Friday, March 2, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 3
Workshop explores Asian-American relationships
Negative images interracial couples highlight discussion
By Danny Phillips
writer@kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
Jennifer Duan would think twice before dating an American.
The Topeka junior said "white guys" usually view Asian women as exotic and submissive, and if she were to get married, she would prefer to stay within her own race.
Duan was one of 16 people who attended a workshop last night on Asian-American dating patterns and how they're connected with internalized oppression.
The workshop was part of the Asian American Festival at the University of
The intimate group was composed primarily of students who were forced to confront their own stereotypes about themselves and their peers.
Kansas.
New York City native Bertrand Yang began the workshop at the Burge Union by writing the words "self hate" on a giant Post-it note and soliciting the participants' initial word associations. Some of the responses included suicide, depression and anger.
Yang then pulled out a marker and asked for self-esteem issues specific to Asians living in the United States.
"Self-esteem is directly related to your dating choices," said Yang.
Charu Narula, Leawood senior, said sometimes it was hard to maintain a balance between old culture and new culture.
Height, acceptance, slanted eyes and the language barrier also made the list.
That exercise opened up a dialogue to how self hate affected dating choices.
"I didn't ask for stereotypes. The easiest thing for us to do is pick on images. This is from
us."
Bertrand Yang Workshop leader
Every participant said they knew of an interracial couple that consisted of a Caucasian male and an Asian woman.
Hubert Chen, Asian-American Student Union president, said he was amazed how many Asian females in Internet personal ads only wanted to date Caucasian men.
Jazzmin Chun, Overland Park freshman, said she's always dated "white guys."
"It has a lot to do with height," she said. She also said she grew up in a high school that didn't have a large Asian population, so she would hang around the Caucasian crowd.
Thu Lam, Overland Park senior, has some Asian friends who want Caucasian partners so they can have "perfect" interacial children.
J. P. Tongson, Lenexa senior, said he was upset when he heard people say they would date either exclusively within their race or exclusively outside.
"It doesn't really matter in the end," said Tongson, as long as people found someone who would treat them well.
However, Tongson did say it was probably easier to date within someone's own race because those couples usually had a lot more in common.
Yang's second activity divided the participants along gender lines and had each group write down everything "they heard or believed to be true" about the opposite sex in an Asian context.
By the end of the activity, which included plenty of laughter and friendly jabbing, the participants by and large wrote
Women wrote Asian men were stylish, short, hairless and owned their own restaurants.
down stereotypes of themselves.
Conversely, men wrote that Asian women possessed secret sex techniques, had difficult parents and were demanding.
"I didn't ask for stereotypes," said Yang as he referred to his original directions. "The easiest thing for us to do is pick on images. This is from us."
Yang said in all the years that he'd taught the workshop, without fail the lists were always flooded with negatives and stereotypes.
While no workshop holds all of the answers, Yang said, he wanted the participants to start analyzing how they viewed themselves and others within the Asian community.
"This stuff still speaks for itself," Yang said.
Edited by Joshua Richards
Student earns extra cash with Mary Kay
Continued from page 1A
Now, months after her big beginning. Thompson has slowed down her Mary Kay commitment quite a bit.
"I like to have an average of one to two skill classes a week," Thompson said. "That's only two to five hours per week."
Lara Kantack, Sioux Falls, S.D., freshman, laughs while applying her newly purchased Triple Action Lip Enhancer. Kantack said she liked the convenience of perusing and purchasing cosmetics from her dormmate at Lewis Hall. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
However, only five hours a week can mean big bucks in the makeup business.
"The company says that there's about a $200 average for a class." Thompson said. "That's the $200 in about an hour and a half."
Thompson didn't say how much money she averaged per skills class, but she did say that it was about the same amount that she makes working 15 to 20 hours a week at Applebee's Neighborhood Bar & Grill, 2520 Iowa St.
"It pays for my car, it helps with my tuition, and it certainly gets me spending money," Thompson said. "But I do it more on a hobby level, but some people make $50,000 a year."
Donna Leonard, Pittsburgh junior and a client of Thompson, said she wouldn't mind making money as a Mary Kay lady, but she works with Thompson at Applebee's.
"I felt like if I could have a good clientele, then I'd do it." Leonard said. "But she already took the people I work with, and I've got a cousin in Mary Kay, so there goes my family."
Besides the money, Thompson said another perk to the job was that she was her own boss.
"I enjoy it because I don't have any quatas, there's tax breaks for having your own business, and I can choose how many hours I want to work this week," Thompson said. "But the best part is not having to ask, 'Can I have time off to see my family?' "
Thompson also said that, that as an added bonus, the Mary Kay comp
ny had many incentive programs for its employees. One of the most well-known programs is one in which consultants can "earn" a pink Cadillac. However, Thompson said that she didn't want to be the typical Mary Kay lady driving around in a pink Cadillac just yet.
"I just bought a new car before I became a consultant," Thompson said. "So I'm not that interested in that vet."
"My next big goal is a trip to Disney World for me and my boyfriend. I'm still a baby in the business — I just want to have fun," she said.
Edited by Doug Pacey
By Melissa Bronnenberg
Art symposium to bring critics and enthusiasts
Special to the Kansan
Art enthusiasts and scholars from across the country will gather at an art history symposium tomorrow.
The symposium, "The Politics of Artmaking; Interrogating Power/Courting Authority," has been put together by graduate students in art history and will begin with breakfast at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow in the Spencer Museum of Art. The welcome address will be at 10 a.m.
The symposium is a collaboration between graduate students at the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Columbia. It is free and open to the public. Topics range from medieval cemeteries to contemporary photography.
The day will consist of sessions where students, professors, artists and historians present papers on art, followed by a question and answer period.
Rachel Buller, graduate research assistant, will moderate several sessions.
"We're expecting to hear some good papers and make contacts with other people in our field from around the country," Buller said.
Keynote speaker Joanna Frueh,
professor of art history at the
University of Nevada, Reno, will
speak on. "A History of Chocolate;
Inclusion Action Heroes and Fairy
Men." Her lecture is at 5:30 p.m. at
ART SYMPOSIUM
**What:** "The Politics of Artmaking: Interrogating Power/Courting Authority," a symposium organized by graduate students in art history, will begin at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Spencer Museum of Art. For a schedule of the weekend's events, go to www.ukans.edu/~hags/symposium2001.html
the museum auditorium
Sally Hayden, public relations coordinator for the museum, said that Fruch would sign copies of her new book, Monster/Beauty: Building the Body of Love, following her speech.
"Dr. Frueh is also an art critic, singer, poet, performance artist and bodybuilder," Hayden said. "She draws on these personal experiences in her book, challenging both feminist and conventional ideas of beauty."
Tammy Balducci and Elissa Anderson, graduate teaching assistants, are co-coordinators for the event. Anderson said that the two had been working on the symposium since last spring.
"This is a great opportunity to meet graduate students, professors of art history and artists in a nonthreatening environment." Anderson said.
Edited by Courtney Craigmile
Mechanized thought
John Gauch, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, looks over a test robot with Tom Schreiber, associate professor of psychology, and graduate students Deborah Eakin, Pine Mountain, Ga.; Brian Doyle, Olathe; and Jedrzek Miadowicz, Poland. Schreiber said the test robot would aid cognitive psychology researchers in an attempt to build a more lifelike robot. Photo by Laurie Sisk/KANSAN
KU team shoots for thinking robot within 10 years
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Schreiber, professor of cognitive psychology, and Frank Brown, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, have assembled a team of researchers to develop and build a robot that would perform some of the same cognitive processes as human beings.
It's the 21st century and robots still aren't walking down Massachusetts Street. But that might change if Tom Schreiber and his colleagues have their way.
The project, called Kansas University Cognitive Robotics Project (KUCRP), has been in brainstorming stages since 1997. Some preliminary production has begun on a test robot, which will pave the way for the actual robot in the years to come.
"We can outfit it with the sensory and actuation systems that resemble those of human beings," he said. "The robot itself is situated in a real rather than a virtual environment. It can actively gather information about its world and can even manipulate it."
The robot will be programmed to use the same cognitive processes that researchers believe humans use to complete everyday tasks, such as visually identifying and picking up objects.
"We seek to understand and to explore the nature of human intelligence by trying to simulate it using state-of-the-art technologies," Schreiber said. "Using a robot as a research tool is ideal."
The robot would allow researchers to study whether theories about human thought processes used to perform simple tasks are accurate. If the robot performed specified tasks, then researchers would know whether their theories regarding those thought processes were correct.
"There is no other type of device used for the purposes of studying and simulating human cognition that has these characteristics." Schreiber said.
Schreiber estimated a finished robot in five to 10 years — only if the project received the requested funding from academic and scientific institutions.
Completing the robot would require millions of dollars in funding from outside sources. Schreiber said the project has received some limited funding from the University but the project would need money.
Though the technology does exist to program and build the robot, Schreiber said current knowledge on human cognitive processes was lacking. He said psychologists didn't yet fully understand the cognitive processes in humans, which would make it difficult to program a robot to perform similar tasks.
He said because of the new terrain, institutions might hesitate before handing out sizable financial grants.
"Our endeavor also has a high degree of risk associated with it," Schreiber said. "There is a danger that we either cannot
fulfill what we have promised or that it will take much longer than calculated."
Schreiber is looking to students to help with the project, providing that funding continues to come in.
"Certainly, our learning environment provides an opportunity for students to learn not only about their own fields and closely-related ones but also about how a group of talented yet diverse people work
There are six members of the KUCRP team and all specialize in different areas.
together." Schreiber said.
During meetings each week, team members bring with them different ideas and approaches to the project. This creates some difficulties, but Schreiber said they did not outweigh the benefits of having a diverse group.
Some students, however, are skeptical of the team's ability to create such a high-tech robot.
"I really don't think they can do it," said Jason Crowther, Wichita junior and cognitive psychology student. "They can program them to act like they think and look like they think, but they won't think like humans, and they won't have other things, like ambition."
Even if building the robot is possible, Crowther said a robot that thought and acted like people could take way from human beings' sense of individuality and self-importance.
The group's diversity has earned praise from Beverly Davenport Sypher, associate dean of liberal arts and sciences.
Michelle Sudyka, Omaha, Neb., freshman, has different concerns. While she supports advances in scientists' understanding of humans, she doesn't want robots to become too powerful.
"It's kind of freaky," she said. "If it's not abused that it's good to understand humans. I don't want robots to overtake the world or anything."
Sudyka would like to see robots that can do things like help out around the house.
"More practical robots would be cool," Sudyka said. "If there was a robot that could clean the house efficiently and it didn't cost $20,000, then why not. We're not in the science fiction movies yet, and robots aren't attacking us."
-Edited by Matt Daugherty