Robert Chang's Perception Of Asian American Identity

Asian-American author, Amy Tan, reflects in her personal essay, Mother Tongue (1991), her perception of language and ethnic identity through an employment of anecdotes and repetition. The history of Asian-Americans goes back to the nineteenth century when thousands of men left their families and homes in China, as well as other Asian countries, to seek their fortunes in the United States (Huntley 21). The Chinese, forming the largest Asian immigrant group, “became the first Asians to experience institutionalized discrimination when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed by Congress, barring the majority of Chinese from entering the United States” (Huntley 21). International and domestic factors during the Cold War finally prompted the abolition of the quota system and the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act (Lee 3). Amy was born in California in 1952 to parents who had emigrated from China several years earlier (Huntley 1). As a second generation American, Tan’s parents wanted her to have “American circumstances and Chinese character” (Huntley 2); to her traditional Chinese parents’ dismay, she fully embraced the dominant American culture outside her home. Through the dual lenses of her American identity and her ethnic roots, Tan creatively shares her own experiences with language and emigration, while exploring the many facets of biculturalism and the challenges of integrating two distinct cultures.

To be young and Asian in America is a special brand of torture. There is an unspoken dictum of silence that grips Asian youth, a denial of our place in popular culture. Asian youth walk in America not quite sure where we fit in-black children have a particular brotherhood, Hispanic children have a particular brotherhood, white children own everything else. We cannot lay claim to jazz or salsa or swing; we cannot say our ancestors fought for equality against an oppressive government or roamed the great hallways of power across the globe. We do not have a music, a common hero, a lexicon of slang. Asian youth experience personal diasporas every day.

Many new arrivals still struggle to survive and often Chinese Americans still encounter suspicion and hostility. Chinese Americans have achieved great success and now, like so many others, they are stitching together a new American identity. As Michelle Ling, a young Chinese American, tells Bill Moyers in Program 3, “I get to compose my life one piece at a time, however I feel like it. Not to say that it’s not difficult and that there isn’t challenge all the time, but more than material wealth, you get to choose what you are, who you are.” (www.pbs.org)

Asian Americans are, as is the widely held belief, the “model minority” for their perceived

My name is Richard Hu: I am 30 years old and I am Asian American. This means that I am both Asian, and American. According to Park (2005), the latest census proclaimed that Asian Americans cover more than 4.1% of the population. In its totality that is 11.3 million people. Much like Park (2005) states, “we are not a new phenomenon: Asians have been apart of the U.S landscape from as early as the 17th century … the irony is that we remain “strangers from a distant shore””(p. My parents were born in Korea but relocated in order to give our family more opportunity to excel. I, like many others in my heritage consider myself to be a 1st generation immigrant. However, growing up in the suburbs of Hillsborough California I began to lose my sense of self. It wasn’t until I was much older that I began to identify with my Asian Culture. I whole heartedly feel that Park (2005) said it best when she argued that “Our perceived “foreign-ness” accentuates our “two–worldness”... not Asian enough to repatriate, not “American” enough to integrate” (p. 4). Although it still isn’t an easy concept for people to grasp, over the years I have learned to be more understanding of my Asian American upbringing (Question 1).

Asians have been referred to as the “Model Minority” for decades, but is it an accurate representation of Asian America culture today? This notion derives from the stereotype that Asian families are stable and Asian culture produces success in regards to grades and professions. My questions are as follows: what historical and governmental policies influenced the term, how did it affect Asian-Americans, what should Asian Americans do to be treated equally to improve the rights of their people, and how does this all tie together with the core concept of history & memory? I hope to answer these questions thoughtfully in my essay.

11. Explain the myth of the model minority and why it has persisted. Highlight two negative consequences of the model minority label. How does Sonia Shah’s articulation of Asian American identity challenge the model minority perspective?

Asian Americans are always being stereotyped, thus the other members of society may have a fixed idea in their mind about the stereotypes of Asian American regardless a positive or a negative ones. Due to the generalizations, it leads to a reduction in every aspects. Asian Americans are regarded as immigrants or the outlier in the United States, they are the “model minority”, who do not get attention by the researchers, policy makers, or

Among the many struggles Asian Americans faced, troubles with finding their identities were perhaps the greatest. In an effort to conform to society, they completely abandoned their own culture, traditions and values. Instead, according to Uyematsu, they aimed “to transform themselves into white men,” which included “rejecting their

After spending a year studying the Asian American (AA) identity, I still find it hard to write about how I perceive the AA identity. In its basic sense, the Asian American identity includes all those with Asian ethnicity who identify themselves as Americans. Beneath the surface, there is the idea of straddling two different world, and crossing between my Asian culture and American society on a daily basis. It involves molding my Chinese traditions to fit into the mold of white societal expectations in order to be accepted in school. It involves yelling at my mom when her language barrier doesn’t allow me to talk to her like a “white parent”. It involves walking with my grandparents to the supermarket

The Asian American community undergoes a vicious cycle; Being erroneously presented in media, theatre, and other performance arts, which have thus racialized and stereotyped nearly the entirety of the community. With media and art representation being key to shaping the way that minorities are perceived in the 21st century, many are conditioned into believing false pretenses of the Asian American population after nearly a century of marginalization and racial misrepresentation. They are, at best, viewed as dignitaries. A people who are hard working, intelligent, and referred to as “the model minority.” At worst, they are cutthroat social climbers.

Asian/Pacific Americans are viewed as more successful than other minority groups. This has specifically cause problems for them which are called intergroup hostilities and other phrases.

First of all, this article shows that Asian American needs to aware their identity. In a part of the Jeanette Yep’s interview, Yep said, “My ethnicity is part of who I am. I’m aware that I’m Asian.” It connects with what Kathy Khang’s perspective in Khang’s interview. Khang talked about importance of public identification. On the other hand, Lee shows the other perspective through Ken Fong’s interview. As Fong emphasizes that everyone is one in Christ, Fong said, “People have been raised to think, I have a born-again identity, so I do not need to understand issues of self-identity…” However, as Lee finished this article with Peter Hong’s interview, Lee return to represents importance of recognizing own identity. “But you have to find your own voice by building upon both your ethnic and cultural

“A Person of Mixed Race Explores Notions of Race, 1991” describes how an American sees race as not just a physical characteristic but rather what it embodies in a person. He perceives himself as a hyphenated Asian American due to others perceptions, however, he sees himself as “a male human being”. The author does attempt for, “passing for an Asian” by the changing of his middle name to be closer to his roots. The author, however, does not want to just be determined by his heritage and his features but rather what he makes of himself in the world. The idea of Race has always been a defining factor in where people end up in class, status, or the image they have in the United States. As soon as someone is categorized, they are stuck in that notion

Have you ever heard the phrase, “oh, is he Asian? That’s why they act like that, they all do.” What a way of making a, perhaps, false assumption and classifying one person into a group of millions of people. Asian Americans have long been depicted as “brainiacs” in contemporary media. We see them as technologically advanced and extremely intelligent. When I was in high school, it was the Asian kids that you wanted to sit next to and the ones you wanted in your group because they always had the right answer. We see them as taking on the medicinal or engineering careers. Although many do hold positions in these job categories, we have to know that not all Asian Americans align their lives to society’s classification. Furthermore, not only are they positively portrayed in the media; they are also given negative stigmas. They are thought of as terrible drivers. I have seen countless movies where the reckless and careless driver is assumed to be Asian American. This