Our first edition of Halfway Magazine has been quite successful. We have received a lot of responses both good and bad. Many of these responses were very similar in opinion and thought, except for one which stood out amongst the rest. This reader came to our page, read our work and left comments which we initially failed to respond to. I would like to take this time to apologize to this reader for our late response and we will make an effort to be quicker with them next time—since at Halfway, we are looking for interaction.

However, in regards to the comments, the reader commented that we were global citizens and we should not let ethnicity blind us from ignoring that fact. I agree with her. We are humans before anything. We are more or less just different in skin color and culture. If you see a dog, you would acknowledge it as a dog, despite the differences in color, size, texture of fur, etc. It should be the same way when you see a person; you would acknowledge them to be a human, despite color, size, texture of hair, culture, religion, gender, etc.

Part of his/her criticism was that we are Americans and we should not segregate ourselves by being Asian in America. Being American is part of who we are and we should not ignore this aspect of our identity. I believe very strongly with that as well. It’s up to the point where I do not even check off “Asian/Pacific Islander” in any forms or applications because I do not want to be judged or risked being judged in anyway because of my ethnic background. If you read my blog without looking at my profile picture, you may find very little indication of what my ethnic background is. I rarely label myself as Asian and depending on the circumstance, probably more often as American than anything. So if I agree with him/her, why am I associating myself with an Asian magazine?

As I explained to him/her in my response back, Halfway isn’t just made up of just Americans. Half of our staff members are Asians from the United States, but the other half are from all around the world, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Those that are in Asia reside and work from their homeland, so there is a mixture of purpose in our writings.

He/she points out that we have “a tendency to see one’s ancestral home/s (in Asia) through rose-tinted glasses, while criticizing the ‘foreign’ country that one chooses to call home.” I do not believe that we as writers or Asians in America believe that the United States is a foreign country. However, it is more the point that some white Americans choose to view us as foreigners. It is also the case when we travel abroad back to our ancestral homes and the locals there view us as foreigners. Neither here nor there, we are halfway, still trying to figure out who we are.

As writers of Halfway, we try to use it as a medium to express our thoughts and establish our identity. It is very important to me to know where my ancestors are from, to speak the language that my parents speak, to try to comprehend the traditions that they hold. It is important to me as a person to know who I am. It is also important for me to fight ignorance against my culture and the only way to fight ignorance is by promoting awareness. You cannot promote awareness by being ignorant yourself.

For over a century, the Asians here (in America), have been trying to assimilate into the American culture. It took the Jews, Italians, Irish, and the Dutch only a generation (twenty or so years) to be viewed as both American and their own identity of preference. It took the Blacks (both African and African American) two centuries of slavery and another century of fighting to gain equality (though still not totally equal) and the Latinos have been riding the same train as the blacks and have established a hold in the American culture. However, even in this day and age, the Asians are still shunned upon by the white Americans and the other minorities. Asians receive more racial slander and remarks than another other race or ethnicity. The chance of hearing someone say, “ching-chong-ching,” or “go back to your country,” or even “chink/gook,” is very common.

As the reader pointed out, “it is important to emphasize the ‘sameness,’ if you live in a multicultural society.” We try to do that everyday. We are doctors and lawyers, accountants and investment bankers, teachers and students, all in the same place as the other Americans. We live like them, eat what they eat, speak what they speak, and wear what they wear. We learn the same values, to the extent that we are known as Americans everywhere we go. We are them; we are American.

Here at Halfway, we aren’t trying to promote segregation through our writings or by establishing the identity of being Asian. Being Asian is who we are. We live in a multicultural society, which means a tossed salad, not like a mixing pot. We are similar in just as many ways as we are different and Halfway is just a place for us to be who we are. If someone can identify me as being Asian-American, I have gotten my point across because this reader sees me as being both Asian and American.

I hope Halfway Magazine will be able to interpret that point more as we go along. I feel very strongly about our goals. Maybe with our first edition, our intentions were misunderstood or misinterpreted, but surely, we will strive to be better with every issue. We are certainly indebted to your responses and sincerely hope that you continue to express your opinions to us.

To the reader who left the comments that sparked this article, I hope I have conveyed your arguments correctly. Your point is very well taken and I hope I have not butchered it or misinterpreted it in this article. If so, please accept my sincere apologies and I will make more of an effort the next time around. And in response to your reply, I am not offended at all and I hope that you will continue to read our work every month and be critical of it.

Ray Lee is the Halfway Production Manager

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