Asian-Americans have long been considered the “model of minority” of the United States, their prevailing reputation framing them as highly educated, hard-working and quiescent.
Recently, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed asserting that Asian-Americans are the most successful minority in the United States, by the measure that Asian-Americans on average earn more than any other ethnic groups, including whites, and that they have more higher education than any other groups.
Mr. Kristof offered several reasons why Asian-Americans are so successful in an effort to advise white Americans that they should “stop whining and start working” like Asians. He cited a scholarly book, “The Asian American Achievement Paradox” by Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, that suggested that the most important factor contributing to the success of Asian-Americans is education. Many Asian immigrants started their lives as students in America, and then graduated as young scientists, engineers, doctors and other professionals. It is not surprising that Asian-Americans earn more than other races because of their occupations.
Of course, Asia being a big place, the Asian-Americans that Kristof referred to are mostly immigrants from East Asia — China and Korea and their posteriors. The Chinese and Koreans have a strong passion for education due to the teaching of Confucius tracing back thousands of years. But the perception of education in East Asia has long been changing; it is radically different from the purposes that Confucius emphasizes — to raise individual intellect, to promote the ambition to contribute to the country and to sufficiently provide for the needs of the family. Unfortunately, many of the traditional perceptions on education are long gone. The majority of East Asians today, including their relatives in America, have become materially motivated. Education is not a means to seek truth, but a tool to survive in society.
Perhaps wealth has become the only measure of success in East Asia, and the Asian-American community shares many similarities in this aspect. Driven by earning money, Asian students are taught that high grades and awards can be earned by hard work, having little to do with one’s talent. That’s why there’s a stereotype that an “A-” is an Asian failure. Chinese and Korean parents are usually willing to sacrifice a lot to guarantee that their kids obtain the best education and don’t lag behind other kids. Many Asian kids’ academic successes are at the cost of a pleasant childhood, which is filled with high intensity of homework and a variety of extracurricular classes. Compared to other American students, Asian students are pushed to be hard-working rather than to explore their interests.
When it comes to choosing majors and professions in college, many Asian parents act as authoritarians, persuading their children to study highly professionalized majors — medical school, law, business and engineering. Choosing majors that have less potential income such as social work, art, history, etc. might be regarded as incompetent and less likely to succeed.
Though highly valuing higher education and professionalism, Asian-Americans as a whole are not able to go far in mainstream. Asian-Americans are usually under-represented at the very top of the tree. According to a study of Fortune 500 CEOs by Richard Zweigenhaft of Guilford College, in 2000, eight out of 500 CEOs were Asian; in 2014, only ten were. In Academia, colleges and universities are stuffed with Asian professors, but there are fewer than ten Asian-American presidents in more than 3000 colleges. Thanks to their extended lack of freedom and democracy, Asians generally do not believe in politics and do not think they as citizens can bring change in this way. These views have been passed down from one generation to the next, causing Asian-Americans often to be apathetic toward politics and leadership.
The lack of political representation locally and nationally results in a false impression that enforces discrimination against Asian-Americans. Lawmakers might not deliberately discriminate against Asian-Americans when making laws, but since their voices are unheard, their interests are ignored and cannot be defended.
It is true that hard work and education have brought success and prosperity to Asian-Americans so far. But at the same time, the mere pursuit of wealth as an insurance of security has also become a bottleneck for the minority to overcome in attempting to further climb the social ladder. From this perspective, Asian-Americans better learn from the whites, not the other way around.
