Why Albinism Is Feared In Chinese Culture

Could you take a guess and tell from what culture a person is from by just listening to their voice? Could you also tell by looking to their appearance; The way they dress, the color of their skin, facial features? What about the way they carry their selves? Just like “The Chinese in All of Us” by Richard Rodriguez where he explains that he feels connected to all the cultures around America, with its “culture, a sound, an accent, a walk.” (Rodriguez 730). It does not mean and require that you must look a certain way to belong to a certain culture.

Jin Wang was born in America but is also Chinese. He faces some difficulties with racism and stereotypes as he grows up. He just moved to a new school from San Francisco. The teacher introduces him to the class and says,” Class, I'd like us all to give a warm Mayflower Elementary welcome to your new friend and Classmate Jin Wang...He and his family recently moved to our neighborhood all the way from China!”(30). Jin has this look on his face of annoyance. Like, did she actually say this. She is too ignorant to ask so she just assumed that since he is Chinese, that he must be from China. He was born in America. This just shows how ignorant people are about other cultures. It makes it even harder to fit in if people don't even care where you're from and just make assumptions. Jin now experiences this first hand. He tries so hard to fit in and be normal. He goes as far as changing his hair to match the guys hair that Amelia likes. When he isn't noticed as much he wants to become someone else, someone who will fit in. He wakes up in the morning a new person, as he has transformed into someone he is not, he thinks to himself,”A new face deserved a new name. I decided to call myself...Danny”(198). He changed his race he didn't like his heritage and cultures so much

Throughout Everything I Never Told You, you can perceive the feelings of being an outsider, and being measured up against stereotypes. The reader can continue to see how the Lee family is reacting to Lydia’s death, now two months later. They are still treated as different, and they constantly stereotype, only to get some of them wrong later. People continue to criticize the Lee’s, known as one of the few Chinese families in Ohio, for what they look like, and what they think they should be like. In Everything I Never Told You, Jack had “never seen a Chinese person with blue eyes” (Ng 192), likely the cause of a stereotype that all people of Chinese descent have brown eyes. He continues on to mention to Lydia that “you know you’re the only girl in the school who’s not white”

The Chinese culture is built around thousands of years of tradition. Understanding these Chinese beliefs and social influences may benefit you when attending to someone of this culture.

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

In a powerful experiment we were able to see through the eyes of a kindergarten children prejudice dynamics. In a famous experience by Jane Elliot she separated her class between blue-eyed and brown-eyed students. Professor Elliot had separated her students by making one eye group inferior to the other making them have certain benefits and better treatment than the other group of students. Eventually, the students were switched the following day. This experiment have showed this group of kindergarten students how colors and discrimination affected the minority population. After this successful experiment with the kindergarten student’s professor Jane Elliot had done many other experiments using adults using the a similar technique blue-eyed

Also, being half-Chinese, Tan was subject to racism and being consistently asked ‘where are you from’, he had a sense of separateness, and an unclear notion of identity and not understanding what

As a young child, I lived life colorblind, unable to grasp the concept of race or skin color. Growing up in Florida as the only Asian in my elementary school and never being bullied for being different, I assumed everyone was white, including me. But then came that earth-shattering epiphany: I realized I wasn’t white. I started to notice that not every supermarket sold Pocky or bubble tea and that it’s not common to get money in shiny, red envelopes on New Year’s. I realized that not everyone knew how to use chopsticks, that not everyone ate rice with every meal, and that when some people spoke slowly to me, it’s not because they were trying to articulate, but because they thought I didn’t understand English.

A world once filled with Asian friends and neighbors crashes harshly as Jin is left stranded in a white dominated school. Stereotypes and teasing are quickly placed on him from his racial background. Still new to the area, Jin presumes, “The only other Asian in my class was Suzy Nakamura. When the class finally figured out that we weren’t related, rumors began to circulate that Suzy and I were arranged to be married on her thirteenth birthday. We avoided each other as much as possible” (Yang 31). Embarrassment clouds Jin as he realizes that he’s not like the other kids in his class. With distinct features and his native tongue, Jin felt like a reject surrounded by his Caucasian classmates. He was entirely alone amongst his peers, and he didn’t like that one single bit. In this way, it’s clear how both Junior and Jin felt like outcasts in these two oceans of white students and teachers.

In his essay “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority”, Ronald Takaki comments on how the Asian race is perceived. He believes that the Asian race is viewed as a “model minority” and he discusses how this perception is both false and harmful. Takaki supports his stance by providing statistical facts about the Asian population in the United States. He further discusses the media’s involvement in the perpetuation (and likely, the genesis) of this perception. Takaki provides statistics that he then compared to other ethnicities in the United States to further solidify his stance. While I tend to agree with most of Takaki’s general thesis, I disagree with how he makes his points.

Jane’s special project sparked when she told her young class of eight and nine year olds that blue-eyed people were smarter and were better than brown-eyed people. Blue-eyed children were allowed an extra five minutes at recess, could have extras at lunch, got to sit in the front of the classroom, and were greatly applauded for their successes. On the opposite spectrum, brown-eyed students were forced to wear navy fabric collars in order to be easily identified. The groups were forced into segregation and were not allowed to play with one another out on the playground. Even when a brown-eyed student is tormented, the exercise continues; it is all a part of the experiment. The next day, the children switched roles, allowing them to all comprehend the degrading and humiliating emotional aspects of being an “outsider”.

Xenophobia and fear of Chinese immigrants became catalyst for The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This image depicts the violence, fear, and xenophobia the white Americans felt toward the Chinese for taking their jobs, some of their women, ruining the economy, and coming from another country. What stands out in the visual is liberty sticking up for the Chinese saying hands off America is fairy play for everyone. While the white Americans were against it and Uncle Sam who represents patriotism wants to harm the Chinese. In addition, what is shown is what Chinese are called as well as the possibility of death by hanging. The issues it shows are the threats that the Chinese fact as well as the xenophobia and fear the white Americans feel toward the Chinese. The point of view of the visual is an unbiased view explain the facts of what is happening in the scenario of the Chinese versus white Americans. The message of the image is to bring awareness of the situation and show as liberty said America is fair play for all. What makes this argument successful is its highlight of basic propaganda tactics and demagogic undertones to eternalize Chinese stereotypes and beliefs. There are no weaknesses in the image because it's unbiased and its only presenting facts about the situation.

American's success is exaggerated to a great extent, and does not fit the "model minority" most

In the past, albinos were usually treated with fear or awe. They were sometimes killed at birth. Albino births were common enough in some groups not to cause any excitement. For example, among the San Blas Indians of Panama, one in approximately 130 births is an albino. In the mid-nineteenth century, albinos were exhibited in sideshows. Whole families were displayed at times and were described as a unique race of might people. They were said to live underground and to come out only at night when the light was dim and would not hurt their eyes.

Symptoms of Albinism vary from person to person. Many people think albino and picture pure white hair, the palest skin, and red eyes, but it really depends on the amount of pigment each person has. The skin of a person with the albino mutation is usually paler than most. This causes people with the mutation to be at a higher risk for skin cancers, and they can get sun damage easier than others. It is very important to stay protected out in the sun if a person is albino. For some people with the mutation they can start to produce melanin in their childhood and teen years which can cause a slight change in the