Liu's remarks focused on transcending the present race discussions in America, which he characterizes as centered on the interaction of blacks and whites. "The difficulty about race we have is that this country is so deeply fixed in the black and white mixture," he said. "Whenever we have in this country debates and discussions about race, they get polarized very quickly."
Many of the issues presented by Liu were considered in his 1998 book, "The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker."
"Everything boils down to the question of memory and what can and should be preserved by the second generation, questions about what one generation owes to another, getting a context for the younger generation to hold on to," Liu said.
A second generation Chinese-American, Liu is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. Liu served as Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor in the Clinton White House and was also a foreign policy speechwriter. He is a former commentator for MSNBC and a columnist for the online magazine Slate. Liu is presently RealNetworks' vice president for corporate communications.
Liu said that his interest in what it means to be an Asian-American was heightened by looking at an old high school yearbook of his father's written in Chinese, a language Liu does not understand. Commenting on the degree to which he has assimilated into American culture, he said, "I have gained a lot and I have lost a lot."
Though assimilation is often looked down upon, it does not have to be a bad thing, Liu said. "Assimilation, certainly in current times, has the connotation of a bad word, a dirty word. I think it's more complicated than that."
Rather than making generalizations about assimilation, Liu suggested people should offer judgments on a case-by-case basis. "In what ways are we assimilated and in what ways is that a good thing … and in what ways is that a bad thing?" he asked.
Liu related a story that spoke to the negative side of assimilation. In middle school, Liu became self-conscious of his Asian hair, which he could not style to look like his classmates', and he came to regard his different looks as "a source of tension and discomfort." Though Liu now attributes this feeling partly to the typical adolescent need to fit in, he also believes it was caused by the way he perceived his Asian characteristics in relation to an American ideal.
Though assimilation is often associated with "that idea that someone should feel ashamed just because of who they were," Liu said, "it can and should mean something different than that."
If used properly, assimilation can be a positive force for change, he said. "Assimilation is a two-way street."
When two cultures are able to come together and exchange fashion, sports and cultural moments, both can benefit, according to Liu. "Certain things are sad to lose, but certain things are wonderful to gain."
"This is the time right now when it becomes particularly incumbent upon us to push forward, to make it understood, not just to the leaders of this country, but to the media and everybody else, that Chinese-Americans are just as American as anybody else," Liu said.
Liu attributed a growing amount of racial acceptance in America to the cultural exchange that is encouraged on college campuses. This attitude of acceptance has made the United States the best place on earth for an "interbreeding, not just of genes, but of cultures and styles."
In addition to speaking about the Asian-American experience, Liu also spoke about America's experiences with Asia.
"It's a very tangled relationship," he said. "The American side has held in its collective imagination what China stood for."
Liu said that, during much of the 20th century, "The East and China represented this blank yellow screen on which American fears and concerns could be projected."
Now, Chinese-Americans should feel compelled to change how other Americans view China, Liu said. They should feel, "an obligation to peel back these myths that China is ... a vile, heathened, corrupted place that needs to be saved by our missionaries."
According to Liu, Americans have been caught up in a "simple dichotomy" for years, in which both America and China have at times represented "virtue or vice."
"It falls to all of us to piece through these myths of what the country represents," he said.
Hieu Tu '04 enjoyed Liu's remarks. "It put a new twist, it offered a new perspective on race in America," she said.
Liu's lecture was sponsored by the ASA in honor of Asian Heritage Month.