Stereotypes Of Chinese And Japanese Americans In The Early 20th Century

Today, when society talks about diversity, often times, Asian-Americans are brought into the conversation and are talked about as highly looked up to individuals, but they haven’t always been this way. On television, many times, Asian-Americans are represented as “nerdy” and “socially incapable/awkward”, Asian-American males are mostly shown as being weak and stereotypically awkward, while Asian-American females are either shown as “exotic” or also stereotypically awkward and nerdy, as stated by Takaki in his book Strangers from a Different Shore on page 479,

Stories and stereotypes make many people want to change themselves negatively and assimilate just to fit in with society. As time passes, society’s stereotypes for how people of each race should be, which race is more dominant than others, and which race you should be, all play a role in impacting someone’s self-esteem and their insecurities. This is portrayed through Jin Wang, a main character in Gene Luen Yang’s “American Born Chinese” when Jin Wang thinks his crush, Amelia, he instantly becomes happy. But then he thinks about Greg and Amelia together and gets mad. He finally zooms into Greg’s blond hair. The next day he goes to school with the same hairstyle. The hair symbolizes Greg’s all American identity because the stereotypical American is portrayed with blond hair and blue eyes. To Jin Wang, this hair symbolizes what he wants to be, so he changed his hair to an “American” hairstyle to get Amelia to like him. Due to stereotypes about how Americans are suppose to look like, Jin Wang feels insecure about himself and wants to change his identity and himself as well to assimilate into American culture and stereotypes. These stereotypes and the Anti-Asian stereotypes impact Jin Wang greatly and make him hate himself as well as his background and where he came from because he believes that in order to be AMerica, you have to be white. Another way that this is portrayed is from a personal experience I had as a kid. Growing up as an Asian kid in America, I didn’t really know

stereotyped for so long as being inferior. In addition, I feel that the reason why

“China has become the U.S.' most important trading partner (Ito, 2009). Additionally, China has surpassed India to become the top country sending students to study in the U.S.” (A Comparative Look at Chinese and American Stereotypes). Now in our modern day world, there have been many stereotypes built up around Chinese people or immigrants. Pre-existing views or perceptions about a certain ethnic group, culture or race will certainly affect and drive interactions with people of that certain culture. Since stereotypes are usually very broad and are long-lasting, many of these” expectations” are outdated/antiquated. My research proposal mainly focuses on the danger of seeing all Chinese immigrants in one way, mainly the idea that all Chinese are smart, nerdy and unathletic. This specific topic interested me as growing up as a Chinese person in Canada, I have seen and experienced the extent that preexisting perceptions can influence people's views and actions. I suspected that through my research I would find that not all Chinese people fit the stereotype and can “break the mould” given to them. For research and information, I went onto many articles and news sites. My research confirmed that the classic, traditional stereotypes for Chinese people definitely do not represent the entire population.

Throughout the day, many of us use stereotypes some noticed able than others; yet we do not know the affects they have on the person said to. The issue I want to get through is that we all go through most racial stereotypes every day not knowing it effects our health. People most affected racial stereotypes are Hispanics, Africans and Asian Americans, but how did they get those. Out of all the races in the United States Asian American have higher expectations compared to any other ethnics. Why are Asian American expectations so high? The positive stereotypes can make them stress even more than a negative stereotypes. Many race live up to stereotypes thinking that they have to be the stereotype even if it is negative because that is what people expect. Asians Americans are labeled minority model causing them stress that pressures them, to achieve higher expectations.

About 18% of asian american students reported being bullied or judged for their race and ethnic background. This is because many people judge asians by stereotypes. Its not only asians that get judged, but every ethnic group gets bullied or judged as well.

Our history has taught us many things, but it doesn't emphasize a number of stereotypical situations over the discussions of race. Humans have created numerous stereotypes whether they are good or bad. Causing people to think that because of different races we have to compete for a dominant class. A popular so-called stereotype is the “model minority.”

Asian culture has been slandered throughout America's history by the term 'Model Minority', and through it's toxic ideals has lead to outstanding rates of depression, and the inhumane backlash has proven fatal to the Asian-American population. The term 'Model Minority' was coined to categorize Asian-Americans in 1966, during the United States civil liberties movement. During this time period white politicians were in a state of agitation because African-Americans were demanding their civil rights(Chin). The stereotype associated with the term 'model minority' is a suffocating archetype that has been pushed onto Asian-Americans; this degrading term has a harsh history that has led to heinous social pressures and implications, along with detrimental

We’ve spent so much time in our class on various racial issues seen in the United States of America. It’s our national sport, in a way, it’s always as if there is only one side: nonwhites. But this is one of those binaries where you need both sides to make sense of it. When comparing Asian Americans in America during mid-19th century and the turn of the 20th century, there were many similarities and differences. One way in which they were similar was most Asian Americans intended to work hard, make a lot of money, and then return to their families and villages as wealthy men or stay and fulfill the American dream because this goal didn’t differ from Asian Americans from many immigrants who came to the United States. One way in which they were different was that many white/ European Americans looked down on all immigrants, but Asian Americans were considered racially as well as culturally inferior because most Americans believed that Asian Americans were too different to ever assimilate successfully into American culture. This view was expressed and reinforced by the stereotypical “imaginations” and “images” of Asian immigrants in the 19th and 20th century.

In the 1900’s many Japanese came to America in search of a better life. They found a home in Hawaii as well as the main land where they would take up jobs such as fishermen and railroad workers. Economically, they didn't fell very welcome in America, the white workers tried to push them out by making them uncomfortable in their jobs. Politics were also not on their side, laws prevented the Japanese from owning land or becoming naturalize citizens. Suddenly the Immigration Act of 1924 stopped all immigration to the U.S. The next generation, the Japanese Americans attended public schools along side Americans but were still facing discrimination. After Pearl Harbor they were treated even worse than before. Americans were confusing the Japanese

Some may ask what exactly define an Asian American. The awareness of this controversies of the indefinite identity was during the emergence of the second generations of Asian Americans who were once known as “oriental” in the period between the 1900 to 1940s. They had shaped and constructed the idea of an Asian Americans by forging their own paths socially, politically, and economically through their experiences of being percepted as “oriental” regardless of their nativity and citizenship. In consequence, tensions among the first generations immigrant parents and second generation began to rise as changes began to transpire.

All women are too sensitive! All Mexicans are illegal immigrants! If you’re from the South, then you are ignorant! Most people have heard at least one of these stereotypes pertaining to a certain group. Some people believe them whilst others do not. American Born Chinese illustrates three stories depicting the custom of stereotypes surrounding society: “The Monkey King”, the story of Monkey King’s thirst for infinite power, and his quest for atonement; “Jin Wang”, the story an awkward boy who tries to “fit in” the community around from but constantly fails; and “Danny”, the story about a high schooler who feels uncomfortable by his stereotypically negative Chinese cousin Chin-Kee. In this day-and-age, stereotypes are what bring people

Over the weekend, as I was skimming through an online news publication, trying to reacquaint myself with the habit of news reading by clicking random headlines that bore a semblance of interest to me, a particular, and enticing, write-up on Huffington Post piqued my curiosity. In big, bold fonts, with cleverly capitalized letters at the start of every new word, the article’s heading happened to be titled “ ‘Ho Chi Chin’ Signs Targeting Asian Candidate Disrupt Maine Mayoral Race”. Intriguing, isn’t it? At the very least, it is from my perspective, taking into account not only the infrequent presence of the Asian-American community in the news media, but also the fact that that an Asian-American has managed to engage himself within the realm of American politics. The Huffington Post feature, in my opinion, accentuates certain salient points, for instance, highlighting how swiftly Dunne was to equate Ben Chin with Communism and Ho Chi Minh solely on the account that Chin is of Asian descent and “that his name rhymes with Chin”, despite the fact that Maine’s mayoral candidate Ben Chin is Chinese-, not Vietnamese-, American.

Asian stereotypes are a product of prevailing myths propagated by various media, from books, plays, movies, television, to even historical propaganda. Generally speaking, the stereotyping of Asian women often swing to extreme types: the docile, subservient sexual object, or the dragon lady. Asian Americans only make up a small percentage of the United States population and live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii. Consequently, the rest of the American population will most likely get their exposures to Asian Americans through television and movies. Popular media exposure to Asian Americans lacks one-on-one acquaintance with Asian Americans. It hinders the process

→ The author shows the racism in American from a lot of sources; such as cartoons, official documents, advertisements, movies, and songs. The mass media drew Japanese people as an immature children (p.142) and animals. Especially, cartoons depicted the Japanese as monkeys, apes, rats, bugs, beetles, lice, and other kinds of creatures that had to be wiped out. (pp. 181-189) An example is that one restaurant sign on the West Coast said "This Restaurant Poisons Both Rats and Japs". (p. 92)