I went back and forth with the title 'American Asians'. Whereas the conventional term, 'Asian American', describes an American of Asian decent, 'American Asian' can be taken as merely an Americanized Asian -- not really American, still foreign.
But, isn't that an issue Asian Americans face every day? When someone asks us: No, but where are you really from? Does that not make us feel foreign? Despite being born in Houston, Chicago, or New York City, isn't the underlying thinking behind that awful question that we're not truly American, that we must be from somewhere else?
For me, calling our blog 'American Asians' was a conscious acknowledgement of this foreignness thrusted on us. We are foreign despite where we were born or where we live, but instead because of the shape of our eyes or nose or the foods that we eat and the languages that we speak.
For so long, we have been back alley fry cooks manically yelling, "di di mau". We have been broken-Englished nail technicians. Buck-toothed, squinty-eyed caricatures. "Hi-ya!" screaming, high-kicking, karate master bad guys. Bepectacled, quiet, uninteresting bookworms. Unattractive, asexual, boy in the background of the class. Short-skirted, fair-skinned, exotic temptress.
But there is a movement growing; if you navigate your browser away from Facebook, turn the volume down on the tv, leave your iPhone at home, you can hear the buzz: we are redefining what it means to be Asian American. And I don't just mean the 3 of us here, but all of us brothers and sisters: West coast, East coast, the dirty South and beyond, we're taking back our identities.
Diane, Doug, and I each have our own views, our own perspectives, our own thoughts on what it means to be 20-something Asian Americans, fresh out of school -- some of us back in school seeking higher enlightenment -- in different cities across the U.S., existing, carving out space and navigating day-to-day life.
I'd like to share these experiences with you here. This blog is just an open space for us to share our lives, talk about what's going on and things we see, whether it be about foods we love, stories we like, or media portrayals we hate.
I hope that you'll enjoy our words and add your own. Join our discussion, give us your perspective, and help us create a living, growing portrait of what it means to be Asian American in 2012.
-melissa
a blog shared among 3 friends from Texas carving out space and navigating day-to-day as asian americans
If I'm White-American can I post on this?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone mentions if you're oriental, tell them: **** you chink, do I look like I'm from North Carolina? (This is in reference to the town Oriental, North Carolina)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental,_North_Carolina
everyone can and should participate. i know it's called american asians and we've written about exploring the asian american experience, but that's because the writers of this blog are asian american and that's the perspective we write from. but that doesn't mean we don't want to hear from anyone else. we want to hear from everyone. we want dialogue and open discussions.
ReplyDeletewith that said--your twist on the term oriental was clever, but the use of the word 'chink' makes me cringe. racial slurs suck. all of them. and i'd like to see them gone from written and spoken language.
it's interesting that you'd censor the word fuck but not the equally "bad word" chink. why is that people throw this word (and other racial epithets) around so freely?
ReplyDeleteand why don't people refer to this as the c-word much like the n-word is the n-word? (why does one slur get censorship but not others?)
people don't even look around to see if there are any asians around before using this word. why is that?