Asian Descent Archives - Page 27 of 29

Thung Sin Nio

Betsy Thung Sin Nio was an Indonesian-Dutch women’s rights activist, medical doctor, economist and politician. As the daughter of a wealthy and progressive Peranakan family of the Cabang Atas gentry in Batavia, she was encouraged to pursue education, which was unusual for Indonesian women at the time. After completing high school, she earned her qualifications as a bookkeeper, but became a teacher instead because social norms prevented women from doing office work. In 1924 Thung enrolled at the Netherlands School of Business in Rotterdam to study economics, then went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics. She enrolled at the University of Amsterdam in 1932 to pursue her medical studies.
During that time, Thung met Dutch physician and suffragist Aletta Jacobs, who encouraged her to become involved in the Dutch women’s movement and the Association for Women’s Interests and Equal Citizenship. Thung became an activist for improving the socio-economic and civil status of women, writing articles for feminist journals in both the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. After completing her medical degree in 1938, Thung returned to Batavia and opened a medical practice focusing on the health of women and children. She continued her feminist activism and fought for women’s suffrage; when the government proposed that only European women be given the rights to vote and stand in elections, Thung successfully campaigned for voting rights for educated women regardless of their race.
During World War II, she maintained her private practice, volunteered at a local public hospital and opened a private hospital to treat European patients. After the war ended, she became a medical officer for the Jakarta school system and entered local politics. She was elected as the first woman member of the Municipal Council of Jakarta in 1949, representing the Persatuan Tionghoa. From 1949 to 1965, she traveled abroad on numerous occasions on behalf of her country, including serving as a translator for trade delegations and as an economist on fact-finding missions to Russia and China. Following Indonesia’s 1965 coup d’état and the shift away from communism, she was released from government work. In 1968, when assimilationist policies were introduced to force Chinese citizens to take Indonesian names, Thung permanently immigrated to the Netherlands, where she continued to work as a physician.

Shima

Known as a just and wise ruler, Shima was the queen regnant of the 7th-century kingdom of Kalingga on the northern coast of Central Java circa 674 CE.
Reported to be strict in the area of law and order, she introduced a law against stealing to encourage her people to be honest. The harsh punishment for stealing was to lose one of both of their hands. No one was exempt from the laws, including members of the court. According to tradition, a foreign king placed a bag full of gold on a busy intersection in Kalingga to test the famed truthfulness and honesty of Kalingga people. No one dared to touch a bag that did not belong to them, until three years later Shima’s son, the crown prince accidentally touched the bag with his feet. The queen reportedly issued a death sentence to her own son, but was convinced to change her mind by a minister that appealed to the queen to spare the prince’s life. Instead, he argued that because it was prince’s foot that touched the bag of gold, it was the foot that must be punished through mutilation, resulting in his toes being cut off. Though strict, Shima was also reportedly beloved by her people, from the court to the commoners. Under her rule, her people also had extensive trade and sharing of knowledge with those from other lands. She also reportedly developed subak, the water management (irrigation) system for paddy fields on Bali island.

Shya Chitaley

Shyamala “Shya” Chitaley was an Indian-American paleobotanist. Her early 60-year career of teaching and research in both the United States and India including being the founder and first curator of the paleobotany department at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, winning the 2010 Botanical Society of America Award for Contributions to Paleobotany, and authoring approximately 150 publications.

Yu Gwansun

An important figure in organising the March 1st Movement against the Japanese colonial rule in Korea, Yu Gwansun became a symbol of her country’s fight for independence through peaceful protest. Often called “Korea’s Joan of Arc”, Yu was only 17 when she was arrested by Japanese police during an independence demonstration in 1919. Both of her parents were killed at the demonstration.
Sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, she continued to fight for Korean independence in jail, which led to beatings and other forms of torture at the hands of Japanese officers. A year later, she died in prison at age 18, reportedly as the result of the torture. She was posthumously awarded the Order of Independence Merit, which is awarded for “outstanding meritorious services in the interest of founding or laying a foundation for the Republic of Korea” in 1962.

Kartini

Kartini was an Indonesian national hero, a pioneer in the area of education for girls and women’s rights for Indonesians. Her birthday is celebrated as Kartini Day in Indonesia.
Born into an aristocratic Javanese family in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), she attended a Dutch-language primary school. She aspired to further education but there was no opportunity available to girls in Javanese society.
Kartini wrote letters about her ideas and feelings, and they were published in a Dutch magazine and later as Out of Darkness to Light, Women’s Life in the Village, and Letters of a Javanese Princess. Although she died at only 25, her advocacy for the education of girls was continued by her sisters. Kartini Schools in Bogor, Jakarta, and Malang were named for her and a fund established in her name to support the education of girls.

Aparna Nancherla

Aparna Nancherla is an American comedian and actor who has appeared on Inside Amy Schumer and has written for Late Night with Seth Meyers and Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. Nancherla released her debut comedy album Just Putting It Out There through Tig Notaro’s Bentzen Ball Records on July 8, 2016. Her credits also include several web series, such as Your Main Thing with John Early. She co-created and starred in Womanhood, a satirical advice series with comedian Jo Firestone.
In 2019 Aparna was featured in Laughing Matters, a-30 minute YouTube documentary, in which various comedians discuss mental health.

Sun Weishi

Sun Weishi was the first female director of modern spoken drama (Huaju) in China. Sun was a rival of Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, with an enmity between the two that lasted throughout Sun’s life until her ultimate death at Jiang’s hands.

Mina Shum

Mina Shum is the writer and director of award-winning feature films and several short films. In addition to using a comedic approach to depict the Chinese-Canadian family in multicultural Canada, she often features ironic, discontented young women who want to leave home for something better. She had also created site-specific installations and theatre experiences. Her first feature-length film, Double Happiness, was released in 1994 and won several awards including the Wolfgang Staudte Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema, and Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Shum’s second feature film, Drive, She Said, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1997 and was in official competition at the Turin Delle Donne Film Festival. Her third feature film, Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity was screened as part of the Canadian Perspective Program at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.
Her feature documentary Ninth Floor was about the Sir George Williams Affair student protest (the largest student occupation in Canadian history, which resulted in $2 million of property damage). Ninth Floor premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and earned Shum the Women in Film+Television Artistic Merit Award at the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival.

Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, actor, and major political figure during the country’s Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976). In 1938, she became the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China, and served as the inaugural “First Lady” of the People’s Republic of China. She was best known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the political alliance known as the “Gang of Four”. In addition to her work as first lady, Jiang worked as Director of Film in the Central Propaganda Department, and as a member of the Ministry of Culture steering committee for the film industry. She was also known for using her political power to attack her rivals and enemies, including those who had personally slighted her.
In the 1930s, Jiang Qing was active in both the Communist Party and as an actor. She was jailed for three months in 1934 for her political activities in Shanghai. Taking the stage name “”Lán Píng”” (“”Blue Apple””, 蓝苹), she appeared in many films and plays, including Goddess of Freedom, Scenes of City Life, Blood on Wolf Mountain, Wang Laowu and a starring role in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. In 1937, Jiang joined the Lianhua Film Company and starred in the drama Big Thunderstorm (大雷雨).
At the beginning of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1967, Jiang declared eight performance works to be the new models for proletarian literature and art, called “”model operas””, or “”revolutionary operas””. These designed to glorify Mao Zedong, The People’s Liberation Army, and the revolutionary struggles. Jiang also directed operas and ballets with communist and revolutionary content as part of an effort to transform China’s culture. She dominated the Chinese arts, and in particular attempted to reform the Beijing Opera. She developed a new form of art called the Eight model plays or “”revolutionary opera”” which showed the world in simple, binary terms (i.e “”good guys”” vs “”bad guys””).

Lakshmi Puri

Lakshmi Puri is a former Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations and the former Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. Prior to her 15 years with the United Nations, she served as an Indian diplomat for 28 years, and was the India’s Ambassador to Hungary and accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Based at the Ministry of External Affairs headquarters in Delhi, she served as the Under-Secretary for Japan and Korea, and later as Under-Secretary for Pakistan. She also served as the Joint-Secretary Economic Division and Multilateral Economic Relations (ED & MER) for six years, working on negotiating economic diplomacy initiatives such as the Look East Policy, Indo-ASEAN Dialogue Partnership, Indian-Ocean Rim Association, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation as well as Group of 15.
She joined the United Nations in 2002 as the Director of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) flagship Division on Trade in goods, services and commodities. After several years, she became Acting Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD (2007 to 2009). From 2009 to 2011, she was Director of the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.
In 2011, Puri was appointed Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, the pioneering global entity for promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Lakshmi is a published author of several reports and research papers, and has received several awards, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, Novus Award for Championing the Sustainable Development Goals (Novus Summit), and the Millennium Campus Award (2015).