People-watching on the Bryan Center Plaza is a favorite pastime of mine. As I sit at a table near one of the misters inhaling my Great Hall grub, I take inventory of my surroundings: bright sunlight, clear skies, happy students, stressed students—a sea of students, and a metaphorical sea at that because you see there is no water here.
But then in the midst of this sea, I see two umbrellas moving along side by side. The stereotyping is done before I can stop myself: Asians, fresh off the boat.
Sophomore Shucao Mo, an undergraduate from China, eased my worries that I might be being a bit too self-discriminating: “Are there [even] students here who use umbrellas for non-rain purposes? I have never seen one; if I do, to doubt [they’re Chinese] is out of the question.”
Although Chinese myself, I have always been someone who cringes at the idea that I might be stereotyped in a similar fashion as well. It’s bad enough already that I always carry my camera around with me (and when I’m driving, that I’m an Asian female). Give me an umbrella in sunny weather and a cute cat-shaped pencil pouch with pens capped with miniature Snoopy figurines, and I’ll have the holy trifecta to reinforcing Asian stereotypes.
Sophomore Shikha Nayar, another international undergraduate from Hong Kong said that umbrellas are very prevalent in sunny weather in China.
“Basically, the culture in China for decades has been [beautiful skin equals porcelain skin]," Nayar said. "I think since it has been a tradition for so long, it's pretty much accepted in China.”
Having used umbrellas in sunny weather while in China herself, Mo elaborated on the collective nature of cultural trends.
"No individuals are capable of autonomous formation," Mo said. My sense of beauty has been challenged and molded since I came [to America]. Now I enjoy the tan, bizarre as it is.”
Although Asians using umbrellas for non-rain purposes on campus is quite the case study in people-watching, if you look hard enough (which frankly isn’t that hard), you’ll notice other trends in so-called “Duke culture” that are shaped by our self-reinforcing standards of beauty and standards of how to act. And if anything, they’re just as ridiculous as we make out umbrella-toting Asians to be. And inversely, just as valid.
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