breaking the bamboo ceiling

Where are you from, originally?

Ever since I came to the U.S., this has got to be, hands-down, the question that people have asked me the most number of times, even more than “Are you Chinese? Japanese? Korean? Filipino?”.

So it greatly amused me when, a few pages into the book, the author, Jane Hyun, shares an anecdote about a Korean American who was asked this same question. June, a professional with over 25 years of experience in financial services and technology, gave a witty reply that I wish I’d thought of myself:

Senior executive: That was some really interesting material you just presented. Where are you from?
June: A northwest suburb of Boston.
Senior Executive: Actually, I meant, where are you really from?
June: How far do you want to go?
Senior Executive: As far back as you’d like!
June: Okay, then, I come from the Garden of Eden.

While the above incident is amusing, the issue of Asian Americans moving up and reaching the top of the career ladder in corporate America is a very serious concern. Serious because, as the book points out, there are very real and very definite cultural differences between Asian Americans and non-Asians, differences that are preventing Asian Americans from “breaking the bamboo ceiling”. Moreover, more often than not these differences are ignored or not acknowledged, and Asian Americans are not aware that they are, as Hyun points out, “operating on an entirely different plane because of their unique cultural lenses”.

I became jolted to this reality a few months back, when one of my supervisors, amazed that I was holding my own quite well when bantering with my (multi-racial) co-workers, blurted out to me: “I thought you were so meek and quiet!”

I, meek and quiet? Ay, really, now! My family and friends, especially my husband, will have a field day with this one. Sure, I’m not usually the loudest or most colorful person in the group. But I speak up when I need to (or sometimes when I just feel like it), I usually don’t think twice about initiating conversations with strangers, and I actively take leadership roles in varied activities. Proper? Usually. Polite? Yes, I’ve been described as such by Filipino acquaintances, as I was brought up to mind my manners and I do try to be very courteous to others. But I’ve also been described, back in the Philippines, as assertive, friendly, and an extrovert. So why did I suddenly get described as “meek and quiet” when I came here?

The answer, my friends, is a combination of cultural influences and perception. In the first chapter of the book, Hyun takes pains to show how certain Asian cultural values such as deference to authority figures, maintenance of interpersonal harmony, self-effacement, and self-control/restraint, affect how Asians (and Asian Americans) communicate and in general carry themselves.

As an example, Hyun points out that “the Asian culture lives closer to the adage ‘The loudest duck gets shot’”, while “Americans tend to live the adage ‘The squeaky wheel gets the oil’”. Hyun goes on to say that “it is not only first-generation immigrants who are saddled with parental influences from the motherland”. Even more acculturated second- or third-generation Asians who are self-proclaimed bananas (Asians on the outside, white on the inside), she says, report that they feel burdened by the cultural influence of their parents and grandparents.

The book is divided into three parts. Part 1, Understanding Asian Cultural Influence and Its Impact, provides an insightful look at Asian cultural influences and behavior in the Western world. For me, this was an eye-opener in the sense that the issues she brought up were things that my husband and I discussed at home and in conversation with friends, but never knew had basis in formal research and studies. This chapter also showed me some behavior that I wasn’t very aware that I was doing, and helped me understand why my non-Asian peers saw me in a different light from my Asian and Filipino friends. This chapter also shatters the “Model Minority” myth - the myth that Asian Americans “have overcome all the barriers to success because of their hard work and hight levels of education” - and shows the reality that they “continue to lag in the American workplace”.

Part 2, Career Choices and Getting in the Door, discusses how cultural influences impact our career choices. In this chapter Hyun encourages the use of assessment tools to find out a person’s natural strengths and interests, independent of those influenced by the family/ethnic community. Here she asserts that one can still be true to one’s Asian-inspired values and principles, yet change some aspect of his/her behavior in order to succeed in the Western corporate setting.

In Part 3, Getting Ahead on the Job, the author outlines very practical steps to navigate corporate America. These include taking a thorough self-assessment and identifying your blind spots and weaknesses, recognizing your bamboo ceiling barriers, choosing an employer that fits your personal values and intersts, and developing cultural competency (”You do not have to compromise your Asian values to succeed”, she emphasizes), among many other useful “key lessons”.

Although this book is primarily written for Asian professionals (whom Hyun notes tend to be mostly Asian Americans, with some expats from Asian countries or recent immigrants), I find this is book to be an enlightening, practical tool in navigating the new culture I find myself in, both at work and socially. The lessons and tips Hyun shares in this book are not only useful in going up the career ladder, but also in opening communication lines with my Asian and non-Asian co-workers and friends.

This book has shown me that the concerns and experiences I’ve had in this country are not so different from those that other Asians (or people of Asian descent) have experienced or are still going through. More than that, I’ve come to appreciate that my behavior or the way it has been perceived is not weird or unusual - just different. Because of this, I’ve become even more comfortable in my own skin, and more confident in the way I carry myself. And now that I’m more aware of the specific differences in cultural values and the way they’re perceived, I’d like to think I’ve also become more compassionate and open-minded in my dealings with both Asian Americans and non-Asians, as I try to help them become more conscious of these realities as well. That, to me, is the best insight this book has given me.


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