Word: thongthiraj
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...every way that counts, Took Took Thongthiraj is the personification of American promise. Engaging, intelligent and an achiever, the 22-year-old UCLA senior radiates confidence. "I'm 100% American and 100% Asian," she declares. "A lot of Asian Americans feel forced to choose between the two, which is a message they get from their parents. But I've worked hard to create a cultural hybrid for myself...
...youngest of six daughters born to a Thai couple who immigrated to Southern California nearly 30 years ago, Thongthiraj has posted a perfect grade-point average of 4.0 at UCLA. She hopes to go on to win a master's degree and a Ph.D., with the eventual aim of teaching women's and Asian- American studies at the university level. Her story sounds like every parent's dream come true, but it is hardly unique. Around the country, young people of Asian descent seem to embody the tongue-in-cheek demographics of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, where...
What does make Thongthiraj unusual is her determination to win something more elusive than a career: to fashion a new identity out of the conflicting allegiances and double-edged stereotypes that plague the Asian-American psyche. Material success has bred resentment, envy, even backlashes of violence from such other subnationalities as blacks and Latinos; last year's Los Angeles riot was a vivid reminder of that vulnerability. The image of Asians as immigrant role models has also disguised the enduring poverty of some, as well as the political feebleness of the minority as a whole...
...UCLA, Thongthiraj is helping change that view. She is director of the Asian Pacific Coalition, an umbrella group of 19 ethnic organizations on campus. In promoting cultural awareness and aiding new immigrants, especially hard-luck cases from Indochina, the coalition encourages them to articulate a more assertive political voice and American identity...
Like most other younger U.S.-born Asians, Thongthiraj feels at home in American civilization. Even so, she is not willing to forsake her special heritage. "There is something in the Asian family that promotes success," she acknowledges. "Parents feel you have to get established. They push a filial sense of duty and a message to fulfill parental expectations. What I do reflects on my family...
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