Awkwafina, Henry Golding, Chanel Miller make Time's list of most influential people

ASAM NEWS &

VIEWS FROM THE EDGE

Time Magazine's top 100 list, Time 100 Next, that spotlights 100 rising stars who are shaping the future of business, entertainment, sports, politics, science, health and more includes 21 people of Asian descent from actress Awkwafina to 23-year old physicist Yuen Cao.

Among the Asian Americans named in the Time 100 Next list are actress Awkwafina of The Farewell, Bowen Yang of Saturday Night Live and Chanel Miller, a woman who went public about being sexually assaulted on the Stanford campus.

About Awkwafina, Sandra Oh wrote “I cannot express how pleased I am to see her meteoric rise. I’m not surprised because she is a complete original. There are so many things I can point to: Her timing. Her beautiful, melancholic face. And her unforgettable voice.”

Bowen Yang has been described as a potential breakout star on SNL. UPROXX wrote “he’s managed to accomplish some nearly impossible feats in his short time in front of the camera. He’s given us polished impersonations of world leaders and presidential candidates, he’s perfectly encapsulated the kind of woke bro who aspires to be a SoulCycle instructor, and he’s introduced us to China’s “Trade Daddy.”

Chanel Miller has been praised for her courage for coming forward publicly about being sexually assaulted on the Stanford campus. Known only as Emily Doe during the trial of Brock Turner, her book "Know My Name" has been her coming out. Goodreads says with her book, she “reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words… But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios.”

Amanda Nguyen is a survivor of rape who has turned her horrendous experience into a force for positive change. The group she founded, Rise, has passed 25 state and federal laws, protecting DNA evidence gathered from rape kits that have been credited with numerous prosecutions. She is also a 2018 Nobel Prize nominee.

Vijay Gupta uses his musical talents to help the homeless. He quit the Los Angeles Philharmonic where he worked as a violinist to teach music at homeless shelters and prisons. He is also a MacArthur Genius Fellow.

Varshini Prakash serves as executive director of the Sunrise Movement. Washington Governor Jay Inslee called her and her organization “some of the greatest sources for hope in our fight against the climate crisis.”

Alyssa Liu is a rising star in the ice skating world. At age 13, she became the youngest US Women’s Figure Skating champion in the world. Michelle Kwan said her quad lux “is pushing the technical envelope, and there’s no slowing down.”

Edward Leung was arrested last year and even though he's in jail, the 28-year-oldhas become the spiritual leader of the Hong Kong's months-long unrest. He coined the protestor's favorite chant, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.”

Dutee Chand  in July became the first Indian sprinter to win the 100-m at the World University Games. This year, she became the first openly gay athlete in India. Her next goal is the 2020 Olympics.

Roya Rahmani is Afghanistan's first female envoy to the U.S. in 2018. Her ambassadorial appointment was also a message to the Taliban, of which she says, "are not our representatives.” Ending the war “should be decided by the people who are most affected by this process.”

Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's current Environmental Minister, is only 28-years old but he's poised to become the country's next Prime Minister when Shinzo Abe steps down.

Nite Yun is a Cambodian American “changing America’s relationship to Cambodia, one exquisite dish at a time,” said Samin Nosrat, a chef, author and host of Netflix’s Salt Fat Acid Heat. Her restaurant in Oakland, CA, Nyum Bai, has quickly made a name for itself a year after opening.

Blackpink is K-po'ss next big thing.

Blackpink became the first K-pop girl group to perform at Coachella. While BTS is better known, the four-woman group has 31-million fiercely loyal social media followers. The group’s goal, they say, is to make music that helps listeners gain “confidence and boldness.”

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit's year-old Future Forward Party gained 17% of Thailand's Parliament. The billionaire scion of a car-parts empire has energized young Thais who are eagar to loosen the grip of the country's military rulers.

Mei Mei Hu is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. Her company United Neuroscience is working on a vaccine to help the immune system produce antibodies to fight off these degenerative diseases.

Henry Golding catapulted onto the world stage with Crazy Rich Asians. He is now attained leading man status, especially noteworthy for Asian males. Michelle Yeoh calls him the perfect son.

Lilly Singh has turned her YouTube fame into her own show on NBC’s late night line up. As Jimmy Fallon wrote, ” You don’t rack up millions of fans all over the world without being someone people can relate to.”

Yuen Cao, a 23-year old physicist, investigating what happens when two layers of graphene—a crystalline form of carbon, each just one atom thick—are laid atop each other. He discovered that if you twist the sheet, it forms great insulation. Twist it another way, it becomes an electricity superconductor with zero resistance.

Varun Sivaram, an energy innovator, he is chief technology officer of ReNew Power, India’s largest renewable-energy company, where he works to accelerate the expansion of renewables in a country critical to global efforts to stem climate change.

Kotchakorn Voraakhom, a landscape architect who designed Bangkok's first public park in a decade which is capable of absorbing one-million gallons of water to help control the flooding that inundates the city every year. She is in the process of designing a larger park that will include Asia's largest green roof 

Jayathma Wickramanayake, a Sri Lankan, was appointed the United Nations’ Envoy on Youth in 2017—and the U.N. announced Youth 2030, a strategy to involve young people in U.N. initiatives and strengthen the organization’s focus on their needs, including sustainable development and economic empowerment. “

______________________________________________________________________

Stanford sexual assault victim releases short film

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

Chanel Miller illustrated the animated short film 'I Am With You.'

On the same day that her memoir was released, sexual assault victim Chanel Miller and her publisher released a short animated film on Youtube summarizing the ordeal she underwent.

“When you are assaulted, an identity is given to you. It threatens to swallow up everything you plan to do and be. I became Emily Doe,” Miller says in a voice-over as animations drawn by her appear on screen. “Assault teaches you to shrink, makes you afraid to exist. Shame, really, can kill you.”

The Chinese American woman was raped by a white man on the Stanford campus in 2015. At the time, she was assigned a pseudonym Emily Doe to avoid identifying her as a victim. It wasn't until earlier this month that her true identity was revealed.

Miller wrote, illustrated and narrates the short titled “I Am With You” which was released in conjunction with the release of her memoir “Know My Name,” published by Viking Press.

At the end of the short film, she offers an affirmation: “Nobody wants to be defined by the worst thing that’s happened to them. No one gets to define you. You do. You do. My name is Chanel, and I am with you.”

_________________________________________________________________________

Rape victim on '60 Minutes:' Now -- everybody knows her name

SCREEN CAPTURE / CBS

Chanel Miller is interviewed by Bill Whitaker on '60 Minutes.'

ASAM NEWS & VIEWS FROM THE EDGE

For years, she was only known as Emily Doe, a pseudonym  for the victim raped on the Stanford University campus. Last night on national television, the victim spoke out as Chanel Miller.

In the half-hour interview with Bill Whitaker on 60 Minutes that was aired Sunday (Sept. 22), Miller, whose mother is Chinese, recounted her ordeal from the night she was assaulted in 2015, the trial and her ongoing recovery.

Miller woke up in a hospital after blacking out at a fraternity party at Stanford not knowing what had happened to her. She admits she had drank a mixture of vodka, whiskey and champagne. She was unconscious during the attack.

Doctors examined the Asian American victim and told her she had been sexually assaulted. After her release from the hospital, Miller decided not to tell anybody, including her parents, until more details were unveiled. It took days before the story popped up on her social media news feed.

“In order to survive, you just shut everything down. You have to function. You have to go to work in the morning. So it’s much easier to just repress everything,” she told Whitaker.

“Yes. It was surreal having the news broken to me by the Internet. I was alone, sitting at my desk, surrounded by coworkers, reading about how I was stripped and then penetrated and discarded in a bed of pine needles behind a dumpster. And that’s how I figured out all of those elements. And they all added up. And I finally understood,” said the 26-year old author.

She acknowledges she had too much to drink, but doesn’t back down to those who may feel she had it coming.

“Rape is not a punishment for getting drunk," the Asian American writer told  Whitaker. "And we have this really sick mindset in our culture, as if you deserve rape if you drink to excess. You deserve a hangover, a really bad hangover, but you don’t deserve to have somebody insert their body parts inside of you.”

During the trial, Turner's lawyers portrayed their client as a star athlete, a potential Olympic swimmer whose life would be ruined if convicted. Upon conviction, Turner's father said his son should not have to go to prison for “20 minutes of action.”

During the sentencing portion of the trail, Miller was able to confront Brock in her statement in court. Her powerful hour-long testimony was published by Buzzfeed and it went viral as a statement in behalf of sexual assault victims around the world.

During the 60 Minutes interview, Miller read part of that testimony: "I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity. To relearn that this is not all that I am. That I am not just a drunk victim at a frat party found behind a dumpster, while you are the All­ American swimmer at a top university, innocent until proven guilty, with so much at stake. I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt, my life was put on hold for over a year, waiting to figure out if I was worth something."

Brock Turner received six months in jail for sexual assault. He was released  after serving  only three months. The nation reacted with outrage to the high-profile case's light sentencing. Two years later, Judge Aaron Persky would be recalled by 60 percent of the vote.

Miller, who graduated from UC-Santa Barbara, wrote about her experience in a book due out Tuesday, (Sept. 24) by Viking Books, entitled "Know My Name."

Below is a portion of the 60 Minutes report. For the entire segment, click here.

Finally, Miller, concluded her victim's statement with a message to assault victims everywhere:

"And finally, to girls everywhere, I am with you. On nights when you feel alone, I am with you. When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you. I fought everyday for you. So never stop fighting, I believe you. As the author Anne Lamott once wrote, 'Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.' Although I can’t save every boat, I hope that by speaking today, you absorbed a small amount of light, a small knowing that you can’t be silenced, a small satisfaction that justice was served, a small assurance that we are getting somewhere, and a big, big knowing that you are important, unquestionably, you are untouchable, you are beautiful, you are to be valued, respected, undeniably, every minute of every day, you are powerful and nobody can take that away from you. To girls everywhere, I am with you."

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) or visit hotline.rainn.org/onlineand receive confidential support.
_____________________________________________________________________

Asian American victim in Stanford sexual assault identifies herself

CBS NEWS

Chanel Miller wants to reclaim the narrative of the sexual assault.

The Asian American woman, a victim of a sexual assault on the Stanford Campus three years ago, known for years only as Emily Doe, has revealed her identity.

Chanel Miller, who was unconscious during the assault, will appear on a segment in 60 Minutes on Sept. 22 prior to the release of her memoir, "Know My Name." It is the first time the Vietnamese American has allowed her face to be seen by the public and agreed to a live interview.

Turner was discovered on top of the victim behind a dumpster by two graduate students from Sweden. When he ran away, the pair chased him down and detained him until police arrived.

In 2016, Stanford swimmer the then-21-year old Turner was convicted of sexually assaulting Miller outside of a fraternity party in 2015. He was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault, a conviction that could have landed him a 14-year prison sentence. Instead, the case’s judge, Aaron Persky gave Turner six months in jail. He was released after three months.

The judge believed that Turner showed remorse, despite Turner refusing to admit he had sexually assaulted Miller, according to The Huffington Post. Persky said he thought Turner would “not be a danger to others” and expressed concern that “a prison sentence would have a severe impact” on him.

The public outrage in reaction to the lenient sentence led to Persky being recalled and ousted from the bench.

At Brock's sentencing, Miller read her powerful 7,000 word statement. It was published by Buzzfeed and  it has been read by millions. It starts. Eighteen congresswomen read the statement aloud in the House of Representatives to bring attention to sexual assault.

Since the arrest and during the trial and the obscene sentence toTurner eventual release from jail, the focus has been on the rapist.

With the release of her memoir, Miller wants to reclaim the narrative. 

“You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me,” Miller reads from her statement in the 60 Minutes clip released today (Sept. 4). “In newspapers, my name was ‘unconscious, intoxicated woman.’ Ten syllables, and nothing more than that. I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity. To relearn that this is not all that I am.”

That's also how she began her statement at Turner's sentencing while looking directly at her attacker.

Here's the 60 Minutes clip released today:

“I just remember being in my kitchen and reading this incredible, riveting piece of work,” Andrea Schulz, the editor-in-chief of Viking, the book’s publisher, told the New York Times. 

“I jumped out of my chair to acquire it, because it was just obvious to me from the beginning what she had to say and how different it was and how extraordinarily well she was going to say it,” Schulz said. “She had the brain and the voice of a writer from the very beginning, even in that situation.”

Miller has been writing the book since 2017, reports the NY Times, but since then has expanded the theme to include the conversations generated by the #MeToo movement.

According to a New York Times exclusive, Miller eventually graduated from UC Santra Barbara and living in San Francisco as an artist and writer.

___________________________________________________________________