RACE RELATIONS : Asian-Americans Find Being Ethnic ‘Model’ Has Downside

Being a member of an ethnic group isn’t always a bed of roses, even if it’s a “model” ethnic group.

Ask an Asian-American.

Although widely praised as members of a “model minority”--quiet, hard-working and whizzes at mathematics and science--many Asian-Americans complain that the stereotype is too narrow and often confining.

And experts say that, in some cases, the image has resulted in serious psychological problems for young Asian-Americans, who find they have difficulty living up to the expectations of their parents and feel hemmed in by the attitudes of the larger society.

Hei Lee, an art student at the University of Maryland who recently switched his major from engineering, complains that high school teachers so often counsel Asian-Americans to go into math and sciences that many students develop fears that they would fail in any other field.

Although many teachers assert that they do this mainly so that immigrants will not have to contend with language problems, Lee dismisses the argument. “It seems to become a habit,” he said. “ . . . They give the same advice to Asians who are fluent” in English.

The fact is, “we’re discouraged from going into the creative fields like art and acting because we’re not seen as free thinking or extroverted,” Lee said.

Some Asian-Americans say perceptions that they are too introverted to be strong managers have reinforced apprehensions among some Asian-Americans that they must remain within the math and science fields in order to survive.

Stanley Mark, a staff member of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said that college-educated Asian-Americans entering professions contend they face a “glass ceiling” of discrimination--based largely on that same stereotype.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, the Asian-American myth has created some serious strains, both among Asian-Americans and between them and other ethnic groups.

Some non-Asian students at UC Berkeley have said that, when they are assigned to a class full of Asian-Americans, they transfer to another section because they are afraid that the Asian-American students will inflate the grading curve.

Tempers flared there last year when Asian-American students protested that the university had a quota on Asian-American admissions. This year, a similar controversy erupted at UCLA, where the math department was charged with restricting admissions of Asian-American students.

And Hai T. Tran, president of the National Assn. for Asian and Pacific Americans, says the image of Asian-American success often prevents outsiders from recognizing problems that do arise. “People don’t believe it,” he laments.

The defense fund’s Mark agrees. “The fact is that we stand out,” he said. “No matter how many generations you’ve been here, people ask where you’re from, or comment on how well you speak English. You’re still viewed as an outsider.”

Tran concedes that some cultural factors lead Asian-American youth to choose careers in math and science. Rather than pressing youngsters to express themselves in public, Asian culture encourages them to work alone quietly, he said.

But he argues that much of what drives many young Asian-Americans is the same quest for success that is common among first- and second-generation Americans from other groups: Math and science use a universal language.

Some Asian-Americans say they were pressed by parents to go into math and science because they view those fields as more financially stable.

“The first generation is 99% influenced by their parents and family,” said Annie Saumiu Hung, the first in her family to be graduated from college. All of Hung’s siblings are good at music, but all went into business--because their parents thought it more practical.