Living as Asians in America

By El-Lim Kang

On March 25, 2022, "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" was released in theaters. I went with my friends to watch the movie, unknowing that it would blow my mind with how spectacular, wild, original, and yet familiar the whole plot was. Throughout the film, I was laughing, crying, and relating to the experiences that the characters were going through.

During the process of internalizing what it means to live in America, I was confronted with the stark reality of racial division and an observable, intense political climate, even within the context of the church. When one takes a closer look, it is clear that the Asian American population does not receive the same level of support from the church. Hence, "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is a film that represents an Asian American's diasporic experience of nihilism, and how it affects one's identity and purpose, and should therefore lead Western American Christians towards authenticity, contextualization, and empathy. The complexity of being placed in a third culture, combining both the past generations’ ethnic and cultural background with the current American lifestyle, creates a paradox of new identity that one becomes a citizen of everywhere and nowhere.

Immigration

There are diverse groups of Asian ethnicities that exist here in America today, and the reasons they came vary as well. Some had no choice but to seek refuge after a devastating war, some came with the Immigration Act of 1965, which brought a new wave of Asians and Latinos to America with the purpose of reuniting immigrant families and attracting skilled labor workers, and many were then born in America becoming the second generation.

The first Japanese initially immigrated to America in 1843 and more following 1853 when Commodore Matthew Perry from the American Navy forced Japan to open up for trading, leading to quick urbanization that left agriculture workers jobless which then the opportunity to come to America became irresistible. The most popular destination included Hawaii and the Pacific coast. Then the Chinese population arrived in America in 1851 working in various hard works including a majority of them mining for the California Gold Rush and building railroads in the west. As the working Chinese population grew and even few became successful, so did the social tension of racism and discrimination along the way which the US government ordered the Chinese Exclusion Act limiting future immigration of Chinese workers until 1943. 

Since the Chinese workers were banned, Korean workers were recruited to work in Hawaii with pineapple and sugar plantations in 1903 mostly trying to escape famines and the aggressive political climate of Korea. Then with war, the second wave of immigrants came to America. Filipino immigration starts with the two countries’ long history of US colonization. Primarily, they came to America to work in agriculture in 1899 which later limited only 50 of them to coming per year. But then during WWII, opportunities reopened with American soldiers returning with their Filipino wives and some who came to study and train in the healthcare field. Similarly, Indians arrived early 19th century working in agriculture. However, they too were targeted to be limited and eventually banned to immigrate. Then in 1965, like every other non-European they were given the opportunity to immigrate by having high skills and education.  For the Hmong, they were helping the American CIA in the “secret war” during the Vietnam War in Laos, which after the communist victory, were forced to flee legally to the United States majority living in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. 

There are countless testimonies, from individuals to the collective history of oppression against Asian Americans, from the WWII segregation of Japanese immigrants after Pearl Harbor to the 9/11 South Asian discrimination and the most recent Covid-19 Asian hate crime increase. 

According to Luthar, a study shows that Asian American students in high school suffer discrimination that leads them to suffer with their mental health. The lack of Asian American history in the school curriculum may also lead to inaccurate imaginations of the Asian-American experience and the long history that they have lived in America is ignored. Then more instances of Asian hate crime would rise because their voices are unheard. While elementary students learn about the Pearl Harbor attacks, the curriculum does not teach about the incarceration of Japanese Americans. It is painful to talk about the 9/11 instances for every single American, but no one talks about the discrimination that many South Asian Americans had to face even while they were hurt. Many elders of Asian American community were attacked during the rise of Covid 19 worldwide pandemic and multiple shooting incidents that happened in the Atlanta-area Spa still remain to be painful to many in the community.  Not only that but even the iconic Chinatown aesthetic stems from the perception and re-imagination of the stereotyped and racialized, depiction of the exotic East to pull more tourists into this unrealistic new identity that was labeled by the Western mind.  

Most of the time, first-generation immigrants are looked down upon with the language barrier, cultural misunderstanding, and other behaviors that are not typical of western individualistic views. Needless to say, Asian American people lack mental health services because of these stereotypes, they have more severe symptoms when they are being treated but have less improvement during psychotherapy compared with the white population. Most of them are in distress and it’s solely the fact that the culture that cultivated them had them shamed if they had any issues.

In the book “Learning Our Names” they also had similar yet different responses to being an Asian in America. Starting with having to change my name to an American name that is "easier" to pronounce, I see a lot of my Korean friends who go by both their Korean and American names. However, it rips away the original name that tells a story of where and from whom we have come. It is also important to discuss how the label "Asian American" can be a very generalized one-size-fits-all when there are so many ethnicities to choose from, including those from South, Southeast, East Asia, and Pacific Islanders. This generalization causes cultural essentialism, which then limits and shames the individuals for not checking all of the boxes that indicate they are culturally authentic.

Cultural essentialism is the reduction of culture to a single dimension of unchanging characteristics, or, to put it another way, stereotypes. For example, growing up I was called “ching chang chong '' with people squinting their eyes with their hands assuming that I was Chinese. It happened many times over the years until k-pop became popularized and the same people who were making ignorant comments began to idolize Koreans and desired to be one of us. Some other stereotypes include Asians being bad drivers and Asian women being sexualized because the body is considered exotic and desirable. A great example of this is an influencer named Oli London who went to Korea to teach English. After having multiple plastic surgeries, they went as far as to call themself Korean, saying they are transracial and that their pronouns are kor/ean. With his claims, the Korean community was hurt, and this one person caused a lot of trouble and pain in the community. If this is the generalization that eastern Asians have, it creates a harmful cycle of racialization.

According to Chan, the model minority concept is a western white supremacy system narrative of being a “good minority” by working hard and not speaking up. In a 2022 survey from STAATUS, adjectives that described Asian Americans were the following: kind/nice/ thoughtful/friendly/amicable (39%), intelligent/smart (36%), and hard working (23%). These terms had not changed as much from the 2021 survey and continue to add to the model minority myth.  Even when unfair situations happen, there are only a few voices that would rebuke the system. Among minorities, Asians are stereotyped as being the perfect standard in western eyes, but this is not the reality for the majority of Asian Americans and it limits the diverse experiences into a misleading singular dimensional narrative.

As of May 2021, there is more than 22 million Asian heritage that makes up the population of America. Since the whole Asian population is so diverse, it is hard to put every ethnic group in the same category. Hence, the income that Asian Americans earn is vastly different to say that everyone is wealthy and educated. Continuing, they are underrepresented coming in at only 6% filling the positions in leadership positions such as executive, senior officer, and manager roles but specifically in political office had been at the lowest compared to other racial groups. The exclusion was part of the Asian immigrants from the beginning when they were ineligible for citizenship while all Europeans were allowed to process naturalization. So then this whole idea of model minority myth is misleading because it creates anti-Asian racism. This feeds a performance-oriented mindset saying that we are accepted to this land only if we are useful.

Focusing on the past movies or series that include Asians in the past or even currently had distorted and misrepresented and underrepresented Asians as being weak, side characters, women were portrayed being submissive and exotic, and were given roles that did not do any justice to what it means to be Asians in America. Rather some were completely ripping off the identity and characters were whitewashed giving the ultimate standardized western characteristics. 

Old films such as The Good Earth, Dragon Seed, and Cloud Atlas all had non-Asian actors paint their faces yellow. In Sixteen Candles, the Asian character Dong was made fun of by the built-in stereotypes that painted Asian men as sexually unappealing and in The Conquerer, Ghengis Khan who is supposed to be a Mongol chief was played by a white actor.

Even Gilmore Girls whom a lot of us grew up with characterizes Mrs. Kim as a stereotyped strict tiger mom. Going further, although Shang Chi is the first Asian hero in a Marvel film with an amazing plot line, the character is very much whitewashed to fit the narrative of a western superhero. Black Panther, which was supposed to offer diversity, has neglected the minoritized character, Sofia who is a Korean woman working at a dish market in Busan. Her Korean accent was embarrassing to hear because it was nothing like Korean despite the fact that this was one of the key scene shot in Korea. These films are creating one-dimensional characters that do not show how diverse and complex the diasporic experience of Asian Americans are. To understand the depth of the Asian American experience, we must look further into their history.

According to Deguchi, while the ideas of emptiness and nothingness have their origins deeply rooted in the history of East Asia, their origins may be traced back to two distinct regions. Emptiness comes from Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism, and nothingness comes from the Chinese translation of emptiness that the philosopher Nishitani adopted. Both terms are derived from the same concept. These words have a dual meaning, one of which is the metaphorical use of the word "sky," which has a long tradition in Chinese literature. The mental image of the sky brings about a happy emotion, a sense of being comfortable in a warm open field, and a release from the burden of experiencing misery. The circle serves as an additional symbol of emptiness that has a direct bearing on the movie. In the Zen tradition, a circle is typically shown through Chinese ink painting or calligraphy as a means of expressing this idea.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is such an original sci-fi multiverse genre that brings incredible authenticity and meaning to the most absurd ideas, unlike any other Hollywood film. One of the directors Kwan created a story from his Chinese American family background with the question of ‘what if” put on a middle-aged immigrant woman full of lifelong regrets become a hero in the multiverse chaos that was about to destroy everything.

In the film, our main character Evelyn continuously experiences disappointment in multiple areas of her life, including being consistently stressed with the family’s laundromat, her father Hong, who had been disapproving of the choices she made in her life, her husband Waymond, who pesters for divorce, and her daughter Joy, who she cannot fully understand the needs. This causes her to develop a nihilistic view that many Asian Americans face feeling hopeless as well. This connection makes the movie more accurate in the historical aspect of approaching the symbolism, the everything bagel, and the googly eye, both of which have the shape of a circle, are used to symbolize emptiness or the void they feel constantly.

Later, Jobu Tupaki, the alternate ego of Joy, was in the white room with her mother Evelyn, standing in front of the giant black everything bagel that spins like a black hole. Jobu Tupaki had put all the pain into putting an end to the multiverse with the bagel. Evelyn began to experience hopelessness with her reality and almost fell into the void. Throughout the movie, Evelyn experiences different versions of herself in the alternate universes. Among those Evelyns was a glamorous movie star celebrity that she continuously want to connect back to and live that life which then puts her to question the purpose of her life since she is living far from what she ever wanted to.  

Evelyn is a very relatable character who is an immigrant parent trying to live her life in America but the reality had her live the opposite and put family first. The first generation immigrants often put expectations on their children to fulfill their lives. Many of the second generation children would agree that our parents paved the way to come all the way to America. So they hope for better opportunities of having job security and becoming rich to live a comfortable life.

Expanding on the character, Evelyn is very close-minded to the queer identity of Joy. The directors made this specific choice as a way to nuance the struggle that their parents have in trying to be accepting yet struggling to communicate clearly on their career path as filmmakers.

Other films such as Crazy Rich Asians portray the main Asian American character Rachel Chu living with a single mom and unglamorous life compared to her wealthy boyfriend Nick Young. Some other films that do represent the Asian American experience include Turning Red, which also has similar parents, a strict mother, and an uninvolved father. Raya and the Last Dragon represents the traditional Southeast Asian culture with such great animation. Also recently added, Ms. Marvel had been an attempt at a first Muslim superhero that expands on South Asian culture. Some award-winning films like Parasite and Minari gained the world's attention to Korean films showing culture's shocking values and originality.

Media portrayal of Asian men had been ridiculed like Dong in Sixteen Candles, misrepresented as a hyper-desexualized, nerdy man in Love Hard, or given foreign exotic roles like Bruce Lee or Jacky Chan that only showcase the performance of their martial art.

However, Waymond’s character in the film is the typical husband who is comedic, naive, and weak that is essentially stereotyped Asian Man that has few responsibilities while Everlyn critiques him. However, this character expands the scope of what male masculinity is. He is not the typical leading male hero but shows love and respect and encourages Everlyn to fight with kindness. Waymond’s characteristics are usually looked down upon as being weak and incapable which is shown through many past films in the past but through Everything Everywhere All at Once, Asian Man's representation of masculinity has been dignified and embraced. When we look at the character of Jesus, He had always been represented as weak by the culture around Him because He did not dominate the world, but showed compassion to the weak, which ultimately His own people put him on the cross.

Moving Forward

As a church, we must practice diverse inclusivity and give thoughtful consideration to the love that Jesus commanded believers to have for those on the margins of society. The diasporic experience of Asian Americans, which has an impact on both identity and purpose and contributes to the complexities of life in the United States, was examined in greater detail through the film, Everything Everywhere All at Once. Christians in Western America should be guided to discover and comprehend Asian Americans for who they are in an authentic manner. This can be accomplished by honoring the narratives of Asian Americans and contextualizing their experiences, which will ultimately result in actions reflecting empathy for Asian Americans. So then moving forward, I believe that the response for the western churches is these 3 keywords: authenticity, contextualization, and empathy.

Authenticity Contextualization Empathy

First, the Western church should view the Asian American population with an understanding of their nihilistic worldview and the complexity of their diverse racial identity and create space for authenticity in hearing their stories and avoiding generalization. Second, the Western church needs to contextualize the diversity with the Asian ethnicity and different backgrounds they have come to the current lifestyle. This idea should be carried out now to the whole community to contextualize with each specific ethnic group. Again, we cannot put them all in the same category because they have their story that is unique and different from each other. Lastly, The Western church should demonstrate empathy towards Asian Americans because they have been marginalized by discrimination and racism. You should listen to and honor the stories of Asian Americans and demonstrate love as Christ commanded. Although we are all distinct from each other we are one in Christ. 1 Cor 1:10 says I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

It is important that the church creates space for an authentic relationship with Asian Americans because of the deep history we have faced towards nihilism and the constant need to be the model minority. Coming in with a clean slate that had erased all of the previous stereotypes that you heard or seen which then will allow one to build a true relationship and accept them for who they are and therefore creating a beautiful narrative of accepting the vulnerabilities that they have bottled in for such a long time. Since we are all parts of the same church body where Christ is in the center, the first step toward authenticity is to show love in how we respond to one another. 

In consonance with the verse found in James 1:19, we must be quick to listen and slow to speak whenever the community shares the suffering that they are going through. Enter with the attitude that you are willing to learn about our culture, discourage any comments that were devaluing the Asian American community, support the businesses owned by Asian Americans, learn the names of our ethnic groups, and join us in our meal to get to know us better and if you are visiting a local Asian church, group, or event, be yourself while respecting and honoring their culture even if it is something you are not used to. Your actions, even so small, may add up to a significant impact in the long run.

Watch the interview video I created with my fellow Asian American Friends