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We suffer from a conspicuous lack of role models and shared causes. This is  
01 ofreason, I think, that many young Asian-Americans continue to assimilate  
quietly into America2 as doctors, scientists and engineers. Our struggles are  
individual and familial but __03communal or political. Ours is a frustratingly  
limited version of the AMERICAN DrearrWhile I can strive for 04 into Harvard and  
become the talk of the Korean mothers in mlhometown, God forbid that I aim much  
further and higher than that -- 05 fame antinfluence as a writer, an  
intellectual or perhaps president of the United States. 
    I wish more than anything else to feel like part of something 06 than  
myself and m~personal ambitions, part of a larger culture. Unfortunately, by  
coming to America my parent.,07_ the cultural legacy they would have passed on  
to me. When I visited 08 last summer, found that I was 09 and chastised by many  
people for never learning how to speak Koreanand for turning my 10 on their  
culture. Taxi drivers would 11 to stop for me and my 
    Korean-American friends because they knew from our 12 where we had come  
from. 
    And 13 , in spite of the 17 years I have spent in this country, I feel  
more acutely consciousthan ever of the fact that I am not completely 14.  
Recently, a black man called me a "littleChinese faggot" in a men`s room, and a  
15 woman on the street told me to "go back toJapan." Americans, I think, feel  
a(n) 16 to keep both Asians and Asian-Americans at asociological, philosophical  
and geographical distance. With 17_ numbers of Asian-American18 applying to top  
colleges, many white students have begun to complain about Asian-American 19 and  
competitiveness, calling us "Asian nerds." Many Americans consider thisas part  
of a larger "Asian invasionf associated 20 Japan`s export success in  
America. 
     
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