Student poll going around the internet

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I didn't really know where to put this, but I thought it was interesting. Much to my chagrin, a few of my students found out that I have a page on MySpace. Soon enough, many of them were sending me messages. One thing I've noticed that many students like to do is fill out surveys/polls and post their results on the message boards. Sometimes I kind of feel like a spy checking out their posts, but lately I have noticed that many of my Asian students are sending around a survey called "How Asian Are You?" and posting their results. Now, of course there is a lot of stereotyping involved in this survey and I would never use something like this in the classroom, but I always find it interesting to see what students are doing on the internet and to what they are responding. I have not seen any surveys like this from any other ethnic group of students, but it has been somewhat fascinating to see the responses of the students to this. It seems that many of the students who are responding to this are doing so as they are proud of their heritage--a good thing! It does give a glimpse into some of the things that many Asian teens may value or find of interest.

One of the questions below also reminds me of an article that I read that is worth checking out called "'FOBs' vs. 'Twinkies': The New Discrimination is Interracial."
http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/dialogue_opinion_letters/pns_fobsvtwinkies_0405.asp
I had heard Asian students using the terms 'fobs' and 'twinkies,' but it wasn't until just recently that I figured out what those terms meant and started to understand the kind of intracultural racism apparent in these remarks.

Section 1:
[ ] Are you Asian in the first place?
[ ] Were you born in an Asian country?
[ ] Can you use chopsticks?
[ ] Have you taken Chinese/Korean/etc school as a kid?
[ ] Can you speak an Asian language?
[ ] Is your favorite subject math/science?
[ ] Do you eat rice almost every single day?
[ ] Do you spike/highlight your hair?
[ ] Do you have an "azn crew"?
[ ] Do you get at least a 3.0 GPA?
Score:

Section 2:
[ ] Do you listen to Asian music?
[ ] Have you watched Asian movies?
[ ] Can you rave?
[ ] Are you a master at DDR?
[ ] Do you drink pearl milk tea or bubble tea?
[ ] Do you play CS, Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, etc?
[ ] Do you play the violin/piano?
[ ] Do your parents beat you if you get bad grades?
[ ] Are you going/taking/took any honors/AP classes?
[ ] Do you/your parents drive an Asian made car?
Score:

Section 3:
[ ] Are you or were you once a fob
[ ] Is your last name Park, Lee, Chang, Wang, Wong, Kim, Chow, or Yu or SONG ?
[ ] Have you dated/want to date Asian boys/girls?
[ ] Have you designed a website before?
[ ] Does your SNS/e-mail have/had the ords: AzN, gurl, boy, sweet, cute, hot, dragon, babe, angel, lil, princess, Xx...xX, oO..,Oo, etc?
[ ] Do you have both an Asian and an English name?
[ ] Do you take off your shoes before entering your house?
[ ] Do you know the song "Got Rice"?
[ ]Do you watch/read anime?
[ ] Do you listen to trance?
Score:

Section 4:
[ ] Have you eaten dim sum/dumplings before?
[ ] Are your parents fobs?
[ ] Is the mall your hang out place?
[ ] Do you think you're short?
[ ] Do you have tons of cousins/siblings/uncles/aunts/etc?
[ ] Can you twirl a pencil between your fingers?
[ ] Have you ever solved a rubik's cube?
[ ] Do you read manga?
[ ] Do you/your parents save ketchup packets/napkins/etc from restaurants for later use?
[ ] Do you have AzN PrIdE?!
Score:

Section 5:
[ ] Are you a very good artist?
[ ] Do you speak your Asian language with your friends?
[ ] Do your relatives own a restaurant/market in an Asian community?
[ ] Do you slurp soup?
[ ] Do YoU tYpE lIkE tHiS aLoT?
[ ] Have you visited your home country at least twice?
[ ] Does your house smell like incense once in awhile?
[ ] Do you have/had glasses or braces?
[ ] Do you like to read?
[ ] Do you NOT have an allowance?
score:

Now add up your scores and multiply by 2.
That's how Asian you are.

[Anonymous]

Interesting and somewhat disturbing although I think most students taking this are doing it out of fun. I took it just for fun and got a 32 so I'm guessing I'm not Asian enough. 😀

[Anonymous]

I agree that it's somewhat disturbing, because it does involve a lot of stereotypes, but I think you're right that the students are doing it out of fun. One of my Asian students asked me to take it and then teased me because he said I was more Asian than he is--even though I'm not Asian. I wondered why he wanted me to take it, but I think that this was a way for him to share a little about his culture and interests in a non-threatening way. He said that his friends tease him because he's not "Asian enough," which I didn't know about him. So, I think that even though it is disturbing, it started an interesting conversation on culture and identity between this student and me. Again, I would never use something as overt as this in a class, but I always learn a lot about my students by asking them what kinds of stereotypes exist about their cultures, why those stereotypes exist, how they feel about them, and how stereotypes can be hurtful.

[Anonymous]

In a world obsessed with creating divisions where none exist anything that fosters a divisive mentality, labels or creates division is counterproductive to creating a world COMMUNITY!

Having been born in Mexico City and having been told I was not Mexican enough, (because I did not fit his idea of what a Mexican is) by someone who could not speak the language well and had never stepped foot in the country was absurd.

This type of classification is ridiculous.[Edit by="aaguilar on Jul 30, 10:41:09 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

That is absurd that someone would say that to you. I guess I just chose to post this poll as I noticed that it was something that many of my Asian students were doing for fun--the motives behind it didn't seem to be to criticize one another the way that people have criticized you. In fact, many of them seemed to just be trying to connect with one another and show some pride in the commonalities of their culture. I wanted to post it because I am interested in any kind of dialogue about culture that my students have--not because I support being divisive or creating labels.

[Anonymous]

I see this as a way of building community. Mexicans do the same thing. Listen to George Lopez. Any group that is discriminated against and is marginalized tends to fall back on this kind of defense mechanism. Listen to Larry the Cable Guy--Rednecks have it bad. To accept your "flaws" is a way of being okay within a status quo that clashes with everything you know. it allows for moving forward. it's like my irish friend who said he had alcohol in his blood--we were in Ireland. i countered saying i had salsa in my blood. we are both generations from our homelands. and it sounds horrible to an outsider but i think it offers people a commonality to have these horribly embarrassing things in common. we are okay with them when we know our friends are going through the same things. and then they are not so embarrassing. Everyone feels inadequate. And when this feeling is reaffirmed in media and popular culture we need things like how asian are you polls to feel proud of ourselves our lost languages and the cultures we are told to leave behind.

[Anonymous]

I am not surprised at all by this poll. I think this type of thing exists in various groups. I would be very sad for anyone who would take it so seriously as to be the be all end all of who they are in their culture/ethnicity. This kind of thing should be taken with a grain of salt and a laugh.

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