Rock on, Lil' Alpha Asian!
Three year old Howard Wong
With all of these Asian kids popping up on YouTube with kick ass music and dance talents, I can't help but think that some of these parents are living their dreams of being a rock star through their kids. Very different parenting from the stereotypical Asian parenting that I grew up with that pushed us towards math and science, playing the piano or violin and becoming doctors or engineers.
My daughter is now one month old. My wife and I have talked about not raising our child to be an Asian Robot. My wife has always had an adverse reaction to nerds, and she doesn't want our daughter to be one. She wants our child to be well-rounded: smart, beautiful, stylish, confident, talented and kind to others (who deserve it).
Of course, I feel this way too, but I can't help but think that we might overreact to the Asian Robot Syndrome and create an underachieving wild child. Part of me is thinking, "Are we going to set the bar too low for our kid?"
This is just me talking out my thoughts and concerns, of course. Bottom line is I'm going to raise my daughter as best I can with my wife.
Comments
"hmm,....yes? you looking at me?"
lol.
As an aside, does the baby have the mothers eye lids or the fathers?
Ive seen some babies with double folds, but their parents have single folds, whereas othertimes one offspring has single eyelids while the other offsprings have double.....its quite intersting how that works out sometimes.
"hmm,....yes? you looking at me?"
well, she was born in the year tiger.
"Grrr!!"
you know, both my wife and I have double folds, so I don't know how our little girl got the monolid thing going. We're both pointing the blame on the other's family tree.
It's funny with all my talk about Asian pride, there are certain stereotypical "Asian" traits that I'd rather not have and not for my daughter either.
But at the same time the very act of rebelling against a stereotype can cause issues of self-hate. So even if my daughter was stuck with the monolid thing for the rest of her life, I wouldn't want her to develop a complex about it and get eyelid surgery.
With regards to discrimination against Asians in higher education, I totally agree with you, B. It really is a legal form of discrimination. It's such a hot button topic, because a lot of people try to deflect the issue by relating it to affirmative action and pitting people of color against each other.
I went to Lowell High School in SF, and they had a system in place where all applicants were given a score 0 to 70. The score was based on a combination of grades and test scores. The qualifying score (which meant you were accepted into Lowell) was different for each ethnicity and each sex.
So if you were a Chinese or Vietnamese girl, then you need a score of 69 to get in. Chinese males would need a 68 to get in.
Other applicants would have qualifying scores of anywhere from 58 to 67.
I don't know how the system works now, but racism was at work, even at the high school level. People might use buzzwords to veil the issue, but if it speaks of discrimination, if it looks like discrimination and if operates like discrimination, then it is discrimination.
I was reading Andre Agassi's book and it was very revealing. The first few pages in, he comes right out and says he hates tennis. Always has, ever since his father pushed him to do this as a little kid. There's a guy with daddy issues but it seems obvious that Agassi is much happier using the fruits of his labor (which he hated and endured for so long) to run a charter school and to help kids get a good education.
Like Joseph Campbell said, "Follow your bliss."
I think monolids are cool. For men, they make them look strong and dominant, while for women it makes them look mysterious and strong too. Overall monolids often make the face look more Alpha, especially if the face shape is long/rectangular or oval.
Theres something inherently cute about a baby having them though...
I'm sure a lot of talented people (athletes, musicians) had parents who pushed them into the field whether or not the kid wanted to be in it. They got a head start, but man, I'm sure they developed some daddy/mommy issues like you said Mojo.
I think monolids are cool. For men, they make them look strong and dominant, while for women it makes them look mysterious and strong too.
You're right, people who can pull off the monolid thing look pretty cool, both the men and women. Sung Kang and Tamlyn Tomita come to mind. But if your other facial features are ugly, then boy that monolid thing doesn't help!
I heard Lowell is the pressure cooker of high schools.
Yep it was, and I'm sure it still is. Sometimes Lowell is referred to as a college preparatory high school.
The school was a bit too much for me. I went from a straight A student to a B student.
But then of course there were other things like being a rebellious teenager and finding myself. Those things might of contributed to me slacking a bit.
I actually didn't find Lowell to be that great of an education. General ed stuff was kind of boring, and some subjects were real tough for me, such as math and chemistry. It wasn't until I went to UC Davis that I began studying stuff that actually interested me.
I will say though that the high school's reputation does make people think differently of you. You're kind of given a little more leeway and credit, because people think you're some brainiac (which I'm not!). It's sort of similar to having graduated from an Ivy League and the name opens more doors for you than the actual education itself.