Identity & Culture

Myths: From the Rise of the “Model Minority” to the “American Decline”

April 1, 2011

In honor of Women’s History Month, I was invited to speak at the African American Museum and Library in Oakland last Friday about My Mom is a Fob. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s daughter, Lailan Huen, joined us as well as others from various backgrounds, so we had a great discussion about our cultural (and generational) similarities and differences growing up.As expected, Amy Chua’s name came up again, and a gentleman from the audience actually assigned me homework, namely to watch Charlie Rose’s interview with Amy Chua and read his lengthy commentary (written under the pseudonym “worldwatcher”). Here is my response organized into three overarching themes. view more →

{ 3 comments }

Identity & Culture

My Mom is a Fob Events Recap!

January 27, 2011

2011 started off with a bang. After coming back from New York (for the book launch) and Vegas (for various conferences and a birthday), life never quite resumed to a normal pace… but sped off for some sort of marathon.

For starters, we’ve been interviewing potential hires for Bullet Media, and I’ve been catching up on work while receiving numerous requests for other freelance projects. For stressors, the media has been interviewing me non-stop for fob-related features online and in person — a KRON4 news segment live from Hayward, an NPR recording from Sports Byline’s studio in SF — and I’ve been running off to various back-to-back events (which I’m still very grateful for). Though the Listen to the Silence workshop at Stanford didn’t go quite as I had hoped it would (silent crowds!), the audience at Book Passage was really receptive and spurred some good discussions after the reading. Click through for photos and a short clip! view more →

{ 0 comments }

Identity & Culture

A foreign accent is a sign of bravery

January 24, 2011

Only one week after our blog-turned-book, My Mom is a Fob, had come out, Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother took the world by storm, raising controversy and quickly scaling Amazon’s rankings to #1 — her favorite number. The day I had my book signing at Book Passage in San Francisco, she was addressing a crowd at Berkeley (no wonder the media was absent at my event).

The more I hear about Chua and tiger mothers, the less I want to comment on extreme Asian parenting being “right” or “wrong” (except I’ve actually read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother from cover-to-cover — and quite enjoyed it); and while many people have asked me to write a “rebuttal” post, I can’t help but draw numerous parallels between the two non-fiction books (both published by Penguin publishers). Both quote the ridiculous things Asian mothers say to their children; both demonstrate a clash of eastern values and western upbringing; both exhibit our parents’ obsessive compulsive tendencies for excellence and perfection; and despite the brutal honesty and bubbling pressure, both unveil the underlying love our parents feel towards us, through their endless sacrifices. view more →

{ 1 comment }

Identity & Culture

ROFLing With The Internet—Literally

May 4, 2010

This past weekend, I was in Boston for #ROFLCon, since Teresa and I were invited to speak on a panel about “race and the internet”. According to Ethan Zuckerman, “the panel on race – I can haz dream? – was one of the best conference panels” he has ever attended, because Baratunde Thurston and Christian Lander sat next to us on stage, of course!

For those unfamiliar, Baratunde is the editor of The Onion, co-founder of Jack & Jill Politics, and author of the upcoming book, How to Be Black, while Christian is the author of the well-known blog and book, Stuff White People Like. As Zuckerman writes, “…a late night show based around Baratunde Thurston and Christian Lander would kill” — because they really are that good at being comedians. In fact, they were so good at entertaining the crowd that when our moderator or the audience asked sensitive questions about racism, homophobia, religion…no one was fidgeting. view more →

{ 0 comments }

Identity & Culture

Preserving My Roots

December 18, 2009

A few weeks ago, I sat in my a-ma’s living room and listened to her read and explain my a-gong’s commemorative essay regarding my a-zoh (who are both long gone). Afterwards, she sighed and commented, “It’s a pity you can’t read Chinese. If only you could read a-zoh’s books, you’d know how 偉大 (significant) he was.” From that moment on, I vowed that I would do my research and learn as much as possible about my great-grandfather, my a-zoh, while I was still here in Taiwan.

Before leaving Jiali (a small town in Tainan Province), I took a copy of my a-gong’s essay and told my a-ma, “I think I’d like to translate this into English with Daddy.” So of course my a-ma called me a few weeks later, “Sa-jit-gong (3^rdGreat-uncle) says a professor translated some of your a-zoh’s writings into English. I’m not sure, you should call Sa-jit-gong and ask.”

Less than an hour later, I was in Taipei’s largest library hassling a pour soul behind the reference desk. Below, I summarize part of Shih-Jung Tzeng’s 361-page Oxford-published PhD thesis, From Honto Jin to Bensheng Ren: The Origin and Development of Taiwanese National Consciousness. This is the most I’ve ever learned about my great-grandfather — a historic Taiwanese literary figure — Wu Xinrong (吳新榮). view more →

{ 0 comments }

Identity & Culture

ITASA West Coast and Midwest Conferences 2009

April 24, 2009

Lost in Translation
I think part of what is making schoolwork so difficult is the post-conference lethargy associated with nostalgic longing—which of course, is exacerbated by daily monotony. It’s the trough after the peak, the low levels of endorphins after too much stimulation—the emotional flatline. So here I am blogging, reminiscing about a short-lived high jammed into the middle of a tough [albeit last] semester.

April 2, HoChie Tsai and I drove down to LA for the ITASA West Coast Conference held at USC. Because of MMIAF’s slight relevance to Asian American issues (think cultural gaps, identity issues, communication barriers), I was invited to hold a workshop for a college crowd, despite being a college student myself. Fast-forward two weeks, and on April 17, I flew to Champaign, Illinois by myself for the ITASA Midwest Conference held at UIUC.

To be honest, I really didn’t know what to expect. I always assumed cultural clubs consisted of first and 1.5 generation students—the “fobs” on campus with distinctive hairstyles and fashion tastes who always cluster together in Asian food courts and speak loud but authentic “dao di” Mandarin at 200 wpm. You know, the loaded parachute kids with parents back in Taiwan who send them wads of cash to rice up their M3s and buy Gucci messenger bags to make up for not being there. No? view more →

{ 6 comments }