<p>Hi, I'm a american born chinese, and i'm just wondering a couple things about the college essay.</p>
<p>First off, I understand that writing about being multicultured is a typical subject that adcom's see many many times in many of the asian applicant pool. </p>
<p>The thing is, I want to write about how i'm not extremely multicultured and how i'm constantly trying to find and learn about my chinese ancestry. The thing that made me think of it was my grandfather who lives in Hong Kong, used to speak a little bit of english, and everytime I went to Hong Kong we'd struggle to meet on certain levels of communcation, and how he had critcized me about my "american ways." I was thinking about writing how i'm constantly on a search to learn about my culture, and parallel that search to my search in life for who I am and who I want to be.</p>
<p>There are also some funny things he has said before, that I think would add a little humor into the essay, good idea or no?</p>
<p>Any ideas? is that still too cliche for an asian american?</p>
<p>*EDIT: a quick background of myself. Born in California, moved to New Jersey when I was one and have lived here ever since. I occasionally visit Hong Kong to see relatives and i'm constantly fascinated by the place, as well as the culture. I am "american" but I hold traditional Chinese family values, but, for example, can not read or write chinese but can speak and understand Cantonese, but not to the point where I'm fluent.</p>
<p>The more I talk about it the more cliche it sounds, but at the same time - there's something about it that, to me, made it not seem cliche. I think it's the fact that I don't want the emphasis to be in my views of my culture, but in how my Grandfather viewed me and my ways and his criticism, that makes me reflect on who I was and who I want to be after hearing his criticisms and his ways. </p>
<p>He was also my only grandparent that could speak somewhat english, and throughtout the essay I kind of want to parallel myself and who I am to him and who he was, since there was a certain amount of understanding of one another. Basically, I want the essay to emphasize me, who I was, my grandfather's perception of me, as well as my struggle to find who I was while in Hong Kong on vacations, as well as a kind of overview of who I am and who I want to be, in terms of culture, as well as in terms of me as a person.</p>
<p>"Don't feel the need to come up with a "gimmick" or an original topic. Gimmicks usually fail, and many successful candidates write about fairly common topics, such as music, sports, community service projects, and family relationships. The key is not finding the perfect essay topic, but in making the most out of the topic that is particularly meaningful to you."</p>
<p>This is the type of essays that if written well, will sound great, but if written poorly, even mediocre-ly (made up that word), will sound cliche.</p>
<p>I agree with Molly - write a draft and show it to an English teacher.</p>
<p>"This is the type of essays that if written well, will sound great, but if written poorly, even mediocre-ly (made up that word), will sound cliche."</p>
<p>Exactly what somebodynew said. That's the first thing I thought of when I thought about it over again.</p>
<p>I think I'm just going to write it and then ask how it sounds, and if it still comes out extremely cliche, then i'll think about other topics. As for now, I feel extremely passionate towards the topic since there are so many things about me and who I am that I can put on paper that could easily show adcom's who i am, and what i'm all about.</p>
<p>I saw a essay by this one girl in a college essay book with that exact same topic.. (she couldn't use a chopstick, she couldn't speak chinese, she was more American blah blah.. she even called herself banana girl...she wrote it really well though) but as you can see, it's been over done. I'm asian too but I would never write about such things.</p>
<p>OMG Lojt, I had the same experience with my grandparents in India, actually pretty much the whole family...
...doesnt seems to original now does it!!!!!!! HA {evil laugh}
:)</p>
<p>Not to make anyone mad...but everytime I hear a story about coming to America, or try to express how they are cultured...it makes me want to vomit. I know that sounds horrible...but it is OVERLY used, and not something that an adcom wannas to pickup, after reading one exactly like that before...</p>
<p>But you guys don't understand, the main focus isn't on how i'm multicultured, or lack there of - in that I hope to be more multicultured. It's more about my grandfather, where he comes from and kind of where he's from (hong kong) and what i've come to learn and who i want to be while keeping all that in mind.</p>
<p>.... blah idk, i just know that it's not a main focus, my culture - but in fact, my main focus is where I come from, in terms of my relatives experiences and what I want to be after learning about all of it.</p>
<p>Shouldn't the essay be about you? I don't like the way you are going with this...even though you think it is different, it isn't. What is nowadays, you're probably saying....this is over-used....there are too many Asians in America to make this piece effective. This might of worked in the 90's.</p>
<p>I see, okay. The more I think about it the more cliche it sounds. I'll think more about what I'll do for the essay. Thanks for the responses though.</p>