DO YOU SPEAK

Do You Speak

Do you speak? As Asian Americans, we hear that a lot, don't we? I
know I do! And it's a double edged sword too! Sometimes I get the
feeling that we, as AA's, are suppose to maintain dual identities due only to
our physical appearances.

Here's what I mean:

During our winter 1996 touring season, the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors were
fortunate enough to go to Hong Kong to perform at the Annual Fringe Festival.
I thought: Wow! This is great! We're going some place where WE are
the majority! (Although I must confess, the feeling wasn't too
different from being in Chinatown). The trip was fun and rewarding, but one
thing stood out for me: At the Hong Kong Fringe Club everyone, including
Chinese, came up to us and automatically communicated in English. After a few
minutes the local Hong Kong citizens would ask Do you speak?

Do I speak? ... I was speaking to them right there, wasn't
I? Did it matter that I was Chinese American and they were Chinese British
and that we were conversing in English? Was there something so
fundamentally wrong with that picture that one Chinese would be prompted to ask
another Do you speak?

It suddenly dawned on me that being Chinese American you're expected to
speak not only English, but at least enough of your native tongue to get by with
a National. I have been very lucky because my parents were so strict when
I was growing up. I had to speak English when I was with White
Americans at school or in society, and speak Mandarin Taiwanese when I got
home. As if that wasn't enough, my mother made me study Chinese school
books up to the 6th grade even though I had graduated from the 3rd grade when we
immigrated to the U.S.! Yeah, so that means I can still read and write a
little. But being able to speak was automatically assumed!

AND if you WERE able to speak your own language, there was an automatic sense
of good up-bringing attached to your personal family background and an immediate
sense of closeness. The pride of passing on one's culture and
heritage to the next generation was somehow achieved and preserved. BUT if
you DIDN'T speak, you were considered below standard because you were perceived
as going to become just like a Guai Lou (Whitey).

Some of the 18MMW's Chinese American members did not speak (they were just
like Whitey), and were brushed off by comments (in Cantonese) like:
You should learn to speak so that you don't forget your culture! or
He/She is just a Tao Ju (a negative slang meaning a Chinese born
overseas)! or Let's charge them more money! They'll never
know!

I am lucky in the sense that I can be considered both a FOB and an American
born since I immigrated to the U.S. before I reached my teenage years. But
my fellow actors who are American born and don't speak Chinese faced a subtle
type of discrimination of which they weren't even aware.

It's difficult enough to deal with the real ugly issues, such as racial
discrimination, but us Asians also have to deal with intra-racial discrimination:
you get the FOB's against the Tao Ju's and the Taiwanese against the Hong Kong-ese.
In this example, aren't Taiwanese and Hong Kong-ese all Chinese?

So, to make a long story short, when we got back to the States, I invited
some of my White co-workers to come see our next 18MMW show. Their first
response was Do you speak?

Of course we speak English in the show! Would I invite you if we
didn't??

Arrrrgggghhhh!!!!

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  DON'T SPEAK TOO LOUD

  
  

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