Assimilationists, Globalists, and Crazy Rich Asians

The Emperor
Aug 31, 2018 · 8 min read

Over at Plan A Magazine, Oxford Kondo has railed against the establishment Assimilationist narrative of the Asian American experience. He calls for us to break the deadlock of the Assimilationist model, but doesn’t go so far as to offer ideas of an alternate model. This is understandable: the Assimilationist model has had such a firm grip on the Asian American framework that those of us who are sick and tired of it have been busy rebelling against it, instead of thinking up alternatives.

Consider this article a proposal for an alternative model of the Asian American experience, inspired by, among other sources, the romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians.”


For a certain breed of successful Asian American, there’s a lifestyle that I like to call the “Revolving Door.” This is the situation in which a young well educated Asian American in a high powered job constantly flits back and forth from Asia to the United States: a business meeting in Seoul, a quick flight to Shanghai to see family, a few weeks back in the United States before another business trip to Singapore and an extended layover in Taipei for some good street food, then another few weeks back in the United States including a stop in Vegas for a friend’s bachelor or bachelorette party, before another vacation to Tokyo and then a business trip to Paris, just for good measure. There’s also the semi-permanent variation of the Revolving Door: start your career at a tech company in Silicon Valley, work for Samsung in Seoul for 2 years, try your luck at a start-up in Beijing for a year, before it’s back to America and Silicon Valley, but not for long. Within a year, the all-too familiar trappings of subtle American racism towards the “Model Minority” gets to you, so you pack up to a new job at a start-up in Vancouver, before deciding since you’re in Vancouver anyways why not just go to Asia, so you take a job with yet another start-up in Shenzhen. Replace “tech” with “finance” and “start-up” with “hedge fund”, and the above description is equally apt.

Hong Kong: one of many expensive pit stops for Asian American Globalists

Let’s call this breed of Asian Americans the “Globalists”, to distinguish them from the Assimilationists. (Yes, I am aware that “globalist” is also an alt-right term used to insult people of the Jewish faith— this is an effort to reclaim that term by the original Globalists, Asian Americans, whose very existence implicitly involves spanning the entirety of the globe). The Globalist Asian Americans live a lifestyle that most Americans would consider glamorous, exciting, and wholly unattainable: Michelin starred sushi, expensive cocktails crafted by expert mixologists, vacations in 5 star boutique hotels that are just begging to be Instagrammed (all paid for with airline miles and Chase Sapphire points, of course!).

The type of place where Asian American Globalists stay on vacation

Unlike their insecure cousins the Assimilationists, Globalists embrace their Asian heritage — in fact, their fluency in their native language and culture is a big part of their professional success. Rather than seeing white America as their salvation, the Globalists understand the value (financially and socially) of embracing their Asian-ness in the Asian century. The Globalists display none of the obsequiousness towards white America that the Assimilationists are so well known for. To a Globalist, why would anyone look up to white America when the economy is growing faster in Asia, the food is better in Asia, people are less racist to them in Asia, the public transportation is faster in Asia, and they can comfortably fit in Asia as well as they can in America? The Globalists are as comfortable singing Big Bang at karaoke in Seoul as they are playing beer pong at a tailgate in Ann Arbor, as comfortable watching Johnny To’s latest gangster movie as they are dissecting the significance of “Moonlight”. Having come of age in a nation that made us feel like “perpetual foreigners,” we are natural code switchers who are many times more comfortable in unfamiliar settings than the average American.

The Globalists certainly tend to be wealthier than their Assimilationist cousins, and the gap in wealth is only growing as the world’s financial center of gravity shifts to Asia. This has caused some jealous chagrin among the Assimilationists, who believed that their proximity to whiteness had permanently established them above all other Asians in some imaginary status-whoring pecking order. Perhaps this explains some of the angry Internet hate the Assimilationist camp has launched at their Globalist kin? After all, what was all that kissing up to white people for if the Asian Americans who hung out with FOBs still ended up with the cooler Instagram pictures?

That’s not to say that Globalists are the super-rich; most of them rank among the managerial class: business consultants, finance professionals, top software engineers, corporate lawyers. They’re not Crazy Rich Asians, but you can definitely call them Vaguely Rich Asians, and they’re certainly much wealthier than the average American, with the sophisticated lifestyle to match.

A Vaguely Rich Asian Globalist nabs her dream man: A Crazy Rich Asian Globalist

When it comes to dating, Globalists don’t suffer from the nettlesome hangups plaguing the Assimilationists. It is certainly possible for someone to be a Globalist Asian American and date someone of another race, but more often than not, Globalists prefer dating other Asians for reasons related to cultural familiarity. That being said, Globalists often cross ethnic divides when they date: a Chinese Canadian woman dating a Korean man she met on a business assignment in Seoul, a Vietnamese Australian man dating a half Japanese hapa woman he met in Taiwan, or even a Chinese American economics professor dating the scion of a wealthy Singaporean family (imagine that)! They certainly do not have a preference for white partners, and most of them consider such preferences an embarrassing foible of their impressionable Assimilationist brethren.


As we move further and further into the “Asian Century,” more and more Asian American millenials and Gen Z are embracing a Globalist identity: just look at the popularity of Asian YouTubers like the Fung Bros. with their cross Pacific jaunts, the mass appeal of K-Pop boy bands among young Asian American women, and the scorching success of “Crazy Rich Asians” at the box office. This Globalist identity is in many ways healthier than the problematic white worship of the Assimilationists. It also better serves the needs of the Asian American community. After all, the very concept of an Asian American community is rather diffuse, encompassing people from different cultures and corners of East, Southeast, and South Asia. Why shouldn’t our sense of identity be diffuse and distributed as well? Why shouldn’t we take advantage of our broad cultural knowledge to accumulate wealth by acting as pivots between a declining West and an ascendant East? And why shouldn’t we take advantage of our wealth by traveling, exploring and learning as much as we can, about greater Asia and the rest of the world beyond?

Asian American Globalists wouldn’t be the first to embrace a nomadic, mobile concept of identity. Before us, the Phoenicians of the ancient Middle East famously sailed across the Mediterranean, their sense of self reflected in the open waters and in their roles as merchants and traders. Likewise, the Jews are famous for the spread of their diaspora and the itinerant aspects of their culture. Closer to home, many of us may be descended from Chinese merchants of the Northwest who made a regular habit of excursions across the Silk Road, or from nomadic Mongols seeking new adventures beyond the next grassland and the next desert. Asian American Globalists are simply a modern 21st Century iteration of the merchant nomad cultures of generations past.

Beyond every mountain, hill, and dune, lies more possibilities

As the Globalists continue to gain in wealth and status, often at the expense of the Assimilationists, there will be a natural shift in Asian America towards their narratives. Witness “Crazy Rich Asians.” Frustrating issues with whitewashing aside, the film is the story of an Asian American woman who tears away her American-ness to embrace a Globalist vision of her identity. Sure, in terms of being wish fulfillment for a predominantly American female audience, we see Rachel Chu as the plucky Americanized heroine in a tale full of gossipy, quirky, bizarre Asian Singaporeans. But in the end, how does she win over the Young family? With the decidedly Asian traditions of dumpling making and mahjong, an implicit embrace of Asianness and rejection of whiteness. And what is her prize for this embrace of Asianness? The Crazy Rich Asian man of her dreams and a beautiful engagement party in Singapore, replete with beaming Asian faces, beautifully lit lanterns, and a Mandarin language cover of Coldplay’s Yellow. You can’t dream up a more Globalist Asian American ending than that.

What would a generation of Asian Americans embracing the Globalist narrative look like? It would be a community of self-confident, assertive, proud, successful individuals who do not shy away from any parts of their identity. It would mean more Asian Americans having the integrity not to play up exaggerated minstrel show versions of their culture for a few nods of approval from white America. It would mean Asian American men and women abstaining from racist caricatures of each other, and instead embracing a collective tan skinned identity rooted in our common Eastern homelands and shared cultures, while at the same time drawing power and wealth from the global outlook we have developed as eternal outsiders in America. The idea that a white worshiping Assimilationist model is the only one for Asian America would be swept into the dustbin of history, a sad reminder of an earlier time, as outdated and out of touch as old men in polyester disco suits carrying pet rocks.

Does the Asian American Globalist identity really have legs? In the Mandarin cover of Coldplay’s Yellow, Katherine Ho sings:

“我想知道, 流星能飞多久”

“I want to know, how long a meteor can fly for.”

I don’t know how far we can fly yet, my proud fellow Asian American Globalists, but I can’t wait to find out.

流星

Emperor Magazine

Politics, Lifestyle and Entertainment for the Asian American Man

The Emperor

Written by

Emperor Magazine

Politics, Lifestyle and Entertainment for the Asian American Man

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