"Asian American Mental Health" Panel at New York University — My Largest Screening Yet

The NYU "Asian American Mental Health" Panel on March 11, 2010.

Spectacularly well — was how my panel at New York University went. Sold out a week prior to the event, the event was moved to a larger venue to allow more attendees. The audience were highly engaged and carried their discussions out to the reception. My co-presenters were professors/scholars:  Irene Chung, PhD, Associate  Professor  and Chair, Casework Curriculum, Hunter College School of Social Work, Sel J. Hwahng, PhD, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University, Duy Nguyen, MSW, PhD, Assistant Professor, Silver School of Social Work, NYU,  Tazuko Shibuzawa, MSW, PhD, Associate Professor of Social Work, NYU. They  spoke so highly of my half-baked film, I nearly gushed. Dr Nguyen lit up as he spoke about my film. He was genuinely impressed with the intimate moments between Can and his family. These scholars were able to appreciate the difficulty of my feat — nearly 6 years of hard work — and it was hugely validating. After the event, a line of people formed in front of me to speak with me.

A cardiologist from a local hospital offered to help me fund-raise. A psychologist came and told me how important my film was and that she was really impressed. Several students asked me questions about the content. One of my former co-workers came and said "Congratulations on so many levels." A Japanese-American therapist came from Greenwich, CT to see my film. People drove from all over the tri-state area for this event. There were Asian language press there who came to interview me.


After years of getting grant application rejections from foundations, the overwhelmingly positive response was a refreshing change. Not to mention the never-ending queue of Asian American organizations that did not even bother to call me back. That was why I was doing this film in the first place because many Asian American community-based organizations weren't willing to raise the issue of mental illness to their constituents. The only time a few Asian American organizations made any effort to hold discussions on mental health was after the Virginia Tech massacre and the suicide of the beloved and widely-respected Chinese-American historian and writer Iris Chang.  Most Asian American organizations didn't active seek to address the issues of denial and shame surrounding mental illness without the pretext of a tragedy. Supposedly, NYU had a disproportionately high number of Asian American student suicides on campus, several years ago which led to the administration's interest in holding this panel discussion. Once people have died, it's too late. But that's usually when it's fashionable and socially acceptable to speak out about mental health issues.


During the Q&A, a Euro-American drama therapist remarked that the film "demonized" Can's father. I asked him specifically how he was demonized and he thought the film unfairly positioned him to seen as the source of Can's issues. I explained that was, indeed, one of my concerns, but that I had committed to presenting life from the point of view of a consumer because the voice of someone with mental illness was rarely ever heard in the media without sensationalism or hyperbole. At the time of this videoshoot, Can had a deep conviction that he had unresolved issues with his father, which resulted in a lot of his self-doubt and depression. Mr. Truong says in one of the scenes "I didn't hit [Can] very hard because he's so weak." I did have concerns about how Mr. Truong's view on corporal punishment might be construed by people who were not raised in cultures where "spanking" children was an integral part of daily life. There is likely to be judgments made in their eyes. And my goal was to increase inter-cultural understanding, as opposed to creating more divides and judgment. In many Asian public school systems, hitting students for disobedience or not doing their homework is an everyday reality. Though I did not attend the first grade in Korea, my sister and brother did. They frequently talked about getting wacked by the teacher, whom they loved and highly respected. Such pain was considered an acceptable form of discipline — a means to an ends — an education. It's probably no wonder that Korea has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. The logic is that getting hit on the hand or on the back of the calves was a small price to pay for inculcating the discipline to earn an education. Some people may consider this to be a form of violence. Last year, I attended one public health conference and one conference about global health issues.  I know that several health studies showed that early childhood spanking or "violence" as some public health advocates deemed was a valid predictor of adult health and social problems. Studies indicate that even early age spanking will lead the child to engage in increasingly more aggressive behavior later in childhood and adulthood.

Even as an Asian American, I certainly was inclined to judge Mr. Truong, in part because he reminded me of my own stern Confucian father, who also believed in hitting as a form of discipline, punishment and a means of expressing anger, which was typical for Korean men of his generation. Hitting a child wasn't considered wrong even among some Asian Americans. The concept of child abuse did not exist in Asian cultures, for the most part, because children were viewed as extensions of the parents. One could not abuse one's own child anymore than one could abuse their arm. Conceptually, it may be difficult for someone raised in a culture, philosophically more based on individualism, to understand.




My brief introductory speech to my film is below:

Thank you all so much for being here.  I was stunned to learn that within days this panel had actually become booked. Rock concerts sell out within days, not panels on Asian American mental health. Who knew that the world was hungry for this? This film is in its very early rough cut stages, typically unseen to the public, but we wanted to share Can’s story even in its roughest form. None of the audio has been leveled nor has the color correction been completed because we are still trying to raise funds for post-production. I apologize in advance for some of the rough transitions that you will see in this cut. Though things are far from perfect, but you’ll see that we have a story.

One thing is clear: there is a chasm between traditional Asian views on mental health and the conventional medical establishment’s theories of mental illness. And there really haven’t been many films which explore this issue. There are literally 100’s, if not 1000’s, of documentary films that address the topic of mental illness, but less than 3 which shed light on the experience from an Asian American perspective.

About 2-4% of the general population have a serious and persistent mental illness like schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, major depression, etc.. In the Southeast Asian refugee community of which Can is a member, some studies have shown the rates of post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depressive disorders are as high as 60-80% due to the experience of war in their countries of origin.

I would consider this film project a success if it brings Asian American communities to talk about mental illness and familiarize the broader general public about the experience of mental illness from an Asian American perspective. Among all the ethnic minorities in the U.S., Asian Americans are least likely to seek therapy for psychological or emotional problems and are the most likely to confront linguistic and cultural barriers to finding competent mental health services.

Historically, most images of people with psychiatric diagnoses in the mass media have been often sensationalistic and associated with criminal violence in both the news and fiction TV, contributing to the social stigma. When a person with a serious psychological issue overcomes their disability, returns and graduates from college after having to drop out due to his disability and contributes to his/her community, his/her stories does not make headlines, even though that person may have had to overcome numerous difficulties to do what ordinary people take for granted. There is a gross imbalance in coverage of stories about people with MI, reinforcing negative stereotypes.  Furthermore for Asian Americans, they are viewed as a model minority, a group with few, if any, problems, which is reinforced by the mainstream media’s focus on Asian American success stories. Asian Americans suffer from the widespread misperception that they are a “model,” healthy minority. This stereotype presents an inaccurate picture of their mental and physical health, thereby limiting education, prevention, and treatment efforts for mental illness to this community.  I sought to provide a realistic and respectful portrayal of Can’s life in this film, to help dispel the myths and stereotypes.

I would like to give special thanks to one of my non-profit fiscal sponsors of this film Mental Health Assoc. of California who was instrumental in helping us to find funding from the California Endowment which has made this last 2 and half years of production and editing possible. Also special thanks to the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association for connecting me with Can. Without further ado, I’d like to present “Can.”