New Asian American Folklore Podcast Launched from UPenn

The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania announced the launch of the new podcast Yellow and Brown Tales: Asian American Folklife Today.

The podcast is an exploration of the cultural history of Asian Americans and their lives now. Acknowledging the many aspects of Asian American life that have been unheard and unseen for “yellow” and “brown” Americans, the podcast hosts aim to share stories that uplift and showcase the rich expressive culture of the Asian American community. This podcast distinctively positions the Asian experience at the center of the American landscape and Asian American folklore as a critical emergent area of study.

Folklorists Fariha Khan, Margaret Magat, Nancy Yan, and Juwen Zhang host the podcast and highlight the diverse narratives, practices, traditions, and customs of the fastest-growing population in the U.S. Each month will feature two podcasts and explore various aspects of Asian American life.

Listeners can sign up for updates to stay informed on the podcast’s release.

Hosts:
Fariha Khan is the Co-Director of the Asian American Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania where she also teaches courses on South Asians in the U.S, Asian American Communities, Asian American Food, as well as Muslim Identity in America. She received a Master’s degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. Her current research focuses on South Asian American Muslims, Pakistani American culture, and the Asian American community.  Dr. Khan was appointed in 2015 to the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs and served until 2019.  Actively involved in the Philadelphia community, Dr. Khan is Vice-Chair of the Board of the Samuel S. Fels Fund and serves on the Board of the American Folklore Society, the Philadelphia Folklore Project, the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, and the James Brister Alumni Society.  

Margaret Magat is a Cultural Resources Program Manager with a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in Folklore, University of California, Berkeley. She has published on foodways, historic preservation, women and transnational migration, and Asian American cultural practices. Her first book is called Balut: Fertilized Eggs and the Making of Culinary Capital in the Filipino Diaspora (Bloomsbury, 2019.) She was senior convener for the Transnational Asia/Pacific Section (2018-2020) of the American Folklore Society (AFS) and is now an adviser to the current conveners. She is also a member of AFS’ Cultural Diversity Committee.

Nancy Yan received her Ph.D. in folklore from The Ohio State University and taught First and Second-Year Writing, Comparative Studies, and Asian American Studies classes for several years before returning to organizing work.  She served on the Cultural Diversity Committee of the American Folklore Society from 2017-2019 and is a member of the Board of Directors of New Faculty Majority, an advocacy organization for non-tenure-track faculty. She is also a host on New Books in Folklore, part of New Books Network. Currently, Dr. Yan works for the American Federation of Teachers-Maryland as an organizer.

Juwen Zhang, is a Professor of Chinese and Folklore at Willamette University, Oregon, USA, with his Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife in the University of Pennsylvania, Fellow of American Folklore Society, and current President of Western States Folklore Society. He has published his studies on rites de passage, Chinese/Asian American folklore, folkloric film, and folkloric identity in major folklore journals both in English and Chinese, along with two-way translations of Chinese and English works of folklore studies. He led the creation of the East Asia Folklore Section in 2005 (now the Transnational Asia/Pacific Section), and organized the special issue in the Journal of American Folklore on Asian American Folklore (2015.