In the second chapter of William Wei’s book, The Asian American Movement, he addressed the issue of identity in the Asian American culture and what exactly defines being an Asian American. The Movement is something that gave these Asian Americans the opportunity to discover themselves and have a voice in the dominant culture. It was through songs, plays, art, documentaries and many more that the Asian American community was able to differentiate themselves from the rest of the World.
Asian Americans were suppressed of forming their own identities because they had to “refute societal stereotypes that had degraded them; reclaim their history, which had been relegated to the periphery of American historiography; and reconstruct a culture that reflected their experiences. Then and only then could they begin bringing Asians in America together and giving them a sense of who they were.” (p.47) It is difficult for a person to change their perception of a race when all that they’ve known was the false representation. Not only were they victims of stereotyping, but there was a major obstacle that stood in the way of Asian Americans constructing their image. The problem was that there were only a limited number of Asian Americans living in the west coast, so the chances of them having interactions with other races to prove the stereotypes wrong were very slim. Therefore, they had to revisit their past in order to gain a sense of who they were before conforming into the dominant society to create their distinct image.
This chapter circulated largely around stereotypes. Another quote I wanted to incorporate was what the reviewers of The Asian American Children’s Book Project revealed. They discovered that most books written about Asian Americans is that they are “foreigners who all look alike and choose to live together in quaint communities in the midst of large cities and cling to ‘outworn,’ alien customs.” (p.49) Stereotypes are learned at a very young age and these books were giving people the wrong impression of Asian Americans as if the community didn’t already have a bad reputation. The books categorize Asian Americans and traditional Asian into the same culture which in some ways they do share similarities. However, Asian Americans intend to show society an identity of their own.
Arthur Dong’s documentary “Forbidden City, USA,” is a well represented example of how a group of Asian Americans tried to create an identity for themselves. The movie centered around a Chinese nightclub located in San Francisco called Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the first nightclub to feature Asian American entertainers who danced and sang to all-American production numbers. Their journey was not easy because the Asian dancers had to be better than the Caucasians or else they wouldn’t get the booking. They were of course looked down upon in the beginning for performing. However, these men and women didn’t care about others’ opinions. They even rebelled against their family to pursue their passion.
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