Michael & Maya
Hello! I am taking orders for these kids shirts until Thursday, April 1st with the hopes of raising some money for the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund (https://aapifund.org). I can't summarize their purpose better than they do with their mission statement:
"The AAPI Civic Engagement Fund believes that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders must be an integral part of strengthening America’s democracy, improving the quality of life for all, and creating vibrant multiracial communities."Shirts are $25 which includes shipping in the United States. They are hand printed by myself with water based inks on cotton Rabbit Skins heather gray t-shirts.
Current sizes are:
Kids 2, 3, 4, 5/6. (Pictured above are size 4) on cotton Rabbit Skins gray t-shirts
Youth XS, S, M, L, XL on cotton Gildan Ultra gray t-shirts
100% of the profits will be donated. By my conservative rough calculations after materials and shipping, each shirt will yield about a $15-17 donation. The reason I am taking orders until April 1st is that I am trying to not lose money on this endeavor and want to order the shirts in one lump order. I plan to order them that day and print and ship the shirts early the following week. Once everything gets shipped I am going to donate all of the remaining money. Depending how things go I can always order more shirts and do it again.
to order email me at ericlhou@gmail.com with:
- name/shipping info
- product, size, quantity
I am currently only making kids shirts. It is just what I happened to have and everything is already set up and ready to go. I am not quite at a point where I wanted to start trying to promote this project but the recent increase in hatred and attacks towards Asian Americans has motivated me to act sooner than I might have- we need to support & educate now more than ever!
If you are interested in adult or other sizes email me with what you'd be interested in (specifically what sizes) and maybe the stars will align.
Thank you and stay safe!
-Eric Hou
FURTHER INFO:
These designs are from a project I have been slowly thinking about/working on for the past couple of years. I was searching for more diversity in my children's clothing but I specifically wanted more Asian representation because I had never really seen it. I decided I would try to focus and research/learn specifically about Asian Americans because while I myself am Asian American I feel like there's so much I didn’t learn about Asian American history until I decided to learn it myself.
There's so much history, specifically history pertaining to the treatment of marginalized peoples that has been swept under the rug. Asian American history was non existent in the public school system I attended. We were never taught about the Chinese Exclusion Act or Vincent Chin's murder. They only talked about the Japanese American Concentration Camps (the books referred to them as "internment camps") in one paragraph of an entire book about World War II. There's so much I didn't learn about not only Asian Americans but American history in general and I'm still so angry about it!
I hope these shirts can spark some sort of curiosity, especially when applied to very young people wearing them. I hope people can learn about things we should know earlier than I did. I hope these shirts can radiate the self worth of the wearer and those around them. I chose Michael Chang and Maya Lin because they were some of the first Asian Americans that came to my mind.
I am in the middle of a couple more shirt designs and my intention is to continue producing them to sell and donate the profits to worthwhile causes. I would love to hear any suggestions people have for future shirt subjects!
When Michael Chang was 17 he became the youngest male player to ever win the 1989 French Open. To my knowledge he still holds that title. I have a lot of memories of watching Michael Chang win his way to the finals of the 1996 US Open. I was 15 years old very proud of my Asian identity. I wanted Michael Chang to win because he reminded me of myself and people I knew. At some point between when Michael Chang defeated Andre Agassi in the semi finals and he lost to Pete Sampras in the finals, I saw something on television.
It was a commercial. It showed Michael Chang playing tennis in this kind of fuzzy overexposed lighting, similar to what I would often see watching karaoke videos in Taiwan. Then it cut to him rubbing his sore thigh muscle with Tiger Balm. It then cut to the Tiger Balm logo and Michael Chang appeared in a circle in the top corner and proclaims "It works for me!"
I didn’t see this ten second commercial again until I found it on Youtube buried in a 90’s commercials compilation video but I think of it often. Why did Michael Chang do this commercial? Did his parents ask him to do it? He was sponsored by Reebok and Prince sporting goods, he didn't need Tiger Balm money did he? Maybe Tiger Balm has a lot of money. I still have a lot of questions about it. I had never heard of anyone who wasn't Asian even knowing what Tiger Balm was. Yet here was a world famous tennis player, a finalist in the men's US Open promoting it! And this commercial was playing during the day on network television. (I think I would have been less surprised if I had seen a Tiger Balm commercial at 1am.)
From then on whenever people mentioned Michael Chang (I grew up in one of those towns where everybody is supposed to like tennis) I would mention the commercial for Tiger Balm that I saw. I'm not sure anyone else ever saw it. Tiger Balm was not a household name in America back then. It was an obscure balm that you could get at the Asian grocery, a relic from the old country. Today you can go to CVS and they sell a tiny jar of Tiger Balm for about $15. We did it!
MAYA LIN
I've always known about Maya Lin. I remember hearing her name on the news, I remember visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC and my father telling me "this was designed by a Chinese person." He sounded proud when he told me. I don't have a lot to say about Maya Lin other than I admire her greatly and her work speaks for itself and I am always trying to follow her example.
For a long time I didn't really know a lot about Maya Lin. I had seen some of her work around the country, and remembered her being in some GAP photo ads when I was younger. At some point I watched the documentary "Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision" and shortly after read her book Boundaries. The thing that interests me the most about Maya Lin is her conviction and confidence.
When Maya Lin was 21 and won the Vietnam Veterans Memorial design contest, she was on the receiving end of a lot of hate. People did not approve of her winning design, or specifically the fact that an Asian woman was the designer of a Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I often imagining enduring the hateful criticism she had to go through and I don't think I would have been able to do it.
Every Maya Lin piece that I can think of shows this impressive power to take an idea and reduce it to its simplest form and then just leave it for nature and time. Those things seem to all relate to the artist as a whole- she believes in herself and will defend her ideas.
I'm not sure why I'm sharing my failed project other than to illustrate that we can't all be Maya Lin. The very act of trying will be your defeat. We can still follow her example.
* My wife Eleanor wanted to tell you that the "Wave Terrarium" was quite beautiful and the pictures didn't do it justice.
Thanks for reading all the way! Stay Safe!
Some Excellent resources:
17.21 Women by Doris Ho Kane
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