Why I Wrote a Book in College
Over the past few months I’ve been writing a book titled Breaking Through: Finding Passion and Purpose as an Asian American, and I’m excited to say that it is out and available on Amazon!
As you can probably guess, Breaking Through is about searching for that career or activity you truly love in the face of parental and societal expectations, which often for Asian Americans tends to be a common struggle.
After researching and interviewing over 100 successful Asian Americans and discussing my book topic with friends, the question I always get is, “Chris, why and how did you decide to write a book?”
Here are my top three reasons.
This topic is increasingly relevant today.
Have you seen Crazy Rich Asians yet? It’s an unprecedented Hollywood film. Not only does it center around an Asian American story, but it also features an all-Asian cast. The cast has stars like Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, and even rapper (and now an awesomely hilarious actress) Awkwafina, whose story I highlight in Breaking Through.
Although Asian American are only starting to make waves in popular culture, Asian representation was severely lacking beforehand.
Asians make up around 6% of the total US population. However, according to a USC report, “Of the top 100 films of 2015, 49 included no Asian or Asian American characters” and no Asians played a leading role.
I wanted to do something about this and my solution was to write a book highlighting successful Asian Americans in a diverse range a fields, not just in film and TV.
Because Asians lack representation in popular culture, I noticed that I didn’t have many Asian role models growing up. Another goal for my book is for others to find Asian American role models who may have been absent for most of their lives. A 2008 study found that, “our sense of what is possible in our careers is influenced by what has gone before, how we interpret that history, and how we draw inspiration and learning from leaders past and present in our own identity development.” Evidently, role models are important, especially those that are similar to us.
To inspire people to change their way of thinking.
Many people are good at doing what they’re told, and often Asian cultures value obedience and hard-work.That might be a reason why Asians are stereotyped as nerdy or heads-down workers not fit for management. We are told from a young age to study hard, go to a good college and pursue a career in something safe, yet prestigious like medicine or law.
Although this path is tried-and-true it just doesn’t work for everyone. If you’ve been told to follow the same path your whole life, it’s bound to affect how you think about your self-worth. If you’re not getting those grades you wanted, you start to get the feeling of not being enough. Or, if you don’t get into the school you wanted you feel like you aren’t being “a good Asian.”
But, there’s a solution. Instead of always trying to meet parental and societal expectations, do things that you aren’t always explicitly told to do. Pursue what you want actively because expecting good things to happen to you without action just doesn’t happen.
What I mean is this: Find projects outside of school and work that you are interested in and do them. Your ideas might be farfetched, but they often aren’t as out of reach as you think. If you told me last year I was going to be a published author in one year, I would told you to stop being crazy. Usually, you are just limiting yourself by not even taking the first step to try and pursue those goals.
Suzee Han, a VC associate at GSV (a venture capital firm) and adjunct professor at Northwestern University, aptly puts it, “Default to yes.” Just say “yes” to opportunities or ideas that come to you and make an effort to dedicate yourself to those pursuits.
You’ll find that many successful people did something unique — unique because nobody told them to do it. For example, Li Jiang, Chief Evangelist at GSV, started a dorm supply company in college. Hiro Kawashima, co-founder and CEO of healthcare startup Prescience Health, started the non-profit Supplies for Dreams in high school. I interviewed both these two amazing individuals and it’s clear that by starting projects outside of school or work they were able to find success.
To find answers to questions I had about myself and my relationship with my ethnic identity.
Breaking Through is deeply personal to my own life. I had a lot of unanswered questions about being Asian American since I was young. By writing this book I was able to discover how others like me viewed their ethnic identity and how that affected their pursuit of success. Through that effort, I hope my book will also resonate with other Asian Americans who have gone through similar struggles.
I understood from a young age that I was different from a lot of the other kids at school. My parents are both Chinese immigrants and my home life was different from many of my friends. Although my identity as an Asian American wasn’t the number one thing on my mind, in certain circumstances it became more relevant. For example, I easily became friends with other Asian Americans at school and church. Because we shared similar upbringings it was easier to connect with them. At the same time I had non-Asian friends too, but my relationships with them felt different. Why did I feel so comfortable with my Asian friends, but not so with my other friends? Was it because of stereotypes already forming in our minds that made me feel isolated, or was it my own fault for over thinking about my race in interactions with others?
Although, I was comfortable with my Asian friends, I also disliked that fact that I was Asian because I thought it was associated with being nerdy and uncool. I cringed when my Asian friends would joke and say their favorite food was rice. I didn’t want to be associated with people who seemed content to just perpetuate stereotypes. Like any young kid I wanted to be cool and accepted by the “popular” kids, so I started getting into things like football, which I thought Asians normally aren’t interested in. I was conscious of my ethnic identity and it shaped what activities I decided to do and who I wanted to hang out with.
While interviewing people for my book, I made it a point to ask people about their upbringings and how it influenced them. It soon became apparent that although the people I interviewed were Asian American like me they preferred not to talk about how being Asian hurt or helped them throughout their lives. Instead, they emphasized that they were humans just like everyone else, trying to find what their lives held for them.
Serial entrepreneur and former Division I football player, Ken Kamada, states, “I identify first with being a human being.” This is an awesome and transformative mindset to have. It doesn’t mean letting go of culture, but treating yourself as a human first — someone, who like everyone else, is looking for success, happiness and purpose regardless of race, culture or upbringing.
To sum it up…
My purpose for writing this book had a lot to do with understanding how being Asian American affected career goals.
I noticed that many of my Asian American friends were questioning what they wanted to do in life as well, especially when there were so many expectations placed upon them by their parents and even stereotypes.
Some struggled because their parents wanted them to pursue paths they weren’t really interested in. As minorities associated with certain stereotypes in America, Asian Americans have to deal often with parental and societal pressure to pursue a “safe” jobs, like becoming a doctor, lawyer or engineer. Others questioned their enoughness when they aren’t getting the straight A’s Asians “are famous for.” Constantly facing the stress of overbearing parents who want you to do be the best in school, while also matching the expectations that Asians should be smart and good at school is tough.
And even worse is that often times Asians feel alone in this process. Like I mentioned before, there is startling lack of Asian American role models that young people can look up to either professionally or in popular culture and be proud of (Perhaps that’s why Asian Americans find so much comfort with other people like them since those people have been lacking in their lives). Where is our representation? Is our lack of presence a failure on our part to succeed beyond just being good at school and getting a respectable job or is discrimination a factor as well?
As a college student, I questioned how to find a job or career that I loved, which also happened to pay the bills. I wished there was a book that could connect with someone like me. So instead, I did the research and wrote that book myself.
