Dreams. We all have dreams and aspirations in this world. Some dream of living a luxurious lifestyle. Others may dream of mastering a difficult skill. While others, such as Helen Zia, dream of equality for people of different races, minorities, and genders.
Depicting the Asian American community as the model-minority ignores the issue of poverty that persists within this ethnicity. In fact, “between 2007 and 2011, the number of Asian Americans living in poverty [in California] increased by roughly 50 percent, to over half a million. Hmong and Cambodian American children have higher rates of poverty (42 percent and 31 percent, respectively) than African American and Latino children (27 percent and 26 percent, respectively)”. Unfortunately, this trend extends out of California because “in recent years, Asian Americans in New York City plunged deeper into poverty and are now the poorest New Yorkers” (Lee 378). Although there is a higher percentage of the Asian American community who lives in poverty,
Annotated Bibliography Cheng, Susan. " 10 Times Asian-Americans Fired Back Over Representation In 2016." BuzzFeed. Buzzfeed Inc., 20 Dec. 2016, www.buzzfeed.com/susancheng/asian-americans-fired-bac k-in-2016?utm_term=.kqkO9A949E#.vwk0mom2m7. This article, written by Susan Cheng, an Asian American Buzzfeed News Reporter, emphasizes the outrage Asian Americans feel when encountering a lack of representation in Hollywood.
Had a conversation with some associates who wanted my input on what I was told as a recent issue in regard to the bashing of the “ Hmong men and the Hmong Culture.” So I’m going to write it down here for those individuals to read. I could care less about how you feel. first: there is nothing wrong with dating or marrying someone outside your own ethnic group.
Throughout the history of the United States of America, millions of people from all over the world came to this continent of dream and hope, seeking a place to either survive or make a better life. Hundreds of thousands of forerunners and avant-gardes had devoted their whole lives to the contributions and constructions of this nation, and a great number of them even sacrificed not only themselves but also their families. However, the majority of these immigrants did not receive what they deserved. In a WASP dominated nation, they soon disappeared from the mainstream and became “missing in history”, aka. MIH.
This refers to a group of marginalized American citizens with origin from the Asian continent. The coming of Asians into America can be traced as far as the 1810s, between 1850 and 1905 a lot of Asians mostly Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and later south Asian Americans immigrated into America in large numbers mostly as unskilled laborers. As their numbers increased rapidly1, ‘the model minority’ as they were referred to back then started facing racial discrimination in the U.S. This resulted as the other Americans saw them as a threat to job opportunities hence a generalized dislike towards them resulted. This was until the year 1965 when changes were made in the immigration laws eliminating race as an immigration factor.
When Asian came to America— a place where full of unfamiliar faces, speak different language, have different belief and culture, how would they respond and adapt to these changes? This essay investigates on Asian American experience in terms of culture, racial discrimination, culture assimilation and confliction, and lost of identity through diverse motions in four Asian American poems- “Eating Alone”, “Eating Together”, and “Persimmons” by Li-Young Lee, and “The Lost Sister” by Cathy Song. From the motions or movement in the poems, we can further look into their life and feeling of being an Asian American. In “Eating Alone” and “Eating Together”, speaker would like to express his yearning towards his death father and convey the hierarchy of a Chinese family. In “Persimmons”, speaker claims his unfortunate childhood experience to carry out the theme of racial discrimination and culture
As a child growing up in an Asian household, I quickly became aware of how different my parents’ style of teaching was when compared to my other friends in elementary school. I remember feeling very surprised to hear how lenient most of my friend’s families were. I could never dream of even asking my parents at that age if I was allowed to stay over at a friend’s house. Everything, for me, revolved around doing chores and getting good grades. It was also strange for me to see how close and warm my friends’ families were together; where there were dedicated nights for board games or nights where they would watch TV together.
Most people have their own duty such as work hard in the workplace or take care of their families. People think that if they show responsibility to contribute to countries, countries will be progress. However, when people concentrate on their jobs, they might forget to take care of themselves. Some people find a way to relax, in addition to working hard. Otherwise, some people have no choice in reducing stress from their whole lives.
This way of life has molded my perception of different cultures and has given me insights on how to handle cultural barriers. The way I embrace difference and handle cultural barriers is a quality that I am very proud of. I have witnessed firsthand
Everyone has a different cultural identity, it’s not about where you’re from, what sport you play, what you look like. There are many examples of culture such as race, music, state, age, food, family, & sports. My cultural identity shows through my passion for music, sports(Basketball), & clothes. If I didn’t have any of these things apart of my culture I wouldn’t be the person who I am today. Basketball is something I want to get better at, so I practice and practice to get better at what I love to do.
All my life I have been on the move from one city to another living no more than three years in each. And each brought me unique experiences, that when people ask “well which do you like best?” I could not possibly decide, as you cannot compare a city with one another for each was during a different time in my life and in different circumstances. The one thing they have in common- Quito, Rio de Janeiro, Panama City, Sydney, New York and Buenos Aires- is the presence of the international communities.
Moreover, she deems that even though we are all unique because of our background, appearance, and ethnicity, we are all humans and we all live in this world together. She states that she “if we do not learn how to accept each other and our own selves, who we think we are and who we really are will keep us confused.” In other words, the author believes that society seems to be so engrossed in our ethnicity that as a result, will end up blinding people from the diverse possibility of a multicultural
The extraordinary Far East, the mystery of the Orient; for ages it has spoken to the imagination of Western society. While never remotely separated, the East and West managed to distance themselves in both geographical and cultural terms. As a result of this, Western society adopted a filtered and imperfect vision of this strange culture and its people. For the last two hundred years, however, an initially gradual yet since the First World War intensifying fusion of East Asia and the West has come into existence. Naturally, this absorption of East Asia in Western Society has strongly altered the discourse on East Asian culture and its people and continues to do so.
Have you ever heard a really exciting piece played by an orchestra, symphony, or even a band(meaning one made up of brass, woodwinds, and percussion)? I think of my cultural identity like a beautiful masterpiece made up of many different components and layers of voices. I hope after reading my essay you will be able to think of your own cultural identity in an exciting manner such as I veiw my own. One of the ways culture can be viewed as a musical piece of music is the many different types of music there are. One could view themselves as a pop song for its simplicity and the way it is much like many other songs.
