Week 3

Karen Nguyen

A02

Week 3

            In “Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices” by OiYan Poon and Ajani Byrd Loyola, the two talk about what Asian Americans, first generation and second generation, go through when pursuing higher education and how others play a role in their lives. The authors destroy the stereotype about “tiger” Asian parents; they (the parents) pressure their children and that is the main reason behind their successes. Poon and Loyola do this by giving statistics and different accounts from different people of their experiences when applying to colleges and who heavily influenced them. The authors explains how, for most cases, even though the parents do play a significant role in their children’s decisions, there is a lot more to it such as guidance counselors. Asian Americans do know how to make their own decisions and do not exist to please others and for the most part.

For me, examples given and the reason behind why so many Asians applied to college hit very close to home. The reason being is because as a second generation Asian American, I went through almost everything the people in the article experienced and if I did not go through it, I know somebody who did. For example, my parents wanted me to stay close to home like Danielle. However, at the very end, I decided to go far away (breaking the stereotype). My parents also did not quite understand how the process worked so I relied heavily and was strongly influenced by my guidance counselors. My AVID teacher, Mrs. Heinzman, opinion and advice heavily influenced my decision to come to Davis. Furthermore, financial packages influenced my decision heavily. There are so many parallels between the article and me. The article clearly captures what it is like to be an Asian American pursuing higher education and debunks the stereotypes of us. It clearly explains it and many people can benefit from reading it.

Question: Why do Asians also reinforce stereotypes? We agree that our parents do give us a lot of pressure but why do we not also say that a lot of it is also our own hard work? All our successes are not because of our parents

References

Poon, O and A Byrd. "Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices." Journal of College Admission, 2013

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