Asian-American Goes Back to the Motherland

Asian-American masculinist goes back to the Motherland.

This week from our friend, Laowai Comics. Keep it crazy!

Immigrants from the East Arrived on the West

Being a nation of immigrants has long been a point of controversy for the United States. The idea of immigrants overcoming discrimination and hardship to achieve the American dream, however, is generally dear to the hearts of most Americans. Unsurprisingly, stories of struggling immigrants coming to the United States and arriving on Ellis Island are cherished. Stories of those arriving from the opposite side of the country, though, are less heard. Europeans arrived from the Atlantic Ocean, but Asians arrived from the Pacific and they ended up in Ellis’ counterpoint: Angel Island.

Poetry carved onto the walls of detention barracks at Angel Island

(Photo: Preservation Nation Blog)

In 1970, Chinese poetry carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station saved it from destruction. After these carvings were found, Bay Area Asian Americans formed the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) and began a long journey that led to the restoration of the station and its opening to the public in 1983. Today, AIISF’s mission is to continue preserving the site and educate the public about the role of the Pacific Rim immigration in U.S. history.

Immigrants arrive on Angel Island

Asian immigration into the U.S. began in the 1850s, when young single men were recruited as laborers. The recruitment was so extensively that, by 1870, the Chinese represented 20% of California’s labor force. But the 1876 depression changed the attitudes towards these workers so strongly that Congress eventually passed the only U.S. law to ever restrict immigration and naturalization on the basis of race. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act would restrict Chinese immigration for the next sixty years.

Thirty years after the Act’s inception, a national system had formed specifically targeting Asian immigration. Immigration officials developed a new facility on Angel Island, the largest island in the San Francisco Bay, isolating immigrants from the mainland. Men were separated from women. People were put through humiliating medical exams and harsh interrogations that required immigrants to remember minute details of their lives, such as how many steps were in front of their home. Until they were approved, immigrants suffered long waits on Angel Island, which could span from weeks, months, to years.

An aerial view of Angel Island

The AIISF hopes to make this part of U.S. history better known and to give voices to the immigrants that faced such conditions. In this effort, it has created a forum where people can read the personal stories and those of friends and family that went through Angel Island. The stories span from immigrants arriving in the early 20^th century, like that of Japanese-born Kaoru Okawa who arrived in 1919 to more recent arrivals like that of Sri-Lankan born Kumar Emayan, who arrived in 1997. What may be the most empowering work the organization has done, though, may be allowing readers to submit their own stories. Visit their website to find out how people can share their own stories.

One Picture = 1,000 Words? Here’s 5,000 (and change)!

There’s certainly a theme in this week’s saved-but-unused pictures. What do you think it is?

Betty Ford reading to schoolchildren – a veritable rainbow, minus The Asian, The Latino, and The Redhead

Civil rights movement

Racist gags with Seth MacFarlane’s Dads

Swedish Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth and the “racist” cake controversy. Seriously, how could anyone not realize that this photograph could be anything but a PR nightmare?

Lorde and boyfriend James Lowe

Laowai Comics: What Happens When People Gossping About Me Think I Don’t Understand Them

What happens when the Chinese locals gossiping about me think that I don’t understand them…

That’s fair!

This week from our friend, Laowai Comics. Only in China – keep it crazy!

The Real Problem Behind Bitcoins

The news is aflame with stories of hacks, stolen bitcoin, exchanges defaulting, and shamed Bitcoin leadership, but it hasn’t touched on the major impact of bitcoin investments beyond the liquidity of the digital currency itself. The true problem of the currency resides with its legitimate purposes and who it’s making rich.

To understand this, context is needed behind the origins and the purpose behind bitcoin. The cryptographic currency, developed in 2009, was designed to be stored and used anonymously. This currency was originally “mined” using shared processing power and could be stored offline or on virtual exchanges. This meant that, early on, those with the greatest amount of processing power, or the tech savvy, could “mine” for the currency with their unused processing power.

A bitcoins mining rig
(via Gizmodo)

The currency mined or “earned” could then be traded for goods or services just as any other currency is used. In 2013, a smattering of small businesses and vendors began to accept bitcoin; Virgin Galactic even took them as payment for a commercial spaceflight into space. However, prior to 2013 (which was when we saw this surge of interest in bitcoin), what were the legitimate purposes for this currency? The most well-known of markets for the use of bitcoin has been the Silk Road, an online market that is the Amazon of the “hidden” internet.

Where does that leave us today? Bitcoin, once valued around US$30 in 2011 (or pennies in 2009) has jumped to US$630. Investors will leap at an investment like that, and many have. Considering the limited legitimate purposes for the currency, investors should question who are the major holders of bitcoin. That’s an answer no one knows since the currency is anonymous. Yet, looking at bitcoin’s largest known market (the Silk Road) and the processing power needed to “mine” the currency, it stands to reason the ones who hold the most currency are the ones who got in early and who trade services and goods for bitcoin (as true with any currency).

The problem is that the largest marketplace for bitcoin is also a marketplace for drugs, guns, child pornography, and other dubious activities. Another problem is that those who could’ve mined the currency earliest (beyond individuals) were spammers and hackers who developed botnets to mine copious amounts.

So what has the greed of our market done? The unknowing public’s speculation into bitcoin has increased the holdings of these drug runners, gun smugglers, pornographers, human traffickers, and potential criminals by 20-fold, if not more.

Op-Ed Disclaimer: The opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of The Wang Post.

Lessons from East Asian Education Systems

Imagine being told by your teacher that you should take birth control.

My friend from Beijing told me this happened at her school. Her teacher recommended that female students who really worried about impending exams should skip their period by taking birth control. Nothing would stop students from doing their best.

Stories like these hide behind the well-known success of East Asian education systems. Nations around the world often look to the region to find ways for improving their own systems.

The latest Program in International Student Assessment, which assesses reading, mathematics, science and problem solving in 15-year-olds, suggests that this may be a good idea. The assessment, carried out by OECD, found that the top seven scores were from Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Macau, and Japan.

Students attend class at the Jing’an Education College Affiliated School in Shanghai

The recipe of East Asia’s success is setting high standards for all schools and giving them the means to achieve them, the OECD’s head of education Andreas Schleicher told Reuters.

Others are concerned that the impressive performances by students in the region are actually due to intense pressure and extreme measures.

Andrew Kipnis, an anthropologist who wrote a book on the intense desire for education in China, told the BBC that parents borrow from relatives, put off building a new house or even forgo buying healthcare in order to spend money on private education.

In their article, “True Lessons of East Asian Education”, Drs. Young-oak Kim and Jung-kyu Kim argue that East Asia has a lot to learn from the American education system. They criticize the East Asian focus on rote memorization, its top-down instructional style, competitive college entrance exams and the deindividualization of students.

The OECD, though, found that East Asian students were increasingly more creative in extrapolating from previous knowledge – skills that are usually associated with Western school systems.

Nevertheless, East Asian systems still have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to expanding student potential past test taking.

I remember a friend from Wenzhou telling me that her teacher did not understand why she spent so much time playing ultimate Frisbee. She was on a team with many foreigners and loved that she could practice her English, exercise, and have fun, all at the same time. But, no matter how much she tried to explain this, she was told to stop wasting time and to get back to her books so she could pass her exams.

“Asian Dad” gets it

Keeping kids from having fun or choosing to spend on tutors instead of healthcare are probably not the East Asian practices that the West should be emulating.

Instead, it should take a look at East Asia’s belief that all can achieve. In the region it is hard work, rather than inherited talent, that is seen as the key to success. Resources are allocated equitably so that the most talented teachers are put in the most challenging classrooms. This way all students, regardless of background, are given the opportunity to work hard and succeed.

So, while it’s unlikely that the West will start handing out birth control to female students any time soon in order for them to maximize their studying time, maybe it should examine whether it is handing out other important education resources in a way that will maximize student potential.

One Picture = 1,000 Words? Here’s 1,000 – and Boy, What Words They Could Be!

In my week of looking for images for The Wang Post, I come across some strange things. This was saved as “The Atlantic – Naked Chinese”. It is, I think, a CCTV image of a naked Asian male running across a traffic lane carrying a sex doll. I could backtrack and look for the source of the article it accompanied, but what would be the fun in that?

Run Forrest anonymous naked Chinese man, run!

Laowai Comics: Bad Pickup Lines

Pickup lines that may not work. Click to enlarge.

This week from our friend, Laowai Comics. Only in China – keep it crazy!

One Picture = 1,000 Words? Here’s 6,000 (and Change)

We’re all cheated an hour in the U.S. this weekend (daylight savings), so a few quick words – we have to make the most of our time! – what random, interesting stuff do you come across in your internet meanderings?

Here’s my response in no other order except for chronology, as a result of my search for images for TWP.

Shanghai, 1930s

War propaganda poster, 1940s

Old vs. new – or is there really a difference?

The “clean-up” of China’s images for the Beijing Olympics

From The Sartorialist

President Obama Meets with the Dalai Lama at the White House

On Friday, February 21st, President Barack Obama met with the 14th Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House, despite fervent protest from Beijing. This was not the first encounter between President Obama and the Dalai Lama, who already met twice: in February 2010 and July 2011. Both times, the Chinese government rebuked President Obama’s involvement in the Tibetan issue, claiming such meetings with the Dalai Lama gravely jeopardized Sino-America relations.

Dalai Lama tossing snow at reporters in D.C., 2010

Outside the People’s Republic of China, the 14th Dalai Lama is acknowledged as the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. In 1951, after ratifying the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, the Dalai Lama worked briefly with the Chinese government; he was even elected as a delegate in the National People’s Congress and met Mao Zedong in Beijing. After the failure of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising, the Dalai Lama fled Potala Palace in Lhasa with his supporters for India, where he established the government of Tibet in exile in Dharamsala.

In recent years, many world leaders – the late Czech President Vaclav Havel, the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofsadt, German Chancellor Angela Merkel – have met with the Dalai Lama, all to angry opposition from Beijing.

Sometimes, the exchange of diplomatic disapprobation resulted in punishment: the Chinese government canceled the EU-China Summit planned in December 2008 in Lyon, France. The reason? Then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in Poland at the 25th-anniversary commemoration of the Dalai Lama’s Nobel Peace Prize.

The Dalai Lama with Carla Bruni, Sarkozy’s surprise of a third wife

France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had rebuffed the warning of the Chinese government, saying that even “[France] cannot have foreign policies dictated, even by our friends.”

Compared to France’s approach, the White House’s attitude towards the Tibetan issue during the Friday meeting was more cautious and ambivalent. A carefully worded announcement read,

“The United States supports the Dalai Lama’s ‘middle way’ approach of neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in China. The United States recognizes Tibet to be a part of the People’s Republic of China and we do not support Tibetan independence. The United States strongly supports human rights and religious freedom in China.”

In response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry described the Dalai Lama as a “separatist” and claimed that the “‘middle way’ approach is deceptive, and in nature is a political guideline for ‘Tibet independence’, which the Chinese government will absolutely not tolerate.” Beijing interpreted President Obama’s encounter with Dalai Lama as a “gross interference” into Chinese internal affairs; pundits saw this as Washington’s reaction against China’s establishment of an Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea, which escalated the already high tensions with Japan over disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.

China is a trading partner with many EU countries, and possess enormous holdings in the American market. With deepening Chinese-U.S. political and economic links, the White House managed – this time – to kept the meeting low-key (the event wasn’t even announced until Thursday) and to sidestep from the central Tibetan question by denouncing Tibetan independence. But every action demands a reaction – the issue, at this point, is still outstanding.

Laowai Comics: The Chinese Urban Decibel Scale

The Chinese Urban Decibel Scale. Click to enlarge.

This week from our friend, Laowai Comics. Only in China – keep it crazy!

Is Samsung Really a Hallmark of South Korean Globalization?

A global leader in industrial design, Samsung Group, the largest South Korean business conglomerate, is widely known as a major icon of Korean culture. Although it is relatively globalized and does benefit from globalization, some say that Samsung cannot be an effective force for advancing Korean economic interests and society on the international level.

The Korean bobsleigh team meets the Jamaican bobsleigh team at Winter Olympics in Sochi

The chief reason: in Korean politics, globalization is not a very popular issue. Many Koreans feel that the country should be more concerned about its citizens than about foreigners; thus, Samsung is hesitant to support an issue that is so controversial. It wants to be socially responsible and does not want to strongly advocate a matter that could alienate its primary customers and supporters. Unless globalization is a means for nationalism, it will continue to be deprioritized.

Another major limitation of Samsung’s role as the foremost “globalizer” of Korean society is that Samsung has other, more important interests. Although Samsung wants to export as much as it can, its real goal is to monopolize the Korean market. Only when it’s confident that it can keep its domestic market will Samsung exert real effort in globalizing.

The Apple iPhone, the main competition for many smartphones

Additionally, why Samsung seemingly can’t be an effective force for globalization is because it’s completely “Korean”. Samsung produces everything on its own and dominates hardware production. Although Samsung can increase production quickly and take advantage of the latest technology, the company is so dependent on one source of production.

As well, one of the biggest problems is Samsung’s corporate governance: its top management members are all Korean. While we can debate what it means to be an Asian man in the Western business world, the influx and variety of ideas and perspectives are relatively limited and localized as those in charge are of Korean heritage. Samsung itself is not globalized: through and through, it’s a Korean company, from the top to the bottom of its structure.

This leads to yet another significant limitation: Samsung’s success. Ironically, Samsung has become so successful in recent years (partly through globalization) that many people in Korea feel that change is unnecessary. Why are foreigners needed when Koreans, by themselves, are doing so well? This leads to a situation where Korean society and Samsung are in a standstill: the lesson that many Koreans have extracted from Samsung’s success is that the Korean way is the best way.

Some question Samsung’s sustainability as a truly global company because it is based on Korea’s authoritarian culture, where a company worker can earn a lot of money in the “system” – as long as he follows the rules and focuses steadily on the ladder. Related to its uncertain future, Samsung’s design is also a potential concern, as it is for many companies who compete with the coveted Apple sleekness.

Regardless, Samsung is a stronghold in Korea, and it’s rapidly growing internationally. We can only wait to see what’s next in its development.

What It’s Like To Be The Only Asian-American Woman in the U.S. Senate

Senator Mazie Hirono has “first” all over her resume. A Democrat representing Hawaii, she is the first Asian-American woman elected to the United States Senate, the first female senator to represent her state, and the first Buddhist in the Senate. She’s also the first U.S. senator to have been born in Japan.

Hirono immigrated to Hawaii as a little girl because her mother was seeking stability for Mazie and her brother. The children’s father was an alcoholic and a compulsive gambler. They fled him and their homeland on the steerage deck of a cross-Pacific ship. Hirono remembers crying as Yokohama Harbor receded in the distance. She was eight and spoke only Japanese.

Life in Hawaii was a struggle at first. The family slept sideways in a shared bed in the single-room boarding house they rented. Hirono helped support her mother and brother with the money she earned as a cashier in the school lunchroom and with her earnings from an after-school newspaper route.

Eventually, she paid her way through college at the University of Hawaii and law school at Georgetown University. Hirono went on to become a state representative, Hawaii’s lieutenant governor, and a congresswoman. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012.

I caught up with her about what it’s like to be a woman in the U.S. Senate, where inequality still persists, and what it took to get her where she is today. Here’s our conversation, lightly edited and condensed:

What’s your first memory from when you were a little girl of what you wanted to be when you grew up?

At a pretty young age, I wanted to do something with my life that would help people. I’ve been that way for quite a while. I wanted to be a counselor or social worker. That’s one of the reasons I was a psychology major.

How did watching your mother go through what she did affect the way you thought about women and what it takes for a woman to be in control of her own life?

I always saw my mother just making decisions that helped our family. It was much later when I realized how courageous she really was, and I came to understand what a risk-taker she was. That’s very much a part of how I am. I never took a path that was the usual path for someone in my generation. A lot of the women who I went to school with, in those days, it was still the track of becoming a teacher, becoming a nurse. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I didn’t go down that path. I did things that were different than what my classmates were doing. I think that’s really from my mom.

Who else inspired you to do something other than what society expected?

No matter how independent you are, you’re still part of a larger community with sexual stereotyping and everything else that really goes on. The book that really opened my eyes — here I am in college, and that’s when I read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. Even if I had such an unusual mother, so independent, I still — there was a part of me thinking, ‘Well, I’m gonna get married and I’m gonna have kids.’

And then I read that book, and literally a lightbulb went on in my head: ‘Why am I thinking this? I’ve never had a male presence in my life, really, so why do I think some guy is going to come along and I’m going to have this traditional life?’ It was at that point I think that I really began to look at my life as something that was probably going to take a different path, and it did.

Hirono and husband Leighton Oshima at the White House Bowling Alley, 2012

There were fewer women in law school during your time at Georgetown. What was that experience like?

Oh, yes. There were maybe 20 percent or fewer. I don’t know that I saw that much of a distinction by the time I was in law school. Definitely, there weren’t 50 percent [women], but at that point, at Georgetown, you’re competing with everyone else. It was a very competitive environment. I wanted to do public interest law. And the reason I selected Georgetown is they had really strong clinical programs, and I was in one of these clinical programs that involved being an advocate.

Fast-forward to being in Congress. Obviously we get more women with each election, which is great.

Yes. It’s really great.

But I’m still curious about some of the nuances — even if it’s something as seemingly small as the women’s bathroom being farther away from the floor.

You should see how it was on the House side. It’s much closer on the Senate side.

What are some of the other things you notice that are different for a woman than for a man, things that people who aren’t in Congress might not be privy to?

I’m pausing because every senator makes a huge difference. Regardless of whether you’re male, female, Republican, or Democrat, every Senate vote counts. From that standpoint, it’s not necessarily something that is a gender issue.

Right. So where it matters most, you’re truly equal.

But clearly, though, with the press, they seem to be really interested in the women of the Senate and when we don’t seem to agree on a path. I’m specifically talking about sexual assault in the military. [New York Democratic Sen.] Kirsten Gillibrand and I — and others — have supported a pretty significant change to the Code of Military Justice. [Missouri Democratic Sen.] Claire McCaskill has a different path. But we all agree that sexual assault in the military should be prevented and there should be prosecutions when these crimes occur. But there’s been a lot of press about why it is that we’re not together. I don’t think that’s an issue very much when men disagree.

It’s a very specific example of how the press still looks at our presence in this environment.

Years ago I found a 1950s article at the Library of Congress about [former congresswoman and Title IX author] Patsy Mink. The lede was something like, ‘the cutest politician you ever saw.’ So, on one hand, you think how far we’ve come, but then you still see coverage that references women leaders’ haircuts and outfits.

Or how petite we are. That sort of thing. You notice that a lot more still with women.

Hillary Clinton and Mazie Hirono

You’re a woman in a legislative body full of men, and you’re also the first Asian-American woman in the Senate. Are you treated differently for one more than for the other?

My being the only [Asian-American] woman here and only the second minority woman ever to be elected to the Senate, I think that says we have a ways to go. When I go home, I talk with the kids in Hawaii and I say, ‘Do you know there’s only one person in the Senate who looks like us?’

They must be shocked. [Ed. note: Asians make up 38 percent of the Hawaii population ; 23 percent of the population identifies as two or more races.]

Yeah, when I put it that way. Because they look around and they see the cosmopolitan backgrounds that everybody has. And I say, ‘I am the only person who looks like us.’ And they invariably look at each other. And I say, ‘That’s why we need to do a lot more.’

So what advice do you give to young people — particularly young women — who aspire to public service or elected office?

We need to get everybody in the pipeline in the local races. The local political arena is where it started for me, and I think that is still the case, especially for women. We need to get a lot more women into the pipeline… in the political arena as well as in the private sector.

You see the Fortune 500 companies, you see the boards. [Ed. note: Less than 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies have women CEOs .] They have to pay attention, otherwise they are not going to get the kind of diversity that’s representative of our country.

How do you think women can better support each other? For instance, I’m not aspiring to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but I still want to see more women in those roles. What can I do?

Well, awareness helps. And to feel that they make a difference.

Women in Hawaii, they need to vote. I definitely think that we can improve the voting rates of women in Hawaii. So, education and awareness.

I think it’s important for women to realize that their daughters, particularly, can aspire to a lot of different things — like robotics. The kids in Hawaii really like it and I’ve talked to kids from elementary school on up.

Especially the elementary and middle-school kids, I ask them, ‘If it weren’t for robotics, would you think about going into engineering?’ And they say no! So a lot of times, kids learn by doing. And then they realize, ‘Oh, I can do this.’ So those kinds of opportunities are really important, particularly for the girls.

This interview was originally published on Medium and is produced as part of The Only Woman in the Room collection by LadyBits .

Why Do We Blame Asian International Students?

Earlier in January, my university’s newspaper ran an opinion piece titled “Internationalization effort should be scaled back”. It was a simple article, one that most people from the school probably found themselves agreeing with. Yes, my university’s administration is often criticized for its active recruitment of international students; yes, it’s true that 14% of our student body are international students, and around half are from China; yes, most of the students are from Asian countries, and yes, there’s only a handful from Europe or Africa.

These are the facts; it’s the interpretation that I find problematic. Globalization is a good thing: we can learn from different cultures and backgrounds. The concern isn’t that my university should stop trying to recruit students from all over the world – it’s that they’re finding them from all the “wrong” places.

Problem #1: Why are there so many Asian students coming to the U.S.?

The U.S. has some of the world’s best universities for undergraduates, graduates, and professionals. In the past, people came to America in search of gold, or trade, or land; now, they come in search of education.

The selective mindset of wanting to pick and choose which countries can send their students to the U.S. recalls the reaction to the 20th-century immigrant waves chasing the “American Dream”: Americans didn’t want the Eastern Europeans or the Irish, but “proper” Western Europeans.

Let’s stay away from this

The same principle applies here: while much of Europe has settled into developed societies and economies, countries like China and India are still developing and changing. It’s natural that Asian students would want to come to the U.S., learn about subjects like economics and biology, conduct research, and network with employers and companies. It’s natural for them to want to better themselves and their countries through education, similar to how upper class elites in Western societies sent their sons away to Oxford and Cambridge or the Grand Tour and their daughters to “finishing school”.

We live in a globalized society; why not make use of it?

Problem #2: Why aren’t there enough international students from the “right” countries?

I’m going to assume the “right” countries mean Western Europe, Australia, Russia – basically, the countries where American students themselves study abroad.

When countries have more higher education and employment options, students tend to stay home. This is the case for countries like South Korea, Japan, and Turkey, all of which send fewer students over. This question relates to #1: a country’s opportunities for its youth – based on history and economy, as well as other factors – creates or limits the channels for its students to study abroad.

Unlike American students, most international students like those from China stay in the United States for at least four years, either completing a degree or conducting research. In all exchange programs, studying abroad involves leaving behind a familiar culture and adjusting or assimilating quickly; for international students in the U.S., this difficulty is compounded because they also invest a large chunk of their life, not just a semester or a summer.

Problem #3: No, really, why are there so many Asian students at my university?

Sharks vs. Jets

Perhaps what underlies this question is discomfort. The U.S. has been through many dramatic social changes lately – the legalization of gay marriage in some states, marijuana in others, immigration, etc. One of the arguments many people use to argue against gay marriage is that it’s against the norms of expectation: how are they suppose to explain to their children why two men are getting married? It’s just so… different. Icky.

The same kind of mindset surrounds the debate around international students. Americans who grew up with Western traditions – either they themselves are “mutts” of European extraction, or simply for the fact that they live in the U.S. and participate in the culture – go to college and are met by the unfamiliar presence of Asians on campus. They may feel uncomfortable talking to them, having to struggle to understand their words around their accents or encountering different values and perceptions.

When it’s time to socialize, everything breaks down into groups: domestic students eat with each other at meals, and international students have their own tables, speaking in their own languages and not having their expectations challenged. When I’m at lunch, it’s astonishing to me how people naturally divide themselves: it seems as though the groups don’t want to interact at all, and therefore, don’t.

Problem #4: Is there actually a problem?


No. While we’re at university, it’s best to look at what we can learn from the international students instead of trying to pick at nearly nonexistent problems. One of my friends from China regularly shares her tea with me; others make plans to go out for dinner every month. Regardless of how they got here, they are here and are part of our community. As fellow students, we should accept them for what they contribute, not shun them for what we imagine they take away.

Why My Asian Parents Love “The Godfather”

I remember summer from thirteen years ago, days where I spent endless hours playing in the green grass outside my apartment: getting dirt on the bottom of the sundresses my Chinese grandmother had painstakingly made, scuffing my shoes, stepping in mud, and hiding behind bushes. My best friend was the girl who lived directly above me, who wore her long hair in pigtails and chased me around the building; we’d climb over fences, hide from our parents, and sneak food from the kitchen to eat on our adventures. We were best friends, close enough to be family. While we were discovering this lesson hiding behind thorny bushes and smashing red berries, my parents were learning the same from one of the greatest movies of American cinema: The Godfather.

For nearly every year after their first viewing, they tried to get me to watch the movie with them. When Harry Potter became popular, they watched the films with me and swore that The Godfather was a thousand times better, deeper, and more exciting than a boy wizard could ever be. When I became interested in the silly teen romance novels that silly young teenagers often read, they told me to watch The Godfather and report back to them about love, and how the bonds between families, nations, and ethnicities were infinitely stronger than the temporary lust of adolescents who barely knew how to drive.

I didn’t listen to them, because I was convinced that their fascination was old-fashioned and boring, and that my generation’s storytellers have perfected filmmaking and novel-writing, which was still rough and being polished thirty, forty years ago. I procrastinated in watching the movie, pushing it off for years upon years until the winter break of my sophomore year in college, when I was suddenly struck by a sudden desire to watch the movies that I’d shirked from for a long decade.

(Photo: expatlingo)

They were worth the wait. For three hours I sat before the television, my eyes glued to the screen, afraid to blink for fear of missing some subtlety in the actors’ motions that would have ruined the rest of the plot. My mom sat by my side, pointing out the motivations behind the Godfather’s actions that I didn’t understand. For example, when Sonny Corleone publicly disagreed with his father before others, he was warned to “never tell anyone outside the family what you’re thinking”.

It’s a common theme for Asian parents that their children, the newer generation, don’t understand the bonds of families and the strength of nationalism. For the most part, this is true. As I watched the members of the Corleone family willingly sacrifice themselves and put their lives on the line to defend their family’s honor, I respected them for making the sacrifice that I know I personally could never choose.

I now understood. The movie was perfect for them: a Chinese couple who had recently immigrated to the United States in search of the American dream, but faced the challenge of overcoming a language barrier, discrimination, and struggling to synthesize the closed and conservative Chinese culture with the open and liberal American mindset. They found their answer contained in the plastic tapes of Francis Coppola’s The Godfather, where the opening scene beckoned them in, and the charm of Michael Corleone kept them watching.

They understood why the Families depended on Don Corleone. He had made the sacrifices necessary and dirtied his hands so his children could live happy lives, just like how my parents gave up a comfortable life in China – their social circle, their homeland – to raise two Chinese-American children in the nation of dreams. This was the ultimate love, beyond any pretty words from fluffy novels. And this was the first time I understood this.

My parents watched the interactions between the characters evolve from loyalty, love, and care to cold, merciless business transactions, and felt themselves moved in ways they’d never expected – especially by an American film. And I, through an Italian family, came to understand my own Chinese roots.