Immigration and Mixed Race

The stories of Asian women immigrating to the United States were particularly interesting because it is something that every Asian American’s family has experienced. In “A Bowlful of Tears,” Lee Puey You tells her story of immigrating to the United States to Judy Yung, the author, and Mark Lai. Although Yung and Lai did not uncover You’s entire experience the first time, eventually most of her story was pieced together. She had a very difficult experience at Angel Island and with Woo Tong, the man she was promised to. This story made me realize that many people do not know their own family history. If this information is not preserved, it will be even more difficult to retrieve it later. Similar to this idea, we discussed an article that addresses the different forms of collecting information. In “Filipina American Journal Writing: Recovering Women’s History,” the idea of journal writing is explored as a way of collecting first and second generation Filipino women’s experiences. Connecting this to Asian American immigration, some first and second generation immigrants have already passed or are not able to share their stories. This only emphasizes the point that we need to preserve the information now in order to understand the experiences of these Asian American women. I feel like many later generations of Asian Americans do not appreciate the experiences of their ancestors and collecting information is more vital than ever. I never knew how my great grandparents entered the United States until I took this class and realized the importance. I found out that my great grandmother stayed one night at Angel Island before she entered the United States as the wife of her brother’s roommate. When I asked further questions regarding my ancestor’s immigration, my grandparents lacked some details. This means that knowledge has already been lost concerning Asian American immigration and journal writing could have prevented this.

On a different note, the discrimination addressed in the articles “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian” and “Imagined Community: Sisterhood and Resistance among Korean Military Brides in America, 1950-1996” targets mixed race couples and children. This is particularly interesting because neither Asian American nor White communities accepted these Eurasian children or Korean military brides. This left these groups of people without a sense of belonging or identity. I think this continues to be an important concept today because there are more and more mixed race children and couples. Although the idea has become more accepted, there is still the struggle to balance the different cultures and to incorporate both into one’s identity. Also, many groups and institutions, such as the SAT, do not take into consideration mixed race. When asked to mark one’s identity, these groups do not let the individual mark more than one option. Although this is a small hindrance, it forces individuals to choose one identity over another. It is important to let people form their own identity even if that means choosing to incorporate multiple ethnicities. Continuing with this topic, last year I received a survey from a senior inquiring about mixed race couples and feelings of discrimination from the community for her thesis. Although I have never personally felt discriminated against for being in a mixed race relationship, it is still an issue in our society. Korean military brides were discriminated against because of their assumed background working in camptowns and as prostitutes. Perhaps this is partially why the discrimination against mixed race couples continues.