By Kathleen Wentz

It’s that all-too-familiar immigrant tale of Asian families who journey thousands of miles from their home seeking a better life and quality education for their children. But the story of more than two dozen Asian immigrant students in Philadelphia took a bitter turn last month, when they became victims of targeted, race-based beatings by their peers.

On Dec. 3, 26 Asian students were attacked and beaten by schoolmates at South Philadelphia High School. It was far from your average schoolyard brawl.

The violence began the day prior, when a Vietnamese student was jumped by 14 students across the street from the school, according to news reports. The next day, a group of students began searching classrooms for Asians—both male and female—to attack, according to victims’ accounts. One student was walking to the cafeteria with two friends when someone ran up from behind and hit him in the head. His friend was pushed to the ground, punched and kicked. According to student testimonials, some were attacked in the cafeteria. Others were jumped after school across the street. Seven of the victims were treated at a local hospital.

It was unclear what motivated the attacks. One student told local media it was revenge after a group of Vietnamese high schoolers jumped an African American student the week prior. Most of the attackers in the Dec. 3 incident were identified as African American. Yet news accounts and testimonials from the victims indicate that the violence against Asian students—primarily recent immigrants from China—has long been a problem at the school. And while administrators were aware of the issue for at least a year, students and Asian American community groups say the officials neglected to implement any meaningful changes to curb anti-Asian sentiment and physical attacks. Some Asian students said that certain school employees were even complicit.

“Violence is [being] condoned in this really corrosive culture,” said Helen Gym, a member of the Philadelphia-based Asian Americans United, a nonprofit whose mission is to build leadership in local Asian American communities. She has worked with school officials since last year on this issue. “It’s completely okay for staff members to mock students for the way they dress, for the way they talk, for the way they look, like calling kids ‘Bruce Lee,’ ‘Dragonball,’ ‘Yo Chinese,’ to things as dramatic as not filing incident reports when [Asian students] feel they’ve been harassed in the schools.”

In testimonials released by Gym’s organization, one Asian youth who went by the initials “Y.Z.” said that while students were fighting in the lunch room, “the lunch lady did not do anything to stop them and went around cheering happily.”

Immediately after this latest episode, Gym says district officials failed to conduct a full investigation and simply suspended 10 students (six African American and four Asian) “with intent to expel,” though Gym said she wasn’t sure what that meant. “It’s been a week since the incident and many of the students haven’t been contacted by the district,” she stated in early December. “They haven’t even called to ask about their well-being.”

She also decried the fact that officials downplayed the extent of the attacks and denied they were racially motivated.

As a result, many Asian students decided to boycott school—a gutsy act that propelled the youth into the media spotlight. During that time, school officials held meetings and promised to ramp up security measures and form a task force on racial and cultural harmony. An apology from principal LaGreta Brown didn’t come until Dec. 11—more than a week later. Gym said these measures were “too little, too late.”

“They still don’t address the root causes of the violence,” the activist said of the district’s efforts. “If race is something you can’t talk about, but [is something] that continues to get abused on a regular basis, then we’re not going to get anywhere. The school kept saying this was a minor incident—an after-school brawl. That’s not true. One of the students who was injured and bruised was beaten up in front of adults.”

In a released statement, Wei Chen, a student who has emerged as a leader in the movement to stop the anti-Asian attacks, said that district officials have long known about the violence, but failed to do anything about it. In October of 2008, about 30 students attacked Chen and about five other Chinese students in front of the school. After that incident, Chen formed the South Philadelphia High School Chinese American Student Association.

Though officials promised more security following the 2008 attack, Chen said the school never installed surveillance cameras as promised nor made any other changes. Instead, he said, the violence is “getting worse.”

In fact, the problem is more widespread. Troubling violence toward limited-English-speaking Asian immigrants at Philadelphia high schools was the subject of a September 2009 cover story in the Philadelphia Weekly. The attacks—which include verbal harassment to large-scale brawls—prompted increased collaboration between community groups and the school district, and eventually led to the hiring of a new principal, Brown, at South Philadelphia High School. According to Chen, Brown stopped the practice of physically segregating by floors the English language learners, many of whom were Asian, from the rest of the student population.

But even before the most recent assaults, overall violence at the school was up 32 percent from last school year, according to district statistics. Latino immigrant students also have complained they’re being attacked.

An estimated 70 percent of the school’s roughly 900 students are African American, 18 percent are Asian, 6 percent are white, and 5 percent are Latino. According to the school’s website, about 72 percent of the students in the 2005-06 school year were from families eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Citywide, about 73 percent of the population was considered low-income during this same period.

Notably, the immigrant population at the school, and in the area, has been rising in recent years. The demographic shift may help explain some of the friction.

As the Chinese and South Asian immigrant population ballooned in Brooklyn, N.Y., between 1990 and 2000, Asian students at Lafayette High School became the target of hate violence and regular bullying by their peers, as staff turned a blind eye, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation found. For several years, the New York-based Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund worked with the high school students to address the anti-Asian violence. In 2004, Lafayette entered into a Consent Decree and was ordered by the Justice Department to enforce anti-harassment policies.

AALDEF announced last month it would file a civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice against the Philadelphia school district for failing to address the violence against Asian immigrant students. “The severe, rampant and unchecked nature of the racially motivated attacks against Asian students at South Philadelphia High School far exceeds what I have seen,” said Cecilia Chen, a staff attorney with AALDEF, in a press statement.

The high school is considered a “persistently dangerous” school, a state-defined designation under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The law allows parents the choice to transfer their children to a “safe” school in the area.

But as of press time, the students boycotting South Philly High agreed to return to school after 12 days, following a meeting with Superintendent Arlene Ackerman. Ackerman’s office did not return KoreAm’s calls. School officials have publicly stated that the district is continuing to probe the incident, and a police investigation is expected to result in charges. An outside investigator has also been hired to look into the case.

Meanwhile, both African American and Asian students at the high school are trying to squelch the notion that there’s widespread hostility between the two groups, and have cautioned against pigeonholing all black students. In his testimony, Chen said, “I have had lots of African American friends and they have helped me, and so I know that we are not enemies.”

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It’s not uncommon for a prominent museum to have an Asian art collection, though none larger than the 35,000-plus objects housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, or the 30,000-piece compilation at the Smithsonian in D.C. But the museums that comprise this list are distinguished by the fact that they are institutions unto themselves. In a decade that has seen Asian American media decimated by numerous publications going under and cable networks fizzling out, during that same time period, many Asian/Asian American museums have expanded. Though the economic downturn has presented certain challenges, these five institutions—fueled by the public’s appetite for the Asian art experience—have managed to remain enduring fixtures in the American cultural landscape.

Here, the top Asian museums in the United States.

Asian Art Museum Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture
San Francisco, Calif.
www.asianart.org

What does it cost to have your name carved into the façade of the largest museum in the United States devoted exclusively to Asian art? Well, Chong-Moon Lee, a Korean-born entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, donated a staggering $15 million (plus $1 million devoted exclusively to the Korean department, whose collection is the most comprehensive outside of Korea). Current exhibitions include the “Korean Palaces of the Joseon Dynasty,” which runs through November. Though the museum has a scant contemporary collection on view, the traditional arts—especially the ceramics, jade and ivory sculptures—are exquisite. Visitors to the museum may note the ornate Classical architecture from the Ionic columns above the entrance to the coffered ceiling of Samsung Hall (where, fittingly, quiet cell phone use is permitted), and wonder why the nation’s largest self-standing Asian museum doesn’t look very…um…Asian. The museum actually moved from its previous location in Golden Gate Park to the former main branch of the city’s public library in the Civic Center. The site thus incorporates some of the library’s original Beaux Arts design. Re-use, recycle (very San Francisco)

Asia Society and Museum
New York, N.Y.
www.asiasociety.org

So the front isn’t much to look at. Besides the banners that drape the entrance, nothing really distinguishes the pink granite box in Upper Manhattan from the stolid brick buildings that surround it. But once inside, the visitor is greeted by a grand, glass and steel staircase that connects the open atrium to the four public galleries (all redesigned in 2001). In 2007, the society announced its Contemporary Art Collection after being one of the first American museums to establish a contemporary Asian art program in the early 1990s. By focusing a keen eye on the vibrant artwork coming from Asia, the society honors its mission to strengthen ties, promote dialogue and enhance understanding between the United States and Asia. (Planned expansions include a center/museum to open soon in Houston, Texas). Not content with merely collecting, the museum also commissions artists to create new works inspired by pieces in Asia Society’s Rockefeller Collection. Such commissioned work is currently on display through February 7 in an exhibition titled “Yoshihiro Suda: In Focus.”

Japanese American National Museum
Los Angeles, Calif.
www.janm.org

Ever since the Japanese American National Museum opened in 1992, it has celebrated America’s cultural diversity by putting the Japanese American experience in the broader context of freedom and democracy. In fact, along with spearheading the creation of the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (whose traveling exhibit, “Fighting for Democracy,” explores the diverse perspectives of ordinary citizens during World War II), it’s also the only Asian museum in California that is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute. As America fights two wars, the lessons of the Japanese American internment continue to resonate. Lest you worry that a visit will be one long civics lesson, rest assured that the museum mixes in a healthy dose of Japanese pop-culture kitsch and contemporary Asian American art. Hurry up and catch the “Giant Robot Biennale 2: 15 Years” exhibition currently on display through the 24th for some of the best contemporary art out there today, including an exclusive installation by the very twisted and immensely talented David Choe.

Pacific Asia Museum
Pasadena, Calif.
www.pacificasiamuseum.org

When you think “ethnic Asian enclave,” Pasadena isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind. But that’s not the only surprising thing about the Pacific Asia Museum. First, the Chinese Imperial-style building—replete with a charming interior courtyard straight out of a Zhang Yimou film—was once the personal residence of a local businesswoman who commissioned it in 1924. The site later became Pasadena Art Museum and finally transformed into the Pacific Asia Museum in 1971. Inside, the galleries wend through a surprisingly comprehensive collection of traditional, folk and contemporary art. Recently, the museum acquired some prized Korean ceramics and a painted eight-panel screen from the Joseon period. Though the museum is small, it more than compensates with innovative, provoking exhibits like “Calligraffiti: Writing in Contemporary Chinese and Latino Art,” which runs until the 17th. The display features three dynamic murals created in the museum’s parking lot by a collaboration of calligraphers and graf artists. Future exhibits include “Beyond the Page: Contemporary Art from Pakistan” and “China Modern: Designing Popular Culture 1910 to 1970.”

Wing Luke Asian Museum
Seattle, Wash.
www.wingluke.org

If you visit the Wing Luke Asian Museum expecting to see bowls and vases from a Dynasty, you’ve come to the wrong place. Named after the first Asian American elected official in the Pacific Northwest, the Wing Luke exemplifies a community-based institution. Exhibits are developed by a community advisory committee; as a result, no other museum on this list is so intimately tied to a specific region. The museum’s newly expanded location, which opened in 2008, was once the site of a boarding house originally built by Chinese immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. To pay homage to the immigrant pioneers who built the region’s railroads, worked the canneries and dug the mines, the museum has preserved some of the site’s original spaces (including a general store and living quarters). Yet, Wing Luke’s community-based approach goes well beyond mere preservation. Its ongoing oral history projects and community forums highlight the Asian immigrants’ present-day struggles and triumphs. The museum is also an incubator for homegrown, cutting-edge artists, some of whom have works on display through September 19 in a multi-media exhibit named “Cultural Transcendence.”

By Andrew Jo

Photographs by Eric Sueyoshi

More than a decade into his Major League career, Chan Ho Park still needs to pause for the occasional moment of clarity. Like a rookie being called up for his first start, or a veteran grinding out his final season, Park admits that every year provides a new note—a new big league moment that even he must view from a third person perspective.

“I don’t think I can count how many,” says the 36-year-old pitcher, clad in a hooded Monarchy sweatshirt and jeans at his home in Marina del Rey, Calif. “Going to the World Series last season; that [experience] is totally different than having 18 wins in a season. Pitching in the World Series…it was extreme and it was fun. Pressure is always fun.”

Park, who in 2009 began his first season with the defending National League Champion, the Philadelphia Phillies, was featured as a relief pitcher, demonstrating the consistency and adjustments that have defined the successful portions of his career—mixing his two-seam fastball, slider and changeup to get ahead of batters, limiting walks and homeruns.

Once he found a comfort zone in the bullpen, Park came into his own. Following the All-Star Break, he became one of the Phillies’ most reliable relievers, posting a 1.85 ERA (earned run average), though a strained right hamstring sustained in mid-September rendered him unavailable until Game 1 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Following a rehab stint, the Phillies hurler, sporting perhaps one of the finer beards seen in recent playoff memory, became one of manager Charlie Manuel’s late inning solutions. With four appearances in the NLCS, and another four in the World Series, Park became just the second Korean player to reach the Fall Classic, following Byung-Hyun Kim of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks.

Though Park was ill during the Series—infected with swine flu, no less—he was able to maintain his focus while pitching on baseball’s grandest stage. His opponents: the greatest postseason performers in the sport’s history, the New York Yankees.

“I had the swine flu during the World Series, [but] it didn’t matter,” Park recalls. “Sometimes, when you’re not feeling good, mentally you get stronger and you’re able to focus.”

Park used that focus to bounce back during Games 4 to 6, adding to his bulldog mentality and displaying the L-O-V-E he’s generated from his fans and supporters.

He spoke of that “love” immediately following his team’s NLCS victory in October—which secured the Phillies’ spot in the 2009 World Series.

“You know the word L-O-V-E? Love?” said Park to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I feel that for the people back home in Korea, who have always supported me, and for the fans in Philadelphia, who have treated me so well. I am so happy that I did not give up two years ago, that now I have a chance to be a champion.”

While the Phillies ultimately lost the World Series title to the Yankees, Park’s 2009 playoff performance highlights how far he has come.

Introduced to baseball as a 10-year-old in Kongju City, South Korea, Park would come to embody the nation’s burgeoning enthusiasm towards the sport. Young and in a country where the newly established Korean Baseball Organization provided the only professional outlet, Park played in Kongju City, where the small town mentality contributed to his exposure, eventually elevating him as an amateur and member of the Korean International team.

Park’s career as a Major League Baseball player began amidst a historical backdrop.  Appearing in his debut for one inning on April 8, 1994 at Dodger Stadium, the then 21-year-old right-hander wasn’t even the game’s headline, as Atlanta Braves pitcher Kent Merker opposed the Dodgers with a no-hitter. It wasn’t until 1997 that Park would start making a name for himself. Used almost exclusively as a starting pitcher, he would win 14 games with a 3.38 ERA, the second lowest of his career.

As a member of the gold medal winning team at the 1998 Asian Games, Park’s career stood at the same crossroads that fellow South Korean Major Leaguer Shin-Soo Choo is currently facing. An outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, Choo may be called upon to serve his mandatory two-year military obligation under South Korean law (though a waiver would not be the first for a successful Korean athlete). Following the 1999 season, Park reported to boot camp for one month of training, but received a waiver, allowing him to focus purely on baseball.

“He’s one of the treasures of the country,” Park says about Choo, his South Korean contemporary. “The opportunity to play in the Major Leagues is better than sending him to the Army right now. I don’t know how much he can help the country being in the Army. Playing baseball is helping the country. He is the most valuable [Korean] player in the [Major] League, and if he can’t play, that’s bad for the country.”

With his military obligations waived and the transition from Korean to American culture at ease, Park began to heighten his role as a pitcher in the Major Leagues. Early success with the Los Angeles Dodgers and support from a strong Korean American fan base turned him into a household name, though Park suffered his first career lapse after signing a new five-year/$65 million contract with the Texas Rangers after the 2001 season. Texas would test Park’s mettle and resiliency, as his three-and-a-half seasons there were criticized as one of the poorest free agent signings of the 2000s.

After a trade sent him to the San Diego Padres, Park’s struggles continued. His years as a Ranger behind him, Park attempted a career revival, though a bout with intestinal bleeding would hinder the process. Placed on the disabled list and unable to pitch, many of Park’s San Diego teammates offered to donate blood to the pitcher who would eventually be hospitalized for blood transfusions and surgery.

“That was great,” Park says of the support he received from his teammates. “I felt really appreciative. That’s how the team was in San Diego. Guys felt like family, brothers, teammates, very good friends.”

Following the Padres, Park signed with the New York Mets, and after two minor league stints, found his way back to his original team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for the 2008 season. In his May 17th start, Park reminded fans of the path he helped blaze, as the Dodger’s pitching credentials consisted of Park, Taiwan’s Hong-Chih Kuo and Japan’s Takashi Saito, the first time in MLB history that three pitchers born in three different Asian countries pitched for the same team, in the same game.

For the past two seasons, with the Dodgers then the Phillies, Park has been used primarily as a relief pitcher. Playing in his best seasons since 2001, he has enjoyed personal and team success, and has embraced a new chapter in his life as a family man.

With wife Rie Park, who recently penned a cookbook entitled Rie’s Kitchen, Park is raising two young daughters—a difficult feat during baseball’s long-lasting season. But during the off-season, he says, family remains the top priority.

“It’s a lot of work at home,” Park says of his life off the mound. “Especially in the off-season, you got to help the wife because she has a hard job during the season.”

Park, who is not a U.S. citizen, and has no immediate plans on becoming one, must also travel from his Southern California residence back to Korea every off-season to retain his work visa for the following year. Though he believes an American education for his two girls, Elynne, 3, and Selynne, 1, is an important part of their futures, Park would like to further his work as a baseball ambassador, supporting the advancement of little league programs in South Korea. The founder of a nonprofit organization, the Beverly Hills-based Chan Ho Park Dream Foundation, Park has also been steadfastly dedicated to assisting South Korean students achieve their educational goals through a scholarship foundation.

Yet for now, Park is forced to ponder the remaining years of his baseball career.

A current free agent still in search of his new home for the 2010 season, he admits that he is comfortable in Philadelphia and happy to be in a town so passionate about baseball.

“His preference is to go to a winning ball club,” said Park’s agent, Jeff Borris, through a blog written by Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. “There are some clubs that are interested in Chan Ho as a starter. There are some clubs that are interested in Chan Ho solely as a reliever, which would be the Phillies. We’re really not shutting the door on any possibilities right now.”

As of late December, Park still remained unsigned by a Major League Baseball team. While he has established a comfort zone in Philadelphia, rumors persist that his days as a Phillie may be over. Regardless of his ongoing contractual talks, with his strong performance throughout 2009, Park has positioned himself to become a solid contributor to any contending ballclub.

“Probably in the Major Leagues,” says a laidback Park, smiling, when asked where he would like to pitch next season. “I’m focusing on next year…just one at a time now.”

By Anna M. Park

The little girl with the bulbous head, enormous brown eyes and red flowers in her hair addresses the viewer: “Do you wanna know how I say ‘happy’ in Chinese?”

Pause.

“Gao-xing (kai-SHING’),” she answers. “Say gao-xing!”

She stares expectantly, compelling her preschool-aged audience to follow. “Super!” she affirms, then breaks into song. “We’re going to China. I feel so happy! Gao-xing, gao-xing, gao-xing!”

It’s Kai-lan’s Great Trip to China, the latest one-hour special featuring Kai-lan Chow, the 5-year-old animated star of Nickelodeon’s cartoon hit Ni Hao, Kai-lan. In the first eight minutes of the show, she says “gao-xing” 23 times. She sings the gao-xing song another half-dozen times throughout the episode.

It’s a word loyal viewer Lila Kim is not likely to forget. The 4-year-old is gao-xing every time she watches her favorite show. “She loved it from day one,” says her Korean American mother Susan Kim, a resident of Los Angeles. “She knows more Chinese words than Korean, and claims to know how to do tai chi.”

Lila has a lot of little people company. Since Ni Hao, Kai-lan premiered on Nickelodeon’s preschool-oriented channel, Nick Jr., in February 2008, it has consistently ranked one of the top five children’s shows overall and is a highly popular series in the Nickelodeon portfolio, second only to the more established Dora the Explorer.

That Nick Jr. phenomenon and its male counterpart Go, Diego, Go! first introduced bilingualism to mainstream America almost a decade ago. Thanks to these shows, a new generation of preschoolers has been exposed to more cultures and language on television than any before it. They are counting “uno, dos, tres” as often as “one, two, three.” Now, they may be adding “yi, er, san” to their lingo.

And it only makes sense, considering that, after Hispanics, Asians are the fastest growing ethnic population in America, according to the U.S. Census. As early as 2042, Census projections predict, minorities in this country will outnumber whites.

But Kai-lan wants to do more than just teach a few words of Mandarin. The show emphasizes the idea that “being bicultural and bilingual is being American,” according to its official         website, NickJr.com. Featuring culture beyond mere food and festivals, it tackles such East Asian issues as group harmony and intergenerational relations. Kai-lan’s grandfather is featuredprominently in every episode.

All that wrapped up in a cute package of bobble-headed characters.

Culture Class

In a climactic scene from Kai-lan’s Great Trip to China, a baby panda is afraid to get on a boat. After some inquiry, Kai-lan discovers that the boat is “something new” that the panda’s never tried before. Kai-lan’s animal friends (whose voices are provided by an ethnically diverse group of child actors) recall their own experiences of being afraid to try something new. “But then I tried them, and I liked them,” says Tolee, the koala. “When you’re scared of something new,” Kai-lan and her friends sing, “here’s what you can do. Just try it because you might like it!”

While the plots are somewhat formulaic, reminiscent of Dora episodes that neatly package problem, resolution, foreign-language vocabulary and a catchy tune in under 30 minutes, child experts credit the series for showing a main character whose worldview is informed by East Asian values.

“Kai-lan tries to see how the other person thinks, and does not have black-and-white views of the world,” observes Los Angeles-based Meme Rhee, a psychotherapist specializing in intercultural issues.

It’s a reflection of the East Asian value of taking “the perspective of others to maintain harmony in relationships with other people,” according to the show’s curriculum. That may be a bit too deep for the show’s target audience of 2- to 5-year-olds, who probably glean something much more practical from it.

There’s “an automatic feeling of kinship and connection” Asian American children have with the show, suggests Anna Lau, associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She specializes in parenting and mental health care in immigrant families. Her daughters, 6 and 2, like Kai-lan, call their paternal grandfather from Taiwan “yeye.”

“They don’t hear anyone else calling their grandparent ‘yeye,’” says Lau, a second-generation Chinese American.

“Just the idea that everyone around you doesn’t necessarily speak English is a big step in seeing the world from a global perspective,” says Teri Weiss, senior vice president of production and development at Nickelodeon Preschool Television. “I think with the popularity of Dora and now Kai-Lan, more and more children are proud to demonstrate that they speak languages other than English, and at a very early age see bilingualism and multiculturalism as assets.”

Parental Guidance

And it’s not just the kids who appear to be benefiting from the show. Mary Cha was thrilled to find an “Asian alternative to Dora.” The mother of two says she loves “seeing Kai-lan’s face on television and on clothes at Target,” referencing the merchandise from backpacks to toys that now carry the animated star’s image.

As children of immigrants, many Asian Americans grew up struggling with identity issues. Now themselves parents to a new generation of Asian American children, they may still struggle with feelings of marginalization, says Lau. The very existence of a show like Kai-lan, with its positive, appealing portrayals, can help foster a sense of inclusion for Asian Americans of all ages. The show also provides a platform from which parents can address—and hopefully preempt—some of those identity issues with their own kids.

“I didn’t live in an area with a lot of other Asians, so I didn’t have a lot of people to relate to,” says Susan Kim, who grew up in Huntington Beach, Calif. “I had to figure everything out on my own.” After her daughter Lila started watching Kai-lan and Dora the Explorer, the 4-year-old got curious about her own heritage and the different backgrounds of people around her. Kim wanted to convey the right message. “I emphasize that being different makes her interesting, so she is quite proud to be Korean,” says Kim.

“We’ve heard, time and time again, how older generations of Latinos and Asian Americans felt shame having to translate for their parents or grandparents who did not speak English,” says Nickelodeon’s Weiss. “Consequently, their native tongues were not a source of pride.” A show like Kai-lan helps to counter such feelings by empowering children who grow up in bilingual homes, she says.

“I think [Korean] culture and language are still a big part of our lives, especially since most of us are second-generation with first-generation parents who can hardly speak English,” says Esther Min, co-founder of Little Seouls boutique, an online store that sells Korean and Asian cultural products for kids. “[Korean American parents] are definitely into preserving the heritage, whether the kids are interested in it or not.”

When Min’s 6-year-old son first began watching Kai-lan two years ago, picking up quite a bit of Mandarin words, she made sure to teach him that there was a difference between Korean and Chinese. This also provided a foundation to more easily explain to him later why he, with ancestors from Asia, didn’t have “yellow hair” like his white friend, she says.

A Different View

Response to the show hasn’t been all positive, however. A few comment boards on parenting and adoption websites questioned the round shape of Kai-lan’s eyes. Some complained that it set an “unrealistic standard” for Asian American children.

Parents interviewed for this story either were relieved to see that Kai-lan didn’t have stereotypically “narrow” eyes or didn’t notice the eyes. “I always thought the characters in the show looked a bit like Hello Kitty characters. Who doesn’t like Hello Kitty and her friends?” says Kathy Choi Lee, founder of Kokoliving.com, a website for Korean American mothers.

Indeed, Karen Chau, the Chinese American creator of the Kai-lan character, says that her artistic rendering of the fictitious girl is influenced by the Hello Kitty and Hayao Miyazaki aesthetic.

“Kai-lan’s face falls well within the tradition known as ‘Asian Pop,’” says Weiss, though she does acknowledge that “some have been critical of that tradition’s use of exaggerated eyes.” Interestingly, in the airport scene in Kai-lan’s Great Trip to China, not only do the Chinese characters have subtly varied shades of skin color, the eye shapes differ as well, from half-circles like Yeye’s, to circular with the slightest tilt at the edge, to Kai-lan’s oblong shape.

Weiss says that the exaggerated round eye shape and size “actually help us to depict emotional facial expressions through animation. Since we have an emotional intelligence curriculum, Kai-lan’s facial expressions are an important element in its execution.” Weiss also cites the large team of consultants—educational, cultural and linguistic—behind the show who “help us make certain that we depict Chinese and Chinese American culture in a valid and sensitive way.”

“People are going to complain one way or the other,” says Lau. The more important consideration, she adds, is the fact that Kai-lan is a positive Asian American female protagonist at the forefront of a popular children’s show. “Having that in your formative years can set you on a trajectory of seeing Asian Americans as positive and included.”

The ‘We’ Generation?

Today’s children’s programming landscape is a far cry from the days when some Asian Americans had to imagine the Wonder Twins superheroes from the All New Super Friends Hour, with their dark hair and eyes, were Asian. (In “reality,” they were from the planet Exxor.)

“Whenever I saw an Asian character on a cartoon show back in the ‘80s, they always stood out,” says Andy Park, a Los Angeles-based 34-year-old father. Of the half-dozen Asian cartoon characters he can recall, most were sidekicks who did martial arts, like Quick Kick from G.I. Joe and Master Splinter (an anthropomorphic rat) from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Times have certainly changed. “We are no longer a minority anymore in most major cities in California,” says Min.

Still, a show like Kai-lan is far from the norm. While there are more Asian faces on television than ever before, many are still used mainly in supporting roles, says Lau. “Asians have to be in the forefront of shows, not just background color,” she says.

That’s why the benefits of Kai-lan are so significant.

But ask Jade-Lianna Peters, the 13-year-old Chinese American who is the voice of Kai-lan, about being a role model for Asian Americans, and you won’t get an answer informed by ethnic  consciousness. After a moment’s hesitation, she will list what makes Kai-lan a role model: She’s outgoing, helpful and giving. Nothing about her ethnicity.

Perhaps it’s just too much for an adolescent to grasp. Or it could be that these more universal, humanistic traits are more valuable to her, says Lau.

For Choi Lee, the importance of a show like Kai-lan lies in teaching her two boys, 3 and 1, to see beyond ethnicity.

“The bigger issue might not be in their ethnicity, but in their character, no matter where they are raised,” says Choi Lee. “If a show like Ni Hao, Kai-lan can teach them moral lessons of confidence, respect, kindness, patience and how to manage their emotions, I think they’ll have a healthier self-identity as Asian Americans.”

That may just be the reality for a whole generation of kids, like Cyan Park. At 20 months old, she’s already a fan of Nick Jr. programming, including Kai-lan. Her paternal grandparents speak to her in Korean; her maternal grandparents in Cantonese. Her New York-born father uses English. Her mother, an ethnically Chinese native of Honduras, mixes Spanish with English. She drinks leche (Spanish for milk), goes ko-ja (Korean for sleep), and calls her cousin koko (Cantonese). She says “please” and “help” using American Sign Language.

It may be a while before she picks up any Mandarin from Kai-lan. But when she does, she too can be happy, haengbokhae, feliz and gao-xing.

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