Ting Ting Huang

Professor Philip Broadbent

Writing 39C

14 May 2018

Advocacy Project Position Statement

1. Core Problem being addressed: The Asian Achievement Paradox and its impact on

Asian American youth.

Type of Problem: Social and Cultural

● History tracing back to mass immigration in the 1960s

● Asian immigrants inheriting cultural values from the past which evolved and

enlarged the problem

● Social as it is impacting youth groups and the issue with their psychology and

why certain statistics appears to be more prevalent amongst this group

Key Tensions:

1. Education System

2. Mental Health

3. Contribution to Society

4. (Please clarify, I don’t think I completely understand what key tensions refer to.)

2. That is also the issue; no real piece of legislation, regulation, or court case has

completely solved this problem yet.

Why? The Asian American community has a stigma on topics regarding mental health

and usually brush it off as a minor issue that shouldn’t have attention brought to it. As result of
covering their problems within their communities, it makes it difficult for legalities to intrude or

even identify the root of a problem in which Asian Americans don’t believe in.

However, a new bill targeting Asian-American, Pacific Islander Mental Health Stigma is in the

works.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-bill-targets-asian-american-pacific-islander-

mental-health-stigma-n767306

3. Searching for scholars. Need advising on how to do this.

4. Removing mental health stigma in the community through legal solutions.

○ Bill that encouraged mental health awareness leading into...

Including mental health as a part of Health Insurance.

○ As one of the biggest issue is that Asian Americans tend to not seek for

professional help themselves, it apparently may be a solutions if they were offered

the opportunity instead. This also normalizes the stigma surrounding mental

health if everyone has access to resources.

My position: I understand the importance of offering mental health care services to

Asian American youth (as the root of the problem is that they feel entrapped by the so-

called Asian American Achievement Paradox with no outlet), however, realistically

speaking money is also a issue. In order to give access to mental health care to such a

large population, it requires a lot of funding which others might dislike since the problem

doesn’t include them in the first place. Moreover, simply offering a resource does not

mean everyone will take the opportunity.

 I’ll aim for solution that first attempts to break down the stigma, offer

enforceable solutions, and see if their are improvements or advancement before trying

something new. A stigma that existed since decades ago will not simply change overnight

and I don’t think a full solution is possible at the moment but there can be increments to

meet the root of the problem.

5. Two real-world evidence: 1) Jennifer Pan and her revenge against her parents. 2) Luke

Tang, a Harvard student that committed suicide despite seemingly living a ‘model-life.’

I feel like these those people represent the opposite spectrum of what the Asian American

Achievement paradox can do to these youth: lash-back like Jennifer or self-destruction like Luke.

6. Jennifer Pan and Luke Tang

 7. Potential Sources

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/issues/asian-americanpacific-islander-communities-and-

mental-health

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mental-health-stigma-asian-

americans_us_59d4f739e4b0218923e6e8fd

http://www.calhealthreport.org/2017/11/09/asian-americans-reluctant-seek-treatment-mental-

health-problems/

http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb06/health.aspx