Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Event With U.S. Fulbrighter William Henry Issel
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Event With U.S. Fulbrighter William Henry Issel

The film screening & discussion on May 16, at the Fulbright Educational Advising Center, was the second event in our U.S. Heritage Film Club that celebrated the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. This time around we watched the acclaimed indie film
Gook (2017), directed by Justin Chon. The film is set against the first day of the 1992 Rodney King riots in L.A., and explores issues such as racial representation, ethnic tensions, interracial friendship, racial and ethnic struggle. After historically and culturally contextualizing the film, our guest speaker, historian and professor William Henry Issel, Fulbright Scholar (San Francisco State University), shared his own experience growing up within a racially and ethnically diverse community that had to face consequences of political and economic decisions. Professor Issel then invited the participating students to share their thoughts on the film and on the implications of the film’s discourse. The conversation also touched upon the issue, among others, of the generational divide in a context of racial conflict, but it nonetheless ended on a note of hope, drawing upon one of the film’s messages.