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GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
WHAT FOBs THINK OF AMERICAN-BORN ASIANS
y FOBs we mean anyone who has ever been called an FOB. -- "fresh-off-the-boat", anyone not born here. In other words, half the AA population. Even the 2 million AA who immigrated as kids and speak English like -- or in some cases, better than -- native-born Americans rarely escape the sting of being dismissed by American-Born Asians (ABAs) based on real or imagined differences.
The stereotype of the hopeless FOB who just doesn't get American culture is all too familiar. But intra-Asian prejudice is a two-way street.
No less insulting are the images held by FOBs. ABAs are the descendants of the lowliest of peasants forced to flee their homelands to become indentured servants, sniff some FOBs. Born and bred to accept second-class status in a white society, sneer others. Slackers who don't know the meaning of ambition and sacrifice -- and who lack the guts to do anything about it in any case.
FOBs run the socio-economic gamut. A significant minority (perhaps a tenth) are highly successful trans-Pacific business families seeking a safe haven for their fortunes. The vast majority are engineers, scientists, physicians and academics braving the uncertainties of new lives for a chance to work hard for more money and better opportunities. A few are refugees and illegals risking their lives to escape hopeless, grinding poverty.
It's safe to say few FOBs feel in any respect disadvantaged relative to American-born Asians. In fact, given a dozen years most do as well or better than ABAs financially, if not socially. They can be excused, then, for harboring some less-than-flattering assessments of ABAs. By the same token, in their struggle to acculturate, FOBs often come to appreciate the trails blazed by the ABS, or at least, by their ancestors.
Assuming you're FOB or straddling the FOB-ABA fence, what's your image of ABAs? Let's hear the good as well as the bad.
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WHAT YOU SAY
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(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:03:29 PM)
Actually the contributions of the Cantonese in the United States are insignificant if you compare to them to contributions of African Americans and Jewish Americans. They are insignificant because they are not defined in a modern context!
Ok, they laid railroad tracks on the west coast and fought hard to allow Chinese immigrants come to this country. If Chinese weren't able to come to this country, we would have gone somewhere else..
1) African Americans were the innovators of American Music ex. blues, jazz, rock n' roll, r & b, hip hop..etc. without them we wouldn't have pop music PERIOD!
Without the prowess and struggles of Afro-Americans and their civil rights movement, America's cities would continue to be segregated by race.
2)Jewish Americans with their commericial talents and dilligence, have made achievements in just about every freaking sector of American life (often, their successes have been resented by others)! In addition to their contributions to the sciences and business, they have established media companies such as Hollywood, record companies and print media companies. Without their efforts, there would be no America PERIOD!
Hapa,
I'm also tired this Cantonese ABC rant about them being here for generations. Here in NYC, no new or old Cantonese have been appointed to political office. They have been here for so long and have not made any political inroads. Meanwhile, a Taiwanese American by the name of John Liu, only a 1st generation Asian American has been appointed as city council in NYC!
Cut the crap would you! cathay bank is what u call an old timers chinese bank! The Chinese in NYC put their $$$ in HSBC or any of one of the major banks such as the Citi coporation.
Cut the crap!
Thursday, March 28, 2002 at 17:36:53 (PST)
AC Dropout:
Actually, the immigrants in Guangdong, who are increasing in numbers every day, on the whole don't seem to feel any desire or real necessity to learn Cantonese. This is in contrast to HK, where mainland immigrants have to learn Cantonese or face continual harassment by the police and mainland students get to deal with being spoken to in Cantonese or "pretend Mandarin" by the a lot of their fellow students even if they start a conversation in Mandarin. Basically lots of young people talk about how they SHOULD learn Mandarin, but very few people seem to follow through to a decent level (unless a cute girl enters the university, in which case every guy in the department signs up for extra Mandarin tutorials, up until she gets a boyfriend who could already speak just fine cuz he has relatives who only speak Mandarin or something, at which point the interest falls drastically.)
T.H. Lien
Thursday, March 28, 2002 at 11:32:53 (PST)
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