Californian Asian-American Culture Shock!

By John | Sunday, April 8, 2007 | 21 Comments

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I’ve had this conversation many times before with other Asian-American transplants to the San Francisco Bay Area – being an Asian-American in California gets some getting used to.

I first lived in the Bay Area the summer of 1998 for a graduate school internship, and moved permanently in August 1999. There were two things that were really hard to get used to:

1. Asian-Americans in all sorts of “normal” professions and jobs.

I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts and worked north of Hartford, Connecticut after college, and the only Asian-Americans you would see were in your “traditional” jobs – doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors, etc. and in Asian restaurants maybe. When I moved out here – seeing Asian-Americans as police officers, janitors, bank tellers, etc. was just WEIRD. Asian-Americans are such a part of the mainstream in California (especially any descendants from the Gold Rush days), that naturally one would see Asian Americans in all walks of life. But growing up as one of a few Asian-Americans in my high school or at work, I definitely felt that I was a “minority” – or at least, not “white.”

2. Asian-Americans my parents’ age (50′s and 60′s) that had NO foreign accent when speaking English!

This was *really* weird for me. Again, having grown up in the Northeast, most Asians or Asian-Americans I knew were recent immigrants, so seeing any Asian/American adult who spoke English, that English was always accented! Did you experience this cognitive dissonance ???

The corollary to Californian Asian Culture Shock is the experience of Californian-born-and-raised Asian Americans living OUTSIDE of California – either for the first time for college or for work. Californian Asian-American natives are shocked to feel like a minority. Have you experienced this?

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http://balladofyoko.wordpress.com yoko

I’m from Philadelphia, and I first experienced the “culture shock” when I visited the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest, over ten years ago. The best part of it, for me, was that *I* was not looked upon as a minority– I was just another 2nd-generation Japanese-American. It made me want to move westward– but, I’m still here on the East Coast.
http://akrypti.wordpress.com Akrypti

I came to the bay area from the boondocks of upstate New York. One notable “culture shock” moment came last summer when I clerked at a law firm and one of the lawyers from the South Carolina offices came. He said to me, with others who were not Asian, “You must like it out here. So many Chinese people everywhere!” I intended on responding with patience and understanding, but then my colleagues, who were non-Asian Californians, jumped in, completely offended. “You don’t know that she’s Chinese! You can’t assume every Asian-looking person is Chinese! Actually, she’s Taiwanese! Those types of ignorant comments aren’t well-tolerated out here in California!” It goes without saying I was pleasantly surprised. Coming from an all-white suburb on the east coast, I was already used to those sorts of comments. Never would it have occurred to me that non-Asians would have enough cultural sensitivty to stick up for me like that. Only in California… =)
rk

Heck yes! I was born in and grew up in Georgia and when I went to California for the first time to go to UC Berkeley for college, it really took some getting used to…but in a good way. And I did get used to it, and then moving away from California again has made me feel even /more/ like a minority because of it.
SK

Try talkign to EIGHTY year old asian grandparents with no foreign accent! My husband is 4th generation Japanese American (his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were confined at the manzanar japanese camp). It was strange at first, seeing not only his parents, but grandparents as well speaking perfect English.
http://www.iknoweddy.blogspot.com Eddy

As a Taiwanese American who was raised in Southern California but has lived in the Midwest for the past 12 years, I will say that it has been an adjustment being around people who aren’t used to being around Asians. I still remember my freshman year roommate from college (he was Caucasian from a small town in Minnesota) telling me on the first day we both moved into our room, “Yeah, the only Asians I’ve known growing up were the adopted Korean kids in my high school.”

One thing that I have noticed is that a lot of Asian Americans who grow up in towns in the Midwest where there weren’t a lot of other Asian Americans, tend to be, for the lack of a better word, “whitewashed”. I suppose when the resources for retaining your culture/heritage aren’t there, it’s just easier to assimilate and fit in.
http://jpv206.blogspot.com john patrick

I grew up near Seattle; the situation was similar to California. Asian Americans everywhere, not all that exotic.

When I went to the Midwest for graduate school, I was disgusted.

Disgusted that white people scoffed at chopsticks, disgusted at how behind-the- times the ethnopolitics seemed. Also, I noticed that Asian Americans my age who were not raised on the West Coast seemed to be stuck in a stage of identity crisis that I passed in elementary school.

Ok, take a breath. Grad school was a hard time for me, and yes, I was terribly judgmental. I had not been prepared for the cultural differences within the US, and I especially wasn’t expecting my place in society to change. I saw plenty of brown faces in the Midwest, but I feel like the white people treated me different, like I always needed directions.

Now I have moved back to the Seattle, and I’m here to stay. The vast majority of the White people I’m acquainted with here in Seattle are transplants from other parts of the country. So now I give the directions.
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Grace L

omg, I’m from Spfld, MA! Do we know each other?! lol, but seriously, coming from Spfld and moving to Los Angeles 7 years ago was definitely a shock to me as well. Definitely agree with you about discovering Asians/Asian Americans in normal professions. The Asian Am world to me was strictly limited to restaurants and casinos back then. Thanksgiving feast? Let’s go to Foxwoods.

Awkwardly, I haven’t been able to connect as well with other Asian Americans when I moved out here (LA). On instinct, my ears perked up whenever I hear Chinese (Canto and Putonghua) being spoken and Asians would comment how good my Chinese is for an ABC.

@Akrypti: I loved that your Californian co-workers stood up for you. I’ve come up with a couple of “Only in California”-isms too – but more towards Asians and their cars, er, or not even including Asians.
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Jennifer

I was born and raised in the south(Georgia,to be more accurate),so I was used to racist comments and jokes and all that stuff.But then I moved to Southern Cali.I made friends with this one Caucasian guy from Alabama and one day he cracked up this semi-racist joke on Asians.I was used to those,so I didn’t get offended and just laughed it off.But then the non-Asian Californian friends of mine got offended some sort of,and they literally started yelling at his face.”What the hell is wrong with you!Why are you so close-minded and racist?”And well,I was shocked.I’m settling here in California.I love it here.

And yeah,I met this 60-year-old Japanese American person who spoke English flawlessly with no accent.That completely shocked me too.I was staring at him like “whoa” for like 10 minutes.
Paikiuu

My experience is the inverse of Akrypti’s, and similar to John Patrick’s. I grew up in the bay area, and went to college in upstate New York. Just as California left Akrypti pleasantly surprised, New York and other parts of the northeast left me unpleasantly surprised.

I found out about all the anti-Asian insults that are used in the northeast, but which I had never heard on the west coast. The first time that non-Asian northeasterners tried to insult me with these jokes, I had no idea what they were talking about, but by the second, third, and fourth times, I wondered, “Where am I, the 1970s?” Back to California — I hope never to take a job in the northeast until this type of thing changes.

I also wonder: if anti-Asian behavior by non-Asian northeasterners makes other west coast Asians reluctant to work in the northeast, how much in economic productivity do northeastern states lose each year due to this behavior by their inhabitants?
http://charlessfo.livejournal.com/ Charles

@akripti

Come to think of it, I remember an incident from 20 years ago where I was taking a class at my company where there was 1 Asian student. The (traveling) instructor make a comment that something (disorganized) was “like a Chinese fire drill”. The most conservative white guy in the class spoke up and said “Actually, Chinese do very good fire drills.”

Just as an interesting tidbit, the only time in my life I have ever seen the ritual commonly known in the U.S. as a “Chinese fire drill” was by a group of Asian teenagers in SF Chinatown on Broadway about 10-20 years ago. They seemed to think it was pretty funny.
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