“If we are being actively defined and described by the outside world, and if we now are defining who we aren’t, what we don’t like about how society sees us, what we don’t want to perpetuate, how do we talk about who we are?” writes John Tsung
of overtly xenophobic, anti-Asian policies. The words “traitor” and “foreigner” are all but said.
The question of loyalty is always present—are you left or are you right? Are you with us or against us? Are you Asian or are you American? Despite years and decades of assimilation and allyship, our two scarlet A’s, the message is clear: we are still seen as the Other. Asian Americans have become the great Rorschach test in the debate about the American experience.
I was born in Texas, but moved to Hong Kong, then Taiwan, before coming back to Texas at 10, having traded 3-year-old English for 4-year-old Cantonese then 6-year-old Taiwanese Mandarin. Ten is old enough to have your brain wired a certain way, and no matter how much I learned to uncurl my tongue, I am not wholly American, or Taiwanese-Chinese. Music was my translator.
Every one of the dozens of oral histories I have had the privilege of recording, from Rose, Duc, Christina, and many others, revealed something new and remarkable about our contemporary Asian American community. They are not neatly tied stories, they are human stories—they tell of strength, struggle, resilience, but also the sexism, classism, and ageism inside our own cultures. It is why I believe that we need a broader, deeper representation of stories in our telling of who we are.
Among Asia’s heterogenous experience, one theme comes up again and again in our interviews: war and death are within living memory in a way that is difficult for Americans and the West to imagine. Many countries are still in transition. Even South Korea and Taiwan, two of the Northeast “tigers,” have only emerged as democracies in the ’80s and ’90s, respectively. It explains why many Asians are sensitive to social instability even if we are overwhelmingly progressive.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Remembering Asian American Women Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki'The history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is about America as much as it is about nations engulfed in a world war. More than three-quarters of a century after the bomb, we can choose to remember the nearly forgotten history of Asian America as part of who we are.'
Read more »
Asian American Ballerina Georgina Pazcoguin Unexpectedly Makes HistoryPazcoguin is the first AAPI soloist at the City Ballet to dance the role of Polyhymnia in the company's presentation of ‘Apollo.’ It almost didn't happen.
Read more »
Twin sisters become the 1st Asian American girls to make Eagle Scout in BrooklynSelena and Alison Zhang are 17-year-old identical twins. They are the first girls and the first Asian American girls to make Eagle Scout in Brooklyn.
Read more »
The Asian origins of ketchup, the all-American condimentOver thousands of years, ketchup became a staple of the Jane Austen household, Civil War soldiers and American refrigerators.
Read more »
Suspect in Koreatown Salon Attack Had ‘Delusions’ About Asian People, Girlfriend SaysA man accused of shooting three Korean women last week at a Dallas hair salon was paranoid that the “Asian mob” was after him and had been fired from his job for “verbally attacking” his Asian boss, his girlfriend reportedly told investigators.
Read more »
Girlfriend: Man accused in Dallas attack had Asian delusionsThe girlfriend of a man arrested in Dallas in a shooting that wounded three women in a Koreatown hair salon told police he had been admitted to health facilities because he was having delusions about Asian Americans
Read more »