Dear Generasians,

I am so excited and proud to bring you our first magazine in 2015. This issue holds an especially dear place in my heart as the last magazine I will publish in my NYU career. As I graduate with my fellow seniors, I can’t help but reflect on my experience and growth as both a student and a member of the Asian American community. It’s been a breath-taking journey, replete with challenges and rewards alike. I’m honored to be Editor-in-Chief of a magazine I’ve loved since my freshman year, and blessed to be able to address readers and supporters like you. Generasian will always have a fond place in my heart, and I am blessed to have been a part of it for so long.Our theme this issue is ‘synergy’. Synergy is defined as the coming together of organizations, people, or substances to produce a combined effect or impact greater than that of each of the individual components. In other words, it embodies the idea that we are stronger together, that while each of us is incredible in our own right, we can accomplish even more inspiring things as an organized group. Generasian’s writers and artists have worked tirelessly to put together this issue for you, and their time and effort shine through in their work. We sincerely hope you enjoy reading our magazine as much as we did working on it, and look forward to seeing you again in the next issue!

With all my love,

Catherine YeEditor-in-Chief

Dear readers,

The Asian American community is a multi-complex of an identity, built out of the many, many different ethnicities, genders, sexual identities, backgrounds, economies, and political parties. Like a diamond, each facet of Asian America creates a new sparkle—shines a new light. Synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Separately, our parts are great; each salient identity can be independently discerned and untangled. However, it is when we join together that Asian America becomes the force that it is. Synergy does not imply that all facets of the Asian America will blend and perfectly coexist, but rather demonstrates that solidarity and understanding of difference will better ourselves as a community.

This semester, our staff of writers work with their own brand of synergy. As always we each contributed our own ideas, perceptions, skills and time to mold the issue into what now is in your hands. The differences housed under one publication’s name make Generasian the dynamic magazine it has been for years. Thank you for the support this past semester; we hope you will enjoy reading this issue.

Cheers,

Jolene Hsu and Kim ChenEditors-at-Large

LETTERSfrom the EDITORS

Table of Contents 3

The Asian Advantage: All Fun and Games Nicole Bernardo

The Asian American Mental Landscape Avery Chang

The Things We’ve Lost Nora Hexter

COMMENTARY

EDITORIAL STAFF

CHECK OUT GENERASIAN.ORG

EXECUTIVE STAFFEditor-in-Chief Catherine YeEditor-at-Large Jolene Hsu and Kim ChenArt Director Avery ChangTreasurer Nicole Bernardo Public Relations Manager Joyce ChenCommunity Director Hui OngMedia Director Will ShiOnline Editors Joyce Chen Swan Cho

WHAT’S INSIDE

Rocking the Boat Shirley Foo

Crime and Punishment: Korea Vs. America Swan Cho

I Need an Asian American Hero Huiqin Ong

Cover Graphic Avery Chang

Letters from the Editors Catherine Ye & Jolene Hsu and Kim Chen

22 Self Portrait Cindy Qiu

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Layout Director Jolene Hsu Layout Editors Avery Chang Kim Chen Will Shi Swan Cho Nora Hexter Casey Lee

/nyugenerasian

ARTENTERTAINMENT

Bleeding Mountain Georgie Fu

Mouse Deer Demi Phoon

Shilin Windows Larry Wu

Pigeon Man Jamie SungNARRATIVE

IDENTITY24

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Stories of Home: A Chinese Experience Will Shi

Don’t Wear Me Down Jolene Hsu

Stepford Asians: Seemingly Perfect Casey Lee

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4 Identity

by William ShiA CHINESE EXPERIENCE

hinese immigrants in America have a long history encompassing

most of America’s life as a nation. What follows are the stories of three fictional characters at key points in the history of these Chinese immigrants in America.

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Kong Ah was a middle-aged man living in the bustling city of San Francisco. It was 1853, and he had ar-rived in the United States to escape from the high taxes being levied in his home country, Qing China, following the Opium War. Tens of thousands of others like him had immigrated to the US in search of fortune and a better life promised by the tales of the Gam Saan, or gold mountain, that repre-sented the American Gold Rush. Everyday, Kong would go down to the local camp to look for gold. Although the white miners had started using a new mining technique called “hydraulicking,” Kong learned from his fellow Chinese miners and utilized the older method of placer mining. Even though it was less efficient than “hydrau-licking,” Kong and his compatriots found that their combined efforts in placer mining could provide sufficient amounts of gold from claims that white miners had deemed unproductive.

Sometimes, Kong would be heckled by the white miners. He had seen newspaper reports of the brew-ing anti-Chinese sentiment: “Chinamen are getting to be altogether too plenti-ful in this country,” as the governor himself stated in response to growing Chinese immigration. It was a good thing for Kong and other Chinese min-ers that he had found a large group of Chinese miners to work with. Kong was always fearful though, as he should have been. As soon as he arrived, California passed a foreign miner’s tax, aiming to generate tax revenue from non-citizen miners. Of the 20¢ Kong would make per day, more than half would go to the state. However, that didn’t deter Kong - following the floods and droughts that plagued his hometown in the province of Kwang-tung, he considered the money he made in America to be more than sufficient. Kong lived in the area for many years, traveling with his group of Chinese miners to other claims after one had dried up, sending some of his savings home to support his family, and even taking some time off on occa-sion to visit the ample brothels in San Francisco. One day, however, Kong was told of opportunities further to the east.

Companies were building massive lines of rail-roads across the country and they were looking for

“Chinamen are getting to be altogether too plentiful in this country,”

C

STORIES OF HOMElaborers. Seeing an opportunity, he took up the laborer job and began working on what would be known as the Cen-tral Pacific Railroad, the western half of the Transcontinental Railroad. After working there for many years, Kong saw the dramatic increase in not only his fellow countrymen, but also in the discrimination directed towards them. Chinese laborers were paid paltry sums compared to their white counter-parts. The Chinese laborers were usually tasked with handling the dynamite for tunnel explosions, subjecting them to extremely dangerous conditions, especially during bad weather. These laborers were also working 14 to 16 hours a day. These issues came to a head when Chinese workers went on strike, Kong included. They demanded higher wages, reprieve during dangerous working conditions, and 10-hour workdays. The men in charge of the railroad offered no concessions however, going so far as to withhold food from the entirety of the striking workers for over a week. Kong was understandably malnour-ished and tired of the strike, and when presented with the opportunity to return to work with the only punishment being a mere fine, he, and others, took it. After leaving his hometown, Kong would never see his family again. He spent his life working in the US and sending money to his loved ones. Kong died of lung failure shortly after the pass-ing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.

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Stories of Home: A Chinese Experience 5READ OUR BLOG generasian.org

Yak Fun Sum was a young man living in Canton when his father, Wah Bo Sum had returned from America after many years. Yak hadn’t seen him since he was a boy when Wah left in search of a better life abroad. It was now 1906 and Wah had successfully claimed his status as a US citizen before returning to China in order to bring his family back with him. San Francisco had just had a giant earthquake that resulted in the loss of many documents, including proofs of citizenship. Although many of his friends were not as lucky, Wah found himself passing the rigorous inspection of his well-crafted history. Now back in China, not only could he bring back his own son, he could also attempt bring back his oth-er family members, close friends, and, perhaps, even strangers, under the pre-tense of them being his “sons” or “daugh-ters.” However, Wah saw too much risk in doing so, and opted, instead, to only bring his biological son back. Yak arrived in San Francisco as the son of a fake US citizen. He was a “paper son,” allowed into America under a provision in the Chinese Exclusion Act that gave the children of US citizens en-

try into the country despite their Chinese nationality. Yak was one of hundreds, even thousands of Chinese immigrants who would enter the country as the sup-posed son or daughter of “citizens.” But life was better here in the US. He would realize that over the next decades of his life as China descended into revolu-tion, factionalism, and warlord states. Yak found himself work-ing odd jobs over the years to support himself and his father. Wah had broken his leg working and was no longer able to perform manual labor tasks. Yak, therefore, had to support his father as well as his family back home by work-ing multiple jobs. Eventually, he had saved up enough money to open his own laundromat. It was a good profes-sion, Yak thought. Anyone would want their clothes clean, and, for a small fee, he would be the one to clean them. Not long after Yak opened his laundromat, he met his future wife. Although a customer at first, she would spend inordinate amounts of time just to talk with him. They began dating, and, before llong, got married. They had three children together, and Yak

Records of a “paper son” http://jrjung.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/jungben1921.jpg

Chinese immigrant miner utilizing placer mininghttp://image.hnol.net/c/2008-08/13/16/200808131613004561-200765.jpg

6 Identity

and his wife made just enough money to send them all through school, mak-ing sure they were provided with a good education to ensure their futures. Yak would live to see the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943 with the passing of the Magnuson Act. He thought it was great how China and the US, his two home countries, were allied in war, and hoped for better relations between the two countries and further relaxation of immigration restrictions. However, he would not live to see his birth country reunited; Yak died of old age before the end of the war surrounded by his wife and children.

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Ling Hao Zhang came to Ameri-ca as a young medical professional on va-cation in 1989. It was during her time on vacation that the Tiananmen Square Pro-tests occurred in China. Following these protests, America granted refugee status to any Chinese scholar or student in the country. Ling, shocked at the sudden op-portunity presented to her, and believing her future prospects to be much better in the US, decided not to return home and stayed in America permanently. Ling arrived in New York City in 1990, with one of the largest Chinese populations in the entire country. How-ever, she had trouble establishing herself in her new home, finding the need to constantly balance between studying for her medical board exams and work-ing part-time as a waitress to pay bills. Discovering the large Mainland Chinese population in Flushing, Ling moved into a small studio apartment in the area. By 1992, Ling had managed to finish studying for her medical board exams and passed. She found a residency at a major hospital in the city and received a resident’s salary of $30,000. Lin was ecstatic as this was the most money she had ever made, and decided to send a sizable portion of her salary home to her

mother who was still living in China. Ling met her husband during her second year of residency. Although they were both doctors, they found a reasonable balance between their professional lives and their personal lives. They were married to each other by 1995. The following year, Ling gave birth to a son. She and her husband decided to name him Michael. Ling watched her son grow up intelligent and athletic. Michael was always ahead in schoolwork and partici-pated in the community’s local youth soc-cer team. Ling, always wanting the best for her only child, told Michael how he should grow up to be a doctor. She knew first hand the job security, prestige, and salary that the profession provides, and it would set her son up for a happy life.Michael, however, had doubts about the medical field. Although he acknowledged the practical benefits of entering the profession, he agonized about the years of study he would undertake and the pains and sufferings he would endure of the patients he would see everyday. He voiced these concerns to his parents, but they were ultimately dismissed. After entering college in 2014, Michael decided to major in computer

science. Ling and her husband were distraught. They truly wanted only to make their son happy, and they thought that medicine would lead him to a safe, secure, and prosperous life. But when they heard just how passionate Michael was about software engineering and technology, they relented. Although medicine is “safe,” it wouldn’t have brought Michael happiness. Ling came to understand that and supports her son in his studies in computer science now. She hopes that he can find happiness as a software developer after he graduates.

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These stories don’t represent all Chinese immigrants in America. No story really can. But what they do represent are shared, generalized experi-ences that most immigrants can relate to. They represent a history of these Chinese immigrants that come over from a land on the other side of the world in order to find a better life in America. They represent a shared identity. This identity is unique, because they are not born into it. Rather, they find their way into it, contributing to it, and, ultimately, leaving a cultural legacy.

Flushing, NYhttp://urbanomnibus.net/redux/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Flushing-Chinatown.jpg

William Shi is a Junior studying History and on the Pre-med track at the College of Arts and Sciences.

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Bleeding Mountain 7READ OUR BLOG generasian.tumblr.com

Flushing, NYhttp://urbanomnibus.net/redux/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Flushing-Chinatown.jpg

MOUNTAIN BLEEDING

This piece is a reflection on the relationship between human and nature. I used watered down oil to create a light wash over the wood, and black

marker to create a distance from the landscape and face. There is a serenity found in nature that cannot be replicated through urbanization.

I found that I was very inspired by the wood I painted on rather than looking through magazines or online. I took the liberty to hammer

down and destroy some parts of the wood to create more texture and dimension, as nature is not always smooth and beautiful.

Medium: Oil and Marker on Wood

By Georgie Fu

8 Identity

his May, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala will open their latest exhibition: “Chinese Whispers: Tales of the East in Art, Film and Fashion.” Scratch that. The committee was just given notice that the term “Chinese Whispers” is actually offensive, implying the Chinese language and culture totally incomprehensible. This May, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala will open their latest exhibition: “China: Through the Looking Glass”. Down the rabbit hole we go.

Since Marco Polo, westerners have been admiring, altering, misunderstanding and stealing foreign customs and costumes. Purti Pareek, 20, thinks about Iggy Azalea’s music video for her song Bounce, which was filmed in India. She says “two hippie Williamsburg directors decided to film in india because they think Indian culture ‘deserves so much recognition and the clothes and smells and women were worthy of attention.” Your basic “white man’s burden rhetoric as if [the Indian culture] couldn’t just stand on its own.” So while the media has often reported what white celebrity has decided to play offensive dress up, what’s less often talked about is when people of actual Asian cultures wear their traditional attires and why these clothings so important to them.

Jacqueline Szeto, 19, plays the traditional Chinese instrument the Guzheng. Every time she performs, she wears a Cheongsam, a traditional Chinese dress. Wearing the dress while playing makes her feel connected to the long standing history of Chinese musical culture. “It makes me feel like I’m doing something important, like I’m a part of something bigger” Szeto says. “When I put on the dress and tie up my hair, I am not just performing an instrument; I feel like I’m in a part of history.” Jenny Mai, 20, echos Szeto’s sentiments. Every Lunar New Year, Mai dons the Vietnamese Ao Dai. “It’s just a part of the celebration. Everyone in my family dresses up and we have a big dinner...I think I would feel weird not wearing one on Lunar New Years.”

While misinformed costumed white celebrities have the spotlight shown over them again and again, perhaps a better way to learn is by example. It’s more fruitful and positive to celebrate Asians wearing their heritage clothing. There is pride, history and legacy in cultural clothing and this approach will best teach those foolish individuals to think twice before they start speaking in Chinese Whispers. G

Jolene Hsu is a Sophomore studying Media, Culture and Communications in Steinhardt.

DON’T WEAR ME DOWN By Jolene HsuT

Don’t Wear Me Down 9READ OUR BLOG generasian.tumblr.com

10 Identity

to be Asian American! Imagine a Stepford, Connecticut filled with Asians. A quote from the website:

“Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the U.S, with Asians now making up the largest share of recent immigrants. A Pew Research survey finds Asian Americans are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place a greater value on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success” (Pew Research Center 2010).

A majority of Asian Americans also believe that life in the United States is better than in their countries of origin, providing more opportunities to get ahead, better conditions to raise children, and more freedom to express political views and practice religion among other things.

The Stepford AsiansLike Nicole Kidman’s character in

the 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives,

THE STEPFORD ASIANS by Casey Lee

Identity Crisis?hen you are a minority, it’s kind of hard not to think

about race. Race was skin color. It was brown eyes and black hair. Race was being the one green apple in a second grade class full of red apples. But that’s not really what race is. Race is actually a “social construct.” It’s kind of mind-boggling, to understand intrinsically, characteristically, whole-beingly what something is and yet be told that it is not. It might elicit some soul searching and provide some food for thought: questions like “What now?” and “Who am I?” or “What is this life then?” Being Asian (American) is a HUGE part of many of our individual identities; even when you occasionally forgot that you are Asian, it’s much like standing in the shadow of a huge statue. There stood this monumental pillar of your personhood and you just learned that for two decades it’d been

a figment of your imagination. Uh?

By the BookSo what “counts” as Asian-

American anyway? Well, The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) says anyone with “origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.”1

In 2010, the Pew Research Center came out with an infographic about how Asian Americans were faring in the US.2 There are a lot of statistics about all sorts of things. It’s actually pretty impressive. On their website, you can even filter through by ethnic groups to see numbers specifically concerning them.

The infographic painted a pretty nice picture. Hey, it sounded great

Photos courtesy of pewsocialtrends.org

W

1. http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/populations/REMP/asian.html

2. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/asianamericans-graphics/

READ OUR BLOG generasian.tumblr.com The Stepford Asians 11

one can’t help but search for the flaws in the apparently perfect lives of the Stepford Asians. Even the one statistic about racial discrimination looked docile! Life isn’t perfect and living in minority status makes that doubly true. There had to be something. Something these infographs were missing.

Shruti Kumar (18), an Indian NYU Stern student from Jersey, sees both sides, “There are a lot of problems that Asian Americans face that aren’t represented by the infograph. The whole phenomenon of balancing the values your parents taught you and the values you see on TV or with your friends can’t be represented by a statistic. It’s a very

unique Asian American experience.”Jason Lee (19), an NYU CAS student,

thinks so too, “It’s hard to generalize things because there are so many people out there. [….] Statistics never tell the whole story but it’s not like I disagree with anything. They’re numbers; you can’t lie with numbers.”

Shawn An (19), a Chinese-American Stern student, says, “I’d say quantitative wise, based on finances and education, Asian people are in a really good spot. But I feel like there’s this emotional instability in Asian American families that are addressed by this ‘model minority’ label that are placed on Asians.”

That’s the trickiest thing about numbers and facts, they don’t lie and yet they can’t be wholly true. So for all those nice figures about the importance of marriage, family, education, is there a darker experience

no one really talks about, like the Men’s Club of Stepford?

Shawn: “I feel like Asian people, in terms of marriage… the concept of divorce doesn’t exist.

Everything centers around the kid so they know if they got a divorce it would screw up the kid’s future. So their willing to sacrifice their happiness for the sake of their children.”

Shruti: “[A]s an Asian American kid that grew up here I don’t think that [the US] that amazing because I can see the problems that exist. But I can see why our parents would think that it is because they came to America for a reason[…]. They believe in the American Dream and if you think that the American Dream is true and real, then you would think that America is awesome. A lot of people think that they can go from rags to riches by virtue of living in America, but there are a lot of socio-economic boundaries that are unique to America, not just for minorities, that keep people from moving up, which is pretty ironic.”

And what about education? There

are so many stereotypes; the notorious tiger moms, the math prodigies? What about the fact that 39% of Asian Americans say parents place too

much pressure on their children to do well academically and that 49% of Asian Americans have a bachelor’s degree or higher (as compared to 28% of the U.S. population)?

Jason: “Asian Americans place such a high value on education that it’s the highest priority sometimes. They place too much stress on it for their kids, which is not a good thing because it […] doesn’t place enough value on relationships.”

Shawn: “There is that Asian stereotype that their kids have to be doctors or whatever so in terms of that I think that… well it’s like that

“That’s the trickiest thing about numbers and facts, they don’t lie and yet they can’t be wholly true.”

It’s kind of mind-boggling, to understand intrinsically, characteristically, whole-beingly what something is and yet be told that it is not.

12 Identity

immigrant factor. They think “I threw everything (life family, language, and society) away to come here” so they could build better futures for themselves and their kids so we need to acknowledge that fact. Like for my parents, they could’ve done fine had they stayed in China but they knew for me, I would do better developmentally here in America.”

So what about the future? The interviewees generally

agreed that stagnation is something to watch out for.

Shawn: “[O]nce you get comfortable where you are you lose the drive to go further. I think that a lot of Asian Americans will break through socio-economic barriers but I think a lot of them will stay stagnant.”

Jason: “I think the statistics will likely average out as the years go by. Like they will get more similar to the general population of the US

because we’re becoming more and more American. Most of the Asians in the US now were foreign-born but the longer we stay here, the longer we’ll become like the norm.”

Shruti: “We grew up here so we can see the problem so when we grow up we’ll be more disillusioned than our parents. Also, I think the statistic about success will become more even [to the general population] [laughs] because every successive generation is more American. Like you can see it even now—I know Indian kids who refuse to call themselves Indian and want to be as far removed from the culture as possible.”

Statistics leave out so much of the human experience. Race may be a construct, yes. People may have prejudices due to said racial construct, yes. Those prejudices may or may not be true. Point is, a lot of that information about being highest-income, most life-satisfied, highly dedicated parents and partners is true. They would be great things to aspire to, to look forward to. But life isn’t as magenta-tinted and 2-D as the data on a screen. Those numbers tell only that which we have already achieved. Our personal definitions of what it means to be Asian American may still be a bit hazy, maybe not. But getting there takes time, a little everyday. It’s a dialectic of sorts fdssthat changes as we give meaning to it. Maybe the infographic and the statistics then are less about who Asian Americans are now and more telling towards who we can be. At the end of the day, we are who we are. As Shruti puts it, “As hard as the Asian American experience is, I want [my kids] to have it because [the difficulties] makes them better in the end.”

Casey Lee is a freshman majoring in Computer

Science in the College of Arts and Sciences.

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Mouse-Deer 13READ OUR BLOG generasian.tumblr.com

THE MOUSE-DEER AND THE CROCODILE

In high school, I had to tell a folktale from my culture. I searched and found this fable about the mouse-deer. The mouse-deer is highlighted

in Malaysian culture because even though it is small, it is very smart. So I choose the story about The Mouse-Deer and the Crocodile

for my project in high school. I thought it would be interesting to bring this story as a cartoon on paper for Generasian.

Medium: Digital

By Demi Phoon

14 Entertainment

by Shirley Foo

ROCKING THE BOATresh Off The Boat ,

based on celebrity chef Eddie Huang’s memoir, has recently been one of the most widely talked about new TV shows on broadcast television, and it is no surprise why. The show has been named the first Asian American focused sitcom in 20 years since 1994’s Korean American comedy All -American Girl starring Margaret Cho, which was later canceled by ABC after one season due to low ratings and offensive content which was severely criticized. It was a cari-cature of Asian America rather than a showcase and served as an apology for the race, instead of a celebration.

Unlike All -American Girl , Fresh Off The Boat has received positive reviews and appears to be here to stay. Set in the nineties, the Taiwanese Huangs move from Chinatown in Washing-ton, D.C. to a predominantly white neighborhood in Orlando, Florida, experiencing culture shocks and dif-fering levels of difficulty in assimilat-ing into white American culture.

Fresh Off The Boat is seen as a breakthrough for the Asian American community, who are one of the least represented minority groups on televi-sion. With an estimated 18.9 million people of Asian descent living in the

United States, we are still largely invisible on television. TV shows in America are mainly dom-inated by white culture, so for a show to feature a predominantly Asian cast is a definite feat.

There are, of course, other shows besides Fresh Off The Boat that feature non white leads. Having a person of color as a lead character in popular shows is indeed progressive, but it is not enough, as many characters still have backward portrayals. Asians cannot be limited to one dimensional stock roles. This only emphasizes the fact that Asian characters are in dire need of complex and dynamic makeovers, which is why Fresh Off The Boat is such a hit.

There is a clear lack of Asian protagonists on American television. Asians are often relegated to secondary roles or side actors who play into Asian stereotypes. Han Bryce Lee in 2 Broke Girls is portrayed as asexual and unable to understand American culture. Rajesh Koothrapalli in The Big Bang Theory is crippled by his inability to speak to women. Such roles clearly sideline and heavily stereotype Asian presences on screen and also contribute to the emas-

FABC, 2015, Fresh Off the Boat

With an estimated 18.9 million people of Asian decent living in the United States, we are still largely invisible on television.

Rocking the Boat 15READ OUR BLOG generasian.org

culation of the Asian American male and the “foreigner” aspect of Asians in general, who are shown as unable to

assimilate into white American culture.On the other hand, while Fresh Off

The Boat is rightly hailed as a standout and a breakthrough for Asian American presence on the screen, its arrival has perhaps diminished the accomplish-ments of other Asian American actors who have also played significant, non-racialized roles onscreen. Lucy Liu in Elementary , Aziz Ansari in Parks and Recreation , and Mindy Kaling in The Mindy Project are all examples of Asian protagonists in shows that are not cen-tered around their race and do not rely on stereotypes to form the basis of their characters. The fact that they are Asian is not a defining personality trait of their characters. Yet, they are still typi-cally the single Asian American char-

acter in a dominantly white context.If Fresh Off The Boat revolves

around Asian American culture and be-ing Asian is an important aspect of the Huangs’ life, is the show racial-ized, then? We must remember that Fresh Off The Boat is not simply a story about an Asian family and it is not only focused on the race

of its protagonist, even if race is an important theme of the show. Fresh Off The Boat is based on a nonfiction book, celebrity chef Eddie Huang’s memoir. Hence, it is perhaps less of a show about race, and more of a show about how a young boy grew up in a world where he was different. Fresh Off The Boat successfully places racialized characters in a non racialized context. The cast of Asian leads is the main focus of the show, yet somehow, it does not singularly revolve around the theme of race. While the show would certainly be different if the cast was not Asian, the fact that the characters are Asian is not the driving force of the plot.

Although Fresh Off The Boat does indeed promote diversity on the televi-

Fresh Off the Boat successfully places racialized characters in a nonracialized context.

Nahright, 2013, Eddie Huang;

ABC, 1995, All American Girl

sion screen and provide an outlet of expression for Asians as a minority group, it does not strive to be a savior for us all. It does not represent every single Asian American, nor does it at-tempt to brand itself as the mouthpiece of Asian American culture. It is first and foremost an individual’s reflec-tion on his life––the fact that he is an

individual of Asian heritage does not make Fresh Off The Boat the final solution for all other Asian Americans. G

Shirley Foo is a Freshman studying journalism in the College of Arts and Science.

forgiveness between both cultures is incredibly vast. One of the greatest falls of the Korean entertainment industry is a young man named Shin Dong-Hyun also known as, MC Mong. Shin released his first single album in 2004 with the album “180°” which allowed him to finally break through into mainstream music and gain the attention of the country. His “monkey-like” looks and humorous music videos captured the hearts of many people all over the world and he slowly rose to fame. Five albums later, MC Mong had his own radio program, was a permanent member in multiple variety T.V. shows and even had his own online shop. Then in September 2010, MC Mong was charged with deliberately extracting teeth as to avoid Korea’s mandatory 2-year military service requirement for all male citizens. As these allegations hit the public, he was immediately cut out of all variety shows he was a part of (regardless of whether the episodes had been filmed or not), his music was no longer played on any radio stations, and he was banned from performing on live television. Ten months later, after he was proved innocent, meaning the court recognized that his teeth extraction was not intentionally performed to get out of military service, Korea still had not forgiven

16 Entertainment

him. His newest album released in 2014, “Miss Me or Diss Me”, received mixed reviews but the overall reaction was negative. MC Mong is a prime example of what breaking the law as a celebrity in Korea looks like but not the only one. No Hong-Chul, a variety TV favorite, radio show host, and a Korean “fashion” icon was caught drunk driving and was edited out of all his TV episodes and immediately replaced. Kang Ho-Dong, an award winning TV Host and considered a Korean legacy, was arrested for tax-fraud and was forced to retirement.

These Korean artists, actors, and entertainers who have been in the industry for years and loved by the people were instantly shunned once they commit a crime. The celebrities are not required but expected to hold a nationwide press conference explaining their wrongdoing and apologizing for disappointing their country. They are supposed to stop being active in public and most citizens request that they give up their careers altogether.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT:

KOREA VS. USAby Swan Cho

tars, they are just like us. And like any of us, they at

many points in their lives make the wrong choices. Individuals of the entertainment industry both in Western and Eastern cultures break the law. The difference between the stars and us is that the world gets to watch their mistakes unravel. What is truly interesting to observe, is the reaction of the culture to which these entertainers belong. Why is it that the same crime committed by an American star in American culture is received differently when than a person commiting a crim in the Korean entertainment industry?

As celebrities continue to come and go – it becomes obvious that the gap of

S

As celebrities continue to come and go - it becomes obvious that the gap of forgiveness between both cultures is incredibly vast.

Noh Hong-Chul. Photo from DramaFever

READ OUR BLOG generasian.tumblr.com Crime and Punishment: Korea Vs. USA 17

Many celebrities retire after making a mistake but if they do return, they start from the bottom again. They lose their “seniority” and their careers are defined by their crime. Anyone would agree that they should be disciplined, they did break the law therefore they must face the consequences but is ending their career the correct punishment?

On the other spectrum are American celebrities who have broken the law. Mike Tyson an American boxer and a former undisputed heavyweight champion was arrested for driving under the influence, drug possession, and physical violence in public throughout his career. Justin Bieber, a teen idol, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and drag racing in 2014. Chris Brown, award winning recording artist and platinum record holder, pleaded guilty for attacked his then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009. Will Smith, a renowned American actor, was arrested in 1989 over a vicious assault that left his victim with a fractured left eye. Robert Downey had multiple

arrests during his early acting career over drug related charges, including cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. All of these entertainers are still very famous today and are not solely remembered for their crimes. They served their time, minimally or not at all due to their status, and continued their career. They are revered for their comebacks and proclaimed as “brave” for being able to fight drug addictions and turn their life around. Even those who are known for their mistakes, such as Mike Tyson and Chris Brown, are both still active on television and Brown has released multiple albums after his arrest. Their mistakes are either forgotten or their wrongdoings are attributed to their personality.

The Korean culture, as many Eastern countries, is based on an honor system and their celebrities are expected to be at their best. They are

role models and as public figures have an obligation to be perfect. On the other hand, the American culture is incredibly individualistic. People encourage these public icons that fall to redefine themselves or use their new image to build something new. They are punished much less than the average citizen for the same crimes and are given very special treatment throughout their sentence. The question that remains is, which reaction is the appropriate one? And why are the reactions so different? Should celebrities be shunned from the industry after they commit a crime, or should they be given special treatment because they are famous?

Perhaps neither society has the correct approach and there should be a balance between the two cultures. Without a doubt, all people should be required to take responsibility for their actions, famous or not. Nonetheless, they should be given the opportunity to be forgiven and to receive a second chance.

Swan Cho is a junior majoring in Mathematics

in the College of Arts and Science.

G

Perhaps neither society has the correct approach and there should be a balance between the two cultures.

Robert Downey Jr.’s mugshot in 1999 for

drug possession. Photo from DigitalSpy

Mike Tyson (left) and Chris Brown (right). Photo from WireImage

1. http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/133359/20141108/why-is-mc-mong-receiving-so-much-negative-feedback-for-his-comeback.htm

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson

3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2216135/Will-Smith-1989-mugshot-connection-attack-left-man-blind.html

4. http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/269279/chris-brown-charged-with-assault-on-rihanna

18 Entertainment

by Hui Ong

I NEED AN [ASIAN AMERICAN]

he faces on television are white, white, white and Will Smith,”

Shing Yin Khor penned above a wa-tercolor sketch of the Yellow Ranger looking wistfully into the distance, as she writes from experience as an Asian growing up in America. Amidst the sea of superheroes on screen she finds herself drawn only to the Yel-low Ranger: “She is my goddess. Jesus Christ is white, but Trini Kwan looks like me.” The absence of racial diversity in children’s entertain-ment can indeed be punishing for the self-esteem of most American kids – save for white boys, according to a 2012 study published in Communi-cation Research. Children are affected psychologically when they do not see themselves represented. Simi-larly, lead characters in superhero comics or cartoons are predominantly white (think Batman, Spiderman, and an overwhelmingly large proportion of the suppos-edly all-inclusive X-Men). Other races, if present at all, are commonly reduced to the margins of the narrative, rearing their heads as forgettable sidekicks at best.Fortunately there has been a turn towards diversifying the pop culture that children are exposed to, not begin-ning and certainly not ending with the realm of com-ics. Last August, Marvel announced that Steve Rogers

would be relinquishing his role as Captain America to his African-American partner Sam Wilson. Yet, as Jeff Yang - columnist of Tao Jones on the Wall Street Journal and editor of two Asian-American graphic novel anthologies - expressed in a commentary for the CNN in July 2014: “The problem with non-white characters taking over the legacies of established white characters is that the changes never seem to stick… The costume almost always reverts back to the original wearer.” In the readers’ minds the white narrative has already been firmly cemented. To stuff a new character under the same cape for conspicuous purposes of diversity is effective only in highlighting the contrasts between different racial ex-periences, which can make the story seem disjointed.

What is really needed, then, are “fresh, new heroes who represent us in all our vibrant diversity,” Yang emphasized, “with origin stories that are authentic to their identities.” They would come from backgrounds that Asian-American kids can readily connect to, with none of the historical baggage of rehashed storylines. To help you get started, here are four Asian-American superheroes to look out for:

To stuff a new character under the same cape for conspicuous purposes of diversity is effective only in highlighting the contrasts between different racial experiences, which can make the story seem disjointed.

T

“What would Trini Kwan Do?” Shing Yin Khor1

HERO

I Need an Asian American Hero 19READ OUR BLOG generasian.org

Cindy Moon3

Amadeus Cho4

1 http://the-toast.net/2014/07/02/what-would-yellow-ranger-do-cartoon/

2 http://majorspoilers.com/2011/07/08/review-chew-19/

1Tony Chu, from Chew

Set in an America plagued catastrophically by birdflu, Chu plays the unlikely hero as a cibopath, i.e. with a bite of anything he gets a psychic vision of the

subject in question. He is swiftly picked up by the Food and Drug Administra-tion (FDA), an extremely powerful bureau in this strange world, and encoun-ters wildly unusual characters with other food-related supernatural powers.

2Cindy Moon, aka Silk, from MarvelReleased in stores in February, Moon is the first Asian-American female to get her own Marvel series. (“It’s funny that this is 2015, and these are still firsts,” said Jeff Ayers, manager of the comics store Forbidden Planet, in an interview with the NBC.) Born in Queens, Moon was bitten by the same irradiated spider that pro-duced Spiderman. She was locked in a bunker for her own protection for thir-teen years, and upon release joins forces with Spiderman to fight villains.

3 Amadeus Cho, aka Prince

of Power from MarvelThis Korean-American is not strictly

a superhero, but a superhuman with a hypermind. It enables him to work out an infinite number of mathematical calculations within moments. If you remain, for some

reason, unimpressed: Cho deftly hacks into Iron Man’s state-of-the-

art suit with a fourth-generation GameBoy and manages to out-

math a laser-guided missile.

Chew2

Mettle5

3 http://marvel.wikia.com/Cindy_Moon_(Earth-616)

4 http://marvel.wikia.com/Amadeus_Cho_(Earth-616)

5 http://marvel.wikia.com/Avengers_Academy_Vol_1_13

4Ken Mack, aka Mettle, from Avengers Academy.He was just a typical teenager surfing the Hawaiian waves, before an acci-dent at sea revealed the red iridium skull under his skin. He is quickly trans-formed into a full body of pure iridium, realizing his abilities to exhibit Hercu-lean strength and withstand scorching temperatures and blunt trauma. G

Hui Ong is a Sophomore studying Economic in the College of Arts and Science.

20 Art

SHILIN WINDOWS By Lawrence Wu

Art 21READ OUR BLOG generasian.tumblr.com

The Taiwanese nighttime heat and humidity, the stench of grilled squid and stinky tofu, the iconic game over sounds within an earshot from the numerous arcades are the sense I remember most. Each storefront, cramped between others, is just a small window to people’s lives and their culture.

22 Narrative

SELF PORTRAITby Cindy Qui

Silver w ings of hopeBrought me to a space-

A space of confusion And ut ter happiness.

They say of this place,Sunshine w ipes dr y tears

Of wear, of despair.They said, you’ll be the w inner

Of this golden race.

In the crayon age,I dabbled outside the lines.

They used their reds and v ioletsTo make eter nal gardens.

I used bland c harcoal To draw abstract shapes

They’ll never perceive,For they saw circ les

From a mesh of squares.

Only light hair in sight,I revered dark ness.I k new not a world

Where I can paint different tales,Without flashy-sk in teens

Sit t ing on my dreams.Girls w ith eyes like mineWave that magic marker

Hoping lines w ill c hange their fate.I also drew lines,

On outsk ir ts of our young lives,To say we’re not the same.

Not a sunshine-haired scant,Nor a fair-sk in per fect plan.

Just a menager ieOf shat tered color ful glass.

P iecing the par ts together Shows an incomplete puzzle.

Self Portrait 23READ OUR BLOG generasian.org

The stage of c hange is set.I showcase my blue hear t,Inscr ibed w ith their names.But in rooms w ithout air, I breathe through small holesOf laughs about this phony place.I lear n too muc h too lateAbout false promisesAnd red envelopes of difference.

I never smoked societyTo c limb to their high.Obsessed w ith silver screen da ze,They dressed away their wage.My enemies’ enemiesBroke their promises to me.It ’s a ladder w ith no endEven when I reac hed the sky,I saw flashes, but no signs.

Four years of c hanging escapes,Through unreflect ive mir rors,A hollow pict ure of mePersists t i l the ver y end.Once colored w ith pure, pink paint,Now spot ted w ith dots of gray.Changing lyr ics r un my brain,Unw illing to sway its pace,Til I found my c hosen phrase.

Now I tell fragmented talesOf a nomadic young life.Mov ing away from thingsWithout thought, st il l my for te. St il l judged by blac k lines on eyes.But your voice, a faint blemishOn my glow ing t ic ket out of here.Some say they like the lines.Some tell me to add w ings. G

Cindy Qiu is a Freshman studying English in the College of Arts and Science.

The poem that I wrote, entitled “Self-Portrait,” juxtaposes tales of journeys: physical journeys, such as migrating to a foreign land, and emotional journeys, such as navigating the labyrinth of friendships and relationships. “Self-Portrait” outlines that chronology, based on my own experiences, from the actions and thoughts of fifth graders to those of college students. It tells of times when it was only accepted to follow the status quo of middle school or high school hierarchy. And that is certainly relatable. However, gradually, one (hopefully) realizes that the status quo is simply an imaginary, fickle concept meant to be broken. The idea that one needs to follow a certain life path is instilled, but meant to be challenged.

24 Commentary

by Nicole Bernardo

THE ASIAN ADVANTAGE: ALL FUN AND GAMES

ard work, a logical numerical system, and a language that enables enhanced memorization have been pin-

pointed by author Malcolm Gladwell as tools in the Asian math arsenal, but what if there were even more? Perhaps it is not just mundane methods that improve math profi-ciency. Asians are putting a positive spin on mathematics allowing their younger generations to view the daunting subject as a fun puzzle or a challenging game. What hard truths can we learn about the West’s educational approach to math and the ways are we failing our schoolchildren?

For British broadcaster Alex Bellos, who holds a math degree, Asian superiority in mathematics is an enigma. It is hard to pinpoint just one thing that makes them more adept at the skill, but there are certainly concrete methods that seem to be working in mysterious ways we have yet to fully understand. Bellos traveled to Japan and narrated a radio podcast for BBC that broadcasted first in 2012 and again in August 2013. What he found there was slightly different from the robotic, rigid con-trol we had assumed made math so simple for Asians.

Bellos believes the Japanese approach to math is a posi-tive factor. Math is typically seen in America as tedious, convoluted, and absurdly abstract to those who do not favor it. From personal experience, mathematics was never a strong point. I felt that the classroom was a battlefield of privates who were sacrificed and left for dead if they did not grasp basic concepts early on, and of elites, the officer division who excelled at such left-brain reasoning and were rewarded with A’s and friendships with the teacher. Most of the math I was taught from K to 12 was taught from similar textbooks, in similar manners. If you did not understand the teacher’s first explanation, most likely you would never get the concept because many of the teachers could only explain the solution process one way or maybe two. Math was almost never fun for a student like me who was better with words than with numbers and who could not visualize an equa-tion being imperative in the real world. What the Japanese are doing is different. They are teaching their children that

math is fun and important to life.With multiplication alone, the Japanese have at least three

ways for their students to find solutions, all of which are arguably more fun than Western methods. Answers to the most basic problems, such as 8 x 8, are taught very early on in the form of multiplication tables. This sounds familiar to the ubiquitous rows of factors and products we had to memorize as kids, but the main difference is in the method of memori-zation. Rather than monotonously reciting the problems or copying them down over and over, Japanese schoolchildren memorize their times tables by singing. Yes, singing. The song, called kuku, is comparable to a nursery rhyme in its prevalence and reputation. Children recite basic multipli-cation problems to a tune with some of the words changed to sound more musical and therefore easier to remember. Often, they learn the song before they learn its meaning, so the words become second nature, like memories. This must make it hard to forget simple multiplication! Bellos visited a Japanese bar after the work day was over to see if the rhyme was still used by adults. When he asked a lady what 8 x 8 was she remembered right away and said she had thought of the rhyme in her head. They remember the sounds of the problems more than the meaning, but the answer is the same either way and is noticeably faster to recall. Plus, the nega-tive stigma of forced memorization is erased since Japanese adults are recalling a nursery rhyme rather than the cringe-worthy lists of times tables American adults must envision.

The second method allows students, with a bit of ef-fort, to solve more complex multiplication problems. Let’s take the problem 123 x 321. Without a calculator, this would be arduous work by hand. The Japanese use a system of lines to solve problems like these with ease and accu-

H

Asians are putting a positive spin on mathematics allowing their younger generations to view the daunting subject as a fun puzzle or a challenging game.

The Asian Advatage: All Fun and Games 25READ OUR BLOG generasian.org

racy. First, you need to represent 123 with lines. Each group of lines represents each digit from left to right, so the first line by itself would represent the hundreds place, the second cluster the tens place, and the last cluster (on the far right) the ones place. Like so: To represent 321, you need to draw groups of lines from left to right as well but perpendicular to the lines of 123 so that you create a sort of grid-like pattern.

Next, you need to mark all the points where the lines intersect. You separate these points into areas that are close to one another.

Then you add up the points in each area. The numbers become the digits in the product, or solution. Because there are more than 9 points in the center area, you carry over the one like in regular multiplication, so the 14 becomes 4 and the 8 becomes 9. The number of points in each area represent the solution from left to right. Therefore, the answer is 39483. Check with a calculator— did you get it right? Yes! This is the Japanese line method to multiplication. Supposedly, this method always works even for huge factors, so if you have the time, try it out. Praised as the Japanese “trick” to accurate multiplication, this method proves that there is always more than one way to solve a math problem, and there is always more than one way to approach one. This method is effective in that no calculator is needed and there is no chance of mistaking 7 x 7 for 45 or something similar while in the long process of multiplying by hand the Western way.

This brings us to the third method—the abacus. The abacus allows Japanese students to not only solve multiplication problems, but also other basic math op-erations such as addition. Bellos implies in his pod-cast that this small, originally wooden contraption may be a large factor in the mystery behind why Japa-nese enjoy mathematics more and are better at it.

Abacus Diagram from abacus.etherwork.net

An example of an average abacus is shown above. As Bel-los lamented, half of U.K. adults have the mathematical skills of an 11 year-old, which costs the economy greatly. In Japan, where no such issue exists, a million children a year learn the abacus. Called soroban in Japanese, the abacus is a vertical contraption with five beads on each rod. With training, calcu-lating a sum on the abacus is faster than using pencil and pa-per. With an abacus, one can often solve thirty multiplication problems in three minutes. In Japan, it is popular to take after school abacus learning classes. Bellos visited such a school. The voice that crackled over the podcast adding up a number over a trillion with several other numbers in the billions in about thirty seconds, was that of a small child. The students in that abacus classroom were between the ages of 5 and 7.

Bellos has a math degree and said he would not have been able to even write those numbers down in the time it took to solve it. The teacher at the abacus school said that even though the abacus is old-fashioned, it is used to help children gain basic math skills such as concentration and memori-zation. Bellos said the soroban was comparable to judo or karate in that there are levels of mastery with the top level mainly about competition.

In Kyoto, the beautiful former capital, there is an annual soroban competition. At the competition there are different categories, one with paper questions like an exam, one with an orator who recites the numbers Image by Deviantart user sapphiresky1410

26 Commentary

contestants must add up (it sounds much like an auction) and one where there is also an orator but no sounds of the clacking beads of the soroban because contestants solve the equations in their heads. Visualizing an abacus in this way is called anzan, or mental abacus. In flash anzan, fifteen numbers are flashed on a screen and contestants have to add them up mentally while getting less than a second to see each number. The numbers get shown faster and faster until eventually it takes less than two seconds to show all fifteen numbers! Each of the numbers are between 100 and 999, with the last round taking only 1.70 seconds to display all fifteen numbers. Though open to all ages, the flash anzan champion was an adult man, proving that the benefits of the abacus can allow for great mathematical feats into adulthood. Adults in Japan are still enjoying and succeeding at basic math at a higher rate than Western adults perhaps due to the abacus.

Mathematical successes using the abacus suggest that physical props make students more comfortable with numbers than approaching them in an abstract way would. In America, math is taught as an abstract concept, and students must grasp at thin air to imagine how to solve problems. Anzan counters this issue by allowing students and adults to envision a physical, understandable object in their head, and they can subsequently visualize math problems as tangibly solvable challenges rather than imagi-nary abstractions. According to Butterworth, the abacus actually changes the way the brain makes calculations. Parts of the brain that control motor function and other areas are activated when the Japanese process calculations versus when Westerners try to solve the same problems.

Of course, no one is sure if training with an abacus or spending more time with pencil and paper math would be

better. With the time spent on average by Japanese schoolchildren learning the soro-ban, usually three hours a day, it is suggested that a student practicing how to solve math problems with pencil and paper for that same duration could drastically improve as well or perhaps at the same level. Perhaps the abacus alone does not majorly improve math skills, but the practice and effort put into mastering the method does. And by view-ing math as a fun challenge and important skill equal to that of sports or other extra-curricular activities, Japanese have become more successful with math than Americans.

Bellos also visited a shrine where a sangaku from the 1680s was displayed.

Japanese people, often priests, throughout history would hang up these mathematical demonstrations above the entrances of shrines. Almost like proofs, these large sheets served as a kind of entertainment and an offering to the gods. To Japanese, mathematics is beautiful. It is something of value, and when new solutions are discovered they are shared with all. To them, mathematics is a public gift.

Perhaps then, America has much to learn from our East-ern counterparts. How can our education system make math fun? I personally think the greatest obstacle in American mathematical achievement or improvement is students’ per-spective of math. To Bellos, the abacus reflects a culture not as scared of math as British people or Americans are. The so-roban, kuku, and Sudoku, all with origins in Japan, show that math is seen there as something to have fun with and to learn from. We have to start from the bottom-up, and show our children and schools everywhere that the Asians got it right when it comes to math. Math is something desirable to learn, something to be proud of succeeding at, and an honorable skill that shows a reverence to the cultures that instilled hard work. By aiming to achieve great wonders through math-ematics, Asians are also leaving behind a public gift to benefit the children of tomorrow. Isn’t it time we did the same? G

Nicole is a Sophomore majoring in English

in the College of Arts and Science.

Works Cited:

1 Bellos, Alex. “Land of the Rising Sums.” Audio blog post. BBC Radio 4. BBC, 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 4 May 2014.

2 “How do Japanese multiply??” Online video clip. You-

tube. Youtube, 27 June 2008. Web. 4 May 201

ithin a society that prides itself on having such an

inexhaustible amount of opportunity that happiness is barely even a hop, skip, and a jump away, it comes as no surprise that coming to terms with one’s depression is a most daunting feat. While it is neces-sary to note that in recent times, America has made steps towards a more careful comprehen-sion of mental health, we must also remember that much of the mental landscape is still rather uncharted territory. Slowly, but surely, America as a whole may be moving towards accept-ing and understanding mental illness - but that is not to say that all of its parts are moving at the same speed. From afar, the Asian American community appears wholly perfect. Hard-working, successful, intelligent - images consis-tently reinforced by the model minority myth have caused many to forget that mental illness arises in anyone despite

READ OUR BLOG generasian.org The Asian Mental Landscape 27

Depression is often trivialized as just one facet of the pursuit of the American Dream.

to act accordingly when in certain situations that call for certain cultural norms. At home, they are taught a code of behavior that aligns with more traditional values that their parents or grandparents lived by in their country of origin. But at school or anywhere outside of the home, these young Asian Americans are taught more western principles of living. So, it is unsurpris-ingly that these young Asian Americans are under a great deal of stress just from having to decide on how to behave. There is often public and self-inflicted stigma attached to depression within the Asian American community. Public stigma arises from Eastern val-ues that emphasize suppression of any sort of weakness that does not inspire self-improvement. While Western culture emphasizes care of the indi-vidual before care of the group, Eastern culture focuses itself much more on the opposite - the group before the individual. Such a value would cause a person to try to repress any sort of weakness that has proved itself difficult or impossible to fix. But mental illness

THE ASIAN AMERICAN by Avery Chang

any amount of attempted suppres-sion. To many young Asian Americans equipped with the Eastern values of their parents and grandparents, depres-sion is often trivialized as just one facet of the pursuit of the American Dream. 1

Psychological research has congregated a wealth of evi-dence supporting the fact that young Asian Americans possess a mental-ity caught between two wildly

contrasting cultures. Culture has a big effect on the human mind - much big-ger than we typically give it credit for. A person’s culture can act as the very foundation of their psychology. Culture often dictates a person’s behavior, the way they view their self in the context of a larger society, and even the heuris-tics they draw from when confronted with any sort of problem commonly encountered in the human experience. Young Asian Americans, who often have to switch from one cultural men-tality to another, are under great stress

W

MENTAL LANDSCAPE

is not something that goes away even under the pressure of continued, consis-tent personal effort, which ultimately would give rise to self-inflicted stigma. The development of such a personal brand of shame and disgrace that is only augmented by the unwillingness to help of those who belong to greater society to which one also belongs, would only cause one to descend deeper into a negative place of thinking. And although most Asian American teens possess stable emo-tional and mental health, surveys conducted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have shown that quite a few have emotional struggles. 29 percent of the surveyed Asian American students reported feeling “sad or hopeless” for at least two weeks in a row during the past year. Such feelings of sadness and hope-

less were rampant enough to inter-fere with their daily lives. This figure compared to those of students of other racial groups (28 percent) is higher. When suicidal thoughts are asked about, the gap between Asian American students and students of other racial groups only increases. Upon asking Asian American stu-dents if they had seriously considered suicide during the past year, the CDC reported that 19 percent answered yes, compared to 16 percent of all high school students. And about 4 percent of Asian American teens reported a suicide attempt within the past year that required medical attention, com-pared to 2 percent of all students.2

Not all teens who harbor feel-ings of sadness and hopelessness may actually be clinically depressed. But of-ten in the Asian American society, most

reports of sadness and hopelessness are ignored. Even if the individual has come to terms with the existence of their sad-ness or hopelessness, without the help or acceptance of their family, they may not be able to receive proper assistance. Many parents may construe signs of depression as typical young moodiness and write off such behavior. And others may downright ignore the signs, only acknowledging them to chastise their children for being unhappy despite all that they have, being here in America. Often, ignoring a problem only causes the problem to become worse. Such is the case in regards to the stigma of mental health issues in the Asian American community. Refusing to recongize an issue can only result in furthered and unneces-sary pain. For today’s generation of Asian Americans, the space outside of home is becoming more understand-ing and more accepting of mental and emotional health. As they continue to grow in such an environment, it is inevitable for the Asian American attitude to move in a direction that recognizes metal health as a legitimate concern. One day, the environment both in and out of the Asian Ameri-can home will match up in regards to recognition of mental health. Younger members of the Asian American com-munity are becoming more aware of the concept of mental health and will hopefully lead a change in the Asian American perception of mental health.

Avery Chang is a Sophomore studying Psychology in the College of Arts and Science.

G

3 Infographic depicting the gap in suicidal thoughts between

Asian American students and students of other races.

1 journal.animationstudies.org/alison=loader-were-asian-more-expected-of-us

2 journalismcenter.org/article/adressing-stigma-mental-health-asian-american-communities

3 aapivoices.com/model-minoirty=mental-health

4 newamericamedia.org/2013/09/a-psychological-lifeline-for-asian-american-teens.php

28 Commentary

READ OUR BLOG generasian.org The Things We’ve Lost 29

transnational adoptees are often un-familiar with Korean culture, values and norms. Therefore, many Korean adoptees who have grown up outside of their birth country feel “personal and collective losses, violations, and consequent resentment” precisely because of their removal from Korea as part this transnational diaspora.

Maybe adoptees’ han is not the han their birth parents and grandpar-ents and ancestors have possessed in the past. Perhaps this is a new kind of han that embodies a sense of loss and resentment adoptees’ ancestors would never have understood, but that adoptees living in the U.S. un-derstand every day of their lives.

• • •Brendon is a 28-year-old Korean

adoptee living in Boston, Massachu-setts. He was adopted as a one-year-old with his four-year-old brother. For him, “the void,” as he calls it, “starts that our lives don’t begin where every-one else’s do….My life doesn’t even

THE THINGS WE’VE

LOSTby Nora Hexter

ost people grow up hearing stories about their births:

the hours of labor and the first happy cry upon entering the world. They are cleaned up, swaddled in warm blan-kets, and passed immediately into the tired, blissful arms of their mothers. Pictures of these momentous occasions, taken in crowded hospital rooms, are tucked away into family photo albums.

For transnational Korean adoptees living in the United States and be-yond, their stories often do not begin in a hospital room. Most often these stories begin on a plane, babies flying an ocean away from their birthland. After fourteen hours in the air, Korean adoptees arrive in their new homes, awaiting the open arms of excited new parents. Though pictures of teary-eyed family and friends at bustling airport terminals now fill the family photo albums, adoptees must cope with the loss of the crucial first months— some-times even years— of their lives. For many Korean adoptees living in the U.S., their han has traveled with them

over thousands of miles of land and sea. • • •

Han is arguably one of the most complex concepts in the Korean culture and language, seemingly transcending time, history, and space. It embod-ies countless meanings, but is most commonly associated with feelings of resentment, injustice, and grief. Han “expresses both personal and collec-tive losses, violations, and consequent resentment—the tragedies of individu-als and collectivities of different sizes and inclusiveness can all be repre-sented with the term han—and also provides the victims with a means of representing and eventually resolving resentment” (Roy Richard Grinker). The universality of this concept con-nects the Korean people together via shared history--a shared past of pain and suffering, and most importantly, a shared urgency to resolve their han.

Since the end of the Korean War, over 200,000 Korean babies have been sent overseas for adoption, nearly half of them to the United States. These

Lillian and Nora Hexter, 4 months

M

You grow up and you have these questions, but the answers are never really as good as you want them to be...and you just continue to have this void.

30 Commentary

start really with a birth; it kind of almost starts with a paper death. My Korean name and my Korean iden-tity dies, or just disappears; it goes away one day and then I’m born.”

He goes on to explain: “I do things to try to fill the void because I don’t know what the void is and I don’t know how you fill it. We had a set of parents; I had a mom, I had a dad, and then we get adopted and then you go through that whole process. You grow up and you have these ques-tions, but the answers are never really as good as you want them to be...and you just continue to have this void.”

For Brendon, filling the void means fostering his intense ambition to be great at his job. He’s the head of the digital marketing department at an advertising agency in Rhode Island. While many adoptees return to Korea in order to fill this void, Brendon says that returning to his birth country and even meeting members of his birth family did not resolve the han he has his life.

“I was in Korea but I might as well have been in any other country because I was a stranger in that country. I mean, people looked like me but they weren’t me. I didn’t have this connection to the land.” Upon meeting his birth father’s brothers, Brendon explains the confusing and ambivalent feelings he had: “I didn’t feel some innate connec-

tion with them. It was just weird. It was bizarre. These things that you should feel, you don’t feel and so it’s like, Why am I not feel-ing anything? But maybe I shouldn’t be feeling any-thing because they’re really just strangers. And so for-ever, I just have the void.”

For many adoptees like Brendon, the void or han cannot be overcome with one simple answer or solution. These feelings of loss require a lifetime

of questions and answers, some of which remain unanswered or unsatisfactory. Sometimes the resolu-tion to adoptees’ han is not in the grand reclaiming of Korea as their birth-land or reconnecting with biological relatives, but instead lies in the simple complexities of their daily life.

• • •Jon is a 20-year-old Korean adoptee

majoring in Studio Art at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota . He explains his own conceptualization of han: “I learned about han when I studied abroad in Korea. There are a lot of different translations since it can’t be directly translated into English. I understand it as a struggle against a higher power you can’t control. It’s a simmer-ing revenge-type of thing. It sits inside of you and it never goes away and it continues to grow. It’s always passive; it’s never aggres-sive. It’s just sitting and stewing.”

He goes on to discuss the ways in which he sees his han play out in seemingly small instances in his everyday life: “I really hate losing things. Misplaced keys or not being able to find something--thinking that I lost it or that someone took it--really upsets me, I think more so than other [non-adopted] people. I

guess this could be attributed to being adopted, essentially with han--this is a force upon you, this loss. You lose your country and people, birth fam-ily. You’re taken away from it and so… maybe that’s why I have attachment issues, even to objects sometimes.”

Last semester, Jon studied abroad in South Korea. He felt a certain sense of isolation due to his inability to fully communicate and understand the language, but in other ways he felt com-fortable being surrounded by people

who looked so much like him--“my people, in a sense,” he says. Further, Jon explains that he feels his han more strongly now after having lived in Ko-rea. Being there, immersed by the peo-ple, culture, and language of his birth country, he says, “I feel like I have more han since studying abroad and learning what I’ve lost--learning more about the

Brendon Albrizio, 28

I understand [han] as a struggle against a higher power you can’t control.

Jon Straker, 20

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culture and reconnecting with my birth mom.” He admits that he is sometimes overcome with grief when reflect-ing on how much loss he has endured through the process of his adoption.

• • •I am a Korean American transna-

tional adoptee. I arrived in the United States on a late, humid July night with my twin sister, Lillian. At four months old, I had no conscious recollection of my birth family or country. Grow-ing up, my parents helped my sister and me in cultivating our identities as Koreans, encouraging us to at-tend culture camps and driving us to Korean school every Saturday morn-ing for almost seven years. Attending Korean school strengthened my desire to connect with the language of my birth country. I craved the sounds of this beautiful, unfamiliar tongue and fantasized about the day I would be able to create these sounds on my own.

For most of my life, although I felt I was Korean, I always felt I was not Korean enough. I wanted to be Korean without having to explain why my last name isn’t Kim or Park or why I can’t speak the language. I wanted to be ac-cepted as Korean, no questions asked. And so, I made it a mission to not only become fluent in Korean but to as-similate myself into Asian communities until I felt I belonged. I dated a Korean

who helped foster my sense of Kore-an identity while also reminding me that I was not the same as Korean Koreans. I became an Execu-tive Officer for the Asian Students in Action club in high school. I was elected Vice President for the Korean American Student Association in col-lege. I declared an East Asian Studies major and devoted the remaining years of my university career to study-ing Korean culture and language.

This is my han and how I am constantly struggling to reconcile it. I will always feel these missing pieces--pieces of the shared history and culture of the Korean people that I had to leave behind 21 years ago. This is how I feel my han--through fractured fragments of my identity that still tell me I’ll never be Korean enough.

Han arguably follows most adoptees from birth into adulthood in some capacity, whether consciously or unconsciously, and each individual holds a unique approach in attempting to resolve it. However, han cannot be

overcome in one sitting— potentially, not even in a lifetime. Adoptees like Brendon work hard to be great at their jobs to fill an inexplicable void in their lives; adoptees like Jon and I strive to regain a sense of Korean cultural identity that we were forced to give up when sent away from Korea. Other adoptees negotiate their han by moving back to Korea to cultivate relationships with their birth families or legally regaining South Korean citizenship.

For each individual, han is manifested in intimately distinct ways; on a larger scope, the collective transnational Korean adoptee diaspora has effectively lost the land to which we were born, the parents who gave us our blood and bones, and the language that sounded into our newborn ears. We may never be able regain all of the physical and emotional casualties that have occurred throughout our lifetimes. In order to resolve— or at least, come to terms with— our han, we must always remember this loss.

Nora Hexter is a junior majoring in East Asian Studies and minoring in Social & Cultural Analysis in the College of Arts and Science.

G

Lillian and Nora Hexter, 21

Lillian and Nora Hexter, 1 year old

32 Art

By Jaimie KimPIGEON MAN

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