The book of Eric Liu The Accidental American is a very bright and thought-provoking reflection of the second-generation Chinese American who lives in the USA, has a good job, and does not understand his own place within both the American and the Chinese culture.
The reason for the misplacement is the perceived distance from the Chinese context due to his birth in the US; however, knowing the deeply embedded Chinese values his father has managed to preserve through his whole life makes Eric anxious about the gap between his parentsâ identity, and his own self-perception.
It is a common problem for many Asian Americans, since they are stuck in between the cultures, and they either have to voluntarily isolate themselves from Americans, or lose identity and adapt to the fundamentally new surroundings.
The reason for Liuâs anxiety is the duality in his own nature; he knows that he is Chinese, as he has all physical attributes of a Chinese, but he scarcely speaks Chinese, and cannot write in Chinese at all. Liu feels awkward when visiting his aunt in China, which shows how distanced from his own heritage he is.
As Liu notes at the beginning of his journey for self-awareness, âI sense how difficult it is to be literate in another manâs life, how opaque an inheritance oneâs identity truly is. I begin to perceive my own ignorance of selfâ (Liu 6). Hence he starts to make an inquiry in the very concept of the Asian American concept, and explores the sense, the value, and the racist implications that both Asians and Americans include in it.
However, what is specific about Liu, he does not separate himself from the American context, as he mostly avoided segregation and discrimination in the USA; he had a good job, being the speech writer for Bill Clinton. Liu even seems to disapprove and condemn the imaginary wall created by Asians fueling the stereotypes about the Chinese in America, and states that “nothing brings it out like other people’s expectations and a sense of danger” (Liu 62).
It may be seen as the deliberate effort for detachment that leads to a more serious crisis of self-perception, the duality of perception, and the painful divide in the human psychology that leaves lingering questions â Why am I Chinese? What does it mean to be a Chinese? How can I become American? What does the Asian American actually mean?
The answers to these questions will be absent until the population of the USA continues to divide people into Americans, Asians, African Americans, Mexican Americans etc., thus creating more stereotypes that do not reflect the true nature of the US nationâs heterogeneity and diversity. Liu realizes that he represents the product of the American culture, and he feels very awkward about Asian Americans who wear the labels hung on them partly by themselves, and struggle for their rights and at the same time refuse from these rights.
By paying extreme attention to their culture, ethnicity, and identity, most Asian Americans concentrate too much on their âChinesenessâ, refusing from adaptation to the new surroundings, new life, and new people. However, they believe that adapting to the American lifestyle they will lose their unique heritage, which is unacceptable for them.
Liu raises these questions in connection with his own quest into the Chinese heritage and the ways to incorporate it in his contemporary American life. The âethnosclerosisâ Liu confesses to have is his proactive response to the mass self-defense techniques employed by the Chinese only for the sake of not showing the painful experience of maladaptation and non-acceptance in the USA. Hence, Liu shows that the modern concepts of an âAsian Americanâ or âAmericanâ on the whole are obsolete, abusive, and senseless.
There is always a way to combine the Asian identity with a progressive lifestyle, which is not possible for many Chinese only due to their limited financial abilities and access to the virtues Americans are more entitled to by the right of birth, the color of skin, and by the fact of belonging to a Caucasian race.
Works Cited
Liu, Eric. The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker. New York, NY: Vintage, 1999.