Project Pengyou UW-Madison Chapter

04/14/2022

06/30/2020

Since George Floyd's tragic death last month, as a cultural organization, we have been carefully thinking about what we can do to become more diverse and inclusive. “Project Pengyou's (‘Pengyou means friend in Mandarin Chinese’) mission is to empower and mobilize a rising generation of U.S.-China bridge-builders to bring about a world that embraces diverse cultures and shared humanity.”

Though our name and mission focus on U.S.-China relations, this is not exclusive. As an organization that aims to bring communities of all kinds together, it devastates us to hear about recent events that have been taking place across the country. We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and write this message to demonstrate our support. These current protests further prove the systematic oppression that the Black community has, and continues, to face.

Just as Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We hope the world, as a global village, will enact the necessary changes that will result in greater justice for all people. In order to do so, we must not only spread awareness through online platforms, but spread that same awareness in our everyday lives. How can we do this?
The first step is self-reflection. Some questions you can ask yourself include but are not limited to: What implicit biases do I hold about certain groups of individuals? Where did these implicit biases stem from? How can I educate myself to break away from my implicit biases? This should be a never-ending process. We must continue to ask ourselves these questions no matter how much growth we think we have achieved and no matter how wise we think we have become.

The next step is to spread this way of thinking to the people around us. Oftentimes, people do not feel the need to speak up because they feel that their platform is too small. However, we can assure you that the size of your platform does not determine whether or not you can advocate for equality in our community. Don’t think you are insignificant when the world is facing a crisis; we all have a role to play. One person at a time, we can work to dismantle the racism that continues to plague our society.

In future semesters, Project Pengyou plans to put careful thought and consideration into the creation of our events in order to best promote empathy and understanding among people of different cultural backgrounds. We ultimately strive for people to love each other for their differences while still remaining unified as one community. Remember, a rainbow can never be beautiful without the different colors that define it. Be together, and be stronger.

Last but not least, great thanks to our friend Henry Obeng for the beautiful photos! Follow him on the Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/henree.jr1/!

06/30/2020

Since George Floyd's tragic death last month, as a cultural organization, we have been carefully thinking about what we can do to become more diverse and inclusive. Project Pengyou's (‘Pengyou means friend in Mandarin Chinese’) mission is to empower and mobilize a rising generation of U.S.-China bridge-builders to bring about a world that embraces diverse cultures and shared humanity.
Though our name and mission focus on U.S.-China relations, this is not exclusive. As an organization that aims to bring communities of all kinds together, it devastates us to hear about recent events that have been taking place across the country. We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and write this message to demonstrate our support. These current protests further prove the systematic oppression that the Black community has, and continues, to face.

Just as Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We hope the world, as a global village, will enact the necessary changes that will result in greater justice for all people. In order to do so, we must not only spread awareness through online platforms, but spread that same awareness in our everyday lives. How can we do this?

The first step is self-reflection. Some questions you can ask yourself include but are not limited to: What implicit biases do I hold about certain groups of individuals? Where did these implicit biases stem from? How can I educate myself to break away from my implicit biases? This should be a never-ending process. We must continue to ask ourselves these questions no matter how much growth we think we have achieved and no matter how wise we think we have become.

The next step is to spread this way of thinking to the people around us. Oftentimes, people do not feel the need to speak up because they feel that their platform is too small. However, we can assure you that the size of your platform does not determine whether or not you can advocate for equality in our community. Don’t think you are insignificant when the world is facing a crisis; we all have a role to play. One person at a time, we can work to dismantle the racism that continues to plague our society.

In future semesters, Project Pengyou plans to put careful thought and consideration into the creation of our events in order to best promote empathy and understanding among people of different cultural backgrounds. We ultimately strive for people to love each other for their differences while still remaining unified as one community. Remember, a rainbow can never be beautiful without the different colors that define it. Be together, and be stronger.

Last but not least, great thanks to our friend Henry Obeng for the beautiful photos! Follow him on the Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/henree.jr1/

03/26/2020

Pengyou means "friend" in Chinese. This incident appeared yesterday night and was shared throughout Wechat. As the Project Pengyou chapter at UW-Madison, we want to remind our community that incidents like this generate fear against and within the Chinese student community at UW. University of Wisconsin-Madison hosted a townhall today at 4 PM to address the issue. In the last few months, there have been 81 total racial bias reports. 47 of those reports were filed by Asian American and Asian international students. The history of US-China relations is a deep and often hurtful one. The divide between international Chinese students and domestic US students often reflects that history. During this pandemic, we will not allow these fears to further divide our community, and we continue to be dedicated to bridging this gap. Please be empathetic and kind to each other. Please remember that everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, or citizenship is going through the same thing. And please, stop using the term . We are all pengyous. For our Madison Chinese community, you are not alone. We stand with you.

03/07/2020

Had a chill calligraphy and tea 🍵 night at the SAC today! Played some lofi, sipped tea, studied, and painted some calligraphy as the ultimate de-stresser for this midterm season ♥️

02/29/2020

Thanks for coming out to our first dinner series event at Fugu! It was so much fun meeting new pengyous and seeing old ones. Join us for our next dinner series in March, where we'll eating Ian's pizza and having a study day in 🥰

11/22/2019

Thanks for coming out to Friendsgiving! 🦃

11/19/2019

感恩节快乐！Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 We're having a potluck on Thursday night in celebration of ! Please RSVP to the event. We'll be eating food and having discussions about US-China and US-Asia relations. We hope to see you there!

RSVP here: https://bit.ly/2XAZdco

10/30/2019

Thank you for coming out to our 🎃pumpkin carving event with .uwmadison! Have a great Halloween, Pengyous 🥰 ~cue Monster mash~ 🧟

10/30/2019

09/26/2019

Come say hi to our in front of Rheta's from 12-2 PM today! We're talking hot pot Saturday, football night and dumpling making. Come grab a PPY sticker and some candy. :)