How to Save Your Asian American Life in an Hour
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Published:January 2024
This chapter reflects on the work the author has done with students, especially second-generation Asian Americans, on understanding their experiences of filial debt, drawing on the work of erin Khuê Ninh in her book Ingratitude: The Debt-Bound Daughter in Asian American Literature. The author walks the reader through a mental health workshop on filial debt, explaining the structural conditions of familial debt in the Asian immigrant family and arguing that model minoritization has shaped Asian American parental love into a form that harms the next generation by making untenable demands on their personhoods. The chapter offers possible ways to reclaim a selfhood that divests from immigrant parents’ dreams and model minoritization.
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