I'm of Vietnamese descent, my parents were born in Vietnam and escaped to the US after South Vietnam fell. The thing is what you said, the "asian community" really only exists as a construct of Asian Americans. It's not an idea held by immigrants. Best thing is that you do well as an individual and cultivate the same positive attitudes among your local community.
it's much easier to keep a smaller community healthy and make it respectable than to try and force the rest of society to give you respect. If you try and demand it, you won't get respect, you'll get pity. Stay humble and work hard. It'll come in time, the same way it did for Japanese Americans.
Will there be people who mistake Chinese for Vietnamese or Japanese for Korean? Sure. But I couldn't tell a Scotsman, Irishman, Welshman, or Englishman apart either. And all would be upset if I said they were the same.
I'm of Vietnamese descent, my parents were born in Vietnam and escaped to the US after South Vietnam fell. The thing is what you said, the "asian community" really only exists as a construct of Asian Americans. It's not an idea held by immigrants. Best thing is that you do well as an individual and cultivate the same positive attitudes among your local community.
it's much easier to keep a smaller community healthy and make it respectable than to try and force the rest of society to give you respect. If you try and demand it, you won't get respect, you'll get pity. Stay humble and work hard. It'll come in time, the same way it did for Japanese Americans.
Will there be people who mistake Chinese for Vietnamese or Japanese for Korean? Sure. But I couldn't tell a Scotsman, Irishman, Welshman, or Englishman apart either. And all would be upset if I said they were the same.