Eric Liu's The Accidental Asian

Graham Greene's novel, The Quiet American, is more than a political statement about whether or not America or any other country for that matter should become involved in the affairs of another country; Greene makes the question human and personal. The novel can be read as a political and moral reflection on the opening stages of the United States’ involvement in Southeast Asia. Therefore, Greene’s novel becomes a commentary on the pointlessness of the United States’ later investment of men and material in a political action that could only end, as it did for the French, in defeat.

What every American should know by Eric Liu thoroughly examines the issue of cultural literacy and its place in modern America. It takes on a convincing argument against E.D. Hirsch’s book on the same which included some 5000 things that he thought define cultural literacy and every American should know. Liu argues that America has changed over time, becoming more multicultural, and to capture the cultural literacy of the country, no one person should sit down and come up with what they think everyone else should know. Instead he suggests that in order to capture the view of the nation, every American should be involved in the making of the list. The most engaging part of this article is Liu’s idea that this new list that is crowd-sourced should always change according to the times. It should not be cast in stone because things in this day and age change really fast; what is a hit this month will be old news in the next one. This is what cultural literacy really is; keeping up with what is going on around you and being open to learn new things as they emerge. This can also be said of education; in order to stay educated in any field, you have to be in the know of in terms of new developments.

Joe Levine’s 9th Inning from Ground Zero is set in the world series a month after the horrific events of 9/11 unfolded. The purpose of the film is to show to Americans and especially New Yorkers that we have an unbreakable spirit that makes us different. Joe Levine uses the three rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos, and logos to further his claim along with a somber and solemn tone since the film was released 2 years after 9/11.

Over a 114-year period between 1901 and 2015, the New York Yankees baseball organization has taken sole positioning as the most successful franchise in the professional baseball world. As a whole the franchise has won: 43 American League pennants and 27 world championship titles. With statistics and accomplishments this vast, it is no wonders the Yankees are renowned and acknowledged as one of the most outstanding baseball teams in the sport. The New York Yankee’s franchise was founded in 1901, in Baltimore, Maryland. The franchise played its inaugural season two year later on January 9, 1903. The founders of this historic franchise organization were two gentlemen by the names of Frank Farrell and Bill Devery. This franchise has dominated the sport of Major League Baseball over a century, recording 20 seasons with at least 100 wins “Hiergesell.” When the franchise was moved to Manhattan from Baltimore they received the name Highlanders and were relocated to their new home field known as Hilltop Park “Yankees Timeline.” The 1923 squad would always be the most memorable team because they defeated the New York Giants to earn the first of a total of 27 World Series championships (the all-time record in professional baseball). The New York Yankees (1936-1939 and 1949-1953) and the Oakland A’s (1972-1974), are the only two franchises in all of baseball to win the fall classic in three consecutive seasons. The Yankees are one of the few franchises in the sport of Major League

That arrangement was also unique in another way. The Yankees were extremely popular and successful during the early 1900's. The popularity created some of the most recognizable, household named players such as Mantle and Berra. The football players say they weren't starstruck only because New York temas had a reputation for winning and most recently was the football Giants. The sooner they were through playing, “the sooner we'd be able to call the place our own.” (73)

The nature of being human is the desire to stay together, there is strength in numbers. We valued allies so much that we gained them within the animal kingdom. On the other hand, groups can cause tension, and hatred. A character in Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese experiences both sides of the spectrum through his time on earth. The twist at the end of American Born Chinese is that Wei-Chen is not another student, but an emissary-monkey, following in his father's footsteps.

In the early 1960s Richard Lee did a study that will agues the ideas of the many anthropologists on the !Kung and how they lived as foragers.Many anthropologists thought the hunter gathers lived from hand to mouth. (Placeholder1). The Kung are a group of hunter gathers who live in small groups, share all food they have gathered with equal shares. They grather vegetables within a six mile radius of a watering well they live by. A two to three day supply of dry meat and plants are on hand most of the time. The !Kung do collect food every third to fourth day as an on going process. Vegetable foods are collected by the women and men collect plants and small animals.and hunt large game. The mongongo nut is a large part of their diet about 50 %. In the dry season, and they will walk many miles to gather the nut. Even when large game is not avaible the vegetable foods are, so they do not go hungrey. The Kung are a self-sufficent group. They have strong ethics on sharing and everyone getting an equal porition to eat.

While passing Union Park Tissot observed a young man playing guitar near the dog run, but “not fifteen minutes passed before someone came to tell him that his outside access to the park was forbidden”(p.226). It’s a public park, yet they hold the power and authority to kick another community member out of their shared space because they are a part of the associations in the neighborhood. Although that park was just given a dog run, it was still a public park and the dog run was only one part of the public park. This behavior expressed through the associations regulating parks contradicts the idea and purpose of a public park. According to Tissot public spaces are where community members “[learn] how to be a ‘good neighbor’ and how to ‘be nice’”(p.226). However, with neighborhood associations regulating the use of public spaces such as parks, the community is restricted to their specific ideals of being a ‘good neighbor’. Again, this contradicts the traditional idea of a public space as the upper middle class constantly regulates and restricts the community and its

After reading the novels assigned in this Asian American class, it seems that many Asian American experiences are similar. One similarity that is outstandingly prominent is how an outside culture impacts either directly or indirectly a foreign society. Often, the influences of the powerful yet glamorous American lifestyle lead to self-hatred of one's own society and culture. We see this in "Obasan," by Joy Kogawa, and in "Dogeaters," by Jessica Hagedorn, where many of the characters cease to acknowledge their own identity by living vicariously through movies, music and other American influences. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the portrayals of this self-hatred, and analyze how America

The American Community in the 1900’s to the 1920’s was in fact a totally different generation than its successor not only because of cultural and economic reasons but also because of world events and the rise of technology.

A century ago, the public spaces like stadium, community centers, monuments, schools national park system created to preserve the natural and national treasure of the country were against commercialization but now selling of branding and naming rights of these spaces by the government and public officials to raise a funding are expanding. Nearly in decades, people have accepted the public trains, buses, street markets, hubs would twice as billboards for the commercial advertiser and arenas of sports which are funded publicly carry the names of the telephone company and banks. The essay “Remember When Public Spaces Didn’t Carry Brand Names?” by Eric Liu was published as an op-ed in USA Today where the writer has depicted his dissatisfaction towards renaming of the Yankee stadium which has been recognized as 76 years old icon. Public spaces are open common resources regardless of social and political differences. The increasing corporate advertising and ever-expanding encroachment of branding corporate entities into public areas are threatening the public spaces and a national treasure by declining the benefits, value, culture, history and identities linked with that places. As a result, it could push the country in slippery slope where almost every earlier public space one day could hold insignia of corporate’s. Also, it effects on people creating a

New York not only has beautiful locations or astoundingly tall buildings, but also has significance to the United States. I chose this state because of its history and its beauty, and I do wish to witness the beauty for myself. This state has gone through many things like being attacked on September 11, 2001, and one of its most popular cities, New York City, being the first capital of the United States. The aforementioned events is part of what makes this state interesting and so popular. The aforementioned events also proves New York’s importance to the United States. With Black Bears, large cities, and awe-inspiring landmarks, New York truly deserves the name, “The Empire State.”

While we could talk for hours and hours of what Kunstler discusses, we don’t have enough time for that in our presentation. However, some possible areas of discussion we would like to delve upon would include Kunstler’s definition of the public realm and the common good, Disneyland and pre-World-War-II, the suburban sprawl, and finally Kunstler’s idea of the perfect neighborhood and if we can truly achieve the common good once again.

The Chinese Revolution was a period when China underwent a lot of political, social, and economical issues. This is the setting that Chinese-American author Ha Jin used for one of his novels called Waiting. This novel portrays a kind of self-made image of how China was during its revolution and its intentions of becoming an industrialized country. In the novel the main character Lin Kong is married to a woman named Shuyu. Lin’s parents wanted him to marry Shuyu for the sole reason of the care that Shuyu will give them for the rest of their lives. Essentially Lin has a child with her and then decides that he wants to divorce her because he found her very unattractive. Each time he would lose the case and this would go on once a year for nearly two decades. Meanwhile Lin already has himself a girlfriend in the city. At this moment of time in this Chinese society there were many rules that were set for certain types of relationships for example like Lin and Manna’s relationship. These rules were too restricting in the way that one is controlled in what they can and cannot do. In communist China the strict rules forced onto the people builds up a tension with their desires, affecting their actions and motives resulting in the blurring of their definition of love. This is shown through the change of Lin’s actions.

In the book Memoirs of a Geisha Sayuri, the main character, is faced with many hardships. The main issue in the story deals with how she overcomes all of the adverse situations that come her way. She begins as a girl from a poor fishing village on to being an abused maid to a renowned geisha where she ends her story finding true love. Not every person can face so many struggles and end up with what they had wanted all along. In Japanese culture, in that time, there were not many choices and options available for women. Becoming a geisha, Sayuri was allowed to find the strength to survive and persevere. This story is an example of how someone who comes from nothing can overcome a plethora of challenges and be able to live the life they want to live.