Not Just A Stereotype
Many stereotypes are made about foreign students around their race, assumed cultural backgrounds, appearance, and communication including accents, greetings, and titles of address. Foreign students might switch to their native language, assuming it is not English, to feel comfortable talking, they might stay with people with the same cultural and linguistic background because they feel more comfortable, etc.
This further perpetuates the stereotypes of foreign students who stick with other foreign students of their cultural and linguistic background because they feel comfortable, welcomed, and can converse with ease. Being able to converse fluently with your friends is often taken for granted, especially when you all speak the same language, or you are used to others adapting to one’s language, just as most Americans are.
Many have English-pronouncing names to make it easier or more comfortable for others, and their own comfortability within their community.
This project attempted to break or further explain the context behind some of those stereotypes. Not all Chinese foreign students are rich, not all are shy, and not all do well in school, but “we can get a good score, but actually we did not learn a lot… Chinese teach students how to get a good score but not how to learn,” said Chloe Feng. Robbie Luo thinks there might not be stereotypes with this generation “because they don’t know anything.”
Tea looks out the window from his room on South Campus on a beautiful breezy day. Yi Ming ‘Tea’ Tong goes by ‘Tea’ after he changed his High School name from ‘Gary.’ He changed his name because he likes drinking tea, and it is easier for him to introduce himself, but when making friends, “sticking to the cultural background, it’s not me,” he said.
His parents have always wanted him to attend the highest-ranking school possible, so he attends Syracuse University. “I enjoy the feeling and the people University has,” he said. He wants to start either a high-tech or weapons company in China someday after living in America for a little while after college. “To me, it’s so big difference between China and America’s social environment, just based on the social framework… You can feel the difference human to human.”
“I don’t feel angry or argue with people… It really is not about two languages… Like, if I don’t understand, I will just directly ask. I don’t afraid to be embarrassed… when I look back in the years I got in America, there’s nothing like it… It really is not about two languages. Just, the people I met just… talk it out… we actually solve it… it’s giving the feeling they’re so generous… if they are a good person, a kind person, I can make friends with them.”
Tea looks out his window from his bed on an overcast day as he takes a break from studying.
Jack is watching Japanese Anime show Power Rangers. Born in SuZhou, China, Tian Ci “Jack” Lin chose his name when he was watching Ultraman.
Jack’s father suggested hotel management as a possible major but supported Jack’s choice to study theatre and strategic management. He went to an international high school. Jack said his parents “definitely want me to go to grad school, as all Chinese parents do.”
As one of the only Chinese people in his major, he has no trouble making friends. He is used to learning how to make friends after attending an international high school, opening up his possibilities for college.
“I actually do not have a really big connection with the other Chinese students here… this year, including me, it’s like six Chinese students in our department and the rest, it’s either the rest of my friends from high school.” He spends his a lot of his time learning Japanese, watching Japanese anime, and with his friends in his Japanese club.
Chenyi Feng sits on the floor of her room on a rainy day. She chose “Chloe” as her English name because she attended an international school.
‘GaoKao,’ the immensely intense and important exam in China, puts a lot of pressure on students. Chloe, studying advertising and marketing, said, “We don’t want to take this pleasure, and if a family can provide us a good experience by going abroad, it’s more common. I think I’m very lucky my parents chose this… I think I have a home here.”
Chloe’s sister is 14 years older and has supported Chloe in her acclimation to America. Like many other Chinese parents, higher education is thought to provide a better life. “I can learn a lot rather than learning in China because Chinese have a lot of rules to follow… they think that higher education lets me have a better life. I can earn money, and I can marry a better man. When I just come here, have a really hard time speak English. I know I have a lot of problems with my grammar, and I’m shy too, you know. I’m afraid that people cannot understand what I’m saying… I think almost all of my friends are Chinese… we have the same hobby… we don’t have the cultural difference. It is easy to make friends with Chinese.” If people from other cultures can understand her, “we can talk and communicate. It’s a good way to make me more confidence. I think Chinese people are all shy… we are afraid to make mistake. We don’t talk to others because we are afraid that people cannot understand us and we will be embarrassing. I think more and more Chinese people want to make friends with people from other cultures.”
Bei Luo, or ‘Robbie’ stands on the grass in front of the student center.
Robbie is studying mechanical and electrical engineering. “At the first time, it’s hard to say ‘hi, nice to meet you,’ to a person you don’t know before, but right now, I think I’m fine,” he said. “I don’t really have adjusting time, for me personally, like I’m super comfortable living here… They do want me to go to grad school, but they also want me to have working experience before going.” His parents want him to go to America for education because that is where they believe the best education is and where their friends’ kids went.
Being himself in China “really depends on which area you are in. I haven’t been back there in quite a long time… I’m quite outgoing. I can sacrifice myself if it will make everybody else happy… I don’t really need to find a Chinese person. They find me.”
Robbie sometimes goes out of his way to avoid conflict. He believes this makes him more approachable. His parents taught him ‘a lot of manners stuff. What you should or shouldn’t do–it makes you a good person. You have to be a kind person, and you have to have good manners… you have to be respectful.”
He finds difficulty being with other Asians. “One problem I’m facing is if I was surrounded by Asians or Chinese peoples, Americans, like, they don’t want to contact with me… I introduce my friends from different groups.”
Aniui “Annie” Zha sits at her desk in her room. She is from Shandong, China and is studying advertising and retail management because of the creativity it allows and advertising can give her more opportunity to create something. Her parents encouraged her to pursue something in business or media. She went to a very small high school in Tennessee to avoid ‘GaoKao’ and because “high school in China is very intense.” Annie wanted to “have more variety in class and to know different countries and different cultures. I want to know how other countries teach class. “Both my parents, they want me to attend until graduate school because if I didn’t attend… it is really hard to find a good job.”
Socially, “I will not be the first to talk to someone,” but Annie is open to making friends with anyone. In China, you don’t talk about politics, but “you do in America.”
Annie stands outside her room on South Campus in the early afternoon.
Alexander and Ray talk and do the dishes together. Alexander “Xander” Anise’s name comes from his great-great grandfather changed his first name to his last name. Xander is half Egyptian, half Cambodian and was born in the US and moved to Dubai, Abu Dhabi. English is his first language. He has more of a cultural difference at home when speaking rather than experiencing a language barrier.
Rapeepat “Ray” Phanratanamala’s name is long because “all Thai names are distinct. It’s illegal to have the same name as someone else. It’s also a class thing.” You can tell what business they own and how rich their family is. Is from Bangkok, Thailand. Thai is Ray’s first language. “I find more of a language barrier in Thailand because I was always in an international school, and then I went to boarding school near Boston. Thai people can tell I have an accent.
Both parents want their children to go to grad school. Earlier on in Xander’s life, he was diagnosed with ADHD and his parents became less strict, focusing less on “grades, it’s more like, life-ing.” For Ray, his parents raised him to believe grades in general “add up to my character… so I do want the best for myself. I take it strictly for myself.” “My parents are the same,” added Xander. Xander is expected to get “a well-paying job, for sure,” but Ray’s dad said he will always be there to financially support him, “which kind of makes me not want that even more because he’s never told anyone else that.”
Xander sits at his kitchen table. With stereotypes, Xander said, “it’s a little hard to tell where I’m from… my mother is Cambodian. When you say ‘Cambodian,’ a lot of people think ‘Columbian’ cause people don’t know where Cambodia is, usually… but a lot of people just assume that I’m just Mexican… I thought it would be something that happens once or twice, but it happens so often. It’s crazy. It bothers me.”
“I think I’m close to my parents in a respectful and thoughtful way… but they’re not like my buddies. I’m not gonna treat them like they my buddy or my friend. I treat them with respect… that’s another thing, the sort of relationship that you see here in the US between parents and their kid.”
Ray sits at his desk in his room. “A little pattern that formed in my head is that people who haven’t seen too much tend to have stronger opinions, whereas people who’ve seen more tend to always be willing to listen more and always want to see more,” said Ray.
“My mom’s like a very fun person so we kind of are like more friends but with my dad, it’s more serious. There’s too much respect ot play around… everyone’s dad from home are the money makers so a lot of my friends from home have to call their dads ‘sir.’”
Xander sits in his bedroom with Ray and a stuffed animal. Neither are expected to go to grad school because of the architectural degree. Ray is the only one in architecture in his family.
For Ray, the Asian stereotype “creates a barrier… you become a little insecure and you try to push this Asian stereotype away from you and try to fit in as much as you can and I see that a lot with the college kids here… but now I just embrace who I am.”
“Especially this house, especially I relate with Zander most. Sometimes, Americans just don’t understand us, whereas we understand them and us because we’ve experienced, we’ve lived it… with things like sharing food in restaurants… in other parts of the world, we go to a lot of plates and share it,” said Ray. “Here in the US a lot of people are very culturally centered and not really willing to accept new things. You see that in a lot of the friends I do here. They say, ‘I’m going to go do something because my grandfather did it.’ In tradition, there’s usually growth, but I feel like a lot of times here in the US there isn’t much growth… a lot of people here prefer to be comfortable… I think a lot of Americans should try to educate themselves a bit about more of the rest of the world so they can accommodate people who come and visit because I know a lot of people here who don’t feel welcomed,” said Xander. Ray added, “if you’re not willing to branch out and try new things, you don’t need to like, speak out… just like, you’re less cultured so just try to respect other cultures.”