Victoria Hou

Performative activism on Columbia’s campus has been discussed in the past. While Columbia, known as an “activist Ivy,” has students participating in pride parades and the Women’s March, many of them go just so they can take pictures and upload it onto their social media, declaring, “Look at me, I’m so woke.” Ariana Grande participates in the same performative activism. Even if students read this article and pretend to care for two minutes, I almost guarantee that they will ignore her behavior while cracking “thank u, next” jokes and listening to “7 Rings” in frat party basements.

There’s a Facebook group that’s taken the Asian community by storm. It’s called “subtle asian traits,” and if you’re an Asian American, Canadian, or another child of the Asian diaspora, you’ve probably heard of it by now. (And if you’re not Asian, you might have heard of it too.) The group essentially consists of memes, jokes, and shitposts usually written out in Pinyin or romanization of other Asian languages. A majority of the content is about food, the emoticon uwu, Pikachu, boba, and more food—often in the form of debates over the best kind of Asian noodle or the best boba chain. (There truly is a lot of food content.)

For my parents, an acceptance to Harvard would’ve been affirmation of their hard work in raising me—in a sense, the fulfillment of their American dream. Asian-American parents sending their child to a place that is often understood as the best university in the world—what better form of validation exists?

Last month, Spectator posted two opinion articles regarding the phenomenon of racial self-segregation on campus. One asked why such a phenomenon exists in such a diverse place like Columbia, and the other argued that people of color deserve to have specialized safe spaces, formal or informal, and shouldn’t need to perform emotional labor to diversify the Columbia community. Both are valid perspectives. But for a while, I’ve been thinking about this self-segregation problem as it pertains to my own experience—about how I don’t want to self-segregate despite actively doing so.

Once, in a conversation about libraries with a Chinese-American friend, I had mentioned that I liked the Science & Engineering Library, to which he snorted.

By all accounts, I am a typical success story.

Victoria Hou is a sophomore in Columbia College attempting to study political science and economics (like every other student at this school). Her claim to fame includes a few posts that reached over 1,000 likes on columbia buy sell memes and her being the reason why the class of 2021 got T-shirts at the New Student Orientation Program. To all sophomores: You’re welcome. H Mart keeps her sane, but trips down to Koreatown and Chinatown keep her happy. You can find her pretending to study in Ref, likely on Facebook and ranting about Asian American issues. You can also send questions, secret admirer notes, and hate mail at vh2279@columbia.edu. Chop Suey runs alternate Mondays.

I did not want to spend Chinese New Year thinking about the belittlement of Asian women in Western culture. But on February 16—this year’s Lunar New Year—Tyga released a new album titled Kyoto. Upon listening, most of the tracks seemed like nothing unusual; it featured songs like “I Need a Girl, Pt. 3” that discuss, as the title suggests, the desire for a partner. However, when I listened to “Hot Soup,” the first lyrics were in a language I know like the back of my hand—Mandarin Chinese.

For better or for worse, the Tree Lighting Ceremony is one of Columbia’s only school traditions that people attend. And the only reason people even show up is because of the T-shirt giveaways at the event. School spirit? Who is she? Apparently, Columbia students just want free stuff for the sake of hoarding, not because we actually love our school. The event ran out of T-shirts—fast—and many students walked away empty-handed and bitter. I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t admit to feeling the same.