This past October, Big Straw gathered some Inktober submissions from the CMU community and our members also attempted the challenge.

Isn't it fair to say that if May Ling stays with you and Mr. McCullough, she will effectively be divorced from her birth culture?

This is the question that lawyer Ed Lim poses to Mrs. McCullough in Celeste Ng's 2017 novel, Little Fires Everywhere.

Two years ago, a wave of sexual harassment claims swept across Hollywood, transforming the industry and changing the way society treats survivors. But the #MeToo movement should not claim all survivors’ experiences as universal.

As a typical nerdy 2nd grader, I was drawn to flashy monster/robot-based franchises: Transformers, Pokemon, Zoids, Bionicle, etc. I even had brief obsession with Beyblades despite owning only a dark blue one, because it came with a buildable model of a mechanical dragon that was absolutely sick. I did as much research as a 7-year old’s attention span would allow and found that Beyblades even had its own anime. Which of course, was a completely accurate portrayal of real Beyblading.

Over the past 23 years, creators at Nintendo have been making more than 800 unique Pokémon. In designing these creatures, creators turned to many sources for inspiration. Some Pokémon are based on real-life creatures such as animals and items, while others are actually based on ancient myths, legends, and folklore.

What was once a massive, peaceful demonstration has now erupted into bouts of riot shields and tear gas as Hong Kong protesters continue working against recent legislative introductions. 

Lulu Wang’s The Farewell captures the plight of a Chinese American in the life of a modern Chinese household. With so many families now split across countries and continents, many Chinese households find their own parents and siblings identifying in different ways. While all can trace a cultural and ethnic heritage to China, their newfound identities often dictate the way they think and act in the situation regarding their grandmother’s sickness.

The dominant perception of cultural exchange between the East and the West has long been a mostly one-sided export of western culture. But the tide is turning. In fact, thanks to the Internet, it has been gradually turning for years now.

“The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu is a short story about a boy named Jack who struggles to reconcile his biracial identity, having a white father and a Chinese mother. Growing up, Jack played with a menagerie of colorful origami animals his mother would make for him. Magic unfolded before his eyes as lifeless paper transformed into lively, animated creatures.

Fourteen members from Carnegie Mellon University’s Taiwanese Students Association took the long drive to Philadelphia to attend the 2019 ITASA National Conference. The conference this year placed a deliberate emphasis on Taiwanese identity and tackled the difficult topics of social and political identity among those who identify as Taiwanese Americans.

Selamat datang! Malaysia is a very diverse and colorful pan-Asian country that unites everyone around one thing: its famously delicious food.