Racism against the Chinese President. Really? People still use "Ching chong ching chong"

So I've been on vacation, and whilst I did take my laptop with me, and did plan to make use of the complimentary wi-fi, the resort was just too tempting. But I was very interested in the state visit of Hu Jintao. I'm not going to comment on the political or economic ramifications, but one thing anyone could see watching the news footage was the shift in power, the potency of what was unsaid and unseen. It was clear that the President and the White House were doing all they can to avoid offending the Chinese president, and that the strict diplomatic protocols had to be met. To me, the whole visit was a clear sign of the change in the balance of power. It was like Hu Jintao was here to finalize the change over between him and President Obama, over who really was the most powerful person in the world. The fear was obvious amongst the President, his staff, and the republicans such as Boehner who apparently him President Hu in private. Don't annoy him, don't fuck with him.

Which brings us to the lovable scamp Rush Limbaugh. Of course needing to throw his two worthless cents in , he went on a wild ching chong rampage. The stuff that used to be heard in playgrounds across America, Canada and Australia when directed at ethnic Chinese people - until those Chinese kids decided to go to quite frankly better schools. Which begs the question, why the need to insult? Why the need to offend the Chinese? Is it borne from a deep fear. Does the anti-Chinese sentiments come from the fear of the dreaded yellow people taking over the world. For the last 300 years one could summarize that the Anglo-Saxon race of first the British, then the Americans have dominated the world in terms of economy, military might, and influence. During the 1980s many Americans were afraid the Japanese would take over the world before they fell into the abyss. Now it is the Chinese, a country that seems to have finally awoken to its full potential and size. So this posts asks whether its a fear of Chinese people in America. Perhaps Rush Limbaugh's listeners share that same fear. Does the American heartland fear the Chinese people as a race and as a nation?

Where it all began.

It all began with me. I , like many other Asian-Americans was born in a time of change and into a unique sub-culture. The United states of America, was to my grandparents after the horror of the war, a haven - the promised land. So like many of their Chinese kin, they settled in the city which had one of the largest pre-existing communities of immigrant Chinese - San Francisco.  Both of my parents , growing up in the 60s-70s were the first in their families since arrival to attend American colleges and to take what would become the tried and tested route into American prosperity and the comfort of the upper-middle class. My mother became a doctor, and my father became an accountant. Both worked very very hard to become what they did, and to get to where they have now - upper middle class suburban comfort.

So, like many other 2nd/3rd generation Asian kids, I went down the same path. I went to school, I studied prodigiously, I played the piano from a very long age, at high school I tried to rebel when thanks to my height I made the basketball team , and thanks to my abilities I made the varsity soccer team. Of course, these athletic pursuits were not taken seriously because it was through grades that I would make my way into university, not athletic scholarships. I was very lucky in my choice of college - lucky that I was accepted into one of the oldest and prestigious universities in the country. Lucky also in the happy fact that it was on the other side of the country. So at the age of 18, I packed by bags and flew across the country to my new home for the next 4 years. Now here, is where it got interesting. The somewhat sheltered life of a middle class gated community did not prepare me for the social and cultural life of an East Coast college. My school was one that had a very large Asian-American population. My college, had a very small Asian-American population. Here I was , the other side of the country from my parents and my friends, trying to fit into a culture that in the late 90s was changing due to the shifting demographics of the student population. Here was where I, in effect started my cultural investigation. Though I of course did not know it, but through my eyes I saw the outline of this specific cultural phenomenon.

First , I should lay out the personal nature of myself, and my relationship failures. Before college I had one girlfriend. Just one. She was a friend of the family. She was very nice, a little shy, pretty cute and was equally new to the boyfriend/girlfriend thing. That relationship ended in my senior year. Perhaps it was due to pressure of studies, perhaps it was due to her slow maturity into a vibrant confident and admittedly sexually attractive girl. (The girl she is now, is incredibly different to the girl I knew sophomore and senior year) She of course was the one who ended the relationship. This crushed me. It was only thanks to my close friends that I didn't fall of a cliff and into some self-loathing spiral that would affect my school life. Of course this meant when I got to college I had very little clue, or "game" when it came to college girls. Both Asian-American girls, or non-Asian American girls.

So, where will I begin? I will begin with college relationships. My first major finding of my ongoing investigation. Does the idea of this cross-cultural relationship have its genesis in the chaotic scenes of colleges across the country? Does an Asian-American girl, free from her restrictive and protected home environment seek out a suitable partner/boyfriend within her college? Does the college environment, and the demographics of US colleges point her in the direction of the White American male.