Gather 'round, because it is time to meet another Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is self-professed workaholic David Hou.
Who are you?
David Hou. There's a mix of Chinese to English romanization systems so just to be clear my last name is pronounced Ho, not How, and preferably Hooooo!
What are you?
I grew up in a predominately white American suburb so this phrase always makes me cringe a little inside. Mother's from Shanghai, Father's from Taipei, and consider myself second generation Chinese American.
Where are you?
I live work, play, and sometimes get a chance to sleep in New York City. I've traveled all over the US (mostly in my old college car that I didn't think would make all the way around and back, but it did) and NYC is my favorite.
Where are you from?
Born and raised at the Jersey Shore, the same place you keep hearing about on a certain reality TV show. I bounced around a little bit and ended up living with my grandmother during my teenage years. We had a chicken coop and our backyard bordered on an animal hospital. My grandmother and the chicken coop are still there, both rising at the crack of dawn.
What do you do?
I'm Vice President at DramaFever.com, a video website dedicated to Asian and Asian American entertainment. We legally license all our videos and subtitle them for English speakers. Our goal is to bring Asian entertainment into a prominent role in the American mainstream. We're a small, hard working team so I've got the duties of many men: PR, marketing, outreach, business development, content management, and video editing. It helps to be a workaholic. On my spare time, I like to make movies. You can often find me on weekends pacing around on set looking stressed out, yet strangely satisfied. Again, it helps to be a workaholic.
What are you all about?
Where I grew up there were only a handful of Asians at the time. By de facto, I was an "Asian ambassador" wherever I went. As a kid, it was heavy burden at times. I'm all grown up now (mostly) and I've embraced the role, realizing that my words and actions are all educational lessons to the curious and the afraid.
What makes you angry?
Unfortunately, there's often a rift between 1st and 2nd+ Gen AA's. It manifests itself as the dreaded "FOB" insult. (In my own experience, I see this more on the East Coast than the West Coast, but your experience may vary.) It could be commentary on a person's language, style, social status, or etiquette. It's a declaration of superiority, that says "You're too Asian." Sadly, what it also says is "I forgot my roots. I forgot my grandmother, grandfather, my father, my mother, my uncles, my aunts, my cousins. I've been so successfully assimilated that America is the touchstone of what is culturally correct to me."
Our parents came here for the American Dream, for you, and for your children. But I doubt they wanted you to forget them or their parents or their parent's parents. A 2nd Gen Albanian friend once told me "Everyone becomes American" and there's truth to that. Still, he welcomed his 1st Gen Albanian friends with open arms and broken Albanian. I hope one day the 2nd+ Gen Asian American communities will one day have the same pride in their roots. Instead of trying to distance themselves from people that today are the the younger versions of their parents and grandparents, they will welcome new Asian Americans with open arms.