Brown University Pre-College Leadership Institute — Social Change & Leadership - Community Social Issue Project 2024

Project Topic: The Misrepresentation of Chinese Culture: A Youth Perspective on Anti-Asian Racism and Cultural Identity

Download Action Plan Report | Presentation Video 

PROJECT BACKGROUND
At Brown’s Leadership & Social Change program, I focused on a problem I felt close to: a spike in anti-Asian bias and how little many peers knew about Asian cultures. I didn’t want another abstract paper; I wanted a plan people could use. With guidance from a Brown mentor, I did independent research—researching about the rising anti-Asian racism and reviewing possible school-based interventions and communicating informally with classmates and teachers about what they were seeing. The pattern was clear: misinformation, shallow representation, and few structured chances for positive contact with my culture. From that analysis, I built a ready-to-launch action plan.

It outlines a semester of low-cost, high-engagement modules—calligraphy and other realistic and fun workshops, foodways and language mini-lessons—paired with outreach scripts for social media, and reflection prompts for improvements. To make the case, I produced an impact presentation video; to make it actionable, I also wrote an implementation report with budget templates, roles, timelines, and risk-mitigation steps for sustainability. I left with tangible tools and a concrete feasible plan that any student team can adopt immediately. This project matters to me because it turns such a large social issue into structured learning opportunities. It offers anyone a practical, replicable path schools and communities can use to reduce bias and strengthen cross-cultural understanding of not just my culture but all cultures as well.

PROJECT DETAILS

• Investigated anti-Asian hate as a case study and engaged with students and teachers to uncover systemic gaps—not only in anti-Asian bias but in broader multicultural inclusion issues such as misinformation, one-dimensional representation, and limited structured opportunities for cross-cultural connection.
• Building a plug-and-play toolkit and implementation guide with lesson outlines, outreach scripts, reflection prompts, and timelines for easy adoption and adaptation across multiple cultures.
• Developed a launch-ready semester plan featuring hands-on workshops, micro language lessons, and reflection circles to promote meaningful cross-cultural engagement and understanding.
• Engineering materials that enable any student team to run inclusive programming immediately, with built-in flexibility for different cultural focuses (e.g., Asian traditions, foodways, and crafts such as calligraphy and knot-tying).
• Produced an impact video and authored an implementation guide (including budgets, roles, timelines, and simple risk checks) to support sustainable, low-barrier rollout.
• Packaged and prepared for future deployment by me or other student organizations—positioned to reduce bias and advance multicultural representation; rollout pending.