Snow day, snow day!
Mon, Feb. 17th, 2003 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterSo for the very first time I can remember in all four years here, Princeton is actually cancelling classes tomorrow! Usually there's an attitude something like, no matter what happens, classes will go on! We went to class through a hurricane freshman year when we weren't even allowed to shower for fear of using up the water supply, we went through class during the fake snow storm alarm sophomore year, and we started class on time junior year in the aftermath of 9/11. And now, 14 potential inches of snow defeats the university! Mwahahahahaha. I laugh in its face. Until it makes me go back to school, at least. I feel very strange. The last time I've ever been snowed in was sometime in elementary school, since living in Taiwan doesn't exactly expose you to snowstorm opportunities.
How Asian Are You?
Apparently I'm 74% Asian.
Now let me go rant on this quiz.
Um, excuse me, this quiz in no way measures how Asian you are. It does, however, measure how Asian-American you are. Wearing Abercrombie & Fitch or A|X? Using abbreviations like "azn" in your screennames? Use words like "like" and "omg" constantly in speech? Sorry, but that is in no way, shape, or form Asian. I'm betting that, just maybe, very few people in China, which does in fact contact a good deal of Asian people, along with Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, have actually done any of these things. I mean, I think that I probably am more Asian than most of the people taking this quiz, and as my mom can tell you, I'm really not all that Asian. But after living in Taiwan for 10 years or so, and after really not doing all that many of those things, I think it's fair to say that the quiz is very Asian American in origin.
Why does this annoy me?
Mostly because I think this entire Asian pride movement is extremely stupid from a personal point of view. Although give me a few seconds, and I can probably justify it quite well from a scholarly, unique "liminal" cultural type of way. But on to the personal rant. This entire Asian pride movement thing seems especially concentrated in the US, since obviously this is where Asians stick out the most. A pro-Asian or Asian identification group or movement smack in the middle of Asia would appear silly or highly nationalistic. Whereas here, the emphasis on "Azn pride" or whatever. And I think it's extremely silly because most of the people doing it are (from my point of view) high school kids looking for a way to differentiate themselves in a place where they obviously don't LOOK like they belong, even though it's the only place they've ever been. That, in a nutshell, is my problem with this. How many of these kids can actually say they're truly Asian? Rather, it seems like just another brand name people can buy into without any real knowledge, just some sort of label for people, and generally a label they don't understand at all. This entire Asian clique of snobby rich kids driving their little sports cars and buying brand name clothing has no idea what in the world they're talking about. A good deal of them go to Taiwan, where probably most of their parents are from, since my parents' generation in Taiwan was when the huge migration to America really started and turned Asians into a "model minority." But I'm betting that just like me, when I was a kid growing up in Colorado, they hated Chinese school and talking Chinese and eating Chinese food just as much as I did. And I'm also betting that they considered themselves completely American.
And this entire stance on Asian pride when the most exposure to Asia many of them have had are parents who have assimilated American culture or bonding with Asian-Americans just like them is extremely hypocritical, espeically when they use the term Asian specifically to denote people living mostly in California, born from parents who most likely went to grad school in the states and who live the type of image-driven consumerist lifestyles that they do. And I say again, the mainland Chinese people would most likely have nothing in common with these people. And it's very much as though their lack of knowledge about Asia in general is what brings this entire clique business up. After living in Taiwan for 10 years and going to a bilingual school there, I know, deep down, I'm not really Asian either. I'm an expat to the deepest degree of the word. I can't be at home entirely ever in Taiwan because my American-accented Chinese immediately gives me away to salespeople and taxi drivers, all of who ask me where in America I'm from. And in America, I don't even have the comfort of having grown up and lived all my life here, none of the experience that goes along with the every day stuff outside of the college bubble. But you know what? So what? And as arrogant as it may sound, I'm probably just as Asian as anyone here claiming the label "Asian." Which is to say, not really. And the sheer stupidity of using this blanket term as a way of life just seems... well, stupid. Personally, I believe I can be Asian and not belong to an Asian clique or be obsessed with god knows what the people there are doing. And I think the general insecurity of the cliques is silly and the hanging around in entire groups consisting of only Asians is also rather off-putting and limiting in a way.
The boy managed to get Puzzle Fighter on the downstairs computer, the Best Game Ever. It's this Capcom game using the characters from Street Fighter, except it's a Tetris-like game where you build jewels of different colors and blow them up to demolish your opponent. This is the only computer/console game that I've ever been good at, and damn am I good! Kick boy's ass, 13 to 0. Yay me! Yay Puzzle Fighter skills that have not gone away, even though the last time I played was about 3 years ago. *does dance of victory*
It's very rare that I get to gloat over things like this, so I believe I should take it to the max.
ETA: Re-reading this, I no longer agree with myself re: the Asian thing. Still leaving this up for posterity though.
How Asian Are You?
Apparently I'm 74% Asian.
Now let me go rant on this quiz.
Um, excuse me, this quiz in no way measures how Asian you are. It does, however, measure how Asian-American you are. Wearing Abercrombie & Fitch or A|X? Using abbreviations like "azn" in your screennames? Use words like "like" and "omg" constantly in speech? Sorry, but that is in no way, shape, or form Asian. I'm betting that, just maybe, very few people in China, which does in fact contact a good deal of Asian people, along with Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, have actually done any of these things. I mean, I think that I probably am more Asian than most of the people taking this quiz, and as my mom can tell you, I'm really not all that Asian. But after living in Taiwan for 10 years or so, and after really not doing all that many of those things, I think it's fair to say that the quiz is very Asian American in origin.
Why does this annoy me?
Mostly because I think this entire Asian pride movement is extremely stupid from a personal point of view. Although give me a few seconds, and I can probably justify it quite well from a scholarly, unique "liminal" cultural type of way. But on to the personal rant. This entire Asian pride movement thing seems especially concentrated in the US, since obviously this is where Asians stick out the most. A pro-Asian or Asian identification group or movement smack in the middle of Asia would appear silly or highly nationalistic. Whereas here, the emphasis on "Azn pride" or whatever. And I think it's extremely silly because most of the people doing it are (from my point of view) high school kids looking for a way to differentiate themselves in a place where they obviously don't LOOK like they belong, even though it's the only place they've ever been. That, in a nutshell, is my problem with this. How many of these kids can actually say they're truly Asian? Rather, it seems like just another brand name people can buy into without any real knowledge, just some sort of label for people, and generally a label they don't understand at all. This entire Asian clique of snobby rich kids driving their little sports cars and buying brand name clothing has no idea what in the world they're talking about. A good deal of them go to Taiwan, where probably most of their parents are from, since my parents' generation in Taiwan was when the huge migration to America really started and turned Asians into a "model minority." But I'm betting that just like me, when I was a kid growing up in Colorado, they hated Chinese school and talking Chinese and eating Chinese food just as much as I did. And I'm also betting that they considered themselves completely American.
And this entire stance on Asian pride when the most exposure to Asia many of them have had are parents who have assimilated American culture or bonding with Asian-Americans just like them is extremely hypocritical, espeically when they use the term Asian specifically to denote people living mostly in California, born from parents who most likely went to grad school in the states and who live the type of image-driven consumerist lifestyles that they do. And I say again, the mainland Chinese people would most likely have nothing in common with these people. And it's very much as though their lack of knowledge about Asia in general is what brings this entire clique business up. After living in Taiwan for 10 years and going to a bilingual school there, I know, deep down, I'm not really Asian either. I'm an expat to the deepest degree of the word. I can't be at home entirely ever in Taiwan because my American-accented Chinese immediately gives me away to salespeople and taxi drivers, all of who ask me where in America I'm from. And in America, I don't even have the comfort of having grown up and lived all my life here, none of the experience that goes along with the every day stuff outside of the college bubble. But you know what? So what? And as arrogant as it may sound, I'm probably just as Asian as anyone here claiming the label "Asian." Which is to say, not really. And the sheer stupidity of using this blanket term as a way of life just seems... well, stupid. Personally, I believe I can be Asian and not belong to an Asian clique or be obsessed with god knows what the people there are doing. And I think the general insecurity of the cliques is silly and the hanging around in entire groups consisting of only Asians is also rather off-putting and limiting in a way.
The boy managed to get Puzzle Fighter on the downstairs computer, the Best Game Ever. It's this Capcom game using the characters from Street Fighter, except it's a Tetris-like game where you build jewels of different colors and blow them up to demolish your opponent. This is the only computer/console game that I've ever been good at, and damn am I good! Kick boy's ass, 13 to 0. Yay me! Yay Puzzle Fighter skills that have not gone away, even though the last time I played was about 3 years ago. *does dance of victory*
It's very rare that I get to gloat over things like this, so I believe I should take it to the max.
ETA: Re-reading this, I no longer agree with myself re: the Asian thing. Still leaving this up for posterity though.
