VOICE
Phuc Duy Nhu To, Independent Filmmaker, Program Coordinator/ Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance
Julia Huynh, Independent Artist/ Consultant
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Director of Humanities Center, Professor of Asian American Studies/ University of California, Irvine
Abstract
We amplify an innovative photovoice project that documented the experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. A community participatory action research methodology described as “ethical photography for social change,” Photovoice pairs visual images with storytelling to foster social awareness and social justice. COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted AAPI communities, which have suffered high infection and death rates, devastating economic impacts, racialized hate crimes and physical attacks. To capture the challenges and anxieties of AAPI community members, a research team based at the University of California, Irvine, partnered with community artists and activists to document the visual and emotive experiences stemming from these public health and racial crises. Our VOICE (Visualizing Our Identities and Culture for Empowerment) project exemplifies the power of public and activist art. It expands our understanding of knowledge beyond traditional approaches to scholarship production. This case study comprises a short documentary film, a multimedia repository of photographs, a Photovoice curriculum, and student spotlights.
Project Narratives
Visualizing Our Identities and Cultures for Empowerment (VOICE) used the photovoice methodology to capture the lived experience of Asian American and Pacific Islanders during the racialized and politicized COVID-19 pandemic.1 Through photography and storytelling, we sought to make known the hidden impacts, the collective resilience, and practices of care within the AAPI communities.
Throughout the pandemic, the Pacific Islander community has suffered disproportionately in terms of infection, hospitalization, and death rates. In addition, the Asian American community has been racially scapegoated for causing the pandemic with political leaders labeling COVID-19 as a “China virus” and the “Kung Flu.”
Our research team is based in Orange County, California — home to the third largest Asian American and second largest Pacific Islander population in the country. Furthermore, the University of California, Irvine, is a federally designated AANAPISI: an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution that also attracts a significant percentage of first generation and low-income students. We launched this project to involve and empower our students to become creative researchers. We also partnered with local community-based organizations that provide essential front-line support for underserved communities. Although VOICE formally concluded in the summer of 2021, with the support of the organizing team, a small cohort of student researchers took on the leading role in extending the project to document the various ways that AAPI communities strive toward “normalcy” during California’s reopening. Through care, photography, and storytelling, VOICE is continuing the efforts of learning, archiving, and sharing the voices of the AAPI communities.
Challenges
Our project is rooted in photovoice, a community participatory action research methodology. Photovoice seeks to empower and amplify the insights of those who tend to be marginalized. The end goal is to promote social justice.
There were five main challenges to our project. As our group considered how to implement our mission, we had to first confront the challenges of doing this virtually. The pandemic lockdown was not only the subject of our project but also the context of our project. We had to consider how to build trust and relationships with our student researchers virtually. We used a variety of online tools: Zoom video-conferencing and breakout rooms, Jamboard, holding extra drop-in hours on Zoom, and encouraging discussion using the Zoom chat function to create intimacy and trust. The online nature of the project also shaped the “products” or outcomes of the project. Instead of a physical exhibit, the students created virtual galleries and an Instagram campaign to showcase the AAPI stories. In other words, we found ways to take advantage of the virtual nature of the project.
Second, we wanted to bring our students into contact with community members. Again, this was a challenge due to the pandemic. While we wanted students to delve into and reflect upon their own experiences, we also wanted to supplement their knowledge by amplifying the insights of community leaders who provide essential services to marginalized communities. Our solution was to invite community leaders to train with us in the photovoice methodology in order to help co-mentor our students. Also, we hoped that the methodology might be useful for them for future projects. We then assigned students to particular community leaders. Community mentors and students shared knowledge with one another and workshopped photographs to elicit deeper meanings of the images.
Third, we took into account the ethnic representation of our students and their interest in exploring particular communities. Given the pan-ethnic nature of Asian American and Pacific Islander identities and the tendency for some communities to be overlooked, we wanted to ensure that the students both “saw” themselves in the project while also exploring communities that may have been unfamiliar to them. We were not successful in recruiting Pacific Islander students as part of the research team, but we made sure to partner with Pacific Islander community-based organizations so that their experiences and perspectives could be shared.
Fourth, the outcomes for the project were not directly focused on creating a specific set of policy changes or practices. Instead, we hoped that our sharing of AAPI experiences would offer intimate and personal insights into the multitudes of impact varied by race, class, and gender. These impacts are often not fully reflected through the aggregated COVID-19 death and infection numbers. We also sought to empower our students, who had the opportunity to learn, share, and grow into public intellectuals and teachers themselves. Given the historic nature of the pandemic and the involvement of the Southeast Asian Archives and UCI libraries, we emphasized archiving the project for long-term preservation. Students donated their photographs to the community-based archive and were required to complete archival worksheets which collected important information such as the photographer’s name, date, location, and additional details contextualizing the photographs. This allowed students to learn about the importance of documenting and preserving our unique histories for future generations.
Finally, as the VOICE project evolves, many members of the student team and mentorship team have maintained involvement. Each phase of the project has had a slightly different set of people involved, and we make ongoing adjustments to how we approach work and division of labor.
The VOICE Project Phases
The VOICE project has had multiple phases. Phase one occurred as the students, mentored by our Photovoice team and community partners, presented the images and stories they captured throughout the pandemic at the conclusion of Fall 2020. We had been working with them throughout the quarter in focus groups and smaller teams. To have students collectively share their experiences and insights was exceedingly powerful, and our community mentors/partners who attended were visibly moved by what the students captured.
Phase two occurred during Winter 2021 as some of the students went on to create social media campaigns to publicize their findings. Students developed an Instagram campaign and took the lead to create a website about their project. One of the most powerful interactions occurred at the end of winter. We had initially planned a public program to launch our website and Instagram campaign. However, the mass killings in Atlanta occurred the day before our designated program date. We decided to hold a closed meeting instead for the students, allies, and ourselves to process the implications of these racialized and gendered attacks. It was so important for our team, especially one dedicated to capturing the trauma of COVID-19, to also collectively process this grief as well. We rescheduled the campaign’s launch for the beginning of Spring and received press coverage for the project at that time.
Phase three unfolded as a sub-committee of students applied for and received funding to conduct additional research related to VOICE. They decided to create a curriculum plan for middle school and high school teachers to teach the Photovoice methodology.2 During the Spring of 2021, student researchers in the curriculum group had the opportunities introduce photovoice to a cohort of highschool students from the Anaheim Union Highschool District’s VAMOS research study (Vaping Among Multicultural Orange County Students). Student researchers also implemented the curriculum at HOPE Summer School Program in the summer of 2021. This sub-committee of students presented their curriculum at the 28th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference at UCI.
The fourth phase of the project involved a second sub-committee of students who received undergraduate fellowship funding for the summer of 2021 and into the academic year of 2021-202. Throughout the summer of 2021, these students collected oral histories from various local leaders and community members. As vaccines became available, students continued their Photovoice project by documenting the cautious “reopening” of California. Moreover, as UCI shifted to in-person instruction for Fall 2021, the group curated a physical exhibition, which they displayed at a conference on “Storytelling for Social Justice.” They also presented their findings at the 2022 spring Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program symposium and plan to stage the exhibit again in the fall of 2022. Finally, the students have authored and will be publishing a photo essay on their project for Amerasia Journal, the longest running journal dedicated to Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies.
With the support of Imagining America, the teachings of VOICE now encompass documentary interviews. These videos also serve as archival tools — recording and preserving the impact of VOICE on students and the project team. The accessibility of these short films via our project website also enables us to reach a wider audience in amplifying the key aspects of VOICE, which are to center, document, and preserve AAPI experiences during a time of pandemic and hate through the co-production of knowledge.
Impact of Project and Inspiring Change
Our research team has written two articles (one in Health Promotion Practice and one in AAPI Nexus for a special double issue on AANAPISIs) and also conducted a podcast interview reflecting on the significance of the VOICE project. The student researchers also have created a curriculum plan on Photovoice and will be publishing a photo essay on their project for Amerasia Journal.3 We hope these resources will be helpful for other engaged scholars and change agents. Second, through student evaluations of the project, as well as student interviews collected for our documentary, it is clear how profoundly the project impacted student researchers. They had an opportunity to engage in a collective and creative research process to learn more about themselves, their fellow students, their families, and the communities around them. This was particularly important given the isolating nature of the pandemic lockdown.
In our article “Care during COVID-19: A Virtual Asian American and Pacific Islander Photovoice Project,” we explored how institutional hierarchy and power were disrupted through pedagogical care –– another core value of our project.4 We followed a horizontal structure of organizing in which student researchers were working and learning with community mentors and members of the organizing team throughout the project. VOICE was about caring for one another through the collective act of storytelling. Every group meeting started with check-in questions and discussions prioritizing community building. Project consultants hold space for our students at the end of every meeting to provide support. Care was the foundation and the principle around which the project was organized. As an organizing team, two consultants (both recent graduates of MA programs) were mentored by four UCI faculty and staff to lead class discussions and develop workshops. This act of care was extended to our cohort of undergraduate student researchers, whom we encouraged to apply to student conferences. We assisted these students with their proposals to receive undergraduate fellowship funding and further supported them in their professional development.
Other key values of our project are the importance of student-community collaboration and documenting individual and collective experiences. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the hypervisibility of anti-Asian hate crimes, VOICE challenges monolithic stereotypes by centering unique and individual narratives. As mentioned earlier, our project is rooted in the Photovoice methodology — two core principles of which are the co-creation of knowledge and the democratization of knowledge. The photographs created and shared throughout the project illuminate the power of art. Not only were students documenting the impact of COVID-19 on the greater AAPI communities, but they were also documenting their own personal experiences and expressing their emotions through photography.
As students presented their photographs to each other and the public, they connected with one another and learned more about themselves. Group discussions helped students understand the many different perspectives about their photographs, and these discussions influenced their storytelling. Through visual stories, students explored the impact of the pandemic on their mental health, their relationships with the local communities, and their navigations of homelife with their families. For instance, Tristen, when interviewed for the documentary, reflected on the photograph he took of his hotel room.5 He noted that the photograph symbolized his own reckoning with mental health issues and the isolation he felt early in the pandemic. Similarly, students documented what they could at home, sharing scenes of cluttered desks while navigating online learning, scenes of family meals, as well as events like birthday and cultural celebrations. Others, like Emma, documented milestone moments in their lives such as voting for the very first time during the 2020 presidential election.
Moreover, students explored the varying ways people responded to the pandemic. One student shared a photograph of an empty shelf at Target as a result of the public “panic buying” cleaning supplies. The student noted that a young mother was trying to find baby wipes only to find them no longer in stock. In contrast to this individualistic mindset, another photograph documented a student hand-sewing masks at home to donate to frontline workers at local hospitals. Other forms of community and familial care were photographed such as a student making samosas with their grandmother, or students visiting local AAPI-owned small businesses.
The VOICE project engaged with art and design through its multiple phases — from the collection of photographs to the development of a curriculum, a project website, an oral history collection, multiple short videos, a physical exhibition, and a photo essay — has allowed us to empower one another through the co-production and co-creation of knowledge. By engaging in art, we’ve been able to build and sustain meaningful connections with students and community mentors. Finally, through these varying art forms, we’re able to empower each other and share our individual stories with the greater public.
Selected Case Study Photographs
To view more photographs and to read students’ storytelling descriptions, please visit our website at: https://sites.uci.edu/voice/.
Photograph and words by Grace Choe.
“Having not visited LA since the pandemic started, I thought this would be the perfect place to take my photo and also grab a meal while I’m at it, but I was taken back by how much things have changed in just the last 3 months. This food court is one of the main gathering areas for the AAPI community in Koreatown, Los Angeles. You would always see lines of people at each of the food stands waiting to order. There was little to no seating available due to the amount of people everyday. This photograph was taken after the physical distancing guidelines for restaurants and indoor seating, and it depicts the emptiness and physical barriers that prevent generations of people from congregating and/or having a meal in this space.”
Photograph and words by Ivy Duong.
“This photograph is important to me because before the pandemic, it was normal to go out to get a haircut or get your hair done. This is now considered a privilege as in order to get your hair done, both the hairdresser and client must be in close contact with one another. Many members in the Vietnamese community are in the hair or nail industry and the pandemic has negatively impacted them as they have to find new ways to protect themselves and their customers while still continuing their business since the job requires them to be in close contact.”
Photograph and words by Micherlange Francois-Hemsley.
“This photo was taken inside the temple where Sikhs gather to worship. The photo is taken from a low angle to emphasize the social distancing dots on the floor. The microphone and instruments that can also be seen in the photo are not being used anymore because the temple switched from live to pre-recorded music. Many Christan churches, which is the religion I’m from, are not requiring face masks nor social distancing to gather. Therefore, this photograph is offering us the unique perspective of the measures that only some religious groups are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
Photograph and words by Soniya Manju.
“This photograph is meant to depict the somber reality of small businesses having to close due to COVID-19. I was able to relate to this experience as my family also owned a small business. Because of COVID-19 circumstances, we had to not only close our restaurant, but we also had to sell our property because of recent changes in economic security. As a result, being able to capture the story of another small business venture and its closing has been very important to me. This photograph depicts the rarity of South Asian food trucks. This South Asian food truck in particular had become very popular during pre-COVID circumstances, but business gradually decreased until the food truck was unable to stay open any longer for customer safety since it was considered a small gathering place, and also because of economic insecurity.”
Photograph and words by Sidra Ali.
“This photograph is important to me because I took this picture based off of an encounter I had with an Asian mother while working at Target as a cashier. She told me how difficult it was for her to find supplies that she needed like baby wipes because people kept buying them for general cleaning purpose. Meanwhile, she was struggling to find them for her actual baby. Plus, being a mother, she did not have the time to go baby wipe hunting from store to store, and this shortage caused her a lot of stress during the pandemic.”
Photograph and words by Emma Hong Nguyen.
“The photograph is important to me because in this photograph I am actively contributing to the fight against COVID-19. I read on the news that hospitals might be facing a shortage of PPE. This is dangerous because frontline workers are our first line of defense against COVID-19. If they are infected and get seriously ill, there will be even fewer professionals to save lives. Realizing the situation, I decided to make face masks and donate them to the Kaiser Permanente Laboratory in Anaheim and Harbor-UCLA Laboratory in Los Angeles so that frontline workers can be protected during their fight with the virus.”
Photograph and words by Rhea Jandu.
“This photograph is important to me because it captures a more positive side to my quarantine & COVID-19 experience, one that makes me count my blessings and recognize my privilege. Because everyone was normally busy in their daily lives and packed schedules in a pre-COVID era, there was limited downtime to spend at home and do small things such as bond with grandparents. This photo showcases an instance in which my grandmother made homemade samosas, a fried Indian snack with potatoes and peas, and explained her recipe to me.”
Photograph and words by Jessica-Gabriela Ramirez.
“This photograph is important to me because it captures a moment of gratitude through the struggles of life during COVID-19. My dad’s birthday celebration was shared in the quietness of our home without family surrounding us and sharing in our festivities as we normally would. Yet he felt blessed to have had a COVID birthday this year, so as to recognize how fortunate he feels to be alive and well during such trying times. This photograph offers a small space of light from the candles on his cake amidst a cold, somber, and lonely home in which we celebrated.”
Photograph and words by Leyna Tran.
“This black and white photo represents the feelings of weariness and despair of COVID-19. These feelings illustrate how many families have been unable to visit eldery and loved ones in fear of spreading the virus, according to state and CDC restrictions and guidelines. The black and white effect makes the hospital bed emphasize our focus on the patient’s health condition and question why they are at home — as can be seen with the backyard, couches, and bookshelf — rather than the hospital. Though healthcare at home is significantly different from healthcare in the hospital, this photo demonstrates the patient’s preference for comfort within their home and with their family, seeing as they are in hospice care. With the comfort that family brings, the patient can feel at ease, while the family is fortunate to have them home.”
Photograph and words by Brenda Wong.
“This photograph depicts a university student’s cluttered living room full of boxes stacked to the walls and an indoor workout machine. The physical messiness of this living space parallels the disorganized emotional and economic situation that families experience during the pandemic. Issues of unemployment, burden of rent, and lockdowns upturned the lives of many.
In this case, these factors resulted in the student’s decision to move from Irvine back to the Bay Area at the last minute. The unexpectedness of such a decision resulted in the lack of preparation of space for the student in their apartment, which houses three generations. This resulted in the living room turning into a source of conflict between the generations within the household.”
1Phuc Duy Nhu To, Julia Huỳnh, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Thuy Vo Dang, Cevadne Lee, and Sora Park Tanjasiri, “Through Our Eyes, Hear Our Stories: A Virtual Photovoice Project to Document and Archive Asian American and Pacific Islander Community Experiences during COVID-19,” Health Promotion Practice 23, no. 2 (March 14, 2022): pp. 289-295, https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399211060777; Julia Huỳnh, Phuc Duy Nhu To, Cevadne Lee, Thuy Vo Dang, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, and Sora Park Tanjasiri (2022) Care during COVID-19: A Virtual Asian American and Pacific Islander Photovoice Project. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community: 2022, Vol. 19, No. 1 & 2; Phuc To, Cevadne Lee, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (Exploring the Advancement of Photovoice for/in AAPI Communities During a Pandemic), Conversation with Robin Evans-Agnew and Bob Strack, Health Promotion Practices Podcast, podcast audio, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2-ep-12-exploring-the-advancement-of-photovoice-for/id1547503833?i=1000554659646
2To view the curriculum, please visit: https://sites.uci.edu/voice/curriculum/.
3Phuc Duy Nhu To, Julia Huỳnh, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Thuy Vo Dang, Cevadne Lee, and Sora Park Tanjasiri, “Through Our Eyes, Hear Our Stories: A Virtual Photovoice Project to Document and Archive Asian American and Pacific Islander Community Experiences during COVID-19,” Health Promotion Practice 23, no. 2 (March 14, 2022): pp. 289-295, https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399211060777.
4Julia Huỳnh, Phuc Duy Nhu To, Cevadne Lee, Thuy Vo Dang, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, and Sora Park Tanjasiri (2022) Care during COVID-19: A Virtual Asian American and Pacific Islander Photovoice Project. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community: 2022, Vol. 19, No. 1 & 2.
5To view a YouTube playlist of all the short student spotlights created, please visit: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6A5FZ8LrruJixkYax52WIKo46aNi3325.
Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
