In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

This chapter discusses why some Asian American men, regardless of their past histories of dating white women, ultimately prefer dating a woman of their own ethnicity. In the previous two chapters, I discussed Asian American men’s competition with ideologies of normalized white masculinity; in this chapter, however, I discuss two Asian American men who expressed a desire not to follow the path of approximating to white masculinity. Although both had dated white women in the past, they were single at the time of the interviews. I discuss how awareness of mainstream racism and sexism in America and a desire to belong to an ethnic community led these men to set themselves the goal of marrying within their own race. The chapter consists of two parts. The first section discusses a secondgeneration Chinese American man’s failed attempts to attain hegemonic masculinity, his previous marriage with an Hispanic woman, and his current reluctance to date American women and preference for dating overseas Chinese women. The second section discusses a second-generation Vietnamese American man who, growing up, intentionally resisted Asian model minority stereotypes by trying to attain a white-like ideal manhood and a white girlfriend; I examine his race consciousness and his desire to identify with the label Asian American, which led him to want to marry a woman of his own ethnic group. Eschewing White Masculinities, Utilizing Capital as an “American” William Lin, a thirty-five-year-old, tall, friendly, Chinese American graphic designer, was born on the East Coast of the United States. His father and mother, born in China, left for Taiwan in the late 1940s to flee political turmoil, and in the 1960s immigrated to the United States to attend college. William’s father worked as a librarian at a local university, and his mother was a homemaker. Chapter 6 Men Alone 142 Men Alone 143 William described his personality, during his childhood, as shy and quiet. Due to his father’s work, William’s family moved to the northern United States when he was in grade school, and he was the only Chinese student in his new school. He was often teased for his mispronunciation of certain English words that he had learned from his mother. He went through several years of grade school before people stopped pointing out his accent. Even though William “never associated [this harassment] with being Chinese,” he had always felt different from others; displacing his racial difference, he viewed his treatment as the result of a difference in personality. “I was different because I was really shy,” he said. But then he added, “Although, thinking back . . . if you are shy and Chinese, those two things maybe separate you from the rest of kids.” As an adolescent, gaining masculine acceptance by being seen as “social, popular, and cool” had been his goal, but he never attained it. “A lot of Chinese people run into that,” he added. William instead became an overachiever; as his parents expected him to, he did well in school. For William, “not to shame [his] parents” was always the most apparent motivation for his deeds. But the real reason he worked so hard, he said, was not his parents’ influence so much as his own desire to compensate for not being cool. “I think one of the reasons I wanted to do well in things, music or school, was that was my way of trying to become accepted. That was the only thing I knew how to do. To be accepted [and to] stand out . . . but I was never good with the whole popularity thing.” When William joined the track team, his parents did not let him attend early morning training or stay late at school; they discouraged him and his younger sister from many activities they did not value. As a result, William felt, he lost many opportunities to prove his masculinity to his peers in school, and he still resented this at the time of the interview. “They [his parents] didn’t realize that it was really important for a guy, or boy, who is trying to prove himself or trying to get in with the crowd.” His sister Brigitte, who was good at dancing, had to quit because her mother “was afraid she would grow up to be an exotic dancer.” Brigitte became the opposite of their mother, William said; “She is spunky and tough.” As a college student, Brigitte minored in women’s studies and was very involved in feminism. William...

Share