Item

Oliver Kaplan Oral History, 2020/04/29

Media

Title (Dublin Core)

Oliver Kaplan Oral History, 2020/04/29

Description (Dublin Core)

Oliver Kaplan begins this recording by stating how the monologue is for a college assignment in their “China in the world” class. They then speak about how they were aware of the virus well before its spread across the world, due to the class they were taking. Initially Oliver thought the virus would be contained in China, but realized that it was going to become a larger issue when he noticed anti-Chinese sentiments at his college in Maine. Oliver then describes how shortly after that his school shut down and he returned to his home in California. Oliver concludes this recording by talking about local political policies in Los Angeles and hopes the lockdown will end soon.

Recording Date (Dublin Core)

04/29/2020

Creator (Dublin Core)

Oliver Kaplan

Type (Dublin Core)

Audio file

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Government Federal
English Government State
English Education--Universities
English Race & Ethnicity
English Online Learning

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

Bates College
Lewiston
Maine
Los Angeles County
California
Wuhan
China
Asian American
racism
Governor Gavin Newsom
Mayor Eric Garcetti
testing
free

Collection (Dublin Core)

Social Justice
Asian & Pacific Islander Voices

Curatorial Notes (Dublin Core)

Moved "Coronavirus Recording for ASHI-275-A: China in the World." from Contributor to Description. Added #ASHI-275-A

Removed: "for final project." from Type
Primary Source #1 (My Story) moved from title to description. Title changed to My Story (MTT on 5/1/2020)

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

10/21/2020
02/26/2021
03/25/2021
11/16/2021
05/06/2022
05/10/2022
06/02/2022

Date Created (Dublin Core)

04/29/2020

Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)

Oliver Kaplan

Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)

Oliver Kaplan

Location (Omeka Classic)

Los Angeles
California
United States of America

Format (Dublin Core)

audio

Language (Dublin Core)

English

Duration (Omeka Classic)

00:02:05

abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)

Oliver Kaplan begins this recording by stating how the monologue is for a college assignment in their “China in the world” class. They then speak about how they were aware of the virus well before its spread across the world, due to the class they were taking. Initially Oliver thought the virus would be contained in China, but realized that it was going to become a larger issue when he noticed anti-Chinese sentiments at his college in Maine. Oliver then describes how shortly after that his school shut down and he returned to his home in California. Oliver concludes this recording by talking about local political policies in Los Angeles and hopes the lockdown will end soon.

Transcription (Omeka Classic)

Oliver Kaplan 00:00
Hi, I'm Oliver Kaplan. I am a current student at Bates College in Maine, and it's April 29 2020. And I've been tasked with recording my Coronavirus experience for my China in the world class.

Oliver Kaplan 00:11
So I thought I would start by talking about when I first learned about virus, which was actually relatively early, because my class would discuss it at basically every class meeting as something that was part of our central theme, which was China and the world. So at the time, I, along with a lot of other students considered it, but didn't really think it was an actual problem and thought it was confined to Wuhan, or at the very least Mainland China. But as the months dragged on, and the situation deteriorated over there, and the virus spread to Italy and other places, the class started to recognize that this could have serious implications for us as students and as Americans. But still, at that time, no one really saw it as a serious threat.

Oliver Kaplan 00:53
I actually only took it seriously when my roommate who's from Dalian, China, started complaining to me in like early March, that he was getting called corona and different names by residents of Lewiston, Auburn, which is where Bates is, and even by some college students. So once I realized that there was actual anti Chinese sentiment on campus, I knew that this could have a serious impact on my life as an Asian American, and as a student.

Oliver Kaplan 01:19
So a few weeks after that, in mid March, Bates shut down like most other schools, and I was sent home to California, where I've been for the past couple of months in quarantine, trying to stay motivated as I work through remote learning and wrap up my semester this week.

Oliver Kaplan 01:35
So moving forward here. We're hoping for the best. The governor here in California, Gavin Newsom just announced the closure of all beaches and parks a few hours ago. But on the bright side, my Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that LA County would be offering free testing to every resident of Los Angeles so that's nice. Hopefully that works out and we can return to some sense of normalcy soon, but who knows. So wishing everyone the best and yeah, thanks

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