Monthly Archives for December 2011

My name is Kevin Yee-Haw.

That's my Chinese name in the red circle, used officially for the first time as a student at National Taiwan University.

I had an interesting conversation on Twitter yesterday about names. Olivia Chow, who works at the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, DC, unfortunately shares a name with a Canadian Member of Parliament who has taken all of the good Olivia Chow domain names and the Twitter handle, as well. East Asians in the West often have the unfortunate combination of a common Western given name (of which there are a relatively small number) and an Asian surname (of which there are an even smaller number). Combined with the difficulties that immigrants have in choosing creative Western given names for their children, we get names that (for lack of a better turn of phrase) all sound the same! The longest sections in my cell phone address book are the Js and Ks, to accommodate all of the Asian Jennifers and Kevins I know.

Names are a touchy subject for many Asians in the West. Some who have ethnic or foreign-sounding names choose to go by local language names because they want to fit in or because others can’t pronounce their name. (In Texas, one lawmaker even argued that Asians should change their names to make them “easier for Americans to deal with.”) Many have names that are embarrassing in the local language or perhaps a tad too creative. Those whose parents did not give them middle names may have crises over the fact, or even decide to give themselves something unconventional. Many Asians raised in the West, being very sensitive to name-based discrimination, put great care into choosing names for their children.  While first and middle names are easily changeable, surnames are not, so no matter how foreign, unpronounceable, or embarrassing, they’re stuck for good. (Wangs and Dongs of the world, I feel your pain.)

I was lucky enough to be born with a fairly common English name and a Sino-Vietnamese middle name that I rarely use. The combination of my first and last name seems to be relatively rare among people with active presences on the Anglophone internet, though you might have come across this blog if you were searching for a Singaporean emcee, a Canadian lawyer, or a Hong Kong artist. I didn’t have a middle name crisis and am not easily confused for any public figures, but I’ve still had many issues with all of my names. I’ll enumerate by part: Continue reading →

Looking back, planning forward: 3 hopes for discourse on Asians in the West in 2012

What should journalists and the Asian diasporic blogosphere write about in 2012? Here are three ways in which I’d like to see public discourse on Asians in the West change in this new year:

1. Refocus on the 99%

2011 was the year of the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring. It was also the year of the Tiger Mother and hype about discrimination against Asian Americans at the most selective universities in the United States. While much of the public discourse around the world has refocused on the vast majority of the population (the 99%, in Occupy-speak), discourse on Asian Americans and Asians in the West in general remains stubbornly stuck to conceptions of Asians as the successful model minority. We have to remember, though, that not all Asians in the West experience this type of success, and that by focusing on the top end of the ladder we are excluding working class and otherwise less privileged groups from the narrative.

What I would like to see in 2012 is a shift away from the 1%-focused discourse of the past towards a more inclusive narrative that is cognizant of the socioeconomic diversity of Asians in the West. Amy Chua’s prototypical Tiger Mother is well-educated and well-off; claiming that her extreme measures are the Chinese way of child-rearing is misleading and offensive to mothers who either cannot afford to use her methods or are morally opposed to her way of thinking. Hype about Asian admissions to top-tier American universities (similar to the debate in late 2010 on Maclean’s article about Canadian universities being “too Asian”) obscures the fact that many Asian groups in the US, particularly Southeast Asians, have very low educational attainment.

This year, OiYan Poon’s post for Hyphen Magazine about the college admissions debate and the Asian American 1% and the Boston Globe’s profile of George and Johnny Huynh were steps in the right direction. With more articles like these, we can include the rest of the Asian diasporic community in the conversation and flesh out the argument against the myopic and monolithic model minority myth.

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Wednesday link roundup: year end edition

Mas Yamashita on the usu used to make mochi, used in Japanese New Year dishes like ozouni:

Koji Steven Sakai’s Top 5 Favorite Things About Japanese New Year

When I explain Oshogatsu to my non-Japanese friends, I tell them that it’s Japanese Thanksgiving. It’s a time for the entire family to come together. When I was younger (pre-birth of my child) I thought that this was cheesy but now that I’m a father, the importance of family has taken on a whole new meaning. I get all teary eyed about spending time together. (This of course doesn’t make me any less gangsta, does it?)

How to Have a Fat-Talk-Free Holiday Season – Thick Dumpling Skin

(2) Don’t forget what Holiday Family Dinners are really all about: When you think of the true meaning of your holiday get togethers, they’re really about love, family, friends, and gratitude, right? I mean, what happened to the “Thanks” part of Thanksgiving? If we can focus on what we have—our strengths, our assets, and our support system—instead of what we lack, our Holiday dinners will surely be more enjoyable…and something to fondly look forward to and remember.

Thick Dumpling Skin is a great blog/community focusing on body image issues in the Asian American community.

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