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Asian Stuyvesant Alums Bemoan Asian Wackness
By
Jen Chung
Published May 9, 2011
Modified May 9, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 9, 2011
Modified May 9, 2011
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New York magazine's cover story is a feature about "What happens to all the Asian-American overachievers when the test-taking ends?", a follow-up of sorts to the attention that Amy Chua's parenting memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, received for many of its strict (some might say insane) ideas and anecdotes about raising successful children. And it turns out that the magnet high school Stuyvesant, which has a 72% Asian population, isn't the greatest launching ground for its Asian students to bridge cultural gaps.
Writer Wesley Yang (who says of Asian values, "Fuck filial piety. Fuck grade-grubbing. Fuck Ivy League mania. Fuck deference to authority. Fuck humility and hard work. Fuck harmonious relations. Fuck sacrificing for the future. Fuck earnest, striving middle-class servility.") spoke to a couple Stuyvesant grads who talk about learning how to nail standardized tests at Asian "cram schools" and how they usually remained friends within their ethnic groups. Jefferson Mao, who went on to graduate from the University of Chicago, noticed how it wasn't enough to word hard:
"The general gist of most high-school movies is that the pretty cheerleader gets with the big dumb jock, and the nerd is left to bide his time in loneliness. But at some point in the future,” he says, “the nerd is going to rule the world, and the dumb jock is going to work in a carwash.
" At Stuy, it’s completely different: If you looked at the pinnacle, the girls and the guys are not only good-looking and socially affable, they also get the best grades and star in the school plays and win election to student government. It all converges at the top. It’s like training for high society. It was jarring for us Chinese kids. You got the sense that you had to study hard, but it wasn’t enough."
The other alum, Daniel Chu who socialized in the Stuy Asian bubble went to Williams College where "he slowly became aware of something strange: The white people in the New England wilderness walked around smiling at each other. 'When you’re in a place like that, everyone is friendly.' He made a point to start smiling more. 'It was something that I had to actively practice,' he says. 'Like, when you have a transaction at a business, you hand over the money—and then you smile.' He says that he’s made some progress but that there’s still plenty of work that remains. 'I’m trying to undo eighteen years of a Chinese upbringing. Four years at Williams helps, but only so much.'"
Yang's feature also looks at the Asian version of pick-up master Mystery, J.T. Tran, the Asian Playboy, whose website says, "The story he tells is one of Asian-American disadvantage in the sexual marketplace, a disadvantage that he has devoted his life to overturning. Yes, it is about picking up women. Yes, it is about picking up white women. "
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asian american
asian americans
stuyvesant high school
wesley yang
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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