What on earth is this weird notion in pop culture lately that Asian-Indians and Chinese-Asians, i.e., Eastern people, are a bunch of mellow, Zen lifeless lost spirits?
For some reason, a lot of people think there is a vast [[[[canyon,]]] cavernous valley of difference between Eastern philosophy and Western philosophy. This is regarding western ideals [[[[aspirations]]] of personal accomplishment. Career success and the Type-A-personality people are characterized by competition, cutthroat ruthlessness.
Whereas they seem to think that there are eastern ideals of being peaceful, noncompetitive, nonn[[[non ofsmgtn that means ruthless, cuttrhoat,aggressive ]]]] nonchalant always.....
And that we're all a bunch of hippies with the lazy, drawling sitar music, who don’t care about success or about education. This is supremely insulting. More importantly, it is all fictitious.
Or another incarnation of this, Asians zennn like the surfers in Polynesia-- kick back, relax, have a tropical drink, lazily listen to ukulele music, fall asleep under the warm sun in a gently caressing breeze, with palm trees and coconut trees keeping you company. Wearing sarongs skirts, sandals, laze around on the beach.
However, something very important was lost in translation.
You are sorely mistaken if you think that this somehow means we Asians do not prioritize academic and career accomplishment. Asian parents insist upon stellar academic performance. They demand this from their kids.
•••(one abt this insulting,) Asians are very studious and goal-driven. They are always the smartest kids in the whole class. This was the defining characteristic of the vast majority of Asian kids I knew growing up, including myself.
Smt abt 'they value simplicity, nn a certain peaceful outlook,____]]
“They do not look at accomplishments as defining characteristics of a person;” “They are not so type-A personality goal-driven;” “They are not career-driven;” “They do not define themselves by how they earn their livelihoods.” The opinion writer evidently thought this jumble of nimrod philosobabble was a compliment.
And then some people probably sojourned on a spiritual quest to Tibet, or a backpacking expedition through the Himalayas, etc. I see a lot of the kids that are undeclared majors like to take a "break" from college to go find themselves. The middle-class white kids like to go and "find themselves." Trek, soul-searching expedition, sojourn through the universe, thru truth. Embark on this journey in hopes of better being able to understand oneself, etc.
As an Asian I am combating the silly "Asians coasting through life" notions. It is supremely insulting to me as an Asian for these people to declare unabashedly that we are_____
_fluid, [[[[with not as many hard and fast rules, what I'm trying to say is that there people have the distinct impression that Asians are ]]]
They were saying that Asians are more fluid in their [[[regards]] towards life. That Asians do not believe in absolutes black and white; they are more fluid in their approach; they are more creative in the way that they respond to social cues (or something like that); they are far more flexible in what they expect out of life; they are more easy-going (or) they can adjust themselves more readily because of their more fluid interpersonal dynamic.....
They say crap like, “oh Asians don't see things in such black and white terms;” “their take on life is not so cut and dry;” “their happiness is not tied to material gain...”
Uh, ok. Maybe we are not tied to material gain, as in cold hard money and such. But we dooo greatly value accomplishment and achievement.
I think most people are aware of this. Even one of my favorite young adult book authors, Anne M. Martin, was keenly aware of this fact. She probably thought it would be offensive to write her characters according to stereotype. So she responded by making one of her main characters the diametric opposite of the nerdy Asian that is ubiquitous across America. "Claudia Kishi" of <The Baby-Sitters Club> was a really great kid who was excellent at her job as a baby-sitter. She was reasonably smart, and she was a great friend. But she could not spell to save her life, she was kind of a crappy student in school, she was an artist and painter rather than someone with intellectual pursuits, and she dressed really fun and wacky. I guess this is what is known as "overcompensation."
"""Asians are not so concerned with individual accomplishments...."""""
they are more [[[____]]] ((to t effrect that they share the spoils of sccess with everybofdy.,,,they are not worried abotu fruits of labor,,,or abt who gets what__)))
--
some people have the idea that Asians just coast through life, never staking their claim on anything.
Ah, excuse me? You seriously think that the work of defining goals, achievements, and having clearly delineated plans for life-- _have all been cast aside by apathetic, indifferent *Asians??*
This is what I found hugely insulting. They are essentially saying that we Asians just coast through life being lazy, having no expectations for ourselves or for each other. That we supposedly cannot be bothered with taking anything seriously. That we do not exert any effort to achieve goals, and worse, that we do not set any goals for ourselves at all.
emphasis
-""""that aisans espc indians are more like [[wind, breeze,-""
-or that we like more creative, elusive, not definite absolute pursuits, more fluid, more ever-changing or somthign
Or that we are more spiritual and therefore somehow we do not value worldly secular pursuits. By the way, what makes you think that just because we are very spiritual, that this automatically negates the prioritizing of academic and career development?
Work hard, pray hard. That’s our motto.
I think I know where this Sahara Desert of misunderstanding regarding Eastern philosophy came from. The 1990s were great with the chakras and the scented candles and the herbal medicine. Homeopathic medicine became really popular. Ginseng, ginkgo biloba, aromatherapy. Yoga and tai chi became big back then. Spirituality was huge, and it spurred me onto an introspective, spiritual quest of my own.
As well as all of those spiritually-inspired musical offerings. The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. Enya, Enigma, all those otherworldly, ethereal, beautiful music things. Even the makeup and shampoo commercials on TV were incredibly profound and mystical. All of which I personally absolutely loved. They favored more holistic, natural remedies for ailments. That feng shui furniture stuff was irritating, however; it sounded like made-up gibberish.
Unfortunately some people misinterpreted all of this. They took it too far to the extreme. They think this means that Asians are only focused on spiritual stuff -- to the detriment of everything else in life.
For some reason, a lot of people think there is a vast [[[[canyon,]]] cavernous valley of difference between Eastern philosophy and Western philosophy. This is regarding western ideals [[[[aspirations]]] of personal accomplishment. Career success and the Type-A-personality people are characterized by competition, cutthroat ruthlessness.
Whereas they seem to think that there are eastern ideals of being peaceful, noncompetitive, nonn[[[non ofsmgtn that means ruthless, cuttrhoat,aggressive ]]]] nonchalant always.....
And that we're all a bunch of hippies with the lazy, drawling sitar music, who don’t care about success or about education. This is supremely insulting. More importantly, it is all fictitious.
Or another incarnation of this, Asians zennn like the surfers in Polynesia-- kick back, relax, have a tropical drink, lazily listen to ukulele music, fall asleep under the warm sun in a gently caressing breeze, with palm trees and coconut trees keeping you company. Wearing sarongs skirts, sandals, laze around on the beach.
However, something very important was lost in translation.
You are sorely mistaken if you think that this somehow means we Asians do not prioritize academic and career accomplishment. Asian parents insist upon stellar academic performance. They demand this from their kids.
•••(one abt this insulting,) Asians are very studious and goal-driven. They are always the smartest kids in the whole class. This was the defining characteristic of the vast majority of Asian kids I knew growing up, including myself.
Smt abt 'they value simplicity, nn a certain peaceful outlook,____]]
“They do not look at accomplishments as defining characteristics of a person;” “They are not so type-A personality goal-driven;” “They are not career-driven;” “They do not define themselves by how they earn their livelihoods.” The opinion writer evidently thought this jumble of nimrod philosobabble was a compliment.
And then some people probably sojourned on a spiritual quest to Tibet, or a backpacking expedition through the Himalayas, etc. I see a lot of the kids that are undeclared majors like to take a "break" from college to go find themselves. The middle-class white kids like to go and "find themselves." Trek, soul-searching expedition, sojourn through the universe, thru truth. Embark on this journey in hopes of better being able to understand oneself, etc.
As an Asian I am combating the silly "Asians coasting through life" notions. It is supremely insulting to me as an Asian for these people to declare unabashedly that we are_____
_fluid, [[[[with not as many hard and fast rules, what I'm trying to say is that there people have the distinct impression that Asians are ]]]
They were saying that Asians are more fluid in their [[[regards]] towards life. That Asians do not believe in absolutes black and white; they are more fluid in their approach; they are more creative in the way that they respond to social cues (or something like that); they are far more flexible in what they expect out of life; they are more easy-going (or) they can adjust themselves more readily because of their more fluid interpersonal dynamic.....
They say crap like, “oh Asians don't see things in such black and white terms;” “their take on life is not so cut and dry;” “their happiness is not tied to material gain...”
Uh, ok. Maybe we are not tied to material gain, as in cold hard money and such. But we dooo greatly value accomplishment and achievement.
I think most people are aware of this. Even one of my favorite young adult book authors, Anne M. Martin, was keenly aware of this fact. She probably thought it would be offensive to write her characters according to stereotype. So she responded by making one of her main characters the diametric opposite of the nerdy Asian that is ubiquitous across America. "Claudia Kishi" of <The Baby-Sitters Club> was a really great kid who was excellent at her job as a baby-sitter. She was reasonably smart, and she was a great friend. But she could not spell to save her life, she was kind of a crappy student in school, she was an artist and painter rather than someone with intellectual pursuits, and she dressed really fun and wacky. I guess this is what is known as "overcompensation."
"""Asians are not so concerned with individual accomplishments...."""""
they are more [[[____]]] ((to t effrect that they share the spoils of sccess with everybofdy.,,,they are not worried abotu fruits of labor,,,or abt who gets what__)))
--
some people have the idea that Asians just coast through life, never staking their claim on anything.
Ah, excuse me? You seriously think that the work of defining goals, achievements, and having clearly delineated plans for life-- _have all been cast aside by apathetic, indifferent *Asians??*
This is what I found hugely insulting. They are essentially saying that we Asians just coast through life being lazy, having no expectations for ourselves or for each other. That we supposedly cannot be bothered with taking anything seriously. That we do not exert any effort to achieve goals, and worse, that we do not set any goals for ourselves at all.
emphasis
-""""that aisans espc indians are more like [[wind, breeze,-""
-or that we like more creative, elusive, not definite absolute pursuits, more fluid, more ever-changing or somthign
Or that we are more spiritual and therefore somehow we do not value worldly secular pursuits. By the way, what makes you think that just because we are very spiritual, that this automatically negates the prioritizing of academic and career development?
Work hard, pray hard. That’s our motto.
I think I know where this Sahara Desert of misunderstanding regarding Eastern philosophy came from. The 1990s were great with the chakras and the scented candles and the herbal medicine. Homeopathic medicine became really popular. Ginseng, ginkgo biloba, aromatherapy. Yoga and tai chi became big back then. Spirituality was huge, and it spurred me onto an introspective, spiritual quest of my own.
As well as all of those spiritually-inspired musical offerings. The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. Enya, Enigma, all those otherworldly, ethereal, beautiful music things. Even the makeup and shampoo commercials on TV were incredibly profound and mystical. All of which I personally absolutely loved. They favored more holistic, natural remedies for ailments. That feng shui furniture stuff was irritating, however; it sounded like made-up gibberish.
Unfortunately some people misinterpreted all of this. They took it too far to the extreme. They think this means that Asians are only focused on spiritual stuff -- to the detriment of everything else in life.
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