Lunar New Year belongs to Vietnamese as much as Chinese

On Feb. 10, the Vietnamese Student Association held a celebration of the Lunar New Year in White Plaza. The goal of the celebration was to bring together the different Asian groups on campus and showcase the distinct ways that Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean people celebrate this common holiday. Our goal was to entertain, to educate, and to show that Stanford’s Asian-American community is unified, but also made up of many diverse groups. It is a shame that The Daily chose to not emphasize the diversity in our celebration, but to perpetuate the cultural hegemony that Asian groups always sought to avoid in calling the holiday “Chinese New Year,” and putting “Gung hay fat choy!” in the photo caption.

The Lunar Year Holiday originated in China and was brought to Vietnam by the Chinese. However, the New Year has over time become an important part of Vietnamese heritage, as Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Americans incorporated aspects of their own social and cultural environments into its celebration. For sure, one can observe Chinese influences in Vietnamese culture, but culture is inherently dynamic and appropriating, and cultural practices are not defined by their origin, but rather by the adopting group, and how they put their own stamp on it. The Vietnamese Student Association organized this festivity, in collaboration with other Asian groups on campus, in order to exhibit the many ways different cultures celebrate this common holiday. Putting a Chinese label on a holiday that belongs as much to the Vietnamese people as to the Chinese totally missed the objective of the whole event.

Dee Nguyen

Senior, Economics

VanDerveer’s redshirt policy appalling

I am writing after reading the article in Friday’s paper regarding Clare Bodensteiner, a junior and member of the Stanford women’s basketball team, who has agreed to a request by Coach Tara VanDerveer to become a redshirt, ineligible to play despite not being injured or having any other problematic situation. The reason for this action given in the article is that there are too many good players at the guard position on this year’s team and thus Clare will have a better chance of starting or playing more minutes in her two remaining years of eligibility.

I am appalled that the University would acquiesce to such a situation and that The Daily would write the story in a positive fashion. The purpose of a Stanford education is to prepare students for a positive and successful life. Stanford graduates go on to careers in medicine, business, science, the arts and in any number of fields. By coercing or conning Bodensteiner into becoming a redshirt Van Derveer has in effect stolen a year from her future life. And for what? To spend a year dribbling basketballs in a Waiting for Godot world? Stanford has a freshman guard, Candice Wiggins, who is outstanding and other good players at that position who will return next year as well. Also, does anyone really expect Coach VanDerveer not to recruit outstanding high school players at that position? Will she say to a player of the caliber of Wiggins, “Sorry, I can’t recruit you because I promised the position to a player who is redshirting.” Hardly. In the win-at-any-cost world of big time college sports VanDerveer will sell out Bodensteiner in a New York minute.

A coach has a responsibility to her players that goes beyond winning and losing. In undertaking this action VanDerveer has demonstrated that she has no concern for the students under her control and instead is primarily concerned with her own career.

John Martin

Palo Alto, CA

Draft will not be reinstated

Kalani Leifer squawks about his own registration for the draft. I was born in 1960, the first year that it was required to register when President Carter reinstated draft registration. I did two things that year: (a) registered for the draft and (b) decided that I would never support a reintroduction of the draft, no matter what came about. My opinion hasn’t changed. There must be millions more like me in their forties now. Kalani will be perfectly safe and free to complete his Stanford degree or get his apartment in Switzerland.

Michael T. Purcell

Portland, Oregon