My name is Jung-Ho Pak and I'm Artistic Director and Conductor of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra.  I return to San Diego with great love for this city and the hopeful future that lies before it. I am here with a specific purpose, one that is extremely important to the future of the quality of life here. Although I have attended and taught at some of the top music schools in the country, nothing I have learned at those institutions prepared me for the challenge that non-profits, and the arts in particular, face today. That urgent need is to engage a public to action.  Whether experiencing beautiful art, or volunteering their time or resources to a worthy non-profit organization, today’s public has less incentive to reach outside their comfort zones and enrich their lives with something that has deeper meaning.  So as an artist, non-profit leader, and yes … even businessman … I must help create awareness for the benefits of being connected to our community and being committed generously.

With the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, specifically, our strategy is to make classical music more relevant, accessible, desirable … exciting. I believe I have the advantage of understanding this market first hand because I have been a long time San Diego resident, a California born baby boomer who grew up with MTV and personal computers. I'm a consumer who lives the American dream, and enjoys eating out, watching movies, and surfing the net.  All of these elements have prepared me to see the world through your eyes. 

But the one thing I haven't been prepared for is for the role as an “Asian American".  Like many second generation Asian Americans, I have spent a good portion of my life focusing on being American.  Only recently, over the past five years, have I embraced with pride my own ethnic heritage, and has Korea, my parents' country, embraced me.  This year, in particular, I am beginning to understand what it is to be Asian American.  It’s a late self-awareness, as I'm sure the general San Diego community has always seen me as an Asian. 

So this has led me on a journey to understand the nature of the Asian American experience and what meaningful message I can share to perhaps inspire you to think a bit more globally and about creating a new collective paradigm among us … a vision of the potential power we hold together. 

As part of my preparation today, I went to Google and found an article from Wikipedia.com dedicated to Asian Americans.  At the end of the long entry, there is a section called the "Model Minority Myth".  I found it both painfully insightful and, at the same time, rather over-generalized. 

Wikipedia.com

"Model Minority" Myth
"The reference to Asian Americans as "model minorities" has to do with the work ethic, respect for elders, and high valuation of family and elders present in their culture. Despite the fact that this concept seems to valorize Asian Americans, it comes with an underlying notion of their apoliticality. Moreover, such a label one-dimensionalizes Asian Americans as having those traits and no other human qualities, such as vocal leadership, negative emotions, or intolerance towards oppression. Asian Americans are labeled as model minorities because they have not been as much of a "threat" to the U.S. political establishment due to a smaller population and less political advocacy. This label seeks to suppress potential political activism through euphemistic complements. (Reference: Asian Americans and Politics: Perspective, Experiences, Prospects by Gordon H. Chang.)

In the environment of public education, Asians--especially people of Chinese, Korean, or Indian descent--are often stereotyped as over-achieving students. Surprisingly, many Asians tend not to be classified in the "nerd" category because much of their achievement in academics stem from parental support. The "smart" stereotype is attached with the concept that Asians play the violin, flute, and/or piano. The trend is a stereotype, and many Asians are not over-achievers. 

(This really cracks me up… It ends with…)

Asian Americans are also labeled as the middlemen minority, in which they act as a liaison between the white society and the African and Latin Americans.” 

(I don't know about you, but I personally don't see myself brokering a deal between any immigrants and the American Government) 

How do we, as an Asian Americans, benefit or suffer from these stereotypes?  How do we become something more than mere caricatures and instead, "conductors" of our own destiny?  If I may, I'd like to use classical music and Asians as a metaphor for understanding and developing increased community involvement. 

As the wikipedia article describes, for many years, Asians were seen as the ideal music students. Even today, parents support, cajole and sometimes even force their children to play classical music.  Even though their heritage has no relationship to European or even Western Civilization, Asians have adopted the European belief that playing an instrument increases a child’s chance for success.  They believe this based on their own empirical evidence.  Just look at how many young Asian American musicians go to the top universities and music conservatories.  Look at the big names on the classical scene today.  Yo-Yo Ma, Lang-Lang, and many, many more are great Asian role models in our society.  I'm not interested in the "chicken or the egg" debate of whether smart children play music well, or music makes those children smart.  I'm more interested in why they play music, and what happens to them after they finish studying music.  

Here are two more stereotypes. The first is that Asian musicians are not as spontaneous or expressive as American or European musicians.  That may have been true 30 years ago when students in Asia were learning music without the context of Western culture.  It’s difficult to interpret the hyper angst and ecstasy of Beethoven or the manic emotions of Gustav Mahler without understanding the society it came from.  Like many things, Asians not only eventually adopted these cultural values, but they surpassed them.  Today, classical music is bigger in many markets in Asia than in this country and even some areas of Europe.  Asian Americans in particular, with their hybrid upbringing, come to the table with the best both worlds: The discipline of Asian culture with the freedom of American society. So currently, this urban myth of Asians not being expressive is busted.  We, as a community, are capable of great adaptability, expression and creativity. 

The second stereotype is that young people playing music will be our arts audiences for the future.  All I have to do is ask you to go to your local orchestra or opera concert, and what do you see?  Predominantly white audiences.  White AND gray.  So what happened to all of those Asians winning competitions, playing in youth orchestras, and taking lessons?  Somewhere along the way, the incentive disappeared.  Like the strange disconnect between the throngs of children in the U.S. who play soccer while we lack enough general public interest to support professional soccer to a high degree as in the rest of the world, young people stop being interested in attending concerts because there is a distinct difference between participating and viewing.  And this extends to their interest in participating in their communities.  How do we inspire young Asians to be leaders and get involved in their communities? 

The idea of philanthropy is still a relatively new "sell" for Asians.  Not just financial, but spiritual philanthropy as well. Many first generation Asians come from countries in which governments have typically taken care of most social and cultural needs.  Whether it’s the arts or subsidizing social services, the idea of giving to an organization (other than a religion) is viewed as charity, and some first generation Asians believe that charity is a sign of weakness.  If an organization needs something, then they must not be working hard or smart enough, or that there is not value in the product or organization.  Of course there are wonderful Asian American philanthropists and volunteers out there, but this underlying cultural perspective is part of an overall pan-ethnic trend in America of a disappearing desire of giving charitably for the sake of the entire community, and not just for personal interest. 

Where does this leave the arts and non-profits in general?  

We need to be the most compelling and relevant organizations we can be, regardless of our self-proclaimed intrinsic worth for a specific ethnic constituency. We need to explain more convincingly and passionately why our organizations are important. We need to tell our story to our communities in a way that others clearly can see the benefit to themselves and to their families.  Whether it’s a theater company or a food bank, we need to engage the next generation and give them a tangible reason to care.  I don't expect you to come to hear the San Diego Chamber Orchestra because you are Asian.  Heck, I don't even expect you to come if you're Korean.  Instead, I hope to create a beautiful and stylish experience that will mean something to you as a person living in San Diego, California in the year 2006.  

We live in one of the best cities in the world, especially if you happen to be Asian.  We have more access to each other’s cultures than just about any other place.  San Diego can be called many things … a melting pot, a cultural stew.  But I also see it as a cultural orchestra, an orchestra of leaders and workers.  Some of you are like the violins playing the melody on top, who lead with the main themes and soaring ideas.  Some of you are inner voices like violas and bassoons who help support the melodies, working behind the scenes and giving depth and strength to the organization.  Some are the bass instruments, giving selfless broad support to the entire organization, and prefer to leave the adulation and attention to others. 

Separately, we make sound, but the fact that we co-exist in the same place at the same time allows us to make "music".  

By the way, there are many Asian "stereotypes" that are still worth celebrating.  We do indeed value hard work and sacrifice for our families and loved ones.  We do believe in the American Dream for our children and ourselves.  We are proud of our heritage.  We also share the most amazing cuisines in the world.  From Vietnamese Pho to Thai Tom Ka Kai and to Korean Jap Chae.  From Filipino Adobo to Indian Tandoori, from Chinese Dim Sum to Japanese Sushi. ( I'm hungry all over again.) 

We need to create real projects that bring us together, that inspire us to communicate and work for the benefit of all Asians.  We need to plan for a future that invites us to use our considerable combined economic and cultural influence. I want to thank Roz and Len for creating and parenting one of those vehicles for communication, the Asia Journal.  They are on the frontier of a movement that will overcome us in ways we cannot yet imagine.  Economically and culturally, with China quickly becoming the largest catalyst, Asia is becoming the world’s collective super power that is influencing all aspects of American life, and California is the first beachhead.  The Asia Journal is, and will be, at the forefront, ready to report on the new economy as well as express our Asian American experiences to a foreign culture that will need to understand who are.  Together, as an Asian American collective, we can effect change in ways that are impossible individually.  We can influence legislation and policy, we can make San Diego more attractive and productive, we can develop new projects that will bring greater understanding of "who we are" for ourselves and the non-Asian community.  In summary, if we work "in concert" for a greater purpose, we will all accomplish and benefit much more than working separately.

Thank you for joining me in celebrating the wealth of Asian American visionaries we have here today.