Asian Alliance X MPorium
This design will be featured on the shirts with the proceeds going to Asian Mental Health Collective. Source: Sophie Wong '23
Due to the recent surge in hate crimes against the Asian American community, the Marist College MPorium is ready to bring awareness to this situation through fashion.
Sophie Wong ‘23 is a designer for MPorium along with being one of the public relations liaisons for the Asian Alliance club on the Marist campus. Wong sought out to start a conversation on campus by combining two things that are very important to her: fashion and her culture. As a regular designer for the MPorium, she saw an opportunity to bring her Chinese culture into the boutique.
The idea to create this Stop Asian Hate collection originated with an event in association with other universities such as New Paltz and Binghamton, called Raising Asian Leaders. The event was to bring awareness to the recent hate crimes and to provide a space that students could turn to and vent out their frustrations.
Wong partnered with Andrew Mark ‘22 in order to come up with some prizes, like stickers and masks for the event. Mark came up with multiple designs such as, ‘Stop Asian Hate’ and ‘Hate is a Virus’, the phrases that have been used at protests and on social media.
However, Wong and Mark wanted to do more than just stickers. “I wanted to start a conversation on campus,” said Wong. “I want people to be educated.” As a Chinese American, she takes a lot of pride in her culture and wants to share it with others.
Some of the original designs incorporated a fox and a dragon with masks on using the slogans for the movement. The duo also came up with a design with a dark red background with a ‘Hate is a Virus’ in English and yellow text. Wong remarked that, “We all have to stand together in unity.”
Mark said, “My family has been wary of going out, especially to the city and places like that.” Being a digital design major, he found no challenge in celebrating his culture in his designs. “I get to have my own voice spoken through these works of art that we have created for Marist,” he said.
The pair both agreed to keep the motif of red and yellow, and/or gold, throughout the collection. “Red is a lucky color in Chinese culture and with yellow too,” said Mark. In Wong’s designs she wanted to make it very futuristic, but still keep those lucky Chinese colors in the textiles. She is looking forward to a change in the system, as well as, “the future and to a better time.”
“Start a new conversation, everyone has a different story - break the mold.”
Wong has been increasingly frustrated with the Asian hate crimes and has been so excited that she is able to start a conversation with people. “I just want to educate people and some people do not even know what is going on right now! All you have to do is spark a conversation.”
Mark feels proud to be able to combine his art and his culture here at Marist. “It is important to me because I actually get to have a voice in this whole situation and I get to voice my own opinion.”
The collection will consist of the stickers and T-shirts that Wong and Mark designed, and it will be sold at the Marist MPorium. Wong feels excited that she is going to create a footprint here at Marist with this collection. Some of the proceeds from the collection will be going to the Asian Mental Health Collective, Mark said.
Both were extremely thankful to Rebecca Brown and the Asian Alliance club at Marist for being able to give them a platform to share the work they have come up with this semester. Wong and Mark enjoy sharing their stories through their passions. Wong said, “Start a new conversation, everyone has a different story - break the mold.”