Submit Your History for the 2005 Jade Journal

Cornell University’s Chinese Students Association produces an artistic and creative journal written by and produced by members of CSA. This publication, known as the Jade Journal, is published in May of every year. For the 2005 edition of the Jade Journal, CSA attained generous funding from the SAFC to create potentially the greatest collection of artistic, literary, and creative works by Chinese students from Cornell ever published in one collection.

The theme for the 2005 Jade Journal is:

“What Is My History?”

As editor-in-chief of the Jade Journal, I strongly encourage every one of the more than two-hundred members of Cornell’s largest and most storied student-run organization to share his/her history.

Great questions to ask yourself include: Where was I born? Where were my parents born? Where were my grandparents born? What did each of them do for a living? When did you or your family come to the United States? For what reasons was the journey made? What lead you to Cayuga’s waters and Cornell’s winters?

“The Journal is for you, the member,” wrote former Jade Journal editor, Crystal Yu, in the forward of last spring’s Journal, “and [...] it should hold your memories. It is an outlet for your creativity and your views.” Not all of the hundreds of CSA members are brilliant poets, talented photograpers, or in some cases, even capable of writing a decent, grammatically-correct paragraph.

However, we all have a history. As the University of Maryland professor that spoke before the CAPAL group last summer stated, “Raise your hand if you have made history.” A sparse number of hands went up amongst the room of Asian students interning in Washingon, D.C. “In reality, you have all made history. You are making history now,” he concluded. We have all made history. Many of us here now, with examination worries and snow-filled stresses, will be leaders molding tomorrow’s world.

I expect every single member of the Chinese Students Association to contribute to this year’s Jade Journal. As always, you are free to submit anything you wish, including color photography, artwork, poetry, short stories, crossword puzzles, funny things that your roommate says while intoxicated, your opinions on which Ghost in the Shell film was better, etc.

Once again, the Jade Journal is what the membership makes of it. Make history. I’ll document it.

Ed.