"Knowing My Own History [Helps Me] Recognize That Abuse Is Not like, Uniquely Asian or Ethnic"

Background and Purpose: Although the concept of culture has been much problematized, the use of “culture” as an overriding explanation for many Asian American experiences remains commonplace. Research on Asian American families, for example, often explains intergenerational conflict as a culture clash between Americanized youth and their unassimilated elders. This focus reinforces the construction of Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners with an un-American “culture,” and occludes the historical and sociopolitical context of violence, inequality, and marginalization in which Asian families live.

As part of the analysis of a study on the phenomenon of family estrangement among Asian Americans, we analyzed the participants’ framing of their experience of family ruptures with particular attention to 1) the ways in which “culture” figured in the participants’ narration of their family histories; and 2) ways in which the sociopolitical and historical context of the family system figured in their narration.

Methods: Thirty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants (ages 23-57, median age 28) who identified as Asian American and had a history of family estrangement. The sample was (7% Male, 84% female, 7% non-binary), (30% Chinese; 20% Mixed-race; 17% Vietnamese; 10% Taiwanese; 7% Korean; 3% Burmese; 3% Laotian; 3% Thai; 3% Japanese; 3% Indian American). Participants were recruited via social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram) and professional email listservs for Asian Americans and mental health professionals. Interviews utilized genograms and explored family history including immigration history and experiences of family estrangement. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded using a priori and inductive coding. Themes were generated using thematic analysis.

Findings: Nearly all participants were U.S. born children of immigrants or immigrated during childhood. Most reported their families had experienced significant sociopolitical unrest prior to immigration to the United States.

While most participants were able to provide basic history and understanding of their family’s sociopolitical and historical context, only half made connections to their estrangements.

We organized themes around sociopolitical history and meaning making:

• Separation: Participants reported multiple instances of family separation in their history prior to the reported estrangement.
• Communication: Participants had varied family norms around communication and sharing family history (e.g. detailed histories vs. vague descriptions and summations.) Participants whose families minimized communication had difficulty contextualizing sociopolitical history within their family system, were less open to reconciliation, and frequently understood behaviors leading to estrangement as related to cultural values (favoring male children, high expectations, respecting elders).
• Culture Bound: These participants noted sociopolitical context of their families and understood behaviors leading to estrangement (abuse, neglect, high standards) at least partially as an outcome of “culture.”
• Survival: These participants understood behaviors that led to estrangement as a reverberation of a once needed survival strategy in their sociopolitical context. They were able to hold dialectics about their family rupture (the behaviors were not excusable, but understandable).

Conclusion and Implications: To understand Asian American family systems, we need look beyond culture. Honoring the function and etiology of intergenerational family patterns rather than dismissing them as culture, may be a protective factor against the racist perpetual foreigner designation.