Not all Americans are getting the mental help they need. Despite the increasing focus on mental health globally, the leading cause of death for many Asian Americans is suicide. (Constante) There are many reasons for this, but the most prominent reason is stigma: as stated in “Burnout, Rest, and the Asian-American Experience,” Asian tradition generally mandates that one must never show their problems, and any problems they do have are a result of laziness. As a result, many Asian Americans find it difficult to open up about their mental health for fear of appearing ‘weak’ to the people around them. Two articles that focus on this issue are “Talking about depression can be hard for Asian Americans, but services can help” by Agnes Constante, and “Burnout, Rest, and the Asian-American Experience” by Lisa Cheng. In “Talking about depression can be hard for Asian Americans, but services can help,”, Constante uses an appeal to logos, pathos, and allusions through scientific evidence she supplies to support her claim. In doing this, the article places a focus on a more academic perspective on Asian mental health, using science to prove their point. In “Burnout, Rest, and the Asian-American Experience,”, Cheng, uses a personal account of their experience as an Asian American in college and the pressure and stress that comes with it. In doing this, the author uses appeals to pathos, colloquial language, and ethos to detail the rhetorical situation. Therefore, although both articles are arguing a similar case, they are using different methods to emphasize different areas of the situation to best convey their thoughts to their respective target audiences, which is the focus of this essay. 

Both articles lead off with a powerful rhetorical device: a narrative that allows readers to see inside the mind of someone experiencing issues with mental health as an Asian American. In “Talking about depression can be hard for Asian Americans, but services can help,”, it gives insight into the life of Glor Parong, a Filipino woman who suffered from extreme pressure from her family as the older sibling. They include a quote from her interview, stating, “I didn’t say anything verbally, but deep down I wanted my mom’s and my dad’s attention, I wanted them to love me and to say it’s OK.” Many Asians aren’t emotionally close with their parents, especially when they have financial issues as Parong did. In addition, the pressure as an Asian to succeed in the family is often extremely harsh, leading to stereotypes like tiger moms. This quote serves as an appeal to pathos, in which many readers can either relate or be sympathetic to the feeling she speaks of. In “Burnout, Rest, and the Asian-American Experience,”, it is the author’s account of her experience feeling burnout, guilt, and shame over the mere act of wanting rest as a college student. This often happens as a result of parents driving in the fact that resting is lazy, and a good student must be studying night and day. Similar to article one, the author uses an appeal to pathos to relate to the reader. A good example of this is when the author uses her own experiences to describe what burnout is. “In the midst of a global pandemic and mass uncertainty, I kept lying to myself that “‘I just need to get through today’ or ‘I just need to get through this week’…” Many people who suffered through the pandemic can sympathize with this mantra since the changes during the pandemic negatively affected everyone worldwide. It is also an appeal to ethos, as It builds her credibility as an author to write about Asian American mental health, as she had experienced the same thing.

Although stigma and tradition are big perpetrators for the state of Asian mental health, another reason is global events like the pandemic and Asian wars. To introduce this, both articles use allusions to bring awareness to the effects on Asian Americans as a result of these big events. In “Talking about depression can be hard for Asian Americans, but services can help,”, the author states, “Southeast Asian refugees are another group that has battled depression and trauma as a result of their history with violence…Cambodian Americans carry the experience of torture and working in labor camps, while Vietnamese Americans and Laotian Americans endured refugee camps after fleeing warfare in their countries..” This is an allusion to the many Asian wars that caused people to immigrate to America. In using this allusion, it is clear that many Asian Americans faced persecution which led to their struggling mental health. Paired with the fact that it is seen as weak to show emotion, it is clear that the state of Asian mental health is critical. In “Burnout, Rest, and the Asian-American Experience,”, the author states, “With our world flipped upside down, so many of us struggled to find a new rhythm, routine, and balance…” This is about the global pandemic that ended just some time ago. In using this reference, the author alludes to the global drop in productivity and mental health that happened as a result of the pandemic. In addition, due to many people referring to the coronavirus as the ‘Chinese virus,’ Asians faced heavy persecution during that time. Therefore, the use of allusion furthered the idea that Asians had a difficult time being mentally stable.

One big difference between the two articles is that “Talking about depression can be hard for Asian Americans, but services can help,” focuses on evidence and statistics, appealing to logos, while “Burnout, Rest, and the Asian-American Experience” focuses on conveying the emotions and experiences as an Asian American. In article one, the author uses statistics on the leading cause of death for Asian Americans. It states that in data collected in 2016,  the leading cause of death for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders between 15 to 19 was suicide. In addition, that accounted for 31.8 percent of all deaths in America. (Constante) this evidence clearly shows that the mental health of Asian Americans has been extremely low, leading to many committing suicide as a result. It is also clear that the intended audience is people and organizations interested in the cause of Asian mental health, as they end the article by detailing many organizations that aid Asians in speaking about their feelings. In comparison, “Burnout, Rest, and the Asian-American Experience” does not use as much statistics but uses colloquial language instead. A good example of this is when the author explains another reason why many Asian Americans find it difficult to talk about their mental health. “Ever try to complain about your life when your mom literally survived the cultural revolution and used to dig through trash to avoid starvation? Yeah, me neither.”(Cheng) In addition to using another allusion, the author’s colloquial language juxtaposes what is being said with the casual way it is being said, showing that these thoughts are a normal occurrence for her. As a result, it is effective in conveying the emotions she felt growing up as an Asian American. From this, it is also clear that she is aiming this essay toward students and college students, as she ends the essay with tips for college students to take care of their mental health while continuing to do well in school.

In this essay, we went over how these two articles use similar rhetorical devices like appeal to emotion, allusion, and appeal to logic to further their points. We also went over some of their differences, like how one essay is more information-centric—intended for bigger groups, while the other is more personal, intended for younger students. Despite the differences in the focus of their article, both articles effectively outlined the rhetorical situation through different and similar rhetorical devices. The problems with Asian mental health are not as widespread as mental health as a whole, as people typically believe mental health is generally declining. That’s why it is important to have groups that focus on critical groups like immigrants and students and have methods to improve their mental health that are specific to the group and culture.