Cross Cultural Assimilation in Eric Liu's the Accidental Asian

CROSS CULTURAL ASSIMILATION IN ERIC LIU’S THE ACCIDENTAL ASIAN

A THESIS

DINI AULIA

REG. NO. 1307050109

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA

MEDAN 2017

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AUTHOR’S DECLARATION

I, DINI AULIA DECLARE THAT I AM THE SOLE AUTHOR OF THIS

THESIS EXCEPT WHERE REFERENCE IS MADE IN THE TEXT OF THIS

THESIS. THIS THESIS CONTAINS NO MATERIAL PUBLISHED

ELSEWHERE OR EXTRACTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART FROM A

THESIS BY WHICH I HAVE QUALIFIED FOR OR AWARDED ANOTHER

DEGREE. NO OTHER PERSON’S WORK HAS BEEN USED WITHOUT

DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IN THE MAIN TEXT OF THIS THESIS.

THIS THESIS HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF

ANOTHER DEGREE IN ANY TERTIARY EDUCATION.

Signed :

Date : December 18th, 2018

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NAME : DINI AULIA

TITLE OF THESIS : CROSS CULTURAL ASSIMILATION IN ERIC LIU’S THE ACCIDENTAL ASIAN

QUALIFICATION : S-1/ SARJANA SASTRA

DEPARTMENT : ENGLISH

I AM WILLING THAT MY THESIS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR

REPRODUCTION AT THE DISCRETION OF THE LIBRARIAN OF

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES,

UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT

USERS ARE MADE AWARE OF THEIR OBLIGATION UNDER THE LAW

OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA.

Signed :

Date : December 18th, 2017

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahirobbil’alamin. First of all, I would like to thank to Allah SWT, for His blessing and grace to enable me to complete this thesis entitled : “Cross Cultural Assimilation in Eric Liu’s The Accidental Asian”. I also blessed with the good and bad experience while during writing this thesis. The experience makes me learn to be a better person in the future.

My special gratitude is for my beloved parents, my mother the most special and precious person in my life who always pray for me, give her best support and advice in facing any kind of problems in writing this thesis. My father, who always support me to not to give up while writing this thesis, Hope Allah always protects my parents. I do grateful to Allah SWT for having both of you as my dearest parents. I do thank you to my beloved brother Nugraha Dwi Pratama, especially my little brother Muhammad Hylmi Khalil who always cheer me up when I feel stress. Also my cousin Juhaidah Putri Harahap and my aunt that give me a support and jokes to makes me feel better, and also all my family that always pray for me.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Martha Pardede, M.S. as my supervisor for her kindness, patience, knowledge, suggestion and motivation for me to write and finish this thesis.I also would like to thank to Dra. Swesana Mardia

Lubis, M.Hum. as my co-supervisor for her kindness, patience, and knowledge to help me in writing this thesis.

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My gratitude also to the Head of Department of English, Dr. Deliana, M.

Hum. and the Secretary of Department of English, Rahmadsyah Rangkuti. M.A.,

Ph.D., also all the lectures and the staffs of the Department of English for the facilities and opportunities that given to me during my study in this faculty.

I also want to thank to my precious friends Mira Aprianti who always help me and give me a suggestion, thankyou for being in my life. Thankyou to Belia

Novita Syam, Nurul Jamila Hariani, my closest friends from KKN Kebangsaan Pulau

Ngenang, thankyou for hear all of my complaints and support me. I also thank to

KKN Kebangsaan USU and KKN Kebangsaan Pulau Ngenang and my friends from

KKN Kebangsaan 2016 for your support and pray for me. Thankyou to Olida

Ferawati, Muhammad Fachri, and Nadya Nasier that give me a suggestion and help me to finish my thesis. Thankyou to Tammy Fahar Nasution, Lina Sri Rahayu,

Wulandari, Anggita Dwi Putri, Nurul Atikah, Chairunisa Ummanah, Dinda Zylina,

Utari Ningsih, Nurul Khairani Adlis, Yolanda Utami for your kindness and makes me better beside you. The last, I want to thank to my classmates English Literature A

2013 and all the people during my study. Thankyou for being my friends, give me the precious lesson and the togetherness for 4 years, it means a lot to me. Hope all of you have a good life there.

Medan, December 18th, 2017

Dini Aulia 130705109

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ABSTRACT

This thesis is entitled Cross Cultural Assimilation in Eric Liu's The Accidental Asian. Assimilation has existed since the old times. The existence of assimilation caused by the countries do trading and migration is being developed rapidly. Besides the development of technology also supports the existence of assimilation. In this thesis, the writer analyze the cross cultural assimilation which portrayed in The Accidental Asian novel by Eric Liu. This thesis used the Hippolyte Taine Theory and the Sociology of Literature Theory. The writer used qualitative method that the data is from quotation in the novel. In this thesis, the writer describes the social life of a Chinese and several different races in facing the cultural assimilation which caused by racial differences in America, how they deal with conflicts caused by cultural assimilation in America, and how cultural differences can be accepted there.

Keywords: Cross Culture, Assimilation, Conflict, Racial Differences.

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ABSTRAK

Skripsi ini berjudul Cross Cultural Assimilation in Eric Liu’s The Accidental Asian. Asimilasi sudah ada sejak zaman dahulu. Adanya asimilasi disebabkan oleh perdagangan dan migrasi yang berkembang pesat hingga saat ini. Selain itu, kemajuan teknologi juga menjadi pendukung adanya asimilasi di negara-negara. Di dalam skripsi ini, penulis menganalisis tentang asimilasi budaya yang tergambar dalam novel The Accidental Asian oleh Eric Liu. Skripsi ini menggunakan teori Hippolyte Taine dan Sosiologi Sastra untuk menemukan asimilasi yang terdapat di novel tersebut. Penulis menggunakan metode kualitatif yang menggunakan kutipan sebagai data. Dalam skripsi ini, penulis memaparkan kehidupan sosial seorang Cina dan beberapa ras yang berbeda dalam menghadapi asimilasi budaya yang disebabkan perbedaan ras di Amerika, bagaimana mereka menghadapi konflik-konflik yang disebabkan oleh asimilasi budaya yang terdapat di Amerika, dan bagaimana perbedaan budaya dapat diterima disana.

Kata kunci: Lintas Budaya, Asimilasi, Konflik, Perbedaan Ras.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S DECLARATION ...... v COPYRIGHT DECLARATION ...... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... vii ABSTRACT ...... ix ABSTRAK ...... x TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... xi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study ...... 1 1.2 Problems of the Study ...... 4 1.3 Objectives of the Study ...... 5 1.4 Scope of the Study ...... 5 1.5 Significance of the Study ...... 5

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 A Brief Description about Literature and Novel ...... 7 2.2 Sociology of Literature ...... 10 2.2.1 Assimilation ...... 12 2.2.2.1 Kinds of Assimilation ...... 14 2.2.2 Social Community ...... 16 2.6 The Impact of War 20 2.6.1 Personal Impact 23 2.6.1.1 Physical 23 2.6.1.2 Mental 24 2.2.3 Culture ...... 17 2.2.4 Social Structure and Social Process ...... 19 2.3 Cultural Assimilation Process ...... 20 2.3.1 Social Organization ...... 20 2.3.2 Language ...... 20 2.3.3 Customs and Traditions ...... 21 2.3.4 Religion ...... 21 2.3.5 Arts and Literature ...... 22

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2.3.6 Forms of Government ...... 23

2.3.7 Economic System ...... 23

2.4 The Relevance of the Study ...... 24

CHAPTER III METHOD OF RESEARCH 3.1 Research Design ...... 26 3.2 Data and Source of the Data...... 26 3.3 Data Collection...... 27 3.4 Data Analysis ...... 27

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS AND FINDING 4.1 The Cross Cultural Assimilation Portrayed in The Accidental Asian ...... 30 4.1.1.Language ...... 30 4.1.1.2 Mental 40 4.1.2 Customs and Traditions ...... 33 4.1.3 Social Organization ...... 38 4.1.4 Religion ...... 42 4.1.5 Economic System ...... 43 4.2 Conflicts created by Cross Cultural Assimilation portrayed in The Accidental Asian ...... 48 4.2.1 Personal to Personal ...... 48 4.2.2 Personal to Social ...... 51

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 5.1 Conclusion ...... 58 5.2 Suggestion ...... 60

REFERENCES ...... 62

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APPENDICES

i. Summary of the Novel The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu

ii. About the author Eric Liu

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Assimilation has been existed since the old times, and all the country in this world experienced it. There are seven multi stages of assimilation proposed by

Milton Gordon such as; cultural assimilation, structural assimilation, marital assimilation or amalgamation, identificational assimilation, attitude receptional assimilation, behavioral receptional assimilation, civic assimilation. In this study, the writer focus on cultural assimilation in a novel entitled The Accidental Asian.

Trading and migration give the very significant contribution to cross cultural assimilation process. Cross Cultural Assimilation is the process done by a person or group’s language or culture resemble those of another group. Assimilation will never happen if one of the person or society group is not being open to each other and not respect each other. Assimilation process also happens in an intensive time. Beside that, there are some important things if we want to do an assimilation, such as, there should be a different culture between two groups, social interaction between two groups, and an adaptation to each others culture. In assimilation, all the differences of the culture will mix and born as a mixed culture, therefore there is a significant change in society. The purpose of assimilation is also to decrease the differences between two or more culture and avoid the conflict.

Nowadays, assimilation is a common thing. Some examples of assimilation can be seen around us in Medan, for instance Indian man married with Javanese or

Bataknese woman, or Javanese woman married with Bataknese man. So many

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examples of assimilation everywhere. Assimilation also happens between different ethnic group, not only by the people who have a different nation. Currently, assimilation is very easy to happen in modern life. It develops so rapidly and followed by technology development and easy access of transportation especially electronic technology. Those things become the supporting factor of assimilation.

The development of technology, especially electronic technology makes someone easier to communicate even from a long distance. There are one of some news about marriage with different culture and country that currently happen in Indonesia. There is a man from Batang, Central Java. His name is Dzulfikar. He married with woman from Italy, named Ilaria. Their story begins when Dzulfikar add Ilaria as his friend on Facebook. Their relationship is getting closer and they decide to get married.

Ilaria saved her money for 2 years just for visit Indonesia and married with

Dzulfikar. Their story is one of some story of mixed marriage that happen in

Indonesia.

Electronic technology does have an important role in the growth of assimilation in this era. Beside that, easy access to transportation also makes anyone easy to go anywhere. If the development of technology and transportation access was not fast as now, assimilation will not be as fast as it is right now. However, we can not deny that the cultural differences and country becomes a challenge for those people who marry people from different cultures and countries. They need to do an adaptation to their own culture and not being selfish, they should do that if they want assimilation to happen. Assimilation also has an impact, both positive and negative.

The positive impacts are the mixed culture between two or more different cultures, the people learn the good habits from other cultures, learn behavior and mindset to be

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a better person. The negative impacts are that assimilation can change or eliminate their own culture till they lost their identity, that they become easy to be influenced by other culture.

The topic of cultural assimilation become the basic topic. Thus the writer is going to discuss“Cross Cultural Assimilation in Eric Liu’s The Accidental Asian”.

The Accidental Asian is a novel written by Eric Liu. This novel tells the reader about his life story. The main character, Eric Liu, is a Chinese who experienced the assimilation in America. He and his family lived in America since he was a kid.

Since his father young, his father moved from Taiwan to America. Eric Liu was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. In this novel, Eric Liu has a conflict about his culture,

Chinese, in himself. Liu does not know many cultures of Chinese, because his parents do not tell him since he was a kid. He just knows a little information about his culture. Liu knows many American culture than his culture, Chinese. In adulthood, Liu started to search information of his culture.There are some strange things in The Accidental Asian that makes the writer becomes curious to discuss about it. This novel tells the reader about the Americanize of Eric Liu and his family.

We can see how they face many conflicts in their social life in America and how their relation with Chinese or Asian people around them that still hold their culture or not. Then, the writer also sees how Eric Liu and his family experienced the assimilation from personal and social life. The writer will see what the most changes that influence them to do an assimilation. From the Accidental Asian, the writer will explain how American culture represented by Chinese people that transform to

American Chinese.

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The story in this novel, happen in America. The writer of The Accidental

Asian deals with the problem that has been happening in our real life, and the story of

The Accidental Asian is experienced by Eric Liu. In the Accidental Asian, Liu as the writer, tell the reader how he deals with his life being an Asian in America. The focus of this study will, therefore, be on how Liu perceives race in America. His own process of assimilation, and his aspiration of a new breed of integrated, multicolored, raceless American people. In this novel, Eric Liu also tells the problems of race and assimilation in America. Beside that, there are two concepts that help the writer to specify assimilation in America, which are melting pot and salad bowl. The concept of melting pot is to melt various different elements to make a new formation. In melting pot there is no cultural diversity and sometimes the differences are not respected. Conversely, the concept of salad bowl is to make the country like a salad bowl. The contents are diverse. In salad bowl, cultures do not mix at all. The concept of melting pot is happened in America because the generations of immigrants have melted together.

1.2 Problem of Study

Based on the information above, the writer formulated the problem of the

study as follows :

1. How is The Cross Cultural Assimilation portrayed in The Accidental

Asian ?

2. How are conflicts created by Cross Cultural Assimilation portrayed in The

Accidental Asian ?

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1.3 Objectives of the Study

Based on the problem of the study, the objective of the study are as follows:

1. To find out The Cross Cultural Assimilation as portrayed in The Accidental

Asian.

2. To find out conflicts created by Cross Cultural Assimilation portrayed in

The Accidental Asian.

1.4 Scope of the Study

The aim of this study is to know The Cross Cultural Assimilation in America by Chinese people as portrayed in The Accidental Asian. There are 7 kinds of

Assimilation by Milton Gordon such as cultural assimilation, structural assimilation, marital assimilation(amalgamation), identificational assimilation, attitude receptional assimilation, and behavioral receptional assimilation. This thesis only focus on cultural assimilation.

The main character in this study is Eric Liu. The writer focus on the main character. The writer focus on how he gets the assimilation in his life, how he deals his social life as a Chinese in America and also the conflict in The Accidental Asian.

The writer discuss about the assimilation of Liu. The writer also sees the different perspective by Eric Liu about cultural assimilation.

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study gives an information and explanation about the assimilation that happen in America. Beside that, the writer already explains in background of study that Cross Cultural Assimilation supporting by the development of electronic

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technology and easy access of transportation. From this study, the reader knows the real phenomenon about Cultural Assimilation in America experienced by Chinese people.

The writer hopes that this study will give the positive contribution by learning of Cross Cultural Assimilation based on The Accidental Asian. The Accidental Asian is the true story of the author, Eric Liu. From this study the writer hopes the reader get the real perspective, and new knowledge about the Assimilation that happen in a big country like America.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 A Brief Description about Literature and Novel

Chapman (1982:2) in his book The Language of English Literature says that

Literature is no longer the dominant or most prestigious form of language for many people. Every author must be show up his literary work to reflect the human social life, literary work can be a reflection of his life Siswanto (2008:2) from his book

Pengantar Teori Sastra. Literary work is the source creative life of a writer and reveals the personality of the author Selden (1985:2) in book Pengantar Teori Sastra.

A literary work reflects the social life, what is going on in there. There are some elements that support the quality of literary work, as Coleridge said in Aminudin

(2001:5) Pengantar Teori Sastra, the quality of literary work determined by number of aspects that lead also towads the ability of artist, namely the power of spontaneity, emotional strength, originality, contemplation power, depth of life value, and harmony. Those books really help the writer to understand the definition of literature.

The explanation of those books are easy to understand by the writer and hope those books give the benefit contribution of doing this study.

Many people associate the word literature with novels, poetry, drama and fictional short stories. Even though, literature not only the novels, poetry, drama and fictional short stories. There are many literature in our daily life in general, like historical books, magazine, newspapers, etc. So, there are the specific literary work in literature and general literature. The writer of literature will select from the facts of the world or make up certain facts, so that he can present a truth or human nature in

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his literary work. He is always concerned about how truth and fact relate to each other and produce a literary work. Most of the author, write their literary work to tell the phenomenon in modern life or the past.

Rees (1973:108) in English Literature an Introduction for Foreign Readers says that the novel is now the most widely read of all kinds of literature, and one is surprised to find (as it’s name suggests) that is fairly new. One might say, in other words, that the novel is related to the old traditional forms of literature (epic, lyric, tragedy). According to Chapman (1982:81) a novel may contain passages with the type of imagery and word-selection generally associated with poetry. The language of the novel is used to create the desired illusion, whether the overall approach be intimated or detached. Although both of their explanation is different, their explanation about the novel makes the writer understand with definition of the novel.

There are three elements that become the important things in literary work, especially the novel such as character, setting, and conflict. A character is an individual person in a narrative fiction or nonfiction. A character is a major player in a novel or other literary work, the star of the story and complete the story, and from the character. The writer knows what conflict that commonly cause by the character, what the character do, until cause the conflict. According to Pardede (2015:17) in

Literature an Introductory Material, the presentation of character creates a great effect on the significance of work as the selection of the events and order of events

(plot). The second is setting. Setting is the stage or place in the story, without setting the novel is not complete, because the story need the setting become as the place of the story begin, setting also refers to the place and time. Pardede (2015:20) says that

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the term setting deals with the location, historical period, and social surrounding in which the action of the text develops. The last is conflict. Conflict is a literary element that involves a struggle between opposite emotions or desires. There are internal and external conflict in the novel or other literary work. Both internal and external conflicts are essential elements of a storyline. Without the three elements above, it is impossible for the author to write the novel or other literary work.

The author and his literary work also have a close relationship. That relationship is an alignment relationship if what is in the personality and life of the writer is reflected in his literary work. The literary work of the author is opponent or opposite of the personality of the writer. What the writer describes in his literary work is something that is used to reflect the true personality of the writer, whether the life experience of the writer. It related to the novel that the writer discuss, the writer talks about his personal life experience.

According to Aristoteles, literary work as catharsis, that means literature can serve to free readers and authors from emotional stress. Literary work has many possible functions. In the life of society, literature has several functions, that is:

a. Recreational function, the literature can provide fun entertainment for the

audience or reader.

b. Didactif function, the literature able to point or educate the reader because

the value of the truth and goodness contain in it.

c. Aesthetic function, the literature able to give beautification for the

audience or the reader because of it’s beauty.

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d. Morality function, the literature able to give the knowledge to the reader

or the fans until know a good and bad moral because the good literature

always contain a high moral.

e. Religious function, the literature produce the literary work that contains a

religious doctrine that can be a model for the audience or the reader.

Literature has a great function in developing human feelings, ideas, and interests. Literature, like the other arts, can give us new looking of the world and finding significance which the daily use of language in it’s more commonplace way has concealed. Many works of art from oral traditions were written down such a myths, popular events and plays, common songs, speeches commissioned to be written. Many literary works are from our social life like drama, poetry, novel, etc, most of them are from the true story. That is way literature has an important role in our life.There are so many functions of literature in our life, we can see from the explanation above, we know that there are so many functions about the literature or literary work in human life. From literature we can learn many things and apply it to make our life more balance.

2.2 Sociology of Literature

Sociology of Literature is a branch of literary work. The purpose of sociology of literature is to improve the understanding about literature and the relation with society. The literary work is not only the symptoms of the individual, but also the symptoms of social. The benefit of learning sociology of literature is the literary work can give a suggestion, benefit to social structure and social process in society.

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Paradigma Sosiologi Sastra says Sociology of literature is from the word sociology and literature. Sociology is from syllable socio (Greek) (socious means together, united, mate, friend) and logis (logos means utterance, words, parable). The next development experience the change meaning, soio/socious means society, logi/logos means knowledge Kutha (2003:1).

Sociology is the knowledge about the origin and the growth (evolution) in society, the knowledge that learning all the whole network of relationships between people in society, the characteristic is general, rational, and empirical. Literature is from the syllable sas (Sanskrit) means aim, teach, give an advice and instruction.

Sociology of literature is a direct link between literature and society.

In this study, the writer uses the theory of Hippolyte Taine. The writer uses his theory because his theory suits the topic that the writer discusses. Taine said that there are three elements in literary work that aim to sociology of literature, race, momen, and milieu (environment). If we know the fact about race, environment, and moment, it will be easy for us to understand and analyze the literary work. According to Taine race in the mean the collective cultural dispositions that govern everyone without their knowledge or consent. For Taine milieu is the particular circumstances that distorted or developed the dispositions of a particular person. The moment is the accumulated experiences of that person.Taine said the milieu (environment) is the specific elements that support the literary work. In this study, the writer relates three elements that Taine said. For Taine, literature not only the personal game of imagination, but the specific embodiment of the minds that produce a literary work.

We can take an example, novel is the mirror that we can bring everywhere and the most suitable to reflect all the aspects of life and nature.

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As we study human social life, we become familiar with two aspects of it which, at the start, should be recognized; the social and the cultural. Human live in groups, and sociology is the study of their behavior in groups. A group is any collection of two or more individuals who are in social interaction, that is, who have social relations with each other, who are in a position to stimulate each other psychologically and to respond to each other.

2.2.1 Assimilation

Sosiologi Teks Pengantar dan Terapan in assimilation process, there is the process of cultural fusion, so that the parties or citizens of the two or three groups that are being assimilated will feel the existence of a single culture that is perceived as belonging together.

There are some process that causing assimilation :

1. There are differences of culture between social group that live in the same

place and time.

2. Every person from their group and others, they do a socialization intense.

3. Every social group, they do an adaptation with others. The adaptation of

every cultural group cause assimilation.

There are also some factor that makes assimilation process more easily :

1. There are tolerance in society, although their culture is different.

2. How they respond stranger and their culture positively.

3. The open attitude of the ruling class will negate the possibility of

discrimination by minorities.

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4. The similarity in various of culture. Although, cultural every group is not

entirely the same, but often we see in terms of things or certain elements there

are similarities.

5. Mixed marriage. Such as citizens of the majority and minority groups.

6. The common enemy from outside. The threat of common enemy from outside

can strengthen the sense of unity in society.

Assimilation process will not occur if the inter-group does not grow the tolerance and empathize each other. There are also factors that becomes an assimilation inhibitor, including:

1. The isolation of culture according to certain classes in society.

2. Lack of knowledge of a particular group of cultures that other groups in

society have.

3. Feeling of fear to the cultural power of other groups felt by the citizens of

certain group.

4. The differences in physical characteristics between groups, such as

differences in skin color.

5. Discriminatory Disorder committed by the ruling class against the minority.

6. The differences of personal interests and contradictions between the citizens

group, which can lead to clashes between groups.

7. Trivial attitude towards another culture that is considered not as well as their

culture.

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Beside of that, assimilation also has a positive and negative impact, there are :

Positive impact of assimilation :

1. Can learn the habits, minds and behavior of developing nations to encourage

us to be better and have a progress like them.

2. We can easily to show and introduce our culture.

3. The mixing of culture that might create a unique new culture.

Negative impact of assimilation :

1. Can eliminate the original culture.

2. The entry of foreign culture which is more easily absorbed and imitated by

the society both old and young people, and the worse imitated usually the

bad. Narwoko (2011:62).

2.2.2.1 Kinds of Assimilation

There are seven kinds of assimilation by Milton Gordon such as cultural assimilation, structural assimilation, marital assimilation or amalgamation, identificational assimilation, attitude receptional assimilation, behavioral receptional assimilation, and civic assimilation. In this thesis, the writer focus on Cultural

Assimilation.

1. Cultural Assimilation

Cultural assimilation: groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous firsthand contact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups. The changes may take place in the cultures of either one of the two groups or there may be a reciprocal influence whereby the cultures of

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both groups are modified. Immigrants reach cultural assimilation when they have changed their cultural patterns to those of the host country.

2. Structural assimilation

Structural assimilation large scale entrance of immigrants into major economic and political institutions of the host country; immigrants reach structural assimilation when they have entered and been hospitably accepted into the social cliques, clubs and institutions of the host country at various class levels. They reached the point where they encounter no prejudiced attitudes and no discriminatory behaviors.

3. Marital Assimilation (Amalgamation)

Marital Assimilation is the other name of amalgamation. Marital assimilation refers to the integration of families and societies resulting from significant intermarriage. Marital assimilation has been a historically important aspect of immigrant adaptation and acculturation. Clearly, intermarriage between natives and immigrants is a significant but often neglected aspect of contemporary patterns of assimilation.

4. Identificational Assimilation

Identificational assimilation refers to the willingness of multiple social groups to self-identify -- choose to identify -- with a unified identity. To occur successfully, both groups require a third-party designation that both can accept. One example of this form of assimilation occurs when multiple social groups self-identify by a singular national identity, such as Americans.

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5. Attitude receptional Assimilation

Attitude receptional assimilation is the absence of prejudice on the part of the core society. this type of assimilation involves the attitudes of the host society towards the minority becoming positive enough to bring the absence of prejudice.

Prejudice is defined as "prejudged negative attitudes directed at a negatively valued group and as a state of mind that paves the road for actual discrimination.

6. Behavioral receptional Assimilation

Behavioral assimilation/acculturation occurs when a newcomer absorbs the cultural norms, values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of the "host" society. The host society comes to accept the behavior of the minority which, in turn, results in the absence of discrimination.

7. Civic Assimilation

Civic assimilation refers to the connection of individuals within multiple social groups by a shared agreement or disagreement with specific civil policies. This assimilation requires political access for each social group and a willingness by each group to get involved with governing policies. One example of this form of assimilation occurs with the formation of political parties, where individuals assimilate into a larger group based on certain civic beliefs.

2.2.2 Social Community

Sosiologi untuk Masyarakat Indonesia said social community is institution, or human gathering that live together as society member. Society member that live together regarded as a class, divided in a various class according to their position in society Shadily (1993:60).

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A community is a social structure that shares personal values, cultural values, business goals, attitudes, or a world view. In social community, every person need to do a socialization, if someone does not do a socialization, he can not live normal and get the difficulty in society. Socialization is important for social community and society itself. Socialization and social community have many benefits like :

a. The people can be a good member in society.

b. The people can adjust his behavior according to the expectations in society.

c. The people will know himself better in his social environment.

d. Helps to shape the personality of people.

e. To develop the ability to communicate effectively.

2.2.3 Culture

Sosiologi Untuk Masyarakat Indonesia says Culture means the whole science result of human life in society contains the action of and fellow human beings as member of society which is intelligence, trust, art, moral, law, customs and other intelligence Shadily (1993:81).

Cultural Theory an Introduction culture is seen as the realm of the ideal, the spiritual, and the non-material. It is understood as a patterned sphere of beliefs, values, symbols, signs, and discourses Philip (2000:32).

According to William (1976:80) in Philip’s book under the title Cultural Theory an Intoduction, these various historical shifts are dimly reflected in three current uses of the term “culture”, there are :

a. To refer the intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development of an individual,

group, or society.

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b. To capture a range of intellectual and artistic activities and their products

(film, art, theatre). In this usage culture is more or less synonymous with

“The Arts” hence we can speak of a “Minister for Culture.”

c. To designate the entire way of life, activities, beliefs, and customs of a

people, group, or society.

Culture consists of all the behavior, both overt and covert, common to the members of a social group. Human societies could not exist without culture, nor does culture function without society. The cultural and the social aspects are inextricably intertwined. Yet if we have the distinction in mind, it may help us to understand more clearly the social life of human beings and to avoid the confusion which arises from crediting purely social factors with culture results.

Every country, every place has a different culture, every culture is unique.

Every person needs to respect other culture, every person also can learn something from other culture. Every person learns about their culture since they were a kid.

Their environment also have an important role to make them learn about their culture. There are some various of culture in human life such as the marriage, music, traditional clothes, custom culture, art culture, etc. Culture is the knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from generation to generation to the next in a human group or society.

Culture have a close relationship with society, whereas society is composed of people, a culture is composed of ideas, behavior, and material possessions. Society and culture are interdependent, neither could exist without the other. Culture is like the identity of someone, if someone does not know about their culture, it seems like they lost their identity. We can know about someone’s culture by their daily habit,

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their language, etc. Culture also contains social norm. There are a rule that we must be follow, if someone make a mistake break the law, he needs to responsible with all the consequences in his environment.

2.2.4 Social Structure and Social Process

Human is the social being, and so literature figure is. The literary work of literature figure is influenced by his sociology background in social structure and social process. From his literary work, literature figure is free to express what he wants to say, and it can be the message of his life or something that contain a message for the reader. Pengantar Teori Sastra social structure is all the combination between basic elements, that is social rule (social norms), social institutes, social groups, and social lining Siswanto (2008:3). Soekanto in Siswanto’s book (2008:3)

Pengantar Teori Sastra (1988:16) says social process is the influence on both sides between economy life, politic, law, religion, etc.

Cultural Sociology is the general process whereby groups are formed and whereby interaction develops or deteriorates are known as the social processes.

Social structure and social process are the elements that can not be separated, because they related to each other. In other words, it worth depends on each society’s values and social norms.One of the first things which strikes us in considering human social life is its variety. There are certain racial differences among mankind, to be sure, but all qualified authorities are united in the option that man, whether white, black, or yellow, is one species (genus, homo species, sapiens) Lewis and Philip

(1954:140).

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2.3 Cultural Assimilation Process

This study is focusing on cultural assimilation process, which means that this process contains the 7 elements of culture. In the 7 elements of culture the writer focus on social organization, language, custom, and traditions.

2.3.1 Social Organization

According to Broom and Selznick in the article The Definition and Meaning of Social Organization says that "an organization means technical arrangement of parts." Social organization means social relationship among groups. Individuals and groups interrelated together to create social organization. It is the result of social interaction among people. It is the network of social relationship in which individuals and groups participate. All the social institutions are social organizations.

Associations, clubs and all other formal groups are organizations. Social systems are also based on' social organizations. In an organized body; its members get into one another on the basis of roles and status. The interaction among the members sets them into organizations. The mode of such interaction is called social organization.

2.3.2 Language

Language is the way of people communicate to each other. Barthimeous in his article entitled The Relationship between Culture and Language says that language as one element of culture has a very important role in human life. Language allows a person communicating with others in meeting their needs. Thus, it can be said is the main function of language as a communication tool. This does not mean that the language has only one function. Another function is as a tool to express self- expression, a tool to make integration and social adaptation, as well as a tool to hold social control (Keraf, 1980: 3).

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Based on these functions, it is also mentioned that “Language is a means of communication between members of the public symbol of the sound produced by means of said human" (Keraf, 1980: 1). Similar opinion was also expressed by

Sitindoan (1984: 17) who states "Language is a symbol of the sound produced by means of said human, and the system has means that are arbitrary; used by men in her life as a means of communication between each other to form, express , and communicate thoughts and feelings.”

2.3.3 Customs and Traditions

A website entitled What is The Difference between Tradition, Custom and

Culture? says that, today’s custom is tomorrow’s tradition. Both words can be used as synonyms as they press similar contexts. Though both are not same. The explanation of the meaning of Custom and Tradition looks similar. A custom can be a practice or belief that has been practiced by an individual or a group for a long time. Well, that should not be something that has a history of the generation. There can be a workplace custom or an institutional custom that we practice or something that our parents told us to. When a custom is transferred from generations to generation, it takes the form of tradition. Tradition can be thus explained as a custom that people have been following for a very long time.

2.3.4 Religion

The system of beliefs answers questions about the meaning of life. An article entitled Difference between Culture and Religion says that religion means the organized collection of beliefs, myths, and world views that related humanity with each other to an order of existence. Many religions have their own narratives, and

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symbols that explain the meaning, and origin of life or the universe in their own way.

The practice of religion includes rituals, sermons, veneration, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, funerary services, matrimonial services, prayer, dance, music, public services, or other aspects of human culture. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism,

Sikhism, etc. are some common examples of religion. Every religion has its own spiritual leader or messenger.

2.3.5 Arts and Literature

In general, arts and literature is the ways of people entertain themselves based on how they tell the story of their region, how they dance, and get interact with arts.

In article entitled What is Art says that, art is a highly diverse range of human activities engaged in creating visual, auditory, or performed artifacts— artworks— that express the author’s imaginative or technical skill, and are intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power. Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. Though the definition of what constitutes art is disputed and has changed over time, general descriptions center on the idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency and creation. When it comes to visually identifying a work of art, there is no single set of values or aesthetic traits.

Klarer (1998) states that “Literature is referred to as the entirety of written expression with the restriction that not every written document can be categorized as literature in the more exact sense of the word”. The definitions, therefore, usually includes additional adjectives such as “aesthetic” or “artistic”. Literature is a creation of humankind that has aesthetics and artistic sides. In the past, the form of literature was usually conveyed orally, such as Epic stories. In the further progress, literature

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was made in written form and then it was visualized as in drama. Later, Epic stories, written literature and drama are known as a genre of literature.

2.3.6 Forms of Government

Forms of government in general is the people or group(s) that control the people and provide/ enforce the laws. An article entitled Forms of Government states that forms of government are categorized by the power source and power structure of any given state. Government is the means by which state policy is enforced, as well as the mechanism for determining the policy of the state. A form of government, or form of state governance, refers to the set of political institutions by which a government of a state is organized (synonyms include “regime type” and “system of government”). Government comprises the set of legal and political institutions that regulate the relationships among members of a society and between the society and outsiders. These institutions have the authority to make decisions for the society on policies affecting the maintenance of order and the achievement of certain societal goal.

2.3.7 Economic Systems

In general economic system is the method used by a society to produce and distribute goods and service. An article entitled What is an Economic System? states that an economic system is comprised of the various processes of organizing and motivating labor, producing, distributing, and circulating of the fruits of human labor, including products and services, consumer goods, machines, tools, and other technology used as inputs to future production, and the infrastructure within and through which production, distribution, and circulation occur. These processes are

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overdetermined by the political, cultural, and environmental conditions within which they come to exist.

2.4 The Relevance of the Study

1. Adaptation of Immigrant Children to the United States by Kristin

McCharty, Columbia University

The researcher review extant literature on the complex challenges faced by immigrant children and their needs in term of psychosocial and educational support.

2. Diversity within Asian Americans : Barriers to the Public Discussion of

Discrimination by Samantha I.Ing, Portland State University

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss barriers to the public discussion of discrimination against Asian-Americans. The literature addresses three major barriers: model minority status, portrayal in media, and cultural desire to assimilate.

3. Japanese American Immigration and Assimilation by Lynn Jones,

Humboldt State University

This research plan offers the underutilized history of Japanese American immigration and assimilation as an instructional menu of events and perspectives to use in teaching elementary children about immigration and racism.

4. Shame and Self-Revision in Asian American Assimilation by David

Haekwon Kim, SUNY Pres

The writer focuses on anti-Asian stigmatization and some of the self- evaluative emotions and self-making strategies with which Asian Americans respond in forming or maintaining their identities.

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5. Stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans in the U.S. Media :

Appearance, Disappearance, and Assimilation by Yueqin Yang, B.A ,

Baylor University

This thesis commits to highlighting major stereotypes concerning Asians and

Asian Americans found in the U.S. Media, the “Yellow Peril” the perpetual foreigner, the model minority, and problematic representations of gender and sexuality.

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CHAPTER III

METHOD OF RESEARCH

3.1 Research Design

The writer uses qualitative library research in this study. The writer applies qualitative descriptive method. This method matches the topic that the writer discusses. This method talks about the social context.

David Williams (1995) in Moleong (2005:5) Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif says qualitative research is collecting data on the background of nature, with method of nature, and carried out by people or researcher that interest in nature. According to

Moleong (2005), Qualitative research also the research that intend to understand the phenomenon about what is experienced by subject of research, for example perpetrator, perceptions, motivation, action, etc. In a holistic, with the way description in words and language, special context nature takes advantage various method of nature. Qualitative research is using qualitative method such as monitoring, interview, or document research.

3.2 Data and Data Source

Data is the original data that the writer has to analyze in the research. The data in this research is The Accidental Asian. The writer gets the data from the text in the novel. The writer can not analyze the research without the data. Data is one of the important and vital aspect in study research. Data sources are the material or sources that the writer has to create or collect to conduct the research project. Data sources help the writer to analyze the topic, the writer can get the data from books, article, journals, internet resource, etc.

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3.3 Data Collection

There are two kinds of data when we are conducting a research, there are primary data and secondary data.

Kothari (2004:95) in Moleong (2005:5) Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif states that the primary data are those which are collected afresh and for the first time, and thus happen to be original in character. The secondary data, on the other hand, are those which have already been collected by someone else and which have already been passed through the statistical process. The methods of collecting primary and secondary data differ since primary data are to be originally collected, while in case of secondary data the nature of data collection work is merely that of compilation.

In this study, the primary data is the novel The Accidental Asian as the source of this study. The writer gets the data from that book, and the secondary data is from books, internet sources, articles. The secondary data helps the writer to get more information that support writing this study. The writer talks about the social problem, assimilation in this study.

3.4 Data Analysis

The writer collects all the data and information to discuss the topic. After that, the writer classifies the data and information to get the solution and then related the problem in the study with phenomenon in real life. The data in this study will be selected by the writer, the writer selects the data that related to the topic, cross cultural assimilation, and have a contribution to help the writer to analyze the data.

The writer uses sociology of literature theory according to Hippoyte Taine. Taine’s

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theory matches the topic that the writer discusses. After the writer analyzes the data, the writer makes a conclusion of this study.

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS AND FINDING

There are some causes of cross cultural assimilation in The Accidental Asian such as language, customs and traditions, and social organization. Those three elements holds a great role in shaping the cross cultural assimilation. Language is the first element the writer found. In general, language is a tool of communication.

Language is implicated in most of the phenomena that lies at the core of social psychology: attitude change, social perception, personal identity, socialinteraction, intergroup bias and stereotyping, attribution, and so on. Without language, people can’t interact each other. The second is custom and traditions. Custom and traditions basically have the same meaning but there might be some differences in the contexts where they are typically used. Custom is more like a habit, something you don't really think about, but you just do it. Tradition, on the other hand, is something with a deeper meaning, possibly religious, cultural or family-specific that guides the person's or groups way of behaviour or performance in certain situations. The third is social organization. In every environment there must be a social organization that helps people to shape their identity. Social organization is the place for people who have the same purpose to reach the same goal. The social organization of group is influenced by culture and other factors. Religion is the system of beliefs that answers questions about the meaning of life. The last is economic system. It is the method used by a society to produce and distribute goods and service.

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4.1 The Cross Cultural Assimilation Portrayed in The Accidental Asian

Cross Cultural Assimilation is the process by a person or group’s language or culture resemble those of another group.The beginning of assimilation is marked by migration. According to Bogardus in Sociology, migration is also a social phenomenon of importance within a nation, for the people who move extensively from rural areas to urban; from one part of city to another; from the city to rural regions. In a country covering a large area such migration brings different culture patterns and people into contact, conflict, and accomodation (1954:327). Since the person who changes group takes his culture patterns differently from those in the group to which he goes, many problems arise. When different standards of living, different types of governmental views, and different religious beliefs come into contact, problems of adjustment are created.

Assimilation naturally takes place most rapidly where contacts are primary, that is, where the most intimate and intense, as in the area of touch relationship, in the family circle and in intimate congenial groups. In The Accidental Asian, the writer, Eric Liu, has experienced assimilation by his environment. In this study, the writer focus on cultural of assimilation. The writer found some factors that caused cross cultural assimilation.

4.1.1 Language

Language is a tool of communication that must be owned by people who do social relations with others. With language, everything that we want to express and say can be well delivered. In this life, human is created as a social creature who can

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not stand alone. In this point, the role of language is needed. To maintain a good relationship, the human must have a good communication with each other.

“That’s partly because the photographs are so wonderful, soft black-and- white images of an innocence beyond articulation. But it’s also, frankly, because I do not understand the text. Almost all the entries, you see, are written in Chinese-a language that I once could read and write with middling proficiency but have since let slip into disuse.” (Liu, 1998:5) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “On one or two occasions I’ve sat down with my pocket Chinese-English dictionary, determined to decipher at least the essays that my father wrote. This was painstaking work and I never got very far. For each Chinese character, I first had to determine the ideographic root, then count the brush strokes, then turn to an index ordered by root and by number of strokes, then match the character, then figure out its romanized spelling, then look up its definition. By the time I solved one word, I’d already forgotten the previous one. Meaning was hard enough to determine; context was even more elusive.” (Liu, 1998:6)

Liu didn’t really know or understand about Chinese culture and language. He didn’t even know about alphabet of Chinese. He just knew a little of Chinese language since his parent did not teach him intensively about Chinese culture and language. Liu learned about Chinese language when he was a student, but he just learned it in two years, and continued learning it in college. Liu could speak English better than his own language, Chinese. Liu experienced assimilation by an American culture. After his father died, Liu tried to learn Chinese language. For Liu it was quietly hard to understand the meaning of the chinese language.

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“We let ourselves forget that the father, too, is transformed. We let ourselves think of the generation's life as a mere chrysalis, an interlude between the larval existence of the homeland and the fully formed Americanness of the second generation. But the truth is that the father can sometimes become his own form of butterfly.” (Liu, 1998:14) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “In Baba’s case, the metamorphosis found its most vivid expression in language. Even as a teenager in Taiwan he had excelled in his English classes. Once he came to the States he picked up jargon, slang idiom with a collector’s enthusiasm. IBM, which he joined after grad school and where he worked for twenty years, was both a great surce and a constant testing ground for his American vernacular. I think Baba’s facility with English is part of what gave me such powerful sense when I was growing up that he wasn’t quite like other Chinese immigrants.” (Liu, 1998:15)

Liu’s father, Baba, had mastered English since he was in Taiwan. The

Assimilation of Baba started when he learned English. English is also the most general language in the world, everybody in this world knows it. But, in Baba’s case, he learned English until he lost his cultural identity, and it doesn’t make sense. Liu also thought that his father was not like the Chinese immigrants in general.

“Over the years, my knowledge of Chinese has ebbed and flowed; at its highest tides, it has never been more than shallow. At home, my parents communicated with each other almost entirely in Chinese, and I replied almost entirely in English. From second to seventh grade, I went to Chinese school every Sunday afternoon. But the program ended after seventh grade, and I made little effort to keep up my studies. When I got to college, I took two years of intensive Chinese to replenish my knowledge from grade school. But then I graduated, and I haven’t studied Chinese since.” (Liu, 1998:18) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “Today, I am far from bilingual. In written Chinese, I am functionally illiterate, in spoken Chinese, I am 1.5-lingual at best, more suited to following conversations than joining them.” (Liu, 1998:19)

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Parent and environment have an important role to shape the personality of children. But in the dialogue above, Liu didn’t know how to talk in Chinese, but his parents knew it. It was when Liu’s parent were children, they learned Chinese language. Liu also learnt Chinese but just a little because his environment didn’t really support him.

“When she opened the door, I’d be struck, always as if for the first time, by how tiny she was: four feet nine and shrinking. She wore loose, baggy clothes, nylon, and ill-fitting old glasses that covered her soft, wrinkled face. It was a face I recognized from my owb second grade class photo. Eh, Po-Po, ni hao maaa?” (Liu, 1998:88) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “Your house looks so nice, I’d say in a tender tone of Mandarin that I used only with her. On a tray beside me, also surveying the scene, was a faded black-white portratit of Po-Po as a beautiful young woman dressed in Chinese costume. Lai chi ba, Po-Po would say, inviting me to eat.” (Liu, 1998:89)

From the quotation above, Liu visited his grandmother. Her name is Po-Po.

Liu greeted his grandmother in Chinese language. Ni hao ma means how are you.

Po-Po said Lai chi ba which means to invite Liu eat with her. Liu talks a little in

Chinese with his grandmother to practice his Chinese language and also to make a close interaction with his grandmother.

4.1.2 Customs and Traditions

Custom and tradition look similar, but there are some differences between customs and traditions. Custom is a commonly accepted manner of behaving or doing something in a particular society, place or time. It is the commonly accepted

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way of it. Each culture, society and religion have their customs. When a custom is followed for many years and passed down to younger generations, it becomes a tradition. Tradition is the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. Tradition is a way of behaving, thinking or doing something that has been followed by people in a particular community, society, family, etc. for a long time. Tradition can be an idea, belief that is passed down from one generation to another. It can be common to a certain religion, culture or even a family.

“Though my father, in the first eighteen years of life, was Chinese and nothing but Chinese; tough his were actions of a Chinese person, it is difficult to isolate which aspects of his values and behavior you would specifically call “Chinese.” (Liu, 1998:10) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “True, he belive in the importance of family and the value of education. He was respectful toward his elders. He was self-diciplined and intellectually rigorous. He appreciated the beauty of Chinese painting and the wisdom of Chinese poetry. He loved reading and writing Chinese. He enjoyed eating Chinese food. This is the beginning to sound, though, like a piece of inductive reasoning: working in reverse from a general notion of what it means to “act Chinese” in order to identify a particular personality as Chinese. Another is that it filters out evidence that contradicts the conclusion: there was plenty about Dad, after all, that didn’t fit anybody’s stereotype of “Chinese character”. That may be hard to tell when my indistinct image of him is set against a faded Chinese backdrop. It becomes more apparent in the content I knew him in: the context of America.” (Liu, 1998:11)

Liu was really concerned with people’s opinion which says that his father didn’t look like a Chinese although his father still respect his own culture and do the same things like other Chinese people do. He knew that his father was in the context of American not a Chinese, because the American culture is more visible. It was because since his father was a teenager, he moved to New York, and he got

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assimilated by American culture. Culture is the knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society. Culture and environment can shape the personality of person. When we meet someone from a culture vastly different from our own, or when we travel in another country, it may be easier to perceive the enormous influence of culture in people’s lives.

The sentences above describes the situation of Liu’s parents wedding. In their wedding, there was no Chinese culture. His parents used American culture. His parents have been assimilated to American culture since they decided to move to

New York before they got married, and Liu was born in New York. His parents didn’t use the tradition of Chinese wedding although his father married a Chinese woman, in the context their race was the same but they still do not use the ritual of

Chinese wedding. Their parents immitated the American wedding, with not so many rituals. Unlike the American, Chinese wedding has so many rituals, one of them is the ceremony begins with a prayer for the ancestors to ask permission for the event, after that the family along with the two bride-to-be enjoyed the onde cake dish. This symbolizes the event to be hopefully will run smoothly, like a ball rolling.

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Liu’s parents also try so hard to be a Chinese American right after both of them lived in America. It seemed like Liu’s parents really wanted to put themselves as the part of America.

“Every family has its own culture, and ours, in many ways, was characteristically Chinese American: stir-fried flavors, invented traditions, inside jokes in a hybrid tongue.” (Liu, 1998:28) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “The stereotypes holds that the chinese mind is clannish, suspicious, haunted, obsessed with face.And in the way we responded to my father's situation perhaps my family fit the stereotype. We were insular and secretive, sometimes profoundly irrational.” (Liu, 1998:29)

In Liu’s family, his parents still tuck a little Chinese culture in their family.

However, most of their life style has been influenced by American culture.

Technically speaking, Liu’s family would never let go the Chinese culture of themselves. It's been ingrained since they were born as Chinese. The general stereotypes of Chinese is not fin in Liu’s family, it happened since they lived in

America and get influenced by American culture

“Yet the vocabulary of “assimilation” has remained fixed all this time: fixed in whiteness, which is still our mentonym for power; and fixed in shame, which is what the colored are expected to feel for embracing the power. I have assimilated. I am of the mainstream. In many ways I fit the psychological profile of the so-called banana: imitative, impressionable, rootless, eager to please.” (Liu, 1998:35) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “My own assimilation began long before I was born. It began with my parents, who came here with an appetite for Western ways already whetted by films and books and music and, in my mother’s case, by a father who’d been to the West. My parents, who trades Chinese formality

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for the more laissezfaire stance of this country. Who fashioned a comfortable life in a quiet development in a second-tier suburb. Who unlike your “typical” Chinese parents, were not pushy, status-obsessed, rigid, disciplined, or prepared. Who were haphazard about passing down ancestral traditions and “lessons” to their children were entitled to mix and match, as they saw fit, whatever aspects of whatever cultures they encountered.” (Liu, 1998:37) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “As a function of my parents’ own half-conscious, half finished acculturation, I grew up feeling that my life was Book II of an ongoing saga.” (Liu, 1998:37)

Family including parent have a big role to shape the personality of children.

Parents also have an important role to bequeath culture to their child. In Liu’s family, his parent didn’t do that. Since Liu was born, Liu was introduced to American culture, not Chinese culture. Liu’s parents directly never asked him to be an

American boy, they just want Liu to be a good boy, they also put a hope and give him the freedom like parents in America usually do. Although his parent teach him similarly like other American parent in teaching their children but his parent still want Liu to know Chinese culture.

The Chinese culture in his family was just a formality, and Liu took the phrase from France laissez faire which means "let it happen" (literally "let it do").

Liu did not know how to deal with the situation in his family, for example to learn about Chinese culture wasn’t supported by his family, everything that happened since their family lived in America, they want to be the part of America, and slowly but surely seemed forget their original culture, Chinese. Liu also thought that he was like a banana, in context he was easily influenced and didn’t have a strong basic

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culture. It means culture is like our identity, if we don’t have the strong basic of our culture, it is easy for us to be influenced by other culture.

“When he was a boy, Berndt spent a few months in China. He picked up some Mandarin, learned the rythms of the village, played games, did chores. He lived with Chinese family.” (Liu, 1998:187) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “I am of a transitional generation, one that is still struck, bermused, moved, by the novelty of a half-Chinese man named Schdmit who has known China better than I may ever know it.” (Liu, 1998:190)

Berndt Schdmit is Liu’s friend. He had been living with Chinese since he was a little child. He spent a few months in China. He learned the customs of

Chinese. Altough he could not speak Chinese, he got an interest in Chinese culture.

He knew and understood Chinese culture better than Liu. Since Liu was born, his parent and his environment didn’t really support him to learn Chinese culture. Liu was a transitional generation, one that was still struck, bermused, moved, that still find his identity, his culture. He was motivated by his friend to learn about Chinese culture.

4.1.3 Social Organization

Social organization refers to the network of relationships in a group and how they interconnect. This network of relationships helps members of a group to stay connected to one another in order to maintain a sense of community within a group.

The social organization of a group is influenced by culture and other factors. Social organization also have a social classes that rank people in an order, depending on what is important to the culture (money,job,education, ancestors, etc). 38

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According to Bogardus in Sociology, in the United States, which has carried the individualisticc philosophy of pioneer days into the complicated social life of today, situations have developed on recent decades where many persons are accused of having a “racket” and where shrewd persons, including gangsters in both the upper and the lower class of society, have exploited honest hard-working people

(1954:415)

“I know this doesn’t make much sense. I know also that college, in the multicultural era, is supposed to be where the deracinated minority youth discovers the “person of color” inside. To a point, I did. I studied Chinese, took an Asian American history course, a seminar on race politics. But ultimately, college was where the unconscious habits of my adolescent assimilation hardened into self-conscious strategy.” (Liu, 1998:48) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “Nor did it ever occur to me that the reason I gave myself for dissociating from Asians as a group –that I didn’t want to be part of a clique, that I didn’t want to get absorbed and lose my individuality-were the very developments that marked my own assimilation.” (Liu, 1998:49)

The social organization in Liu’s life also had an important role to shape his assimilation. Liu didn’t want to put himself in the group of Asian people. He thought that if he put himself into Asian group, he would be influenced by other Asian people, because without realizing it, with Liu has two culture in himself, both

Chinese and America. He didn’t have strong basic culture that could protect him.

And if he let himself mixed in Chinese group, he was afraid he could lost himself and like it or not he must chose one of the cultures which could protected himself. But

Liu never made a distance with Asian people.

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“As I had done in high school, I combated the stereotypes in part by trying to disprove them. If Asians were reputed to be math and science geeks, I would be a student of history and politics. If Asians were supposed to be feeble subalterns, I’d lift weights and go to Marine officer candidate school. If Asians were alien, I’d be ardently patriotic. If Asians were shy and retiring, I;d try to be exuberant and jocular. If they were narrowminded specialists, I’d be a well-rounded generalist. If they were perpetual outsiders, I’d join every establishment outfit I could and show that I, too, could run with the swift.” (Liu, 1998:51) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “At the same time, I was often aware, sometimes even hopeful, that others might think me “exceptional” for my race. I derived satisfication from being the “atypical” Asian, the only Chinese face at OCS or in this club or that.” (Liu, 1998:51)

Liu acted differenly from other sterotypes about Chinese people in general. It happened since he entered high school. He wanted to show that he was different than

Chinese people as usual. He wanted to break the assumptions that led to bad. He wanted to be the different version of chinese people in general.

“I can recount the ways, over the years, that I’ve become more Asian American myself. I’ve learned the appropriate cultural and political references. I’ve become familiar with the history. And of course, I’ve spoken out against Asian-bashing on national television. Nevertheless, the fact remains: I am not an Asian American activist; I just play one on TV. I cannot escape the feeling that it is contrived and, in a more profound way, unnecessary. In a way, I envy those who choose to become wholeheartedly Asian American: those who believe.At least they have a certain order to their existence. I, on the other hand, am an accidental Asian. Someone who has stumbled onto a sense of race; who wonders now what to do with it.” (Liu, 1998:63) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “Perhaps the most you could say of me is that I am an assimilist recovery: once in denial, now halfway up the twelve-step to full, self- actualized Asian Americanness. I am glad to have climbed this far and to

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have left behind some insecurities. I am not sure, however, how much farther I should go.” (Liu, 1998:67)

Although Liu was not a member of Asian group, he felt that he had a responsible in himself as a Chinese to against anyone who insulting or said something bad about Asian people. In a way, Liu felt jealous with Asian people who belived in their Chinese culture despite of living in America. They are not easy to be influenced by American culture. They kept Chinese culture as their culture. Liu thought that he was an accidental Asian who does not know what to do with the situation that bring himself lost in two culture, Chinese and American. He was born as Chinese but his family seemed to bring him to be an American.

Finally, Liu joined Asian American organization just because he wanted to know Asian culture, but deep in his heart he still doubt the path he has taken.

However another part of his heart tells him that he should know about his own culture. Chinese culture could help himself to find his identity. He also realized that he couldn’t let himself lost in two cultures, Asian and American which brought him into confusion. The existence of Asian American helped Liu to find his lost culture.

“I define my identity, then, in the simplest way possible: according to those with whom I identify. And I identify with whoever moves me.” (Liu, 1998:81) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “To put it simply: the Asian American identity as we now know it may not last another generation. Which make doubters like mw grow more doubtful-and more hopeful.” (Liu, 1998:82)

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Liu get confused with his identity, he was easily influenced by other culture.

The existence of Asian American community was really vital for people like Liu who lost his cultural identity and getting confused with their situation and afraid to be influenced easily by other culture. Because if someone does not have a strong basic culture in himself, he will lost himself forever.

4.1.4 Religion

According to an article entitled Difference between Culture and Religion, religion means the organised collection of beliefs, myths, and world views that related humanity with each other to an order of existence. Many religions have their own narratives, and symbols that explain the meaning, and origin of life or universe in their own way. The practice of religion includes rituals, sermons, veneration, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, funerary services, matrimonial services, prayer, dance, music, public services, or other aspects of human culture. Every religion has its own spiritual leader or messenger.

“The ceremony took place in church, because that was where weddings took place in America. Except for the officiant and a few others, almost everyone there was Chinese. Still, there were no traditional Chinese rituals; no ancestor worship or kowtowing or burning of incense. They spoke their vow in English.” (Liu, 1998:13) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “She lived in Chinatown for the rest of her life. Twenty years. She managed to make friends. She learned her way around. She joined a church, where the congregration doted an old “Tu Tai Tai” (Liu, 1998:94) Liu’s parent was a Christian. They did their wedding in a Church in America.

They also didn’t use the Chinese wedding rituals, as the writer know, unlike other

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Chinese who still use Chinese culture in their wedding. Liu’s grandmother also a

Christian, she joined church association.

4.1.5 Economic System

According to an article entitled Economic Systems Definition, economic systems are the means by which countries and governments distribute resources and trade goods and services. They are used to control the five factors of production, including: labor, capital, entrepreneurs, physical resources and information resources. In everyday terms, these production factors involve the employees and money. A company has at its disposal, as well as access to entrepreneurs, the people who want to run companies or start their own businesses. The physical materials and resources needed to run a business, along with the data and knowledge companies use to be successful, are also factors in production.

“When Po-Po first moved to Chinatown, my mother tells me, she was full of enterprenurial schemes:selling homemade foods, investing her mah- jongg winnings. She had dreams of grandeur. She lacked with the wherewithal, the will to make the them materialize. She was in her sixties, a migrant many times over. For a while, to keep herself busy, she took a job cutting threads in a garment factory. I learned that only recently. It astonished me, because I had never thought of Po-Po as a member of the work force; as someone with any ambition, let alone unfulfilled ambition.” (Liu, 1998: 94) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “In the popular imagination, Chinatown is not so much a place as it is a metaphor-an ideograph-for all the exotic mystery of the Orient. We don’t simply visit Chinatown; we believe in it, as surely as we belive in the ghetto or the suburb.We imbue its every peculiarity with meaning and moral import.The chinatown idea holds that the people who live there should not deviate one stroke from the ways of “old china”.” (Liu, 1998:95) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow:

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“The Chinatown Idea holds too that the people who live there are not only inscrutable but different. Chinatown is simply there, uninterested in the world, an island of eternity in a sea of modernity. It seems at once inert and kinetic, which is why it is such a popular cinematic backdrop: an elaborate mise-en-scene, rich with atmosphere and colorful props. The humans among those props-old ladies, children, whatever-are not so much alive as animated: cartoonish, they move about and chatter, but aren’t supposed to have stories of their own. They exist mainly so that American characters may move past them, through them, around them. The Chinatown Idea tells us, finally, that Chinatown chooses to extempt itself from America: that it is purely the product of Chinese clannishness and insularity. This is perhaps the cruelest myth. For Chinatown is nothing if not thoroughly ours. And the insularity that sustains it is not only Chinese.” (Liu,1998:96) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “One representation: Chinatown is a thriving, self-sufficient community. It is a new model for Americanization, a way to make it here without falling into decadence of the dominant culture. It is a new model for ethnic achievement, an “enclave economy” fueled by Chinese entrepreneurs and workers.” (Liu, 1998:106)

Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of Chinese or Han people located outside mainland China or Taiwan, most often in an urban setting. According to article entitled Who Are The Han Chinese People? Around 20% of the people on our planet are ethnically Han Chinese, and the Han have made many important religious, philosophical, and scientific contributions. The Han people belong to the largest ethnic group in China, with around 90% of people in mainland China being Han. The

Han people have long prospered in China, and increasingly many have ventured abroad and settled worldwide. Internationally, Han people can be found in Macau.

Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Japan, Laos, India, Cambodia,

Malaysia, Russia, the United States, Canada, Peru, France, and England. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Asia, Australia, the

Americas, Africa and Europe. The development of most Chinatowns typically

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resulted from mass migration to an area without any, or with very few Chinese residents. In Chinatown, every Chinese which lived in there, they should follow the rules of Chinese and don’t bring values out of China. Chinatown have their own idea to hold their “old Chinese”, they build self protection of their race in Chinatown.

Chinese who lived in Chinatown also want to extempt themself from America, they don’t want to get influenced by American culture, that is the reason they build a

Chinatown, to keep their “old Chinese”. Liu’s grandmother lived in Chinatown, as a

Chinese in general, his grandmother was really a hard worker, she never wanted to stay at home all day long although she was an old lady. Chinese usually love trade something, Chinese really a hard worker in making money.

“The “new Chinatown” is a vibrant and bustling place, a sprawling bounty of curio shops, restaurants, bookstores, produce markets. Its economy and population are swelling, its borders surging outward.” (Liu, 1998:98) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “The new Chinatown, like the old, is apparently not in America. It is a no- man’s land, where fealty to the law matters less than obeisance to “Chinese ways” In the jaundiced eye of the state, Chinatown is a zone of “home rule”, where the natives govern themselves. Subminimum wages, children in sweatshops? Technicalities: the Chinese have a different standard for work.” (Liu, 1998:99)

The economic system in Chinatown is growing rapidly. Chinese is a hard worker, since they were a kid, their parent get used to ask them to work. In making money, Chinese really do a big effort. They love to work hard. It has become their characteristic. In Chinatown, Chinese who lived there should follow the rule of

Chinese.

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“I remember going into two stores that night. One was the Far Eastern Bookstore. It was on the second floor of an old building. As we entered, the sounds of the street fell away. The room was spare and fluorescent. It looked like an ernest community library, crowded with rows of chest- high shelves. In the narrow aisles between shelves, patrons sat cross- legged on the floor, reading intently. If they spoke at all it was in a murmur.” (Liu, 1998:101) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “The other shop, a market called Golden Gate, I liked much more. It was noisy. The shoppers swarmed about in a frenzy. On the ground level was an emporium of Chinese nonperishables:dried mushrooms, spiced beef, seaweed, shredded pork. Open crates of hoisin sauce and sesame chili paste. Sweets, like milky White Rabbit chews, coconut candies, rolls of sour “how flakes.” Bags of Chinese peanuts, watermelon seeds. Down a narrow flight of stairs was a storehouse of rice cookers, ivory chopsticks, crockery, woks that hung from the wall.” (Liu, 1998:102)

There were the differences between stores in Chinatown and America. In

Chinatown, the stores was like the stores in China. People in Chinatown didn’t want to lose the charcteristic of the Chinese store, like the food, the way they managed their store, and the way they behave as the owner of Chinese stores.

In The Accidental Asian that experienced by Eric Liu which happened in

America there must be many conflict in it, despite that there are also a cultural acceptance beside those conflicts that happen in it. In this part the writer explains the culture that can be accepted in The Accidental Asian.

“If something or someone was in my personal web of meaning, then color or station was irrelevant. I made no distinctions in fourth grade between my best friend, a black boy named Kimathi, and my next-best friend, a white boy named Charlie-other than the fact that one was number one, the other number two.” (Liu, 1998:38) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow:

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“Eating dinner at the home of a yangren could be especially trying. The oaken furniture seemed scaled-up, chairs like thrones. The meal would begin with someone, usually the father, mumbling grace. Furtively, I’d steal a glance at the heads bowed in prayer.” (Liu, 1998:45)

Liu had a best friend who was not a Chinese. They were friends even though they were not in the same race. Liu also ever had a dinner with his American friend.

His friend’s family accepted his existence in his friend’s family.

“I remember my first Passover seder. There were five of us: two Asians, two Jews, and a Pole. (This is not a joke.) My friends Lauren and Jill led the ceremony, explained the meaning of each step. I was so struck by the beauty of it all. And the portability. It was as if I were back in grade school, earnestly learning the lesson of another culture.” (Liu, 1998:146) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “One reason why I could relate to my Jewish friends when I was a boy was that they were the only other kids I knew whise parents made them get an ethnic education. And, they, like me, did their best to stifle the enterprise with inattention.” (Liu, 1998:154) Liu and his friends learned about other culture, and they did not question their respective cultures. The different culture between Liu and his friends was beautiful, beautiful that they could be a good friend without judging each other.

“We have a friend with the wonderfully German name Berndt Schmit. He grew up in the Midwest, went to college in Minesota. Six foot plus, brownish hair. He is a physician now. Dr.Schmit. When he was a boy, Berndt spent a few months in China. He picked up some Mandarin, learned the rythms of the village, played games, did chores. He lived with a Chinese family. He lived, actually, with his mother’s sister and his first cousin.” (Liu, 1998:186) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow:

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“Berndt can no longer speak the language. He hasn’t been back to China. If you look at him, you might not impute much significance to the slightly almond shape of his eyes, the wiriness of his hair. Generally, people don’t assume he is Chinese. He can pretty well pass for white. But it is safe to say that he is as interested in Chinese half as I am in my Chinese whole.” (Liu, 1998:187)

Liu had a friend, his name was Berndt, Berndt was interested in Chinese culture. When he was a child, he lived with Chinese people in China and learned the

Chinese culture. Even though he was a Germany and no longer speak Chinese, he really respected Chinese culture moreover he put himself in it. He really enjoyed learning Chinese culture.

4.2 Conflicts created by Cross Cultural Assimilation portrayed in The

Accidental Asian

The writer found two conflicts that created in The Accidental Asian, such as conflict between person to person , and person to society. In the context of cross cultural assimilation, the writer wants to make the conflicts easy to understand and easy to find and classify. From the conflict that happen in The Accidental Asian, the writer explains how Liu as a Chinese person faces a conflict with other race or with his own family. How that conflict could be created will be explained in this study.

4.2.1 Personal to Personal In The Accidental Asian, the main character Eric Liu had a conflict with the person in his society and especially with himself. In this part, the writer explain the conflict that Liu has been experienced and how Liu adapt with his environment.

“When Chao-hua Liu came to the United States in 1955, at the age of eighteen, he was Chinese. When he died thirty six years later, he was, I’d say, something other than Chinese. And had helped raise a son who was

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Chinese in perhaps only a nominal sense. But what, ultimately, does all this mean? Where does this Chineseness reside? In the word? In the deed? In what is learned-or what is already known? And how is it passed from one generation to the next? Some of the answers lie, I know, in a book I am still unable to read. But there are other answers, I suspect in a book I must begin to write.” (Liu, 1998:7) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “When I contrast my father’s possesion of English with my forfeiture of Chinese. I feel like something of a fool: as if I had squandered an inheritance and not even realized its magnitude until I was left with only spare change. Yet I know that in a fundamental way it was my father possesion of English that had made possible my forfeiture of Chinese. You could say, indeed, that I merely completed his assimilation.” (Liu, 1998:20)

Liu was disappointed with his father because his father didn’t teach him the

Chinese culture. He did not get anything from his father except American culture and

English language. Liu felt he lost himself with no Chinese culture that attached to him. The writer thinks that Liu really wanted to know and study about Chinese culture but his father didn’t give him the access to Liu. His father prefered Liu to know American culture than Chinese culture.

“To fill the hollow, I look sometimes to Chineseness. Where does my Chineseness lie? In my looks, surely. In my culture, vestigially. In my behavior, too? I have been told, in the years since my father died, that I have been the prototypical Confucian son, a textbook example of filial loyalty to my mother. But if that is true, is it because Chinese values seeped down into me? Or is it because I am the first child and only son of a widow, whom I love, who has become perhaps my closest friend? I find it difficult to separate out the part of my behavior shaped by ethnicity and the part shaped by my situation.” (Liu, 1998:30) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “The essence of conformity was the ability to anticipate what was cool. And I wasn’t so good at that. For the first time, I had found something that did not come effortlessly to me. No one had warned me about this transition

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from happy amoeboid to social animal; no one had prepared me for the great labors of fitting in.” (Liu, 1998:39)

Liu said, his culture was vestigially,the meaning is being the last remaining amount or visible sign of something lost or vanished. The Chinese culture in himself is hard to find in himself and slowly vanished. Liu was lying himself in public, that he trapped in two culture, Chinese and American that made him did not know the strong basic of his culture that he brought since he was born as a Chinese. With the parent that get influenced by American culture, Liu didn’t know the Chinese culture.

He thought that he became the worst Chinese people ever because both of his parents are Chinese, but why he did not get anything from them. He has a conflict in himself, why he should be in the situation that he does not want. Liu felt so difficult to let go the behavior that shaped by his parents culture since he was born.

“I don't mean to overdramatize: there was, in these teenage bananalities, usually something humorous and nothing particularly tragic. But in each of these realms, I came to feel I was not normal.” (Liu, 1998:39) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “And obtusely, I ascribed the difficulties of that age not to my age but my color. I came to suspect that there was an order to things, an order that I, as someone Chinese, could perceive but not quite crack. I responded not by exploding in rebellion but dedicating myself, quietly and sometimes angrily, to learning the order as best I could. I was never ashamed of being Chinese; I was, in fact, rather proud to be linked to a great civilization. But I was mad that my difference should matter now. And if it had to matter, I did not want it defeat me.” (Liu, 1998:40)

Liu felt himself was not normal because he did not know his own culture. Liu wanted to be in the situation where he did things as Chinese people did. Liu

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sometimes was getting angry with himself why he became the person who know more American culture than Chinese culture. He had a conflict in himself since he knew that culture was the identity of someone. Liu learned and tried so hard to chase up the things that have been passed. Liu also realized that in America, the differences is a matter in America social life. He ever got mad about it, but he did not want that thing influenced him in his way to learn Chinese culture.

4.2.2 Personal to Social

Liu, in his social life in America, must faced the conflict because he was a

Chinese. The social life in America is really hard for people who did a migration and do an adaptation with the American culture and American social life. In general, people in America tend to be racist. These things also happened to Liu, in this part, the writer tells the conflict that happen between Liu and his social environment and people in it.

“I have assimilated. I am of the mainstream. In many ways I fit the psychological profile of the so-called banana: imitative, impressionable, rootles, eager to please. As I will admit in this essay, I have at times gone to great lengths to downplay my difference, the better to penetrate the “establishment” of the moment. Yet I’m not sure that what I did was so cut- and-dried as “becoming white”. I plead guilty to the charges above: achieving, learning the ways of the upper middle class, distancing myself from radicals any hue. But having confessed, I still do not know my crime.” (Liu, 1998:36) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “To be an accused banana is to stand at the ill-fated intersection of class and race. And because class in the only thing Americans have more trouble talking about than race, a minority’s climb up the social ladder is often willfully misnamed and wrongly portrayed. There is usually, in the portrayal, a strong whiff of betrayal: the assimilist is a traitor to his kind, to his class, to his own family. He cannot gain the world without losing his soul. To be sure, something is lost in any migration, whether from place to place or from class to class. But something is gained as well. And the

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result is always more complicated than the monochrome language of “whiteness” and authenticity” would suggest.” (Liu, 1998:36)

Liu called himself as a banana, that he always imitates the people around him in the case of culture, easily to be influenced by others, and did not have the strong basic of culture from his family include his parents. In America, the most problem that often discussed about is a class, and most of times, people who wants to level up their class often wrongly portrayed, in case they have been assimilated. If someone being assimilated, people from his old class or his ethnic assume that he already betraying his own group. In America, to level up your class, you need to lose your soul if you want to be in there. Migrated people often experienced it.

“In hindsight, it’s hard to know exactly how great a romantic penalty I paid for being Chinese. There are may have been girls who would have had nothing to do with me on account of my race, but I never knew them. There were probably girls who, race aside, simply didn’t like me. And then there where girls who liked me well enough but who also shied from the prospect of being part of an interracial couple. With so many boys out there, they probably reasoned, why take the path of greater resistance? Why risk so many status points? Why not be “just friends” with this Chinese boy?” (Liu, 1998:43)

That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow:

“It made me feel like something of a greenhorn, a social immigrant. I wanted so greatly to be liked. And my earnestness, though endearing, was not the sort of demeanor that won girl’s heart.” (Liu, 1998:44)

When Liu was in junior high school, most of his classmates were not in the same race with him, and so it built a space. They did not like Liu because of his race, just because he was a Chinese boy. Moreover, they were always talking about Liu

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behind him. All of their behaviors made Liu felt that he didn’t have a capability to be a good friend for them. Liu just wanted his friends in his school environment to accept him. Their thought of him made Liu felt sad. Whether he realized it or not, his friends did discrimination to him. No one wants to be his friends.

“ It wasn’t just dating rituals that befuddled me as youth. It as ritual of all kinds. Ceremony, protocol, etiquette-all these made me feel like an awkward stranger. Things that came as second nature to many white kids utterly exotic to me. American-style manners, for instance. Chinese families often have their own elaborate etiquette, but “please” and “may I” weren’t the sort of words ever heard around my house. That kind of formality seemed so beside the point. I was never taught by my parents to write thank-you notes. I didn’t ever have the breeding to say “Thankyou” after sleeping over at a friend’s house. I can recall the awful, sour feeling in my stomach when this friend told me his mother had been offended by my impoliteness.(At that point, I expressed my thanks)” (Liu, 1998:44) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “All this, of course, was in the context of being with my friends and having a nice time. But something made me feel vaguely sad while I sat there, swallowing huge servings of gravy-drenched food with this other family. These were the moment when I realized I was becoming something other than my parents. I wanted so badly then just to be home, in my own kitchen, taking in the aroma of stir-fry on the wok and the chattery sounds of Chinglish.The more time I spent in their midst, the more I learned to be like them.” (Liu, 1998:45)

The Chinese people teach their children in a different way with American.

Chinese people have their own elaborate ettiquete. In America’s family, people usually say “help” and “thankyou”, if they want to ask for help and say thankyou after that. That shows the politeness of someone, but Liu never heard that words in his house. Liu got a problem, when he was sleeping in his American friend’s house, he never said thankyou to them. His friend said that his mother had been offended by his attitude because his mother thought that he was impolite. Liu felt embarrassed

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about it. Liu also missed the situation when he had a dinner in his friend’s house. He remembered his family and missed the conversation between him and his family. Liu also realized that the more he spent his time and made an interaction with American family, the more he got influenced by the American family.

“I wish, if only for storytelling purposes, that I could offer a more dramatic tale, a searing incident of racism that sent me inti deep, self-abnegating alienation. The truth is, I can’t. I was sometimes uncomfortable, but never really alienated.” (Liu, 1998:46) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “The same could be said, ultimately, about my own assimilation. To say simply that I became a banana, that I became white-identified, is somewhat simplistic. As an impressionable teen, I came to identify not with white people in general but with that subset of people, most of them white, who were educated, affluent:going places. It was their cues that I picked up, their judgments that I cared about.” (Liu, 1998: 46)

Liu felt self-abnegating alienation, that means Liu felt isolated in society and he decided to disguise himself. The society forced him to do that. People around him, who did something racist, made Liu disguise himself. However, he never really alienated. Sometimes he was just uncomfortable with the situation and with the bad experienced that made him felt uncomfortable. Liu identified himself as a banana not as a white people in general, that means he is easy to be influenced by other people because he didn’t have strong basic culture in himself. Liu also thinks that he was different from white people in general.

“I looked now at the clean-cut Korean boy at the AASA table (I think I can distinguish among Asian ethnicities as readily as those Hasidim thought they could tell Gentile from Jew), and though he had merely offered an introuductory hello and was now smiling mutely at me, in the back of my mind I heard only this: Excuse me, are you Asian? Are you Asian? Excuse

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me. Are you Asian? I took one of the flyers on the table, even put my name on a mailing list, so as not to appear impolite. But I had already resolved not to be active in any Asians-only group. I thought then: I would never choose to be pigeonholed.” (Liu, 1998: 48) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “This allergic sensitivity to pigeonholing” is one of the unhappy hallmarks of the banana mentality. What does the banana fear? That is, what did I fear? The possibility of being known only, or even primarily, for being Asian. The possibility of being mistaken for someone more Chinese. The possibility of being known only, or even primarily, for being Asian. The possibility of being written off by whites as a self-segregating ethnic clumper. These were threats-unseen and, frankly, unsubstantiated-that I felt I should keep at bay.” (Liu, 1998:49)

Liu decided himself not to be active in Asians group, he thought that he became a pigeonholing, although he didn’t want it. Pigeonholing means that assign to a particular category or class, especially in a manner that is too rigid or exclusive.

Liu has his own fears that he experienced because of the bad things that happened to him in the past. He was afraid just because he was an Asian, specifically a Chinese person. The possibility of being written off by whites as a self-segregating ethnic clumper is a threat for his group.

“Well,” I say, turning now to the camera, “these caricatures play off a long history of demeaning anti-Asian stereotypes- the buckteeth, the slanted eyes, the bamboo hat. They are racist in their effect.” And on I go. I play, in other words, the Asian spokesman, ever vigilant against affronts to my race.” (Liu, 1998:61) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “Soon a staff writer from Review joins the discussion via satellite. He, too, is Asian American, South Asian. “We didn’t think this cover would be particularly controversial,” I hear this other Asian say. “Normal people aren’t offended by it.” Normal people? The more this other Asian talks, the more heated I become in my responses. At first I assume it’s the adrenaline rush of verbal combat. But as he goes on mouthing his disingenuous party line-

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something like, “We would’ve used leprechauns if this scandal was about Irish money”-I become more than just irked, more than angry, until suddenly I realize that I am outraged. I am sending a searing look into my own reflection in the camera as I argue. And I am shouting now: I have raised my voice to defend my people.” (Liu, 1998:61)

Liu was discussing about controversial cover that made him getting mad with it in a television station. These caricatures play off a long history of demeaning anti-

Asian stereotypes- the buckteeth, the slanted eyes, the bamboo hat. They are racist in their effect. The cover seem to insult the Asian. Liu was discussing it with other

Asians, but other Asians did not have a problem with that. On the other hand, Liu was different. Although he didn’t know many Chinese cultures, he still respected it.

“What I am saying, simply, is that more than ever before, Asian Americans are only as isolated as they want to be.They-we-do not face the levels of discrimination and hatred that demand and enclave mentality, particularly among the second generation, which, after all, provides most of the leadership for the nation-race. The choice to invent and sustain a pan- Asian identity is just that: a choice, not an imperative.” (Liu, 1998:78) That related things above can also be found in the quotation bellow: “What’s missing from Asian American culture is culture.The idea seems absurd at first. No Asian American culture? What about Zen Buddhism, feng shui, karaoke bars? Well, yes. The problem, though, is that these and other forms of culture inherited by Asian Americans are ethnic in origin.” (Liu, 1998:79) Asian American people are not being so isolated because of their race. The writer thinks that Asian people are not really isolated compared with African or black people. Black people are more isolated. They experienced discrimination just because of their skin color. Just a few of American people seemed to isolate Asian people. It is also the choice for Asian people if they want to becoming Professional

Asian American, that can mastering become Asian and become American. Beside 56

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that, Asian American didn’t have the strong basic culture, they lost their own culture, because they get influenced by American culture.

“My father, actually would have preffered that I marry a Chinese girl. He said so to my mother once. When Mom told me this recently, I was a bit surprised. I guess I was unaware of how much pride of race he had quietly harborded. What else did I not know? My father had already been gone nearly five years when I was wed. And so it is difficult to imagine just how he and I would have talked about this.” (Liu, 1998:180) That related things above can be also found in the quotation bellow: “He would not have blocked me, I feel very sure. He probably wouldn’t even have expressed his disappointment (though that is not to say I wouldn’t have sensed it). I do think he would have liked Caroll a great deal; realized, as Mom did early on, how fundamentally good she is.” (Liu, 1998: 181)

Liu was surprised when his mother said that his father wanted Liu to marry a

Chinese girl. His father did not want Liu to marry other than Chinese. It seemed like his father was a racist. However, like a destiny, Liu married a Chinese woman named

Carol.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

After analyzing the data, the writer has made the conclusion and suggestion related with the result. This chapter contains the conclusion based on the analysis before. This chapter is also the final result of the study. The writer makes the conclusion and suggestion related to this study.

5.1 CONCLUSION

Based on the analysis, the writer has made the conclusion from this study.

1. There are five situations that causing cross cultural assimilation portrayed

in The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu such as language, customs and traditions,

and social organization. The first is language. We also know that language is

the basic way of someone to communicate each other. Liu have been

assimilated by the English language, he got the English language from his

father, and he did not have an access to learn Chinese language. The second

is customs and tradition, Customs are social practices that are common and

followed by most people in a society. Traditions is a custom that is handed

over by a generation to the coming generation and one that has been passed

down over successive generations. At first, Liu got his assimilation by

American culture that dominates himself. He didn’t know many Chinese

cultures. Customs and tradition have an important role to shape the identity of

someone in the cultural context, because from others culture, we know others

identity in general. The third is social organization. Social organization refers

to the network of relationship in a group and how they interconnect. Social

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organization includes money, job, education, ancestors, etc. Liu acts differently from other stereotypes about Chinese people in general. It happened since he entered high school. He wanted to show that he was different from other Chinese people in general. He wanted to break the assumptions that led to bad. He wanted to be the different Chinese people.

Even though, at the moment, he didn’t really fit in Chinese culture, he still respects Chinese culture and gets angry if someone insulting it. Liu also learned Chinese culture to find his identity. The fourth is religion. Religion is the set of beliefs, feelings, dogmas and practices that define the relations between human beings and sacred or divinity. Liu’s parent was a Christian.

They got married in a church and didn’t use Chinese wedding ritual. Liu’s grandmother also a Christian. She joined a church association in Chinatown.

The last that the writer found in The Accidental Asian was an economic system in Chinatown. Economic systems are the means by which countries and governments distribute resources and trade goods and services.

Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of Chinese or Han people located outside of mainland China or Taiwan, most often in an urban setting. In Chinatown,

Liu’s grandmother, Po-Po, describes the economic life of Chinese in general.

Chinese is a hard worker and they are really good in trading.

2. The conflict that created by cross cultural assimilation portrayed in The

Accidental Asian such as personal to personal, and personal to social. In personal to personal, Liu often got a conflict with his father, with himself, why he became the person that experienced assimilation, why his father didn’t tell him the Chinese culture. Liu didn’t know anything about Chinese

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cultural heritage. In personal to social, one of the some cases was Liu ever

got isolated by people in his junior high school. They didn’t want to be his

friends just because of his race. They thought that Liu was a nerd, and they

did that without realizing it.

3. The different culture that can be accepted in The Accidental Asian is that

Liu had an amazing friend named Berndt Schmit. He was a Germany. When

he was a child, he once visited China and lived with Chinese people and

learned the Chinese culture. Berndt really respected Chinese culture and

accepted it, altough he was a Germany. Berndt also really enjoyed the process

of learning Chinese culture.

5.2 SUGGESTION

The Accidental Asian is a novel that tells the story of Chinese people who lived in America, how they adapted their life with the American culture. The writer found the cross cultural assimilation in The Accidental Asian. We also know that to maintain our own culture, we need to have the strong basic culture from our family.

In Liu’s case he did not get it. Assimilation is also the problem that is quite often discussed because the development of migration is growing rapidly in this modern era, supported by easy access transportation and good communication to each other.

By reading The Accidental Asian, the writer realizes that many factors might cause someone to be assimilated. The strong defense of someone is culture from their family. We can see the simple example like in Indonesia. There are some parents who didn’t teach their own culture to their children, like, local language. We can see around us, there are some of people, including the writer, who can not speak in their

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local language. For example, as the writer, I am Sundanese but I can not speak in

Sundanese because my father doesn’t teach me about it. I think it is influenced by the social environment considering the fact that I lived in Medan which mostly filled by

Bataknese. If I lived in Bandung, maybe I know the Sunda language as well as the culture. The environment also have an important role to shape someone’s culture.

The story in this novel happened in America which follow the concept of melting pot, because in America a melting pot is a concept referring to a heterogeneous society become more homogeneous with the different elements

“melting together” into a harmonious whole with a common culture. The melting pot concept is most commonly used to describe the assimilation of immigrants to the

United States, which can be used in any context where a new culture comes to co- exist with another.

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REFERENCES

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Journals

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APPENDICES i. Summary of the Novel

The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu

The unifying motif connecting all of Eric Liu’s essays collected in THE

ACCIDENTAL ASIAN: NOTES OF A NATIVE SPEAKER is the author’s painstaking search for his cultural, as well as personal, identity. A successful young

American, who once wrote speeches for President Bill Clinton after graduating from

Yale University, Liu nevertheless wonders to what degree his Chinese heritage has shaped his status and personality in contemporary American society.

A few years after the death of his beloved father, Liu still muses over the degree of assimilation shown by this successful mathematician. While his father moved at ease in the workplace and shared his social life with caucasian friends and colleagues, he nevertheless hid his lingering kidney disease from all of them. To what degree, Liu asks himself, is this a reflection of the values of a different culture, traces of which he is discovering in himself?

Taking issue with contemporary American policies and beliefs on race and ethnicity, Liu challenges the very term of Asian American, which he perceives as a typical American invention. Confronted with the fact that he married a white woman and will have children of mixed heritages, Eric Liu encourages the reader to move beyond a narrow understanding of race in America.

Yet for all the passion THE ACCIDENTAL ASIAN invests in the dream that race should become obsolete as a means for categorizing people, Liu also feels nostalgic for that part of a person’s identity that would be lost if all ties to one’s

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ancestors should be severed. To find a balance between these conflicting goals appears to be the great aspiration of this author. ii. About the Author

Eric Liu

Eric Liu is the founder and CEO of Citizen University and executive director of the Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program. He is the author

of several books,

including "You're More

Powerful Than You

Think: A Citizen's

Guide to Making

Change Happen," "A

Chinaman's Chance,"

"The Gardens of

Democracy," and "The Accidental Asian." Eric served as a White House speechwriter and policy adviser for President Bill Clinton. He is a regular columnist for CNN.com and a correspondent for TheAtlantic.com.

Eric Liu is an author, educator, and civic entrepreneur. He is the founder and

CEO of Citizen University, which promotes and teaches the art of powerful citizenship through a portfolio of national programs (citizenuniversity.us), and the executive director of the Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program.

His books include the national bestsellers The Gardens of Democracy, and The True

Patriot, co-authored with Nick Hanauer. Eric’s most recent book is You’re More

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Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen. His first book, The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, was a New York Times

Notable Book featured in the PBS documentary “Matters of Race.” His other books include A Chinaman’s Chance: One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American

Dream; Guiding Lights: How to Mentor – and Find Life’s Purpose, the Official Book of National Mentoring Month; and Imagination First, co-authored with Scott Noppe-

Brandon of the Lincoln Center Institute, which explores ways to unlock imagination in education, politics, business and the arts. Eric served as a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and later as the President’s deputy domestic policy adviser. After the White House, he was an executive at the digital media company RealNetworks.

Eric lives in Seattle, where he teaches civic leadership at the University of

Washington and hosts Citizen University TV, an award-winning television program about civic power. In addition to speaking regularly at venues across the country,

Eric also serves on numerous nonprofit and civic boards. He is the co-founder of the

Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. A board member of the Corporation for

National and Community Service, he is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law

School. A regular columnist for CNN.com and a correspondent for TheAtlantic.com,

Eric can be found on Twitter @ericpliu.

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