Posted on 02/11/2011 11:22:35 PM PST by thecodont
How the mainstreaming of multiracialism is forcing a more fluid definition of Asian American identity
Like many immigrants, my parents see identity as a bucket. My mother and father had come to America carefully bearing a pail of old-world traditions, cherished customs, shining morals and rock-ribbed ethics; they'd worked hard and sacrificed greatly to give me and my sister the things they never had. And then, they handed us the bucket -- knowing that in the transfer, a little bit of culture would inevitably slosh out over the side.
They look at my kids now, downloading apps, watching "Spongebob," singing along to GaGa but unable to speak guo yu, and they shake their heads, aghast. Last week we celebrated Lunar New Year; as my younger son Skyler stubbornly refused to make the customary bow and gong xi fa cai greeting in exchange for his annual red envelope bribe, my dad sternly suggested to me that I needed to send the kids "back to Taiwan" for the summer. This was his way of suggesting an immediate intervention was required -- an emergency jolt of culture to prevent the patient from going identity flatline. Clear!
And yet, there was an unspoken subtext in Dad's suggestion, which was that my kids could readily be rehabbed with just a quick transfusion to top them off. They are, after all, the children of Chinese parents and grandkids of Chinese grandparents -- the culture should come out through the blood. My sister's half-Korean kids on the other hand -- and the multiracial children of some of my many cousins -- well, now, that begged a tougher question: How does one refill the "cultural bucket" when the bucket is only half-full to begin with?
What if it's a quarter full, or less?
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/02/11/apop021111.DTL#ixzz1Dj7gwJGn
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
When I asked my wifes father for permission to marry her he remarked that if he wanted her to be ‘the perfect Korean’ than he should have stayed in Korea..
I am no learning Korean out of respect to my Father in-law, my kids will hopefully learn it to. But the fact there is no pressure on them to ‘feel’ Korean, just to honor their grandparents is relieving.
The reason Asian kids are comfortable being Americans is because no one in the US is reminding them they are not. Nobody throws dog crap on their porch on the day they move into the neighborhood. No one in school slants their eyes and call them ching chongs anymore. Overall whites accept Asian kids in their schools and communities. Some Asian parents do not realize that. One Asian kid told me that some of his Asian friends at church were surprise that he goes to a majority all white school and no one ever harassed him for his race.
However in inner city black neighborhoods, it is another story.
Well, it’s the United States. Nice if you can keep a little bit of the old country, but don’t get too upset if the kids all go native.
My ancestors, at least the ones that arrived here the earliest, first arrived in the mid-17th century (around 1660) and only the Lord knows who or what makes up our geneology after 370 years. Frankly, I don’t care.
We’re just American.
Duh, Mom and Dad came for the economic opportunities and wanted to keep the respect and cultural moral framework intact.
Gee, you don’t suppose that acceptance of Asian-looking kids is due to their speaking standard English, excelling academically, and assimilating into the mainstream culture?
Yea, you can pretty much figure out what an immigrant group (or family) thinks of this country by what names they choose for their kids. In much of the Asian community, they choose American names.
Yeah, I had a big laugh at myself over that. I was a civilian working for the USMC PX system in the '70s and was sent to the Kaneohe air station in Hawaii to install a general ledger program. We had to work late one night. The computer operator, an American of Chinese descent said he had to call the missus. I expected him to say something like "Hello, Loo Ming?" Instead, he said, "Hi Martha." I almost hurt myself to keep from laughing out loud at my stereotyping. Never took anything like that for granted again.
LOL. Good story.
I’ve known as many “hapas” (mixed race Asians) as full-blooded Asian-Americans.
My kid is American.
The only thing China gave her was a place to stay until we came to get her.
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