The Southern Mix project began in 2017 after a group of UNC-Chapel Hill students saw a need for the University archives to reflect stories of Asian and Asian Americans in North Carolina. The group brought students, alumni and faculty together to think about how Carolina could become a repository for oral histories. Soon after, Southern Mix was born.
“At the heart of Southern Mix is an oral history collection dedicated to Asian and Asian Americans in the South,” said Kevin Kim, associate director of the Asian American Center.
Today, Southern Mix is leading the way in reflecting the experiences of Asian and Asian Americans in North Carolina and the larger region of the South through oral histories. The project is made possible through the incredible effort put forth by the Asian American Center, Carolina Asia Center and the Southern Oral History Program partnering to gather unique stories ranging from escape, immigration, interethnic and interracial experiences, as well as how to cook a grandparent’s favorite meal.
Kim explained that Southern Mix not only allows for the collection and archiving of stories but also the ability to share the lived experiences of Asian and Asian Americans in the South to an external audience.
“Asian Americans have been in the South for a very long time,” Kim said. “They have been a fabric of the South and of all parts of the South, the traumatic, contested and complicated parts, but also the new mosaic that is the South today.”
This representation is educational and validating, Kim said, to see Asian American faces in the South and to hear Asian Americans with Southern accents, with deep, rich North Carolina drawls.
Reflecting the stories of one of the fastest growing populations in the region is paramount, and it’s what students at Carolina want to learn about. Kim said students want to engage in Asian American studies and histories, regardless of whether or not they are Asian Americans themselves.
One of the main ways students are able to engage is through the Southern Oral History Program and in their coursework Southern Mix is a substantial part of a course dedicated to oral history. In the spring 2024 semester, students went out and collected interviews from Asian and Asian Americans in North Carolina and other parts of the South. These interviews became a part of Southern Mix’s archives.
Meet Christina Huang, a student working on the archives
Collaboration is essential in repository work. Southern Mix relies on the Southern Oral History Program, where student interest and research drives the needle forward to collect stories. The program also works directly with community organizations to collect existing stories and connect with interested students, who then contact those community organizations.
How it works
Because Southern Mix is a constituent of different partners, the collection process fluctuates, depending on the stories. Typically for a student or a class project, it’s about a semester-long process. Below are the routine steps for how Southern Mix creates an oral history.
- Collect the interviews.
- Transcribe the interviews.
- Create abstracts for the stories.
- Send the audio, transcript and abstract to the Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) for review.
- Students and the SOHP make sure all the paperwork is done and releases are signed.
- Interviews are collected and transmitted to Wilson Library, which reviews the materials and adds crucial metadata to make it accessible for everyone.
- Interviews are archived in Wilson Library for future generations.
Southern Mix continues to grow its efforts to archive stories of Asian and Asian Americans in the South. This year, Southern Mix is piloting a traveling exhibition, going around to different parts of North Carolina. So far, the exhibit has been hosted at libraries, public lobbies and buildings, and consists mostly of photos and quotes from interviews on foam boards with QR codes linking to the full audio recordings. The exhibit has gone to the Catawba County Library System, as well as, most recently, to the Cary Regional Library in Wake County. Kim’s hope is that the exhibit will travel across the state, bringing archived stories to as many community members as possible.
Meet Sophie To, a PhD candidate working on Southern Mix
“One of the ways we hope these stories live on is through community engagement,” Kim said. “Southern Mix was never meant to just be extractive. As important as it is to hold these stories and save these stories for future generations, it’s also important to share these stories out in a way that is validating to community members.”
In the summer of 2024, Southern Mix went to Catawba County in western North Carolina, where there’s a pronounced Hmong refugee population. At the exhibition, Southern Mix featured Hmong stories.
Southern Mix’s future goals include working with schools to develop K-12 material for educators. The program recently partnered with Green Hope High School, where a social studies teacher used Southern Mix as a guide and model for their own oral history project.
Meet Colin Richardson, a high school teacher using the archives in his classroom
Supporting Southern Mix will ensure it can continue expanding and become more efficient in processing stories. Current capacity has led to a bottleneck in processing, and having more resources will create more opportunities to continue making strides to represent Asian and Asian American voices in the South. You can help support Southern Mix through the Asian American Center’s general operating fund.
Photos by Jeyhoun Allebaugh; Videos by Jeyhoun Allebaugh and Chase Martin; Story by Terzah Dyer, UNC Development