hardboiled blog

While I was distributing our new 13.1 issue last week, I handed one to my sister. After reading it, she commented that hardboiled didn’t make her feel “Asian American” enough. When I asked her what she meant by that, she said that it just seemed as if we are pioneering a specific image of the Asian American to be this proactive, politically-charged, outspoken group. This is completely at odds of what my sister is. She is a really private person and the only issues that really stir her are those that were problems a few hundred years ago (she’s a history major).

That really made me wonder if there really is this subliminal message that Asian American = activist; if that is being conveyed through the publication, do certain individuals feel marginalized that they don’t fit into that equation. And so having thought about it, I realized that there is just a phenomenological sense of being Asian American. The fact that individuals who encompass this broad group cannot define the term themselves suggests that identity is ineffable. Shakespeare had put it most eloquently in Romeo and Juliet–”a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. You are who you are. The label itself shouldn’t matter so much in that our inherent qualities encompass our being. So if you read hardboiled and feel empowered, great! If you feel left out, don’t! hardboiled is only a medium for expression of issues that certain individuals subjectively feel are important. The purpose of the newsmagazine is not supposed to characterize the issues that Asian American’s should be concerned about. If you don’t care about it–it’s ok. At least you know yourself well enough to see what you aren’t.