Asian-American Identities
I’ve usually shown crazy and funny videos from YouTube on Film Mondays on Fusion View. This week’s video is more thought-provoking and serious, taking a look at Asian-American identities through a series of interviews with students with roots in the Indian subcontinent all the way eastwards to Japan. It’s just over ten minutes long and you’ll need to have sound to listen to what the different voices have to say.
In the US, the identity “Asian” generally refers to Orientals whereas in the UK, the term is used to denote people from the Indian subcontinent ie Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc are all lumped together. The Asians east of there are Orientals though there really aren’t enough of us to merit a catch-all identity so we’re generally allowed to be Chinese, Japanese or Korean.
One of the questions asked in the film is “What is your identity?”. Hmmm, now how would I answer that? I’d say: I’m a Malaysian-born British-Chinese ie my family are ethnic Chinese who migrated to Malaya (as it then was but is now Malaysia, following independence) and I am now British, having migrated from Malaysia to the UK. A bit of a mouthful. The best answer is the film is the guy who says that he identifies as the sexiest man alive. Simple!
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Mon, May 14th, 2007 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
- 3 responses
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May 14th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
I have come across the term South Asians to mean people from the Indian Sub-Continent.
I’m intrigued by the term British Chinese as the counterpart in US would have been termed as a Chinese American. Perhaps the practice in Malaysia is also a legacy from the British rule, i.e., Malaysian Chinese, rathern than Chinese Malaysian. Wonder whether the different emphases carry any subtle connotation.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
NONE at all IMO, Lee.
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Interesting point re semantics, Say Lee. In the US usage, the emphasis seems to be on being “American” (noun) with “Chinese” denoting a sub category (adjective). This fits in with the strong cohesive effect of being “proud to be American” etc - no matter what race you are, you are American first and foremost.
In the other usages you mention, is the emphasis on being the racial type ie Chinese (noun) with the descriptive element being the nationality ie British or Malaysian? And if so, that tends to link one as Chinese to other Chinese people who hold other passports.
This is a very interesting issue of how semantics reflect - or perhaps even shape? - identity. Thanks for raising it.