“Fresh Off the Boat,” a situation comedy featuring an Asian family’s life in the United States, debuted on ABC last year. The first episode describes Taiwanese-born parents Louis and Jessica Huang’s decision to move from Chinatown in Washington, D.C. to Orlando, Florida, with their three children.

The Huang family settles in a neighborhood where white Americans are the majority and sends its three boys to a public school. Obviously, Orlando is not like Washington, D.C., which has a Chinatown and a relatively large number of Asian immigrants. On the first day of school, Jessica prepares Chinese-style noodles as lunch for her oldest son, Eddie. But when Eddie sits with white kids at lunch and opens his lunch box, one of the white kids puts his hand to cover his nose, saying, “Ugh, what’s that? Ying Ming is eating worms! Dude that smells nasty!” Eddie immediately becomes upset and angry, because what he eats on a daily basis is considered something weird to the white kids. 

This scenario might give readers a peek at a little clash of cultures. As a “fresh off the plane” guy, I personally haven’t encountered an experience like that in the comedy, probably because I came to the U.S. for graduate school and students have become more mature by that age, having learned not to humiliate people with different cultures in the public. 

I understand that deep down inside human hearts, however, we all fear things that we have never seen, have never tried and are very different from our daily lifestyles. That fear of the unknown is the source of bullying, scoffing and even discrimination to an intense degree. 

The discrepancies of culture, lifestyle and habits all have a reason, if one is willing to dig into the matter. People living in different geographical environments and historical context develop skills and habits that meet their needs for survival. In my first year at NC State, I usually ate in the dining hall with my American friends. One day we went to lunch in Fountain Dining Hall and had delicious chicken wings. One of my friends saw an Asian guy sitting in front of us eating chicken wings with a fork as other Americans were eating with bare hands. My friend was curious and laughed at him, “Eating chicken wings with a fork is hilarious.” I was able to catch this difference immediately: in East Asia, people rarely use bare hands to eat. We use chopsticks for almost everything. 

But why not use bare hands as Americans do? The main reason is that public sanitization in the developing East Asia is not as advanced. We were told as children that fingernails and hands are attached to a lot of bacteria and dirt. And, of course, we need to wash our hands each time before dining. However, the tap water is not drinkable and contains many chemicals that are harmful to humans. To avoid potential illness, it is better not to use your hands in direct contact with food. This situation is similar to Americans not understanding why Asian people keep drinking hot water. Indeed, tourists from Asia are not comfortable drinking from water fountains and taps in the United States, because they believe that tap water generally contains bacteria and boiling it first is a better way to keep the water safe.

Generally speaking, the longer foreigners stay in the U.S., the more lifestyles and habits will be adopted. Eventually, they and their offspring will become part of the American people with more or less distinct heritage from their motherland. 

Understanding cultural differences goes both directions. As more Asian immigrants are “fresh off the plane” to the American soil, they must compromise aspects of their lifestyle that might be against the law in the U.S. Early this year, three Chinese teens in Los Angeles were sentenced to prison, as they bullied one of their classmates at school with brutal and vicious attacks. These evil behaviors are not publishable in China, since they are teens. But, the American laws see this as a crime, as it promotes violence and ruins the victim’s dignity as a human. 

George Washington’s vision for immigration is the best beacon for guiding immigration policy in the U.S.: “The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.”