For the final project, I wanted to create a monument dedicated to a few of the most remarkable Eastern Asian women in history. I found it unfortunate that all of these women were never given a monument, let alone a page in a world history book, despite their accomplishments in fighting for civil rights, human rights, and women’s rights. These women defy the submissive Asian stereotype and represent a new feminist society.

The final project was not meant to look as if it existed in a real space because I wanted it to be proposal-like to get the point across. Using Timeline in Photoshop was challenging and I felt that if I tried making the animation look realistic, I would be focusing my efforts towards that instead of the animation itself. As a secondary plan, I made a proposal poster that showed a night view, a morning view in Bryant Park, and an aerial view to help understand that the monument would form into a V-shape.

Nine 7-foot scrolls in the formation of a V-shape would invade the middle of Bryant Park’s lawn. On the scrolls, a projection of a woman’s face– a woman of Eastern Asian heritage who has taken action to better society– would appear, fade away, and move onto the next face. The order in which they are projected are not according to importance nor any chronological order.

In order of appearance:

Yuri Kochiyama (1924-2014): Japanese-US activist that worked in solidarity with Malcom X and for Asia Civil Rights.

Her father was wrongfully accused of involvement in the Pearl Harbor attack. She and her mother were transfered to Japanese internment camps for three years. She was present at the day of Malcom X’s assassination and held him as he passed away. After the Vietnam War protests, she became involed in the Asian-American movement where she and her husband acted as representatives in demanding the government apologies for their injustice, until finally, in 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act. In 2005, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Helen Zia (1952- ): An award-winning journalist and scholar who has covered Asian American communities and social and political movements or decades.

She has been outspoken on issues ranging from civil rights and peace to women’s rights and countering hate violence and homophobia. In 1997, she testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the racial impact of the news media. Her investigation of date rape at the University of Michigan led to campus demonstrations and an overhaul of its policies, while her research on women who join neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations provoked new thinking on the relationship between race and gender violence in hate crimes.

Corazon Aquino (1933-2009): The first female president of the Philippines, the leader of the People Power Revolution and human rights activist.

When the 20-year reign dictator Marcos announced that he would be holding an election to show the legitimacy and credibility of his position, Aquino ran for presidency. She collected over a million signatures in support and ultimately won the election. Marcos declared himself the winner, and sparked the People Power Revolution where over two million civilians political, military and religious groups held a series of demonstrations. And after three days of mass protest, Aquino became the 11th president of the Philippines.She was named “Women of the Year” by TIME Magazine in 1986, and dubbed the “Mother of Democracy” in the Philippines.

Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga (1922- ): In the 1960s, she joined Asian Americans for Action (AAA), and got involved in the civil rights movement, and protests against the Vietnam War. She remembers the day before her graduation when her principal took the Japanese students aside and said, “You’re not getting your diplomas because your people bombed Pearl Harbor.” She played a crucial role in the Redress Movement (efforts to obtain the restitution of civil rights, an apology, and/or monetary compensation from the U.S. government sixty years after Japanese Internment.

Auung San Suu Kyi (1945- ): Burmese human rights activist, leader of the pro-democracy movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

She became involved in politics and and worked on democratization. Because of this, she was placed on house arrest in 1989. The government offered her freedom if she leaves the country which she refused. The military junta called a generation elections in 1990, Suu Kyi’s party received the majority of the votes but she was not permitted to run as candidate. The military refused to hand the leadership to her and she was placed in house arrest again which lasted for 15 years (until 2010). During this time, she received the Nobel Peace Prize, and used the money to build a health and education fund for her people. She ran for presidency in 2015 but the current law prohibited her from becoming president. Instead the president created a position of State Councillor for her, a position she is currently serving.

Michi Nishiura Weglyn (1926-1999): A noted civil rights activist who gave up a successful career as costume designer for the popular Perry Como Show to write the landmark book, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps, which set the record straight about the World War II incarceration of more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent during World War II.

Qiu Jin (1875-1907): Chinese revolutionary, writer and feminist.

She fought for the education rights and elimination of foot- binding (forcing women’s feet into three or four inch shoes). In 1907, Jin was arrested and then tortured but she refused to admit her involvement in the uprising against the Qing Dynasty. But upon discovery of documents that links her to the uprising, she was executed in her home village. After that, she became a symbol of women’s independence in China.

Mitsuye Yamada (1923- ): Japanese feminist, critiqued the US foreign policy and claimed that feminist must fight racism.

During World War II, she stayed in a relocation center in Idaho but she was allowed to leave the camp if she pledged loyalty to the Japanese emperor. She wrote her first book titled, “Camp Notes and Other Poems” but wasn’t published until 1976. She wanted to encourage Asian-American women to speak out during wartime as they were barred with a code of silence.

Raiden Kartini (1879-1904): Indonesian pioneer for women’s education, fought for women’s emancipation and feminist.

She attended school until she was 12 years old when she was arranged to marry a Regency Chief who already had three wives. Because of her own struggle with the lack of education, she established a school for women. She also wanted to raise the status of women and during a colonial period and helped in the national struggle for independence. When her letters (to her Dutch pen pals) were published, it inspired many to change the way the Dutch view indigenous women.