From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Re: "Chinese-Americans..."
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 92 23:03:25 GMT

In article <1992Sep8.132644.13167@panix.com> nina@panix.com (Nina Yuan) writes:
>In <1992Sep7.212324.19675@leland.Stanford.EDU> underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU
>(Dwight Joe) writes:
>>In article <edcheng.1dl2@terapin.com> edcheng@terapin.com (Edmund Cheng)
>>writes:
>>>I know many Chinese-Americans... Some which have no Chinese "culture" in
>>>them.  The only thing that distinguishes them from any caucasian is their
>>>last names and their faces.  This scares me.
>>Being Chinese-cu has nothing to do with being Chinese-ge.  Only a
>>racist would think that there's something unnatural about
>>Chinese-(ge)-Americans "who have no Chinese 'culture' in them".
>>Racists think that genes determine behavior; one such racist
>>is Mr. Wilbur Pan (u58402@uicvm.uic.edu).
>Yes, of course, but Mr. Cheng didn't say anything about people "who have no
>Chinese culture in them" being "unnatural," he simply said that that was not
>the kind of person HE wanted to be.

Ms. Yuan should read what Mr. Cheng wrote.  He said, "This scares me."
What scares him is that there are Chinese-ge people with _no_ Chinese-cu
culture in them.

It's reasonable to interpret this fear to mean that Mr. Cheng sees
an unnatural state occuring.

>And if that's his opinion, he's certainly
>entitled to it, isn't he, Mr. Joe?

Yes, he is entitled to his views.

After all, we aren't living in Chinese society.  We in the West
strongly believe in the the notions embodied in the Bill of Rights.
The Japanese don't believe quite as strongly as we do, but they
are moving in the right direction.

>>special rights to it by virtual of being Chinese-ge.  A German-ge
>>can be as much a part of Chinese-cu culture as a Chinese-ge can.
>Of course; I know of many people who are not at all ethnically Chinese who
>immerse themselves in Chinese culture.  But as soon as someone who IS
>ethnically Chinese expresses the slightest bit of interest in Chinese culture,
>you immediately call them a "Chinese-cu racist."

That's a lie.  It's very Chinese-cu of you, Ms. Yuan, to put words
into my mouth.

As I've said many times before, a racist is one who believes that
genes determine behavior and hence that ethnicity determines culture.
It is a view shared by Chinese-cu, rednecks, Klansmen, and Nazis.

If a person has an interest in Chinese-cu culture and does not
believe that ethnicity determines culture, then that person is not
a racist.  I certainly hope that this is understandable to Ms. Yuan.

Mr. Cheng does say that he is frightened to see Chinese-ge with no
Chinese-cu culture in them.  This suggests something unnatural
about a Chinese-ge without Chinese-cu culture.  This is a very
racist view, one that Mr. Wilbur Pan (u58402@uicvm.uic.edu) shares.

>[nonsense deleted to save bandwidth]
>>The heritage of a Chinese-ge is not automatically the Chinese-cu heritage.
>>If he choose that to be his heritage, then it is his heritage.
>>But a Chinese-ge can also choose his heritage to be the Western
>>heritage.
>Why is this an either/or proposition?  The whole point of Mr. Cheng's post
>is that he identifies with BOTH Chinese and American (or Western, if you
>prefer, though I think that term's a little broad) culture, and would like
>to integrate the two.

No where did I say that this was an either/or proposition.

Unlike Chinese-cu, rednecks, Klansmen, and Nazis, I recognize that
ethnicity does not, in any way, determine culture.  I recognize
that culture is just a system of behavior.  Hence, people can choose
any behavioral pattern that they wish, including, for example,
a combination of Korean-cu culture and French-cu culture.

>An admirable, though difficult goal, and one that I
>think many of us on s.c.a.a. are struggling with.

Not in my opinion.

Many aspects of Chinese-cu culture are irreconciliable with Western
culture.  For example, the brutal disposition of Chinese parenting
techniques (like the strangulation of female infants, for example) is
irreconciliable with Western compassion and understanding.

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Copyright 1992.                                        | San Jose, California.
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american