The Schizophrenic Existence
of Asian Immigrants in the United States
By:
Mariel Leynes
English 101
Professor Nadine Lavi
December 1, 2006
OUTLINE
I. Immigrant children feel divided because they don’t know where they will belong in the
American society
A. Immigrants being so traditional
1. Children experience clash of two cultures
2. Americans start to stereotype them
B. Life as an immigrant child
1. Conflicting social and cultural demands
2. Caroline Hwang’s story, “The Good Daughter”
II. Parents of immigrant children refuse to have complete assimilation
A. Factor that hindered their assimilation
B. Children fulfill their parents’ version of American dream
III. Stereotyping of American people to Asian descents
A. Non-white appearance means more prejudice
1. Positive stereotyping
2. Negative stereotyping
B. Anonymous writer writes about his highschool dilemma as an immigrant
IV. Labeling of immigrants
A. All generations are affected
1. children suffered without knowing the reason
2. Children’s paradoxical way of life in the United States
C. The Good Daughter analyzation
Conclusion
Leynes 1
When immigrants first come to this country, they know that the only way to be accepted
in their new home is to be like the majority. They do embrace their new culture, but sometimes,
immigrants, and Asians in particular, who are strongly traditional in nature, while trying to
assimilate easily, they don’t let the next generation forget or disregard their origin or values.
They want their children to be like Americans, yet they still want them to practice the values that
they’ve brought to their new home. Because of this, many children suffer from feeling alienated
in their new country. The cultural clash identity crisis experienced by many immigrant children
for years usually resulted from two things: their parents’ expectations of traditional values from
them while fitting in the American society at the same time and the way people stereotype them,
based on their country of origin. In an article titled “Should immigrants assimilate?” by Portes
and Zhou:
Growing up in an immigrant family has been difficult. Individuals are torn by conflicting
social and cultural demands, while facing the challenge of entry into an unfamiliar and
frequently hostile world. (18)
In the story “The Good Daughter,” Caroline Hwang is torn between two cultures, in
which she struggles to find her true identity whether she is a Korean or an American. She is of
Korean descent but born in the United States, making her as a citizen. The author lives her life
the all-American way yet, her parents “indentured” her to the filial duties that her parents want
her to fulfill such as marrying someone Korean. Here, the parents’ attitude towards their
daughter occurs because according to Dr. Pyong Gap Min, a sociology professor of Queens
College, “It’s very difficult for Koreans to get involved in American organizations because they
are so strongly tied to their ethnic network.”
Parents of immigrant children still practice their traditional customs in the new country
they’ve settled in because they think that assimilating completely only shows
Leynes 2
their betrayal to their mother country. Another reason is that the parents’ path to complete
assimilation is hindered because they face language barriers, economic challenges, vast cultural
differences, and ever present racial tensions, that they face in America today, bringing them to
deal with endless discrimination and difficulties (Takaki 421). These problems only make them
leave their unaccomplished dreams to their children, expecting that their offspring will obey
what they want them to do in return for their sacrifices of leaving their homeland in order to give
their children a better life.
The other factor is that other citizens of the United States stereotype Asian immigrants
according to certain situations in their country of origin based on their physical appearance.
Since most of the immigrants are non-white, they experienced a lot of prejudices on their outside
features that it even serves as their physical handicap (Portes, Zhou 18-33). These stereotyping to
people affects the immigrants in a positive manner, but most of the time, negative stereotyping to
immigrants usually exist in the American society.
One positive stereotype given to Asians was that they were hard working and bright people
academically. Negative stereotyping to them includes their inability to speak English fluently
“broken English”. Many Asians oppose the labels they’ve got from the American people by
means of showing their thoughts through art, literature and other forms of media. As one
anonymous writer recalls his experience:
As I walked through the corridor with my head held low and my loose-leaf binder held tightly
against my chest, I felt the weight of impending doom.
I sucked in one final breath and held it, praying to God to keep me from harm…As I
advanced toward the group of towering bullies like a lamb amidst the wolves, I was keenly
aware of their watchful predatory gaze. It started off as aspark, one of my tormentors called
out: “Hey! Where are you going Chinaman?”, and the abuse began. The verbal taunts
eventually escalated into nudges and shoves…On some days my tormentors would hold me
captive until the bell rang, making me tardy to class. High school, as hierarchical social
institution, reflected the prejudices and attitudes of mainstream society.” (Liao)
Leynes 3
Labeling the Asian descent people affects all of them who came or have origins from of Asian
countries, even though some of them lived their lives here in the United States as a normal
American. Also, even the new generation of children who usually have no knowledge of the
culture and the beliefs of their ancestor’s country of origin also get the prejudices on the people
of the country that they’ve known as their own.
The immigrant children here in the United States do face a lot of difficulties that make
them to feel torn between two different worlds because of the different perception of their own
parents’ way of life and the surroundings that the children face and lived on each day of their
lives. Their paradoxical way of life made them struggle to find which part of them should they
belong to.
In the story “The Good Daughter,” Caroline can’t identify herself as a Korean because
even though she looks like one, still she just have a little knowledge about the culture and
traditions of that country, that she even can’t speak her name properly. In the United States,
where she thinks she belongs to since she was born in there doesn’t show that they accept her as
one of them because first of all, she don’t look like the traditional citizens of the United States
which are the white people even though she acts like them. This life set-up that most children of
Asian immigrants encounter in the United States usually makes them feel they are living a
divided life that disrupts their ability to grow and live harmoniously in the country as a normal
citizen in the eyes of their fellow Americans, not as a different unaccepted one. United States is
such a nation of immigrants so each one has a right to live the life that they’ve wanted as long as
the American identity of a person will prevail in the end.
WORKS CITED:
Hwang, Caroline. “The Good Daughter,” Between Worlds
New York: Pearson Longman, 2006 pp.15-17
Portes, Alejandro and Min Zhou. “Should immigrants assimilate?” Public Interest
Summer 94: Issue 116 p18, 16p. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO.
City U of New York Lib. 8 Nov. 2006
<http://web.ebscohost.com>
Berger, Joseph. “Korean? Spoken Here?” New York Times 25 Mar 2003, D1
Ronald Takaki, Strangers From a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, 421
Liao, Michael. “The Asian American Experience” Asian Gateways. 2001. 8 Dec. 2006.
<http://gallery.sjsu.edu/oldworld/asiangate/asian_exp_full.html
Monagle, Katie. “Pressure in America, too.” Scholastic Update 20 Mar. 1992 v124 n13
P19(1) Infotrac College Edition 8 Dec. 2006
<http://infotrac-college.thomsonlearning.com>