Kwok 1

Jolin Kwok

SOC-S342

Jennifer Lee

December 14, 2010

The Chinese-Irish American Hapa Experience

Hapa Girl is a memoir that documents the childhood experiences of American Chinese

May-lee Chai as her family moves from California to New York and finally settles in South

Dakota, facing much xenophobia and racism along the way. The marriage of Chai’s father

Winberg, a Chinese-American, and Chai’s mother Carolyn, an Irish-American, in 1966 had

caused much scandal in their local community of South Dakota, in spite of the abolishment of

the last anti-miscegenation law by the 1964 Civil Rights act (Chai 26). Initially thinking that “the

segregated past was just that, past” (Chai 2), the Chais were forced to acknowledge the

significance of their ethnic differences in the light of mainstream bigotry. Taking on the

perspective of the daughter of a mixed-race family, May-lee Chai contrasts her point of view

with that of her father’s, much of it within an academic setting as her father constantly worked as

a university faculty member as they moved around the country. Through her narration, Chai

shows the generation gap between a first generation Asian American—her father—and a second

generation Asian American—herself—in their approaches in reacting to fellow Americans who

consistently apply the Model Minority theory1 to the family, contrasting the differences in their

approaches to assimilate in a community that seems to treat them as forever foreign. Although

they face very similar social conflicts, the father and daughter react differently. While Winberg

Chai perseveres through hardships caused by racial bigotry with his denial of the existence of

1
In America, it is the myth that Asians and Asian Americans are higher achieving than other
ethnic minority groups and therefore can serve as role models for said groups.
 Kwok 2

racism against Chinese Americans, his daughter May-lee Chai acknowledges the racial

harassment towards her and her family and struggles to rise above it.

What Winberg Chai the Father Sees

When the Chais transitioned their lives to conservative South Dakota from liberal New

York, Winberg dismissed every hardship the townspeople brought upon him and his family as

mere life obstacles he had to overcome, instead of an attack that is overtly racial. When the

townspeople stare at his mixed-race family when he brought them to town, he sees their attention

as harmless, ignoring it as a local warning against what he fails to see as a crime of

miscegenation which he committed. Then, although all of their pet dogs (there were at least 7 of

them) are eventually killed in the driveway (Chai 182) in spite of the local laws that banned

hunting within 300 ft. of a private property or house (Chai 58), Winberg insists that the offenders

are hunters who mistook the dogs for pheasants. Whenever his daughter May-lee reminds him

how some boys had tried to kill his son Jeff after a local high school basketball game, he always

“[professes] ignorance”, wondering why his wife Carolyn never told him about it (Chai 157).

Furthermore, even when he learns that the main reason why he failed to get the academic jobs he

applied for is due to the local university committee board’s decision to prevent this

“‘Chinaman’…from providing for his family” (Chai 115)—subsequently acknowledging that

“they want to destroy [his] career” (Chai 137)—he still decides to persevere with a wait-and-see

approach.

What seems like Winberg’s colorblind attitude towards apparent race-driven xenophobic

attacks can be understood through an analysis of his strong Chinese roots, in terms of job

security, the importance of the academics, and the importance of saving face. Back in his father’s

day in China, there was “no higher calling” for “intellectuals” than to be teachers; for not only
 Kwok 3

was the job noble, it also guaranteed financial security (Chai 116). Ever since the Han Dynasty

initiated the challenging 3-day civil service exam that promised “wealth, power, and prestige” to

any family whose son could pass the exam, education has become the goal of the Chinese

generation (Chai 40). Hence, since academic success and job security are synonymous, as the

first-born son, it is particularly important that Winberg prioritizes job security and “follow in his

father’s footsteps, which [means] getting a Ph.D. and becoming a professor” (Chai 116). This

priority is especially evident when he had to deal with many radical dissenters during a faculty

senate meeting when he was the “first [chairman] of the newly created Department of Asian

Studies at the City College of New York” (Chai 38). The various recounts of the event he makes

to his family and friends over Thanksgiving dinner—about how he successfully took charge of

the situation—indicate that he is mainly concern with keeping control and maintaining the

security of his own department, ultimately saving his job (Chai 46).

Hence, perhaps by the time Winberg arrives in South Dakota and starts to face new social

issues, his perspective towards social conflicts is also already desensitized by the past conflicts

he faced back at City College in New York. The focus was not racial for him to begin with—

back there, and it was just as stressful—so why should his problems be seen as racial now? More

importantly, his problems seem to have always occurred largely within the academic circle,

which, according to his traditional Chinese worldview, essentially is his scholarly approach to

life. After about 9 months in South Dakota, feeling dismayed at the uncanny resistance his

suggestions faced in the university committee, thereby undermining his position as the vice

president for academic affairs, he resigned without giving much thought to the potential racial

implications of the fact that the university committee board members are predominantly White

(Chai 95). In fact, out of frustration, he blamed his hardship on the conservative rural life of
 Kwok 4

South Dakota, contrasting it with the liberal city life he used to know (Chai 74). To further show

how Winberg’s preoccupation with his life goal of higher education and job security overrides

any consideration of racial prejudice against him in his life, when he subsequently takes up a

position in Houston, Texas as an “international educational consultant”, it does not matter to him

that this job pays “far better” than his last job, or that he helps foreign students adjust to the

American university system. For the job does not provide security in terms of health insurance

and tenure, and this causes him to feel “ashamed”, that he is disappointing his father; for this he

resolves to “search for another academic post” (Chai 117).

At the same time, on a more introspective level, the Chinese tradition also trained

Winberg to believe in “the fine art of denial” that he could consistently deny that there is racism

against Asians or Chinese in contemporary America by referring to “all the successful and rich

Chinese” in America, no matter how May-lee tries to prove him wrong with evidences from their

family life (Chai 158). By denying the existence of adversity—in this case, racial prejudice and

discrimination—he essentially denies the external factors for failure, allowing him to “save

face”, retain faith in himself, and appear invincibly strong (Chai 158). This approach of saving

face works for Winberg. When Carolyn opened a photography studio and started using her Irish

roots to her advantage, they both eventually established their social place in South Dakota.

Garnering much support from his wife’s “Irish gang”, he managed to transition his dreams from

the world of academia to the world of politics, supporting “progressive candidates” who believe

in education and new businesses (Chai 180). In 1988, almost a decade after the Chais first moved

to South Dakota, Winberg “fulfilled a personal dream…by becoming a state-elected delegate to

the Democratic Convention in Atlanta” (Chai 180).

 Kwok 5

Saving face is the Chinese way of overcoming one’s problems, by persevering through all

problems with self-reliance and hard work while retaining a publicly admirable self-image. This

is also how Winberg wants his children to be confident and strong and have constant vigilance,

even if it means upholding high expectations for them. Therefore, he tends not to see his stressful

experiences in South Dakota as a result of racism, but as mere challenges to overcome in life. To

him, the xenophobia expressed in his town focuses on his liberal ideas—since barely any of them

have been taken seriously into consideration—allowing him to see the context of the conflict as

rural town versus metropolitan city instead of Whites versus Asians. Moreover, because of

Winberg’s strong identification with his Chinese roots as he attempts to establish his academic

career in America, it appears that China is his home whereas America is his job. Deep down, he

is assured that he is Chinese so he is comfortable with people viewing him as a Chinese or an

Asian. Hence, perhaps because of this dynamic of his sense of belonging, he already sees himself

as foreign in America to begin with that he does not feel as affected as the rest of his family does

by racism, for racism fundamentally marks the ethnic other as forever foreign.

What May-lee Chai the Daughter Sees Instead

On the other hand, Winberg’s daughter May-lee does not see the hardships the

townspeople of South Dakota brought upon her and her family as mere life obstacles. Many of

the challenges she faces in their town felt racist to her largely because she has to deal with ethnic

prejudice both at school and out of school that racism seems to permeate her entire life in South

Dakota. Initially, in her childhood years, May-lee Chai’s reaction to the xenophobia her family

faces in South Dakota is understandably influenced and contained by the reaction of her father

Winberg. During their first year in South Dakota, in the parking lot of a local mall in Yankton

city, a redneck man walked up to them and called them “Chinks”, to which Winberg responds by
 Kwok 6

saying loudly that he was impressed by the accuracy of the target race, for their townspeople call

them “Japs” instead, allowing the family to laugh and make light of the racial slur (Chai 106).

While Winberg’s sense of humor successfully saves face for the family, it is hard for

May-lee to maintain a light-hearted perspective when her subsequent experiences in South

Dakota are plagued with racial violence. For instance, she notices the shouting of (racial)

profanities of “Jap” and “Cunt” whenever strangers drove up to the family home to fire gunshots

—which eventually killed all the family pet dogs—and traumatized her to the extent that since

the age of 12, she would have trouble sleeping (Chai 68). In school, May-lee learns from her

schoolmates that her White mother Carolyn is a “floozy” for marrying her “Chinaman” father

Winberg and that she “must have been adopted, because [she does not] look like her mother”

(Chai 81). Moreover, she learns to see herself and her brother Jeff as ethnic others—instead of

people with fluid ethnicity—who are not welcomed in general, for the mixed-race signifies to

them that “the End Times, when the Anti-Christ would return” (Chai 81). These notions are

especially troubling for May-lee when she considers her religious piousness with regards to her

family’s Catholic background, causing her to self-loathe and develop hatred for her local

community members.

Furthermore, even when the local social situation improves for her parents, slowly but

surely, May-lee still notices “many signs” that indicate that her brother and her have outstayed

their welcome in the community (Chai 180). For example, a schoolmate’s parent unsuccessfully

attempts to unfairly eliminate her from the school’s National History Day team, making her feel

betrayed by her own teammates that she ends up tagging along with the team from another town

when they arrived at Washington, D.C. (Chai 180) Highlighting the violence of the local high

school, May-lee observes that Jeff and his friends lift weights since their eighth grade so that
 Kwok 7

they can “survive freshman year” (Chai 125). Apparently his preparation is necessary yet futile,

because although his athletic talents are appreciated by the gym teachers, Jeff was attacked

during wrestling practice by his classmates who broke his diaphragm while the coach was away

from the gym (Chai 181). Furthermore, as if this act is not violent enough, after a high school

basketball game in the parking lot, three white boys from Yankton attempt to assault a

weaponless Jeff with “baseball bats and two-by-fours” because they assume he was a Native

American (Chai 162-3).

Consequently, May-lee never enjoyed her school life much. Every time she returns home

she disconnects herself from her parents, refusing to talk to them whenever they ask her about

her day at school. Understandably, the racial tension she feels at school overwhelms her that

oftentimes she gets angry at her parents for acting as if nothing of the sort happens, as if she

appreciates school like most school-going children are expected to. As a result, her father feels

perplexed by her rebellious reaction. He gets angry with what he perceives to be her disrespect

for her elders and demands that she “[honors her] father and mother” (Chai 77), angering her

even more. Once again this shows the contrast between his Confucian ideal of saving face and

reverence for the family elders with her lack of association with such Chinese traditions. When

May-lee tries to use the troubles she and her brother face in South Dakota to prove that racism

against Chinese does exist, Winberg resolutely assert that they “just don’t know how to get along

with people” (Chai 206). In the end, she concludes that her father simply have “no idea what

[their] lives [are] like. He [cannot] understand [them], the people [they are] becoming” (Chai

130). Unlike her father, May-lee is not colorblind to the xenophobic prejudice in town.

Moreover, because of the unwanted attention that associates her apparently contradictory

physical attributes with her mixed-ethnicity—for example, her schoolmates ask her “Why is your
 Kwok 8

face so fat and your body so thin? Is it because you’re Chinese?” (Chai 181)—May-lee becomes

uncomfortably self-conscious about how she stands out just because she looks distinctly

different. The peak of her teenage angst arrives at the age of 15, when grown men start to

approach her with inappropriate stories about the sexual experiences they have had when they

were in the Asian continent. One way she tries to escape their attention is by getting a bad perm,

making her “straight, dark hair…orangish and frizzy” so that “no one could tell [she is] Asian”

from looking at her back (Chai 138-40). She does not do it out of Caucasian pride, but merely as

an attempt at survival. She imagines that escaping from her obvious Asian roots can help her

conform to her oppressive surrounding that seems far more forgiving towards her Caucasian

counterparts.

Yet, in spite of being made aware of the dual colors of her ethnicity, May-lee is also

consistently being reminded of her lack of actual roots in any specific race. On the summer of

her 14th birthday, even though they are not close friends, Kitty throws her a farewell party during

the summer the Chais plan yet another move, as if to bid her good riddance, as if “there [is] some

shame in moving” (Chai 108). During the party, Kitty brags that she grew up in the local

community, like “the crops”, and expresses “mock sympathy” that May-lee is “like…

tumbleweed” for not having roots (Chai 108). While Kitty’s comment at face value can be seen

to target May-lee’s lack of establishment in any local community since her family moves a lot,

her comment is also applicable to May-lee’s unstable, mixed ethnic identity. She is

simultaneously Irish and Chinese and American, yet in South Dakota, the exotic Oriental aspect

of her Chinese heritage is amplified beyond her control and this causes her to feel like a

perpetual foreigner. This focus makes her painfully aware of her lack of roots in her own place of

birth which is America.

 Kwok 9

Therefore, the constant reminders of her ethnic ambiguity cause May-lee to see her

hardships in South Dakota as a result of racism and not just general challenges to overcome in

life. For her, the xenophobic focus is her lack of clear ethnicity. Unlike her Chinese-identified

father, May-lee feels like she is not quite Chinese yet not quite American either. Because of this

lack of association with her Chinese and American roots, she failed to fully identify with either

of them. While China and America may provide her job security, neither America nor China is

her home. Finally, because of the deep level of awareness she has about how racial differences

play in the prejudice against her and her family, she may feel like the perpetual foreigner in her

native land.

On A Global Scale

While both father and daughter faces similar kinds of prejudice in the form of ethnic

xenophobia in South Dakota, their individual reactions to them show that the daughter finds the

xenophobia more problematic than the father does. Their reactions are reflective of where they

see themselves coming from. The fact that the father does not seem personally affected by the

issues of ethnicity or racism is indicative that he has a strong sense of his own ethnic identity or

origin. The fact that the daughter is negatively affected by her observations of the effects of

ethnic prejudice over her family and her life is indicative that she has a weak sense of belonging

to either side of her mixed ethnicity.

This phenomenon can also be analyzed in a broader sense. Since 1966, plenty of articles

were published nationwide, praising the “virtues and accomplishments of Asian Americans,

especially in terms of exceptional educational achievements and phenomenal economic upward

mobility” in spite of past discriminations they faced, thus labeling them as the Model Minority,

setting Asian Americans as examples for other ethnic minorities to follow in their pursuit of the
 Kwok 10

American Dream (Fong 62). As flattering as that appraisal may sound, not only is it a large

overgeneralization that is based on sensationalized successes of very few high-achieving Asian

Americans (and hence making the theory a myth), what the Model Minority Myth fundamentally

serves to do is to reaffirm that “America is a land of opportunity, where people are rewarded for

their hard work and diligence” (Osajima 453). While giving praise, as the 1992 report by the

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights discusses, it effectively “distracts public attention away from

continued, [oftentimes] overt, racial discrimination faced by Asian Americans” (Fong 62),

denying genuine needs of the very diverse Asian American community as a whole. With this in

mind, it is no wonder how Winberg can staunchly assert that Chinese in America do no face

racism if only because he thinks many of them are rich and successful.

However, it is also because of this misleading hyperbole that all Asian Americans are

rich and successful that makes this myth far more dangerous beyond the surface. Not only does

the justification of the Model Minority Myth masks racial discrimination against Asian

Americans, it “instigates” the discrimination against Asian Americans as “retribution” or a kind

of compensatory retaliation from non-Asian Americans who are jealous of their perceived

financial successes (Wu 70). The adverse effect of the myth is shown in the lives of the Chais

when they move to South Dakota. It was 1979 and it is a period when the American media are

also critical of the growing trade gap between Japan and the United States. Yet, because the

Chais do not see themselves as Japanese like the locals do, they are not aware of how the

growing animosity towards Japan’s rise of economic power and the media-glorified Model

Minority theory—on top of their crime of bringing miscegenation to a conservative Midwestern

American town—can affect them (Chai 118). Like in the case of Vincent Chin—a Chinese

American engineer who was killed by two White former General Motor workers, presumably
 Kwok 11

because the latter thought the former was a Japanese (Wu 70-1)—the townspeople in South

Dakota evidently see the Chais as foreign threats, because of the latter’s physical link to East

Asian heritage, when some of them called May-lee “Jap!” As Victor Wong laments in the PBS

documentary My America... or Honk If You Love Buddha (1997), because there were so many

wars with Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam throughout the 20th century, it is convenient to view

the chain of events as “one big war against Asia”.

As we are learning about Winberg’s side of the story from May-lee’s perspective, we also

learn about how a 2nd generation Chinese American views a 1st generation Chinese American.

Being a 1st generation Chinese American, even though he was brought up in New York, Winberg

is still very attached to his traditional Chinese upbringing and the ethnic roots of his Chinese

immigrant parents. As mentioned, because the academics and security go hand-in-hand in

Chinese tradition, Winberg sees job security as insurance for one’s survival in urban life.

Furthermore, he is portrayed as a hard worker who aims to achieve perfection in the realm of

higher education. The quality of quiet acceptance that comes with the discipline of saving face

ensures that he is seen as self-reliant and resilient. Ultimately, Winberg is depicted as a textbook

example of a Model Minority. Unlike his daughter, the myth does not affect his sense of

belonging with his ethnicity. Because his values have been deeply ingrained with roots from

China, the fact that the myth consistently associates him with his foreignness may inadvertently

influence him to perpetuate the stereotype.

In comparison, while highly educated and intelligent as well, as a 2nd generation Chinese

American, May-lee is further detached from her Chinese ethnic roots. Given her half Irish roots

and memoir title Hapa Girl2, she is more immersed in the White environment of America than

2
The term ‘hapa’ originates from the Hawaiian pidgin term hapa-haole which literally means
“half white”, contemporarily referring to people of Asian or Asian American and non-Asian or
–Asian American (in this case, Caucasian) parentage (“IMDiversity Inc.”).
 Kwok 12

her father is. As her childhood years occur during the Cultural Revolution, she may also be more

sensitive to the chaotic racial climate of socio-political changes within the local community as a

result. In school, because she cannot socialize with her peers without feeling uncomfortable with

the prevalence of ongoing racial prejudice, May-lee spends a lot of time practicing and greatly

improving her French language (Chai 142, 155). Though this debunks the Model Minority myth

of the ‘natural’ Asian American hardworking genius, her high academic achievements only serve

to trap her to the myth. In the midst of confusing times (also, she is teenager after all :), as she

feels less assured of her self-identity compared to her father, the effects of the Model Minority

myth only makes her feel as forever foreign. Even if the focus on her Asian heritage may

encourage her to follow her father’s Chinese roots, her Asian-ness is nonetheless rejected by the

local community.

The Model Minority myth contributes to a problematic reception of the status of May-lee

and Winberg as Asian Americans. Generally, the myth is a double edge sword that paints the

Asian and Asian American community in both positive and negative light as it contends Asians

and Asian Americans with their ethnic others. Ultimately, it is a public commentary in which its

truths about the economic and academic successes of Asian Americans are blown out of

proportions. As evident in the case of the Chais, Asians in America cannot afford to remain

ignorant to the myth, should they want to promote a better understanding of their relations with

other racial groups who happen to live on the same land.

Conclusion

With a plummeting unstable American economy in the 1980s and fear-mongering

techniques—like the mixed message of the Model Minority myth—employed by the dominant
 Kwok 13

media in order to generate sensation in the name of profit, foreign others of Asian ancestry

became scapegoats of xenophobia. In their attempts to cope with the racial prejudice they face in

South Dakota, Winberg Chai goes in denial of the ethnic influence while May-lee Chai try to

address the issue by dyeing her hair to hide her Asian roots. While their approaches contrast each

other, the father and daughter share the common goal of survival. As reflected in the

documentary My America... or Honk If You Love Buddha, May-lee is like the narrator’s mother

who thought that being “too” Japanese is why the latter’s family was sent to the Japanese-

American internment camp and therefore the latter tries hard to have the whole family blend in

with the American community. On the other hand, Winberg is like the Hmong lady in the

documentary who does not even consider the question of identity, for her family is so poor that

her focus is on day-to-day survival. Therefore, it is a more straightforward approach for Winberg

whereas it is more confusing for May-lee. Unlike May-lee, Winberg is assured of his ethnic

identity that he does not have to gamble with an investment in trying to localize himself; to him,

he is a Chinese first, and an American second. Because it is the other way around for his

daughter, xenophobia becomes a bigger issue for her.

A global analogy closest to the case of May-lee Chai’s mixed ethnic experience is when

Asian parents send their children to the United States to pursue higher education. Should their

children be trying to cope on their own in foreign land, the cultural differences can be

multilayered and complex that the children may feel too overwhelmed as they try to come to

terms with their strange experiences. Consequently, a weak identification with their ethnic roots

may cause them fail to communicate effectively with their parents back at their native land,

enlarging the generational gap. In the age of the Internet, it also becomes increasingly easy for

children to be exposed to various cultures across the globe. Without proper guidance, not only
 Kwok 14

might they lose out on the psychological intimacy and bond traditional methods of education—

like reading books—ensure for the family, children may also easily lose track with their cultural

appropriations from the East and West. The question of one’s own roots then becomes

significant in order to promote stability and security in one’s personal life in the face of

xenophobia around the world. As cultural traditions and values are highly internalized, children

of the technological age may feel as lost, when it comes to associating themselves with the roots

of their parents and the roots of the community they choose to associate with, as the people with

parentage of mixed ethnicity, as in the case of May-lee Chai.

Works Cited

Chai, May-lee. Hapa Girl: A Memoir. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2007. Print.

Fong, Timothy P. The Contemporary Asian American Experience: Beyond the Model Minority.
 Kwok 15

3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2008. Print.

Osajima, Keith. Asian Americans as the Model Minority: An Analysis of the Popular Press

Image in the 1960s and 1980s. Print.

"What’s a "Hapa"...? ...and an Amerasian, "Banana," and 1.5-er?." IMDiversity.com Career

Center, Job Banks and Multicultural Villages. IMDiversity Inc., 2010. Web. 14 Dec

2010.

<http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/reference/whats_a_hapa_happa.asp>.

Wu, Frank H. Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White. New York, NY: Basic Books,

2003. Print.

Tajima-Pena, Renee, Dir. My America... or Honk If You Love Buddha. Dir. Renee Tajima-Pena."

Perf. Renee Tajima-Pena, Renee. PBS: 1997, Film.