by Santanu Rahman
One of the things that I like to talk about is Bruce Lee being Asian American.
What has been discussed many times is Bruce Lee being one of the first Asians to make it big in Hollywood.
True. But let’s not forget that he was an American. He was Asian American.
He was born in San Francisco, while his parents were traveling, November 27, 1940.
He grew up in Hong Kong, and then moved to the U.S. in 1959.
The Asian American community is very diverse. Just to help understand the broader picture of who Asian Americans are, I’ll discuss two main areas that contribute to its diversity.
Ethnic & Geographic Diversity - Asia is a large place! There are 3 main areas I like to focus on when approaching this topic - East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
—East Asia is comprised of countries like China, Japan, and Korea.
—South Asia is comprised of countries like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
—Southeast Asia is comprised of countries like Vietnam, The Philippines, and Indonesia.
Yes, there are more regions, such as West Asia (more commonly referred to as the Middle East), and North Asia (more commonly referred to as Eastern Europe). I initially leave these groups out because when we are talking about racial classifications in America, many times, what is implied are phenotypic features.Generational Diversity - the generational diversity is something that is rarely talked about. I have 3 main generation categories - 1st Generation, 1.5 Generation, and 2nd+ Generation.
—1st Generation - usually born and raised in Asia, then immigrate to the USA as an adult. These are usually the folks who come to America as immigrants, and then eventually become citizens.
—1.5 Generation - born in Asia, but grow up in America. So these are folks who are born in an Asian country, but their family moves to America, and they grow up here.
—2nd+ Generation - born and raised in America. They are of Asian heritage, but they are born and raised in America (like me).
Interesting, right? So where does that place Bruce Lee? He doesn’t quite fit very neatly into these categories. I call him “1st Generation, Non-Immigrant”. Usually, the 1st Generation are immigrants. But he was American by birth, and he was the first in his family to move to the states.
One of the aspects of being Asian American that I like to talk about is the fact that we are living in two worlds, constantly negotiating our identities. What we end up with is a very multicultural experience. Many times, it is expected of people who are of Asian decent, to be experts at the language and culture. But just looking at someone who is Asian, you can’t assume you know what generation they are. They could be first generation, and know the language, history, and culture well. Or they could be third generation and be pretty removed from those aspects.
What was amazing about Bruce Lee is that he did not subscribe to one culture. He was very adamant about researching, and learning from others. His motto was:
Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.
And that is exactly what I do! :)