1.In the essay “A Letter to My Sister,” written by Lisa Park, she argues the Asian Women’s struggle to live in American society. Her sister struggled with assimilation into white community because she experienced racial discriminatiton because of her look as an Asian woman. She tried to make her look “white” to be accepted by white but she committed suicide. Look as an Asian sometimes have a major influence on how they are judged by others and can cause their mental suffering
- As Park stated, “You tried to box yourself into a preconditioned, Euroamerican ideal and excised the parts that would not fit.” (65) It means that the only way f to be accepted by white and assimilate into America for her and her sister is to fit her look into white look because she had a lot of experiences that some white people judged her identity and discriminated by her look as an Asian woman. However, she could not be accepted by trying to fit her look into white woman. According to Park, “We permed our hair and could afford to buy trendy clothes. Money, at least, gave us some material status. But we knew we could never became ‘popular’, in other words, accepted.” (68) That is, even though they make efforts to be accepted, they never accepted and assimilate into white just because they are Asian.
- The key term in this essay is “orientalness”. It means authority of Western people over the orient to strength western identity. It is one of the identities of Asians, but they cannot be accepted by white and they are forced to be foreign forever.
- The ideas presented in this chapter connects to the ideas in If we are Asian, then are we funny?. Margaret Cho, who played an Asian American girl in All-American Girls was forced her to lose weight to express Asianness in the show by the director even though she plays a role of herself. She was afflicted both mentally and physically for a long time because of strict diet to be “Asian face”. In the case of If we are Asian, then are we funny?, Cho wanted to represent what she is as an Asian woman, but she could not represent her identity because of look she was expected by audience and director. On the other hand, in case of A Letter to My Sister, Park and her sister tried to be white to assimilate into white community, but they could not be accepted because of their unalterable look as Asian women essentially. These cases are contrasting, but common in that Asian women are struggle with living in the US with keeping their identity and being accepted an Asian woman because of their look.