I’ve had to re-think this one a few times due to recent events. I recently had the pleasure of eating a home-cooked meal by Maggie’s neighbour, Anna. Needless to say, it was an Italian feast: salumi, cheeses, ouso bucco, pesto chicken, risotto and other dishes. Then we had a conversation of societal pressure of students, specifically those of (Asian/Chinese) immigrant families. Then came the topic of “parachute babies”, which is a topic I am iffy on. Those who come over and make something of themselves, I’m all for it. Those who are here to dick around while mommy and daddy are paying for school, living, and BMW cars: well… it’s probably best I don’t try to formulate any sentiments.
Then I recently walked by a newspaper box for the Asian Pacific Post and saw the headline. I don’t recall the exact wording, but I’ll summarize it as such: Asian students are all study and no play. The first words out of my mouth, aloud, were: bull, fucking shit! I grabbed a copy of the newspaper and was then reminded that the newspaper was probably diseased (Swine flu? I don’t recall what Russ said) and threw it back into the box.
I have no problem with smaller newspapers at all. I read the 24 and that other, “green” politically backed, free newspaper that gets shoved into your face at every Skytrain station while attending SFU and I always appreciated a bit of reading while ignoring the mundane conversations of other people on the bus. The APP (I’m lazy now) is an odd one as I never knew what to think about them. I skimmed one once and summarized it as a 24 with a focus on news that included anything Asian. Nowadays, I see the APP as showcasing young, female, Asian post-sec students on the Vancouver Province website. They call it Campus Scene; I call it advertising.
I managed to find the article on the website and read it. And as I guessed, the article was nothing special. The students who are “all study and no play” are the young kids in China who are essentially forced to study, study, and study some more. This form of pressure has been in the limelight in the last few years as students (and workers) are committing suicide due to the inability of living up to expectations or fulfilling the goals asked of them. Unfortunately, we see this with the CBC’s here in Canada (minus the seppuku). Aside from school, parents are now enrolling their kids in cram schools (Kumon, etc), arts-related lessons (music, dance, etc), and occasionally sports (ping pong, soccer, etc). These poor little bastards have their lives planned out for them and it’s quite unfortunate. (By the way, I’m acknowledging that it’s not just Asian kids who have their daily lives planned out.) I’m skipping over the negative racial article that Maclean put out that APP and others are protesting against, but I then can’t help but think of (and return to) the parachute babies. This is a slippery slope for me as I agree that the Maclean article is probably chalk full of bullshit and was written by a white-supremist who’s angry his/her hillbilly relative can’t get pass the 8th grade. Then again, I have to play devil’s advocate because it’s some of the parachute babies that seriously piss me off. Seriously, they’re only here because their parents send them here to study, get the a bachelors of any sort, and go back home to get a job. Most go on to stay in Canada and become awesome citizens. These folk study their asses off and I admire them. Then there are those who are here killing time. You’ve probably seen them around: loitering in Richmond, bubble tea spots, malls, driving overly nice cars that they didn’t pay for, wasting precious seats in a class that others could use to fulfill their pre-reqs. Really, they’re the least contributing people both in classes and society (unless you consider cheap labour a benefit). I know I’m being stereotypical of the parachute babies, and excluding other useless banter from this similarly described group, but honestly, I can’t help it. I always like to give the benefit of the doubt, but seeing a dumb shit dick around in class so he/she can get a BA with the bare minimums and doing nothing but waste their parents money really angers me. To those who are trying to do well and finish school, taking full course loads and working part or full time jobs, I take my hat off you and admire your courage. Hell, I was there a few years ago and can appreciate that. If you fall under the latter, my heart goes to you. For those of the former, give or take a few inclusions/exclusions in factors, sod off and give the hard workers their deserved chance.
