The Future Of My Life

I am a first generation Asian American and my life began when my father was 18 years old. From China with basically the clothes on his back, he traveled across the sea to the United States, the dreamland, all in the hope of a better future. He worked endlessly with few days off to provide for his family and continue to do so today, which only allowed me to see him one day a week at the most. He told me that's the burden he has to bear so I can have an easier life, working in a job I like. My mother's life story doesn't differ much from my father's with the only major distinction being that it centered around my life. She wake up 5 in the morning to cook my lunch for school and to become my personal chauffeur. If I need her, she is there. Since

Throughout my years in my white neighborhood I grew up as an equal among my classmates. My peers had never teased me; in fact, the incident with those older boys was the only act of prejudice I have ever experienced. Classmates were very tolerant, and so was I. Forced by circumstance, I accepted living among all white people and they with me. They became familiar with the only Asian girl in the school, and the racial issue disappeared. I had friends and my ethnic background was not a problem. They saw my personality and saw me. I was an American.

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 immigrants raised their children on the values of filial piety. Filial piety is based on Confucianism ideology which is one showing respect to one’s parent. American-born children are raised with two values which are Confucianism and the American values. The American values allow an individual to make their decisions either in their career, marriage, or lifestyle. Unlike, the American values, Confucianism decisions are decided by the parents, which have created tension in both generations. The immigrant parents stress the importance of a proper education to their children because the parents did not have the opportunity for education. Education was a privilege meaning only the families that had money could send their children to school. The parents began working at a young age to support their family and maintaining the household was more important than education. The immigrant parents are motivated by the “American Dream” instead of a financial benefit, the better the education and the employment, the more opportunities that would be offered. A person without a proper education would not succeed in life compared to the ones that have an education.

The United States is the "land of the free, and the home of the brave" according to the song, but there is a dichotomy that exists between those who have called the United States their home for a long period of time, and those who are immigrating to the US. Asian Americans are a group that very few think of as having difficulties because the stereotype is of a group that is intelligent and is actually doing better than the average American. While this may seem to be true, better grades in a school setting does not mean that people who come from other countries are not experiencing racism (both overt and subtle), stereotyping and alienation in this country. Although there has been some difficulty, many groups are experiencing newfound hope because of the actions that they are taking. The plight, and the hope of the Asian cultures are being documented by artists of different stripes who are eager to depict what has happened to Asians as they try to build their own America, and assimilate into the one that was built before they came. In this paper, the Asian American cultures will be examined through the art that has been produced over the many years that Asian people have striven to make their way as new Americans.

Growing up as an Asian American, I often struggle to identify my own cultural identity. Being the first generation of both my mother and father’s side of the family, I more than often get confused between American and Asian culture when applying them to society or at home. While being raised at home, I am largely influenced by culture and traditions from Asian parents and relatives. However, when I go to school or someplace else, I am heavily judged for practicing part of my Asian culture because it is entirely different than western or American. With that being noted, I began to learn and adapt to the western culture in hopes of fitting with society as well of trying to keep my Asian culture intact. As can be seen, this situation I dealt with is the same problem the whole Asian American community faces. Mainly focusing on younger generations like me for example, the Asian American community struggles to adapt to the western culture because they were raised with an Asian influence. Wishing to fit in society and be part of the social norms, the Asian Americans community faces issues that identify their cultural identity.

This was mainly due to the fact that within Asian households, the children are raised and taught in a completely different manner than an American household even though I was born and raised in Philadelphia. However, I was raised both by Vietnamese standards of discipline and respect without questioning authority, whilst also being raised on American

Although Asian Americans comprise only about 5% of the U.S. population, this group is the fastest growing segment of American society. Despite such rapid expansion, Asian Americans are widely underrepresented throughout media, whether in television, cinema, or literature. Moreover, there are different stereotypes associated with Asian Americans. One of the most pervasive stereotypes details how Asian Americans are a “model minority”. In essence, this myth describes how anyone who is Asian American will become a successful individual able to achieve the “American dream”.

The emergence of the second generation bloomed quickly and by 1930, 41% of the Chinese population in America was naturalized born citizens. The birth of a child in America was symbolization of an elite status in an Asian American’s family (Lee 177). First generation immigrant parents feared the worst for their children who were second generation Asian Americans. The parents of the children feared that their children will grow up learning the American culture and language that they would become too “Americanized” and forget

This act was but a revised act of the US- China Burlingame Treaty that allowed the United States to suspend Chinese immigration. This act was only intended to last ten years but, was renewed again in 1892 and made permanent in 1902. This was the first United States law that prevented a specific ethnic group from immigrating into the United States. Despite all this racism, came along the Manguson Act which canceled the Chinese Exclusion Act in December 17, 1943.

As the immigrant population currently projected to overtake latinxs and hispanics as largest group of residents in the United States of America, Asian Americans have shown their will to survive in a way that many groups have not, and that is by banding together in order to achieve the life they deserve. Taking the overgeneralization of pan-ethnicity and using it as a device for increased numbers and support for the causes of a group of people who otherwise may not have much to do with each other, is a testament to how vulnerable they must have felt as well as how successful they have managed to be many aspects of progress. What I have gained from this course is the understanding that at the root of ethnic studies and the Asian American community is the “for us, by us” sentiment that contributed to the blurred lines between the different part of their communities as social, political and cultural, structures, collectives and groups which came out of an obligation and necessity to protect those immigrants and their future generations from a country which has always pushed European superiority in all aspects of society.

Firstly, the generation gap between my interviewee (as a second generation Asian American) and her parents (as first generation Asian Americans) is significantly huge due to their different levels of assimilation into American society. The first generation Asian Americans are less assimilated to American society due to the lack of adjustment of lives and values since they are used to their previous lives in Asia, whereas the second generation Asian Americans are well adjusted to American society since they have been only exposed to American society since

Growing up as an Asian in a predominantly American community caused a lot of hardships throughout my childhood. I have always struggled with accepting my own race because of the comments I had received. The majority of my family was born in Vietnam and came over to America to seek a better life. On the other hand, I was born in the United States as a male in the middle class. However, I still dealt with a bunch of hardships for being “Asian”.

My future is something I often think about. Most often, the questions that arise include the common doubts of “Am I doing this right?”, or even the occasional midnight philosophical questions such as “Why are we here?”, and so on. For the purpose of this essay, I will focus on the factors that have allowed me to reach this point in my life and how these factors influenced and continue to influence me, in order to provide me with a visualization of my future.