This LA Times article about the Korean-American communities rethinking of achievement strikes me in a funny sort of way…and not good funny. The article asserts that, in the shadow of a few very public f-ups by a handful of Korean-Americans, the community is rethinking whether the stress generated by the struggle for academic and financial achievement is worth the toll it takes on individual members of the community.
“Other parents told me I am not a good parent — many, many times,” said Chang, 51. His perceived sin: not putting his daughter through a regimen of cram school and tutoring aimed at gaining admission to a prestigious university. But in two decades of teaching, Chang said he has seen too many kids become withdrawn or depressed because they could not meet their parents’ lofty expectations.
I don’t have a problem with the premise of the question being posed in the article, per say, but I do find fault with the journalist’s use of Seung-Hui Cho (of Virginia Tech mass murder fame) as an emblem for the extreme negative consequences of cultural pressure.
Ummm… No. Seung-Hui Cho’s actions were NOT a consequence of Korean-American pressure. His actions were a result of mental illness. Untreated mental illness.
The journalist then goes on to cite Confucius as the reason Korean-American kids are passive and aren’t willing to speak up.
“If you are passive,” he continued, “getting A’s doesn’t mean anything.” What matters is articulating thoughts, taking the risk to communicate them, he said. “Silence is not a virtue.” Still, hardly any response — at least not in front of Chang. He had an explanation for their reticence.“It’s your Confucian upbringing,” he said.
Okay, while there may be some validity in this last statement it really seems rather ambitious to blame Confucius for all the ills of an entire sub-group of people. Basically, the journalist and the sociologist are asserting that Confucius has more impact on Korean-American kids then MTV, their friends, and American culture at large.
That’s like me blaming Confucius for my bum knee because he once said self-mastery was a virtue and all that marathon training was my way of achieving self-mastery. Hmmmm… actually that’s not half bad. That’s much more interesting than telling people I blew out my knee over-training.
What do you think? Does this article ring true for you or is it way to much of an overstatement?
(Photo credit: gluemoon)
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akrypti wrote:
Wow, this is a fantastic post. And it raises several interesting issues at once. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Confucius and I tend to side with Chang from the article because even though MTV, our friends, and American culture at large are certainly influences on children today, we *weren’t allowed to WATCH MTV, go out with our friends, or become deeply immersed in American culture.* The kids were imprisoned in their studies with most of their cultural exposure coming from their parents.
I think I went through a phase in college where I blamed Confucius for everything wrong with Asian people, lol. Certainly I’m over it. But I do empathize with where Chang is coming from.
Posted on 31-Oct-07 at 11:29 am | Permalink
:: jozjozjoz :: wrote:
Your bum is totally Confucius’ fault.
TOTALLY.
Posted on 31-Oct-07 at 1:44 pm | Permalink
Jesse! wrote:
I love how these articles conjure up the image of some oligarchy of Korean-Americans (or other people of color) sitting in a smoke-filled conference room, looking over charts and news articles about their community’s “performance” and then making wide-sweeping decrees on behalf of all ENTER-ETHNIC-GROUP-HERE.
Reminds me of Undercover Brother’s Brotherhood, which I happened to see 6 times on Comedy Central this past week…
And yet, you never see similar issues approached that way for white folk.
Posted on 01-Nov-07 at 10:29 am | Permalink
Xxxtine wrote:
Joz … Bo blames her bum on Confucius?
If that’s the case, I blame him for my small chest and poor eye sight.
Posted on 01-Nov-07 at 7:24 pm | Permalink
akrypti wrote:
LOL.
I feel like reprinting below snippets from a piece I wrote in the school paper when I was 19 years old:
“…If Asian males weren’t so insecure about their own masculinity, Asian women wouldn’t be as seemingly immune to the feminist movement as they are today. After all this time, Confucius and his tiny flaccid penis still shackles women from sexual liberation…”
“Whether she adheres to her parents’ teachings or not, a part of every Asian American female still latches on to these ideologies that have been so firmly embedded into her upbringing. If she blindly follows traditional values, she’ll pine for something more for the rest of her life and wonder deep down whether the straight path was really the right one. If she rejects tradition and paves her own way to sexual awakening, she will be weighted down by an anonymous guilt for “disappointing her parents.” It’s a no-win situation where the power is in Confucius’s favor.”
Posted on 01-Nov-07 at 9:59 pm | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
That’s what I get for not proofreading what I type.
But I think Bo should totally blame Confucius for both her bum knee AND her bum.
Not that there’s anything wrong with her bum… ack! (hole getting deeper…)
Posted on 01-Nov-07 at 11:26 pm | Permalink
akrypti wrote:
Jozzie,
I like *YOUR* bum! *wink!*
Posted on 02-Nov-07 at 12:41 am | Permalink
Bo wrote:
I make it a point to regularly shake my fists in the air while screaming “CONFUCIUS!!!”. Calms me down. Almost like meditating.
Posted on 02-Nov-07 at 5:23 am | Permalink
Xxxtine wrote:
JOZ! … bum and hole should never be used in the same sentence when you’re trying to clear a typo such as that!
Posted on 02-Nov-07 at 10:37 am | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
*innocent expression*
What?!
What did I say?!
Posted on 03-Nov-07 at 1:51 pm | Permalink