The story of a first generation Asian American girl Miuki who wants to be who her parents want her to be while fighting to be who she feels like she is. She is fighting trying to balance being a good student and daughter for her parents and being an American girl. Miuki wants to figure out how to do both. As her senior prom approaches she asks her parents if she can attend knowing they would say no, they did. She is heartbroken that she can’t to one of the most American things a teenager does. She tries to reason with her parents, telling them what a good student she is and that she has not let go of her roots, while explaining to them that they brought her to America for the American Dream that they are not letting her live. In the end her parents bring prom to her. She dances, has a date and realizes that it is difficult for parents of other countries to let their children grow into individuals in a place that is not hope, but realize that compromise is universal.
PR- Mei Guo Meng: The American Dream
- Surprise! I'm Asian. Glad we got all that drama out of the way. It always tends to be the elephant in the room. I walk into my AP Statistics class this year and there are only eleven of us and wouldn't you know it everyone wants to sit at my table. Hmmm, why is that you wonder? Maybe it's because I have a brilliant personality, or a beautiful smile, or that I've been ranked number one in my class since pre-k? But no, all of these, very honest and very true reasons are not why. It's because, surprise- I'm Asian. Let's be honest people; Asian stereotype number one, smart, brilliant, genius. True, true, and true. I joke all the time about being Asian and being smart. The truth is all of the above. I am truly the valedictorian of my class and I did ace AP everything, but it's not because I'm Asian, it's because I worked for it. I’ll be honest it’s my parents’ story that makes mine interesting, first generation American citizens. It's a challenge to be American, while respecting my parents and my culture. Surprise!