Baydar Virtual Reading Series
Our Virtual Reading Series provides a space where members of the Myanmar diaspora can collectively discuss issues both personal and political. Each meeting in the series is built around a specific topic and related reading materials, all of which can be accessed on our website at least two weeks prior to a meeting. Reading all of the materials for a meeting is not required, nor do we require those interested in one specific meeting to have attended all preceding meetings in the series.
These dialogues are meant to:
1) Explore how current and past events in Myanmar’s history continue to affect our communities
2) Unpack cultural norms we have experienced across our various upbringings while attempting to unlearn toxic mindsets and prejudices.
3) Attend to the cultural, social, economic, and overall structural issues facing Asians in the U.S. / Asian Americans.
4) Celebrate the endless and vibrant differences among our diaspora.
As such, we try to maintain an atmosphere of collaborative learning, wherein we approach topics and each other with mutual respect, compassion, and openness.
These events are held in English.
Spring 2021 Sessions
If you are interested in attending these meetings, please fill out this form - https://forms.gle/foTf6fDdZWvWWFjcA
Theme: Ethnic Identity in Myanmar and its Diaspora
April 24: The CRPH’s Federal Democracy Charter
The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) recently declared Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution invalid and announced a new constitution: the “Federal Democracy Charter.” CRPH is a self-styled opposition party established by elected lawmakers from Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD), who were not allowed to take their seats when the military staged the Feb 1 coup.
For our first meeting, we will discuss the Federal Democracy Charter and its implications for ethnic minority rights in Myanmar, bridging this with a discussion of how ethnicity affects relations among Myanmar’s diasporic communities in the U.S.
In English: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O57yys-vD0IdXf4cBGfqdqpyiTxmHwDt/view?usp=sharing
In Burmese: https://crphmyanmar.org/crph010421/
May 8: Ethno-Religious Divides and Islamophobia
For our second meeting, we will discuss the rifts formed along lines of ethnicity and religion in Myanmar as well as its diaspora. We will also discuss the gendered, racial, and class-related implications of such divides.
Tinzar Lwyn, “Stories of Gender and Ethnicity: Discourses of colonialism and resistance in Burma” (1994); for access to this article, please fill out the Google form linked above so you may receive the reading via email.
Krithika Varagur, “The Muslim Overpopulation Myth That Just Won’t Die” (2017)
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/muslim-overpopulation-myth/545318/
Than Toe Aung, “Integration Should Not Be a One-Way Street” (2019)
https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/integration-should-not-be-a-one-way-street/
May 22: Anti-Chinese Sentiment in Myanmar and Anti-Asian Violence in the U.S.
For our third meeting, we will discuss waves of anti-Chinese sentiment in Myanmar and its parallels with Anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S., and how the latter helps fuel acts of violence against Asian American communities. We will also discuss the complexities around Burmese Chinese identity and hybrid identities among the Myanmar diaspora more broadly. What does it mean to be Burmese in America during this time of intersecting turmoils?
Min Zin, “Burmese Attitude toward Chinese: Portrayal of the Chinese in Contemporary Cultural and Media Works” (2012)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/186810341203100107
Viet Thanh Nguyen, Janelle Wong, “Bipartisan political rhetoric about Asia leads to anti-Asian violence here”
Emily Hue, “On Transnational Abolitionist Relationalities from Mandalay to Minneapolis” (2021)
***We had previously listed an article by Wendy Thompson Taiwo. We have removed this article and plan on assigning it in another session.***