cultural assimilation or invation

Dear Willow S. Lung-Aman

In your work Trespassers?, you mentioned Asian American's strong ability of refashioning the suburbia whose image is familiarly white to many people in their mind. You mentioned how Asian Americans were able to enjoy the lifestyle of the country of their origin--practicing Tai chi, watching TV shows in their first languages, talking to people with similar backgrounds etc. However, you also mentioned that their attempt of innovation were often confronted by hostility from white middle class people. From your description, it seems like white middle class is the standard setter of landscape planing and civilized society. It is indeed a plight that Asian American's traditional culture of their original country is distinctively different from white American's culture. Mosques, Buddhist temples, and feng shui sites are definitely unfamiliar to traditional white culture. And in some other aspects, Asian American's ideology can even be contradictory with white American's ideology.
Therefore, how can Asian Americans' presence in suburbia peacefully and amiably coexist with the others?

Best,
Cynthia

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