Leading Bi-Cultural Lives | Asian American Poll

LEADING BI-CULTURAL LIVES
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:24:29 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

Is it possible to embrace both American and Asian cultures and find social acceptance with both Americanized and non-Americanized groups of friends?
Yes | 77%
No | 23%

Which of the following factors is most important in facilitating a successful bi-cultural life?
Familitarity with both cultures | 32%
Family upbringing | 28%
Fluency in both languages | 16%
Security in one's identity | 24%

Which of the following factors most discourages bi-cultural lives for U.S.-raised Asian Americans?
Inability to speak Asian languages | 28%
Outmarriage to non-Asians | 14%
Fear of seeming too Asian | 30%
Concern for kids' image with peers | 28%

Which segment of the Asian American population currently has the greatest positive impact on American society?
American-Born | 56%
Foreign-born, American-educated | 44%

This poll is closed to new input.
Comments posted during the past year remain available for browsing.

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WHAT YOU SAY

[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]

Rare Stuff

Yes, you are indeed much more Asian than I am. But that's because I haven't been as exposed to the Asian way of thinking. I've been raised in a mostly western atmosphere, educated in a western culture, and we communicate solely through western means (English). Much of the deeper shades of the Asian ideas are lost when we cannot communicate via an Asian language. I cannot communicate this way to you, specifically because I don't know the Chinese language (wish I could learn, but who would I talk to since we are typing this out on a keyboard).

I am an Asian. I have Asian blood in me and I would like to think that I am Asian (or more appropriately, Asian American). If you look at me and see a white dropout, then that's what you see and nothing I say or do can disuade you.

But I do have to admit to you that when I go to Asian countries (and don't get me wrong, I love to travel all over Asia!), I feel as a plant that has been transplanted from familiar soil (USA) to foreign soil (Asia) and I don't thrive very well. Although I love Asian food, I tend to get sick more often (food and drinks makes me nauseaus more often than not...probably because my stomach flora and fauna needs more time than normal to get used to the different bacteria found in Asia) and the lack of familiar sights and sounds make me homesick just a little. I have found that a stay of three or four months is all I can handle at one time, and then I must return to the USA else I begin to feel depression. I guess I need to feel that I have the ability to drive myself around the city or country without restrictions (I cannot drive outside the USA), go places by myself (I am so scared to go anywhere by myself, especially in a country that I cannot speak the language), buy things on my own (the different currency exchanges are so hard for me to figure out), and talk to people without hitting a stone wall of culture shock.

In that sense, then you definitely are much more Asian than I could ever be. But then, this is the Bi-cultural lives board, and I do lead as bi-cultural a life as any normal Asian American who's been born and raised here. If anything, you tend to be more Asian, less Western than I would be, and you would not be so much a bi-which means equal halves.

MLK Sunday, July 21, 2002 at 19:38:54 (PDT)

curious girl

If you believe that when you die, that's it, then that's what will happen. The mind controls all aspects of reality, from genesis to the ultimate end of time. It's not surprising that those who believe in heaven and hell can experience the phenomenon and those who believe otherwise experience...otherwise.

Actually, I never got finished with my explanation to you about quantum mechanics and the idea of godhood. But I'll leave that for now, because it's really truly involved, and cyberspace is not as limitless as my imagination. I could write a book and still barely touch on all of this. I'm not. I just wanted to tell you that I respect your beliefs, regardless of what they are because your ideas about what constitutes reality is just as valid as my own. However, I do want to tell you one tiny little thing.

It's all in the mind. Everything is in the mind.

MLK Sunday, July 21, 2002 at 18:56:13 (PDT)

Happy Clam

Theories abound on the intriguing idea of the universe having a 'collective consciousness' or what you call the Akashic Records, and it directly ties in with everything Buddhistic (and Christian, and Hindu, etc.) in the idea that we are all interconnected at all levels of existence and we can tap into this reservoir of knowledge if we only knew how to do it. Unfortunately, the idea gets diffused because humans have a way of slapping on a title, and then putting a copyright stamp on what should be a common shared knowledge. Unfortunately, we all have this fixed rigid idea of what this title is supposed to mean-- Buddhism, Christianity, Muslim, Hindu...I often wonder about the ultimate connection between these and all other religions of the world.

It's interesting that you call the Akashic Records a "...vibrations of everything that ever existed, was thought, felt, etc." because when you boil down all essentials, everything is a vibration of minute particles, seen and unseen, known and unknown; even the sum of all our self-conscious minds, past,present and future.

Carl Sagan was my hero, back in the days when my friends' heros were television stars and pop stars. I was soooo in love with him at the tender age of (seven or eight?) I don't remember how old I was when I first saw his documentaries, but I remember having that awful hunger to understand more, and ended up reading everything I could get my hands on that was written by him by the time I turned (12????) something like that. Anyway, as an adult, I remember feeling so sad when he died. Mostly nostalgia for my youth, and a sense of loss that's hard to explain.

Hawkings is full of surprise, every time he 'speaks'!!!! I can barely understand him, so I read the transcripts to completely understand what he is trying to show us. What I wouldn't give to understand even just a small speck of what he knows. Alas, my brain is made of looser, more porous, less stable material than his, and so it holds very little, in terms of solid scientific understanding. That doesn't stop me from trying, mind you. I get so much glee from being able to understand just a little...just a tiny little bit.

But it's not just hard core science that astounds me, it's also all the other mystical stuff that has no explanation, stuff that I get the strongest hunch, must be intimately linked to the hard core sciences on more levels than the dimension that we operate on, only we don't know how it links up yet, and so still dismiss it as baloney invented by the overactive imagination.

Anyway, on to the more mundane stuff. I hide this aspect of myself because it's so unbecoming for a normal woman like me to be so intensely interested in these topics. I have learned early on not to exude such passions so visibly because it makes me an anomaly, a blight, or more effectively, a large red pimple, on the smooth arse of polite refined humanity. :)

MLK Sunday, July 21, 2002 at 18:48:05 (PDT)

AC

Does artificial blonde suggest that I've got 'dark matter' as opposed to 'air' in between my ears? :) You've brought up quite a few points, all of which I'd like to address, please kind sir.

1. Chaos theory & butterfly breath - I was hoping no one would call me out on this, but it's such an eloquent example and I feel that it works much better to explain Karma than it does to explain the Chaos theory, don't you think?

2. Zhuang-Zi's butterfly dream - If we can use Schrodinger's cat to examine this question, then it becomes clear that reality is what the self-conscious mind creates--but not just any old butterfly or dog or monkey brain will do, mind you. This brain must be fully cognizant and must understand in full, the significance of what it sees and extract the meaning behind its visions. In essence, it's gotta be human, and an extremely sharp one to boot, to be able to decide whether or not he/she wants to be a butterfly or a crane, or even a human.

3. Reincarnation - I haven't gotten to the second part of my extrapolation yet!!! This is the energy part, the one that blows your 'soul-increase' problem out of the water. An increase in human population does not discount reincarnation. Neither is an increase in bio mass. Self-consciousness is energy using bio mass as a medium of cohesion. It is not the bio mass itself. On a side note, what I started to tell curious girl was merely the relativity part (energy = matter) of the mathematical equation of reincarnation. Quantum mechanics (Copenhagen) comes later to possibly explain wierder stuff.

3. dino piss - in essence, yes. You can't destroy matter and so, through the recycling system of the universe, what you are and touch and consume is not 'new' matter that has never seen the radiation of the solar system's only ageing sun. But broken down into electrons and quarks, you won't be able to tell the difference between dino piss and Coke. On that same dimensional plane, you won't be able to tell the difference between that can of Coke (incredibly slowly vibrating particles) to the music coming from your stereo (somwhat faster vibrating particles) to light (very fast vibrating particles/wave).

Dark Matter - Just because matter is unseen doesn't mean it does not exist. In fact, neutrinos (as well as a host of other exotic material) flow through me and you and everything in the universe at all times of the day and night, and we can't see it, but it's there. What you see with your eyes is merely neurons in the retina translating light falling on them into electrical signals that get sent through your axons to your visual cortex in your occipital lobe. You can't see much within the narrow rainbow band of visible particles anyway, so I wouldn't say something as limiting as "I have to see it to believe it" because you would be severely limiting your understanding of the world this way.

By the way, I feel like a little kid trying to explain scientific concepts to a really old scientist. I know that all of this is elementary stuff to you. Aren't you a scientist or mathematician of some kind already? You should be the one to explain this egghead stuff to little ole' airhead me! After all, I have my blonde image, however fake) to uphold you know.

MLK Sunday, July 21, 2002 at 18:08:52 (PDT)

MLK,

do you agree that you are less bi-cultural than me?

I mean you're so essentially Western in your associations and interests that you probably don't even feel the deepness of the gap between Western and Eastern cultures. Like a white dropout who is a fan of Asia. Such a dropout will never get INTO the gap, but remain a normal Westerner with a dropout orientation.

Btw, Buddhism is not that much Asian, it's only snobbish. If you disagree with my thesis, write why.
rare stuff Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 15:15:15 (PDT)

MLK,

"butterfly flutters its wings in China, the feather fluff of wind turns into a hurricane"

Not to sound like a know-it-all. But that's not a Chinese saying. It comes from a mathematical branch called Choas Theory. It basically shows that "known initial condition beget unexpected results."

I have my own doubts about that field of math. Because many scientist use it as a catch all of any unexpected results. Sort of like "God."

The Chinese fable by Zhuang-Zi (another philiosopher) is that if a butterfly dreams that he is a crane that dreams that he is a sparrow. Is he a butterfly or a sparrow?

Reincarnation....conservation of energy. Okay here my problem. There are more humans on the planet then ever before. And the bio mass of the planet is also increasing. Where did these extra souls come from...The Orion sector of the galaxy?

Okay so we are made up of 18 billion year old matter. So does that mean the next time I open a can of Coke. The water molecules in that can, could have been dinosaur piss at one point. I'm paying $1 to drink sweet dinosaur piss with carbonate that could have been dinosaur fart?

Okay then how does Buddism deal with Dark Matter. The unseen matter of the universe that is used to explain the speed at which out galaxy is rotating. Are those the souls that are so unenlightened they are not even seen in this universe?

PS - Everyone knows your an artifical blonde by now. So we know there must be something other than air between those ears. ^_^
AC Dropout Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 12:58:54 (PDT)

MLK
Also interesting is the whole concept regarding karma and physics and the aspect of multi- dimensions of energy vibrations of time....that the past and present and future are all at once, and they just operate on different frequencies. Some say this is why we can see " ghosts" - we are, in those moments , being able to view that frequency...Very intriguing.
Have you heard of the Akashic Records? Thats another interesting concept, although not Buddhist. But it relates to your thoughts on energy and so forth. It in essence is a " storehouse" of the vibrations of everything that ever existed, was thought, felt, etc..and supposedly it can be tapped into. Again, intriguing..
Glad to see another female liking these topics...I usually also avoid discussing the latest Hawkings book, or why Carl Sagan was a genius, or dicussions on the teachings of anyone from Buddha to Jesus ...but if you enjoy such things ( as you appear to! ) I am delighted you have brought them to this forum!!
Happy Clam wschien1@mchsi.com Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 11:54:29 (PDT)

MLK,

Thanks for your reply. I guess my idea of Karma was way off! Probably what I've learned from TV. :) I can understand the idea that every action you do, no matter how small, will affect every other being or force in the universe. It makes me want to do only good actions, so that my small, tiny little existence will do some good in the world.

I'm not a science person, but I do remember from high school physics that you can't destroy matter, etc, so that explanation does make sense to me. I guess I just find it hard to reconcile with my non-belief of an afterlife. I don't think that I've ever believed in any type of afterlife at all. I have always believed that when you die, that's it, you're dead.
curious girl Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 06:14:46 (PDT)

MLK,

Yes I forgot to mention that it was originally in German and translated into English. There is a translated version by Dr. M*** that scholars swear by.

German has verbs that can be split. So their sentences go on forever.

Well if there any chapters you don't get just post it up and I'll see what I can do.

I can't believe you bought the book. You can just do web search. I'm sure the text exists online somewhere.
AC Dropout Wednesday, July 17, 2002 at 15:41:48 (PDT)

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