterns of Prejudice, 40(3), 197-214. Retrieved
from https://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/
uploads/2020/05/document-7.pdf

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ISSUE 4

When People Die Dyeing
Words and Visuals by Alyana Q. Morales
I find it very ironic how these two words withcompletely two different meanings can be put
together to tackle an environmental as well as asocial issue. Die, one's passing, and dye, thesubstance that changes the colors of things, aredeeply connected in the depths of the fashionindustry. The question is: who is dying and what
does dyeing have to do with it?
Fast fashion has been a subject of attention within
the fashion industry as early as the 1990s when theterm was coined by the New York Times to describe
Zara’s model of designing clothes and selling themin stores in a span of only 15 days. Fast fashion
took the world by storm as it produced clothes at afast rate and cheap price. It borrowed designs fromrunways and celebrities, turning them into

cheaper and more affordable clothing in hopesthat people buy it to become part of the current
trends (Rauturier, 2023). Then again, how cheap
are we really buying these clothes for?
Quoting from Lucy Siegle, an author andjournalist on ethics of the fashion industry, “Fastfashion isn’t free. Someone somewhere is paying.”
While we do pay for these clothes often at anincredibly low price, the true cost of each garment
is being paid for by laborers working under theroofs of unregulated factories in developing
countries.
River Blue, a documentary about the global
pollution of rivers through tanning (process ofturning animal skins into leather), textile
production, and textile dyeing, unmasks the harsh

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14

reality of people’s lives working (and struggling)in these factories. It brought to light the rivers thatrun alongside some of the most heavily polluted
cities in the world, such as the Yamuna River inIndia, Li River in China and Citarum River inIndonesia, all contaminated by life-threatening
chemicals.
In another documentary The True Cost, theunderlying price of the fashion industry is shown
to be continuously growing as so many hidden
truths are left unaccounted for by leading brands.
The film is an exposé on how these brands arecontinuously exploiting cheap materials andlabour in developing countries, while also evading
responsibility for the escalating toll on humanhealth and the environment. Clothing and textile
waste, chemical pollution, health hazards andlabour issues have become “the dirty shadow of
the fashion industry”. How did that happen?
Since the goal of fast fashion is to produce clothes
fast, it is the supply chain, or the people in thefactories, that are rushed to produce textiles andapparel for export at a low labor wage, leaving
them with no choice but to work longer hours toachieve production quotas at the designated time.
This exacerbates their exposure to harshchemicals in the absence of health safety
regulations and decent working conditions.
The fall of the Rana Plaza is one of the mostprominent disasters that perfectly captures theseworkers’ predicaments. Rana Plaza is an eightstory building located in Dhaka, Bangladesh thatcollapsed and took the lives of over 1,100 garment
workers. Despite the workers pointing out thecracks on the walls and possible accidents thatmight occur, they were still forced to go to work.
People continued working in these factories
because this is the only way for them to earn aliving.
On the environmental facet, these factories
produce both textile and chemical wastes which
end up in landfills and rivers. The production ofnon-biodegradable textile wastes creates

References
Rauturier, S. (2023). What Is Fast Fashion and
Why Is It So Bad? Good On You. Retrieved fromhttps://goodonyou.eco/what-is-fast-fashion/

ISSUE 4greenhouse gas emissions as well as toxic
chemicals and dyes that pollute the soil. Whenchemical wastes enter rivers and other bodies ofwater, they contaminate the food chain of aquatic
lives and the irrigation of agricultural land. A
noteworthy scene in River Blue is when Orsola deCastro, founder of Fashion Revolution (a fast
fashion nonprofit organization), says, “There is ajoke in China that you can tell the 'it' color of theseason by looking at the color of the rivers.” A viewof the Li River is shown next with a deep color ofred. These chemical wastes, whether encountereddirectly or through the fish and produce people
consume, deteriorate human health. The True Cost
portrays a particular case in Kanpur, India where aprevailing number of people is diagnosed withjaundice due to a chemical named chromium 6that attacks the liver. Chromium 6 is used fortreating leather and is irresponsibly discharged bytanneries, thus contaminating local farming anddrinking water. Every other person in every otherhousehold is diagnosed with the illness.
In The True Cost, a female worker said in Bangla, “I
believe these clothes are produced by our blood. A
lot of garment workers die in different incidents. I
don’t want anyone wearing anything which is
produced by our blood.” Amber Valetta, a modeland entrepreneur, responds to this unethicalsituation, saying, “No one wants to wear clothes
that were made from someone’s blood.”
The answer to my question at the beginning is:workers in the supply chain of the fast fashionindustry, be it garment workers or textile factory
workers, are dying in the process of producing
and dyeing clothes and textiles in order to meetthe growing demand for fast fashion.
As Sass Brown, author of ECO Fashion, says:“Cheap fashion is really far from that, it may becheap in terms of the financial cost, but very
expensive when it comes to the environment andthe cost of human life.” Fast fashion is still aprevailing issue that is not only detrimental to theenvironment, but also to ourselves.

River Blue directed by David McIlvride & Roger
Williams
The True Cost directed by Andrew Morgan

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ISSUE 4

Words and Visuals by Kayla Guevara
It is September 23, 1972.

My family members rustle around the house, the neighborhood dogs are making their presence known,
and the rhythmic static of the radio plays its tune. I greet the breeze knocking against my window, the sun
peeking through the dancing linen curtains, and the thin layer of sweat on my forehead. I say hello to thearoma of my parents’ freshly brewed barako coffee and the all-too-familiar scent of our favorite snack,turon. It is just another day in September, but it was a day like no other.
An air of heaviness lingers around my family, my home, my neighborhood, and my country. A voice
booms through the radio and the television—one that is tainted with power and wrapped with authority.
A voice that obtains adoration and applause, but garners synchronous revolutionary yells. A new era hasjust begun.

I step out of the house, greeted by men in uniform. I move, wary of the secret eyes watching.

The newspaper I read every day suddenly disappears into thin air. The channel of the news program myfamily would tune into every night is suddenly a bunch of colored, vertical lines instead. Looking straight
into my eyes, my parents give me frequent reminders to be careful with an obvious shake in their voices.

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I look to the right, and I see uncles, aunts, and even those who look to be students being taken away. I hear
the powerful voices of their children wailing. I hear their relatives vocally trying to figure out what is goingon. Confusion, fear, and uncertainty—that is what I hear.
I turn the other direction, and I get a glimpse of people writhing their way into hiding. I see patches of red,
black, and blue. Yet, at the same time, I spot well-dressed, lavish individuals smiling from ear to ear on the
television – one of them had the same booming voice of power and authority. The stark contrast seems
unbelievable. How could it be real? How is this happening at the same time? But it is. It is real. It ishappening.
I stare out the distance. The ground starts to shake. They are the furious steps of Filipino individuals,
fighting for their freedom, for their lives, for their home. Children on the shoulders of their fathers andmothers, nuns on the frontline, grandparents strongly standing alongside a multitude, students ofdifferent schools—all loudly and proudly asking for change.
Like the afternoon wind, news about disappearances and casualties reach my ears. Numbers I cannot evenvisualize. Numbers that I didn’t even expect. Numbers that make my heart ache. Faces and names I do notknow and have never heard of before, but feel responsible for.
Like the setting sun, the blanket that is covering my petite body seems to be getting heavier. A blanket of
terror. A blanket of uncertainty. My eyes that are shut see a country that is so difficult to fight for, but soeasy to love. These weighty emotions and this overwhelming feeling of responsibility jolt me awake.

I wake up from this dream.
But I was never even asleep.
It is the year 2022. It is a day like any other.

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Untitled Comic

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Ekaterina Ivanko

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ISSUE 4

Narratives of a South Vietnamese
Father and a Laotian Mother:On Memories of War andTransnational Perspectives ofLife
Words by Kieu An Nguyen
Visuals by Jeffery Ly Nguyen and Kayla Guevara
Vietnam embodied the battleground for one of the most brutal and destructive wars between Westernimperial powers and the people of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Espiritu, 2014). Yet, “so much is told
about Vietnam, and so little is understood” (Nguyen, 2016) through an organized and strategic forgettingof war by America’s self-appointed role as liberators. In the picture of silent war memories, thousands ofhidden figures from South Vietnam, who fled their homeland in hopes of survival due to the effects of war
and the drastic regime change of communism, have never been placed into full view. On a cozy morning inNovember, I had the opportunity to engage in a brief conversation with Mr. Minh Nguyen and Mrs. ThienNgoc Ly, the 1.5 generations Vietnamese and Laotian husband and wife who migrated to the United Statesand Switzerland, respectively, after the fall of Saigon in 1975. They are currently settling in Las Vegas after
moving from California. Tracing back to lingering memories of the war, they unwrapped the past that has
been buried deep while also sharing their novel insights that emerged from their life experiences as‘refugees.’

OCT 2023
Mr. Minh Nguyen, originally from a relatively
well-off family in Southern Vietnam, fled thecountry when he was nine years old with hisfamily. Dressing down like “country people '' so as
not to stand out, they got on a little boat of 25
people at the river before boarding a bigger boaton the ocean. Their seven days of hardship on theover-crowded boat countered hunger, storms andsavage waves that almost drowned them on top of
an unexpected change of direction that broughtthem to the Philippines instead of Thailand.
Among thousands of “boat people” who failed tosurvive the passage and perished in the sea, Mr.
Nguyen was one of the more fortunate ones toreach the destination.
Born into a Laotian-Vietnamese family, Mrs.
Thien-Ngoc Ly, at the age of four, and her family
fled Laos with a fear of communist influence
reaching the borders and relocated to a Thai
refugee camp for two years before being
sponsored to emigrate to Switzerland. In her vivid
memory of war escape as a child, the journey wasdays of seemingly endless walking from Laos toThailand under the heavy rains and muddy rice
fields with her mother, two uncles, and her aunt.
Swallowed by emotions in speaking of her mother,she stumbled over her words and started sobbing:“I couldn't walk much and my relatives were rotating tocarry me on their back. Two or three days, we had nothing,
I got sick, I was on the verge of not breathing and I almost
died. My mom … she eventually tried to get me somewater, mud water, the only thing she can give to me, but I
was being picky and refused to drink that dirty water. Can
you imagine?”“War was a world with no home, no roof, nocomforts, a miserable journey, of endless drifting.
War was a world without real men, without real
women, without feeling” (Ha, 2016). War is indeed
not over and the memories continue to linger andhaunt the lives of those who once inhabited thatspace and time (Espiritu, 2010, p.204). Especially“...”, the silent pause in between Mrs. Ly’s
narrative, echoes the ‘noisy silence’ wellarticulated in Raymond Williams’s concept of“structure of feelings” (Espiritu, 2010, p.209) inwhich emotional suffocation from the traumatic
hardships weighing on her and her family even as
time passed by that can always be felt but nowords can ever convey. It is the loudness of things
unsaid, the lived social experiences,
consciousness, and the suffering that is unable,and perhaps will never be able to be captured or
dictated by any existing official and defined terms.
Furthermore, the war is not only about how theUnited States remembers Vietnam through its
national memorials while forgetting theVietnamese, but also how Vietnam remembers its

ISSUE 4dead while forgetting the South Vietnamese; andboth nations fail to mourn so many of the victims
displaced and dead from the surrounding
countries, such as Laos and Cambodia (Stanley,2020). The suffering, pain, and hardship Mr.
Nguyen and Mrs. Ly – a South Vietnamese and a
Laotian – experienced, was among the various
voices that were dismissed and forgotten in thenations’ ways of remembrance that demonize orforget others. It exceeds the national boundaries
and defies the war’s official dates into the living
effects, seething and lingering, of what seems overand done with, but “the endings that are not over”(Espiritu, 2010, p.212).
When life becomes untenable and people make thedecision to move to new places, they often
experience a sense of being in-between, where
they do not fully belong to either their old or new
home. Considering that migrants' experiences ofmobility and settlement are often accompaniedwith feelings of ambiguity about being
simultaneously here and there, it is inarguably
causing complex emotional entanglements inrelation to places, people, objects andrelationships. Touching upon the concepts of“home” and “home-making”, Mr. Nguyen
advocated:“It’s been 40 years since I fled Vietnam and I neverwent back even once. Throughout the time, thefeelings for Vietnam in me faded. With thatdwindling attachments, I created my own idea ofhome - the home is the people, my wife and mysons. You can adapt to more homes, I don’t have tostay at the place I was born with the people thatlook like me, speaking the same language as me, inorder to feel like home. Why do humans have toseparate into borders and race? Why do we set upa system where certain kids have certain privileges
and rights while others suffer so much? Thismight be a bit of utopia but the world is my homeand I believe you can adapt the whole world toyour home.”
As Les Back describes, the notion of ‘home’connects us to place and people as well as the senseof being in the social world (Boccagni, 2022, p.2).
The question of ‘home’ is also at the heart ofmigrants similar to Mr. Nguyen - migrants who
are under conditions of displacement andextended mobility but still stretching to create asense of belonging and a space to refuge within
the vulnerabilities of their lives. “Home,” despite
its apparent familiarity, is also a slippery andelusive notion in which its paradox is located in
the fact that ‘home is a place to celebrate andescape from at the same time’ (Boccagni, 2022,
p.4) – it is a comfort refuge for some, but within
the context of the migrants’ life, home is

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ISSUE 4
constantly negotiated, unacted, and fought for.
For Mr. Nguyen, it was initially the escape from‘home’ in the horror of war to the challenged timeof resettlement until the stage when he was able
to create his own idea of ‘home’ that is associatedwith the dearest feelings towards his family. The
richness in the idea of home is therefore, reflected
in its representational, narrative and material allat the same time since ‘building home’ involves
work and materials – both symbolic and physical– and also the forging of social relationships(Boccagni, 2022, p.2).
Additionally, home can also be a place that isremade, reclaimed, reopened, reassembled, andrepresented differently (Boccagni, 2022, p.2). As
Mr. Nguyen questioned about reasons why people
have to separate into borders and races, it shows
how homemaking is a profoundly multi-sensory
experience wherein our sense of being in theworld is not just a story that lives in language or ina visual representation, but also involves theentanglement of senses and how ideas of home
are registered in those senses (Boccagni, 2022,
p.4). Following Mr. Nguyen’s ideas of multiple“homes” and “the home is the people,” theconstruction of home is thus not necessarily tied
to a fixed locale but emerges out of the regular,
localising reiteration of social processes and setsof relationships with both humans and nonhumans (Ralph & Staeheli, 2011); it is sedentaryand mobile. Just as home should not be presumed
to be singular, migrant identity also should not be
deemed singular or fixed to a singular home (Blunt& Varley, 2004). It is therefore important toconsider the ways in which a loosening of identity
moorings and markers allows for a fluid model ofidentification with various places, various homes,
whereby many migrants articulate a multilayered,‘hybrid’ identity that reflects, and perhaps shapes
their experience of home, self, and belonging(Brubaker & Cooper, 2000). Mr. Nguyen’s story
reveals how displacement may produce alienation,
but it also facilitates new ways of thinking andnew ways of envisioning one’s life (Kelley, 2013,
p.117) – the open-mindedness and a transnational
identity that is not necessarily tied to a uniquehome. Rather than movement from one place toanother uprooting or deterritorialising migrants’
identities, contemporary migrants is astrengthening and deepening of ties to multiple
places.
The novel ways of thinking emerging from theexperience of being a migrant is also wellreflected in Ms. Ly’s sharings of her mothering
practices as a mother raising two sons in the U.S.

Talking of her sons, Mrs. Ly was enlightened withpride:“I raised them the way I wanted to be raised. I wantthem to have choices and freedom, I give them therespect they deserve because they are wonderful
and unique in their own ways. My main language
is Swiss so I don’t speak Vietnamese that well, but
I’d love them to learn Vietnamese and learn about
the culture, that’s also part of the reasons why I
love to cook Vietnamese dishes. But at the end ofday, it’s their choice and I am proud of them.”
Mrs. Ly’s perspective on mothering portrays the
emergence of a new subjectivity, which in thiscase, is maternal subjectivity in a dynamic andnovel form rather than the one-way reinforcementof identity that the mother imposes on her
children without any creativity and difference. As
she places importance on freedom and respect
towards the differences between her and her sons,it opens an insight into an alternative model ofmotherhood – the development of their respective
identities that would be familiarly common andrespectful of each other’s cultural and value
differences. Transnational mobility shapes
practices of nurturing that zoom into the
production of identity rather than the dominantemphasis on reproduction, it is the developmentof the maternal self, the maternal agency, andpower (Rye, 2009).

OCT 2023
In conclusion, as Espiritu (2010) described theVietnamese as “people larger than their situation”(p.212), refugees and migrants on their extended
mobility are also individuals with their own
personal histories of movement anddisplacement. The stories of Mr. Nguyen and Mrs.
Ly, among thousands of narratives yet to be
known in the line of suffering as the result of war,shed light on how “refugee” should be criticallyexamined as an analytic rather than a subject
made legible through state policy and dominant
media configurations, given how experiences suchas the loss of one’s homeland, historical erasure,and dismembered lives are lived and reckoned
with on the ground (Dang, 2008). Furthermore,
drawing from Mr. Nguyen and Mrs. Ly’s “newways of thinking and new ways of envisioning
one’s life” embedded in their perspective of home
and way of mothering, the concept of refugees andmigrants are no longer passive, static “endurers”
and “victims” of their situations, but an active andempowered agency contributing to diverse waysof life in the context of ever-changing globalized
world (Peisker & Tilbury, 2003).

References
Blunt, A. & Varley, A. (2004). Introduction: Geographies ofhome, Cultural Geography, 11, 3-6.
Boccagni, P. (2022). HOMInG interview with Les Back.
HOMInG. Retrieved from https://homing.soc.unitn.it/
2022/05/16/homing-interview-59-les-back/Brubaker, R. & Cooper, F. (2000). Beyond ‘identity’. Theory
and Society, 29(1), 1–47.
Dang, T. T. V. (2008). Anticommunism as cultural praxis:
South Vietnam, war, and refugee memories in the
Vietnamese American community. University ofCalifornia, San Diego.
Espiritu, Y. L. (2010). Negotiating memories of war: Arts in
Vietnamese American communities. In DiMaggio, P. &Fernández-Kelly, P. (Eds.), Art in the lives of immigrantcommunities in the United States (pp. 197-213). New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Ha, Q. M. (2016). When memory speaks: Transnationalremembrances in Vietnam War literature. Southeast AsianStudies, 5(3), 463-489.

ISSUE 421
Acknowledgement

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to
Mr. Tuan Nguyen and Mrs. Ngoc-La Ly for theirvaluable time as well as emotional and insightful
sharing of their experiences and perspective. Dueto my limited writing ability, I might not be able tofully convey their messages clearly and coherently.
However, I hope that I can, in a way, bring theirvaluable narratives closer to my readers of thisessay.
I would also like to say thank you to my dearfriend, Jeffrey Ly Nguyen, for giving me theopportunity to connect with Mr. Tuan Nguyen andMrs. Ngoc-La Ly and helping me to arrange ameeting with them.

Kelley, C. E. 2013. Accidental immigrants and the search for
home: Women, cultural identity, and community.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Nguyen, V. T. (2016). Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and theMemory of War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Peisker, V. C., & Tilbury, F. (2003). “Active” and “passive”
resettlement: The influence of support services andrefugees' own resources on resettlement style.
International Migration, 41(5), 61-91.
Ralph, D., & Staeheli, L. A. (2011). Home and migration:
Mobilities, belongings and identities. Geography Compass,5(7), 517-530.
Rye, G. (2009). Narratives of mothering. Women’s writing
in contemporary France. Newark: University of Delaware
Press.
Stanley, S. K. (2020). Citizens of the imagination: Refugee
memory in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer andNothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War. MFS
Modern Fiction Studies 66(2), 281-300. doi:10.1353/
mfs.2020.0010.

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ISSUE 4

Poems and photos by Shan Min Kha
Collage by Jia Xuan Chok

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ISSUE 423

Insomniac

Space, spacious, solemn/ longing, longed, listlessly
Ruminating restlessly, room/ immersed, moments immeasurable
Lonely, little man/ silent, simmering, slumber
Fear, frightened, flabbergasted/ disoriented, distant, departed—

Not yet Titled
The body’s been freed, the soul soften
The kitchen, the dance floor, lights on
Mixtapes serenade, songs, surprises
Freestyles paid for in the future
Now move in raw real repertoire
Clothes rumpled, hairs flying, ankle
Adjure, letting go like birds, sparkle
Unchanged hearts. Unknowingly
drawing on a canvas, she can't see.
Unfiltered untamed, a plethora of
Emotions, laughing wide and mean
So full of life, pulling you in
Illimitable no boundaries a
Flame, your essence unclaimed“Be the muse a star, the light”
For the night dances unbound. To
be caught in a trance, the stitch,
the allure, the rhythm, the bewitched.
Just so in this moment, she beFree.
Now, words stream from her fingers—wait
As she writes verses with her body, living
Blending art, embodiment of pure delightNo walls, no disguises

Tamta* tanka

The stars align, yet just right.
—

Let me continue
Living only if I can
Breathe your breath, lover
Seeps into your body, Souls
Shall wait for when we are gone
*Burmese for Longing—

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ISSUE 4

じいちゃんの庭
Words and photos by Shusei Fujikawa
去年の年末にじいちゃんの庭が「清水氏庭園」として国の登録記念物のうち「名勝地関係」に登録されることが決まったらしい。俺はそんな難しい名前で呼んだことはないし、これからも呼ぶことはないと思う。じいちゃんの庭は俺が生まれた時からあって、小さなころはそれのすごさなんて微塵も理解していなかった。ある小学校の歴史の授業で、千年前の平安貴族の邸宅と、じいちゃんの家が瓜二つだった
のにびっくりしたのは今も覚えている。庭に池はあるし、橋もある。貴族の家とよく似ていた。そのす
ごさに気づいてからも、大学生になるまでは友達に紹介することはなかった。日本庭園に興味なんて持たないと思っていたから、、、だから大学生になって友達が興味持ってくれるのは個人的にはめちゃく
ちゃうれしい。
俺はいとこの中で一番上だから、じいちゃんの庭での思い出もいとこの中で一番多い。一番古い思い出
は、じいちゃんの家の裏にある溝をすごい勢いで黒く、細長い何かがいたのを見て、両親に、「父さん、母さん、溝にウナギがおった。」と報告したことだ。今思えばあれはでっかい蛇だったと思う。ほかには、十人以上いるいとこで、鬼ごっこやかくれんぼをたくさんしたり、山の深いとこに秘密基地つくったり、庭仕事手伝わされたり、たくさんの思い出がある。そのたくさんある思い出の中で、一番印象に残っているのは、かくれんぼをしているときに絶対誰にも見つからない場所に隠れて、見つけられるのを待っていたら、知らない間にかくれんぼが終わっていたことだ。両親のもうすぐ帰るという声を聴いた当時の俺はどういうことかよくわかっていなかった。
そんなたくさんの思い出がある、庭が国の登録記念物になったらしいので自分なりに色々調べてみた。
まず今の家はもともと別邸で、江戸時代の後期までは笠岡の中心部に屋敷を構え、廻船問屋を営んでいたらしい。いつこの庭ができた正確な時期は定かではないが、１７７９年に俳人でお坊様の蝶夢という人が庭を訪れた時に記録を残しているので、１７７９年には存在していたことは確実だ。今でこそじいちゃんの家の周りは住宅街のようになっているが、水野氏という領主が干拓事業を行うまでは遠浅の海が広がっていた。庭の池の西側の北半部には海岸線だった干拓前の岩をそのまま取り込んでいるらしい。正直、今までこんなでかい岩をどうやって運んだのかは疑問でしかなかったが、やっと謎が解けた
気がする。小さい頃は、どういうわけか、お相撲さんが海の底まで泳いで、岩をとってきて置いたと思っていた。調べていくうちに、今までは全く持って意識してなかったことにも意味があるということを知った。たとえば、庭の中心にある心字池には、鯉を模した鯉魚石がある。それのすぐ上には、水こそ流れていないものの龍門瀑という滝がある。これは鯉が滝を上り、龍になるということを表している。
こんな感じで知らないことがたくさんあった。ここ最近、庭には新しいものがふえていくなあと俺は感じていた。でもそれも調べていくうちに昔に存在したものを戻していっているのだということも分かった。
年始や年末の餅つきとかの行事の時には、親戚一同が集まるじいちゃんの家と庭。そんな、歴史と思い
出がたくさん詰まっている庭を廃れさせないために、じいちゃんは日々庭仕事に励んでいる。でもそん
なおじいちゃんも７７歳。５年前にはひざの手術もした。最近は俺自身もおじいちゃんどころか、家族にも土日以外はあんまり会えず、週末になって、久しぶりという言葉を交わすほどだ。このエッセイを通して庭が自分にとってどれほど大切かということを再確認することができた。これからは、最近あまり手伝えてなかった庭仕事も手伝おうと思う。じいちゃんと一緒に最高の庭にしたら、みんなにも来てほしい。庭を廃れさせないために、ご先祖様のためにも頑張りたいと思う。

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Ekaterina Ivanko

ISSUE 4

Swamp Fairy

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Social Media’s
Impact on
Urbanization
andGentrification
Words by Tran My Vien
Today’s digital world sees social media as aprevalent force that affects the way people
communicate, exchange information, and see theworld. Concurrently,urbanization andgentrification have emerged as essential urban
processes that significantly sway the landscape of
our cities. The interaction between social media
and the urban phenomena has begun to pique theinterest of academics, legislators, and urban
planners alike. As social media continues toexpand, so does its influence on urbanization andgentrification, posing fascinating concerns about
how these platforms affect the fundamental fabricof our urban settings. This paper will delve into
the increasing link between social media,
urbanization and gentrification, offering insights
into the potential effects of this confluence on
urban residents and communities.
The interactions between urbanization andgentrification are complex and multifaceted.
Urbanization, the process by which cities develop
and attract a greater population, lays thegroundwork for gentrification (National
Geographic, 2022). Cities experience massive
modifications in various aspects of life as theygrow, including population expansion,
infrastructural development, and economic
activity. Urbanization enables social and cultural
life to diversify, resulting in dynamic and lively
cityscapes. Furthermore, the influence ofurbanization extends to environmental concerns,
governance, and urban planning, impacting theoverall structure and functioning of the city.
Relatedly, gentrification is a type of urban
development that happens inside certain
neighborhoods or districts. It is characterized by
the transformation of low-value neighborhoods
into high-value ones, often spurred by rapid
development and urban renewal initiatives(Picardo, 2022). When a neighborhood becomes

ISSUE 4more desirable, it attracts an influx of wealthy
residents looking for new living experiences,frequently leading to the upgrading andrenovation of existing infrastructure. As a result,the neighborhood's character may altersignificantly, accompanied by a rise in the cost ofliving. This approach can have controversial
effects, particularly when it results in thedisplacement and marginalization of long-termand lower-income residents, generating social andeconomic turmoil within the community.
Urbanization and gentrification are influenced bya variety of contextual factors. Among them,industrialization, commercialization, and theprovision of social benefits and services.. The
appeal of greater job possibilities and modernity
can draw people from rural areas to cities,
contributing to the urbanization process(Conserve Energy Future, 2016). Meanwhile,
gentrification is influenced by variables such as
the potential and desirability of the neighborhood,housing market dynamics, demographic andlifestyle changes, and the impact of policies anddevelopment projects. Furthermore, cultural andsocial aspects can enhance the attraction ofcertain neighborhoods to specific groups of people(Veronica et al., 2013). The link between
urbanization and gentrification stem from theunderlying forces that drive both processes. Cities
develop a concentration of facilities andinfrastructure as urbanization progresses,
increasing the appeal of specific neighborhoods.
As communities with advanced
infrastructureattract affluent residents andstimulate economic activity, these factors become
the main drivers of gentrification. The
relationship between urbanization andgentrification is dynamic, with each development
influencing and reinforcing the other.
Infrastructure development, the concentration of
amenities, and transportation improvements fromthe urbanization process can all add to the

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desirability of some neighborhoods, and in turn,promote gentrification in those areas (Lin & Xie,
2020).
In the digital era, social media revolutionizes theway people connect, communicate, and engage
with one another on a worldwide scale. Social
media platforms, defined as internet-based formsof communication, allow users to holddiscussions, exchange information, and generate
online content in a variety of formats, including
blogs, social networking sites, instant messaging,and more (University of South Florida, 2023). The
use of social media has increased dramatically,
with more than 60% of the world's population
currently participating in these virtual spaces(DataReportal – Global Digital Insights, 2023).
This force has a deep and multifaceted influenceon social dynamics that breaks down traditional
communication boundaries. It transforms into avirtual space for community creation andinteraction, allowing for the establishment of
online groups that mobilize around social,political, and cultural problems. Voices may be
amplified, and collective action can be organizedthrough these platforms, allowing citizens toquestion established sources of authority(Sembiring et al., 2022). Social media platforms
can additionally be used to shape public opinion
where people share their opinions andparticipate in debates on a variety of topics. In away, it has democratized the public space bymaking several points of view be heard andencouraging challenging conventional sources ofauthority. Social media's influences extend
beyond communication and action, enteringsocietal dynamics and trends as well. Social
media, which serves as a distribution platform for
cultural products and creative content, allows
influencers and content creators to create apopular culture and set trends, changing
consumer behavior such as fashion choices,
entertainment preferences, and lifestyledecisions.
Social Capital Theory and Network Society
Theory, both prominent theoretical frameworks,
provide valuable insights into the analysis ofsocial media's influence on urbanization andgentrification. According to the Social Capital
Theory, interpersonal relationships have an
intrinsic value because they provide resourcesthat help achieve the desired outcomes(Machalek & Martin, 2015). This theory becomes
crucial in the context of understanding the valueof community interaction on social media. Itemphasizes the importance of social networks,
trust, and information exchange in promotingsocial cooperation and achieving common goals.
By utilizing social media platforms, individuals
and communities can improve community
involvement, boost collective action, andaccumulate social capital. The Network Society

ISSUE 4
Theory, on the other hand, studies thetransformational influence of information andcommunication technology on social, economic,
and cultural systems in the digital era (Castells,
2000). Furthermore, the hybrid character of social
media, which combines online and offline
contacts, has become essential in how
communities navigate urbanization andgentrification issues. Thus, the theory sheds lighton the evolving nature of community dynamics
and social interactions in the context of the digitalurban landscape.
Due to social media’s easy accessibility and reach,young individuals have been able to make use of
its potential for community organizing andinvolvement in social movements, amplifying
their voices and building empowerment throughonline activism, mobilization, and digitalstorytelling (Cortés et al., 2021). Likewise, local
governments can also see the beneficial effects ofsocial media in assisting community interaction. A
study done in New Zealand, for example,
discovered that platforms such as Facebook can be
useful channels for local governments to engage
with its citizens and increase e-participation(Alam et al., 2022). The emergence of online
communities has altered the dynamics of urban
relationships by enabling suburbanneighborhoods to transcend virtual barriers,
impacting offline encounters and developing a
sense of community. Online interactions
frequently lead to face-to-face interactions, which
increase social capital and promote community
cohesiveness (Hampton & Wellman, 2003).
Furthermore, individuals who actively engage inOCT 2023
online communities can have an impact on theiroffline interactions such as support systems,socializing opportunities, as well as relationshipmaintenance(Hargittai & Hsieh, 2010). An exampleof the impact of social media on community
cohesion and collective action is in San Francisco's
Mission District, where residents and community
organizations used social media channels to
express their worries about gentrification anddisplacement. On Twitter, hashtags like
#SaveTheMission gathered traction, offering aplatform for locals to share personal stories,
document changes in the neighborhood, andmobilize support for affordable housing initiatives(Save the Mission, n.d.). Social media in this caseserved as a tool to connect residents, build
networks, and raise awareness about thechallenges of gentrification. Similarly, in the Los
Angeles's Boyle Heights neighborhood, platforms
such as Facebook and Twitter were crucial inorganizing and mobilizing against gentrification.
In reaction to the eviction of long-term residents,
community organizations and activists used theseplatforms to raise awareness, communicate
information, and organize demonstrations andactivities (Chiland, 2016), servingas a unifying
factor that allow locals to protect the cultural andsocioeconomic diversity of their neighborhood.
Gentrification typically leads to a rise in housing
costs, displacing lower-income residents fromtheir long-established neighborhoods. As a
response, individuals and organizations can utilize
online platforms to raise awareness about housing
affordability concerns and distribute information
about available affordable housing alternatives,
subsidies, and assistance programs. As hashtags
and online campaigns like #HousingForAll or#AffordableHousing gained popularity on Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram, it has also become apowerful instrument for housing advocacy andactivism. Individuals and communities may use
social media to mobilize, raise awareness, andcampaign for policy changes that will improve
housing affordability and accessibility. The link
between social media and housing dynamics isdemonstrated by various examples. Real estate
brokers use social media channels to showcase
property listings with engaging material like
images, videos, and virtual tours, allowing fortargeted advertising and reaching a larger
audience. The #MyNameIs campaign gained
traction on Twitter in Ireland, exposing the serious
concerns of rising rents, homelessness, and a lackof housing availability. The campaign mobilized
public support, generated discussions, and called
for action from policymakers, contributing toincreased awareness and public discourse on
housing challenges (Lima, 2023). Platforms such as
Airbnb have had a big impact on the housing
dynamics in several cities. In places such as New
York, the rapid expansion of short-term rentals
aided by social media platforms has prompted

ISSUE 4concerns about housing affordability, as
properties are removed from the long-term rental
market to be used as holiday rentals (Sheppard &Udell, 2016). Social media is a crucial tool forshaping the branding and identity of gentrifying
neighborhoods, allowing individuals to share
information and stories about the area. This
increases the area's online presence, and can help
local businesses gain more attention andcustomers. However, social media can also
contribute to gentrification and displacement, so
it's important to strike a balance between growthand preserving the neighborhood's inclusivity
With its potential to disseminate information andamplify voices, community organizations, andadvocacy groups can utilize social media
platforms to spread crucial information about
displacement risks, future development projects,
rent increases, and eviction notices, raisingawareness among residents about potential
threats to their housing security. Residents ingentrifying neighborhoods share their personal
stories and displacement experiences online,
warning others about specific difficulties or
possible eviction worries they may encounter.
However, the impact of social media on
displacement patterns and results is not onesided. While it can be useful in assisting displaced
individuals in finding new housing or connectingwith support networks, it can also contribute to
gentrification-driven displacement. As theenticement of gentrifying neighborhoods ishighlighted on social media, it piques the interest
and attention of outside investors, worsening
housing market pressures and driving up rents orproperty prices. This process may result in more
displacement of long-term residents. The dualrole of social media in displacement highlights
the significance of cautious urban planning andhousing policy in balancing economic expansion
with the protection of vulnerable groups.
In conclusion, social media's influence on
urbanization and gentrification is undeniable,
providing opportunities for community
involvement, advocacy, and information
distribution. However, it is critical toacknowledge and address the concerns about its
influence on urban settings. These platforms'
hyperreality and idealized depictions might
reinforce inequities and obstruct realistic
representations of the diverse perspectives
within cities. The connection between social
media and urban processes influences thecharacter and fabric of our cities, requiring
careful thought and appropriate urban planning.
It is vital to find a balance between utilizing social
media's potential for community engagement andactivism and minimizing its negative
consequences on affordability and inclusivenessin order to build sustainable and dynamic urban
places for all.

29

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References
Alam, A. et al. (2022). Citizen engagement on local
government Facebook pages: Experience from
Aotearoa New Zealand. Cities, 103584.

ISSUE 4

Lin, J.-J., & Xie, Z.-X. (2020). The associations of
newly launched high-speed rail stations withindustrial gentrification. Journal of Transport
Geography.

Castells, M. (2000). Materials for an Exploratory
Theory of the Network Society. British Journal of
Sociology.

Machalek, R., & Martin, M. W. (2015). Sociobiology
and Sociology: A New Synthesis. In International
Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences(pp. 892-898).

Chiland, E. (2016). Boyle Heights is Battling
Fiercely Against Gentrification. Retrieved fromCurbed Los Angeles: https://la.curbed.com/
2016/4/19/11463010/boyle-heights-gentrification

National Geographic. (2022). Urbanization.
Retrieved from nationalgeographic.org: https://
education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/
urbanization/

Conserve Energy Future. (2016). Causes, Effects,
and Solutions to Urbanization Leading to Urban
Growth - Conserve Energy Future. Retrieved from
Conserve Energy Future: https://www.conserveenergy-future.com/causes-effects-solutionsurbanization.php

Picardo, E. (2022). Gentrification: Definition,
Causes, Pros & Cons. Retrieved from investopedia.
com: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/
gentrification.asp

Cortés, A. et al. (2021). Activism and Social Media:
Youth Participation and Communication.
Sustainability.
Hampton, K. N., & Wellman, B. (2003).
Neighboring in Netville: How the Internet
Supports Community and Social Capital in a
Wired Suburb. City & Community, 277-311.
Hargittai, E., & Hsieh, Y. P. (2010). Predictors andconsequences of differentiated social network siteuses. Information Communication and Society,515-536.

Save the Mission. (n.d.). Retrieved from Twitter:
https://twitter.com/savethemission
Sembiring, T. B. (2022). Understanding the role ofsocial media in shaping millenial generation legal
awareness in the digital age. Budapest
International Research and Critics InstituteJournal, 18501-18511.
Sheppard, S., & Udell, A. (2016). Do Airbnb
properties affect house prices? Williams College
Department of Economics Working Papers.

Kemp, S. (2023). DataReportal – Global Digital
Insights. Retrieved from datareportal.com: https://
datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-aprilglobal-statshot

University of South Florida. (2023). Introduction
to Social Media. Retrieved from usf.edu: https://www.usf.edu/ucm/marketing/intro-social-media.
aspx#:~:text=Social%20media%20platforms%20allow%
20users,%2C%20virtual%20worlds%2C%20and%20more.

Lima, V. (2023). The political frame of a housingcrisis: Campaigning for the right to housing in
Ireland. Journal of Civil Society, 37-56.

Veronica, G., Hartley, D., & Hurst, E. (2013).
Endogenous Gentrification and Housing Price
Dynamics. Journal of Public Economics.

OCT 2023

ISSUE 4

Getting Real with
Climate Anxiety
Words & Photos by Kayla Guevara &Jia Xuan Chok

What am I saving for? What am I living for? What
does the future look like?

Questions that have been lingering in the back of
my mind for a while now. What does the future
look like when summers have been reaching too
high of temperatures? When winters seem to begetting colder each year? When natural disasters
are raging globally? What exactly am I saving forwhen my future seems to be clouded by thissomber news? Convenience, comfort, and climate
action — three words that I do not know how tojuggle. Three words that radiate urgency, but
together make me afraid. Dear Earth, from thebottom of my heart, I am anxious and I fear.
I fear with all my senses; my eyes witnessing
actions of ignorance, ears picking up the trace of
overdevelopment, lungs inhaling products ofcontamination, mouth touching and hands
feeling the gifts of earth. I fear that this anxiety
that is constantly being mapped onto my actions
is not shared among my peers with years andyears remaining on this ill planet. This anxiety
touches the construction of ourselves. Who am I
as a person? I am sensitive. I notice the changes
because I am constantly present in the moment,with Earth. Walking down the tourist nightmarket in Melaka, Malaysia, my dwindling
appetite had little to do with its uncleanliness,but more because of its packaging and its
disposability. My eyes on the weekend crowd
envisioned the amount of trash this creates everyday. My appetite dwindled for this. How can mymouth water for food served in containers andskewers that are draining life from ourecosystem? Staring at the amount of plastic anddisposable utensils, my eyes welled. I couldn’t feelthe hunger anymore.

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OCT 2023

ISSUE 4And yet, I hunger for action. Who am I, but anagent of movement despite often being cloaked bydespair? Not knowing how to make a difference,but immensely longing for it to emerge. Who am I,
but someone entangled with every being on thisEarth? Who am I, but a person who struggles toembrace the complexity of the present? As I dancewith other lives, I make sense of mine. I move
between stages of hope, longing, despair, and loss
- just as the ocean tides move and consume theshore. I listen to the harmonious, polyphonicmelodies of creatures ranging in size - birds,
insects, even humans of various cultures, beliefs,
and dispositions. As I listen, I imagine. As I move,
I dream. As I stand still, I realize. Clothed byshelter, a full fridge, and air-conditioning, I cometo terms with the privilege and power I hold in myhands. Viewing and traversing the city of Manila,
Philippines from the tinted windows of our car, I
hunger for action, and I realize that I am capableof it.

Fear works well as a propeller for action. Taking
action means transporting oneself even deeper
into the heart of the situation; it means being
even more vulnerable and entangled with a cause
as one witnesses firsthand the translation of one’efforts into impactful changes, or sometimes thesobering realization of failure. Both outcomes
carve and reinvent the space for discussion. This
dance asks for you to employ all your senses
because nature doesn’t come to you in wholeotherwise, and because I grapple with hope anddespair with sensitivity, a profound connection isforged in how I hold hands with this changing yet
stagnant world. When I touch, see, listen, smell,and converse, the world itself seems to encourage
my optimism and perseverance. When I feel I’mfalling, the gifts of the world stood by to catch me
because when you look closer, capability andanxiety both stem from the desire to preserve thebeauty Earth has pulled me closer to. Proceeding
down this path of activism, Earth has taught me
to bolster my passion and patience like thesimultaneous calmness and fever of the winds
and seas. With me this spirit I will carry andmuster even in the most anxious times along thisroad.

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ISSUE 433

Reflecting on FourYears of University
Words & Photos by GDP’s Graduating Class of 2023

Yuka
NagataIndonesia

I learned a lot from Okayama
University. Life here has been
great. I got to experience manythings throughout my university
life. Being here in Okayama
University, I got to explore anddiscover what I am reallyinterested in.

In university, I had this chance toreally dig into things and discoverparts of myself I never knew about.
With all sorts of experiences
happening, I picked up some deep
insights about how to adapt, makeconnections, and just become a better
version of me.

Thun
Phaolaungthong
Thailand

Jenna
FloresUnited States ofAmerica

The biggest lesson I've learned frommy time at Okayama University isjust how valuable understanding
different cultures’ perspectives canbe. Through the courses in the
Global Discovery Program, as well as
my interactions here with students
from all over the world, I was
exposed to new ways of thinking andideas that I never would have beenable to learn about if I had stayed in
my home country.

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34

Over the four years at this university,
I learned various contents andenjoyed them at all times. I also got
to have fun interacting with different
people and making new friends. I am
glad that I got to have a great
university life at Okayama
University. Thank you to those in
GDP, and I hope all of the GDP
students have a great time at thisuniversity. I look forward to what
will come in the future.

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Hiina
ShiotaUnited States ofAmerica / Japan

Genki
Hase
Europe / Japan

In university, I was fortunate to beable to balance my academic andsocial life. These two aspects mademy undergraduate experience very
fulfilling, and I hope that those whoare in the process of completing
their studies, especially the studiousones, are able to set aside some time
to say (hell) yes! to traveling andsocial gatherings more often. In my
experience, when you are intentionalwith striking that balance, you willfind that learning occurs
everywhere, not just in books andclassrooms.

SonavaTadao
Cambodia

Playing, traveling, studying, reading,and reading… There were struggles
and joys, but enjoyed all of them at
Okayama. Arigatou for 4 years!!

OCT 2023

I kept one target throughout myuniversity life: “to enjoy what I do.” I
was able to pursue on working on a
project dedicated on a video game,combining what I have studied inanthropology. When finding theenjoyment in the tasks, the results
will come along. Find the small joys
in your life!

ISSUE 4

Lorentz
Gaku
ErikssonUnited States ofAmerica / Japan

Yoshimi
Sasaoka
Korea / Japan

Time goes by so fast, in a blink of aneye we are all going our separate
ways. My time in Okadai has taught
me a lot of lessons - educationallyand lessons in life. I feel like I grew
as a better person living here for 4
years. Made alot of life-long friends
and also Ive gotten the chance towork with wonderful professors that
helped me throughout my university
life.

35

Akiko
Oda
Indonesia

I could not survive without myfriends. 4 years in university was
lonely and hard but I am proud that I
could finish without any problems.
Now, my accomplishments arebigger than the feelings that I had.

OCT 2023

36

ISSUE 4

Taqi
Ahmad
Hanif
Indonesia

The last four years have been a roller
coaster of experiences. I met new
people along the way, gained new
knowledge, and learned a lot fromeverything. I'm thankful foreveryone who was there and hopeeveryone a good luck in the next
chapter of their lives, wherever you
all may be!

The university life in GDP wasprobably the best 4 years of my life.
Every single person that I met here
were absolutely nice and I wishnothing but success for all of them.

AlyanaMorales
The Philippines

MattieBalagat
The Philippines

Four years in Okayama has been awildly enriching whirlwind: I am
beyond grateful for the chances to
explore my niche of academic
interests, to patch such interests withpersonal pursuits in art and service,and to find homes in dear places andfriends. One takeaway for making
the most out of college: pursue thatcrazy intersection of what makes you
curious and what fulfills you as ahuman being!

OCT 2023

ISSUE 437