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Ivy League Asians, On Ice!
Dec. 7th, 2022 01:53 amPart I: Support Group Call and Response for Ivy League Asians not On Ice
Cantor: Oh, Asians; oh Ivy League Asians: who among us has not worked hard?
Congregation: Nay, none, no one, not one, no one at all.
Cantor: And our hard work has earned us what? Unconcealed rancor, eyes of regret–the parents are thinking, I know they are thinking, we shouldn’t have sacrificed their physical education for their academic one, not when it is possible to win in both. HE has won in both. We have chosen the wrong metaphor–wet earth, fertile soil–when all along ice, Ice was the way. We should have put our children on ice. I have heard them speak together in unhushed tones, that we have failed them once again.
Congregation: We have failed you, Mother, Father; forgive us, for we have worked hard.
Part II: La bohème, la bohème, Ça ne veut plus rien dire du tout. (Bohemia, bohemian,
that does not mean anything at all)
Vicky Chun, director of Athletics at Yale University, has remarkable parents: her mother swam across the Hong Kong Harbor at age 13 and her father is the author of not only American PT Boats of World II, Volume I but also American PT Boats of World War II, Volume II. Buoyed by such an illustrious pedigree, and a collegiate volleyball career of her own, she promised the then-matriculating freshman Nathan Chen “anything he needed” during his time at Yale. The child of those who mastered the art of moving through water must surely possess the same knack for helping someone across the ice.
As for the academic matter, Nathan went on to enroll in the course, “Exploring the Nature of Genius,” a study of exceptional talent taught by an emeritus of the Music Department, Craig Wright. Though in a subsequently released book on the subject, Wright seems to have been the one doing the learning: he quotes Nathan on how the nature/nurture balance plays out in athletic genius.
At Yale, Craig Wright also teaches “Listening to Music,” the fourth most popular online course in China, which “introduces the novice listener to the wonders of classical music, from Bach fugues to Mozart symphonies to Puccini operas.” He is a fitting interlocutor to Nathan, whose profession is roughly 50% musical interpretation, at least to those who still care about that. But that is not the class Nathan takes, nor is Puccini’s the Bohème he skates to.
Part III: Vera Wrong
He’s, like, putting us all to shame wearing an Instagram galaxy filter. I mind, I think, as my parents pull up the youtube link performance for our prime-time dinner viewing. I can see the stars transmigrating from his shirt into my parents’ eyes. I want to tell them about artistry, about taste, but I realize that I don’t share much of my creative life with my parents in the first place. As a matter of fact, I curate most of myself to my parents as a shoddier version of what I imagine Nathan Chen’s Good Son report card to be: good school, good grades, work hard, save money. He’s on his third out of 5 quad jumps when I bite down on my own duplicitous judgment. “He goes to Yale, too,” I say to my parents’ fond faces.
