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Irish Times
3 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange
Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange Author : Katie Goh ISBN-13 : 978-1805301738 Publisher : Canongate Guideline Price : £16.99 I'll be honest with you, I don't even like oranges. They're too messy. Drippy, sticky; forever associated in my mind with my schoolmates' grubby little fingers clawing at the thick glossy skin at breaktimes or on the bus. Ugh! Somebody give that child a wet wipe. But for the Irish writer and critic Katie Goh, the messiness of the orange is exactly the point. As her superbly reflective, restive, and revealing book shows, this fruit that many of us take for granted has a fascinating and thoroughly messy history. Its millenniums-long narrative criss-crosses the globe from western China to southern California and back again, cropping up all over the place, especially in accounts that the author refuses to clean up or sanitise – of colonial expansion, racialised bigotry, and capitalist exploitation. 'The orange is a souvenir of history,' she writes, 'entangled with the story of migration, of exile, and of invasion'. It's tangled up with her own story, too. She started writing the book in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Atlanta on March 17th, 2021, that left six Asian women dead at the hands of a white male supremacist. Anti-Asian sentiment had risen sharply during the pandemic, but this was a terrifying escalation. She remembers: 'The morning after a white man murdered six Asian women, I ate five oranges.' READ MORE Out of this moment, charged with shock and horror, where the eating of oranges was like grieving, like a tribute to those who were murdered, came an impulse to trace the roots of her identity in parallel with the oranges she held in her hands. Goh was born and raised outside Belfast, the child of an Irish mother and a Chinese father, in a place that was 99 per cent white; so white, she says, that she could count on the fingers of one hand the non-white children in her school. When she was growing up, she felt her difference acutely but couldn't really inhabit it. Being mixed-race, she found herself pulled in two directions, falling between categories – 'not Asian or White but Other'. She also had an inkling that she was queer, 'not Straight or Gay but Other'. Lingering in this space of otherness instilled in her a lifelong feeling of dislocation, and a desire for connection 'to a place, to a history, to a sense of belonging'. Foreign Fruit tracks her pursuit of that connection alongside a global history of the orange, which becomes for her 'a talisman, a compass, an anchor, a map', inextricable from its origins in Chinese antiquity. The first mention of oranges can be found in the Shūjīng, the ancient Chinese documents compiled by Confucius as early as 500 BC, and Goh's book starts in China, with a trip to Fujian, where her father's people once lived before they emigrated to Malaysia. From the sparsely populated villages of her ancestors, she travels to the heaving streets of Chang'an, the world's marketplace, haggling with a fruit vendor in the town 'where the Silk Roads begin and end and where they begin anew'. Returning to Europe, in the Netherlands, she reflects on the spoils of colonial warfare and greed represented by a Willem Kalf still life of an orange and a lemon dating from 1660. In Vienna, she visits the Schönbrunn Orangerie, an ostentatious symptom of the 'citrusmania' that spread across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Crossing the Atlantic, she delivers a detailed and emotional investigation of the orange's history in California that confronts the violent impact on immigrant communities of the early-20th century 'orange rush'. Goh is a bold new voice in Irish writing. In less capable hands, a personal history of the orange could be an opportunity merely to write one's life in citrus, to absorb one into the other. But as the author reminds us, there are dangers in taking people for plants, which have historically threatened people of colour: eugenicists in the late-19th and early 20th centuries, for instance, endeavoured to 'control, curtail, cull' non-white populations as they did their orange groves. The sophistication of Goh's thinking shows itself in the glimmer of daylight she leaves between human and fruit. Foreign Fruit is a stunning, stylish search for origins reminiscent of books like Saidiya Hartman's Lose Your Mother, and the work of queer writers like James Baldwin, who called himself 'a stranger everywhere' and whose rootlessness was a creative wellspring. 'The borders between what is native and what is foreign become hazier as we step back into the past,' remarks Goh, and her forays across the world and through time attest to the power and the imaginative richness of movement, migration, messiness – the in-between of assumed positions. 'The world is made of hybrids,' she writes. 'Purity is an illusion.' Dr Diarmuid Hester is a cultural historian, activist, and author
Harvard Business Review
19-05-2025
- General
- Harvard Business Review
How Women in Leadership Can Shape How Others See Them
Impression management is a critical part of every leader's job. People's perceptions of leaders directly impact their reputation, credibility, and status, which in turn influence their opportunities, assignments, latitude, and ultimately their career trajectory. For leaders who don't look or act like our mental model of a leader—which historically has meant white, heterosexual, male, nondisabled, and from a socioeconomically advantaged background—the work of perception management is even more demanding, because core aspects of their identity are seen as divergent from, or even antithetical to, the qualities of an archetypal leader. This means that, on top of their day-to-day responsibilities, women in leadership can find themselves battling stereotypes that are emotionally charged and harder to shake once activated in the minds of their colleagues. Women in power face a well-documented lose-lose scenario where they're either seen as competent but cold or likable but not very effective. Layer on top of this racialized tropes such as ' Black women are angry ' or ' Asian women are meek, ' as well as double-binds against caregivers, and managing perceptions can feel like a tightrope walk. To navigate this tricky terrain, women leaders may either overcompensate or over-accommodate. For example, a woman leader may try to prove she's just as tough and gruff as the men around her, or alternatively may hold back for fear she'll be seen as aggressive or unlikable. Both extremes tend to leave these leaders feeling reactive, exhausted, and inauthentic, which does nothing to enhance their credibility and connection with their teams. What if, instead of waging an unwinnable war against biases and expectations about who they are, women leaders could take control of their narratives and redirect the way they're seen? To map out a practical approach to effective impression management, we analyzed interviews we conducted with hundreds of professional women for our books, identifying common strategies they use to craft, deliver, and embrace narratives that turn potential obstacles into career advantages and long-term success. Most leaders we spoke with want to be seen as credible, relatable, and capable, while also staying true to their experiences and the knowledge that comes from that background. Harvard Business School Professor Lakshmi Ramarajan, who studies personal and professional identity, told us that leaders often find long-term success in their company and industry when 'they leverage their personal strengths and the complexity of their identities, which helps them build trust across their organization.' Leaders have to connect with broad constituencies, not just with the people who appreciate the hurdles they face and want to see them succeed. Finding ways to take greater control of (and wield more influence over) their careers feels especially urgent for the women we've spoken with recently. Many have described heightened anxiety and waning trust as their companies continue to reverse remote work policies and pause, pivot, or even end programs and investments focused on women's advancement. These women are worried the challenges they face in the workplace will become more pronounced as a result of economic uncertainty, evolving business priorities, and shifting political winds. Now more than ever, women leaders need deliberate, reliable tactics to subvert, counter, or sidestep assumptions and biases that may pose barriers to their advancement. The approaches we outline demonstrate that it's possible to own your story and shape how you're seen, even when the odds seem stacked against you. Craft a Counternarrative Early in her career, Ashley *, an Australian financial services leader, received two pieces of devastating feedback. First, she was told she lacked the 'kill or be killed' fighter instincts necessary to advance because of her quiet and reserved demeanor; then she was told her liberal arts degree made colleagues question her 'quantitative chops.' Ashley was initially taken aback by the feedback, wondering what she had done wrong in how she showed up at work and presented herself to colleagues, since she prided herself on being 'assertive and analytical'—the very traits she was criticized for lacking. After the initial overwhelm subsided, Ashley decided she wanted to take control of how she was being perceived. For the next several months, Ashley went on a campaign to get people to see her as she saw herself. She started reminding her leaders about her statistics minor and used more forceful wording to describe herself in self-assessments and checkpoint reviews. She volunteered to lead the modeling of a complex financial forecast—a high-stakes, sink-or-swim project—and pulled it off. Ashley also recognized that women's self-advocacy wasn't always received as positively as men's in her company culture (he's confident and compelling, she's arrogant and grating), so she asked trusted mentors and sponsors to reiterate her messaging. This savvy move helped her evade backlash and put even more weight behind her counternarrative. Crucially, Ashley didn't just signal her strengths—she did so in ways that resonated with her leaders. As a result, she was able to reframe how others in her company saw her. She didn't try to become someone she wasn't. Instead she focused on qualities that she knew were valued—and that she herself valued—and that she could demonstrate excellence at. This congruence between her personal values, her firm's needs, and her sense of how she wanted to show up as a leader allowed Ashley to cultivate a leadership identity that was both authentic and strategic. Gender scholars have pointed out that image management disconnected from a larger purpose can cause leaders to overfocus on recognition and approval and actually undermine their reputations. Ashley had a clear sense of purpose, a key aspect of which was succeeding or failing on her real merits and performance, not because her colleagues weren't seeing her full set of capabilities. That's why, after initially asking herself whether she should simply exit and go work at a place where she didn't have to do so much impression management, she decided to stay and fulfill her lifelong dream of working in Australian high finance. By taking steps to highlight her grit and relentlessness and shaping how her colleagues saw these characteristics in her—all while ensuring they couldn't ignore her technical skills—she garnered the support she needed to pursue those aims. Use Positive Association to Shift Perceptions Anna*, who climbed the ranks at a large advisory firm, mounted a campaign to change perceptions about her career intentions. Anna had thought the motherhood penalty, where women with children are assumed to be less competent and committed than others, especially men, was a 'relic of the past,' and she hadn't expected it to show up in such pronounced ways in her own career. She was passed over for an exciting role in a new city, eventually hearing she was never really considered a viable candidate because leadership presumed she wouldn't want to relocate due to her family. She decided she wanted to take more control of her future and would strategically act to correct assumptions about her preferences and desires that were rooted in biased preconceptions. Strategically, Anna was careful and intentional in how she went about resetting the assumptions that held her back, knowing her company culture tended to penalize people who openly questioned feedback or decisions. For the next year, Anna constantly raised her hand and asked for new assignments, always being flexible and forward-looking, always expressing her enthusiasm for new challenges. Although she didn't know it, Anna was deftly deploying positive arousal, a psychological concept referring to the way pleasurable emotions like excitement, joy, and enthusiasm feel energizing and motivating. Anna made the case for readiness in such a way that her leadership experienced her as upbeat and engaged; indeed, they started calling her a 'go-getter' and describing her as 'eager and ready for any challenge.' Anna's approach made the case for her readiness while also engendering a sense of warmth and increased trust among the people whose perceptions mattered most. In less than two years, Anna was offered a role similar to the one she had originally been passed over for. It's true that Anna would have been justified in naming bias as a likely reason behind her being overlooked, or in pointing out gender disparities in the distribution of key assignments. At times, that may be the most effective response, but sometimes taking a different tack can open more career possibilities. Relying on positivity to implicitly counter stereotypes and keeping conversations future-focused, rather than taking up a defensive position or explaining why the bias is wrong, can offer a way out of a lose-lose dynamic. The choice doesn't have to be between accepting unfairness or calling it out only to be branded as difficult. Instead, redirecting perceptions can allow you to craft a new dynamic, and this kind of approach can be especially powerful in cultures that resist self-reflection or punish people for raising issues. Turn Feedback into Power Lisa Sun, CEO of Gravitas, was a first-year consultant when she received this feedback in her year-end review: 'Lisa comes across as young and overly enthusiastic at times. She should seek to have more gravitas.' As a young Asian woman who feared being perceived as stereotypically deferential and who struggled with feelings of belonging at her firm, Lisa found it a particularly complicated message to absorb. She had spent a lot of energy managing aspects of her cultural background that made her different, and now she wondered if her personal struggle with authenticity was costing her in her career. After initially feeling like she wanted to hide, she decided she wouldn't allow the feedback to diminish her or confirm her fears of being out of place in an environment where most leaders didn't look like her. Instead she decided to get curious and began asking her mentors and co-workers questions: How did the leaders around her find or grow their confidence? What gave them the wherewithal to convey authority and self-assurance? What exactly did her reviewer mean by 'gravitas,' and how was it measured at her company? Lisa didn't just accept the criticism, she adopted an investigative mindset so that she could decide for herself whether gravitas was an important leadership quality and determine how she might be able to cultivate it within herself. Lisa had been raised with a 'humble-first' upbringing where modesty was rewarded and overbearing or self-aggrandizing behavior was looked down upon. Cultivating something called 'gravitas' felt opaque and alien. Many of us adopt a 'fake it till you make it' approach when we get feedback we aren't sure how to address, essentially guessing what we should do and throwing ourselves into it. Lisa could have mimicked the style of senior colleagues who possessed gravitas, but she would have been missing out on ways to leverage her innate strengths. Even if she had been successful in impersonating the qualities she observed in leaders around her, she believes her impostor syndrome would have grown over time. Lisa's decision to take space and interview everyone at the firm who would meet with her on the subject allowed her to cultivate a style of authority that felt true to her. In the process of her 'gravitas journey,' Lisa found herself sharing more of her backstory and the interests and beliefs that mattered to her most, which made her feel more aligned and authentic as a leader. Eventually, this shift contributed to others seeing her as more centered, powerful, and, yes, having greater gravitas. Lisa went on to make junior partner in the firm and years later left to found the lifestyle and clothing brand Gravitas, where she used what she learned to help other women reframe their confidence and power inside and outside of the dressing room. She used the feedback she got early in her career to define her brand's mission to catalyze confidence. By not letting early feedback change who she was, Lisa drew from her own growth experiences to build an industry-shifting brand. Where to Start Next time you hear feedback that doesn't sit well with you, consider the following actions: Step 1: Pause, assess, then leverage your complexity. Professor Ramarajan told us, 'You can't and you shouldn't have to address everything you hear. Be thoughtful about the qualities you feel you already have and that you want others to see.' Rather than downplaying the complexities of your identity in an attempt to fit a model based on someone else, rethink how you can bring forward important dimensions of your story and build your career from a base of self-knowledge. Step 2: Communicate powerfully and strategically. Don't just change your actions, but also align your communications so that people around you see, hear, and experience the 'new' you. If you start approaching projects or priorities differently but no one is around to witness the change, it may have little impact on your career. What you do and what you say both matter. Step 3: Build a coalition. Get mentors and sponsors to be active on your campaign, which not only adds oomph but can help shield you from the backlash that can come with tooting your own horn. Professor Ramarajan suggests that being successful as a non-archetypal leader is about getting people who have shared your particular journey and understand your story to actively support you, as well as building coalitions with those who may not appreciate the complexity of your journey but can find common connection around a shared goal or concern. Successful leaders build bridges with those similar to and different from themselves. Step 4: Put your message on repeat. Any leader contending with biases about who they are needs to remember that changing perceptions isn't a one-and-done effort. Tell the story you want heard, and tell it over and over again. . . . For leaders navigating the complexities of modern workplaces, proactively mapping out the bias you may face, defining your image in your own voice, and turning feedback into fuel constitute a new and bold playbook for advancement. * Name has been changed for privacy.
CBC
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Love You Wrong Time uncovers the horrors of dating as an Asian woman
When Maddie Bautista and Deanna H. Choi first started writing Love You Wrong Time, they turned to some strange — and sometimes dark — corners of the internet. They looked at personal ads on Craigslist, combed through Reddit forums, and set up a phone line to get in touch with strangers and learn about their stances on dating Asian women. Love You Wrong Time explores what Bautista and Choi observed about how certain cultures are fetishized in relationships, combined with stories from their own love lives. The cabaret-style musical is both co-written and performed by Bautista and Choi, who compare the work to the likes of Bo Burnham and Ali Wong — stand-up comedy and music coming together to create "a good time, with teeth." Asian women have historically been portrayed in media as being obedient, hyper-feminine and sexually appealing because they're "exotic," so people expect them to act this way in real life, too. Love You Wrong Time challenges that by spotlighting women who make noise. "Through all this research, a few different throughlines emerged, and they formed … something that we wanted to poke fun at, and something we wanted to subvert and ultimately find our own agency within," says Choi. One of Bautista's favourite moments from the piece is "Your Body Is the Future," a pop anthem she wrote when her partner was exploring his gender. It's her way of showing queer Asians that they can take up space, rather than feeling pressured to stay submissive and quiet. After a sold-out Toronto premiere of the work in 2023, Choi and Bautista toured it across Canada last year. It was well-received in Vancouver and is now running again from May 1–11 at the Cultch's Historic Theatre. The duo also recently announced they'll be taking the work to Ottawa's National Arts Centre this August. Aside from sharing bad experiences with dating, Choi and Bautista's friendship and artistic collaboration was founded on their love of composition and sound design. "We bonded over the fact that there are very few women of colour in our line of work, especially women of Asian descent," says Choi. She and Bautista have worked together ever since they first met in 2016, and Love You Wrong Time is extra special to them because its co-written compositions span so many years of collaboration. Choi originally studied neuroscience, but found herself really enjoying working in technical theatre. She sees it as both an art and a science, and said her background doing academic research on music's effect on the brain influences her approach to planning out the technical side of a show. Bautista comes from a theatre performance background, and she thinks the different paths they took into the arts cause them to have very different perspectives on composition, but that this diversity makes the end result appeal to more people. "[We] approach music really differently, which is so cool," Bautista says. "I think the marriage of our styles in Love You Wrong Time makes the music quite different and entertaining, and very direct … We end up creating an experience where everyone belongs and is implicated." This meshing of perspectives is especially visible within the set of the piece, which resembles "a boudoir explod[ing] into an Asian night market," says Choi. Audience members can keep an eye out for items that draw on staples of various Asian cultures, like suitcases painted to look like the chrysanthemum tea and the soy milk Tetra-Paks that are familiar to so many Chinese kids. Including specific cultural references are part of the show's goal to speak to people who might resonate with the subject matter, even if they don't usually enjoy theatre. "The audiences who are most excited to see us are people who are in the midst of their dating lives, so young Asian people, folks of colour — people who may not necessarily consume a lot of theatre work, but just want to experience something new," Bautista says. Bautista and Choi often wonder whether works revolving around the fetishization of Asian women will become relics of the past, but they've realized perspectives won't be changing anytime soon. That's why they want to give people affected by it a way to cope. "We always think that at some point this show will stop being relevant, and in a sad, strange way, it hasn't," Choi says. "We wanted to make space for rage and grief, and the best way that we could find to do that was through humour and through song."
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
AWDPI Honored at the United Nations: Empowering Asian Women, Advancing Global Gender Equality
From Paris to New York, AWDPI's mission to empower Asian women earns global recognition and catalyzes new action at CSW69. NEW YORK, May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In March 2025, the global non-profit organization Asian Women Development Plan International (AWDPI) received two prestigious honors during the 69th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) at UN Headquarters in New York. AWDPI was awarded the Global Outstanding Women's Public Welfare Organization Award, while its Board Member, Ms. Stephanie Sun, received the Asian Outstanding Female Leadership Award. These accolades reflect the international community's recognition of AWDPI's leadership in promoting gender equality and the rising global influence of Asian women in public service. Five Years of Global Impact: Empowering Asian Women Worldwide Founded in 2020 by Ms. Yimar Yu, AWDPI evolved from its original founding program Avoice (Against Violence to Overseas Chinese Women Program). The organization works to eliminate gender-based violence and discrimination and to uplift Asian women through economic opportunity, political engagement, and cultural empowerment. Over the past five years, AWDPI has established a global footprint with offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, and Australia. Partnering with the United Nations, governments, academia, and private sector stakeholders, it has directly supported thousands of Asian women in more than 30 countries. Programs such as the Anti-Domestic Violence Support System and the Conference of Asian Women Development International are widely regarded as global models for innovation and cross-cultural impact in gender advocacy. A Powerful Voice at the United Nations AWDPI has participated in high-level dialogues and official parallel forums hosted by the United Nations, amplifying the call for equitable opportunities for Asian women. Its representatives have shared critical insights, proposed actionable policies, and strengthened interregional cooperation for sustainable development. Advocating in Paris: Championing China's Gender Equality Policy On March 5, AWDPI Board Member Ms. Yanping Wang, a delegate to the landmark 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, took the stage at the Femina Vox International Forum held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Speaking at the opening high-level roundtable, she reflected on the enduring global significance of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action—30 years on. In a compelling dialogue moderated by UNESCO Artist for Peace Dr. Guila Clara Kessous, Ms. Wang reaffirmed China's deep-rooted commitment to gender equality and inclusive development. She highlighted how the principles first enshrined in the Beijing Declaration continue to guide international cooperation on women's rights. "Empowering women is synonymous with empowering all of humanity," she emphasized, calling on governments, private sector leaders, and civil society to re-energize their commitment to gender justice in the face of growing global challenges. Her remarks brought a powerful historical and policy perspective to the forum and were met with broad international resonance. Breaking Barriers: Stephanie Sun's Personal Journey of Leadership On March 17, during CSW69 at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, AWDPI Board Member Stephanie Sun was invited to share her inspiring journey with her personal "firsts": including being the first one going to college and the first immigrant in her family, she became the first female immigrant in history to be appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania as Executive Director of the Governor's Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. She also made history by spearheading the historic progress of the Pennsylvania election system moving from bilingual to trilingual, adding the first Asian language, Chinese, secured by the federal Voting Rights Act, and by becoming the first Asian to serve as Vice President of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, part of the largest civil rights organizations in the U.S. Despite systemic challenges historically faced by Asian communities, Ms. Sun's story is a powerful example of individual resilience driving systemic change. She encouraged Asian women to become agents of transformation and to create 'countless firsts' in public life. Her speech was met with great enthusiasm and was interrupted several times by resounding applause. For her outstanding contributions to public policy and civic engagement, she received the Asian Outstanding Female Leadership Award. Other honorees at the event included Nobel laureate Ms. Youyou Tu, and former Secretary Ms. Elaine Chao. Shaping the Global Gender Agenda: AWDPI at the New York Action Initiative On March 19, AWDPI played a key role in CSW69's parallel forum on Women's Economic Empowerment. Ms. Yuting Deng, AWDPI's U.S. Representative, presented findings from global projects and urged policymakers to take meaningful steps to address the needs of overseas Asian women. Building on this engagement, AWDPI joined international delegates in signing the New York Action Initiative, symbolizing cross-border solidarity and shared commitment to women's empowerment. Throughout CSW69, Ms. Tiantian Wu, Director of AWDPI's U.S. National Office, led AWDPI's strategic policy engagement and multilateral dialogue to amplify the voices of Asian women in global gender discussions. "Every registration table is a site of advocacy, and every coffee break holds the potential for change," she noted. Through sustained and intentional presence, AWDPI ensured that the priorities of Asian women were meaningfully integrated into international gender equality agendas. A Call to Action: Lighting the Path Ahead At the award ceremony of CSW69's parallel forum, held at the United Nations Headquarters, AWDPI founder Ms. Yimar Yu reaffirmed the organization's commitment to empowering Asian women, advancing their participation and leadership in global progress. She extended her sincere appreciation to UN Gender Equality Advocate Ms. Hawa Taylor-Kamara Diallo, who also served as the award presenter, for her decades-long leadership in fostering cross-cultural understanding and advancing global gender equality. From Paris to New York, AWDPI has been a consistent contributor to global gender equality efforts and human rights through sustained multilateral engagement. As a signatory to the New York Action Initiative, AWDPI continues to champion inclusive development through gender-responsive advocacy and international cooperation. "Where fragments of light converge, they will ultimately illuminate the future of human civilization." —AWDPI AWDPI calls upon partners, media, and allies worldwide to join in advancing a more just, inclusive, and gender-equal world. View original content: SOURCE Asian Women Development Plan International
