Pew Study: 1 in 5 Asian Americans hide their ethnic identity

YOUTUBE

ANALYSIS

One of my pet peeves about some AANHPI of mixed race heritage, especially Filipino Americans: When asked the inevitable question, "What are you ... really?" The response I decry lists part this, part that, this and that, and then at the very end, as an afterthought, they'd add, "... and Filipino," even though one of their parents is full-blooded Filipino.

It is as if they were ashamed to admit that part of their racial make-up. Apparently, this desire to fit in is common beyond Filipino Americans and afflicts many in the AANHPI communities, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.

“[It] was kind of that stigma when you were little, a teen, or you were younger that [you] don’t want to speak Chinese … because people would think that you’re a FOB [fresh off the boat] or an immigrant,” said one respondent, a 2nd generation Chinese American in his early 30s.

RELATED: How Asian Americans identify themselves

Many recent Asian immigrants said they have tried to fit into the US and fear that others may judge them negatively for sharing their heritage. US-born Asian Americans with immigrant parents often said they hid their heritage when they were growing up to fit into a predominantly White society.

FYI: For the complete Pew survey

In it's wide-ranging survey, which Pew teleased earlier this year, the research center learned that 1 in 5 Asian American adults say they have hidden a part of their heritage – cultural customs, food, clothing or religious practices – from non-Asians at some point in their lives. 

Fear of ridicule and a desire to fit in are common reasons they give for doing this, according to a Pew Research Center survey of Asian adults in the United States conducted from July 2022 to January 2023.

Why some Asian Americans hide their heritage

Pew analysts found tht Korean Americans are more likely than some other Asian origin groups to say they have hidden part of their heritage. One-in-four Korean adults (25%) say they have done this, compared with smaller shares of Chinese (19%), Vietnamese (18%), Filipino (16%) and Japanese (14%) adults.

Asian Americans who said they have hidden part of their heritage also shared why they did so. Some of the most common reasons were a feeling of embarrassment or a lack of understanding from others.

However, different immigrant generations also cited various other reasons for hiding their culture:

• Many recent Asian immigrants said they have tried to fit into the US and fear that others may judge them negatively for sharing their heritage.

• US-born Asian Americans with immigrant parents often said they hid their heritage when they were growing up to fit into a predominantly White society. Some in this generation mentioned wanting to avoid reinforcing stereotypes about Asians.

• Some multiracial Asian Americans and those with more distant immigrant roots (third generation or higher) said they had at times hidden their heritage to pass as White.

Birthplace and immigrant roots play a role in who is most likely to hide their heritage: 32% of US-born Asian adults have done this, compared with 15% of immigrants. 

Interestingly, second-generation Asian adults born in the US and whose parents were immigrants were more likely to hide their cultural heritage than their own children by almost a 3-to-1 margin (38% vs. 11%). It is as if after the desire for identifying with one's roots became stronger after a generation of denial. 

Complex struggle for identity

The generational see-saw battle between ethnic assertion and assimilation is not new. In the turbulent civil rights battles of the 60s and 70s, young Asoam adults and students found affinity with the manongs and manangs of Manilatown and Delano, in direct opposition to their parents' strategy to become more "American." 

It will be interesting to see the results of this back-and-forth pattern for identity continues. Will the fourth generation reject the third generation's search for ethnic identity or choose to become part of the American melting pot, the goal of their  grandparents?

The surge of anti-Asian hate appears to have galvanized the Asian American communities and united the generations in asserting their racial and geographical  roots. 

The same Pew study also found that Asian Americans identify more closely with their own subgroups, ie. Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, etc. before their identify "Asian American."

Complicating matters is that the struggle for identity is constantly being stirred because of the ongoing influx of immigrants from Asia, who have to ask themselves the same questions that faced previous generations, starting the cycle anew.

For Asian Americans, the search for self-identity is an ongoing quest with many variables. There is no one answer and there is no start and finish.

A young Korean American second-generation man told the Pew researchers: 

“(T)here are going to be ups and downs. Definitely one of the downs is being labeled by other people for our differences. But one of our ups is that we have culture and language that we can always rely on; we have some diversity in customs and cultures that we could go back to. And if people are willing to experience these new differences, we can definitely pass it on and spread awareness of different cultures.” 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the  blog Views From the Edge.