Asian-Americans enjoy a long history here

First published in the Centre Daily Times, June 2, 2011

A few days ago, I was flying back from India after visiting family and commemorating the first anniversary of my father’s death.

As the flight from London neared Philadelphia, the flight attendant handed out arrival-departure records for nonimmigrant visitors and customs forms for everyone, including permanent residents and U.S. citizens. I picked up a customs form.

Next, she asked my neighbor, a turban-wearing man of Asian-Indian origin, if he would like the arrival-departure record.

When he replied in the negative, she clarified, “All visitors need a landing card, sir.”

“I am a U.S. citizen,” he replied, and calmly took a customs card.

The flight attendant had thought I was a U.S. citizen or resident, but seemed hesitant to accept that about my turban-wearing fellow passenger.

I am a first-generation immigrant and have lived here for only a little more than two decades.

My fellow passenger, however, was Sikh by religion and could have been a descendant of the earliest Asian-Indian immigrants, Punjabi Sikhs, who came to California in 1899.

He could also be related to Californian Dilip Singh Saund, the first Asian-American and first Sikh elected in 1957 to the U.S. Congress.

Interestingly, Saund emigrated from India via Ellis Island to study at Berkeley. He graduated with a master’s degree in mathematics in 1922 and a doctorate in 1924, and became a farmer because of limited opportunities.

Saund campaigned to allow “Hindus,” as South Asians were then called, to become naturalized citizens. He became an American citizen in 1949 after passage of the 1946 Luce-Celler Act allowing naturalization to Asian Indians and Filipinos.

Pondering how Asian-Americans fit into ideas of American identity is a worthwhile exercise considering the recent observance of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month in May.

President George H.W. Bush started this monthlong celebration in 1990 to honor the history and contributions of Americans with origins in Asia and the Pacific islands.

Contrary to common perceptions, the first Asian immigrants came to the U.S. centuries ago.

Filipino immigrants settled in New Orleans in 1763, followed by Chinese immigrants who came to California to mine gold in 1849. Significant Japanese immigration occurred between 1886 and 1911. Asian-Indian immigrants from Punjab arrived in California in 1899, and Korean workers came to Hawaii in 1903.

These immigrants faced hardships and discrimination while building railroads and working in farms, mines and factories. They were limited in their ability to own property, bring their families or become citizens.

Eventually, the 1924 U.S. Immigration Act shut down almost all immigration from Asia.

Four decades later, the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act abolished immigration quotas based on national origin and allowed far more skilled workers and family members to enter the country than ever before.

Twenty five years later, the Immigration Act of 1990, signed by President George H.W. Bush, allowed higher quotas from all countries with preference for certain skilled positions.

These skilled Asian-Pacific immigrants and their descendants have made immense contributions.

Some notable Asian-Americans include Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!; Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail; Vinod Khosla, founder of Sun Microsystems; and Vinod Dham, inventor of the Pentium chip.

Subra Suresh, of Indian origin, heads the National Science Foundation, and Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, of Chinese origin, who was born in St. Louis, is our Secretary of Energy.

According to the Census Bureau, 4.4 percent of Centre County residents are Asian-Americans, which is close to the national average of 4.8 percent.

The next time any of us encounters Asian-or Pacific-Americans, with or without a turban, it would be wise to assume nothing about their history.

Like others in the United States, they may be a descendant of an immigrant who arrived centuries ago, or they may be a pioneering immigrant who arrived just yesterday. And like all of us, they can be expected to contribute to and benefit from this new country they now call their home.

Deride Actions, Not the Group

Originally published in The Centre Daily Times, Sept 30, 2010

My family and I recently spent a difficult summer in India, dealing with the unexpected passing away of my father. Relatives, friends and strangers offered us incredible support during this long stay.
A few of them were curious about Americans, who they “knew” from Hollywood movies, TV shows and news media. They asked us about the “lack of family values” and “materialistic attitudes” among Americans.
We offered them counterexamples of Americans invested in families, of the sandwich generation creatively caring for children and parents and of those volunteering locally and globally.
Our anecdotes were received appreciatively with comments such as, “There is good and bad in all cultures, isn’t there?”
On coming back here, I found stereotypes thriving amid a turbulent global landscape dotted with fault lines at the intersections of different groups and sensitivities. The ground zero mosque controversy provided a fertile ground for creating anti-Muslim and anti-American sentiments.
I believe varied role models could provide anecdotal antidotes to negative perceptions and rebuild our post Sept. 11, 2001, empathy.
To those who want to destructively target Americans, I offer the counterexample of Greg Mortenson, of “Three Cups of Tea” fame. Mortenson, a U.S. veteran, discovered the lack of schools in remote areas of Pakistan after a 1993 climbing expedition to K2, the world’s second highest mountain peak.
He has since built 131 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. President Bill Clinton said Mortenson “is effective in an area where Americans are not popular, because he relates to people as human beings.”
Mortenson’s work may persuade others to treat Americans as individual human beings too.
To those who hate either Americans or Muslims, I suggest the work of Muslim American Fazlur Rahman Khan, considered the “father of the modern skyscraper.”
Khan was born in British India and educated in India and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). He immigrated to the U.S. in 1952 and earned a doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
He was the structural engineer who built the John Hancock Tower and the Sears Tower by innovatively conceiving of the skyscraper as a hollow three-dimensional tube. He made the outer wall of this tube with closely spaced interconnected columns to provide support for the whole structure.
This concept, first executed in 1964, used less material and cost substantially less. It was used in all modern skyscrapers, including the World Trade Center and the tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Consider these realities.
A Muslim American’s idea was used to build the World Trade Center, which later was destroyed by Muslim terrorists.
An American builds schools in Islamic countries, while some Americans attack U.S. mosques.
Obviously, there are Muslims and Americans who are creative, hard working and compassionate, just as there are some who commit acts of violence or intolerance.
Acknowledging diverse role models in peaceful times can prevent blind hatred during a crisis and allow us to reach solutions through dialogue.
We Americans, with our incredible diversity, can take the lead in acknowledging that stereotyping is a losing proposition. We can stand against specific actions without hating a whole group.
Fazlur Khan versus the Sept. 11 terrorists is a great way to counter the negative stereotyping of Muslims. And with Khan and Mortenson as examples, the world may stop stereotyping Americans, too.


Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2010/09/30/2241359/deride-actions-not-the-group.html#ixzz11UjIDRr2

A Festival of Lights

Originally Posted on the Common Threads Blog
Centre Daily Times, Nov 12, 2007

This past week, my husband, daughter and I celebrated Deepavali (also known as Diwali) – the Festival of Lights.

For most of the 900 million Hindus around the world, and for 2 million Hindu Americans, Deepavali is a major festival, spread out over five days, and celebrated with special prayers and rituals, lights, decorations, fireworks and of course food.

It is also a day of significance for around 4 million Jains the world over - as the day on which their founder, Mahavira, attained salvation. It is also a day of importance for around 23 million Sikhs the world over, as the day when one of their religious leaders, or Gurus, attained freedom from captivity.

Deepavali, which gets its name from the Sanskrit Deepa, meaning light, and Avali, meaning row, celebrates the victory of Good over Evil, which is symbolized by bringing light into darkness. The word is today also shortened to Diwali in many parts of India.

In Mumbai (Bombay) where I grew up, schools were closed for about 10–14 days. Adults got a day or two off work. Deepavali day at our house started with a ritual bath in the morning before sunrise, with special oil massages before the bath. This was followed by the bursting of fireworks, and a day of fun and festivity. Rows of clay lamps were lit on our window sills and doorways, and neighbors, friends, and family exchanged homemade sweets and snacks with each other.

In State College, we celebrated the holiday this year by lighting lamps at home, preparing special food on one day, bursting fireworks after dinner with friends on another day, and then celebrating on a third day, with an evening of performances and dinner, organized by the Hindu Students Council on Campus.

The celebrations put together by the Hindu Student Council, a Penn State Student group, were especially touching to the heart. The event provided a common space for those celebrating the festival, in the midst of a larger community, whose calendar and rhthyms of life, do not include Diwali.

The diverse performances - which included a skit, dances, chanting of prayers, and vocal and instrumental music - gave both the performers and the audience an opportunity to pause and create a special memory, while commemorating their own cultural and religious traditions.

And it also provided a wonderful opportunity to share these traditions with those who were of different ethnic or religious origins. And there are surely few ways better than sharing music, dance and food - as first steps for building bridges between people in an atmosphere of respect and celebration.

Onam in State College

Originally Posted in the Common Threads Blog
Centre Daily Times, August 29, 2009

Our family celebrated a special festival, called Onam, this past weekend. We wore special Indian clothes, and set out to collect some flowers from our garden, to create a Pookkalam, or a design with flowers, on our front porch.

Just as my daughter was beginning to sketch the outlines of her design, her friend arrived on his bike.

“Nice dress,” he shouted out, “What are you guys doing?”

He came over, along with a lot of questions…

My daughter told him about the special festival.

Is it a neighborhood festival or just at your house?

No, No, No, not that kind of festival, this is a “holiday” festival. You want to stay and watch us?

Sure, this is so cool… Can I bring a friend over?

Moments, later, we were joined by two more kids, a nine year old and a middle schooler.

It smells so nice here, one of them said, perhaps on getting a whiff of fragrance from the incense.

My daughter and I told them about the 10 day celebrations that lead up to Onam in Kerala, a southern state of India, the days off from school that children would be enjoying and so much more.

Is it a festival like Kwanzaa or Hanukkah? Does it have a story behind it?

Yes, but it is a Hindu festival…

The four kids were soon creating the design together. As they finished their handiwork, I told them how my mother would create a different design on each of the ten days, from the flowers in her garden.

I shared pictures of her Pookkalams with them, and was rewarded with cries of “Wow” and more admiration.

Later that evening, I stood outside taking photographs of our Pookkalam – and realized how much we adults could learn from these four children.

My daughter had extended a welcome, and together, the four kids had made a trip across cultures and countries in the span of seconds, with dignity and respect –and without any judgement.

Now if only we adults could be more like them ….

Father's Day Wishes

Originally Posted in Common Threads Blog,
Centre Daily Times, June 13, 2007

During the first 21 years of my life that I lived in India, I celebrated Teachers' Day in September and Children’s Day in November. After coming here, I became familiar with the many different days designated to honor fathers, mothers, grandparents, spouses/significant others and other groups of people.

Initially I considered these days just a ploy to increase business and sales – but later, I began to value the specific days set aside to celebrate the special people in our life, especially in a non materialistic way.

Fathers for example. For many of us, they were among the first people to make us feel that we matter. Perhaps by soothing us when we cried, carrying us around, rocking us to sleep, changing diapers and doing so much more.

And among the many fathers who never got around to doing these specific tasks, there are still those who have our interests at heart. Who by their daily efforts, have tried to keep us clothed, fed and sheltered - fostered our education, and nurtured our talents. Some providing us basic necessities, and others showering us with luxuries.

Some of us do not have fathers in our lives, but we hopefully have father figures who have made us feel that we matter and that we are not alone.

On Father’s Day, we honor all of them for creating our personal stories and memories, our sense of self and security. For showing up each time and making a difference. Leaving us thankful that our life, with its countless inane details still matters deeply to them.

In my home, my daughter is getting ready to honor two people this Father’s Day - her father and her grandfather, who is visiting from India.

As she is looking for ways to do that, I think about how each of us is just “somebody’s child.” Perhaps with a mother, father and a family that cares about us.

Perhaps with a family that we care about. Wouldn’t thinking of each other as somebody’s child help us find the common thread that humanizes us all?

Perhaps it could end conflicts, and help us at least wish each other well…

On this Father’s Day, I hope that all of us, this collection of somebody’s children, get to enjoy peace and contentment, and to create some happy new memories for ourselves and others.

Language and More at the 2008 Olympics

Originally posted in Common Threads Blog,
Centre Daily Times, on Feb 23, 2007

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” but what if you are expected to do as the Romans do all over the world? This is becoming true with both “speaking English,” and with “accepting Western norms of behavior as the standard” around the world.

CNN aired a segment this week, in which John Roberts reported on attempts in China to translate signs into English before the Olympics – with sometimes funny results. The report focused on the funny translations made in what they termed “Chinglish.”

I however chose to focus on the fact that what the Chinese were attempting to do is so difficult, and something most of us, in the English speaking world, never attempt to do, whether we are hosts or guests. When we hosted the Olympic Games in 2000 in Atlanta, we did not have to worry about translating all our street signs into Mandarin - I wonder how good we would have been at it.

About 500 million people the world over speak English, so it makes sense to have that as an unofficial common language. Of these, 280 million are in the US, 100 million in India, 55 million in the United Kingdom, 17 million in Canada and 16 million in Australia.

But what should we do when we have major international gatherings in countries where English is not the native language? The 2008 Olympic Games are being held in China, where Mandarin Chinese is the official language, a language that is spoken by the largest number of people in the world– more than 1 billion people speak it.

Should the hosts learn English, or the guests learn Mandarin? Should the hosts provide forks and knives, or the guests learn to eat with chopsticks?

I am not sure if we provided chopsticks at the Atlanta Games, and it should be fine if forks and knives are not provided in China. If the Chinese hosts provide them, it will of course be a lesson to the world in hospitality.

Lost in Translation ?

Posted originally in the Common Threads Blog,
Centre Daily Times on Feb 6, 2007

Two recent articles in the CDT – about moves from NY city to State College, and from State College to Omaha, Nebraska – had me thinking about our commonality of experience – of leaving familiar territory, and having to make a strange place familiar. Most students at Penn State can definitely relate to this.

Now imagine making this kind of transition with one more caveat – moving not from another state in the US, but from another country.

3237 students out of the 41795 students at Penn State (or 7.7%) made this journey, from a mind boggling 129 countries, in 2004-05, the latest year for which I could find detailed statistics.

The 661 students from China, 607 from Korea, 588 from India, 226 from Taiwan, 143 from Turkey, 94 Canada, 82 from Japan, 65 from UK, 62 from Malaysia, 61 from Thailand and the remaining 26% from 119 other countries make many transitions in the journey of trying to be at home in State College.

These transitions include finding the doctor, dentist, and hair stylist, making friends, adjusting to new ways of living, weather patterns, food and so much more - but perhaps the most difficult transition they make is that of becoming a “foreign” or “international” student from the “regular” and perhaps “smart” student that they were used to being.

And the fact that sometimes the adjective “foreign” supersedes all other adjectives that could describe the individual that they are, in the interactions with some people in their new home.