Asian Heritage

A detailed Summary of Asian Heritage

In The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu, Liu is faced with the complexity of his heritage. Liu is a second-generation Chinese American. Throughout Liu's essays he speaks of the disadvantages of being an Asian American and how in his life he dealt with it. Liu also speaks of his family and their values of keeping their heritage alive without his parents being overbearing and discriminating towards Liu's choices in life.

In Eric Liu's The Accidental Asian, Liu speaks of Chineseness which he says "... is not a mystical, more authentic way of being; it's just a decision to act Chinese"(pg. 10). It seems in the novel that Liu is not questioning whether he is Chinese or American or one more than another, I feel Liu is while being both Chinese and American he had such a hard time accepting or questioning the Chinese qualities more than the American ones. Liu was what his parents called an ABC, an "American-born Chinese"(pg.43), Liu had seen himself as a social immigrant when he was younger. Since Liu was a child he was faced with the burden of sometimes feeling left out due to his physical appearance and characteristics being not like others around him. Liu was not ashamed of being Chinese but he wished sometimes that things would b

One subject that was spoken often by Liu was assimilation. Liu says " I was raised, in short, to assimilate, to claim this place as mine"(pg.36), he goes on to say that his parents did not want him to act American, they wanted him to be a good person. Liu says that his assimilation started way before he was born that it started with his parents and their opportunity to travel to America as students and encounter Western life. Liu says that his parent were not the average "Chinese" overbearing parents, that his parents wanted them to view all sides of cultures and to absorb what the children seen fit to absorb. When Liu speaks of his own assimilation, he states that he did not become a "banana" or "white-identified" that Liu only became what most people see as only white people doing which was "going places" and being educated. In college Liu felt that he was an "outsider" in his freshman year that he didn't fit in to any specific clique. But Liu states that he would have never "pigeonholed" himself by joining on of those Asian only groups and that he never went out of his way to make an Asian friend, Liu feels that is "the difference between self-hate and self-respect"(pg.48). Liu also states that he didn't want to get absorbed in a clique because it would take away from his individuality, which was the very thing that marked his assimilation (pg.49). Liu grew older and became a spokesman doing commentary for a cable news network (pg.60) he also represented a powerful U.S. Senator named David Boren (pg.137). Liu was also a speechwriter for President Clinton and wrote many of his famous speeches, including a "fiftieth-anniversary tribute to heroes of D-Day"(pg.154). So as for the question if Liu had successfully assimilated into Americanism, I would have to say yes.

Liu's struggle throughout life is trying to adapt himself to life as an Asian American without ignoring or leaving the other behind. Liu states that he is not completely Americanized or 100% Asian because of the pressure his parents did not put on him to fully commit to the Asian traditions. Granted his parents took him to Chinese school and wanted to sp

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Approximate Word count = 1445
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels