Help me think of modern american skills or interests.
November 11, 2008 12:57 PM   Subscribe

What could be a "modern american" skill or hobby that traditional chinese parents may not want their daughter to learn?

I'm writing a story where a 12 year old Chinese American girl is learning to appreciate both parts of her identity. In the beginning I want this girl to want to learn a skill / hobby that is fairly "American" and that her traditional Chinese parents might think is a waste of time because they want her focusing on more things from their heritage.

Later on, she will use this skill – along with her traditional Chinese knowledge – to overcome a huge obstacle in a fantasy world, and she and her parents will learn that both parts of who she is are good things.

What could that skill / hobby be? Any suggestions?

So far I've come up with:

Roller Skating
Hip Hop Dancing
Basketball / Field Hockey / Soccer
Playing electric guitar
Skate Boarding
Surfing

But I think there's something better.

Since it's a screenplay, I'm thinking visual would be better, but I'm not adverse to it being something more emotional or intellectual, if it works. I'm not interested in blogs or computer based things because I don't think computers play well on screen in films.
posted by visual mechanic to Society & Culture (25 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I love your suggestions of sports; therein lies an endless well of stories. For inspiration, watch Bend it Like Beckham.
posted by sjuhawk31 at 1:05 PM on November 11, 2008


Competitive rope jumping.
posted by clearlydemon at 1:06 PM on November 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


I did a google search for "uniquely American skill" and it came back with rodeo barrel racing. It's completely random, but it might come in handy when trying to overcome an obstacle and it could stem from a love horses.
posted by Kimberly at 1:12 PM on November 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


Cheer leading
Log rolling

(Skateboarding was the first thing I thought of, surfing also works).
posted by cushie at 1:16 PM on November 11, 2008


Learning to cook typical American dishes. Not that this is a unique American skill. But I do know parents who grumble when their kitchen-challenged kids take an interest in cooking ... but of the "wrong" cuisine.
posted by Xere at 1:19 PM on November 11, 2008


webcam "model"
posted by Thorzdad at 1:24 PM on November 11, 2008


Obviously I don't know you, or the details of your story, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of a non Chinese American person writing a story about Chinese American identity, especially when 'traditional Chinese parents' who need to learn lessons are being thrown around. I'm not saying you can't do it, or do it well, but ...

In any case, I don't think sports are as objectionable as you might think -- if we're going to reduce Chinese parents into some sort of monolithic class, mine were pretty concerned about health, and exercise is pretty related to that. Maybe acting? I don't think actors were traditionally held in particularly high esteem traditionally.
posted by Comrade_robot at 1:24 PM on November 11, 2008 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: I'm writing it with a Chinese producer, it's the angle she wants to take on the story, and I love the idea of exploring these different cultures.
posted by visual mechanic at 1:27 PM on November 11, 2008


My Korean parents were totally perplexed by my desire to spend time and effort on anything that wasn't 1) intensely academic, or 2) the piano, the flute, and the violin. "Why would you waste your time on that?" things included any and all sports, the drama club, most arts and crafts, writing, and part-time jobs.

They never stifled my participation in any of these things, but they were really just confused about why I would want to do anything other than study and practice classical music - to them, those were my full-time jobs.
posted by peachfuzz at 1:29 PM on November 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


Interesting question. I can think of some "uniquely Western" sports like softball or lacrosse (which would expose her to lots of American socialization). As for musical instruments, instead of learning violin or piano, she could take up electric guitar.
posted by muddgirl at 1:44 PM on November 11, 2008


Slam poetry!
posted by rachaelfaith at 1:53 PM on November 11, 2008


Graffiti - visual, generally frowned upon by parents
posted by knile at 1:54 PM on November 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Cheerleading( dangerous, risque uniforms, mixed-sex), Hockey (more canadian than american), Mountain Biking, Watersports(sailing/windsurfing/surfing).

For music any non-classical instrument is likely to cause pain. Eg (electric)guitar, drums, dj-ing etc.
For the arts jazz or hip-hop dance, comic book creation.
Dating/being friends with black/indian/hispanics especially from blue collor families. (Parents are often hugely xenophobic)

Basically anything that is not conducive to studying to become a doctor, lawyer or drone at a large multinational corperation is likely to cause consternation to immigrant parents who are sacrificing a lot give their child a safe and comfortable life with a prestigious job.
posted by captaincrouton at 2:02 PM on November 11, 2008


Baseball isn't uniquely American anymore, but if she became a very good little league pitcher or outfielder (plausible), she could later use that throwing arm and good aim to knock out the mean wizard with a rock David and Goliath style, boyeee. Substitute football quarterback/placekicker if needed.

Professional wrestling! Later, when she drops the atomic elbow from the top rope to hit the ogre in its one weak spot and recover the magic chalice and save the town, her parents will be glad she studied the maneuver. It could work. It beats a dance-off, though I'll admit that many fantasy world conflicts are settled with hip hop dance competitions these days. It's just getting to be so cliche.

She could work as an alligator wrestler (or assistant) at one of those places in Florida. Then she'd know how to beat the Lizard People of Vogos.

She could work on a maple syrup farm. Her later fantasy world victory would just have to be very very slow is all. Maybe it could be against a giant turtle.

Something involving: Thanksgiving, trick or treating, corn, bayou airboats, possums, sweat tents, roller derby, demolition derby, competitive barbecuing, Harley Davidsons, rodeo clowning, speaking in tongues.

OMG OKIE NOODLING!

(Kind of have to include Canada for some of these.)
posted by kookoobirdz at 2:35 PM on November 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


My Korean parents were totally perplexed by my desire to spend time and effort on anything that wasn't 1) intensely academic, or 2) the piano, the flute, and the violin. "Why would you waste your time on that?" things included any and all sports, the drama club, most arts and crafts, writing, and part-time jobs.

From my experiences and observations, this is pretty much the case for the Chinese (and most other) community in Malaysia.
posted by divabat at 4:11 PM on November 11, 2008


I second Burhanistan's idea - have your character join the Girl Scouts. It's non-academic and slightly tomboyish. You get to show your character literally 'put on' a new, more 'American' identity (her GS uniform) and hang out with a bunch of American girls from all sorts of backgrounds. Scouts learn a lot of different skills, so you have some leeway on deciding what skill should miraculously come in handy, and many of the skills Scouts learn are more obviously linked to practical, 'save-your-life' applications than hip-hop dancing or hockey are. And, the other hobbies you mention, scouting is actually intended to develop self-reliance and survival skills - 'Be Prepared!'.

It's probably not as cool as surfing or playing the electric guitar, I'll admit.
posted by ShameSpiral at 5:00 PM on November 11, 2008


... championship euchre.
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:45 PM on November 11, 2008


DJ-ing
Tattoo-ing
Political protesting
Burning
Swinging
Survivalism

Good luck!
posted by rocco at 5:49 PM on November 11, 2008


Barrel racing would be good, although it's expensive.
Or she could train search and rescue dogs.

Neither of which is, at the fundamental level, uniquely American what with the dog- and horse-human partnerships going back to prehistory all over the world.

However, Chinese - despite having had horses and dogs and people who knew how to train them for the army, for rich people things like polo and fox hunting, and for circus tricks - do not have all that much literature on traditional husbandry, especially when you consider how ahead of the game they were with written words. Part of this might be a centuries old effort to be not like various horsebacked hoards galloping across that land mass. Or maybe they just didn't get around to documenting for some reason.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 5:50 PM on November 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


My mother actually encouraged me to join Girl Scouts. For organized, parent-monitored socialization and "wholesome" activities, I guess. She wouldn't let me go on the end-of-year campout, though.

What really pissed her off was my fondness for reading comic books, fantasy and sci-fi, and fictional literature in general. Said it was worthless junk food for the brain. And I don't mean even hardcore spaceships and chainmail bikini stuff - in middle school she confiscated the Redwall books I was secretly paying friends to buy for me.

Actually she seems to have a problem in general with anything remotely likely to involve violence - when I started reading Shakespeare she specifically prohibited Macbeth because "there's too much killing in it."

I tried out for the school musical one year and landed a pretty good role, and she refused to actually let me participate because acting encourages dishonest character, or something like that.
posted by casarkos at 5:55 PM on November 11, 2008


Odd. My high school has a relatively large Korean population, and many of the parents encourage their children to play sports, almost to fault. One of my friends is ranked nationally in U18 tennis, one is ranked nationally in golf, and I have several good friends that are attending top-tier schools on athletic scholarships, mainly in soccer, golf, and baseball.

In fact, I tutor a Korean 9th grader in math three times a week that's planning on going pro in golf someday (he wins amateur tourneys in the 20-30 age group locally already). Oh well.
posted by Precision at 9:09 PM on November 11, 2008


a skill / hobby that is fairly "American" and
Hmmmm...

WWF wrestling?

:DDDDD
posted by Elysum at 9:44 PM on November 11, 2008


Hi again -- I'm not questioning your good intentions, or anything, but I do think that one of the problems inherent in your question is that you are kind of asking: "Based on the stereotypes of Chinese parents you have acquired, what kinds of activities might they not like?" And you're getting some conflicting answers: my parents wouldn't really mind sports (especially if it got me into a good school, that kind of thing looks good on the old college application, don'tchaknow -- heck, the dude who won Scholar-Athlete at my high school was a Chinese American dude), some others would.

I'm not really sure that this is exploring Chinese culture any more than a black/white buddy cop movie is exploring black culture when the black cop teaches the white cop to dance. Every hack Asian comedian, every police show where they do a 'Chinatown episode' -- I even vaguely recall an episode of MacGuyver which does this -- they all go the 'harsh stereotypical Asian parents' route.

Again, it's not personal, I don't know you, I don't really know your work, and I don't doubt your good intentions.

My parents may, in certain lights, have been viewed as harsh. This wasn't because they wanted to insist on reverence to an older culture. This was because they loved me, and they wanted me to be successful, and this was the way they knew.
posted by Comrade_robot at 5:25 AM on November 12, 2008 [1 favorite]


Oh, and also, if you go with this -- please don't make the parents unable to speak English/able only to speak broken English.
posted by Comrade_robot at 5:28 AM on November 12, 2008


Soapbox derby?
posted by Arthur Dent at 9:27 AM on November 12, 2008


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