Opinion | Asian-Americans, crazy rich or otherwise, just want to be accepted
Jason Hung hopes for a world in which people are accepted as they are, and Asians don’t have to be typecast as nerds or kung-fu fighters. A film like Crazy Rich Asians brings Asian-Americans a little closer to that
It is not how long I have been here, but how much I am accepted before I can call the place home. Living in a white-dominated country as an Asian can be a challenge, irrespective of duration. Racist incidents big and small can occur frequently, unpredictably. A passer-by might put up their middle finger at you; a stranger in a grocery store might blurt out racial slurs and jokes against you; people behind you might mock you by mimicking you speaking an Asian language with your Asian friends.
Sometimes, I question my existence, as much as I worry about my next days. I have, at times, wished I could become white. I hope to walk down the street in a “foreign” country as I do in an Asian country.
I hope to feel secure and comfortable in any public space, or at least not encounter assaults that are racially motivated. I have even hoped to camouflage my racial identity, perhaps as easily as dyeing my hair and speaking only English in public even around my Asian friends.
Unless people accept that I look different on the outside, they will never bother to understand that I am similar to them inside.
