Interview with Tobee Chung Vanderwall

Authors

Tobee Chung Vanderwall

Files

Biography

Tobee Chung Vanderwall identifies as Chinese, Japanese, and Scottish. Born in Hawaii, she grew up and attended schools in San Francisco, California. She studied biochemistry at a research lab, taught at a middle school, and is now a mother of three children. She became politicized through the Black Lives Matter Movement at the start of the Trump presidency. As someone who learned to sew from her mother, she joined the Auntie Sewing Squad because she saw a need and had the sewing skills to meet the need. During her time in the Squad, Chung Vanderwall played a role in initiating the name change for the Fu mask pattern.

Thematic Summary

00:00:00 Tobee Chung Vanderwall discusses her background in Hawaii and San Francisco, how she learned to sew, and how she became interested in Black Lives Matter Movement and the Auntie Sewing Squad in response to the Trump presidency. 00:12:47 Chung Vanderwall shares the story of how she initiated a group discussion on the possible racist name of the Fu mask pattern and how that led to a revision of the mask name to Uncle Van Huynh (UVH) mask pattern among the Aunties. 00:22:27 She next discusses her thoughts on the racist use “Kung Flu” and “China virus” the Trump presidency used to describe the COVID-19 pandemic. 00:33:14 Chung Vanderwall then points to the longer history of civil rights organizing led by Black activists and her pride in her Asian heritage. 00:40:00 She ends by explaining how and why she uses Twitter, not Facebook, and the emergence of QAnon.

Interview Date

11-29-2021

Interviewer

Saul Bruno-Gonzalez; Horacio Barajas

Recommended Citation

Chung Vanderwall, Tobee, "Interview with Tobee Chung Vanderwall" (2021). Auntie Sewing Squad Interviews. 55.
https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/auntiesewing_interviews/55