Edward Yang is about as close to an Asian-American-Canadian as they come.
Edward Yang is about as close to an Asian-American-Canadian as they come.
He was born in Washington state, lived for some years in his parents’ homeland of Taiwan, attended high school and university in Vancouver and has spent the past 14 years in the United States.
At age 40, with dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship, Yang is well-positioned to add his continental perspective to the insights on life, money and family revealed in a wide-ranging poll on Asians in North America.
From his home in West Covina in Southern California, Yang had a great deal to say about the Pew Research Center’s discoveries regarding what 17 million Asian-Americans believe about education, success, discrimination, parents, religion, intermarriage and politics.
The Pew study, titled The Rise of Asian-Americans, has potentially deep implications for Canada, where there are proportionally triple the numbers of ethnic Asians: Almost 15 per cent of Canadians have origins in Asia compared to just 5.8 per cent of Americans.
The Pew Center’s multi-faceted exploration of 3,500 Asians — vastly more extensive than anything attempted in Canada — is particularly relevant for Metro Vancouver, where 43 per cent of residents have Asian ancestry, predominantly Chinese.
Yang said there are tremendous similarities between Asians in Canada and the U.S.
He was not surprised the Pew poll found “Asian-Americans are the highest-income and best-educated” of all ethno-cultural groups. Nor was he shocked that Asian-Americans turn out to be “more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances … and that they place more value on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success.” Only a few claim to have experienced serious discrimination.
On the downside, roughly half of Asian newcomers in the U.S. struggle with English, many feel overwhelmed by pressure and some endure low incomes.
A century ago, most Asians in North America were low-skilled labourers, often crowded into ethnic enclaves and targets of official discrimination, the report says. However, as in Canada, most Asian-Americans are now mixed into mainstream urban society, across economic classes.
And, also similar to Canada, the largest Asian subgroups in the U.S. are made up of Chinese, Filipinos, South Asians and South Koreans. There are key differences among these groups, but many commonalities.
Don Baker, a University of B.C. Asian Studies professor who has lived off and on in East Asia with his Chinese-Canadian wife since the 1970s, has witnessed some of the things the Pew research has uncovered.
Baker has seen the strong emphasis many Asians in Canada place on working hard, duty to elders and career-oriented educations. And, when it comes to family values, he’s also seen they’re often “more conservative than the people back in their homeland.”
Yang’s own biography illustrates many sides of life experienced by North American Asians.
Yang graduated in 1991 from Eric Hamber secondary on Oak Street in Vancouver, where he said it seemed half the ambitious students were Asian and the other half Jewish. “Now they seem to be nearly all Asian.”
After obtaining his bachelor’s degree at UBC, Yang picked up a master’s degree in business at the University of California, Irvine. He opened his own public relations and marketing firm, called Firecracker. He speaks Mandarin and has a wife, Carvin Yang, and young child.
He has fond memories of Vancouver, but feels it’s been changed a great deal by recent immigration patterns, especially the many Mainland Chinese immigrants. This West Coast city, he said, has become a fascinating “Asian microcosm.”
Reflecting on the many overlaps between Asians in Canada and the U.S., Yang said he and his far-flung Asian friends have been communicating online about how fortunate they are to work on a continent where freedom and merit still prevail.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Douglas+Todd+story+Asians+North+American+largely+success+with/8825818/story.html#ixzz2crk7imFn