[For ASIAN 340.01 – Asian Pacific American Media, Fall 2014 | Posts for final project ]
Pinay’Merican is an exploration of identity, in relation to personal and public history, social and political discourse, and visual and literary media. I aim to discuss certain topics pertaining to Filipino diaspora (and to some extent, Asian diaspora) through personal anecdotes, reflections, and reviews, as well as include articles and videos to further the discussion.
The idea for this project began in two ways: 1) the desire to understand historical and cultural aspects of my heritage, and 2) an idea for a behind-the-scenes film on the production of a teleserye. (It is a strange combination that led to the creation of this sub-blog…)
The first is a noble pursuit: a young Filipina American who aspires to be a writer and wants to learn about Fil-Am literature. This involves researching Philippine history, (informally) interviewing family members about their experiences in the Philippines and the United States, and learning (or attempting to learn) Tagalog.
The second stems from the first: an investigation on Filipino diaspora depicted in the media, particularly television shows produced by native-born Filipinos and Filipino Americans. My initial idea for my final class project was to write a script about the production of a new teleserye (or, soap opera) in the Philippines. The story was going to focus on a Filipino American screenwriter who acts as the co-creator of the show and has to deal with artistic differences among the production team on what is “authentically” Filipino and “authentically” American.
This sub-blog was going to be used as notes for that initial project idea, as a way for me to “unpack” my thoughts on what I would like to include in the script. But knowing me, I tend to stress over working on and perfecting any creative piece that has a deadline. (Then after submitting the piece, I end up thinking of ten different ways it could have been better, which leads into more stress…) But upon discussing my process with my professor, I thought it would be a better idea to write a blog (already a medium in and of itself) about Filipino diaspora from my own experience, while incorporating other media to further support my discussions.
{Timeline}
- July 9, 2015: Pinay’Merican: The Musings of a Young Fil-Am became the official title of this blog.
- February 2020: [pinaymerican.blog] became the official web address for this blog.
- Winter 2021: Blog title and web address have been changed. However, Pinay’Merican serves as a personal milestone for why & how I created this space for myself…
[updated 02/15/2020]
amenaje 