Language can be found everywhere around us. From the commercial signs in public streets to the people that you interact with, language is being expressed. However, with the emergence of an internet-based society, the most common way that people are expressing language is through social media. “Subtle Asian Traits” (SATs) is a Facebook group with over 1.7 million members, where Asians share their experience as children of immigrants using language in the form of memes, images, and discussions. Similar to neighborhoods that express their culture through signs and stores, the members of SATs create Facebook posts. As a member of SATs, I have noticed that there are many similarities among the Asian members of different ethnicities in terms of food, entertainment, etc.
Formation of Subtle Asian Traits
In 2018, SATs was formed by a twenty-one year old student In Melbourne, Australia, named Angela Kang. Like most immigrants, Kang and her family struggled with adapting to a new environment. Although there were many changes to their way of living, one of the things that they maintained was their culture. With the support of nine other friends who shared similar cultural upbringings to Kang, they formed SATs. In just a year, the group garnered a following of over one million members. The surge of SATs popularity was unexpected to the founders who had formed the group just for fun. However, SATs became a platform where Asian immigrants can share their own experiences while living in a western country.
Asian Expectations in Subtle Asian Traits
Among Asian immigrants, the expectations that their parents have for them are very high. Immigrants are known to be very hardworking because of their desire to provide a comfortable lifestyle for their children. Asian immigrants are no different from this. Because of the hardships that they had to endure in a new country, Asian parents expect that their children are doing their best in school. This translates to having high grades. In the image shown below, a meme that was created from a cartoon is used to show the expectations that Asian parents have for their children. The caption above the image says “Asian parents when their kid has a 3.99 GPA”. A 3.99 GPA is considered more than satisfactory to many, but to Asian parents, it’s considered a disappointment because a 4.0 gpa was not earned. Therefore, one of the cartoon characters in the image says “Oh, that’s right, honey. We don’t have a son” to represent the disappointment that an Asian parent would have to their child achieving only a 3.99 GPA. This meme from SATs demonstrates in a joking manner that Asian Parents have high expectations for their children.
In SATs, one thing that a lot of the members have in common is that they have attended a tutoring center when they were younger. As I mentioned earlier, this is because Asians parents have high expectations for their children. The picture below shows an image of the after-school program called Kumon. However, in place of the letter “O”, there is a sad face emoji. The emoji is used to demonstrate that a lot of the members in the group were forced to attend the program, and so, they did not get any enjoyment from it. From my experience in Kumon, I can say that it was not enjoyable at all because of the work that was given in addition to the homework that I was given at my public school. The common reason that SATs members gave for attending an after-school program was that they were not given the option of refusing. Asian parents want to show that they are hard-working, so they make sure that their children are also doing the same. Therefore, they are retaining the
value of being overachievers by sending their children to tutoring programs.
Parental Affection
Another fact about Asian parents that the members in SATs share is that their parents have difficulty showing affection to their children. For example, when their child has become eligible for graduation, an Asian parent would typically reply with a one word response that indicates that they do not care. In the meme below, a hand is shown to be pressing on a button with the word “good on it.” The sentence above says “Asian dad if you do anything from filling up gas to graduating from Neurosurgery Residency at Harvard”. This means that an Asian dad will reply with “good” whenever they hear good news from their child. Although filling up gas is not considered to be an accomplishment that deserves praise, graduating from Neurosurgery residency at a top ranking university is. Neurosurgery is very difficult to learn because there are many things that are required to be memorized, and mistakes are not allowed. Also, the ability to graduate from a top ranking university is also considered an accomplishment in itself. Therefore, replying with the word “good” is undermining the work that a person has put in to achieve that goal. The meme below demonstrates this meaning in a joking manner. Asian parents primarily show their affection through their actions because they are unable to express it with their words. A common way that they do this is peeling fruits such as oranges, or cutting apples to give to their children. In the image below, a tweet from a person says “my mom be cutting up fruit and bringing it to me in my room without saying nothing. That’s when it hits me, nobody ever gonna love me this much.” Fruits is food that students typically bring to school as a snack to eat while they are working. They are nice to eat because of their sweetness, and they are not too filling. Because of this, it’s a nice gesture to give someone fresh fruits. Asian parents are unable to say affectionate words such as “I love you”, but they are able to do kind gestures to indicate that they do. Giving fruits are a symbolic way for them to show that they care about their child
Asian Entertainment
In SATs, two common forms of entertainment in terms of shows are Korean dramas and
Anime. To show current events, the image below with the caption “the lockdown won’t be that long” and two characters fighting are shown. The lockdown is referring to the protocol to restrict people from leaving their homes that most countries have instituted to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. The two characters in the image are named “Freiza” (Left) and “Goku” (Right), and they are from an anime called Dragon Ball Z. In the show, it’s been proven that the two characters fought for more than 4 hours. To put this in perspective, a typical anime show is about 23 minutes, so the fight scene lasted for 10 episodes. The meme is showing that the lockdown for the Coronavirus may take just as long or even longer to be over.
The second common forms of entertainment that the members of SATs enjoy are Korean dramas. In the meme below, a man labeled “My Plans for 2020” is arrested after a girl labeled “2020” calls the police on him. The meaning that the person who created this meme wants to express is that their plans for the year 2020 are all gone because of the recent events that have occurred in 2020. They may be referring to the lockdown that has restricted travel and shut down businesses. As a result, their plans for 2020 have been canceled. In both memes with the Anime and the Kdrama, humor from Asian culture is used to downplay the severity that the lockdown from the Coronavirus has had on our lives. A majority of the members in SATs have grown up watching K Dramas and anime, so creating memes from them are a common way that the members of SATs have used to lessen the impact that an event has impacted their lives.
Conclusion
Online communities are important examples of linguistic landscapes despite not being physical because of the language and culture that is shown. As a platform for children of Asian immigrants in Western countries, SATs has provided an effective way for them to show Asian culture. Examples are parenting styles of Asian parents and entertainment in terms of TV shows/movies. This creates an identity that is specific only to the members of SATs.