Hsu’s aunt, store owner Sandy Won, sells flags as souvenirs. Her store is likely the only one on Canal Street-Chinatown’s main thoroughfare-showcasing the flag daily. And even on July 4, when proud Americans around the nation haul out banners of all shapes and sizes to celebrate Independence Day, Chinese-American veteran Frank Gee says he usually sees no more than one or two flags flying in Chinatown’s community of 80,000.
This year, though, that may change. As part of a nationwide July 4 initiative, Gee’s American Legion post aims to paint the town red, white and blue with nearly 1,500 flags. Asian-American groups around Los Angeles, Washington, Houston, Cleveland and Oakland, Calif., are also planning to blanket storefronts with hundreds of star-spangled banners.
Their aim is not just aesthetic, but political too. “We figured that if people drive through ‘Asian-heavy areas’ such as Chinatown, Japantown, Little Manila, Little India, and see more flags on July 4th, they would subconsciously connect that they’re driving through areas of American citizens,” says S.B. Woo, a founding member of the 80-20 Initiative, the Asian-American political organization behind the flag project. [“80-20” refers to the organization’s effort to get 80 percent of Asian-Americans behind one candidate as a demonstration of their bloc-voting clout.]
A broader issue is why a community that filled one of World War II’s most-decorated U.S. military units (the Japanese-American 10th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team) and made important contributions to American society still feels this pressing need to prove its loyalty to the United States.
Distrust of Asian-Americans-who make up 3.6 percent of the population-still runs deep in the U.S. According to a landmark survey released two months ago, about one-third of Americans believe Chinese-Americans are more loyal to China than to the U.S. Nearly half thought the issue of U.S. citizens of Chinese descent passing secrets to China was “a problem.” Twenty-three percent said they would be uncomfortable voting for an Asian-American as president-a greater percentage than that of those expressing discomfort in voting an African-American, Jewish or woman candidate. Since the survey was conducted in March, the Chinese spy-plane crisis and the release of the movie “Pearl Harbor” have done little to allay American suspicion of citizens with Asian faces. “These [perceptions] are totally, totally unwarranted,” says Henry Tang, chairman of the Committee of 100, the Chinese-American policy group that sponsored the survey. “This is a very sorry state of affairs that we must work toward correcting.”
But the United States is also at a “great moment,” says Ronald Takaki, author of “Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian-Americans.” The 2000 Census figures paint a country of many colors, and Takaki believes the new definition of “American” should now include Asian-Americans-a group that has long been deemed foreign and unassimilable. Such myths fueled the “yellow peril” scare at the turn of the century and the hysteria that forced more than 111,000 West Coast Japanese (most of them U.S. citizens) into internment camps during the World War II. “That history is a legacy that still intrudes the present and that’s why a lot of us who are Asian-Americans still get asked questions like ‘How long have you been in this country’?” Takaki says. “And yet, my grandfather came here in 1886, before many European immigrants.”
Takaki, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of California-Berkeley, considers the 80-20 flag project a “superficial way to claim our American identity.” To him, the flag also represents U.S. imperialism and expansionism in Asia. “I don’t think the American flag is a symbol of equality,” he explains. “I’d like us to remember the Fourth of July as the day when a nation was founded and dedicated to, to use Lincoln’s language, ’the proposition that all men are created equal’.”
Woo argues the best way to fix the Asian-American “image problem” is through another image-“seas of flags.” Besides, he says, he and Takaki are striving for the same goal-a more multicultural and inclusive America. For many Asian-Americans, this year’s flag project is just a start toward greater acceptance. “It’s not only good for Asian-Americans but it also would help make America a ‘more perfect union’,” says Woo.
Back on Canal Street, there are hints that the National Gift Shop entrepreneurs’ reasons for flying the flag might go beyond the profit motive. Hsu, 18, says he would fight for America if China attacked the U.S., as his duty as a citizen. When his aunt is asked if she considers herself more Chinese than American, she says “Chinese,” but then hesitates. “If I can be both, I’ll be both,” Won says in Mandarin, voicing a sentiment common across Asian America. “When you live here this long, there are bound to be feelings for the country.” The flags may cost as little as $2.99-but it’s hard to put a price on those feelings.
