This week’s readings were probably the most fun because they are so different. At first glance it seems as if both pieces are going to talk about how the Chinese are a “model minority,” but the information could not be more contradictory.
   

While Chinatown is usually seen as a place that signifies lower social status, it is commonly believed that Chinese students are obedient and very well performing. While the U.S. News and World Report seems to sustain these perceptions, Peter Kwong could not disagree more.

People commonly believe that the Chinese are a “model minority” because they only look at the appearance of things. For example, the specialized high-schools in the city all have a predominant Chinese population, therefore people assume that all Chinese perform very well in school. Similarly, many of the top colleges in the nations have very high rates of enrollment for Chinese students. The masses do not dig deeper so to say; whatever is apparent must be the true. That is not the case.

As Kwong mentions in his article, many of the well performing Chinese students are the children of accomplished individuals who moved from Taiwan of Hong Kong. A closer look at the census would show that for the mainland Chinese, who live mostly in Chinatown, drop out rates are high, English proficiency is low, and overall possibility of advancement is low.
Besides the claims of the Chinese being a “model minority” being untrue, they are also unfair to other minorities. Based on this assumption, is it reasonable to believe that other nationalities should try to copy the Chinese in order to advance in society? That would be slightly absurd, because all people have different beliefs and values, therefore it is not reasonable to expect two different peoples to imitate each other. The fact that the stereotype is mistaken makes the situation even worse. This once again brings us to our discussion of perceptions. People perceive only what is at the surface, and few actually look for the truth. Unfortunately this lack of a foundation of certain perceptions (or stereotypes) creates a huge gap between races and nationalities that will keep being highly problematic until people realize that what appears at the surface is not necessarily what is true.