Asian American culture is probably destined to be a sort of transitory, ephemeral thing. The classic second generation experience — 'My parents really drove me hard and kids made fun of my weird lunch, until I went to college and met other people with the same background' — almost never lasts beyond the second generation. Assimilation happens.
I finally came to embrace movies about the Old West because, I gradually realized, they define the grand American mythos, whether we like it or not. We have inherited these stories, and need to make sense of them—because they tell us things about ourselves that we won't learn any other way.
These mothers face a double bind. They hope to raise children unburdened by the past, comfortable in their new homeland, enjoying opportunities they never had themselves. If they succeed – as with many immigrant parents around the world – their prize is a child who is unintelligible to them.
For more than 50 years, France's brown motorway signs have done far more than point the way: they've sold the country's history, culture and identity in seconds.
In the past, showing that you were a good American — waving the flag, joining the army, speaking perfect English, and so on — was good enough to reassure most conservatives that you weren't an invader bent on overthrowing America's culture and replacing it with something alien. Nowadays, that's not enough.
5mo ago
Underscored — save the words that stop you in your tracks.
