I met a few ex-Malaysians today. I say ex because they really are US citizens now, and because they admit Malaysia never really left a huge imprint in their hearts anyways. They left early enough…

And it makes me wonder what is left after that strip of nationalism is taken away from you? What happens when a Malaysian of Chinese descent does not identify as Malaysian anymore? Does that person merely feel Chinese? Or something rather in the between since they never grew up in China, and may have different values from the Chinese in China.

In the case of these 2 people, I’m guessing they feel more American having lived here for so long. Perhaps Asian American would be the closest thing they would identify with. The strange thing for me, is I see a collaboration and certain similarities between the Asian American culture, yet I acknowledge wholeheartedly that Asians from the varying Asian countries are completely distinct from one another. This is despite what many Asian Americans think because they see so many similarities among Asian Americans in general. Not to say this generalization is good or is subscribed by all Asian Americans (or just plain Americans), but all I’m saying is that these are personal observations.

Perhaps there is nothing wrong with having an “Asian American culture” the way African Americans have their own culture nothing like the White Americans or their ancestors in Africa. In fact, White Americans have varying ancestries too. Italian/German/Polish/Irish etc. — primarily European. But now when you look at a White person in America, that’s not the first thing that comes to mind does it? The first thing to come to mind is, “he/she is a White person” because that is the easiest, most surface observation.

So yes, “Asian” is not a race and don’t have homogeneous cultures/features. In the case of East Asians they share some similarities, sure, but one wouldn’t say Indians and Japanese look anything alike, or that Malays look like Koreans despite them all being “Asian”. Their cultures are also extremely different from one another. If that is the case then what is “Asian American” then, if it is not a race nor a nationality?

An identification, a culture, a completely fluid sense of belonging that varies extremely from person to person, just as identification varies differently for everybody.

P.S. I was reading Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” for class/paper and came across this term, “strategic essentialism“. Thought it extremely relevant to what I was thinking. She just managed to put a name to it.

It refers to a strategy that nationalities, ethnic groups or minority groups can use to present themselves. While strong differences may exist between members of these groups, and amongst themselves they engage in continuous debates, it is sometimes advantageous for them to temporarily “essentialize” themselves and to bring forward their group identity in a simplified way to achieve certain goals.