1.
In the chapter, “Who Am I? Creating an Asian American Identity and Culture,” from the book, The Asian American Movement, William Wei claims that Asian Americans struggled with a sense of identity. Although they immigrated to or were born in America and followed American values and culture, they were not accepted by whites. At the same time they were American citizens and no longer just Asian. Because of this Asian Americans struggled to define what being Asian American really meant
2.
“Asian Americans 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).
- Wei includes this because it shows how white people define and see Asian Americans. To white people Asian Americans are stereotyped as all looking the same. They are also categorized as only living in small communities with each other, such as Chinatown. Because whites are the majority and dominate American lives, these stereotypes are widely spread throughout the country. Thus changing the way people define and judge Asian Americans before meeting them.
“Whether negative or positive, stereotypes are essentially false images that obscure the complexity and diversity that is an inherent feature of Asian Americans as well as other people” (p.50)
- Because Asian Americans only see stereotypes in media such as Bruce Lee or Dragon Lady, they don’t have a clear sense of who they are. Like Wei says, “stereotypes are essentially false images.” Since these images are false, Asian Americans don’t have a role model or someone they can look up too without being stereotyped. If they look to media all they see are Asian guys portrayed as martial arts masters or some unimportant side character. Asian girls are portrayed as exotic and oversexualized. These things are not Asian Americans, but media’s portrayal creates this false image in society’s mind and makes it hard for Asian Americans to escape it and define who they are.
3.
“Unassimilable Sojourners” – A sojourner is someone who stays somewhere temporarily. Unassimilable means not being able to be assimilate. Wei uses this term to show the rejection of Asian Americans into American society, life, and culture. I found this term interesting and had to look it up to see what it meant. This term reinforces the idea of Asian Americans being the “perpetual foreigner.” No matter what they do to be American they are rejected and still seen as only Asians.
4.
This chapter by Wei strongly connects to the chapter, “Assimilation,” in the book, Keywords for Asian American Studies, by Lisa Sun-Hee Park. In this chapter she includes the argument by Du Bois that “African Americans were already Americans; therby raising the question of ‘assimilation into what?'” (p.14). This can also be applied to Asian Americans help define what Asian American is. Assimilate implies one half being stronger or more prevalent than another half. Asian Americans are already American and don’t need to assimilate nor be more American. I believe that the answer to what being Asian American lies in the blending or mixing of Asian and American culture, not the assimilation of Asians into America with American being the dominant half.