Mountains and Stories: Introducing the New Season with Dr. Xiumei Pu May 29. 2021 SPEAKERS Xiumei Pu, Brent Olson 00:00 [Intro Music: Home by Pixie and the Party Grass Boys] Brent Olson 00:08 Hi, everyone, it's been a year. We've been on a pretty long hiatus with the mountain stories podcast, and we're excited to be back and excited to be sharing stories of peoples’ connections to the mountains with you again. My name is Brent Olson, along with Jeff Nichols, I'm one of the directors of the Institute for Mountain Research here at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. The goal of our institute is to think deeply about how people engage with the mountains, to connect people to those mountains, and to share the stories of people who live, work, and play in the mountains around the world. As part of that mission, over the last eight months, I've had the chance to work with Dr. Xiumei Pu on her project “mountains and stories, building community among Asian refugees and immigrants”. Brent Olson 00:53 We've sat down and talked with a cohort of storytellers about their experience moving to the Salt Lake Valley, living in the Salt Lake Valley, and the ways that they've connected to the people here, maintain connections to folks back in Asia and the Pacific Islands, and to the Wasatch Mountains. So, over the next five months, we'll be hearing from these people, we share these conversations, we'll let these people tell their stories in their own words. But first, today, we're really happy to have Dr. Xiumei Pu tell us about her inspiration for the project, what she hopes you learn from hearing these stories, and what this project means for her. So, Dr. Pu, thank you for inviting us to collaborate, and we're excited to hear more. Xiumei Pu 01:53 My name is Xiumei Pu. I teach environmental humanities at Westminster College. The project brings together a cohort of storytellers to create a podcast series. Each episode features the storytellers’ unique identities, experiences and stories living in the valley. The storytellers come from a range of age groups, occupations, and ethnicities. The youngest storyteller is a new graduate from elementary school, and the oldest is a grandmother. In the cohort are student, rescue diver, crisis responder, lion dance performer, urban planner, cultural advocate, and employees for local government and non-government organizations. Some of the story tellers are born and grew up in the valley, but many of them are born in another country and immigrated to the US at a young age. They have cultural roots in diverse ethnicities. Chinese, Nepalese, Limbu, Pashtun, Tagalog, and more. Xiumei Pu 03:24 Their stories show incredible cultural richness, resilience, and the contributions of the Asian communities. I hope those stories resonate with audiences in some way, open up possibilities for better understanding of the diversity in the Asian community in particular and in Utah in general, and possibilities for imagining and creating social and environmental spaces that can hold more diversity. Xiumei Pu 04:05 As part of this project, there will be two public events for storytellers to connect with one another and the broader community. The first public event is scheduled for June 26, the Saturday following World Refugee Day. It will be held at Fitts Park, a city park in South Salt Lake City, where many Asian refugee and immigrant families live. The event is partnered with Promise South Salt Lake and OCA Utah. We will invite the storytellers, their families and friends, representatives from community organizations who work with Asian refugees and immigrants, and anyone else who is interested. We will enjoy a lion dance blessing ceremony, stories and conversations, and Asian food by women chefs who came to Utah as refugees or immigrants. The hike-and-picnic is scheduled for the National Immigrants Day weekend in October. Xiumei Pu 05:31 It will be another community-building opportunity for the storytellers to reconnect with one another, meet more people, connect with the mountains, reflect on the project, and talk about potential ways of staying connected into the future. That's about the project. I'm very excited about it. Xiumei Pu 06:07 I am going to share with you my personal background, because I think that's really important and that's what has led me to this project. I was born and grew up in a village in the southwest of Sichuan Basin. The name of the village was you yi cun, which translates into "Friendship Village." The name has changed to shun he cun, which translates into "Riverside Village." If you go to the website and google the village’s name and zoom in to the scale of 1000 feet, you will be able to see a tiny dot on the map, on a kind of spider web of rivers and mountains and human settlements. That is my birthplace, which is really really important to me. And I think it is a great motivator for this project as well. Xiumei Pu 07:34 Mountains have been part of who I am since an early age. The story I repeatedly heard from my grandmother and my mother was that I am... I'm going to speak the local dialect. I am da e shan tong. Tong is the word for “child'' in the local dialect. Da e shan are the words for “Mount Emei'' in the local dialect. So the entire expression can be translated into “child of Mount Emei.” That was me, that was the story I heard repeatedly from my grandmother and my mother. Xiumei Pu 08:43 So mountains are my original home, my spiritual home and part of my identity, and who I am. Knowing that is really really important for me, because that helps me to stay grounded when I feel very disoriented in places where I am either a newcomer or a foreigner. Xiumei Pu 09:17 I came to the US about 16 years ago to pursue graduate studies in women's studies. I have lived here for about 16 years now, although I did travel back and forth between China and the US. But all these years living in the US have not been very easy. One of the big challenges for me is to learn new things and adapt to new environments while staying connected with my people, relatives, siblings, parents back in China, and trying my best not forgetting my first language, not forgetting the stories my mom and my grandmother and other people told me, and the knowledge I have learned over there. Xiumei Pu 10:29 Those things have shaped who I am, and I don't want to forget that. But sometimes it's a great challenge to maintain that connection. Another big challenge for me is to stay connected with the Chinese community living here. Yeah, those are my two big challenges of my life living as a foreigner in American soil. Xiumei Pu 11:13 So the idea of storytelling to create a space where we can share our experiences and tell stories and stay connected with each other started a few years ago, at a dinner table. I remember I was invited to a friend's home to celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival. There I met a family who came from Vietnam to the US as refugees. I was really struck by the stories they shared with us at the dinner table. And I thought to myself, "more people should hear these stories. Right? More people should hear their stories, so people know that Asians are not just numbers or data in the US Census or the supermarket on State Street." But, the idea was moved to the backburner because I am a full time assistant professor, have a lot of teaching responsibilities, and I was also working on a book project at that time. So it kind of faded into the background. About two years ago, the idea surfaced again when the Dean asked me if I was interested in proposing a public humanities engagement project for the Whiting Seed Grant. Xiumei Pu 13:17 I thought about it, and finally, I sat down to write this proposal which has evolved into the project we're doing today. And I hope the project creates that space where we share stories and form a sense of community. In the humanities we often say that you write yourself into existence, right? The idea of this project is that we speak ourselves into existence...right?...by telling stories and sharing experiences. Stories and mountain stories are not just words spit out from our mouths, right? Mountains and stories are, I think, the expressions of our memories. They are the very evidence of our existence. I also often imagine stories to be the cultural conditioner like the soil conditioner humus, right? They bear our memories and experiences. Xiumei Pu 14:52 If they're not told, they... I don't know... they existed, but they won't come to our consciousness...right...and they cannot be returned to the cultural life cycle to sustain us and continue to nourish us. They are so important and they function as connections between home places in another country or in other locations and this new mountain environment in so many ways. Xiumei Pu 15:48 Most of the storytellers speak another language. English is not their first language, so, listeners will hear accents, will hear grammatical mistakes. I hope this will be an opportunity for listeners to honor and appreciate the accents and grammatical mistakes... yeah, as well as, I think... recognize Asians as individuals, appreciate them as individuals. Not just a blurry mass, or some stereotypes represented in movies like Crazy Rich Asians, or Kung Fu fighters. Xiumei Pu 17:11 I really hope that the stories resonate with audiences whether they are part of the Asian community or outside of the community or somewhere in between. I think there is a great opportunity for audiences to develop a better understanding of what the Asian community really is, how diverse it is. Many storytellers mention the assets people of the Asian community have. I think the podcast is an opportunity to know the work they are doing and how they contribute to the health and well being of American society, as well as, you know, the place. Many storytellers are bilingual or multilingual. I hope audiences become aware of the diversity of languages in the valley here. Xiumei Pu 18:45 Storytellers share with us, you know, not just their struggles and the challenges but also their efforts, their dedication, their work making the valley a better place to live, a more diverse place to live. I'm very impressed by the kinds of work they have been doing. For example, as I mentioned before, we have rescue diver, we have crisis responder, we have cultural advocate, we have people who work for local government and non-government organizations to diversify the social landscapes here, and I truly appreciate that. The storytellers have changed my understanding of the social landscape in Salt Lake Valley. I'm a relatively newcomer to Salt Lake Valley. I have only lived here for five years. But some of them, storytellers, have lived here for three generations. So they know the place a lot better. Xiumei Pu 20:31 Before I came to Utah, my understanding of this place was very limited. I know...you know...it's a country of red rocks, and there is the Great Salt Lake and the LDS community. I didn't hear much conversations and talks about diversity, how diverse actually the place is. And I gradually started to notice...you know...the diversity in this place by going to grocery stores on State Street, where the Asian supermarket is, so it is just the place that has...you know...many grocery stores and restaurants. A pan-Asian place. We have Japanese restaurants, Korean bakery, Chinese restaurants, Vietnamese restaurants, and grocery stores there. So I began to notice the diversity of the community there. Xiumei Pu 21:59 And I think this cohort of storytellers have testified to the diversity. Not just...you know...Asian people are owning restaurants and running grocery stores, but they're doing so much more...right?...yeah... I think...they work in every sector of the job market here. Totally changed my very limited view of Utah and my very limited view of diversity in the valley. Xiumei Pu 22:49 And before this project, I didn't see many Asians recreating in the mountains where I often go for day hikes. But through this project, I got to know that the Asian community actually engages with all kinds of outdoor activities like gardening, hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, fishing...right?... and running. All sorts of sports, and also camping. Yeah, I was really, really impressed. And I'm really happy to know that...you know...the Asian community is doing great things...yeah...at the same time...we also enjoy the natural beauty of this space. The efforts to increase diversity have started from the grassroots here. I think, in the mainstream narrative we often hear that people from outside of the community is delivering help...right?... to the community, and oftentimes, refugees and immigrants, no matter how long they have lived here and how many generations they have lived here, Xiumei Pu 24:52 they are still misunderstood as people who steal jobs, people who are dependent on social welfare, they are public charges, they need a lot of help. The storytellers in this series totally deconstruct that mythology about Asian refugees and immigrants, and any refugees and immigrants in general, beyond the Asian community. The assets they have, the contributions they have made, their commitment to the education of their younger generation, and their commitment to...you know...social well being. Not just for themselves, but also for American culture in general. I think, if a culture is more diverse, it is healthier. It has a better chance of flourishing. Xiumei Pu 26:27 This collective endeavor would not be possible without the support of an amazing group of organizations and individuals. Many thanks to Promise South Salt Lake, OCA Utah, and the Institute for Mountain Research. My deepest gratitude for the cohort of the storytellers whose names and stories you will know when the podcast series rolls out from May to October. Xiumei Pu 27:05 My greatest appreciation for the support of the Promise South Salt Lake team-- Kelli Meranda, Domoina Kendell, Bonnie Owens, Edward Lopez, the podcast and the documentary team--Brent Olson, Erin Coleman Serrano, Marina McTee, and Natalie Boren. Xiumei Pu 27:31 The community outreach coordinators, Emilio Manuel Camu and Prashanti Limbu. Xiumei Pu 27:39 Many people from outside and within Westminster College have also supported the project in one way or another. Stephen Rachman, Lance Newman, Jeff Nichols, Jeff Driggs, Christy Clay, Mary Alley, Arikka Von, Gwendelyn Salazar, Emily Swanson, and many more. Thank you all. Xiumei Pu 28:08 And thanks to the Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Programs for supporting the project with a Public Engagement Seed Grant. Last but not least, my deepest gratitude to the mountains here, and the Salt Lake Valley where we live, work and play. Xiumei Pu 28:32 And I would like to acknowledge that this project is taking place on the ancestral and traditional lands of the Goshute, Shoshone and Ute peoples. Brent Olson 29:14 We are really excited for you to hear the stories of these amazing people. We'll start next week with Zee who is the director of the Salt Lake County Mayor's Office for New Americans. Her story is really amazing. It's super fascinating. And we can't wait to share all of these stories with you. Thanks for joining us, thanks to Westminster College, thanks to the Wasatch Mountains, and thanks to Pixie and the Party Grass Boys. See you next week. 29:38 [Outro Music: Home by Pixie and the Party Grass Boys] Transcribed by https://otter.ai