Valerie shared this interesting article a week or 2 ago: Paper Tigers (What happens to all the Asian-American overachievers when the test-taking ends?) Let me warn you, it’s an extremely long read. It was pretty interesting and if you have the time to spare, it’s definitely worth the read. The part in the middle felt a little off topic when the author went off in a tangent on how Asian men suck at getting girls. As Valerie also commented, it was a bit weird to have a bunch of half naked men scattered across the article.
To summarize the article:
Let me summarize my feelings toward Asian values: Fuck filial piety. Fuck grade-grubbing. Fuck Ivy League mania. Fuck deference to authority. Fuck humility and hard work. Fuck harmonious relations. Fuck sacrificing for the future. Fuck earnest, striving middle-class servility.
I wouldn’t call the article enlightening as I’ve known most of the things he talks about, in fact I agree with most of what he says. What I disagree with is were we really brought up incorrectly? Are the values we’re taught, filial piety, humility, hard work, harmonious relations, etc. the wrong ones?
I will agree that in America’s society and culture, those values are not valued as highly and often will get in the way of climbing up your career ladder. However, these are values passed down from Confucius and seems to have worked for the Chinese for over 2000 years.
I was initially going to write a post on why I agree with the author and how Asian Americans should adapt. Then I decided that I was going to write a post on why I don’t think Asian values are necessarily incorrect, but should incorporate other values that American society values. Then I realized that such a post would probably never see the light of day, so I decided to provide a brief summary of what I got out of this article.
Asian American children, especially 1st generation Americans, are taught under very strict guidance. We are taught that excelling in school means a better future. The reason why my parents fought so hard to live a crappy life in America was so that their children and generations after will be able to have a decent future. However, Asian parents are very single minded. They believe there is 1 and only 1 correct path. Learning how the world REALLY works is something you will never learn from your parents and something you’ll have to find out by yourself.
However, I can’t help but feel that if there were more of us in this world, people who could tolerate, people who didn’t need to make gazillions to be happy and content, people who could work together harmoniously instead of trying to bite each others throat off, how this world would be a much better place.
Update: Not sure if I’ve ever shown people my 4 color chart (more details):
