Why All Asians are in Math/Engineering/Science

Over Curry in a Hurry (ironically enough) on Saturday with James, I asserted that Asian girls were, for the most part, golddiggers while James disagreed.

For those unadorned with the urban slang, a "golddigger" is someone who actively seeks someone of more advantaged material status in order to parasitically leech off their wealth. From a female evolutionary psychology standpoint though the golddigging-practice makes perfect sense. Both man and woman desire to pass on their genetic material. The female must find a suitable mate to ensure that he not only provide the seed for her offspring, but that he be present to support both her and her offspring and to ensure that the offspring is carried to term. A wealthy man is better able to provide for her and her children.

I would say that Asian women (both East and South even more so) are the biggest golddiggers due to the overbearing influence that family has in one's mate choices. Amongst Asians, parents have significant say in who her son or daughter marry. Most relationships are companionate in foundation - that is the foundation of a marriage is not purely love as in the West. Rather, financial considerations, the family background and social status (in the case of Hindus, caste) of each party in the marriage, and the compatibility of the two parties is also weighed heavily.

This selection of a mate plays a crucial role in dictating the career path an Asian child will pursue, and one sees it played out on the UW campus. Seldom will an (ostracized) Asian kid pursue a major in Arts because the relative social status accrued from an Arts degree is minimal in the Asian community. On the other hand a doctor, an engineer or an accountant is looked highly upon; every Asian parent desires their son to become one and their daughter to either become one or marry one. So a degree in math or science or engineering is (perceived) as a ticket to a good income and a beautiful wife & high social status in the Asian community, and mom-and-dad have reason to boast. Ergo, one finds East & South Asians at UW concentrated overwhemlingly in the Math, Science & Engineering faculties. (The Banana Boys play did a hilarious take on the seemingly limited career choices that confront every Asian male.)

In Chinese culture there is a consensus that every woman should "marry-up". Thus, the average-looking Asian male will have difficulty in securing an attractive wife unless he's got the bling-bling. Market forces dictate that the most bling-bling come from degrees in the aforementioned, and the parents (who function as pseudo-pimps) are well aware of this long before long before before the child is. In a sense there is social pressure on the Asian kid - particularly males - to obtain a degree of value (meaning math, business, engineering or medicine), to secure a good job, find a pretty wife and start a family, and do mom-and-pop proud so they can boast about their successful kid to their friends and kinfolk. The "Keeping with the Jones'" psyche is in-bred in every Asian family!

Whereas the West is highly individualistic, in Asian societies there is a far greater emphasis on the collective whole. The notion of keeping and saving face is strong in Asian society. In a sense Asians live for others. I'm not too sure whether this is a good thing. Western society grants a great deal of autonomy to the individual, but one can argue that Western society has become *too* individualistic, that this individualism "me-first" ethos has come at expense of the family unit - witness the breakdown of the extended & nuclear family, the absence of a spiritual core. Materialism has supplanted religion as the reigning God of the West.

Both Asian and Western cultures have their merits and flaws. The ideal society would lie at the intersection and hopefully we will move in that direction.