Essay #4: How Asian American Cultures interact in the U.S society

In 1840s, the first group of Chinese laborers came to the U.S. Then in 1885, the Japanese came, followed by the South Indian Asians in 1950’s. Not until the 1950’s did the Malaysians and Indonesians come to the US in as a result of the communist violent uprising in Malaysia. For the same reason, both the Vietnamese and Laotians started to seek refuge in the US. The last big group of Asian immigrants was the Burmese, who came in 2001 because of military turmoil in their country. Now, Asian Americans are so successful in the host country that they are called “the model minority”. In fact, being very aware of the cultural differences, they have learned the good things of American culture and managed to find ways to merge into the American society.

Obviously, American and Asian cultures are different. However, through mutual understanding of cultures, both Americans and Asian Americans have valued each other’s culture overcome expected problems caused by cultural differences. An interesting example of cultural conflict is over family value. Under the influence of collectivism, Asians greatly appreciate family value while individualist Americans see family as something not so important or precious. In one part of the essay “Global Relationships: Are Sex and Gender Roles Changing?” written by Richard Rodriguez, the author mentioned his American friend’s funny remark on Asian’s way to value the family:
A friend of mine who escaped family values awhile back… was complaining to me over coffee about the Chinese. The Chinese will never take over San Francisco, my friend said, because the Chinese do not see San Francisco! All they care about is their damn families. All they care about is double parking smack in front of the restaurant on Clement Street and pulling granny out of the car – and damn anyone who happens to be the car behind them or the next or the next.” (198)
Like Richard’s friend, many Americans at first are annoyed by the way Asians are so heavily family-oriented. Then, they realize that leaving home too early, in many cases, make them lonely people. So, they start relying more on family ties and that is a good lesson they have learnt from Asian cultures.

On the other hand, Asian Americans have learnt good lessons from the American “Master of Destiny” doctrine, as contrasted to Asian fatalism. Fatalism is defined as a acceptance that no matter what one does or does not do, certain challenges are pre-determined. This concept discourages Asian Americans to fully control their own destiny while the American “Master of Destiny” encourages Americans to manage their own life and to be responsible for both positive and negative results of their acts. Vietnamese female immigrants in the US have proved to be good learners of this American doctrine by fighting against the traditional fate for Asian women. They are no longer strapped to the three pathways fixed for them by Confucius: “Women have only three pathways: first she must be subject to her father, then to her husband, and then to her son” (qtd in Ibrahim et. al. 3). Now they start to go beyond home boundaries to make their own living and to do things of their own interest, disregarding their father’s, husband’s or son’s possible protests.

Many researchers study methods used to overcome cultural differences. Two of those acculturative methods - assimilation and marginalization – are presented in a Hickey’s essay. In the first method called “assimilation”, participants need to involve highly in the other’s culture. It is hard to encourage the Asian elderly, especially foreign-born old Asian immigrants to carry out this method. For instance, unlike their American counterparts, Asian American parents of that generation are unwilling to grant independence. Instead, they would insist on dominating their forever-young “kids” even at the age of 60. However, Asian American youngsters can practice this method with no difficulty. For example, in the article: “Asian American Identity Development: A Culture Specific Model for South Asian Americans”, Farah, Ibrahim and his group wrote:
Gender roles are clearly demarcated in South Asian American culture. The domain outside the home is managed by men, and the one inside the home is managed by the women…If sexist interpretations of ethnic culture are imposed, (Asian) people born and raised in the United States will reject them or seek to mediate these assumptions. Because education and the self are highly connected, it requires people to be flexible based on their social class educational level, and circumstances in the United States. (Farah et. al., 6)

Today, in the US, it is common to see Vietnamese husbands share the cooking work at home and Vietnamese wives speak up their opinions in society. Both genders, have, indeed, shown flexibility in playing their many roles in life.

In contrast to the first acculturative method, “marginalization” requires low involvement in the other’ cultures. This method is applicable to almost everyone – conservative and liberal, old and young alike. “Use of Humor” can be an example to illustrate how this method could assist the west to meet the east in non-verbal behaviors:
We love to poke fun at ourselves and others. This can be confusing for people from other cultures where close attention is paid to preserving the dignity of all people in a given interaction – in Asian cultures this is called saving face. A well-intentioned provider, whose position automatically conveys status, would confuse some families by poking fun at himself. It could easily disrupt the sense of trust vested in him or her. (Carteret, 1)
Americans are able to do a lot of put-down humor because normaly they are confident of themselves. An Asian head of family could learn from this sense of humor to ease lots of tension of generation conflicts. For example, a conservative Asian parent who no longer gets complete obedience from his Americanized children would laugh at his “submission” to his children’s will. A Vietnamese parent would humorously change the traditional proverb “Children sit wherever their parents ask them to.” into “Parents sit wherever their children ask them to.”, With a good laugh at the quote, they could avoid bursts of anger. Later, they would say “Well, it’s their life, anyway”, as an excuse of their compromise.

The two mentioned above methods in a certain way help Asian Americans to integrate the U.S cultures as well as to find solutions to solve possible problems caused by the differences in culture. And I would like to end this essay with my own life story. In March 2009, I left Vietnam for America and settled in the sunny California as an immigrant. I have noticed that Americans tend to be self conscious, outspoken and quick in making decisions. These features sharply contrast the Asian values of humility, self control and caution that I have been raised with. My present goal is to practice both methods of assimilation and marginalization to attune to the host society. To live for this goal, I need to continually practice the Vietnamese proverb: “Biết người, biết ta, 100 trận 100 thắng” (Knowing you, knowing me, I will win all battles.) I believe that as long as we – Asians living in America - develop a cross-cultural mindset and adjust our behavior to contribute to better communications, we could maintain our good image of “ model minority” in the United States of America.


Works Cited
Farah, Ibrahim, Ohnishi Hifumi, and Sandhu Daya Singh. "Asian American Identity Development: A Culture Specific Model for South Asian Americans." Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development 25.1 (1997). Print.
Carteret, Marcia. "Non-verbal Behavior in Cross-Cultural Interactions." (2008). Print.
William, Pfaff. "Clash of Cultures – Globalization & the March of Western Values." (2006). Print.
Richard, Rodriguez. "Global Relationships: Are Sex and Gender Roles Changing?" The New World Reader (2008): 218-21. Print.