What Can't Kevin Du?

[lopan]

It's stories like these that make me smile.

It's rare to find immigrant parents so in touch with the social dynamics of Canada/USA that they've realized to truly "make it" and become accepted is to not necessarily have their kids "study hard". Kevin found a way into Harvard -- but not the way most chinese immigrant parents would have expected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlC_qQclMzA

Reminds me very much of that great Tim Horton's commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLJIkHoVeR0

[nekohead]

I loved the story!! But, now I just hope he finds a GOOD women to marry.." Not some chick that just wants his future MONEY!! :shock:

[ZhuBaJie]

loved the Tim Horton commercial. but the one about Kevin Du is no more touching than other Asian kids from refugee backgrounds who have "made it" by studying hard.

It's rare to find immigrant parents so in touch with the social dynamics of Canada/USA that they've realized to truly "make it" and become accepted is to not necessarily have their kids "study hard".

his parent's goal seemed to be to raise Kevin in a way that white people would accept him. i don't really like that, and i wonder if Kevin actually speaks Chinese or Vietnamese at all. they might have been one of those parents that don't want their kids to learn anything about their own culture. sad, really.

i'm sure his parents faced a lot of discrimination, but they basically raised a son to be someone that doesn't rock the boat and just try to fit in with white people.

[lopan]

ZBJ, i agree that immigrant kids that renounce their culture and heritage and wallow in self-hate are not a good thing. But there's nowhere in this documentary that suggests that. To say that Du's parents tried to white-wash him early in life and to embrace white culture 100% in place of his own Chinese heritage is pessimistic and dangerous. To first say that Du's parents raised him to be a conformist and a member of the model minority and then to condemn them for not being more militant is not only a false exagerration of the Dus' purpose, but also falsely implies that we all need to be activists in some way to equalize the power struggle.

Take this as it is. Take it at face value. See that what Kevin Du is doing is breaking stereotypes. Not only is he the only Asian kid on the entire team (and has been his entire life), but he's also the BEST on the team. His peers see him for his talent. Scouts look at him and see skill. He is valuable, and from what i gather, they are accepting him for who he is and they see past the colour-barrier. Kevin Du is living breathing evidence that we can do everything that 'they' can do.

The story of Kevin Du is a lesson not just to white people, but to immigrant parents as well. Let your kids play sports. Let your kids focus on broadening their social skills. Studying isn't everything and there are numerous ways for your child to succeed in life. And yet Kevin Du still respects his heritage and knows of the struggle his parents had to endure to get him to Canada. Asian values are often restrictive, and that is why we as a people are so often ostracized. The story of the Du's is balance ~ the balance of asian values within the western world.

[Ike]

I loved the story!! But, now I just hope he finds a GOOD women to marry.." Not some chick that just wants his future MONEY!! :shock:

I'll marry him! :D

[rainshowerz]

The story of Kevin Du is a lesson not just to white people, but to immigrant parents as well. Let your kids play sports. Let your kids focus on broadening their social skills. Studying isn't everything and there are numerous ways for your child to succeed in life. And yet Kevin Du still respects his heritage and knows of the struggle his parents had to endure to get him to Canada. Asian values are often restrictive, and that is why we as a people are so often ostracized. The story of the Du's is balance ~ the balance of asian values within the western world.
My husband was very athletic and active as a kid, and he played all kinds of sports before he reached junior high school. During this time, he also had piano lessons because that's what his parents (Korean immigrants)wanted him to do.

For some reason, his parents refused to let him play sports in junior high and high school. Instead, they wanted him to study harder, and they also kept pushing him to keep up with piano. They were also really strict about him going out, so he said he always stayed home during the weekends because his parents never let him go out. But apparently, he ended up being a prodigy because he was going to get a music scholarship for piano (or something like that).

But he really resented his parents for not letting him play sports during high school, as well as all the other stuff they wouldn't let him do as a teenager, so as a result, he moved out as soon as he graduated high school. And he never played the piano again. He spent the next four years of college partying up and getting drunk as a way to make up for lost time (just like I did, actually).

It's really sad too because had they allowed him to play sports and play the piano, he wouldn't have had so much revulsion against playing the piano, and who knows what would've happened. Even now when we attend my brother's piano recitals, he's so into seeing all these kids play, but whenever I suggest that he should start playing again, he doesn't want to.

Me, on the other hand, despite how dysfunctional my family was, the best thing they did for me was let me play sports while growing up. Back then, I was the kid that was getting teased for being Asian, and it didn't help that I was hella smart. The one thing that helped normalize me in front of the other kids was the fact that I participated in a lot of sports (and I got into fights a lot with people who picked on me 8-) ). It didn't matter if I was smart if I was in volleyball, tennis, and track at school. If it weren't for this balance, I would've resented being smart because that was the only option I was being forced into.

[ZhuBaJie]

ZBJ, i agree that immigrant kids that renounce their culture and heritage and wallow in self-hate are not a good thing. But there's nowhere in this documentary that suggests that. To say that Du's parents tried to white-wash him early in life and to embrace white culture 100% in place of his own Chinese heritage is pessimistic and dangerous. To first say that Du's parents raised him to be a conformist and a member of the model minority and then to condemn them for not being more militant is not only a false exagerration of the Dus' purpose, but also falsely implies that we all need to be activists in some way to equalize the power struggle.

Take this as it is. Take it at face value. See that what Kevin Du is doing is breaking stereotypes. Not only is he the only Asian kid on the entire team (and has been his entire life), but he's also the BEST on the team. His peers see him for his talent. Scouts look at him and see skill. He is valuable, and from what i gather, they are accepting him for who he is and they see past the colour-barrier. Kevin Du is living breathing evidence that we can do everything that 'they' can do.

he breaks stereotypes and is obviously a great hockey player - i'm definitely not trying to take that away. and maybe i jumped the gun about how Kevin was raised, but to try to extract some moral message about how we don't have to "study hard" to make it, really, is an exaggeration, too. all we know from the video that we watched was that his father wanted him to be "accepted", whereas Kevin's father himself was ostricised and felt like an outsider because of his race. his father wanted Kevin to be able to navigate white society better, that was the point of training him to play hockey. his father didn't train him to play hockey so he can "make it".

The story of Kevin Du is a lesson not just to white people, but to immigrant parents as well. Let your kids play sports. Let your kids focus on broadening their social skills. Studying isn't everything and there are numerous ways for your child to succeed in life. And yet Kevin Du still respects his heritage and knows of the struggle his parents had to endure to get him to Canada. Asian values are often restrictive, and that is why we as a people are so often ostracized. The story of the Du's is balance ~ the balance of asian values within the western world.

here is where i think you're interpretting "Asian values" - whatever that may mean - through western eyes. i can agree that parents should let their kids develop social skills and to play sports if they wanted, but why is the reverse of such automatically attributed to the parents being Asian? it seems all too often, American/Canadian-born Asians are too quick to blame their ills in upbringing to the fact that they or their parents are Asian. it's really questionable to me who exactly are buying into the model minority myth when American-born Asian kids blame the fact that their parents are Asian on why they were not allowed to play sports or to develop their social skills. if the model minority myth did not exist, would they still be blaming it on the fact that their parents are Asian?

[Catatonic]

This whole studying thing (in exclusion of any other interests) is not an Asian thing as much as an Asian immigrant thing (in Asia - talented athletes/artists/singers are pushed to excel in those areas).

Unfortunately for many Asian immigrant parents (tho definitely not all), they don't understand that developing social skills and relationships (i.e. - contacts) are just as important as getting a good education.

As for Harvard sports (men's) - most of the teams have at least one Asian-Am (basketball has 1; football has 3, lax has 2; soccer has 1; wrestling has 1; ski has 2; fencing has 2; crew has 1; swimming has 2; tennis has 2; etc.).