LogFAQs > #954046484

Damn_Underscore posted...

I know that Alex Trebek is from Canada because I watch Jeopardy a lot, but he lived in the US and it turns out he got his American citizenship in 1998. What if he didnt get his American citizenship? What if he retired from Jeopardy in 2004 and moved back to Canada for the rest of his life?

If he didn't get his American citizenship, that would be very telling of the flaws in USA's immigration/citizenship process. If he retired in 2004, and then moved back to Canada for the rest of his life, he'd be Canadian and USA would know him as a Canadian that appeared in American media (just like how USA sees people like Ryan Reynolds these days). You don't have to be American to appear on American media, nor does working in a certain country automatically give you citizenship/nationality of that country.

In Jackie Chans case I understand not calling him American because he doesnt associate with America anymore, but what about in the 90s when I assume he lived in America full-time?

In the 90s he was an Asian actor (specifically a Hong Kong actor) working in Hollywood, and living in America. No one said he was American back then either.

Would it have been helpful for someone to say actually, Jackie Chan isnt Asian-American hes just Asian. And also in Bruce Lees case, he was born in the US but raised in Hong Kong.

Yes it would have been helpful to have people understand that the Asian diaspora goes beyond USA and doesn't always end in citizenship no matter how hard someone works in USA, or how long they've lived here. That's true even today. Some Asian folks live in USA and don't want or can't get citizenship/nationality.

I (think you also) agree that influential Asian celebrities like Henry Golding, who is not American but starred in American's biggest Asian-American movie, is a "prominent Asian". Members of BTS and Black Pink are also super influential amongst youth in America, Canada, Brazil, etc, and they are not American. It would be wrong to label them as such regardless of how much/little time they've spent working/living in USA. Sandra Oh also wasn't always an American when her acting career first started, but she was still (in Canada) a prominent Asian. But this topic wasn't asking about prominent asians. It was asking us to think about Asian-Americans. Nationality was part of what TC wanted us to think about before clicking. Non-Americans should not be considered Americans just because of the impact they've had in USA. Instead, Americans should just learn to appreciate that they are/have been impacted by Asians of all nationalities, and not try to say those Asians were American when they aren't.

Citizenship is weird across the world. Some countries will revoke your citizenship if you get citizenship from another country. So trying to tie someones nationality to their citizenship is both silly and somewhat arbitrary.

k.


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