Yesterday Maclean’s published an article entitled “Too Asian?” The Toronto Star wrote an article about it as well, slapping on the dramatic headline, “Suffering for Success” on the front page of their paper. How this is even news — let alone headline-worthy news — I do not understand, but let’s not get into that.
Much of the article seems to be comprised of quotes from select individuals making statements that re-enforce existing Asian stereotypes:
“I do have traditional Asian parents. I feel the pressure of finding a good job and raising a good family.”
“As a so-called ‘model minority,’ they are more frequently targeted because of being “too smart” and ‘teachers’ pets.’”
“‘My dad said if you don’t go into engineering, I won’t pay your tuition,’ says Jason Yin, a Taiwanese software engineering student at Waterloo.”
However, the main point that Maclean’s tries to make is that schools have a problem with there being a high proportion of Asian students, causing frustration among non-Asians who find it unfair that they have to struggle to compete… apparently.
“… many white students simply believe that competing with Asians—both Asian Canadians and international students—requires a sacrifice of time and freedom they’re not willing to make. They complain that they can’t compete for spots in the best schools and can’t party as much as they’d like (too bad for them, most will say).”
Another “problem” it states is that Canadian universities are struggling with deciding whether or not they should openly address this phenomenon and that if they don’t, all of the students will basically just stop socializing with each other (WTF):
“… many in the education community worry that universities risk becoming too skewed one way, changing campus life—a debate that’s been more or less out in the open in the U.S. for years but remains muted here. And that puts Canadian universities in a quandary. If they openly address the issue of race they expose themselves to criticisms that they are profiling and committing an injustice. If they don’t, Canada’s universities, far from the cultural mosaics they’re supposed to be—oases of dialogue, mutual understanding and diversity—risk becoming places of many solitudes, deserts of non-communication.”
The U of T president, David Naylor, thinks the opposite:
“This is a non-issue… We’ve never had a student complain about this. In fact, this is a false stereotype, as we know that Asian students are fully engaged in extracurricular activities. So the whole concept is false.”
The article seemed to spark a huge response for reasons that include the perception that it makes racist statements and that it is just bad journalism.
So, is this an actual problem in Canada, or is Maclean’s just making it out to be one for the sake of increasing their readership?