THE VISION
Create a public resource to those curious about the Asian American Women who have impacted history and the modern day. The experience will include a live database that will gather names and biographies of Asian American women across backgrounds, types of achievements, and time; converging into one accessible center. Both an educational resource and interactive piece, the Library of Asian American Women hopes to bring inspiration and joy to new generations.
TOOLS
✔ Figma
✔ D3.js
✔ Claude Code
SETUP & CONTEXT
2018
The movie Crazy Rich Asians comes out, proving to critics that an all-Asian cast wouldn’t hinder the chances of producing a box office hit. Due to it’s success, conversations erupted across social media calling for the continual representation of Asian Americans in media and increased support for a diversity in Asian stories told. As an Asian-American woman who watched with pride at the new movement of Asian representation and recognition, I began to wonder how many other Asian-American stories have been swept under the rug. As the only Chinese person to graduate in a prominently white suburb, I always struggled with being proud of my heritage and identity. I began to wonder how many Asian-American women walked before me, that had I known their names, I would have had role models to look up to.
During a night of restlessness, I compiled names of Important Asian American Females (basically determined if they had a wikipedia page or not so definitely not an all-encompassing list) that served as a personal reminder to myself.
2019
This list was hung in my studio space, where other studio-mates and Asian American peers were inspired by the included names but also contributed with additional names. The list expanded to include names from all over Asia - China, Japan, Korea, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and many more. I was also challenged by how I defined and used “important” and “female” in this context. After conversations with other Asian American peers, I changed the name to Influential Asian American Women. It became apparent quickly that my initial list was evolving into a larger project that resonated with a lot of people. I began rethinking how I could change this list so that it was additive, dynamic, and far-reaching.
I then began designing an interactive website that would eventually become a library for the stories and achievements of influential Asian American Women.
2020
The pandemic hits, forcing a nationwide quarantine. After realizing that our new normal was here to stay, I thought I should bite the bullet and learn to code. My reluctance came from my experience with two creative coding classes in college where, both times, I had to be carried by my friends to pass the class. But Udemy was giving massive discounts on online courses for those bored in quarantine and I thought what the heck. At least this time, I could take my time and I wouldn’t be sinking that much of an investment if I concluded that I really wasn’t meant to be a coder.
After taking an beginners web development course on Udemy, I decided I needed a style of online learning better tailored towards creatives (not existing engineers or general STEM majors) and focused on d3 - a data visualization program in javascript that a programming friend suggested could help me get to my final design. That’s when I found SuperHi and have been following their courses since.
Baby steps is my motto for this project. As a starting point, I first tried to figure out how to code a linear bee swarm plot; building up to a radial bee swarm. After using an extended break over the holidays to grind on code, I managed to figure it out! Of course using only a select sample of names, I managed to plot a linear bee swarm that generated names, birth years, and even a link to their whole wikipedia page.
2021
After several months of procrastination and perpetually hitting blocks, I’ve finally figured out how to plot in a radial fashion using a .csv file (instead of hard coding an array of data)! Still have a ways to go before it’s close to what I had initially envisioned but I’m learning a lot from “happy accidents” and excited to be at the “finessing” part and not the “my code is completely broken” part.
After a few more months of head banging, I adjusted my radial plots to be more distanced according to birth year and was able to learn more about forces to apply it onto a spiral path. Reaching this milestone in my project has felt incredibly energizing and fulfilling. Although I started this project with a broad vision because I wasn’t sure the limitations of code, I’m really excited to see this visually come together.
2022
2022 is the year of refining! I really wanted to focus on aesthetics and making this an experience where people feel like they could spend a long time on. As someone who switches between light and dark mode often, I wanted to offer the same option to readers. I also worked on creating an interactive infographic to educate on the qualifications and countries the library of influential Asian-American women come from. At this point, I’ve noticed how much less time it takes me to actually code a new feature once I have my mind set.
2023