ElectricTech

What would you say about Southeast Asians?

Columbia_Student

I believe they are not nearly as fanatic as the South Asians and the East Asians.

IAmYourFather

Fair points.

Reading a post from the other thread "Asians and College Prestige", a non-Asian talks about how people having high expectations of Asians can be beneficial to Asians themselves.

I remember posting something like this similar on a Black Interest forum. The topic had to do with why Blacks aren't as successful as Asians. A Black PhD in engineering basically put Asians on a pedestal and said how East Asians are great in everything and so perfect and never have any problems in life. I noted that Asians may be superficially successful, but that we often have high rates of mental illnesses, depression, suicide attempts, shame, etc.

The Black PhD lashed out at me and said that if you're worried about your mental health as a result of pushing yourself to overachieve, you have some serious issues. The Black PhD says that he had to worry about poverty, having enough food on the table, and living with relatives who were drug users and couldn't give a damn about his education. He says that he WISHES had had parents who would push him to overachieve.

The Black PhD says that we Asians should be lucky that society and our family demands so much of us. He says he does not sympathize with us if we have mental problems associated with feeling the pressure to succeed like other Asians -- especially after what the Black PhD went through to get a PhD. He said that I had some "friggin' nerve" to "allege" that Asians are suffering from mental health problems because we are pressured to live up to the model minority overachiever.

k&s

Athletes -
Norm Chow (NFL/college FB coach) – University of Utah
Dat Ngyuen (NFL) – Texas A&M
Haruki Nakamura (NFL) – UCincinatti
Eugene Amano (NFL) – SE Missouri State
Eugene Chung (NFL) – Virginia Tech
Jim Paek (NHL) – n/a
Richard Park (NHL) – n/a
Michael Chang (tennis) - Biola University
Anthony Kim (PGA) – (UOklahoma)
Kevin Na (PGA) – n/a
Grace Park (LPGA) – Arizona State
Christina Kim (LPGA) – De Anza Community College
Brian Ching (MLS) – Gonzaga
Sammy Lee (Olympic Gold Medalist – diver) – Occidental College
Kevin Tan (Men’s US Gymnastics) – Penn State
Yewki Tomita (Men’s US Gymnastics) – USOTC
Raj Bhavsar (Men’s US Gymnastics) – Ohio State

Military Officers -
General Soriano – San Jose State
General Taguba – Idaho State
Col. Young Oak Kim – LA City College

Politicians -
Mike Honda (Congressman) – San Jose State
Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (Senator) – U of Manitoba
Elaine Chao (Labor Secretary) – Mount Holyoke

Designers -
Derek Lam – Parsons School of Design
Anna Sui – Parsons
Doo-Ri Chung - Parsons
Vera Wang – Sarah Lawrence
David Chu (Nautica) – Fashion Institute of Technology
Philip Lim – California State/Long Beach
Chloe Dao – UHouston
Josie Natori – Manhattanville College
Larry Shinoda – Art Center College of Design

Architects -
Minoru Yamasaki (designed WTC) – UWashington
George Nakashima (father of American craft movement) - UWashington
Gyo Obata (National Air & Space Museum) - WUSTL (before it was a top 30 school)

Entrepreneurs -
Steve Chen – (youtube) – UIUC
Jawed Karim (youtube) - UIUC

Musicians -
James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) – Loyola (Chicago)
Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) – Art Center College of Design
Tony Kanal (No Doubt) – Cal State Fullerton
Kent Nagano – UC Santa Cruz
A lot of ther Asian-Americans in bands – but these are the most well-known bands

Directors -
Ang Lee – UIUC
Wayne Wang - California College of Arts and Crafts
M. Night Shyamalan – NYU
Chris Lee - USC

Actors/Performers
Daniel Dae Kim – Haverford
Yunjin Kim – Boston U
Ken Leung – NYU
BD Wong – SF State U
Russell Wong – Santa Monica College
Kelly Hu – Pepperdine
Margaret Cho – SF School of the Arts
Archie Kao - George Mason
Henry Cho – UTennessee
James Lee – BostonU
Linda Park – Boston U
Dustin Nguyen – Orange Coast College
Keiko Agena – Whitman College

News Anchors/Reporters
John Yang – Wesleyan
Michael Kim (ESPN) – Westminster College
Betty Nguyen - UTexas
Connie Chung - UMaryland
Alina Cho – Boston College
Kaity Tong – Bryn Mawr

Cartoonist/Animators
Frank Cho – University Maryland
Peter Chung – CalArts


Can we EXAGGERATE a little more?

Yeah, there is a certain segment of Asian-Americans who want their children to go to the Ivies – but it’s not any more than that for Jews, African immigrants or affluent WASPs.

Oh, please – what ever happened to parental pressure w/ regard to college (Nishimura most likely didn’t even know he was going to get a PhD)?

And hapas don’t have ONE Asian parent to apply the so-called pressure?

Sorry – but YOUR experience doesn’t apply to ALL other Asian-Americans (however, if you want us to think that your parents have snobby friends and acquaintences, then congrats on a job well done).

And your figure that 75-80% of Chinese-American parents having children who attended Ivies is totally LAUGHABLE (statistically, it’s NOT even close).

Pizzagirl

Oh come on. Obviously it's more. I don't see any threads started here by Jews, Afr Am or affluent WASPs saying that they'll be disgraces to the family if they don't attend HYP or how the aunts in the old country will just up and die if you "only" get into Dartmouth. It's an Asian cultural phenomenon, as IAYF pointed out. Let's at least be intellectually honest about it.

But if you have the brains to see through it - as IAYF clearly does - then you also have the fortitude to define life and success on your own terms.
YK, if the folks in the old country said, "New York City is the capital of New York," you wouldn't take their opinion seriously - you'd know that it was simply, factually not true. When they say "Harvard or homeless," or "You won't get anywhere attending a top 50 university," you know it's simply, factually not true. Why don't you treat it the same way you'd treat their assertion that NYC is the capital of NY? You KNOW it's not true - so let them have their opinion, it's wrong, and move on. I don't get why you're all supposed to listen to points of view that you KNOW don't reflect the reality of life in the US.

k&s

Oh, c’mon now.

There are plenty of threads here started by non-Asians (and mostly white) preoccupied w/ the rankings/prestige of a particular school (much less, just the Ivies) and how do you know whether they are started by Jews or non-Jewish whites? Btw, it wasn’t Asian-Americans who set the hierarchy of prestige/rankings of the top universities in the US (nor are there enough Asian-Americans to make the USNWR rankings editions top-sellers).

1st of all, these Asian-Americans that you and IAYF refer to are just a particular SUB-SET of the Asian-Am community (btw, most of the aunts in the “old country” wouldn’t know Dartmouth, or Penn from Penn St.).

2nd, while the pressure may be a bit more muted, it nonetheless, is still there.

Hence, numerous articles about the pressure of getting into Ivies or other top universities at high schools in affluent neighborhoods like New Trier, Darien, Bronxville, etc. (which are predominantly white) or parents in NYC who fight tooth and nail to get their children not only into the top private schools, but PRE-SCHOOL.

Plus, how many Asian-Am posters do you see complaining or worrying about whether they would get into UCB or UCLA?

Asians make up 12% of the California pop. and 40% of the student bodies at UCB and UCLA – which constitutes a 3.3x matriculation rate over pop. %.

Jews make up 1.5% of the college-age pop. and 23% (or 26%, but I’ll use the lower figure) of the Ivy League student body – which constitutes 15.3x matriculation rate over pop. %.

Anyway you cut it – (1) the Ivies are immensely popular w/ Jewish students and (2) Jewish applicants have a much higher chance of getting admitted to the Ivies and don’t need to fret as much.

bakxchaixDD

hey the wong fu production ppl should make this list too!
phil wong
wesley chan
& some others i forgot ><;;

Phead128

It all goes back to their ancient roots of your ancient grandfathers.

In China, to gain a government position, you must either be a part of the Gentry class (rich with formal education) and ACE the State sponsored comprehensive examinations or have connections.

Education is important in Asia because it weeds a large segment of the majority.

The "my family members must attend better more well known university than my co worker, friend, aunt's siblings, or uncle's sibling" comes from thousands of years of such examination.

These days, examinations into the top Chinese universities still exist. To the Chinese, you really have to get the best education available in order to secure employment at government posts or etc...

Another way is to join the PLA (China's army), which is considered very prestigious, but nothing like the American army. Army beat Navy!

msl2008

Interesting thread posted here. Personally I don't think having people list famous successful Asian Americans really means much because what do you define as successful? Is it becoming famous, becoming a millionaire, becoming CEO in a company? I wouldn't necessarily agree with any of those. I think being successful is achieving what you want to in life whether that be living comfortably and happily or achieving that millionaire, CEO status. I would say there are plenty of Asian Americans out there who are successful though not necessarily well known. I think Asians in general tend to keep a low profile and aren't as outspoken as other groups. And I think the comment you posted from the black PHD is interesting too. I guess it's just a judgment call and it's hard for him to understand b/c he never went through an Asian life (though I must admit growing up in a rough neighborhood and making a PhD to me is a harder life). But yeah, I don't think it should matter what Ivy you go to and eventually as the Asian population grows older by generations (more 2nd, 3rd, 4th generations instead of fobs for parents), the pressure will go down as we integrate into American society.

ElderCookies

I don't think Parsons should count as it is prestigious in it's field.

radronOmega

Dat Phan. Homeless before last comic standing hahaha

lfecollegeguy

Its hot in here.. can you turn on.. DAT FAN?!?


He needs to stop complaining about his mom just like the op needs to stop complaining about asian pressure. Its getting old.

beefs

Dat Phan isn't really funny...