Leading Bi-Cultural Lives | Asian American Poll

LEADING BI-CULTURAL LIVES
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:24:27 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

Does South Asian mean from India? Then no, that's not me at all. I'm more Southeast Asia with South Chinese ties. It's not because you are from the north and I am from the southeast that makes us different. It's because 1. you are male and I am female and 2. I have been in the US for a longer period of time than you have. I think the major thing is that we are different because I am more westernized (I think I've been living here in the USA from a younger age and for a longer period of time than you...assuming that you're living in the USA--are you living here in the US?).

Anyway, in some sense, you are neither fully Asian, nor Western, nor even immigrant. I get the very strong sense that you are in a subculture all of your own, with very few members allowed in and even fewer allowed out. In order for us to understand each other better, you must break open your box and stand independent of it, and I must recreate that box to surround myself with. This is the only way that we can possibly get even a vague understanding of one another.
MLK Friday, July 26, 2002 at 22:10:15 (PDT)

curious girl

I hate to jump into an intellectual discourse if I haven't read the book yet. If you don't mind waiting a week or so until I've had a chance to take a look at it, I'll be more than happy to discuss it with you. Right now, AC's got me reading Nietzsche (I finally found out that you pronounce his name like 'neechee', hehehe...funny!).

I swear, I'm reading so much more odd stuff just by hanging out with you folks.

Oh, and I'm not pure Chinese either. I can't tell if a Chinese book is upside down or right-side up, and my brain doesn't translate spoken Chinese into anything that I can make heads or tails out of. But one of these days, I really will learn it. I just need some kind of kick in the rump and a motivational force that is compelling enough to do so.
MLK Friday, July 26, 2002 at 21:57:55 (PDT)

Akash

"...At subatomic level, the reality loses its concrete, well defined nature and is smeared out in a probabilistic world, full of uncertainities and haziness."

That's why I love to read about the endless theories of quantum mechanics. I didn't like physics, but I absolutely loved quantum mechanics!

At the subatomic level, all matter (including light) become one of two states, wave and particle. And, since merely by observing particle behavior, we create changes in its basic physiology, we are, in effect, deciding how particles behave in the subatomic world. In essence, we create our unique realities utilizing nothing but basic subatomic particles and our minds. We are infant Gods who have not yet understood how to control our fingers and toes yet, and we don't yet know our potential. But can you just imagine what we can do once we, as humans, reach maturity at the self-conscious level? Oh Akash, my mind spins with the mere hint of that idea!
MLK Friday, July 26, 2002 at 21:46:48 (PDT)

AC

Alright. I tried to get out of it, but since you're not going to let me off the hook, I'm going to answer all points raised by you last Monday.

"...you have to give credit to where credit is due. You can't go taking a Terra Cotta warrior statue into your living room and said you carved it."
---and why not? If I wanted to claim a terra cotta warrior statue, all I have to do is take a permanent marker and write 'Kelly' across his forehead! Voila! He's mine.

"...Schrodinger's cat? Did it die in the box from radiation or suffocation"
---Only if we eyeball a single electron (or quark) and mentally 'will' the quark (or electron) to change from a wave to a particle pattern, thereby changing the matter composition of the hammer dangling over the flask of poisonous gas, causing it to break the flask, and in essence, causing it to kill the cat.

"...You either have a decrease of self-consciousness per unit bio mass. Or self-consciousness is coming from somewhere not of earth."
---For the Buddhist way of thinking, even lower life forms such as fish and birds have consciousness. They eventually develop far enough to become human self-consciousness once they have fulfilled all requirements of experiencing life force of living things that are not human. You gotta read up on some Buddhist literature to get the full gist of this theory. It explains it quite well.

"...I asked about Coke and I get a lecture on particle physics."
---You're talking to an unknown entity called MLK here. You never know what kind of response you'll get with me. Better enjoy our conversations while you still can. I'm not going to be able to hang around here that much longer.

"...Exotic Stuff flow through us."
---Sorry, I meant to say 'neutrinos' flow through us. If I said it any other way, it was an error on my part.

"...Our corporal entity can suddenly shift to the other side of the wall due to quantum machanics. Doesn't mean our soul goes to the other side."
---Doesn't mean it doesn't either.

"...Physics is no place for those looking for spiritual enlightenment."
---and yet, I still continue to look. There is a connection, and one of these days, I'll find it, and write my doc's dissertation on it, you just wait and see!

BTW, I hide my nerdiness because it's a social killer. People don't take you seriously as a pretty bimbo, but they take you even less seriously as a nerdy egghead.

Sexual appeal in the work force is a deadly dangerous thing to do. It's the fastest way to rise in the ranks, and also the fastest way to lose all respect from co-workers, even for quality work that you've done that's justly deserved. And then on top of that, you gotta go out with the man at the top! And I just don't have the energy to have to juggle work and entertaning the CEO at the same time. Best just not attract the attention from those up there, you know, turn your head the other way and mumble a "hi" if you meet the brass in the hallways. One of these days, I'll tell you what happened to me when one of the top brass at a large company tried to arrange something with me. I was so young then (barely out of highschool), had no clue what to do, so I made a stupid excuse and quit my job. I was flat broke for months because of that man!

Smarts and sexual appeal...these things don't go hand in hand. The one intimidates and the other invites subjugation.

So let me ask you, AC. What is your advice for me, since you know I have these two handicaps in my life.
MLK Friday, July 26, 2002 at 21:33:26 (PDT)

AC dropout

"The classic quantum mechanic paradigm is that one is unable to observe the location and vector of an item instaneously. However, I see things and know their general vector all the time to function properly in the real world.
"
Actually the fundamental question is what is the nature of "reality". Would you call what we see or feel as "reality"? We see a "solid" block of iron with our eyes, but according to our present knowledge, 99.99% and more of it is vaccuum(volume of nucleus/vol of atom). In the Newtonian physics, there was a fundamental assumption that observable exists independent of the observer. Hence the "reality" was not dependent upon the observer; it stood on its own merit. This assumption imparted "objectivity" to the science. But in quantum realm, the observable is dependent upon the observer, hence subjective!!! You cant observe an "event" without fundamentally altering it. Schrodinger's cat example illustrates this point beautifully.

Although we "feel" that these principles are not applicable to the "real world" that operates on a length scale a billion times the atomic length, it is a topic of ongoing research. Next time when you "see" a thing, think of the atomic processes governed by quantum phenomena that are involved in "seing". At this point, I have no answer to whether a proton in your body is somehow in a state of entanglement with proton in my body by virtue of common initial conditions(big bang), or whether this kind of reasoning is even applicable to the macroscopic objects. Some scientists do talk about "quantum decoherence" in which such quantum effects nullify each other on a macroscopic scale, but this is an active area of research.
Akash Friday, July 26, 2002 at 18:03:01 (PDT)

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