[A-List] Re: Asian-American Students at Virginia Tech

[CeJ <jannuzi@xxxxxxxxx>]

When I was at VA TECH/VPI & SU the single biggest contingent of
international students was the one from China, almost all invariably
there for science degrees including advanced level. Some 500 plus of
them. I did see some Koreans who came from S. Korea. I met two
Japanese students, both interestingly enough 'business majors'. I
thought that strange then because this was 1987-8 and that was when
Japan was being sold as a business model for the world (though the
first establishment wave of Japan-bashing was getting underway, thanks
to Clyde Prestowitz and Karl VanWolferen). It all makes more sense now
because Japan has so many colleges of engineering, who in Japan would
go to the US unless they had a lot of time and money?

As for the student who has been identified as the shooter, he is not a
typical 'international student' in that he really grew up in the US
before going to VT.

I have little doubt, though,  that Asians (all over the US) should be
worried about the tragic events giving rise to anti-Asian (when
Americans say 'Asian' they usually mean of E. Asian or SE Asian
appearance, and not S. Asian) sentiments and incidents. In the case of
Blacksburg, I don't think so much from the student population at VT
but from the locals. That is, believe me, a hard-bitten part of
Appalachia surrounding the VT enclave.

The US media keep invoking the usual cliche's about the VT student
body being close-knit. But hang up on that dial a cliche' service now,
because like so many of these 25,000 plus universities populations, no
one hardly knows anyone else and anomie and alienation might be better
terms than close-knit.

BTW, I must say my year at VT was not very enjoyable. I worked as a
teaching assistant at a composition program/English department that
seems to have pissed off just about everyone else at the place. And
more than any supersized polysaturated bastion of American academia
that I have ever seen in the US--even more than Penn State--it seemed
to be totally unintegrated, totally out of place in its environment
there. One drive twenty miles in almost any direction (where there
were roads) and you would very quickly see what I mean. It was the
ultimate landgrant hellhole, if you ask me. Of course I am talking
about a place twenty years ago, so I might be completely wrong about
the place now. But if impressions on the media are anything to go by,
the place looks even less academically oriented and even more 'rah
rah' over things like monster sports events (when I was there the
basketball team was competitive but nothing stellar, and the football
was without distinction).

I thought the place then very scary, and now a place I rather thought
I had forgotten seems pretty vivid now.

CJ