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Yale University, where he realised the “They would continuously keep try- thinks the way Chinese Americans
importance of popularising American ing to speak Chinese to me. It was a being treated does not only vary in
education among Chinese students. very frustrating experience because it different environ-
Upon the completion of studies, made me feel like I am not from here,” ments, but also
he founded the Chinese Educational she says. personal traits.
Mission. Over a decade, he sent 120 Chinese Americans face tough “I found that
Chinese students to schools in the times dealing with challenges. Lin the way you
United States, according to the Coun- says her parents could not believe she present yourself
cil on East Asian Studies at Yale Uni- was going through discrimination can also attract
versity. and sexism. Even though her family bias,” she says.
has always had her back, they never Ivory Fu When she was in
Discrimination in small towns and talked about politics and racism un- high school, her friends who were
metropolitan cities til the presidential election in 2016. more reserved and shy, often faced
Despite the breakthrough in striv- In 2016, Donald Trump, representing more discrimination than she did. As
ing for education equality, discrimina- the Republicans, defeated Democratic she was a more sociable and outgoing
tion still exists. “A lot of the treatment nominee Hillary Clinton and became person, no one has questioned if she
has to do with the initial way we look,” the president. “Because they weren’t really is an American.
says Lin Ming-yee, a Chinese-Amer- minority as the same way as me, they
ican attorney, who works at the New don’t understand the pain I was ex- Identity struggles of Chinese
Haven Legal Assistance Association. periencing, growing up to be isolated Americans
Born and raised in a suburb in At- and totally different,” she says. Other than interpersonal relation-
lanta, the capital of the U.S. state of ships, Chinese Americans have to
Georgia, the 31-year-old could still The relationship between stereo- struggle with identity issues. Rocky
recall stories of prejudicial treatment types and personal factors Lam, 20, also a student at Yale Uni-
in her life. Chinese American students study- versity, recalls how hard he tried to
Lin believes the level of knowledge ing at Yale University share their sto- present himself as an American in his
about Chinese culture affects people’s ries of growing up teenage years.
behaviour towards Chinese Ameri- with prejudge- To fit into the social circle, he nev-
cans. As one of the three students ments and ste- er spoke Chinese outside his house,
with Chinese origins in her school reotypes with and would only talk about English
in Georgia, Lin recalls her classmates Varsity report- TV shows and music. “That’s actually
were curious about the trio in school, ers. Joy Qiu, a divide that I kept throughout my en-
and totally lacked understanding a 20-year-old tire life,” he says.
about them. They asked questions like Chinese-Ameri- Fortunately, this is no longer some-
“how do you see when your eyes are Joy Qiu can student, says: “I thing he cares about so much now. “I
so small”. think it largely de- think my college has
“I don’t think it was motivated by pends on what space you are in and done a lot to me in
malice. It was really like I was so unu- what the environment is.” Studying at terms of exposing
sual that they had all these questions Yale, being one of the 19.3 per cent of me to so many of
that they had never been able to ask Asians, she feels more at ease. my community
before,” she adds, “but it did create a Qiu believes there are moments members and al-
situation that made me feel very iso- when others judge her based on her lowing me to be
lated.” appearance and expect her to behave proud of my herit-
To Lin’s surprise, her experiences in certain ways. For instance, peo- age,” he says. Rocky Lam
in the metropolitans were not better ple would say her voice was so loud,
than those in the remote areas. They as a Chinese girl. Even so, she says:
reveal more ignorance and stereotype “I’m definitely proud to be a Chinese
Chinese in more offending ways. American.”
There were also several times when Another Chinese American at Yale Edited by Sarah Poon
Americans, mostly white men came to University, Ivory Fu, 20, lived in Kan-
Lin and practised Chinese with her. sas and New York City before. She