The (Asian) American Dream

In this opinion article, Hou shares her Asian-American experience and introduces the piece with background information about how she is a “typical success story”. She explains that she’s a daughter of Chinese immigrants, she’s born and raised in the Bay Area, she plays piano, and got accepted at Columbia, which ultimately fits the goals of the Asian-American Dream. The rest of the article consists of the ways in which Hou has found herself to be failing at achieving the true American Dream because she feels as though she does not amount to the peers around her. Hou states that, “Asian Americans are brought up with the expectation of desiring perfection and excellence”. She also mentions that her environment school and the cultural pressures that being an Asian American student comes with is taking a toll on her health and performance. In the end, she advocates for mental health awareness for Asian American students. I think this is a worthy addition of being a source for my research process as it provides a raw example of what the American Dream can manifest into in the context of the Model Minority experience.

Hou, V.(2018). “Waking up from the Asian-american dream”. Columbia Daily Spectator. https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2018/09/11/waking-up-from-the-asian-american-dream/.