About
What is the goal of the comic strip?
The goal is to facilitate discussion and raise awareness about historical and contemporary issues in the Asian American community.
Who is your target audience?
The target audience is Asian Americans, especially the ones who have never taken an Asian American Studies class. Topics will be both historical and contemporary. The Chinese Exclusion Act, Angel Island, Internment, Alien Land Laws, The Page Law will all be explored. Contemporary issues will include racial profiling, interracial dating and marriage, mixed race Asian Americans, Asian Americans in the media, and pop culture. Health issues will also be very prominent: Breast, Cervical, and Lung Cancer, Hepatitis, Depression and Suicide will all be presented in this comic strip.
Why a female protagonist?
Two reasons: One, the good domains were already taken. Two, the initial stories including 5-O, NorCal Rapist, and Breast Cancer made most sense to tell through a female perspective. Stories will also include and be centered around Jennie's brother Kyle who was introduced in the Michael Richards strip.
How did you pick the name?
I ate at a great restaraunt in Mill Valley and the name was Jennie Low's Chinese Cuisine. www.jennielow.com
Is the comic strip meant to be funny?
No, the strip is not meant to be funny, but educational and an avenue to promote discussion about issues in our community. Race, class, gender, sexual orientation all dictate our life experience, including Jennie and her family. If you want to laugh, please see Dat Phan, Margaret Cho, Henry Cho, Rex Navarette, Amy Anderson, and Ali Wong, they're the best.
Where do you get your story ideas?
I get my stories directly from Asian American women and men who tell me stories about their lives. I also pull stories right out of the news like Michael Richards or the NorCal Rapist. If warranted, I do research on the story and determine the best way to inform the community. The NorCal Rapist, 5-O, and Breast Cancer are examples of strips that required a lot of research. I run by the scripts and roughs of all my strips by an advisory panel of 10 Asian American women and men from all different backgrounds before publishing them.
What are characters based on?
All characters are based on real people. Some characters are a combination of more than one person. Dialog is often verbatim from conversations.
Cast
- Jennie
- Jennie Low is the main character of saf. She's a 21-year-old junior at UC Berkeley. Majoring in Asian American Studies, she learns about race, gender, class, and life in general inside and outside of class. She's a Chinese American who grew up in the Richmond District in San Francisco, California. Her dad's grandparents immigrated through Angel Island and settled in San Francisco Chinatown. Her mom is first generation from Guangdong, China.
- Mom
- Jennie's mom is a little too concerned about what Jennie's major in school is, what type of career she'll have, and especially who she's dating.
- Dad
- Jennie's dad has high expectations of his kids, but does everything he can to help them meet those expectations.
- Tina
- Jennie's older sister is married to a Chinese man and has lived up to all her parents expectations.
- Kyle
- Jennie's brother is an engineering major at Stanford.
- Marie
- Jennie's friend and classmate. Marie thinks she sees the world through a colorblind lens, when in fact she is very color conscious.
- Jackie
- Jennie's older friend is a single mother with one daughter.
- Malcolm
- A classmate of Jennie's majoring in African American Studies and Political Science. He's radical, and has been called an extremist. To that he replies, "Well, black people are in an extremely bad situation, so yes, you can call me an extremist."
- Rob
- A white guy that Jennie dated for three weeks.