The Asian Cultural Council (ACC) is glad to celebrate GivingTuesday this year with words from our alumni community describing what ACC has given them. ACC grantees and alumni carry out our invaluable mission of advancing international dialogue, understanding, and respect through cultural exchange. Through their experiences and impact on the world, they amplify and enact ACC’s institutional values.  

GivingTuesday is a global movement unleashing the power of radical generosity. The day was created in 2012 to encourage people to do good. Since then, it has grown into a year-round global movement that inspires millions to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity. As a grant-giving and grant-seeking nonprofit organization, ACC’s work is made possible through the generous donations of individuals, groups, and institutions that support our important work. Each donation, no matter the size, helps ensure the next generation of artists, scholars, arts professionals, and organizations can experience the same life-changing opportunities ACC has fostered for more than 60 years. 

This year, we are grateful to share thoughts from Brian Bernards, Chiao-Chi Chou, and Hương Ngô about their ACC experiences. Below you will find a short description of each alum and their grant activities, followed by three questions with individual answers. Their observations and takeaways exemplify how a gift to ACC helps to create transformative opportunities for cultural exchange. 

Thank you for considering ACC in your end of year giving! As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, your donation to ACC is tax-deductible. Join us in making a gift to help build a more compassionate and interconnected world. Warm thanks to all who support ACC this GivingTuesday by donating through one of the many channels on our support page: https://www.asianculturalcouncil.org/support 

 

Brian BERNARDS (ACC 2024) Arts Criticism | U.S. to Korea, Thailand 
Grant Summary: To research, write, and conduct interviews in Thailand for a book on Inter-Asian Cinema dealing with cinematic reflections on pop culture-inspired tourism. 
Chiao-Chi CHOU (ACC 2022) Visual Art | Taiwan to U.S 
Grant Summary: To visit research units in New York and explore the convergence between art, interdisciplinary technology, and life sciences. 
Hương NGÔ (ACC 2024) Visual Art | U.S. to Vietnam 
Grant Summary: To 3D scan and mold objects, architecture, and spaces in Vietnam that have triggered memories for overseas Vietnamese generations. 

 

Q: What did your ACC experience give you? 

Bernards: "ACC gave me the critical opportunity to advance a novel research project on the impact of media-inspired tourism and labor migration between Thailand, South Korea, and China, while organizing collaborative workshops with cinema studies faculty at Mahidol University in Thailand and the Thai Film Archive. This project was integral to an exciting forthcoming manuscript I am writing, titled Inter-Asian Cinema: Film Geographies of Migrant Labor, Popular Culture, and Tourism."

Chou: “ACC launched for me a simulated space of New York. Each day’s destination, the subtle changes of the city, and the chance conversations with people all guided me in constructing a new life. I found profound inspiration through these daily practices.” 

Ngô: “ACC gave me the opportunity to spend time in Vietnam conducting 3D scans in neighborhoods, alleys, homes, cultural centers and communal houses significant to my parents’ generation, including works from the collection of Nguyễn Mạnh Phúc, long-time art collector and supporter of the arts. I was also able to visit communities in Hòa Bình that continue traditional paper-making practices, to strengthen connections with Vietnamese artists and cultural producers, and to connect with young Vietnamese artists who will lead the local art scene into the future.” 

 

Q: What is something unexpected you got from your ACC experience? 

Bernards: “I made a lot more connections and had more cultural exchanges than I initially planned for—with filmmakers, producers, and artists as well as academic colleagues and university students, graduate and undergraduate alike. After arriving in Salaya, I found that there was just so much going on, both at the local Thai Film Archive (like the Short Film and Video Festival in December) and further upcountry (like the Blue Chair Film Festival). Recognizing the ACC’s primary emphasis on cultural exchange, I decided to make the most of these opportunities to connect with individuals in the local film, academic, and tourism scene, since I recognized the chance provided to be in the host country was unique, essentially once-in-a-lifetime.” 

Chou: “Sitting in the parks during blossom season, staying curious and open to every conversation, somehow solved many of my real problems: career directions, housing, and even new adventures. It’s not a joke.” 

Ngô: “An unexpected benefit of the ACC experience was being able to think through the nature of memory alongside friends and interlocutors and through the imperfect image-making form of 3D scans. The fractured nature of the digital objects were sometimes more true to the nature of memory than a perfect replica.” 

 

Q: How have you taken what you gained from your ACC experience and given back to your community or others? 

Bernards: “I have arranged opportunities for filmmakers from Southeast Asia to showcase their work at USC and be interviewed by our students. Towards the latter end of my research trip, I also worked with the Mahidol University International College and the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia to invite Filipino filmmaker Jopy Melo Arnaldo to screen his 2023 film Gitling and be interviewed by students in that program.” 

Chou: “Now that I’m based in New York, I try to encourage new ACC fellows to open their minds. I tell cool stories and invite them to explore together.” 

Ngô: “Since returning, I have been able to pass on the skills that I learned with a class on Critical-Creative Praxis here in Media Studies Department at UCSB and have continued a dialogue with artist Ngọc Nâu, which we’ve been able to formalize in the upcoming publication Artifact, published by the Vietnam Art Collection, and will continue through a shared residency next year.” 


Image captions in order of appearance: 

  1. Brian Bernards headshot 
  2. Chiao-Chi Chou headshot 
  3. Hương Ngô headshot 
  4. A work sample representing some of the research done on Hương Ngô's fellowship 
  5. Chiao-Chi Chou’s Eye of Flora, 2024, courtesy of the SYNPHYSICA team 
  6. Poster for Brian Bernards’s international research seminar Texts, Trails, Towns during his ACC fellowship