My name is Zhengyuan, I am a third year transfer student
from China and this is my first year here in America. I feel very lucky to have
you here to listen to international students to share their thought by using
second language. Today I am here not because I am the one of the best speakers
among international students but because I have something really want to share
with you.
The topic I am going to talk about today is masculinity
which means the properties characteristic of the male sex. I will especially focus
on Asian masculinity, which is often forgotten by Americans. This is inspired by
the story of Jeremy Lin. As most of you may already know, Jeremy Lin is a
Harvard Asian American point guard playing for New York Knicks. He has received
extensive news coverage not because he is a Harvard graduate but because he is
an Asian. People tacitly approve the fact of weak image of Asian men, as Asian
men are averagely short and skinny, not as muscly as black or white. Lin, not
the strongest nor the fastest in NBA, succeed for his diligence, resilience and
humbleness. He practices hard and stays low key; maintains resilient toward setbacks.
His success is not a sudden, but an accumulated process of tears and sweats. If
we take a look at the Asian men in America, we may find considerable shared
qualities on them. There is a large number of second or third generations of
Asian immigrants in America nowadays, most of them are still working in low or
middle levels. They believe in hard work which will finally put them into where
they deserve. This kind of “the little engine that could” spirit is found quite
commonly in Asian culture.
However, these qualities are much more invisible than muscly
and handsome body shape, and you really cannot see many Asian guys in the gym since
they spend their time on crunching numbers and books. I am not saying it is a
waste of time to go to the gym, but rather the cultural differences between east
and west that make Asians are more likely to focus on building their inner strength.
This difference is quite obvious and we can always take a glance at it from the
literature and mythology. In western culture, there are quite a few respectful
heroes, Achilles, Hercules, Theseus, and Odysseus. Nearly every western hero
has perfect body, and they share the values like strength, courage, virility
which give the idea of masculinity for western culture. But when you take a glance
at eastern culture, you will see Pigsy, Friar Sand, Tripitaka and Monkey King. If
you are familiar with eastern culture, you must know they are from the Chinese classic Journey to the West. None of these
heroes is muscly or has perfect body, but we again see resilience, diligence,
discipline, and self-control in them, which define masculinity in eastern
culture.
You see, there are so many dramatic differences in the
definition of masculinity between east and west. And so dramatic that Asian men
are often labeled with desexualized images due to misunderstanding of Asian masculinity.
But with the studying abroad surge arises in these years, there will be more
communication and understanding of the cultural difference. And I already see
some changes happening. Yesterday, my roommate and I were invited to a party by
Americans. They are grateful for my roommate because he helped them get through
the accounting class last quarter. And they call him “the legend”. My roommate
is there and you can talk to him if you stay till the end of the speech
competition. I am really happy to see these changes and I would like to
encourage every Asian man here in America, to stand out and be ready to show
your masculinity. You are the generation of flaming youth, and you are no
stronger than your sex. Thank you.
