By T. Ngọc Phan Kim
The research in this publication was completed as a part of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Rebecca M. Blank Center for Campus History. The Center seeks to expand and enrich UW–Madison’s historical narrative by centering the voices, experiences, and struggles of marginalized groups. The Center grew out of the Public History Project which culminated in the Sifting & Reckoning physical and digital exhibition in the fall of 2022, curricular tools, an event and lecture series, and a final report. By sharing research, we hope to continue conversations about the history of UW–Madison and discuss how we can all work towards building a more equitable campus community. The nature of historical research is that it will always be incomplete. It is impossible for us to know everything that happened in the past. Therefore, the research in this post is imperfect, as all history is. Our researchers have completed the research below with all of the historical documents available to them at the time of publication.
Introduction to the Project
In April 1974 the first Midwest Asian American Conference was held in Chicago. Among the delegates attending were Madison Asian Union members — students of UW-Madison from various years. The second Midwest Asian American Conference would be held in Madison that September. [1] Between these two dates, the first volume of the Asian American UW student magazine Rice Paper would be published. By the time of the magazine’s final issue in August 1977, Rice Paper had succeeded in holding a published space for Asian American artists and writers, while simultaneously acting as a regional resource for Asian Americans in need of contacts, support and cultural centers, and various economic and career opportunities.
Rice Paper’s first edition begins with a letter from the “Rice Paper Collective,” the magazine’s editors and organizers. The first sentence of the letter credits the attitudes and environment of that first Midwest Asian American Conference with inspiring the Collective to form the magazine. Rice Paper, from its very first sentence, asserted and maintained that interconnectedness and community building would be its focus.
Moreover, the Rice Paper Collective claimed that Asian Americans in the Midwest needed a voice, as they experienced a great “geographic and spiritual isolation” [2] being situated between the two coasts. In the span of three years, Rice Paper printed current events, essays, poetry, visual art, Midwest Asian American contacts, and community resources. The Midwestern United States is often characterized by its plains; in 1974, the political group of Midwest Asian Americans existed on a great, barren plain with a dead back road cut through it, one that experienced no traffic. Rice Paper aimed to transport previously unheard voices across that plain. In their first letter from the editors, the Collective proclaims “the Midwest needs a voice!! Rice Paper is one of the vehicles to give such a voice.” [3]
The Rice Paper Collective, in a short amount of time, created a cultural artifact whose reach was socially and geographically sprawling, boasting readers and contributors from Missouri to Michigan. Their reach, from my vantage point, has proved to be more than social and geographic, however. It is temporally sprawling as well—the magazine, though only in print for three years, connects the affective labor of Midwest Asian Americans from 1974 to those of us in the Midwest in 2025.
I chose to work with Rice Paper for multiple reasons, two of which are more pertinent to my project. First, Rice Paper’s aims and contents are very closely related to aspects of my identity that are important to me. As an Asian American who was born and raised in the Midwest, the Rice Paper Collective’s attempt at community organizing and movement raising while dealing with different types of isolation resonated with me. Second, as an artist, I was emotionally moved by the contents of the magazine in different, dissonant ways that compelled me to engage further with the magazine. I felt pride; student leaders who lived on this campus decades ago were able to build communities and implement changes that I benefit from today. Without their efforts, how much longer would it have taken for universities to stop counting Asian Americans in demographic statistics as Orientals? And I experienced sadness simultaneously with pride. Rice Paper, for a few years, provided Midwest Asian Americans with an avenue through which they could be heard. But only for a few years. Rice Paper has a very small physical footprint—there is one full editions copy of the magazine housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library—and almost no internet footprint. I believe that Rice Paper deserves more attention.
Using different pages in Rice Paper, I translated chunks of article text into three different found poems. I chose to create found poems instead of completely original compositions because I wanted to preserve the work of the Rice Paper Collective as much as possible, and moreover, I wanted to bring Rice Paper faithfully into 2025. Poems that I might have written in response to Rice Paper would be less important to read than the magazine itself—these found poems are exercises in community building that exist on a scale that eclipses individual commentary. I have one voice. Rice Paper supported many voices, creating a communal voice.
Though my project consists of poems, in this context I am no poet. Instead, I am a translator, converting the contents of Rice Paper into new vehicles, in the hope that these needed Asian American voices, past and present, continue echoing.
Statement for “Delegations”
In this piece, I wanted to show the ways the delegations communicated within their own groups and with groups from other areas all in relation to each other. They spoke earnestly about collaboration, as all the delegations expressed needing community. It is evident in the way all the delegations’ positions were written that lived experiences of marginalization underpinned their organizations; invisibility, isolation, and societal and institutional racism clarified their need for community and self-determination. Students formed the communities they needed for support and safety and insisted that institutions use the names they had given themselves (“Asian Americans” opposed to “Orientals”). [4]
Collectivity exists tangibly, is physically real. Rice Paper is an example of that, and the found poem “Delegations” aims to honor and preserve that realness. A found poem is a poem that sources all its words from an original text or texts. I used the form here for a two main reasons. First, there was a strong emotional current underneath the source article that I wanted to communicate in 2025. I recognized it as an Asian American today and wanted to show that the energy of those in 1974 is not lost on us now. Second, the found poem illustrates that engaging with our histories yields fruits that have the capacity to heal and inspire. The found poem itself is an exercise in community.
There are unusual punctuations in the piece “Delegations,” which I would like to briefly address here. Self-determination of marginalized groups means that multiplicity must be considered. How do multiple, sometimes very different groups, band together and choose the same political name? The people who identify with the term Asian American are varied and diverse—they experience many, simultaneous lived experiences. Truths. The presence of the backslash as the main form of punctuation in this piece encourages the reader to take multiple meanings from the same word groupings.
____
Delegations
Union South / Madison WI / 1974 //
September 27 / Friday dinner
together / Vivian Chen coordinator /
our focus / ‘Perspectives
on the Asian American movement
in the Midwest’ / over 70 Asian American /
students / professional / people / attend
September 28 / Saturday organize / workshops
/ present delegations / positions / workshops/
break / vote
Urbana-Champaign delegation / position //
little success / concerned
Asians / lack direction /
our impression / average Asian
on campus / unaware / of being /
conscious / lack / commitment
to seriousness / answer is more /
Ethnic Studies / A program / programs /
obvious obstacles / white / not principal
problem / no lack / lack of concern
/ ed Asians: the thread / we’ve found our group /
over and over / a slim thread / drawn
attention to / the Midwest / Orient /
they count us as Orientals at the University
/ we are not /
we’ve found our group / need
/ to declare Asian American
Detroit delegation / position //
thread cut / through nationality we /
hold on / sense cold / community exists
/ threads needles through solid hands
/ friction / members of this union need
True / solid friendships / equal / all
speaking strong / voices /
how to define community /
how to become more than just words
Oberlin delegation / position //
no strength without unification
/ on principles / the Asian American
identity / exists / this / the basis
of social movement / beginning
identity / is collective / assembling
discovery / experience our activity
/ engage what / is the activity we
/ are engaged / student demonstrations
/ here / former waves / U.S. Third World
student movements faint / fleeting
this movement emanates / from
the campus / fading pulse /
interested in Asian American / programming
/ uninterested in spectacle / farsightedness /
this regional movement / potential
to be more /
in need of community / need
community raising / self-determination
/ our prime goal / Ohio is not so different
from Wisconsin from Illinois from Michigan /
we hold / common problems / we hold /
community we hold / a thin thread /
many hands / reaching together / reaching
the people / continuous exhausting
effort / pull / pull / the college fails
/ to be practical / fails / to offer
training in usable skills / community
work / stresses / of ethnic survival
not on campus / lived daily in the community /
this community will go unserved /
our present impetus / ideology /
this must change / expand into engagement
/ there is no strength without unification
Ann Arbor delegation / position //
forced psychological / physical
assimilation / into white culture / racist
/ diversity of people / the advantage / we
/ must integrate /
our politics / our personal lifestyles
Union South / Madison WI /
1974 / two days / here
Statement for “These Yellow Pages”
Originally, I had planned on piecing together a found poem based on the resources that Rice Paper provided at the end of each edition. These resources were varied, covered many communities, and were closely related to the politics of the magazine (for example, Rice Paper published an article on unethical wine production from Gallo in California in their fall of 1975 issue. They urged readers not to purchase Gallo wine because of their inhumane treatment towards workers).[5]
Instead, I opted to make a found/blackout poem out of the sections of the resources pages dedicated to Midwestern contacts. After reading Rice Paper through several times, I wanted to emphasize the specific people that helped make collective organizing possible. To name them is to preserve the energy and labor they put into organizing community. To name them is to prove ourselves capable of continuously building and maintaining communities in which we support and sustain each other.
To name them completely, however, would have been a breach of privacy, and a possible safety issue. This is why “These Yellow Pages” also incorporates blacked-out versions of text originally containing sensitive information. As the poem progresses, less and less information is offered.
There is also a linear narrative in the Midwest Contacts sections of Rice Paper that seemed important for readers to confront. The first Contacts page is full of names, addresses and phone numbers. As the reader moves from one edition to the next, less contact information is provided, less people are present on the page. This poem aims to straddle the dichotomy between communicating love and care while being physically distant and fatigued. I wanted to show that not only is this communicated care possible, it is also viewable, holdable. This is a joyful thing. That joy and love, however, is opposed by attrition. The contacts, the people who acted as points of support, dwindle in numbers until you reach the summer of 1977, the last issue of Rice Paper. There is no Midwest Contacts page in the last issue. [6]
____
These Yellow Pages
SUMMER 1974
Contact people. A comprehensive contact list.
Active Asian Americans in the Midwest. Please send
us more names, whatever’s not represented here.
Ann Arbor
M███████ Chang,
████ Baylis Dr,
313-971-███5
T██ Liu,
████ Pebble Cr Rd,
313-971-███2
Champaign
S████ Lee,
████ Brummel,
Evanston 60201
Chicago
J████ Suzuki,
████ Sheridan #████,
312-334-███2
U. of Ill.—Circle Campus
B███ Nishiura,
████ 71st Pl,
312-324-███5
New Youth Center
A█ Sung,
████ 24th St,
312-791-███0
East Lansing
J██ Shimoura,
███ McDonel Hall,
517-353-███2
Chesterton
P██ Katayama,
████ Second St,
219-926-███7
Saint Louis
L████ Sueoka,
12681 Tallow,
314-434-███2
Evanston
S█████ Hohri,
████ Orrington #208,
312-492-███6
Madison
J███ Tchen,
███ N Butler,
608-255-███3
Minneapolis
A██ Takekawa,
████ Hennepin Ave,
612-824-███5
Northfield
D███ Aki,
Carleton College,
55057
Bowling Green
E████ Lam,
Bowling Green State U. Library,
43403
Oberlin
P███ Uyehara,
please call 216-774-███1 ext. #2205
◖ ◖ ◖
FALL 1975
A contact list. Please reach out.
Some more responsive than others.
Ann Arbor
█████ Wu,
█████ Woo,
████ Lee House
Chicago
███ Liu
312-791-████,
████████ Chang,
████ S Wells
Antioch
██████ Ng,
██████ Dayton
Madison
████████ Hwang,
███ W Washington Ave ████,
608-251-████,
█████ Chin,
███ S Brooks,
608-255-████,
█████████ Yeh,
███ W Mifflin St,
608-255-████,
████ Nakasato,
███ W Wilson ████,
608-255-████
Minnesota
█████ Chin,
Sanford Hall- UM,
█████ Somekawa,
███ E Ridgeview Dr,
████ Takekawa
████ Hennepin Ave ██,
Northfield
████ Okahara,
█████
◖ ◖ ◖
WINTER 1975
Please send us more names,
whatever is not represented here.
Ann Arbor
█████ Chu,
█████ First St #█████████
University of Illinois
█████ Lee,
████ Brummel
Chicago
█████ Suzuki,
312-324-████
███ Liu,
█████ Addison, 60613
████ Moy,
312-539-████
Colorado
██████ Endo,
University of Colorado,
███████
Chesterton, Indiana
███ Katayama,
219-92██████
Saint Louis
█████ Sueoka,
█████ Tallows
Madison
████ Tchen,
███ N Butler,
608-25██████
◖ ◖ ◖
SUMMER 1976
Contacts in the Midwest.
Ann Arbor
The East Wind,
████ Michigan Union
Office of Community Services,
313█████████
Commission for Minority Affairs,
313█████████
Chicago
Chinatown Center,
████████████
Columbus
███ Liu,
Asian American Association,
████████████
Madison
██████ Chin,
608█████████
████ Nakasato,
608█████████
Oberlin
██████ Hayashida,
216█████████
◖ ◖ ◖
SUMMER 1977
Statement for “Obituary”
This is the farewell letter from the editors of Rice Paper, appearing in its last issue. The Rice Paper Collective titled this goodbye “Obituary.” [7] The language of the letter communicates a tired frustration that takes a good deal of energy to read.
The first draft of this poem was longer and incorporated words and phrases from the whole of the text. I took issue with the tone in parts of the letter from the editors, as it becomes accusatory in some places. Instead of displaying that energy, I chose to create a brief blackout poem using only the first paragraph of the letter as source material. A blackout is similar to a found poem, in that it employs the use of a source text(s). It differs from a found poem by employing the use of strikeouts, which makes omission something physical that appears on the page.
Making a blackout poem out of the first part of the letter allowed me to focus on part of what made Rice Paper so captivating for me: it proved that community raising efforts are timeless. Even if those communities mostly dissolve after a few years, like Rice Paper did, the energy that was fostered and expended in order to build them remains real. What is also timeless are the factors that lead to dissolving collectives: “unforeseen circumstances… outlived usefulness.” [8] The editors, through all three years of the magazine’s existence, wanted people to write to them. I love that they still encourage people to try to find a way to communicate with them in the end. In my opinion, “write to us… find out what happens” [9] is the most fitting way that Rice Paper could have gone out. This very brief poem is to communicate and honor that.
____
Obituary
Dear Folks █████████████████████████████
████████████████████ unforeseen circumstances
emerge. ███████ unusual; ██████████████████
██████████████████████████ outlived ███
usefulness. ███████████████ write to us ██ find out
what happens ██████████████
[1] Lee, Sharon. (Un)Seen and (Un)Heard: The Struggle for Asian American “Minority” Recognition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1968-1997. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, PhD dissertation, 2010, https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/15594/bitstreams/102815/data.pdf.
[2] Rice Paper Collective, “Rice Paper,” Rice Paper, 1974, 3.
[3] Rice Paper Collective, “Rice Paper,” Rice Paper, 1974, 3.
[4] Rice Paper Collective, “2nd Midwest Asian American Conference, ‘Perspectives of the Asian American Movement’: Union South – University of Wisconsin, 227 North Randall Ave, Madison, WI, September 27-29, 1974,” Rice Paper, 1975, 8.
[5] Rice Paper Collective, “Don’t Buy Grapes or Gallo Wine,” Rice Paper, Fall 1975, 4.
[6] Rice Paper Collective, “Yellow Pages,” Rice Paper, Summer 1977, 46, 47.
[7] Dong, Al, “Obituary,” Rice Paper, August 1977, 3.
[8] Dong, “Obituary,” 3.
[9] Dong, “Obituary,” 3.