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Yanzhuo Li
English 1A
May 29, 2016
Professor Ogden
Outline for The Purple Man

I. Thesis Statement : Kenny Chung is an emerging researcher and scholar in the area of the
Asian American experience with epilepsy.

I. Introduction
A. The color purple
B. Who is Kenny Chung and want does he do

I.
A.
B.
C.

First Body Paragraph

How we met at PCC
Class introductions
Dropping the H bomb

I.
A.
B.
C.

Second Body Paragraph

Why Kenny cares about epilepsy
Kenny's past quantitative work regarding epilepsy
Collaborations and publications

I. Third Body Paragraph

A. Qualitative research project with Epilepsy Foundation
B. How he got the job
Fourth Body Paragraph
A. Experiences conducting the qualitative focus groups for outreach
1. Interesting comments from focus groups
II. Conclusion

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A. So what statement: Kenny Chung has done a great deal of work in trying to increase the
knowledge regarding epilepsy among Asian Americans and to improve the level of outreach
to Asian Americans with epilepsy.
B. So why does Kenny love the color purple?
C. Purple is the official color of epilepsy Awareness Month, and Kenny has done a great deal to
spread awareness about epilepsy.

The Purple Man

Purple! I love the color purple! Kenny Chung also loves the color purple. Who is
Kenny Chung and why does he love the color purple you ask? I'll get to that in just a minute.
I will like to provide some more background and context show information before I answer
that important question.

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First, I'd like to go back a few academic semesters and discuss how I first met Kenny.
Kenny and I were in the same Chinese class at Pasadena City College a few semesters ago. It
is customary to make self-introductions at the beginning of the course, and Kennys
introduction really stood out. He mentioned that he had just finished a master's degree in
public health and was getting ready to apply for law school. When asked where he went to
graduate school, he dropped the H-Bomb! There was a collective gasp then silence after he
said where he went to school. A number of the students in our class had graduated from
college, many from UCs and Cal States, but he was the only one who graduated from
Harvard University. In fact, he is still the only person I personally know who is a graduate of
Harvard. I don't believe too many Harvard graduates attend PCC afterwards. Kenny said that
he was there to improve his Chinese language skills for his work.
Kenny mentioned in passing that he did some research in the area of epilepsy related
to Asian Americans. My interest was immediately piqued. My uncle had epilepsy, and he
suffered greatly from it. In particular, he suffered a great deal from the stigma that was
attached to the condition. After class ended, I introduced myself to Kenny. I told him about
my uncle and asked what type of research he did related to the epilepsy. He said that he led
his own research team to conduct two studies while he was an undergraduate student. The
first study led him and his team from Los Angeles to Seattle to New York and a number of
cities in between. The study was a quantitative study that sought to better understand the
knowledge, attitude and, practice towards epilepsy of Chinese and Vietnamese populations in
the United States. He fondly recalled the experience of speaking and interacting with
thousands of Asian Americans all across the United States. His eyes lit up when he spoke
about his project. When I asked him why he wanted to do the study, he said that he did it in
memory of his uncle passed away due to complications related to epilepsy. This uncle also
suffered greatly from the stigmatization of epilepsy and took drugs where severe side effects

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in order to better control his seizures. Kenny's uncle essentially sacrificed his kidneys in order
to maintain an ordinary life free of seizures. It was a very sad story and I could entirely be
late to it. I've also seen how hard my uncle has worked to hide his condition. The stigma of
epilepsy goes beyond just weird looks on the street or name calling, it could mean the taking
away of job opportunities and other real world consequences. In memory of his uncle, Kenny
conducted this quantitative study and collaborated with a number of medical centers and
universities around the United States. Beyond this, Kenny also worked with his professor and
research team to publish a number of peer-reviewed research papers from this study.
Although just completing this quantitative study what have been very impressive for
an undergraduate student, Kenny continued on to do another qualitative study. According to
Kenny, this qualitative study involved bring together people with epilepsy to participate in
focus groups that were conducted in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese. Although
this study was smaller in geographic scale, the barrier to recruiting people with epilepsy was
significantly higher because of the existing stigma. People simply did not want to voluntarily
talk about their condition. They particularly did not like talking about their condition in
public with other people. The aim of the focus group was to get a better sense of the types of
resources that were readily available to people with epilepsy and also to see what types of
services and outreach this group of people would like to have.
After sharing about his previous research studies, I asked Kenny if he was still
involved in epilepsy work. He said that he was still working with the national Epilepsy
Foundation to design a better outreach program for Asian Americans in the U.S. The
Foundation was quite lacking in their outreach towards Asian Americans and had not had a
major program for that demographic in quite a few years even though Asian Americans tend
to have a slightly higher incidence of epilepsy as compared to the national average. The
outreach program required a great deal of research into what types of outreach program with

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be successful as well as additional focus group with Asian Americans. Kenny said that he was
able to secure the Epilepsy Foundation project because he was one of the only researchers in
the country who has done research on epilepsy related to Asian Americans.
In conducting his research for the outreach program, Kenny held focus groups in a
number of areas around Los Angeles County as well as in Cleveland, Ohio. In the course of
these focus group, Kenny heard many interesting stories and perspectives related to epilepsy.
Some of these he had heard before from other research papers, but some of the comments
were quite refreshing and eye-opening. During one of the focus groups, the participants were
discussing different things that they have heard about epilepsy and the potential causes of
epilepsy. One participant mentioned that people from her area in China avoided eating frogs
during pregnancy because they believed that eating frogs during pregnancy will lead to the
child being born with epilepsy. Frogs in that area of China were considered a delicacy. This
tradition of avoiding the consumption of frogs during pregnancy has been going on for many
generations without much scientific backing or research. Kenny was somewhat bewildered by
this comment and also very intrigued by it. He says that it is one of the joys of holding these
types of focus groups. It is through communication and respectful exchanges that researchers
can truly learn more about epilepsy, and outreach programs can be made truly successful and
meaningful. It is unfortunate that most researchers and medical professionals simply focus on
what they want to tell people and seem to have little interest in hearing from their patients or
people who are suffering from particular diseases and conditions.
All in all, Kenny Chung has done a great deal of work in trying to increase the
knowledge regarding epilepsy among Asian Americans and to improve the level of outreach
to Asian Americans with epilepsy. Now, Id like to go back to the beginning of this essay. So
why does Kenny love the color purple so much? Purple is the official color of Epilepsy
Awareness Month, and Kenny has done a great deal to spread awareness about epilepsy. He

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sees that color purple as a reminder and call to action to continue his work in advocating for
people with epilepsy and helping to improve their lives.

Works Cited
Chung, Kenny, Susan L. Ivey, Wenting Guo, Kevin Chung, Catherine Nguyen, Christine
Nguyen, Corina Chung, and Winston Tseng. "Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice
toward Epilepsy (KAPE): A Survey of Chinese and Vietnamese Adults in the United
States." Epilepsy & Behavior 17.2 (2010): 221-27. Elsevier. Web. 25 May 2016.

Chung, Kenny, Yuan Liu, Susan L. Ivey, Debbie Huang, Corina Chung, Wenting Guo,
Winston Tseng, and Daveena Ma. "Quality of Life in Epilepsy (QOLIE): Insights
about Epilepsy and Support Groups from People with Epilepsy (San Francisco Bay
Area, USA)." Epilepsy & Behavior 24.2 (2012): 256-63. Elsevier. Web. 25 May 2016.