Journey to the Center of the Earth

Vanessa Hua is a writer based in San Francisco who is best known for her novels, which often tackle diverse issues related to immigration. During her talk at Poly, Hua concentrated on her newly published novel, A River of Stars , which revolves around the efforts of a pregnant Chinese woman in Los Angeles. A focal point of Hua’s discussion centered around the duties and burdens of writers, especially when they attempt to portray any perspective (ideological, cultural or otherwise) that is not their own. While Hua’s exploration of what it means to be a Chinese-American in California makes sense due to her own Asian-American background, some of her works, such as many of her short stories, stray from her own perspective to a much more significant degree than A River of Stars might do. The lesson that conflicting perspectives often deserve to be considered equally valid is a crucial one, especially when confronting our own prejudices.

In March of 2019, musician and human rights activist Arn Chorn-Pond came to Poly to discuss how he survived the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia as a child. At just nine years old, he was separated from his family and placed in a Khmer Rouge detention camp, where he witnessed atrocities that forced him to learn to grow numb and unfeeling. At age 14, the Khmer Rouge positioned Arn Chorn-Pond on the battlefront during the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. He eventually escaped by fleeing into the jungle, traveling for months until he reached the border to Thailand. Throughout his presentation, Arn Chorn-Pond never failed to remind the audience of the various roles that music has played throughout his life. The playing of music was first introduced to Arn Chorn-Pond as nothing more than a tool for survival. During his time at the detention camp, he learned to play the flute, eventually being chosen to entertain the camp guards with propaganda songs. After arriving at the Un