Interview with Joan Lu by Carlos

-Lu Laoshi doesn’t have a picture of herself due to the fact that she doesn’t wish to be photographed. I respected her decision and she asked me to represent her in the form of a simple drawing.-

今天我给我的老师面试Lu老师是我的老师在Northside.她从一九九零住在美国。她从南京来美国住了十年有多她的已婚。她的父母住在中国。她是中国人。现在她学习老师的班因为她想成为一个中文老师。Lu老师很聪明。因为她想expand her studies所以他要去美国。Lu 老师教我们较得非常好。
Interview:

I was born and grew up in Nanjing, a big city in southeastern part of China. Nanjing used to be the capital of six Chinese dynasties and of the Republic of China before it moved to Taiwan in 1949. I went to college in Nanjing and had worked as an editor in a publishing company in Nanjing for seven years before I went abroad.

I came to the United States in 1990 to take the graduate studies in UCLA. I had wonderful experience in UCLA. I did not only gain a lot of academic knowledge, but also made lots of friends with different ethnic backgrounds and got to know American culture. I was awarded scholarship every year because of my academic performance. I also taught undergraduate students on Chinese history for two years in UCLA. I did not feel direct discrimination as a new immigrant probably because I was in a university, where a person's merit or academic performance is viewed more important than anything else.

As for the question of being caught between two worlds, I sometimes do feel confused about my identification. When I went back to China to visit my parents and friends, local Chinese people considered me as an "outsider". I did not know or were not interested in lots of things they talked about. But here in the U. S., many people perceive me as a foreigner--an "outsider" of American society, too. I think I belong to a special group of people: Chinese American or American Chinese. We have our own points of view on many issues and our own specific interests.

In a Chinese family, parents usually have high expectations of their children. They especially want their children to do well academically. Sometimes parents expect their children to fulfill their own unfulfilled dreams. In this way they put too much pressure on their children. In an American family, parents usually do not focus so much on their children's academic performance. They allow their children more freedom to do things the children want to do. As a result, children in an American family are usually more independent than children in a Chinese family.

I was really lucky that neither my parents nor my husband had specific expectation of me. I could choose to do anything I would like to do. I chose my career and profession on my own. I was not pressured to study or do anything I was not interested.

I believe education is very important to a person, a family and a country. Education is the foundation for a person's achievement in future life. However, formal school education is only one way of education. There are many ways to attain education in a person's life. For example, Bill Gates dropped out in college, but he continued to be self educated in computer world and became successful eventually.

As I mentioned earlier, American culture emphasizes more on individualism and self independence than Chinese culture. On the contrast, the Chinese culture stresses the importance of family interests and the interests of the society as a whole rather than individualism. Individualism sometimes is considered as a negative thing by Chinese society.

I do not think being accepted as an American is an issue for me, because everybody is different. I do not believe there is a unified standard for being an American. Some people talk about "main stream" of American society. I would like to ask: What is the "main stream"? Who can represent the "main stream"? Except for Native Americans, everybody came to America from different parts of the world. No-body's culture is superior than others. Nobody can claim that their ethnic group is more "American" than others. I respect other people's culture and try to gain more understanding of their culture, but I do not think that I need to seek specific "acceptance" from others. Everybody is equal.

Critical thinking As the times of America change, so do the immigration trends. There’s a massive, massive, immigrant trend coming from our borders, from Mexico. As the time passes there has been movements created by immigrants which put a rise in the attention immigration gets. There has been a failed attempt to change or create an amnesty for immigrants who are here “illegally” but with no great success. The government clearly said，“there will be more examples to show immigrants how serious we are about retaining immigration,” saying fear is going to be put to use to stop immigration. Even though the ones being are “illegals” that contains the majority of immigrants of this age and time. Being able to create a new identity for new immigrants is impossible, America is going more and more conservative in not allowing more immigrants to change the American way of life, they want new immigrants to adapt to the already existing system, a new identity would be shot down. It’s hard to describe a true American today, but in my eyes an American is, and always will be, a Native American. I learned to perceive your dream and not be one, to not fit into one category that people have set for you. I learned about the perseverance that Lu Laoshi has to increase her knowledge, to increase her learning, first by coming to America to UCLA to even learning to become a Chinese teacher. The cultural aspect is that Chinese people are very centered on education and wish for their offspring to become the best person possible, but as in Lu Laoshi case, she doesn’t have that pressure put on her, she chose her own career which she loves and is herself while still having a great Chinese background. Lu Laoshi experience compared to my family’s is something of relevance, both came to America to increase their studies. My family also is centered on education, if you have an education you will have a good life. Education is the most essential thing a person should have and get and both believe that everyone in the world is equal.