The purpose of the assignment was to fully understand how representation works in American media and how important APA representation is. I think after watching hours of TV, it really gave me a deeper understanding of how limited APA representation really was, and it showed me how much of a gap there is compared to other minority representation. This was really disappointing for me because I think that in order for more people to feel represented in mainstream media, all races and cultures should be represented in a way that isn’t harmful or playing on stereotypes.

  My biggest takeaway for this assignment was how even in environments where there can be many ethnic groups, such as California, the APA representation was surprisingly minimal. I think it is completely unrealistic and shows me how often the media tends to ignore the real diversity there is in America. But when they are represented, even minorities that aren’t Asian, they play on harmful stereotypes that we see time and time again. Specifically in the media that I watched, which was a movie called “Paranormal Activity 2,” the Hispanic maid was treated as “crazy” and “too obsessed with their cultures’ traditions.” This is harmful in two ways, one being that they were shown as a maid, which is often stereotyped, and the other being that they were shown in a way that wasn’t reflective of actual Hispanic culture. 

  There was positive APA representation in the three hours I watched, but only in commercials. Such as an Asian woman being represented as a business owner or just a regular shopper; still though, this representation was very limited. Still though, I think this assignment really shows me how Americans see APA communities and how little they care to even show them in media that isn’t in a harmful way. Before doing this assignment I wasn’t truly aware of the lack of representation, but really putting a magnifying glass on it, my eyes have been opened to the patterns.

I was focused on how the family changed over time and what challenges they faced while integrating their culture with American culture. I was able to understand their beliefs and how this new change in scenery affected their family.

What really stood out to me from the documentary the most was how important their traditions were and how difficult it was to maintain them as their family grew further as Americans. The family came from Laos after their village was destroyed in the war, and they wanted to rebuild that life in the states. Their father, a shaman, always worried about his culture disappearing right in front of him. The strongest message of all that I got was that family is important, and it is important to appreciate the culture where your family comes from, and you can’t just let your culture disappear.

I learned that immigration affects each generation that comes along differently. Their children weren’t around when they moved, and if they were, they weren’t affected by it the same as their parents. As their kids grew up as Americans, they wanted to follow more American values and didn’t see their Hmong traditions as important as their father did. But their traditions still followed them in the states, the daughters being kidnapped as a way of marriage, disconnecting the father’s daughters from him. His son was dating a white girl, which was very different from how he viewed relationships. To their father, they were very depressed because it seemed like the traditions he holds so valuable were slipping away from him after moving.

But as their family grew up and grew larger, the kids were finally able to come together as a family. Each member understood how important their father’s traditions were to him and was willing to involve their new families with them. After finally embracing traditions, their family came back as his old self again.

  The goal of this assignment was to learn about my friend’s family history and truly understand how his family’s experiences immigrating to a different country shaped their identity. By speaking directly to his siblings, I was able to gain a much closer perspective than I would have just through our readings and the documentaries that we watched. I understood how their family’s culture, sacrifice, and connection helped change their family for the better, which might not be understood from the outside looking in.

  The biggest thing I learned from this assignment was how different members of the family had different views of their cultural identity depending on who was born when. Rich’s brother, being the most knowledgeable, as he spent most of his childhood in the Philippines, remembered how busy the streets were and how close the community was. He remembered the culture shock he felt when he first moved to the United States. He was surprised at how organized and cleaner the streets were and how differently the air smelled in a different country. His experience gave me a closer understanding of how immigration can affect his perspective and how someone must adapt to a new norm.

  His sister had a different experience; after all, they were only one year old when they moved to the states. She grew up with a more American upbringing but still felt personal ties to their Filipino roots and how embedded it was with her family. Rich himself only has experiences in the United States, so he also feels more American than anything and is proud to be so. But they both had their family to help them understand their culture through food and language.

  I think overall, this project not only made me understand the pressures of immigrating into a different country but also understand my friend better as a person. This made me more aware of how hard immigrant families have to work in order to adapt to a new country. It helps me understand that through a personal connection, one that someone can get only by knowing someone in those communities. This experience will stay with me way beyond class and has given me a more open mind.