Inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and inappropriateness: examining the representation of Chinese students in university archives with radical empathy

Abstract

This paper aims to understand how Chinese international students are represented in university archives and the elements that can impact representation problems. We adopted radical empathy as a guiding principle to explore how 124 Chinese students at the University of Illinois (enrolled from 1904 to 1920) were represented in the university’s archival collections. Based on a qualitative inquiry, we found that inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and inappropriateness (three “I”s) in both original archival materials and archives-supplied access tools are the major representation issues of Chinese students that can negatively impact discovery and user engagement. These issues are grounded in a complex, holistic “ecosystem” of interplaying agents (e.g., students as information producers and archivists who mediate access), structural conditions, and documentation processes. Representation is affected by challenging conditions such as the complexities of recording Chinese names in English across different sources and the lack of resources for archival institutions to create more culturally sensitive access tools. We argue that reflecting on subtle marginalization, systemic issues, and the power of names and encouraging a slow praxis of radical empathy is critical to understanding representation issues and developing thoughtful remediation strategies. This study is one of the earliest projects to apply radical empathy to examining representation issues of Asian communities in English archival collections. The three “I”s and the elements that contribute to their presence constitute an original framework that can guide efforts to address representation problems of Chinese communities and other marginalized groups.