Still American, Just a Different Kind

Tommy Chaisuesomboon Undeclared, Class of 2017

ACAA Abroad
Herbs, Cups and Needles: The Ying and Yang of Traditional Chinese
Dean Rusk Grant Recipient Summer 2013 to China Catherine Wu Undeclared, Class of 2017

ctober 2013 saw the ACAA celebrate APIA (Asia and Pacific Island) week. Filled to the brim with events and free food, it was a great time for any Davidson student, whether APIA or not. But I want everyone to understand something about APIA week: this is not just a celebration of free food in a week full of vaguely Asian or Asian related events. For many of us, its an affirmation of our own identity. If you look at my last name (its 14 letters for those of you that dont want to count), you may be intimidated, unsure as to what my origins are. As Ive said, Im Thai American.Yes, Ive eaten padthai; no, Im not a transsexual; yes, Im Buddhist; and no, I was not born there. I was born in Miami, Florida which is just as full of palm trees and just as hot and humid. And despite how much they see or believe they see of the Thai side of me, people often forget the American part of me. I remember the moment I realized I was Asian. I was in Kindergarten, the year 2000, around the time of Thanksgiving. My elementary school had a tradition of having us dress up as Pilgrims or Native Americans in celebration of Thanksgiving and we, with all of the teachers around us, would eat grocery store turkey andmicrowavedmashed potatoes in a huddled circle of cultural appropriation. I wanted to be a Pilgrim. I was drawn to their buckled hats and weird shoes and I thought itd be fun to dress up as one. But my classmates didnt think so. The Pilgrims werent as dark as you. Asians dont look like Pilgrims.Minwoois going to be an Indian, why arent you? Funny enough, a few of those comments came from my Hispanic classmates, many of those having more of a claim to Native American ancestry than I, the child of two Thai immigrants, could ever have. Why couldnt I be American like the Pilgrims?

over half of the population is immigrant or immigrantborn. To me, the question of Where are you from? prompts a classically-conditioned answer of Born here, but my parents are from Thailand. You? simply because everyone I knew wasnt simply American, they were Cuban but American, Nicaraguan but American, Venezuelan but American. We were all hyphenated Americans together. As my classmates and I grew older, we started having a greater appreciation and understanding of what it meant to be American, how even though we could look each other in the eye and know we were both American, we said this in the bubble that was Miami.Would we still be American if we went to Chicago, or St. Louis, or Portland? Who would a random stranger think was more American, me, or a white South African? Coming up with an identity is hard, especially when the other half of myself, my American self, is rarely ever talked about. Can I talk about how much I think the Knicks suck or how much I enjoy watchingBreaking Badinstead of asking me to say something in Thai or if I know how to make padthai?
Pictured : The traditional Chinese procedure of cupping is used to heal back pain.

Many of us Asian Americans, especially the more recent immigrants, are in an odd state of transition. The cultural ties of the family come in contact with the American lifestyle and create a sort of chimera of cultures. For me, APIA week represents the newer generation of Asian Americans, the group of people that, despite their diverse backgrounds (Asia is a very large continent), are still assumed to be foreign or exotic. Its not that curiosity over our backgrounds is bad, but assuming that we know anything about a culture you might assume us to be in before you even know us perpetuates these feelings of never being American. The moment we consider ourselves American, Growing up, I was always the exotic one in a city considered we are not only Asian anymore. I am American, and even exotic to the rest of America. However, I also felt an odd though I, through my ancestry and self-identification, sort of sense of belonging in America, though not the bring a different culture to the mosaic that is American America one normally thinks of. I grew up in Miami, where society, I am still American, just prefixed with an Asian.

y first day shadowing a doctor in Mianyang, I myself. However, I quickly found that TCM was far more literally thought I was going to die. Dr. Lin was an complex and polarizing than I could have ever imagined. ancient old man with semi-evil cackle and scraggly teeth. Many Chinese people view TCM as a cure-all; they tell He smoked at least 2 cigarettes per hour, and his patients anecdotes about the efficacy of acupuncture or how would continually offer him cigarettes when they saw he certain herbal medicines act as a sort of miracle drug. was almost done with his last one. He spoke in a strong Others argue that it is a pseudoscience and an example of Sichuan dialect, which was difficult to understand. I sat on the backwardness of China. Moreover, I had not realized a chair next to him, trying as hard as I could to avoid the that the concepts of TCM were deeply embedded in toxic fumes, while his resident sat across from him writing everyday Chinese culture: nutrition, exercise, housing out prescriptions for herbal medicines on a pad. Dr. Lin and social relationships. Even a 10-year-old kid lectured specialized in gastrointestinal problems, which meant me about how you were supposed to eat radishes in the there were a lot of descriptions of different kinds of poop. summer to reduce heat and mushrooms in the winter This was a little jarring for me considering the office also to protect from cold. Extricating the medical value of doubled as a waiting room and up to 15 However, I quickly found traditional Chinese medicine from other patients and family members would that TCM was far more its role in culture is impossible. be packed in the confined space, listening to the previous patients problems and complex and polarizing than Observing a population prescribe sometimes offering suggestions. The I could have ever imagined. to an ethnomedicine that can be described a religion, history and doctor would see the patients at lightning science was a wholly fascinating experience. To reconnect speed and at the end of each morning, he had a list of 20 or more patients on the computer screen (who swiped their with my heritage, to discover healing in strange corners, insurance cards). Furthermore, nurses would come by to glimpse into the lives of new, interesting strangers with ailments that the doctor would accommodate as well. and realize my love of the doctors office. Through these journeys I learnmore about myself, how little I know, I came into my research expecting that I would be able how much more I need to discover and how different the to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional Chinese world appears when one can step beyond the safety of medicine by observing the participants of Traditional American superiority and experience another culture. Chinese Medicine (TCM) and directly participating in it