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GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is Boston the AA Intellectual Mecca?
he significance of the greater Boston area's AA community derives not from its position as the nation's 13th largest (250,000, accounting for 6% of the area's 4.1 million) but from its unparalleled concentration of elite academics and scholars. The gravitational pull of institutions like MIT, Harvard, Brandeis, Northeastern, Tufts and Wellesley acts more compellingly on Asians than on other segments of the American population. They account for a stunning 20% of the 250,000 students attending the area's 60 colleges and universities.
AA Intellectual Mecca?
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A local Asian icon is the late An Wang, a Harvard alumnus whose 1951 invention of magnetic core memory enabled the computer revolution. Wang Laboratories has now faded into a cautionary tale of the perils of arrogance and ill-conceived family succession, but downtown Boston's gleaming Wang Center for the Performing Arts remains a magnificent memorial to the possibilities of Asian academic elitism. Rival MIT has the highest concentration of Asians (30%) outside of California and Hawaii -- as well as academia's highest suicide rate (10 since 1990).
This intellectual pressure cooker has spawned a culture of technological innovation and risktaking that has produced many of the seeds for the global tech sectors, including the vast corridor along Boston's own Route 128 comprising 5,000 tech companies employing over 200,000.
The Boston area's love-hate relationship with Asians began in 1875 when a small number of Chinese began pitching tents on land created several decades earlier by a land fill of the old South Cove mud flats. By the turn of the century several hundred Chinese had established a budding Chinatown of over two dozen businesses. In 1902, after the Chinese Exclusion Act was extended, police and immigration agents arrested 250 Chinese for not carrying alien registration papers. Despite sporadic hostility, Boston's Chinatown received steady patronage from locals. By 1931 it had grown to nearly a hundred establishments supporting 1,200.
Today Chinatown occupies 32 acres along Harrison Avenue between South Station and the Boston Commons. It has become one of Boston's most vibrant areas, with over 200 businesses that spill out into the theater district. Its several dozen restaurants are operated not only by Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also Vietnamese, Coreans, Thais, Filipinos and other Asian nationalities. Thanks to social and cultural activism emanating from the local universities, Chinatown enjoys support from many energetic organizations dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for its mostly recent-immigrant residents. It has become a centerpiece of Boston's efforts at cultural preservation and urban renewal but for most of the area's AA residents, Chinatown is a hot meal and an occasional touchstone to a heritage that is invisible in their suburban neighborhoods.
The young Asians drawn to Boston by the reputations of its elite colleges have mixed feelings about the area's post-graduation hospitality. Some suspect the area's businesses of discriminating against Asians. Others are less than comfortable with the perceived attitudes of locals. Few Asians who attend college in Boston settle there.
Is greater Boston the Asian American intellectual mecca? Or is it just third-base for ambitious heavyhitters?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:09:59 PM)
TSJ
"Doesn't this pertain to everywhere though?"
I dunno, it's what I notice on campuses over in New England. People seem a little more uptight in general about this than in California. Since I look Middle Eastern, no one knows I'm Chinese unless I bring it up. So a lot of the time, I'd meet other Asians who were mostly Americanized and wouldn't fit with the FOB clique, we'd get on fine until they saw me in the cafeteria or walking down the street talking in Chinese with my friends, then I'd notice a definite change of attitude when they hang around with me, or when I invite them to go somewhere with a group. Some of this might just be due to language worries (fear of 6 FOBs coming along and forcing the conversation into a language you can't understand), but I get the sense it's not just that - also some kind of cultural issue. Whereas back home I never got the sense this was a big problem among any of my friends.
In other evidence, while in New England I've been shot down three times with the line "It's because I think you're too Asian for me" (both in just asking for a second date and in a serious "define the relationship" talk). Instead, I get rejected using more standard, non-culturally based excuses, and I feel a lot better about it. (I know that sounds sarcastic, but I really would much rather have someone tell me "I have to walk my dog that night" or "I'm interested in some other guy", rather than to be told "You're too Asian for me" which basically means I didn't do enough "image control" and ended up screwing myself out of a good thing cuz of stereotypes and having the misfortune to run into the girl while I was with my FOB friends).
T.H. Lien
Monday, May 13, 2002 at 11:36:57 (PDT)
Beantown's going to make you fart,
Pauvre cherie. Your claims of rampant racism boil down to this one piece of "evidence"--you can't get laid.
Sorry, but that's not convincing. I'm Asian, unattractive by any culture's standards, and I don't have any money. Yet I manage to succeed with the ladies every now and then. It helps if you're not such a whiny bitch.
I guess you figure you have better chances on the West Coast. And you could be right. But at least be honest about your motivations. I've been to California, and I wouldn't go back.
Welcome to America. If you can't deal with it, go back to Cali and live a sheltered existence. We Asians who live elsewhere will let you know when it's safe to venture out again.
Wicked Cool
Sunday, May 12, 2002 at 13:00:45 (PDT)
"This is in contrast to New England, where you get a sharply quantized scale. AAs got 4 options
1) you're totally whitewashed, or you just got sick of the incessant categorization, and avoid the Asian cliques completely.
2) you're moderately whitewashed and hang with the portion of the Asian clique which avoids the FOBs/internationals
3) you have a decent level of functionality in culture/language and hang with the portion of the Asian clique which associates with the FOBs
4) you join the FOB clique
People know which category you are and don't associate much with those who are too different from them ..."
Doesn't this pertain to everywhere though?
TSJ
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Sunday, May 12, 2002 at 11:35:58 (PDT)
Well, I've lived in Boston for most of my life, and one of the major reasons that I think Asians are drawn to the type of jobs available in the Boston area. The financial, high-tech and medial businesses offer very good paying jobs. I would like to ask, how many asians are in the top management roles of the three businesses that I mentioned.
TC
Friday, May 10, 2002 at 12:34:18 (PDT)
T.H. Lien,
I have to agree with your analysis of the situation in Boston.
Beantown,
"Asian girls seem to only like white guys and diss on Asian guys. You will see many AF/WM couples per day, but almost never an AM/WF couple"
I don't know which campus your on. But it's college. Someone is sleeping with Someone, more or less. Every dog has it's day. In college that is more than true (Even at MIT). You just gotta step up.
AC Dropout
Thursday, May 09, 2002 at 15:55:13 (PDT)
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