Defining what a typical American is

By Robert Shepherd

JAKARTA (JP): "What is an American?" This was one of the closing sentences in Mr. Willem F. Wanrooy's two-part series Expanding Asian Facets to U.S. published in The Jakarta Post on Sept. 6-7, 1995.

Being an American, I read these articles with interest. Mr. Wanrooy's main point -- that Asians should try to increase the flow of information from Asia to the United States, to counter the influence of the Western media -- was well taken. In a democracy, the more access people have to differing viewpoints, the greater their ability to understand and assess situations and problems.

But a few things bother me. For instance, I happen to be an American with an MA degree in history who has lived and worked in Asia for ten years. And yet, according to Mr. Wanrooy, "American students have little or no knowledge of the history of their own country or of any other country. Adults and students alike have little understanding of non-Western lands especially."

Well, being an individualistic Western, I suppose I should like to be thought of as unique. But I am not. Am I, then, a typical American? No, I suppose not. What, therefore, am I?

I am not sure. What does "typical", "normal", "common" or "usual" mean when applied to an ethnic group? Is there a "typi cal" Indonesian, or Singaporean, or Indian, or for that matter a typical "Asian"? This is a difficult question made murkier when stereotypes are employed. A stereotype is usually defined as an over-simplified idea or concept which is applied to a large group of people. All cultures indulge in stereotypes. In the United States, almost every immigrant group has been burdened at one time or another with a stereotype; Poles were dumb; Italians were mobsters, Irish were drunks, Scots and Dutch cheap, Africans lazy, Chinese inscrutable, Germans stiff and too formal. Similar ly, if we were to ask several Javanese to describe Chinese or natives of Irian Jaya the odds are good that at least some of them would tell us that the former are all businessmen and the latter smell bad.

We also often resort to stereotypes when seeking to describe cultural values. Mr. Wanrooy lists the usual litany of Asian values, ranging from "tolerance, accommodation, cooperation and minimization of conflict "to" strong family values, respect for authority, consensus in decision-making, supremacy of the commu nity over the individual..." And yet, if we examine recent Asian history, what do we find? A few examples:

* Mass slaughter between Hindus and Moslems during the 1947 partitioning of India, followed by more atrocities between Mos lems and Moslems during the 1971 Bangladesh War.

* Random acts of violence against Islamic mosques and shrines and Hindu temples, again in India and Pakistan, which continue to this day.

* The 1965 problems in Indonesia, in which 300,000 officially died.

* The 1962 border war between India and China.

* The 1979 border war between Vietnam and China.

* The Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia.

In addition, the evening news has recently given us the opportunity to watch legislators beat up each other in Taiwan's parliament and Afghan demonstrators burn down the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul. Then there are the ongoing social problems many societies, both East and West, are trying to cope with -- drugs, prostitution, AIDS.

Where in all this, I wonder, are these Asian values?

My point is not to attack Mr. Wanrooy's argument. Rather, I believe we should be on guard against resorting to stereotypes or labels when discussing such thorny issues as cultural values or ethnic groups.

Do Asian values really apply across the wide spectrum of cultures and societies that makes up Asia? That is to say, does a villager in rural Nepal or a factory worker in urban China or a computer programmer in Taiwan or a government official in Jakarta share certain basic cultural values? Having lived and worked in all of these places, I question this premise, just as I question the premise Westerners share a basic set of Western values, usually portrayed as a hedonistic enjoyment of guns, drugs, random sex, even more random violence, and the destruction of the family unit. Or so I might be led to believe from the Hollywood froth that is shown on local television -- if I did not know better from my own experience. Similarly, the American products that fill the stores of Jakarta and other Asian cities no more reflect American cultural values than a Bangkok prostitute represents Thai culture. The Marlboro Man is not anyone I know.

Universal values

In fact, what are often touted as Asian values -- strong family values, respect for authority (when this authority is legitimate), an emphasis on getting along and teamwork in the workplace and community, tolerance and accommodation for dissent ing opinions -- describe many Americans I know. Are these, then, uniquely Asian values or simply traditional, universal values?

This is not to say that Americans do not need more cross- cultural education. Of course they do. But this should be a two- way street. Cultural misperceptions exist on both sides. Recog nizing this and striving to present more realistic portraits of our respective societies is the task of every Westerner and Asian.

Obviously, I can only speak as an American. This leads me to the questions of, first, what is an American, and, second, what are American cultural values? Both questions are almost impossi ble to answer, simply because there are too many answers. There are Americans who are as religious-minded as the most devout Moslem. There are also Americans who never set foot inside a religious building. There are American towns and countries which ban the sale of alcohol, and others which prohibit all business activities on Sundays. Then there are places like Las Vegas which offer 24-hour-a-day hedonism, 365 days a year -- a place, incidentally, that is very popular with wealthy Asians. Some Americans live in mansions, others in trailers. Many Americans have cars, yet many do not. There are blonde hair, blue-eyed bule (Indonesian slang for "foreigner") Americans, dark-haired Americans, black Americans, Chinese-Americans, even Indonesian- Americans. According to recent statistics: 14 percent of Americans (around 35 million) do not speak English at home; in California, 31.5 percent of the population do not speak English as their native language. The majority of these speak Spanish. But there are millions of Americans who, at one time, were Asians. Have their cultural values been magically transformed?

Mr. Wanrooy also writes that he cannot find an Asian publi cation in the United States. What, I wonder, was he looking for? I also wonder if he has visited any of the Chinese, Korean, South Asian, Vietnamese or Cambodian neighborhoods found in many Ameri can cities? Weekly newspapers, published in most major Asian languages, are available in these areas.

In addition, hundreds of American colleges and universities offer courses and degrees specializing in Asian politics, econom ics, languages, business and history. Thousands of Americans live and work in Asia.

But, again, this does not mean that a great deal of improve ment in the balanced flow of information between East and West is not needed. Mr. Wanrooy's newsletter idea is laudable, except for one flaw -- that this information could be "logistically coordi nated by a government office in each country". How many govern ments, in Asia, Africa or the West, willingly sponsor and promote information that may be critical of them? Alas, in reality, government-sponsored information services too often quickly turn into government promotion offices. Simply glance through any government tourist publication, then compare this with reality.

Reality, unfortunately, has a nasty habit of being more complicated and complex than we might wish. But this does not mean we should ignore reality and resort to the simple answers offered by stereotypes and generalizations. The Marlboro Man is not "American Man" or "Western Man"; he is a crude image designed to sell cigarettes. Similarly, there is no "Asian Man" who can represent Asia to the world. Recognizing the differences that exist between and within all societies is a first step towards a greater understanding of the world around us.