Wei Chen sits at the table, opens his backpack and unloads folders full of paperwork documenting alleged abuses against Asian immigrant students at South Philly High.

“Sometimes it’s the same student in many fights,” says Chen, pointing to a day planner that is full of Chinese writing, listing the troubles of each particular day.

“Some kids get picked on a lot.”


Dozens of the alleged incidents are relatively minor—name-calling, verbal threats, petty robberies, random punches in the head while walking down stairwells, and general intimidation. But according to Chen, at least six times last school year those minor incidents escalated into massive rumbles where outnumbered Asian students were pummeled by packs of teens, sending several of the victims to hospitals. Like the day last October when a group of around 30 kids allegedly attacked five Chinese students after school in the Snyder Avenue subway station, one block from school. That incident started when a black student walked up to a Chinese kid in the cafeteria, touched his hair and allegedly threw a carton of milk at him. Rumors of threats filtered through the school on the day after the subway rumble, and the notion of continued violence froze Asian students. 


“That day, all the Chinese students were very scared,” says Chen, an 18-year old senior who formed the South Philadelphia High School Chinese-American Student Association in the days after the alleged subway attack. “Students avoided the lunch room. They were scared to walk home. They stayed in the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) department until their parents picked them up.”


Many Asian students continued living in fear for the remainder of the school year, even after one of the alleged subway assailants was identified on SEPTA cameras and transferred to another school. In a cry for help, scared students signed petitions, wrote letters, held meetings, staged a walkout and pleaded with school administrators to do something about the attacks.


But the violence at South Philly High, listed among the state’s “persistently dangerous schools” for the third consecutive year, continued.


The litany of abuses isn’t limited to South Philly High. Male and female Asian students—especially those new to the country, who speak little or fractured English—have been targeted over the past few years, in schools from the Northeast to South Philly, in elementary and high schools. Students and activists say that Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Pakistani and other Asian youth have been singled out, assaulted in cafeterias, hallways, on city streets, school buses and everywhere in between. 


Kids say the violence has often been dismissed by school safety officers as well as administrators. “This is a cultural problem,” Wei Chen claims the former principal at South Philly told Asian students on the day after the subway rumble.


District officials acknowledge that some situations weren’t handled well, leaving many students feeling abandoned.


“There’s a lot of mistrust,” says comprehensive high school regional superintendent Michael Silverman. The impact of the violence on such vulnerable populations can have a major impact on their lives, activists say.


“We’ve heard of students not going to school—as young as 8th and 9th graders,” says Khin Mai Aung, a staff attorney with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF). 


“Some kids drop out. Others just become less involved and perform poorly. They can’t learn when they don’t feel safe.”


Where administrators or the School District intervened, improvements in student relations improved and the violence decreased—the number of overall violence in the district decreased by 17 percent last school year. But the culture of violence against Asian immigrants has existed for so long at some public schools that students almost accept that random beat downs are a part of life.


During the weeks prior to the subway rumble, there were numerous confrontations at South Philly High, according to student incident reports.


Eight students emptied the pockets and school bag of a Chinese student in the bathroom on Sept. 9, five days into the school year. The next day, Asian students were bombarded with oranges in the cafeteria. Several other students were robbed that month, or beat up. One Chinese student was punched in the left eye while walking through a hallway on Oct. 6. Another student was jumped in a stairwell the following day. During the week before the subway rumble, a Vietnamese student and his friend were jumped by 10 students, on several consecutive days, while walking home from school.


“They don’t even know you,” says Chen, who barely spoke English when he emigrated from China to Philadelphia in January 2007. “They just hit because you’re Asian.”


By Oct. 8, two days after the subway rumble, the Asian students were fed up. Nearly 70 students signed a petition demanding the school take action. They presented the petition to teachers and the principal. Then the Asian students walked out of school.


“We didn’t think that day would be safe,” explains Chen. The students were marked absent. No new safety measures were added. One month later, Asian students were jumped in the ESOL classroom.


“If Chinese students don’t go to school, it’s a big problem—they don’t learn,” says Xu Lin, a Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation staffer who mentors Asian teens. “But it’s a bigger problem if they go to school and get beat up.”


Lin, 24, understands the situation. He and three immigrant friends were jumped by 15 kids outside Furness High School in 2001. Two of his friends were hospitalized as a result. It was Lin’s first day of school in America.

all right...so...i was taught another lesson that life for chrissake is a curve...a strikingly extravagant display of an infinite number of vomity-looking bell curves that come one after another, marching along the ups and downs with all its smoothness and elegance and yet leaving the person crawling, stumbling, falling and seizuring on it...a magnificent edifice vs a constructor hedious like h...what a perfect match...

sorry that this travailleuse fell for it again and became so empty, so blank, so tasteless...the void between the two curves seems to grow bigger and bigger that she found the next curve was getting harder and harder to reach..you know what the girl would do before being abadoned by her curve...she will make a huge leap with all her strength accumulated on the current downslope and go on with her due trajectory on the next curve...dancing her dances..dreaming her dreams...with whatever feeling she is blessed with...

downslopes only make you stronger if they don't beat you.

刚才在校内上写了个小报告。。贴过来吧。。恩。我又回校内了。。

我来米国21个月零12天 上完了10门硕士课程 gpa 3.57 惭愧地说 我不是爱学习的孩子 早就没了当初准备gre笔考时那两个月对我来说已空前绝后的毅力 现在还有最后一门考试 在11月份 考完后就是master suhua了。。好吧 我承认我是故意拖这么久的 今年3月份的考试 虽然时间紧张点 但还是能考的

 鸭腩王说道 米国是天堂也是地狱 我试着在这21个多月的足迹里找到答案 然后再次发现 这地方是天堂里的地狱 恩恩 地狱里的日子虽不惊心动魄 但也悲壮 时不时地偷窥到天堂的天堂里折射过来的光芒 也时不时地被这光芒刺痛 然后我继续走动着 虽然很多时候还是那么消极

 地狱之所以在天堂 是因为你有权利选择用地狱的方式感受天堂（请注意 我说的是 感受 比yy还是高级的）或者用天堂的方式在地狱里堕落 天堂总是向你发出召唤的信号 要命的是 你不知道这是错觉还是对觉 然后你上路了 总能满载而归 不同的是 有时载誉 有时载伤

 有人说我不是来米国上学的 说实话 还真不是 研究生一般都上三门课 所以在temple 一周上三次课 一次两个半小时 一共7.5小时 有两个学期我就上两门课 剩下那么多时间干啥呢 如果我说有一半的时候我都在学习 了解我的人都该喷了。。。我乱七八糟地什么都干 我什么都想干 我还想在米国干更多的事 特别是那些在国内不会干的事 我就是憎恨自己闲着

总结下研究生课程的精髓：你可以忽悠 但是要有证据 特别是数据 米国人数学不好 什么却都讲数据 我也成数据人了。。。目前为止 在米国 我

 在律师楼打黑工 office assistant 8个月 2007年9月到2008年4月

在中日餐馆 接电话 服务员啥的 全职 3个半月 2008年5月到8月底

在学校宿管办公室打工 office assistant 2008年10月至今

在中餐外卖餐馆兼职接电话 1个月 2009年1月

当了三个学期的志愿者 在a senior center, a community learning center, an intensive english program at temple 教英文

在东部游山玩水 纽约 波士顿 华盛顿 巴尔蒂摩等。。。现在将目标锁定北部和中部

看了比本科四年还多的书 说的不是教科书 我讨厌教科书

记忆里哭了两次 一次因为一辆公交 一次因为一个人 （后记  又记起两次 一次因为一首歌 一次因为一部电影）

终于看了小时候一直向往的现场nba。。火箭和76人。。今年年底肯定要看次科比！

还有啥 还有啥。。。其他省略。。。

好吧 本着尽量独立的原则 我干了些事 也赚了些钱 但我一直是穷人 没有存款的穷人 都吃喝玩乐 交学费去了 想当初还信誓旦旦地说要攒老公本。。。所以说自费留学到底需要多少钱。。我真的不知道。。但我没花父母多少钱 我拿着21个月前他们给我的1万2美元混到现在。。有个重要原因是我不用交房租 恩恩 这个学期学校还给了我5000多刀。。经济独立是多么可贵的自由呀。。不然怎么敢这么逍遥自在。。现在的目标是在离开米国前把这1万2还了。。只是想证明我在努力。。也减轻点精神压力。。镀金成本低 就业门槛也可以低点吧。。恩恩 我果然是多灾多难的一代。。

好了 这可能是我写过最长的日志了 现在开始报告现状 

现在超级不想看书 才200页的一本小说集看快三周了还没到一半

现在在看自己还能干什么 但是由于身份限制 选择面太窄太窄了

现在希望work permit赶紧批下来 这样7月底就能在一个charter school工作了 就干四周 但是给钱还挺多。。28号快件寄到移民局 29号把我的340刀申请费收了 应该快了吧。。米国公立学校。。我的终极目标。。终于可以去参观一下了。。

现在想去纽约

现在想去尼亚加拉大瀑布

现在想去西部打工

现在想学开车

现在想捡个孩子

现在不想回家了。。。