Analysis of pg.1-20 of American Born Chinese 3/29

First, on flower-fruit mountain, the monkey king is amongst his own kind. However, as he attempts to attend the dinner party with the Gods, he is set distinctly apart. Even though he has mastered the 4 perquisites to immortality, fist-like lightening, thunderous foot, heavenly senses, and cloud-as-steed, and is equally qualified to attend, he is excluded due to his differences. The guard at the dinner party states, “You may be a king- you may even be a deity, but you are still a monkey.” The author seems to be making an allusion to the experiences of many minorities. Often times, minorities, including Asian-Americans, feel estranged or excluded due to his or her differences. Like the monkey king, he or she may be equally as qualified but are restricted due to those differences. I feel a good example of this is the music industry. I feel for Asian-Americans there is not enough representation in the American music industry, almost to non-existence. While for pop, rock, country, and various other genres, the general image is whites, for hip hop and r and b the image is for blacks. This black-white paradigm leaves out Asians as they do not fit the music image. Even though these Asian musicians are equally qualified or equally talented, due to the preconceived image, they are excluded.

paragraph from paper 1

What does it mean to have a Korean American dual identity? A quixotic definition would define this as accepting both Korean and a new American culture. A more realistic definition for a majority of Korean Americans is a person with a Korean cultural identity estranged in a foreign country, America. Many institutions such as the Korean church and other organizations served its purpose for the illiterate first generation of Korean Americans, but the segregating aspect of those institutions continue to affect the second generation of Korean Americans who have fluency in English. This problem is further exacerbated by the promotion of segregation in schools through cultural clubs, which ironically is supposed to promote diversity, and social outings with just Koreans on their free time. The collective effect is the exclusive nature of Korean Americans and the segregation of the Korean community from the rest of America. A repercussion of the Korean American community’s segregation from American culture is the lack of representation in politics on both the local and national scale. In order to engage in politics, Korean Americans must submerge themselves into a larger community rather than isolating themselves. Otherwise, the community’s views will not be addressed and its voice will never be heard.

possible topics for my turn

Is it possible to specifically write about the korean community ( i feel it will be more effective because of personal experience and a more extensive knowledge)

Such topics include:
1. access to health insurance in Korean immigrant families
2. lack of representation of Koreans in politics
3. Korean community's voice not being heard
4. Segregation of Asian ethnic groups and repercussions

I really can’t think of any more topics but if any of you guys have any ideas let me know.