Overview
Nancy Shui-Wen Su and Anh Ngo were some of the first Asian women to step foot on Texas Christian University's campus. Separated by nearly forty years between their featured publications in TCU's Daily Skiff, their individual arrivals to the United States paralleled and preceded significant historical events.
As a history major and CRES minor, discovering these women in the Special Collections archives was no small feat. After multiple searches through the yearbook, TCU Magazine, and TCU Daily Skiff, I found Anh Ngo's small segment on one of the last pages of a 1994 Daily Skiff. Immediately, the title made me raise my eyebrows. "Vietnamese Student Learns the 'American Way,'" it declared. A glance through the article made me annoyed. Anh's name was misspelled as "Ahn," and her entire conversation glorifies America.
Nancy Shui-Wen Su's article was not much better. At a glance, the title once again struck me, calling attention to the very apparent racial marker in "Chinese Coed." You never read an article written about a white person that screams, "White Woman Finds Friends in Texas." Better yet, the title itself is comical. By highlighting Su's misconceptions of the United States in her search for "Cowboys and Spirituals," the Skiff labels her as an outsider, foreign, unaware. The rest of the article doesn't get much better.
Choosing to present both women allows me to compare the very apparent ways in which TCU tried to compare Asian societies with Western ones in their students' experiences. In the portrayal of culture shock and assimilation, TCU paints Asian international students as merely desirous of the American dream. They fail, however, to acknowledge America's own misgivings.
Nancy Shui-Wen Su
The year is 1953. At the height of McCarthyism and anticommunist sentiment in America, the arrival of a young Chinese woman to Texas Christian University could not be timelier.
In Volume 51 of The Skiff, printed on January 23, 1953, an entire spread on page seven is titled “Chinese Coed Finds Friends in Texas; Still Seeks Cowboys and Spirituals.”
Nancy Shui-Wen Su, a 26-year-old economics major, has arrived at TCU from Hong Kong on a one-year tuition scholarship, and her perception of Texas is, needless to say, a little problematic.
“When I arrived here,” she smiles, "I expected to see cowboys and Indians all around, and farther South to find Negroes singing spirituals. I really do want to hear some of your beautiful spirituals, but most of all, I must see a cowboy.”
Hold on, what? Is this what international community thinks of the US? Is this the image that America portrays to the rest of the world? Indians, cowboys, Negro spirituals?! Herein lies the problem. The United States, since the advent of the television, has produced a myriad of shows and movies promoting racial and ethnic stereotypes to movie-watchers abroad. The international community, especially people who have not been to America, perceive Americans from what they see on the media. Even though racist stereotypes were more overt and divisive in the 1940s and 1950s, things have not changed much today. When I discussed this article with my friend, an international student from Asia, he sympathized with Miss Su. “She’s not wrong,” he said. “Growing up, that’s what I thought of the US too. I know all of that is wrong now that I’m [in America], but when I was home I thought Indians were primitive, black people were criminals, and cowboys overran Texas.”
It doesn’t end there. Writer Dave Allred pounces on the thought everyone is (not) thinking, and Su replies,
“There are a few Communists on the island, but they are not very active. Most of the persons I know feel it is unfair for Americans to have to help the Nationalists fight the Communists too.”
Allred had not delayed in questioning Miss Su about her potential communist ties, but why is this necessary in a Skiff article? Evidently, he had absorbed the political tensions at the time and thrown out the question he knew everyone reading must have been thinking. But this is unfair to Su, whose attendance and belonging at TCU should have nothing to do with her ideological beliefs or her family background. The fact that Allred had prompted her to talk about communism at home, perhaps to satiate his own curiosity.
Furthermore, stark comparisons are made between American and Chinese lifestyles. In addition to having families live together and hiring house servants, Chinese people are also more traditional.
Miss Su says American girls are more active than Chinese women, and more Oriental women believe their places are in the home. There's a lower divorce rate there, too, she believes.
While there is inherently nothing wrong with Su's beliefs, a few things make this passage stand out. The choice of the word "Oriental" brings back my memories of Edward Said's seminal work on orientalism and the concept of "othering." Oriental women, or East Asian women, are posed as markedly different from American women. This difference, as Su seems to suggest, is within the home. However, the wording of this statement underscores a stereotype that has perpetuated for decades about Asian women in Western societies. The perception of the Asian woman as submissive, homely, and obedient ties back to this central belief that "their places are in the home." The fact that Asian women are portrayed in this way only propagates a myth that needs to be expelled. While there may be some truth to her statement, as traditional Chinese societies are somewhat patriarchal, the assumptions she makes generalize an entire group of women and champion false American stereotypes.
Anh Ho
Anh Ho, a graduate student of history in 1994, relays similar sentiments as Nancy Su about her new American life. As the first Vietnamese citizen to attend TCU, she begins a long line of Vietnamese international students who will later study here at TCU. Today, Vietnamese students are the largest international student group on campus, known for their close-knit community and annual performance, “Amazing Vietnam.”
Ho’s initial experience in America, however, was not smooth-sailing. Supposedly, she was not prepared for the transition to American life. Throughout the article, she repeatedly compares Vietnamese and American schools, which all seems to boost the image of American superiority.
“In Vietnam they tell you exactly how to do your work…Over here, professors allow the students more freedom.”
“I think I will be a more independent person when I graduate from TCU because of the way I have been taught.”
“The professors and students are friendly towards one another at TCU,” she said, “In Vietnam, we are scared to talk freely and express what we are thinking.”
“In Vietnam people put their noses in your affairs…You don’t have much privacy. You live under the public opinion and the public eye.”
These quotes are extremely problematic. TCU’s Daily Skiff writer provides absolutely no background on the political and economic affairs of Vietnam’s government, nor does she thoughtfully consider the ramifications of US interference in Vietnam only two decades prior. By focusing on Ho’s very narrow statements and illuminating nothing else about Vietnam’s history or the consequences of the Vietnam War, TCU paints itself and America as freedom-bearers and winners of the conflict. After all, if Ho came all the way to America to promote the country’s supposedly “free” values, then the “American way” must be the best (sarcasm). Presenting this kind of (mis)information distorts the American perception of Vietnamese people and of Vietnam. Viewing itself as superior and thus justifying its export of cultural imperialism abroad, the US continues to abuse its power over other countries.
Connection to the Text
After reading these two articles, I couldn't help but relate them to Mitsuye Yamada's "Asian Pacific American Women and Feminism." Yamada specifically discusses how Third World women are asked to speak representing their racial or ethnic group, often educating their audiences in ways that do not threaten white people's beliefs or make them feel uncomfortable. Furthermore, Yamada argues that mainstream society does not want, nor expect, Asian women to be political, even if their whole entire identity is bound up in their histories and cultures.
This couldn't be more true in both Nancy Su's and Anh Ho's cases. The way both articles are written seems to suggest that each woman is tasked with the job of representing their entire culture just because they are not racially dominant on campus. In essence, both Su and Ho are tokenized for their rarity, their exoticism, and their political significance in the contemporary moment. They are asked problematic questions about communism and political atmospheres back home, but these questions lack any sort of historical grounding or cultural context. All of this demonstrates the ignorance of the American audience and their expectation to hear only "non-threatening" and "safe" utterances from Third World women.
Relevance Today
Even today, over seventy years since Nancy Su's arrival in the United States, there is little to nothing written about Asian women at TCU. As a group on campus, we are a tiny minority. Though I was excited to find any article at all on Asian women, I was disappointed to read the contents of their featured articles. Laden with racist assumptions and misconceptions, the materials on Nancy Shui-Wen Su and Anh Ho only perpetuate strong myths about communist Asia and submissive Asian women. Needless to say, I was not enthused.
However, the fight for fair and accurate representation is not over. TCU is wrought with problems deep in its core, and only by sustained activism and change will this campus truly reflect its minority students' needs and backgrounds. Even though the articles on Nancy Su and Anh Ho are not perfect, they offer insightful looks into perceptions of Asian women in 1950s and 1990s America, and what these women did, by venturing out of their comfort zones into the predatory space of a PWI, is commendable on its own.
Ann Tran
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