The White-washing of Irvine's Chinese

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Haowen Wong

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Though Irvine has a large Chinese population, it is hardly Chinese culturally. One can hardly get around in only Mandarin. The Sam Woo's at Culver Plaza features a Roman-style colonnade. And while any Chinese schoolchild in Irvine can play the violin or the piano, hardly any can play the erhu or the yangqin.

Chinese skills are so poor among the youth (who are mostly second-generation) that when any Chinese person below 30 walks into a Chinese restaurant in Irvine, the waiters default to speaking English. Chinese literacy is so rare among the second-generation that it has become a sure-fire way to separate the first from the second generation.

What will happen next? If we laugh at Meiji era Japanese dressing up in Victorian style garb, it may not be to outlandish for Irvine's Chinese to dress up in togas. Except, since the Chinese are bent on saving money to pay for private tutoring for their children, they may end up wearing bathrobes as togas.

 
I think the word is cultural assimilation.

People get sucked into a new culture.  This has happened around the world for generations.

Some people knowingly choose to "leave" their culture and for some it just happens. 

Also, one may be too busy learning the violin and piano to dedicate time to the erhu.




 
Well, why aren't more Chinese playing their own instruments? They learn the piano to put something on their college applications, not for culture. Playing the Chinese dulcimer seems very un-prestigious compared to the piano, after all.

If they were really intrested in cultural appreciation, there would be more Chinese delving into their own rich musical history.
 
What percentage of the population still residing in Asia know how to play these instruments? 

Plus, who needs those instruments when you have karaoke machines with over 20,000 songs!  Keep culture alive one great music video at a time. Cue the random white people in the Chinese music video, haha.
 
When China destroyed all of her own culture, razed her own historic buildings, eradicated 5,000 years of her own civilization, polluted her own atmosphere, poisoned and aborted her future generation, extorts her own people, lust after western luxury goods, technology, and seeking to reside oversea then why would parents want their children to retain this heritage mr Wong?
 
Haowen Wong said:
Well, why aren't more Chinese playing their own instruments? They learn the piano to put something on their college applications, not for culture.
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There lies the conundrum.  You answered it yourself.  College LOVES it when a potential student shows pride in their own cultural heritage AND can perform well overall.  A college applicant does NOT need to know the "piano" to get into a college.  The child could have learned the "erhu" to get in just the same.  Yet so many Chinese do not take pride in their cultural heritage.  For example, I LOVE the erhu and guzheng but I get ridiculed by other Chinese for being interested in something so ancient and outdated.  So thank you Jay Chou for actually putting those instruments in his music to make it more mainstream. 

Then there's the Chinese who immediately change their name to a classic American name like Robert, Michael, Jennifer, etc. as soon as they arrive in the US.  Meanwhile other cultures, like Mexicans take pride in keeping their cultural names: Juan, Jesus, Yasmine, Guadalupe, etc.

Then there's the language.  Simplified vs Traditional (??? = which mainlanders call annoying characters, ??? = which Taiwanese call proper characters).  When Chinese can't even agree on what characters to use when they write and most Mainlanders are pushing for English Pinyin anyway ... how can there be any pride in culture when most don't take the time to value each other or their own past and heritage??

 
Bones is right. I wanted to give our daughter a Hispanic name and my wife wanted an american name. And now are daughter has a white first name. A good friend of mine (Filipino) gave her daughters ethnic names, which actually sound Hispanic. But then again, she considers herself Pacific Islander, not Asian

I can also sing the mexican national in three languages. And I have a tattoo in OE

Mexicanos al grito de guerra!
 
bones said:
qwerty said:
Bones is right. I wanted to give our daughter a Hispanic name and my wife wanted an american name. And now are daughter has a white first name. A good friend of mine (Filipino) gave her daughters ethnic names, which actually sound Hispanic. But then again, she considers herself Pacific Islander, not Asian

I can also sing the mexican national in three languages. And I have a tattoo in OE

Mexicanos al grito de guerra!
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Sigh - qwerter - you are confusing your TI women.

I actually had the choice to americanize my name when I became a citizen but I chose to keep my name as is.  It is frustrating though going through life having people mispronounce and misspell it on a regular basis.  I will say though, not changing my name doesn't make me feel more aZn. And I'm sure changing my name would not have made me feel more white.  A name is a name is a name.
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There was a recent Times article that many Chinese kids who have an aZn dad with an aZn last time change it to their white mom's maiden name.  This way they will check the box for "white" and have a better chance of getting into college.

Then there's this article of some Chinese men who change their entire name after they become nationalized to an all American name, like Richard Johnson so they can get more business for their company.  They swear that due to their name change that their business increased tremendously. 

The entire name change for aZn is becoming quite a front and center debate in the public.  Living in Irvine it's easy to blend in with all the other aZn names but outside of Irvine I do see something as simple as a name may create a hindrance in the business world.

Also I kid you not, I have met people who's parents REALLY legally named their daughters "Princess" and "Baby" as their legal first names.  So that puts things into perspective.  :P
 
You're Donna Chang?

tumblr_l2sd9wASwU1qbyeqno1_400.png
 
Asian name is a huge setback for college applicants.
Irvine address is incredibly detrimental as well due to many predecessors's one dimensional reputation being perceived by admission officers.

ZeroLot said:
bones said:
qwerty said:
Bones is right. I wanted to give our daughter a Hispanic name and my wife wanted an american name. And now are daughter has a white first name. A good friend of mine (Filipino) gave her daughters ethnic names, which actually sound Hispanic. But then again, she considers herself Pacific Islander, not Asian

I can also sing the mexican national in three languages. And I have a tattoo in OE

Mexicanos al grito de guerra!
Click to expand...

Sigh - qwerter - you are confusing your TI women.

I actually had the choice to americanize my name when I became a citizen but I chose to keep my name as is.  It is frustrating though going through life having people mispronounce and misspell it on a regular basis.  I will say though, not changing my name doesn't make me feel more aZn. And I'm sure changing my name would not have made me feel more white.  A name is a name is a name.
Click to expand...

There was a recent Times article that many Chinese kids who have an aZn dad with an aZn last time change it to their white mom's maiden name.  This way they will check the box for "white" and have a better chance of getting into college.

Then there's this article of some Chinese men who change their entire name after they become nationalized to an all American name, like Richard Johnson so they can get more business for their company.  They swear that due to their name change that their business increased tremendously. 

The entire name change for aZn is becoming quite a front and center debate in the public.  Living in Irvine it's easy to blend in with all the other aZn names but outside of Irvine I do see something as simple as a name may create a hindrance in the business world.

Also I kid you not, I have met people who's parents REALLY legally named their daughters "Princess" and "Baby" as their legal first names.  So that puts things into perspective.  :P
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Haowen Wong said:
Though Irvine has a large Chinese population, it is hardly Chinese culturally. One can hardly get around in only Mandarin.

This is called assimilation. Why would you expect to get around Irvine, or anywhere else in the US with only Mandarin? There are plenty of people who are not Chinese/Mandarin speaking in Irvine who should not feel excluded from their own community.

From,
An ABC who is tired of the gradual ethnic ghettoization of Irvine.
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I think the OP may be upset if Bones and Zerolot posted their old photos of them with bleach blonde hair, blue contacts, and tattoos in English.
 
ZeroLot said:
bones said:
qwerty said:
There was a recent Times article that many Chinese kids who have an aZn dad with an aZn last time change it to their white mom's maiden name.  This way they will check the box for "white" and have a better chance of getting into college.

Then there's this article of some Chinese men who change their entire name after they become nationalized to an all American name, like Richard Johnson so they can get more business for their company.  They swear that due to their name change that their business increased tremendously. 

The entire name change for aZn is becoming quite a front and center debate in the public.  Living in Irvine it's easy to blend in with all the other aZn names but outside of Irvine I do see something as simple as a name may create a hindrance in the business world.

Also I kid you not, I have met people who's parents REALLY legally named their daughters "Princess" and "Baby" as their legal first names.  So that puts things into perspective.  :P
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Hong Kongers love rare English names. Especially those that are Roman. Like Julius, Cornelius, Claudia, Constance. (Can they speak Latin?) Hmmm... maybe they should take to togas? Except since they're frugal so they can save money to send their kids to tutors, maybe they should wear bathrobes? And everyone--even the men--would wear skirts. And sandals...which isn't a problem, since everyone wears flip-flops.
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