Uncle Dan’s Notes: Asian Americans and TCKs
I’m going to the reference of my own experience in this post, namely being a TCK, and being (technically) an Asian-American. Hopefully it can relate to some of your experiences.
I never thought that much about being Asian American. It had occurred to me that people didn’t take me that seriously as an American growing up, because I looked Asian, but then most of my friends weren’t exactly what they said they were either. Lots of Eurasians, who had a strange, mixed loyalty to both their birth nationalities/races. And it was perfectly fine to us, so I fit in that category, in a way.
Coming to the US was an education in itself, for all the reasons I think American TCKs are familiar with. Race is a big thing in the US, for good and ill. It’s so recognized that people define themselves by it. This holds true for Asian Americans.
Second, third and later generations of Asians in the US stick together out of a shared sense of confusion about what they should be. Older, more traditional family members, do all those lovely Asian things to the younger ones: inputting values of family loyalty, career security, and ALWAYS, some kind of musical instrument.
At the same time, they get institutionalized by the world outside, which is American culture. Independence, self-achievement and freedom of opinion are things which tend to clash. As such, Asian Americans tend to have a lot in common. They can, and sometimes do, stick together because they feel that the others know what they’re going through.
I took a class when I was in Michigan, which was probably my most interesting class ever. “Chinese Culture as portrayed through American Film.” It was fascinating. I was learning about a whole new world of the way Asians were portrayed in popular culture in the US for the last century. From Fu Manchu to Bruce Lee to Lucy Liu. Something about the portrayal was never right, but always slotted neatly into the minds of “normal” Americans. It leads to the “Lotus Blossom” idea of the purty and simplicity of Asian women, which is misleading. Not to mention the whole Femme Fatale thing of the 20’s movies, and Lucy Liu’s whole Dominatrix-Charlie’s-Angels thing.
It’s amazing Asians haven’t rebelled in the US considering all the blatant racism in the younger years, and the more subtle kinds you might still see, but that too, is part of the difference between older and younger generations.
It more or less splits into two groups. The whole thing is based on the idea of the “ideal citizen” which traditional Asians are seen to be: hardworking, unquestioning, and usually no trouble.
One side argues that this is bad, because while African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans were marching for Civil Rights in the 1960s, Asian-Americans were keeping their heads down and making no trouble: doing your laundry, washing your dishes, and smiling over a pot of rice. They think that the example of William Hung (the Asian guy who sung terribly in American Idol to earn millions of dollars for his good attitude) was disgusting, and showed that they still weren’t taken seriously.
The other side argues that they don’t get in trouble (they’re never pointed at when things go wrong the way that African-Americans and Hispanics are), and that all in all it’s not a bad thing to be model citizens. We’re happy and get on with our lives, right?
And the first side argues again that that is just being SO Asian, and accepting of the inequality that Asians get.
I remember that in this class I was encouraged to pick a side, because the young professor teaching it was interested in what we thought about it. Or at least having an opinion. And naturally, you can imagine that I really couldn’t. Up until that moment it wasn’t my battle.
How can you explain to someone that for all your life, none of that mattered? I had never even thought about it. I couldn’t come up with a good answer. NOW I can, but it’s been a long while.
The funny thing is that there were people who thought it WAS my battle. Because I am, technically, a second generation Asian-American. I just didn’t live in the US. So I was offered by the Asian fraternities to join them in their brotherhood of Asians which felt so, so weird. So naturally I didn’t join them.
Most Asian-Americans I meet these days are very Americanized. It’s not something I relate to. Interestingly though, one of the friends I made in Michigan was a Korean who had only spent his high-school years in the US, and as such was very in-between. In hindsight, I think he was influenced by so many people to call himself Asian-American, but at heart still felt different. I think that people wanted to call him Asian-American, because that’s what Asians WERE to most Americans. They were either that, or under the lovely umbrella term of “FOB”.
Which is sad, because one thing that seems consistent with a lot of Asian-Americans is that sense of rebellion, of saying “We Are Not Our Parents!” You shouldn’t really rebel based on what you’re not, but what you are. And Asian-Americans are far from figuring out what they are.
In this, I think TCKs face a similar issue. I think that instead of declaring what we’re not, we should be trying to discover just what it is that we are. Rebelling for the simple satisfaction it brings isn’t the answer. Just having the term “TCK” makes it a lot easier, but it’s a start and a stepping stone.
Let’s think outside the box.
Daniel Nguyen-Phuoc
Vietnamese in ethnicity, born in Houston, Texas. Lived in Jakarta, Indonesia for 14 years while going to a British International School to finish with the International Baccalaureate. Survived only two years in the University of Michigan before ending up in Switzerland. Graduated from an international (and that's meant in every word) hospitality college. Interesting life, to be sure. But not the only one.Related Posts
31 Comments to “Uncle Dan’s Notes: Asian Americans and TCKs”
May 27th, 2008 at 3:22 am
This is a good topic so I’m going to bump it up. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to put my thoughts together and write much because my boyfriend’s mom’s arriving later on today and there’s much to be done.
But let me say that:
TCKs are by products of globalization. They are the silent and ignored minority group that go through the world invisibly.
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May 27th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Very interesting Dan!
I’ll have to come back to it as i have to go to sleep now (it’s almost midnight and i have an early class tomorrow).
So i’m just bumpin’ it.
Remind me to tell you abt the time when my uni French teacher lectured me abt losing my language and culture.
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May 27th, 2008 at 7:02 am
I actually have a thing against the word ‘Asians’.
Purely because it’s too stereotypical. I’ve made friends with a lot of races: Malays, Chinese, Blacks/Coloureds, Whites, etc the lost goes on. Unfortunately, most people see Asians has, like you say, a very obedient intelligent sort of race, and true enough, that was what I got mistaken for in South Africa. I distinctly remember having to play softball the one time, and the girls, having never played the sport before, weren’t so keen to go up and volunteer, and one of them remarked that the ’smart people’ should have the first go, upon which the entire grade turned around to look at me and asked me to give it a shot. And I was never really one of those super-intelligent people. I did alright in my studies, if I studied more, the way they emphasise in countries like China, I MIGHT get better grades, but generally, I wasn’t the smartest. There were others with a lot more brains than I had, but everyone automatically assumed I was bright because I was Chinese.
In addition to this, the label of ‘Asian’ in today’s world applies spectacularly to the Chinese/Japanese/Koreans. Which annoys me to no end, because the last time I checked, Asia was the biggest and most diverse continent in the world, not that little section on the map known as the ‘oriental lands’.
Ever since, I’ve rejected tha notion of an ‘Asian’ because it stereotypes too much. I’ve unintentionally started my own mini-campaign in school because everyone insists on stereotyping me as ‘Asian’. People who don’t know me very well even believe that I hang out with the ‘Asian’ group, when actually, the races of the people I hang out with are very diverse.
You make some good points about Asian Americans being rather confused, and I suppose in a world like this, people just have to find a way to stereotype. For me, stereotype has no meaning, nor does it have any influence in my world. It’s a force that I challenge and fight against everyday. But I guess after all this travelling, stereotypes just have no place with me.
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May 27th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Also- what is a ‘FOB’? LOL, sorry, but I heard the term before in school, just that I was too afraid to ask. I get that it’s got something to do with the Asian rejects…or something similar to it.
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May 27th, 2008 at 7:19 am
“FOB” means Fresh Off the Boat. In my experience, Asian-Americans use it more than other Americans, and it ends up being kind of derogatory. I don’t like it either.
And you’re right mish. I actually got the same sort of rep in my school, relatively international as it was. From the beginning I was a bespectacled, quiet Asian kid with funny hair. You couldn’t have TRIED to make me look more nerdy up until I was about 13. So all the kids thought I was smart because I was Asian and had glasses on.
In a way you can’t blame them, since almost all childhood literature paints a clever person to wear glasses. Funny thing was that, regardless of how smart I might have naturally been, I think I just started to live up to the expectations.
The thing about the term “Asian” is that in the US, it means the “oriental” peoples: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese. In the UK, it means India/Pakistan. It’s all relative. So in this case, I do mean Eastern Asians within the context of the US.
Most of South East Asia is little represented in the US. Partially because some of them (Vietnamese and Thai, as well as the Chinese populations of Malaysia and Indonesia) get lumped with the “Asian” group. Malay people (darker skinned Malaysians, Indonesians, Thais and so on) also don’t often get the opportunity to travel over there, and I don’t think are prevalent enough to make their own mark.
There are still people who call Asians “Orientals” which is to me, wrong. “Asian” is definitely the lesser evil, and not a terrible thing. I know lots of Asians who call all white people “European” so I think that’s just the way of the world.
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May 27th, 2008 at 7:41 am
…which reminds what this American guy of ME origin said to me when I was in London:
You all look the same. A lot of Americans can’t tell the difference between a Filipino and a Chinese :p
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May 27th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Uncle Dan,
It’s a good topic to discuss. I have lived in a dorm room with one Mandarin-American and one Cantonese-American Chinese girls for a year. I have watched them studying Asian American Studies, have taken courses and attended Asian-Pacific seminars/conferences with them, and participated in many of their Asian-oriented activities led by them in student organizations.
In my observations, Asian-Americans attempt to thrive their identity by taking pride in the Asian celebrities that cut through the racism in the U.S. and made it to the media. I constantly came across trivia games that place one’s knowledge in famous Asian Americans (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) regardless of what their race were as though they all tie into this one group called “Asian-American.”
There were the mentioning of names of Kungfu stars, world famous building constructors/designers, etc.
I had to constantly ask myself, “Why bother to increase the awareness of Asianness(?) in the U.S.?”
I was made uncomfortable by my friends’ (including my roommates’) placement of such importance in what other Asians have done in the past. Why should these define them? And why should this define even me??
As a Korean, I am constantly seen and referred to as Asian-American. Depending on the people, I have to call myself back and forth between F.O.B. and Twinky (derogatory term for Asian-Americans but not derogatory when one is Twinky oneself) because I am always asked that question whether i am one!!! and then it leads to “Since when have you lived in the States?” Yukk >_< What more, worse question is "When were you born?"
I have to tell you. I am not judging anyone and I ask these questions to others myself! so maybe I am a hypocrite in that sense LOL but then i can't help it because it seems like this is the best way to relate to other Asian-Americans. >_< But you know what. I learned something important from these Asian-American friends of mine. Because of their effort to define themselves and to cry out their rights (yes, I have seen human activists who are thriving to make their rights known in the U.S.), an Asian like me who has a different mindset from them can take for granted the work and impact made to uproot the racism and stereotypes inhumanly made. (Racism and stereotypes may never be gone but we can hope better, right?)
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May 27th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
… I’m not american or whatever, but being an immigrant in canada, i think i go close enough. Although if any loyal canadian saw me saying that canadians are close to being american, i’d probably get shot, haha. I mean, they’re not the same.. But yenno..
Anyways, to get to the point.. I remember this one time, a girl in my gym class laughed at me and a friend, let’s call her jessica (who was of polish and russian descent but grew up here) because our hair style looked almost the same, only she was blond and i had black hair. So i go, ‘well, yenno, i’m jessica’s twin, only she’s white and i’m asian’ and jessica, the girl with the hair like mine, goes, ‘hang on, i thought you were filipino?’
I stared at her for maybe 3 seconds and blinked.. And i think i said something like, ‘uh, the philippines is in asia, so yeah, i’m asian, jessica,’ and i laughed dryly.
She lets out a long ‘ohhh’ followed by a high pitched ‘really?’ and hence i nodded.
But looking back now, i wonder what i am, like, race-wise. Sure, i was born and lived in the phils for 8 years, moved to the uae.. Both, technically, asian, but very (i cannot emphasise this enough) different culture-wise. I mean, i say i’m filipino, yeah, but at the same time, i’ve always struggled about trying to identify with the whole filipino culture even before i became a ‘TCK’. My dad would come back from his travels (and for some reason, he only really did this to me and not to my sisters) and he’d take out my own children’s atlas (i still have it haha) and he’d show me where he went and where he’s going next. I guess i was made to be a TCK.. I dunno. But really, i never was fully filipino. Not saying i don’t wanna be. I sometimes wish i was.. Cause maybe i’d get along better with other filipinos better. But then i can’t really say i’m arab. Cause, well, first i don’t look like one, and although i can read and write in arabic, i don’t speak the language as fluent as i would want.. And now, in canada.. Well, can’t say i’m canadian, even after getting our citizenship papers done. I have the whole canadian accent down (even the ‘about’ that sounds like ‘a-boot’, that uncle dan and sim like to make fun of me for) and i almost have that passport and the papers.. And the national anthem, in english AND french. But i still can’t say i’m asian canadian. Or just asian. Or filipino. Or arab. Or whatever. I’d have to pause when i’m asked what i really am, as a part of a race. And i would always come up with a different answer. All the frgn time, a different one.
Maybe i should just make one up. Like kristineian. Or kristine-ese. Or kristine-ish. I think i’m cool enough to have my own category.
Like uncle said, the term ‘TCK’ is only a stepping stone.
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May 27th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
So the Asians in America aren’t blamed for things that go badly over there? Who do the WASPs take out their anger on?
In Australia its the “Asians” and the Muslims who get the rap. The Asians here are seen as very smart and hardworking with very strict parents who while they may go through periods of dating whites or others will marry other Asians.
And the Muslims? They’re all a bunch of terrorists and their kids are seen as the next suicide bombers. It’s disgusting what people think.
Just last night in Camden a suburb in Sydney’s lower west unanimously voted against creating an Islamic school for thinly veiled “land restrictions”.
But i digress.
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May 28th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Ohhh Muslims don’t get by that well in the US either. It used to be okay, but since the whole 9/11 thing it hasn’t been terrific.
This article shows that even in New York, which holds itself to be different and multicultural, there’s a LOT of anti-Muslim feeling:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/nyregion/28school.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
And yeah, I know that Asians get a bad rep in Australia. But the US generally considers its Afro-Americans and Hispanics to be more troublesome.
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May 28th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Yeah, I would think you might be in a similar situation to my friend was.
You’re Asian… and not really “Fobbish”, so you must be like all the other Asian-Americans.
I remember one day when one of my friends, a White American, in friendship and good humor found the “Asian Pride Song” and called us over to listen to it. It’s exactly the kind of song that Asian-Americans would make… And I said it was cool to make nice, but really I didn’t see the point. My friend was there too, and laughed like an Asian-American, but I couldn’t help noticing it was a bit forced for him too.
The thing was, why should we feel pride in people who rap in American accents about how they’re proud to have rice and noodles? It’s trying to get Asian-Americans some recognition, but to people who lived in Asia it’s all very silly.
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May 28th, 2008 at 12:26 am
A new thought occurs to me.
This issue is very important in the US. Race, and what to do about it, is all very important. A lot of educators, social workers and the government too concern themselves with the issue of Race in the US.
And as Isa points out, Australia sees it a bit differently.
I was talking to Kristine about it too, and the thought occurred to me that even though “White” culture is such an issue in the US and Canada, from here in Europe it’s silly. Europeans are more concerned about being German, Serbian, Turkish, Spanish and so on. Just being white is hardly the issue at hand.
But the US exports its culture. You find people in Japan and Turks in London who try to identify with Afro-American gangsters, even though it’s not their fight. A lot of people I meet from different parts of Africa act like they were Afro-Americans, even though it’s nothing to do with them.
In a way, the US makes its race problem the world’s common issue.
The funny thing is that even though this is the case, Americans still can’t identify why the Hutus and Tutsis are fighting. To them, they’re all African and black. It’s all they’re used to thinking.
In the absence of different nationalities in *most* of the US, I guess they have to differ along race.
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May 28th, 2008 at 7:28 am
“But the US exports its culture. You find people in Japan and Turks in London who try to identify with Afro-American gangsters, even though it’s not their fight.”< ---lol, yes.
You should see those Japanese boys with their dreadlocks and sun tanned skin (the darker the better) dancing to hip-hop etc.
I believe some Japanese designer even came up with some jeans that were a highly desirable brand in the US among African Americans.
http://web-japan.org/trends/fashion/fas051019.html
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May 28th, 2008 at 7:38 am
“The thing was, why should we feel pride in people who rap in American accents about how they’re proud to have rice and noodles?”< —yeah - besides eating rice and noodles or potatoes and bread or pasta is not something to be proud of anyway imho
It’s ridiculous to define second or third generations by this. I mean why are they still eating rice & noodles? So they can be proud? Are they pretending to prefer that when they’d rather have a sirloin steak in reality? Sounds like they are just trying to widen the racial divide.
“I had to constantly ask myself, “Why bother to increase the awareness of Asianness(?) in the U.S.?”
I was made uncomfortable by my friends’ (including my roommates’) placement of such importance in what other Asians have done in the past. Why should these define them? And why should this define even me??”<—yeah to that too!
I mean first of all being proud to be Japanese means not being ashamed of being Japanese. It does not mean you have to eat Sushi and Tempura to prove it…for example. Something is wrong with what’s going on there….
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May 28th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Here’s the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBoUwbyVHXU
It actually hurts my brain. Bear in mind that the video is homemade.
Though the comments below say a lot.
And yes, it IS widening the divide, because it’s saying “Aha! That’s us, yeah.”
Funny thing is that in doing that, they’re not very Asian anymore, and in fact reject a lot of Asian-ness. Being second/third generation, they know they’re not like their parents’ generation. But still say “Yeah, I’m Asian.”
Hence the confusion.
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May 30th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Dan: I am scared to click on that link! lol
Well I did click on it and was rather appalled at the racist comments posted below the video. Seems Youtube really is like a center for people who love to shout racist comments at other people. I’ve seen it before and I see it now.
As for the video - what were they thinking? If they wanted to promote Asian-ness it’s just wrong to use that kind of music to do it. Might as well have been country & western because it’s not like blacks like Asians anymore than whites.
Well the whole premise of creating such a video is just off the mark imho like we discussed before.
They’re just adding fuel to more racial hatred by doing this.
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May 30th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Ayakoooooo I was sooo annoyed by this video!! =(
It was a wrong choice of music like you said! and you know holding the gun and at some point crawling with his knees.. i was reminded of terrorists and even cho seung hui (although he wasn’t a terrorist).
seriously, this type of video only provokes racism!
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May 30th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Asia was the biggest and most diverse continent in the world, not that little section on the map known as the ‘oriental lands’
- in england, most people refer to indian/arabian people as asian, like there are ‘asian’ communities and radio staions etc, which all mean indian. (or this is what I have gathered) Its wierd that the term can’t mean everyone who comes from the ‘continent’ as that is what it should.
I’m not american at all, but I get where dan is comming from, i hate those stereo-types of us all learing kung-fu and doing tai-chi in our spare time. Other racial groups are seen to be much ‘cooler’ and asocciated with popular culture compared with oriental who are considered to be studying all the time and ‘honouring our families’ or something.
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June 1st, 2008 at 1:16 am
True, that’s another thing that confused me.
Refering back to what Uncle Dan said.
A lot of the Asians [I’ll refer to the ones in Australia since I have to deal with it everyday] still run around calling themselves Asian, and you know what, that’s fine by me, it’s true that you are Asian.
What gets me is the way they dye their hair blonde, and rap their stuff out, and strut like gangsters to the classrooms, and then they still truly believe ‘oh, I’m soooooo Asian!’ *pulls anime grin*
Asian pride [and no, I haven’t clicked on the link, cuz the comments are scaring me away!] to them is about a bunch of chinese/japanese/koreans/vietnamese/malaysian+indonesian chinese who go crazy on anime and have slanty eyes. And seriously? I’ve never seen Asians who are less asian. I’ve moved to other countries more times than they change their socks and I’m still quite possibly more Asian than they are. =/ Agreeably, they haven’t been living in their own country of origins, but calling themselves ’soooo AZN!!!’, when in fact they are so culturally white really confuses me.
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June 1st, 2008 at 1:34 am
I think this has so far been a good exercise in how not to promote our identity as TCKs. Let’s learn from this and do a better job. :p
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June 1st, 2008 at 2:15 am
Can we do a TCK song?
Though Makiza does a good job:
It’s in Chilean Spanish which should provide only mild problems for you Ayako.
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June 1st, 2008 at 4:01 am
My Spanish is terrible Dan, so I won’t give myself a headache by trying to understand the lyrics! :p
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June 1st, 2008 at 5:13 am
Wow, haha, the whole Asian stereotype!! =) I’ve kinda been following your thread, Uncle Dan, without commenting just cause I was thinking about it.
Well, as was already stated, I guess being “asian” depends on where you are, so the “stereotype” changes =) Which is good in some cases…
Thing is, Asia is so huge and has so much variety that it doesn’t really matter what the stereotype is.
Anyway, it seems to me that this is a very American type of “problem” if you can call it that. From what I have observed here in Europe, people don’t acknowledge their origins as much as Americans do. For example, if someone is of, say, Irish descent, they’d go “I’m Irish” even though they’re like 3rd or 4th generation Irish-Americans.
You don’t hear that as much here in France. The French are French, even though some of them are originally from Poland, or England or whatnot. That’s not to say that France doesn’t have race-related problems, they do, but race seems less important here (just check out the French national football team…almost all of em are black!!)
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June 1st, 2008 at 8:13 am
eish, i’m jumping into this pretty late but i think this entire discussion is very interesting. the issues faced by asian americans and ignored by mainstream culture were discussed by a class of mine recently, and one girl talked about her own experiences, which included her parents chinese food store being blown up (teenagers threw dynamite in). she also talked about how public protests against things like rosie o’donnell attempting to imitate a chinese accent by saying ‘ching chong ching chong’ are often decried as making a big deal out of nothing, and that protesters are told to get over it, often by otherasian americans. i suppose this falls in with dan’s second group of opinions but i think it’s more harmful in the long run to pass off ignorance or violence as not a big deal. anyways, youtube this guy, beau sia, he has a few videos up that feature really interesting responses to mainstream cultures portrayal of asians. (sorry, cant post the links on my crappy phone)
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June 1st, 2008 at 8:53 pm
First of all, USA has had 140 years of race problems. The abolishment of racial segregation has only been around for less than a century. It took 200 years for the US to get where they are today. I would think it will take another 200 years for the people to finally see that skin color doesn’t matter.
When I first moved to the US I was very confused over the strong racial awareness in the country. People had to segregate themselves by skin color. And it irritated me to no end because 1) I never had to deal with it and 2) since when did I become so outwardly “Asian”? Being called “Asian” is like walking around naked. You feel very self-conscious.
And then I decided that I am going to take the Asian American studies class. Not to become more racially aware but to understand why Asian Americans act the way they do and why I am expected to act that way. And it helped and then I became a bit more tolerant of the “Asianness” I am expected. The only thing I can do around Asian Americans now is sigh and shake my head. I feel sorry for them and sorry for the none Asian Americans that only see them on skin level.
It doesn’t help that non Asian Americans can’t accept Asian Americans as just “Americans” but it also doesn’t help that Asian Americans are adding fuel to fire by declaring “Asianness”.
At first when I see these racial awareness months I think “Ooh that’s quite interesting, I want to learn what these different cultures are about.”
Turns out I was wrong. These so-called “awareness months” were more for those cultures to segregate themselves and show that they are just as “good” as the White Americans. To me, that’s just plain ridiculous. I always thought I should show them International Day. THAT’S true awareness. All cultures get together to share different things instead of separating themselves and only limiting to people of that particular culture.
In the end, it just takes time for people to get used to a new concept. In the end, it’s really nobody’s fault that this happened. History is to blame. Which leads me to my second issue regarding the time it takes for people to be aware.
This is off-topic but the mannerisms and behaviors in China is unbelievable. It will take many many years before people here exercise ethics, manners and politeness.
The point I am trying to make is, yes we can be sitting here discussing an issue that can irritate us to no end and we try to figure something out of something BUT one thing we need to remember is it takes TIME to change something. I am not saying that this cannot be changed, it can be but one must wait another 50 years to see it happen. In the mean time, we just need to tolerate tolerate tolerate and tolerate. That is one most important thing that no single human being can find easy to do. If we all learn to tolerate these issues wouldn’t happen, right?
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June 2nd, 2008 at 12:50 am
Let me quote Cynthia:
“Turns out I was wrong. These so-called “awareness months” were more for those cultures to segregate themselves and show that they are just as “good” as the White Americans. To me, that’s just plain ridiculous.”
I think we really need to keep this in mind when we do anything with TCKs. I think most of us knew this instinctively already but we need to consciously not make this same mistake.
I think one of our assets is that we are the ‘invisible minority’. Perhaps there are more subtle ways of empowerment than the method minority races in the US resort to?
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June 2nd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Ayako,
I think you are raising a very important point. We may know instinctively that TCKs should not show that we are as good as or sometimes better than nonTCKs. That will only fuel division and segregation among people. As you said, I wish we could find “subtle ways of empowerment”!
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June 30th, 2008 at 7:07 am
I LIKE THIS POST ALOT BECAUSE I CAN TECHNICALLY BE CLASSIFIED AS BOTH!
yah well I am Asian Canadian but that’s really pretty much the same thing as Asian American.
So most of my friends in Canada are either fobs or Asian Americans.
Except I am not exactly the same as them. I find they are more oppressed than I am in some ways but go through way less trauma/drama than I do.
They are oppressed because they are given all the Asian ideals without even ever lived there and being able to read/write their own language. It just feels like a forced identity. And worst of all, my Asian American friends tend to go extreme. They are either the nerdy good boys and girls, or the completely messed up bad child whose parents just wanna disown them. I know the good boys and girls don’t really want to be that way, and I know the messed up kids do it to escape the forced identity. Well obviously the messed up kids go through lots of drama but to be quite honest a lot of them are self-imposed… But i don’t think it’s their fault. As for the good boys and girls, they don’t have drama, they are just traumatized inside from being so robotic.
However I have drama and trauma. The drama is obvious, the trauma…Not as much. because there’s no point of showing it to them. They have no idea how my situation could be any different with theirs.
but yah talk about what we are instead of what we aren’t…
I think everyone is just themselves, an individual, even if you are not a TCK/Asian American or anything multicultural in the tiniest sense, you are still yourself, you are just the single unit that makes up the world.
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November 17th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I revisit this post because of some recent events.
A few weeks back I went to visit my old college here in Switzerland to meet some friends. It was the time of the year that a group of American study-abroad students come, and I met some of them. I had to admit I was surprised by the number of Asian-Americans in the group. Being from Washington State, most the time they’re just white people looking to get to Europe to drink legally and travel.
So when at least 8 Asian-American girls were asking for directions to the nearest pub, I was (then, pleasantly) surprised. I feel that TCKs have generally unique experiences and bond through that shared uniqueness, and that part of what made my experience unique was having felt like an immigrant, AND a TCK at the same time. I like Europe, but I can’t help feeling a small bond at being Asian-American too. What the hell, I’m a TCK, I’m allowed to look for my shared experiences.
So I was unpleasantly surprised and, I have to admit, a bit offended, when the Korean-American girl I was talking to was insisting emphatically that no, I was not really Asian-American, because I hadn’t been there to experience what Asian-Americans had. The years I had spent there could not possibly allow me to understand their position.
… I admit to not always being ready to admit the American in me, but dammit, I should be allowed to when I want to. It’s one of my irrational desires.
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November 17th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I’ve never understood why people turn their suffering into a contest. My pain is greater than your’s because I’ve been through this–it’s like a sick Olympic game.
P.S. Understand what position?
P.S.S. I can’t believe you owned up to being American. Whoa.
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November 18th, 2008 at 3:35 am
Well you can understand when they have a vivid experience and have a hard time imagining that other people could have something so similar, because of how vividly they were affected by it.
What’s common among young idealists though, is to attribute so much value to the causes they support. Much like the people who chant Free Tibet, or get really worked up about a political candidate, it probably isn’t the end of the world if they don’t succeed, but they don’t think so. So in her case, Asian-Americans go through a lot, and it would seem she took up the mantle, bore the standard, and decided that Asian-Americans had a unique experience.
What she may one day come to realize is that everyone has unique experiences, and sometimes they overlap.
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