Growing up in the 1960s and 70s in suburban New Jersey, away from any large Asian ethnic enclave, the only Asian people I saw on a regular basis were my mom’s family, the Woos who ran the local laundry and a Thai family who moved in before I went to college. I was the only APA person in a high school with over 1500 students, except for my siblings and a woman two grades behind me.
Today, with the Asian Pacific American population so much larger, there are many Asians not only in New Jersey but in almost every corner of the country. A study by the Organization of Chinese Americans a few years ago found that 95 of the 435 congressional districts had more than five percent APAs, and I’m sure the number has grown since then.
Looking back on my own upbringing, I do not feel like I was missing anything by not seeing other APAs on a daily basis. What I did miss was the sense that someone who looked like me could expect to rise to the highest levels of government, industry, the arts or any other field of endeavor.
In my twenties, while living in New York City, I remember being stunned by the audacity of Hawaiian-derived APAs, who had thought nothing of applying for the role of Hamlet in their high school play. In 1984, I remember reading about an American-educated APA physics professor in Delaware who somehow had been elected lieutenant governor of the state. Was S. B. Woo’s ability to go for the prize partly related to having been born in Shanghai, where people who looked like him were the head of state?
A group of Chinese Americans from the Bay Area have launched a “Chinese American Heroes” project to try to publicize the heroic things that Chinese Americans have done in this country. Based on their Web site and materials, it appears that they will be expanding upon the work done by pioneers such as the Asian American Curriculum Project, the Association for Asian American Studies, and others who have made part of their mission to celebrate the achievements of heroic Asian Pacific Americans.
While celebrating big name musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, architects such as Maya Lin and writers such as Iris Chang, the “Chinese American Heroes” project is also planning to celebrate future heroes such as students who become Merit Scholars. They also, quite laudably, are opening up the nomination process to the public, so that people whose good deeds deserve attention will be discovered.
As the “Heroes” group moves forward, I hope that their definition of “hero” is expanded to include not only people whose names have appeared in the paper, but also those who are quietly doing heroic acts every week. For example, Lily Woo is the principal at a public elementary school in New York’s Chinatown (P.S. 130 Hernando DeSoto School) and has helped the children of Chinese-speaking immigrant parents excel at school through a variety of techniques.
Aside from the usual focus on studies and discipline, she has promoted an arts program in each grade so that children who are gifted in the arts, and not necessarily math or English, can gain a level of confidence and pride that comes from success.
Another hero at the same school is Harry Yuen, a second grade teacher. For twenty years, he has met an ever-changing group of fourth and fifth graders with dance talent at a corner in Chinatown and ridden the subway with them to the National Dance Institute at Lincoln Center. After class, he rides with them back downtown, and they disperse. While Mr. Yuen’s actions may not qualify for a cover story in Time magazine, his quiet, unassuming support has meant that students whose parents must work long hours, and who would otherwise forbid them to ride the subway alone, can allow their youngsters to go to the National Dance Institute for training. Whether or not the next world-class dancer someday emerges from Chinatown, several generations of students have been enriched by the training, contact, and confidence that Mr. Yuen has allowed them to find at Lincoln Center.
The dictionary definition of “hero” focuses on qualities of courage or strength, with heroes often proving their gallantry in the face of danger or warfare. While that is certainly one type of hero worth celebrating, we should also be mindful of the many among us who are pursuing excellence, beauty, peace and a better world, in quiet and unassuming ways.