AAPI students use their voices in The Wave Magazine
This past spring, Eric Zhou and Jerrica Li launched The Wave, a new, student-run, pan-Asian literary and arts magazine, with the goal of bringing people together to celebrate art and identity. Their mission took on new urgency amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which first emerged in China, and the ensuing rise of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia here and elsewhere in the world. The Wave’s inaugural print issue was released in February. Since leaving campus, Zhou ’20, Li ’21, and the nine other members of The Wave’s editorial board started a project that launched in May: a digital “Quaranzine” that aims to combat the mounting bigotry by showcasing young Asian voices in art, videos, and writing on an ongoing basis. “Xenophobia is a phenomenon often far more deeply rooted and far more complex than a couple of incidents that we see on the news or social media,” said Zhou, who is from Ashland, Mass.,...