The Forgotten (Model) Minority: Orientalism and the Asian Experience

A couple of years ago, I watched a TEDx talk by Canwen Xu discussing her experiences with the Asian stereotype and being a part of the model minority. She opens her speech with the following:

"My name is Canwen, and I play both the piano and the violin. I aspire to someday be a doctor, and my favorite subject is Calculus. My mom and dad are tiger parents who don't let me go to sleepovers, but they make up for it by serving my favorite meal every single day. Rice. AND, I'm a really bad driver. So my question for you now is, how long did it take for you to figure out I was joking?"

Canwen's talk rings true to my own experiences. I used to play piano, I play violin, I want to go into medicine, I wasn't allowed to go to sleepovers, and there's always delicious food around the house. Growing up in America, and especially being biracial, has made me internalize each of these stereotypes unconsciously, making me question my identity and values.

Over the course of my life, I've visited family in China many times. Recently, I've caught myself applying the stereotypes I've learned growing up in the States to not only my relatives, but to the culture as a whole. As in many Asian countries, education is highly valued. I've seen my cousin wake up at 6am, stay at school until 8 or 9pm, and then come home and do homework until 11-12 at night.

Although I think there's a danger in this intense pressure to succeed academically with no focus on personal development, this lifestyle doesn't offer a glimpse of the welcoming community in China. China is a collectivist society after all.

Westerners, since the founding of America, have painted anybody besides themselves as the other. At the time, it had catastrophic consequences. Unfortunately, the repercussions are still visible in our everyday life. The concept of the other persists in our mindsets, often clouding our view of anything beyond what it means to be white. In regards to the Asian community, or the Far West's Oriental, my cousin's lifestyle is the definitive experience of every Asian. Not just Chinese, but all Asians. Japanese are not Koreans, Israelis are not Syrians, Colombians are not Mexicans, and Nigerians are not Kenyans.

My cousin's rigorous schedule also doesn't mean that he's just another cog in the machine of academia. He's a human being, not a human calculator. The East and West foster different values in their populations. So what makes the Western version "right"? Nothing, only centuries of willful ignorance against other cultures, forcing them into categories, and perpetuating (sometimes unknowingly) these stereotypes in future generations.

For example, Harvard was recently sued for having skewed personality ratings in the college admissions process by a group of Asian-Americans. Asians, although having high remarks in other grading categories, were consistently labeled as having flatter personalities.

In lieu of the more recent college scandals, my friend was interviewed by the New York Times for fighting Asian-American stereotypes when applying to college. She mentions, "I had to factor in all the stereotypes about Asians, like they’re really good at math and have no social skills." One of the most devastating consequences of the portrayal of the Orient is that the "other" internalizes the stereotypes that Westerners believe. Also, an emphasis on education and intellectual growth doesn't mean that someone doesn't have a personality. With the exception of extreme cases, kids growing up with these values aren't deprived of social interaction nor are incapable of forming meaningful relationships.

Exposure through the media and lack of conversation leads to ignorance of all "other" cultures. As we saw in movies like Aladdin or Mulan, children internalize skewed messages. The education of our youth and becoming aware of our own misconceptions are the first steps to create accurate glimpses of other cultures.