Identity

I never liked identifying myself as Asian or Chinese when I was growing up. I attribute this to the fact that when I was growing up, I was surrounded by Asians. I went to after-school with all Asians, and BLS and Harvard were full of Asians. Thus identifying myself as Asian seemed silly because I had nothing in common with many of the Asians I was surrounded by. To lump myself in the same group as them because we shared a skin color seemed a bit silly.

But somewhere along the way, I realized that there weren't that many of us. I mean, it's not like one day I woke up and realized that I was surrounded by white people, but it was a change being in environments with around 15% Asians to being in populations where I was the only one. And at some point "perception is reality" became my motto because it doesn't really matter if I identify myself as Asian or not - if everyone else defined me as such, I was Asian. And being among white people made me more aware of certain Asian cultural traits like modesty, emphasis on academics, and cheapness.

So why do I bring this up?

On Sunday, as I walking to Barnes & Noble in the Prudential, a man suddenly came up behind me and rather brusquely asked "Hey! When is the Chinese New Year?" When I responded with "I dunno, Jan 25th", he gave me a look and somewhat incredulously asked "You mean you don't know?" So I socked him in the jaw.

Ok, so that last part was a lie, but that's what I should have done. In retrospect, I should have selected a retort from the following:

1.) So solly, me no speak English.
2.) The first of the year, duh! (What's this Gregorian calendar you speak of?)
3.) I'm Korean. I hate Chinese people.

But alas, I only stared at him, said "No" and walked away. Which is why I'm not a stand-up comedian but instead a two-bit blogger.

Oh, and I find that beer commercial where the guy learns how to pour beer from an old Chinese guy offensive as well.

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Progress towards 2006 goals.
Pounds lost: 0
Optimism meter: ok
Angry Asian meter: high