The perpetual foreigners.
That was the phrase used by students at the Greenfield Intercultural Center on Tuesday to describe the social status of third- and fourth-generation Asian Americans.
The discussion, titled "Beyond2," was meant to increase awareness of the cultural divide between earlier and later generation Asian Americans, according to the event's organizer, College and Engineering senior Dana Nakano.
While Asian immigrants and their children tend to be familiar with their native cultures and languages, later generations of Asians tend to become naturally more assimilated into the American lifestyle.
These tendencies, said students, lead to a social division within the Asian-American community.
"My friends would be like, 'It's disgraceful that you don't speak Japanese,'" said College and Wharton senior David Chang, a fourth-generation student of Chinese and Japanese descent. "A lot of people saw me as whitewashed."
Conversation was at once funny, personal and genuine. Some students described a lost feeling of not belonging to a clearly defined social group.
"I don't fit in with the super-Asian crowd," said College sophomore Wesley Nakamura, a fourth-generation Japanese American. "I don't want to be white, and I don't want to be super-Asian, either."
Students mulled over the "twinkie" and "banana" labels that often stigmatize later generation Asian Americans accused of over-assimilation, or "not being Asian enough."
"People talk about this Asian-ness that you're supposed to embody or not embody," Nakano said. "If you don't have it, then you're not really part of the community.... I think that's wrong."
College senior Jane Choi agreed.
"I have a hard time grasping what Asian-American culture actually is," she said.
Choi said she considers herself part of the "1.5 generation" of Koreans who are born abroad but raised in the United States. She described the experience of visiting Korea as "a culture shock," noting that her American accent made it hard to fit into Korean society.
At the same time, students said that they did not fit into white America either. Several described the typical stereotypes that plague Asian Americans.
"In my lifetime," Nakamura said, "I feel like I'll always walk down the street and people will notice I'm Asian."
"Asian Americans tend to be lumped together as a single mass," Nakano wrote in an e-mail. "Little attention is paid to diversity within the community."
Nakano expressed hope that continued dialogue would raise awareness at the University of the real ethnic and generational diversity that exists within the Asian-American community.
