Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, April 11, 2003, Page 4, Image 4

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    — poppi*/—
"The Land East"
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Monday through Saturday
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7 Nights a Week
992 Willamette
Eugene, Or 97401
343-9661
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UO Tickets
346-4363
Hult Center
682-5000
UTBox Office
x,- x , 346-4191
Nights of performances
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11,12,17,18,
19,25,26 - 8 PM
ApriC 13 - 2 PM
Matinee benefit performanc
Call 484-9791 ext. 314
for benefit tickets
Comic
Pulse brief
Art show entry
deadline extended
Students will have the opportuni
ty to display their creative works,
communicate with others in the uni
versal language of art and win prizes
in this year’s UO International Re
source Center Jurored Art Show.
The resource center has extended
its entry deadline to April 16, and en
try forms are available at the Interna
tional Resource Center office in the
EMU. Artists can submit slides of up to
three creations, and applications
should be dropped off Monday through
Friday between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Ex
hibit jurors will choose two-dimen
sional and 3-D pieces for the show.
This year’s theme is “International
Communication,” and the exhibit
runs from May 5 to May 9 in the Inter
national Lounge, located in the EMU.
For additional rules and informa
tion, contact the International Re
source Center at 346-0887 or
irc@darkwing. uoregon. edu.
—Jacquelyn Lewis
Vietnamese
continued from page 1
20 to 30 maids working for them,
and Chan had two especially
for himself.
“I was a spoiled little kid,” he said.
“Even taking a bath — I just had to
sit there.”
Corruption within the govern
ment, though, meant their lives
weren’t always easy. Chan’s parents
also were unsatisfied with the coun
try’s higher education.
After high school, it’s “out to the
work field,” Chan said.
Chan’s family left Saigon in 1988
and spent the next two years living
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in refugee camps in Malaysia and
the Philippines, waiting for some
one to sponsor their relocation. In
Malaysia, they lived on Kuala Lum
Bua, a small island with a popula
tion of 3,000. Their residence — a
section of a longhouse - had no
running water, electricity, beds or
a kitchen.
“It was pretty much like a camp
ing trip,” Chan said.
While the lifestyle was difficult
on the family, Chan said he has
no regrets.
“If I had to do it all over again, I
would still leave,” he said.
In 1990, a Portland-area Viet
namese-American pastor sponsored
their move and found jobs at
Dunkin Donuts for Chan’s parents.
Several months later, his dad found
a better job as an assembly line
worker, and his mother now works
for a biotechnical company.
“The whole process of coming
over here has made our whole
family completely different,”
Chan said. “We pretty much start
ed with nothing.”
Chan began his American edu
cation in the fourth grade, in
1990. He said he could not under
stand anything his classmates or
teachers spoke about for the first
two months.
“It was terrible,” he said. “You’re
the only one who just sits there, and
everyone else is looking at you fun
ny. I learned to communicate with
gestures a lot.”
Chan said while teachers and
some students sympathized with
him, a few picked on him through
out elementary school.
“They would cuss at me, and I
would have no clue what they
were saying,” he said, adding he
would later ask teachers what the
words meant. “I got a couple of
them in trouble.”
Chan said he was the only Asian
student in his school throughout his
elementary education.
Middle school was not fun for
Chan. He said he received many
cold stares from fellow students and
was pushed around more often. The
harassment reached a climax when
some students followed Chan home,
and his older brothers came out to
protect him.
“After that, they pretty much left
me alone,” Chan said.
This period of Chan’s life was dif
ficult for him because he had no
close friends to confide in, and he
did not feel comfortable around
anyone except his family — and it
only got worse after his father
passed away in 1995.
In high school, Chan made his
first close friends, some of them
white, and his first girlfriend, who
was Vietnamese. Asian people crit
icized him for being “white
washed” because he spent time
with white friends.
After graduating from high
school, Chan moved to Corvallis
and enrolled at Oregon State Uni
versity’s engineering school, but af
ter three years, he realized that was
not what he wanted. After a struggle
to convince his mother he wanted
to study architecture, he transferred
to the University in the fall of 2002.
According to the registrar’s Web
site, there are only four Vietnamese
students at the University. The low
number may be because others
haven’t yet blazed a trail. Interna
tional Student Association co-Direc
tor Gabriela Serrano said family ties
are important.
“The majority of international
students here have either come
here because a sibling was here be
fore them or there is an exchange
program, or because they have
some relative here,” she said.
Now a member of the University
Vietnamese Student Association,
Chan feels more comfortable
around his white and Asian peers
— but he said he has never thought
a white girl would find him attrac
tive, adding he sees a lot more
white men dating Asian women
than vice versa.
“I feel like there is a barrier — I
don’t feel comfortable approaching
a Caucasian girl,” he said. “Maybe
they don’t know much about us or
our culture. Maybe they think we
are too different from them.”
Chan said he still hears hurtful
comments, like “go back to where
you came from.”
“Sometimes I feel like they won’t
accept our culture,” he said. “We’re
like everyone else.”
The negative feelings, though,
have eased with time. All four of
Chan’s brothers have graduated
from college — the first members
of his family with four-year college
degrees — and he has a short time
before the reason for the family’s
move to the United States will
be complete.
“Going through all that made
me a lot stronger and open-mind
ed,” he said.
Contact the reporter
atromangokhman@dailyemerald.com.
SARS
continued from page 1
students. He added students don’t
usually travel during the term, un
less for emergencies, but as sum
mer approaches, more students
may have questions about SARS.
Contact the reporter
atlindsaysauve@dailyemerald.com.
014968
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Join us on Sundays for worship services featuring
Holy Communion. We have traditional services on
Sunday mornings and Marty Haugen services on
Sunday evenings.
Sundays 8:15 and 10:45 am & 6:30 pm
Student/Young Adult Bible Study, Sundays, 7:15 pm
Central Lutheran Church
Corner of 18th &. Potter • 345.0395
www.welcometocentral.org
All are welcome.