Asian magazine returns after two years

East Wind, a magazine highlighting Asian culture at UNC and abroad, plans to publish this year after a two-year hiatus.

The magazine, published once per semester, will cover stories from Asian American cultural issues on campus to earthquake disaster relief, said Tammy Chen, president of the Asian Students Association.

Two representatives for the association, first-year students Helen Ching and Nathan Wong, will act as co-editors-in-chief for the magazine.

“We want to raise awareness about cultural issues on campus,” Ching said. “Hopefully it will connect everyone and help get people involved in cultural events.”

But despite high hopes for the magazine’s potential, the editors said they anticipate a major obstacle in carrying out production.

“We will be doing a lot of fund-raising,” Ching said. “We’re hoping for grants from many organizations both on and off campus.”

Former East Wind editor-in-chief Tuo Yang said funding is critical for the publication’s success.

“A primary reason we had to stop printing was because of a lack of funding,” Yang said. “We got a large amount of money from the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, but being a large news publication, we had difficulty receiving funding from Student Congress.”

Despite the many challenges fundraising will present, Ching remains optimistic.

“If we just can’t find enough money, then we might try to publish it online on the ASA Web site,” she said. “We just want to spread the message.”

Ching said they hope to finish and distribute the first issue within the next couple months.

Staff writers will include not only fellow members of ASA, but anyone interested in writing about the Asian-American community.

Organizers will hold an interest meeting for prospective writers Oct. 23.

“We want to incorporate opinions from every student group on campus, not just the ASA,” Wong said. “This will serve as a voice for the Asian-American community as a whole, a demographic that often doesn’t have much of a public voice.”

East Wind originally began publication at UNC in 1994 in newspaper format.

“We had very humble beginnings,” Yang said. “It depended too heavily on volunteer writer contributions and never had a professional staff familiar with journalism and layout.”

But the shaky start and lapses in production didn’t deter the hope for reviving the magazine.

“I was going through an old box of ASA junk,” Chen said. “And I pulled out these magazines and thought it would be great to start this back up.”



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.