Collected Item: “Tony Oral History, 2022/10/14”
Title
Tony
Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.
Kit Heintzman
Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.
Tony
Email Address(es) for all interviewers. Separated by comma.
kheintzman@gmail.com
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your oral history. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#activism, #artist, #Asian, #boundaries, #comingout, #Connecticut, #drag, #gloryhole, #graduation, #migrant, #NewHaven, #NewYork, #nonbinary, #queer, #SARS, #school, #sexworker, #school, #race, #therapy, #trauma
What is the format of your recording?
Audio
In what ZIP code is the primary residence of the interviewee? (enter 5-digit ZIP code; for example, 00544 or 94305)? In what city/town/village does the interviewee live? In what country does the interviewee live? All comma-separated.
New Haven, Connecticut // New York City, New York
What is the gender of the interviewee? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their gender in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a gender identity to interviewees.*
non-binary
What is the age of the interviewee?
25 to 34
How does the interviewee describe their race or ethnicity? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their race/ethnicity in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a racial or ethnic identity to interviewees.*
Asian
Describe the oral history.
Some of the things we discussed include:
Organizing work with Asian migrants in the USA as shaping one’s own understanding of position as a migrant; permanent transience as a migrant, the pandemic as permanent transience.
Hearing about the pandemic through Weibo in December 2019, then traveling in Europe, and anticipating COVID-19 hitting the USA.
Awareness that the American government would not be able to keep COVID-19 under control because Americans won’t be controlled.
Having experienced SARS in elementary school in China.
Feeling lucky to not be living under Chinese authoritarianism when COVID continued.
Having come out to parents the summer before the pandemic; frequent long-distance communication with family.
Taking a pause from hooking up early in the pandemic; working as an escort.
Father working a surgeon in China; minimal contact with the healthcare system because of at home available treatment growing up.
Having relatively sufficient health insurance for a healthy young student in the USA; doctors prying about PrEP, STI testing, etc.
Rearranging the home environment when roommates left; moving during the pandemic.
Hosting BLM protestors who needed shelter in summer 2020 once Brooklyn Bridge was blocked.
Changing artistic plans for undergraduate thesis, moving from making physical models to online design work.
Zoom graduation, parents could not watch the YouTube stream because the platform is blocked in China.
Father unable to travel home from the hospital during the pandemic to prevent the spread, staying at the hospital for more than a month.
Starting a relationship in January 2021, being in a pandemic couple; catching COVID together during the Chinese New Year.
Living in Elmhurst, NY and having access to home foods.
Exploring gender; partner’s transition.
Bodies remembering trauma, whether or not one decides to process it; access to therapy/psychoanalysis.
Working with an immunocompromised abolitionist activist colleague who cannot safely attend all events.
COVID fog; how hard it was to see things, the uncertainty and instability about what we were/are doing.
Literacy, Language access, internet access, phone access and equity.
Organizing work with Asian migrants in the USA as shaping one’s own understanding of position as a migrant; permanent transience as a migrant, the pandemic as permanent transience.
Hearing about the pandemic through Weibo in December 2019, then traveling in Europe, and anticipating COVID-19 hitting the USA.
Awareness that the American government would not be able to keep COVID-19 under control because Americans won’t be controlled.
Having experienced SARS in elementary school in China.
Feeling lucky to not be living under Chinese authoritarianism when COVID continued.
Having come out to parents the summer before the pandemic; frequent long-distance communication with family.
Taking a pause from hooking up early in the pandemic; working as an escort.
Father working a surgeon in China; minimal contact with the healthcare system because of at home available treatment growing up.
Having relatively sufficient health insurance for a healthy young student in the USA; doctors prying about PrEP, STI testing, etc.
Rearranging the home environment when roommates left; moving during the pandemic.
Hosting BLM protestors who needed shelter in summer 2020 once Brooklyn Bridge was blocked.
Changing artistic plans for undergraduate thesis, moving from making physical models to online design work.
Zoom graduation, parents could not watch the YouTube stream because the platform is blocked in China.
Father unable to travel home from the hospital during the pandemic to prevent the spread, staying at the hospital for more than a month.
Starting a relationship in January 2021, being in a pandemic couple; catching COVID together during the Chinese New Year.
Living in Elmhurst, NY and having access to home foods.
Exploring gender; partner’s transition.
Bodies remembering trauma, whether or not one decides to process it; access to therapy/psychoanalysis.
Working with an immunocompromised abolitionist activist colleague who cannot safely attend all events.
COVID fog; how hard it was to see things, the uncertainty and instability about what we were/are doing.
Literacy, Language access, internet access, phone access and equity.
On what date did you record this oral history?
2022-10-14T13:21