In a May 4th article, Erin Chan Ding from the Detroit Free Press discusses second-generation Asian American life in Detroit, a city historically known for its boom in community activism and cultural identity after the 1982 racially-motivated murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin.
Asian Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic minority group in Michigan, with the population in Metro Detroit increasing from 102,365 to 141,550 in six years. Ding speaks with several Asian Americans who grew up in Michigan and are now in their 20s and 30s. They speak about navigating two cultures, fighting stereotypes, and assimilating in an area that today is less than 4% Asian.
I was raised in Ohio, which has an Asian population similar in size to that of Michigan. It’s a vastly different experience I would say than growing up in the large Asian enclaves in New York and California. I think Ding and her interviewees do a great job of describing the nuances of growing up Asian American in Middle America:
“Growing up Asian American in metro Detroit is far removed from places like San Francisco, where one out of every three people is Asian, or like New York, where Asians can buy food in burgeoning Indian neighborhoods in Queens. Or even like Chicago, whose thriving old and new Chinatowns serve as an anchor to urban and suburban Asian Americans.Asian Americans in metro Detroit often were the only Asians in their grade, if not the entire school. The result was a kind of de facto integration for Asian Americans. ‘As a kid, you just wanted to fit in," [24-year-old Stephanie] Chang said. "All my friends were white, except on Saturdays.’ That was the day Chang's mother made her go to Chinese school.”
Let us not forget our fellow Asian Americans in the Midwest and South this Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!
Posted by Sylvie at May 6, 2008 11:42 AM
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