Pretending I know martial arts saved my butt for over four years as a kid. I went to an elementary school in Paramount. I had just moved to America in the 90s, and if you know anything about the areas NWA made famous, you wouldn’t be surprised to know that I was the only Asian person in the entire school. By only Asian I mean out of the student body, teachers, staff, faculty, and the surrounding neighborhood. I had my fair share of stories that you’re familiar with by now about lunches and clothes that were foreign to other people and the sides of comments that it came with like a racial all American extra value meal. In 2nd grade, when the teacher was teaching a lesson about geography, to make a point about islands, she said that Taiwan is an island so it must have had made a huge business out of the export of seafood, which means I must of had a lot of seafood growing up and my country must of made a lot of money exporting seafood. She made said point while gesturing to me to confirm it as if, at the age of 8, I would have some insider knowledge about the make up of import and export economic resources for Taiwan. So I said of course that the sale of seafood from Taiwan is a portion of our export but we are actually a larger exporter of semiconductors, auto parts and wireless communication equipment. Also to point, I grew up eating a healthy balance of seafood with my Mcdonald and Pizza hut because I am proudly both Asian AND American. I know she wasn't trying to be vicious and was actually trying to include me, but being pointed out as an "other" was exactly the thing I didn't need. it would have been more useful if she had made me an example of San Diego and the sea life that Sea World employs.
These counts of "otherness" makes it an easy step from that point forward to quickly escalate to the bullying, and the beatings, and the cascade of violence and alienation to soon follow much like everyone else's story you've heard. But that's not actually what happened. You see, as a boy child from Taiwan who didn’t spend enough time playing outside, I've consumed enough Kung Fu movies and dramas to open a successful Martial Arts Video Store where customers come in and I just tell them about each film and act out important scenes. What happened was in that time, in that space, under those circumstances, something happened instinctively in me. I started to pretend and fake like I knew how to fight because I, at 8 years old, am somehow a master of the Martial Arts. And because Martial Arts is about 50% of what the other kids around me knew about Asian people, (the other 50% being food). they, of course, believed it. And it worked out amazingly. I got through 4 years of elementary school being the only Asian boy in that school without getting into any fights, without getting beaten up, and without really any overt physical bullying (that comes later in my life). To be clear, I wasn't ever really included or accepted, I was often alienated and put down, I just didn't get bullied physically. It worked so well that I had people wanting to learn kung fu from me, and which of course I obliged. Who am I to deny these foreigners the beauty of the Martial Arts that I am faking to be a master in. Also, did I mention that I didn't speak any English when I first came to the school. Not even a little bit. True story.
I was one the luckier ones in that regard. Bruce Lee was the only person I can point to to make them understand who I was in a way that synced with an image of an Asian in their minds. I didn't even understand what it meant at that time to validate your existence to someone. There wasn't anyone that looked like me that I could really point to. I'm about as similar to Bruce Lee as I am to Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Bruce Lee was just the closest in their minds. There is still largely a lack of Asian American presence in pop culture. Besides the surge of Asian American Youtubers and Dancers in the early 2010's such as Ryan Higa, Kev Jumba, Wong Fu and Jabbawockeez, Quest Crew, and Poreotics, and the current handful of actors/comedians and athletes such as Ali Wong, Steven Yuen, Jeremy Lin, Chloe Kim, The Shibutani Sibs, there still isn't a lot of people you can point to that represents what it looks like to be Asian American. Representation isn't about proving that Asians are Americans and that Asians are ingrained into the culture of America because we have, and we are. We are long past the point of needing to prove the American part of Asian American. It is about having the example of a fully filled out person and what life looks like through an Asian American Lens. Representation matters and it matters on many different levels from the concept of which we base our entire democracy around to the 2nd grader who has to point to someone that looks like them to explain to the other kids who they are.
“We are long past the point of needing to
prove the American part of Asian American”
Not everyone wants to be in entertainment or be a media figure, and not everyone should. But I want to make the point that if you want to, you definitely should. Working in entertainment for the most part was frowned upon in the Asian American household. It wasn't "real" work. and because of this, many of the brightest stars and talent of the Asian American upbringing took their talents into other fields. Hopefully I've contributed positively to the fact that one can become successful in this field and that the work is very very real. Hopefully someone after me can make it in the industry and be a shining star that people can use as a reference point to a piece of who they are.
it’s a weird thing to have to constantly validate your existence to someone but we have to, all the time.
To this day, I don’t actually know any martial arts. Just want to make sure that was clear with this very obviously terrible fight stance