Asian American
Despite being framed as the model minority to justify racism and unfairness, many Asian Americans attempt to strip away their heritage and conform to the American society. Canwen Xu, in her well organized and humorous Ted Talk, used her past experiences to address the hardships and stereotypes Asian Americans have to confront. Her anecdotes reveal the two options laid in front of the community, conform to the stereotype or conform to the society. As a Chinese American who has lived in four cities, although I mostly agree with Xu, I also believe embracing our culture brings character and diversity to the community, which can create positive effects.
Canwen Xu starts the Ted Talk by listing the many popular “Asian Stereotypes” that the society usually believes. She described herself with characteristics Including playing instruments such as the violin and the piano, the hope to become a doctor, and the interest in math. When she got to the strict parents and bad driving, she finally asked the audience, “So the question for you now is, how long did it take you to figure out I was joking?” Stereotypes are harmful and many times, discouraging to the targeted people. There is no one side of the story, and without knowing the person, assumptions cannot be made. Although half joking, the frustration and helplessness of the speaker is clearly shown. Stereotypes, most of the time, are degrading and have the ability to make people feel alienated and less able to fit in. They also create obstacles that make the target’s life more difficult. For example in the Ted Talk, Canwen Xu was always expected to be good at math, and when she finally does, people would attribute it to her race instead of her hard work. Due to my background, I grew up with a mixture of two cultures, and often noticed many stereotypes. I was confused when my highschool math teacher asked me if I eat dogs, I felt embarrassed when other students call me the “dumb asian” because I am not the best at mathematics, I became frustrated when some dormmates in highschool believes that Asian people don’t shave. Because of these, sometimes I ponder if I should stay away from these stereotypes, and attempt to not conform to them.
Canwen Xu’s speech then addressed my question and moved on to talk about the two paths she realized she had during her youth: to conform to the stereotypes expected by the society, or to reject the stereotypes and conform to the majority. She describes it as, “For me, there was no in between.” Her experiences with her community made her want to reject her own culture, because she thought it would help her conform. She decided to distance herself from the Asian stereotype as much as possible, by degrading her own race and pretending she hated math. These actions led to bothersome truth, “And the worst part is, it worked. The more I rejected my Chinese identity, the more popular she became. My peers liked me more because I was more similar to them.” Although Canwen noticed that she became more and more confident, she concluded that no matter how much she pretended to be like her American classmates, she wasn’t. Her experience in playing the game The Sims 3 also made her realize a subtle change. The character and family she has created were all white, american families, and she also made her own character white. She revealed that it was by no means a conscientious decision she made, never once did she think to make the character look like her. After coming back to the United States for so many years, this has also happened to me. Sometimes I feel like I forgot what I looked like, and only in the mirror I see my true self. I noticed myself losing my Chinese connection and even the Chinese language. I love my Chinese heritage and identity and I hate to lose and forget it. I want to embrace them and I believe that does not hinder my American self.
Canwen Xu’s conclusion about the two paths of conforming raises my interest. As a Chinese American myself, maybe having a little bit more chinese compared to her, I believe there are more paths than the two she mentioned. I think it is not only possible, but also plausible to fit in without stripping away your identity and heritage. For example, despite forgetting some of my mandarin skills, I love listening to chinese music. My playlist of 800 songs contains about half English half Chinese. My friends love it when I share chinese rap songs with them and thought the style was unique and interesting. I also love teaching Mandarin and sharing Chinese culture with my American friends. My Chinese heritage makes me unique and special, and I will continue to embrace it because it brings character and diversity to the community. How boring would the world be without individualism and uniqueness?
