CSUN students need to get more involved with issues affecting Asian -Americans and Asian Pacific-Islanders such as violence and sexual assault, says Chun-yen Chen, executive director of Asian Pacific Women’s Center in Los Angeles.

The APWCLA is a non-profit organization that place families who are victims of domestic violence into permanent housing and teaches them life skills, such job training and bookkeeping, to help them become independent.

“We have received volunteers and other types of help from students of UCLA and UCSB. We have done presentations at CSUN in some of the Asian American Studies classes and we hope to see student involvement (at CSUN), too,” Chen said.

Student involvement will not only bring help to abused women in need, but will create an atmosphere of information for those afraid to come forward, Chen said.

The Los Angeles-based Center for the Pacific Asian Family, a shelter for battered women and a sister organization to APWCLA, has started a national sexual assault awareness campaign called the Lotus Café.

The purpose of the campaign is to create a platform for victims of sexual assault in the Asian Pacific Islander community, said Amy Temple, program coordinator for the CPAF.

The CPAF is seeking submissions from survivors such as poems, stories, essays, and chants, Temple said.

“It is very important for us in the Asian Pacific Islander community to embrace the healing process. Both women and men can find shame in what happened to them. Hopefully the Lotus Café can create a platform for expression,” Temple said.

After the CPAF has received enough submissions they hope to find a place to display the work and create a panel for discussion, Temple said.

The idea for the Lotus Café was prompted by a lack of representation in the Asian and Asian Pacific-Islander communities, Temple said.

“If you look at CSUN’s factbook, the demographics show that historically Asian Americans make up about 14 to 16 percent of the total student population,” said Gordon Nakagawa, interim chair for the Asian American studies department.

“Although there has been a dramatic rise over the years, since many don’t want information about their ethnicity used in complying data, there is a fairly significant number of different ethics groups not being represented,” Nakagawa said.

The lack of representation can lead to misinformation and a general lack of understanding regarding the roles of Asian women, said Edith Chen, professor of Asian American women studies.

“Asian women are often portrayed as being exotic and erotic or sexually available. They are often defined by male terms, (for example) ‘she is ready to consume and happy to do so,’” Chen said.

This non-holistic view, not seeing Asian women in other roles such as, mother, sister, niece, or career professional, has been shown to lead to violence against women, Chen said.

In October 2002, Lili Wang, a 31-year-old computer science graduate student of North Carolina State University was shot to death by Richard Borrelli Anderson, a white classmate who was infatuated with Wang, who then turned the gun on himself. Anderson reportedly made romantic advances to the married Wang because he liked Asian women, according to the Raleigh News and Observer.

Not knowing American laws, lacking the ability to speak English, fearing deportation and loss of children, cultural stigmas, and bringing shame to one’s family all contribute to the cycle of violence against women, said Chun-yen Chen.

“Hopefully, with more education and involvement from all communities, not just Asian (communities), we can put an end to all the stories we hear on the news about women losing their citizenship, children, or their lives because of violence,” Chen said.

See also: Remembering Lili Wang