From: U58402@uicvm.uic.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: Interesting (suprising?) Fact.
Date: 15 Oct 92 23:03:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: uicvm.92289.180328U58402
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago

In article <1992Oct15.195715.6936@leland.Stanford.EDU>,
underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) says:
>
>Further, I have yet to see Ms. Ayala criticize Chinese-cu Chinese-ge
>for making the same assumptions that some rednecks make about Ms. Ayala
>simply because Ms. Ayala is Chinese-ge.  Specifically, both rednecks
>and Chinese-cu Chinese-ge assume that because she is Chinese-ge, she
>is expected to know and live Chinese-cu culture.
>
>For example, they think that a Japanese-(ge-)American will do the
>Japanese-cu "thing" simply because she is Japanese-ge.  Chinese-cu
>Chinese-ge think that criticizing the Chinese-cu culture is racist
>because they think that Chinese-cu = Chinese-ge (i.e. Chinese think
>that culture is determined by the genes and is thus indistinguishable).
>This bigotted view of the world is regrettable.  Mr. Wilbur Pan
>(u58402@uicvm.uic.edu) is an example of one who holds this view.

Geez, here we go again.

It is obvious that being of Chinese descent -- I will not use Mr. Joe's
-ge/-cu terminology because I feel that it only obscures the issue;
there are perfectly good English constructs we all can use.
Let's start again.

It is obvious that being of Chinese descent does not impart the same
set of values upon two people who have this in common. Otherwise, Mr.
Joe and I would be both typing near-identical posts. I choose to embrace
many aspects of Chinese culture, and reject many aspects as well. Being
of Asian descent poses problems in American society, as Clare, Jim, George,
and many others on this group have eloquently elaborated. I find that
I react to these problems by drawing on my feeling of shared heritage.
Mr. Joe, on the other hand, has adopted a world view that includes the
view that Chinese culture consists only of racism, sexism, and the
drowning of babies, and so rejects any identification with his ethnicity.
If Mr. Joe does not want to identify with others of Chinese descent,
that's fine. I have no problems with that. There are people of many
ethnicities who after becoming Americans, choose to assimilate to the
point of not knowing anything about the culture of their ascendents.
But if he wants to claim that inhumane actions are all there is
to Chinese culture, that's another story.

Mr. Joe has not provided any proof that what he denotes correctly as
barbarism is unique to the Chinese people to the exclusion of all other
ethnicities.

He has also not shown that the fact that both he and I look like Asians
does not affect how we are treated by Americans of European descent.
It's not something that a great many readers of this group can get
away from. Including Mr. Joe.

I have never said that being of Chinese descent should require Mr. Joe
(or anyone else) to eat only shi-fan for breakfast or grow a queue.
I have said that being of Asian descent in this country poses problems
that, after having dealt with them, influences my world view. As it has
Mr. Joe's. And Clare's. And Jim's. And George's. All of our responses
are aspects of Asian-American culture. Mr. Joe is right in saying that
as Americans, we should reject the things that he classifies as Chinese
culture. The problem is that that is not what Chinese culture is about.

Wilbur Pan                                  u58402@uicvm.uic.edu
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This article does not represent the opinions of the Deans of the
College of Medicine of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
They're not that clever.