CURRENT MISSION

Pushing the rock

ABOUT ME

Hi traveler!

[boring academic paragraph]
M name is Alvin and I am a 4th year History and Asian American Studies double major, Asian Languages minor at UCLA. I am working on my senior honors thesis which explores the roles of various themes including gender, physical and mental disabilities, and being Francophone on the class status of both the maternal and paternal sides of my family and their decision making processes both before and after the Fall of Sài Gòn.

[slightly more fun paragraph]
Outside of academics, I participate in grassroots community work and activism, reading, spoken word and FOOD. I plan to teach English in Việt Nam for 1-2 years before pursuing a Master's in Library Science with a view of going into either public or academic librarianship. I am passionate about digital literacy across the ages and making sure people of all generations understand the concepts needed to use different technology to their desire.

PHILOSOPHY

Sisyphean rock pushing; Absurdism
agnostic
reader response criticism
filial piety

Interests

Non-academic interests
- eating
- reading
- spoken word
- language learning
- playing sports: basketball, tennis, table tennis, racquetball, badminton
- watching and following (reading about) sports: NBA (Kings), EPL (Chelsea FC and England national team), MLB (Angels), Tennis, Golf, Grantland (all hail Bill Simmons)

Academic interests
- Social history: Oral and public histories (especially of Los Angeles and its suburbs)
- Asian American interracial dynamics and intraracial panethnicity (especially in relation to political issues such as affirmative action in higher education and immigration)
- History and syncretism of Asian religions/beliefs (“the Three Teachings” of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism) in Asian American populations
- Digital literacy instruction across all ages
- Vietnamese poetry and literature of the Tự Lực Văn Đoàn ("Self-Strengthening literary group")

• literature
• poetry
• education
• dining
• technology
• reading
• spoken word
• buddhist
• sports
• basketball
• tennis
• racquetball
• table tennis
• golf
• badminton
• teaching
• history
• languages
• religion
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: 12 Angry Men, A Hard Day's Night, James Bond series (all), Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Up by Pixar, Singin' in the Rain, City Lights (Chaplin), Dr. Strangelove, WarGames, Gattaca, La Boum, Ip Man 1 & 2, Battle Royale, Breathless (À bout de souffle), Paris, je t'aime
Music: The Beatles, ABBA, Weezer, The Beach Boys, Herman's Hermits, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Nujabes, Chuck Mangione, Michael Bublé, straight-ahead jazz, trance, nightcore
Fiction: Sherlock Holmes Stories, Jeeves Stories (Wodehouse), L'Étranger/The Stranger, The New York Trilogy, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Around the World in Eighty Days, Cannery Row, This Side of Paradise, Ender's Game, 84 Charing Cross Road, Siddhartha, Redwall Series, Lucky Jim
Non-fiction: The Sociological Imagination (C. Wright Mills), Racism without Racists (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva), 84 Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Studying abroad in Việt Nam for 5 months. Absolutely incredible experience and got to visit many of the major cities (Hà Nội, Huế, Đà Nẵng, Hội An, Nha Trang, Đà Lạt, Sài Gòn and Cần Thơ) and wonders (Sa Pa and Hà Long Bay).

Teach, Learn, Share

See research interests :P. Interested in dialogues where I can learn more both in academic terms and non-academic life experiences.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, England, France, Mexico, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, United States, Viet Nam