By Chloe Wang

A snapshot of the diversity of Asian American and Asian international students at USC:

Of the 2010 incoming class (freshmen and transfer students)…*

• 25% identify as Asian Pacific American

Of the incoming APAs…*

• 21% are first-generation college students
• 19% are multiracial/multiethnic
• 73% are from California
• Most of them identify as: Chinese (505 students), Korean (222), Indian (168), or Persian/Armenian/Southwest-Central Asian (143)
• Other ethnicities include: Other Asian (99), Japanese (98), Filipino (98), Vietnamese (69), Arab (40), Pacific Islander (27)

Top 5 Places of Origin of International Students**

1. India: 1,623 students
2. China (PRC): 1,428 students
3. South Korea: 735 students
4. Taiwan: 518 students
5. Canada: 289 students

Total international students: 6,585

*According to preliminary data collected by USC’s Asian Pacific American Student Services prior to the 2010-2011 school year

**Enrolled for the fall 2009 semester, according data from USC’s Office of International Services

By Cherise Osaki

We asked immigrants and children of immigrants what they think of life here in the good ol’ US of A:

Why did you/your family decide to come to the U.S.?

“My family is similar to many families post-1965 who are beneficiaries of the Hart-Cellar immigration act which removed the rigid quotas for Asian immigration… My dad immigrated in 1969 to Vancouver to pursue his education.”

Sumun Pendakur, Director of USC’s Asian Pacific American Student Services
Family from Karnataka, India
U.S. hometown: Evanston, IL

“Originally I came to the states as a student, and after one year of studying at that university I got a scholarship to study at graduate school, so I came to USC, first to study, and after that I met my husband who is Japanese American from California, and I moved here to be with him.”

Masako Tamanaha, USC Assistant Professor of Japanese
Okinawa, Japan
U.S. hometown: Torrance, CA

What did you think of the U.S. before you moved here?

“I just imagined blonde people everywhere, like ‘Am I going to be the only Asian’?”

Jungwon Park, USC freshman
Seoul, South Korea
U.S. hometown: Arcadia, CA

“I thought most Americans were kind, patient, and honest.”

Wen Fang Pan, homemaker
People’s Republic of China (PRC)
U.S. Hometown: Sunnyvale, CA

How has your perception of the U.S. changed since you moved here?

“I was a 14-year-old child when I came here. My first impression was how big it was and how important individual rights were.”

Tina Tyner, homemaker
South Korea
U.S. hometown: San Diego, CA

“[I believed that] the U.S. was strong in economy & military force, advanced in science & technology, upholding Christian banner & healthy moral and family values, and was respected because of such status. Though most aspects are still true, her economy has weakened over the years for various reasons. The Christian heritage has also become an eyesore for many liberals and [is] consistently under attack by the media, thus, has corrupted the moral value of the society and weakened the family structures.”

W.T. Lin, Assistant at Scosche Industries
Taipei, Taiwan
U.S. hometown: Simi Valley, CA

What do you miss most about your home country?

“[My parents] really miss the family aspect.  But I also think they miss the India that they knew. My parents have an imagined idea of what India was.”

Sumun Pendakur

“Just my family and friends, but not other things because we can obtain anything here.”

Makiko Osaka, USC Japanese Lecturer
Hokkaido, Japan
U.S. hometown: Torrance, CA

What do you like most about the U.S.?

“I find many share the same values, and I am free to worship my God as our founding fathers meant for this country to enjoy, and because this is my home now.”

W.T. Lin

“In Japan, you always have to worry about what other people think about you, like your friends, your family, and people at work. But I guess here, people don’t care. They don’t try to interfere here, so I feel more free.”

Masako Tamanaha

“When I came to America it was so much more free, so much more well-rounded in terms of education. And I’m at USC and it’s one of the most well-rounded schools, socially, academically, and everything, and I don’t think I would have gotten that in Korea at all.”

Jungwon Park

By Rebecca Gao

The diversity within the Asian American community begs to avoid homogenization with an umbrella label like "Asian" or "Asian American."

Asian American – what a broad, encompassing term for us. What does it even mean to be “Asian American” anymore in a hyper-localizing, globalizing world?

In 1968, UC Berkeley student activists began referring to themselves as “Asian American” as a backlash against the more degrading term “oriental.” Three on-campus anti-war leagues – the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, the Japanese American Citizens League, and the Philippine American Collegiate Endeavor – joined forces into a conglomerate christened the Asian American Political Alliance.

A few months later, UCLA professor and historian Yuji Ichioka officially coined the term “Asian American” to promote solidarity among the various dislocated minority groups, from Koreans to Chinese to Indian.

While the consolidation of Asian American interest groups may allow for greater lobbying power, it fails to appreciate the incredible diversity within the community. The label may be able to unify us, but it also homogenizes us. A Sri Lankan citizen has a vastly different culture and heritage than a Vietnamese American but would be encapsulated under the umbrella moniker of “Asian American.”

Just as the French and the Germans are distinctive peoples not to be clumped together strictly as Europeans, Asian Americans are too widely distributed for any one label to stick.

In fact, a single catch-all name distorts the view of Asians by non-Asians. While we within the Asian American community might clearly understand the disparity between Thai and Taiwanese, others might not. With one overarching term, we fail to communicate our unique cultures, almost encouraging one-size-fits-all stereotypes on people who trace from the largest, heaviest populated, and arguably the most varied of all continents.

Just the sheer land range of what constitutes Asia is mind-boggling. Imagine if we called everyone in North and South America “Americans,” be they Canadians or Columbians, and the rest of the world assumed that every American was identical with a few minor difference – some just paler or browner than others.

After all, Americans kind of look the same, you know?

Granted, distributing ourselves into smaller, more distinct groups might foster mini-communities less tolerant of the qualities we have in common that a term “Asian American” might allow. However, they help us recognize the individual histories, traditions, and distinctions which lend each group its own flair.

For example, at USC, we have the Chinese Student Association, the Vietnamese Student Association, Nikkei, and many more cultural groups under the broad sweep of the Asian Pacific American Student Assembly. Traverse Japan Town on a sushi tasting tour with Nikkei, attend a luau with the Hawaii Club, or a beach retreat with HapaSC if you identify with many ethnicities.

We represent an astonishingly diverse community and should embrace both the similarities and differences within the various Asian American ethnicities. With an ever-growing population of Asian Americans, it is simply against our interests to be dusted neatly together into a pile under a single label and to be left there without a deeper understanding of ourselves.