 if you are an Asian in America, is it better to be raised in an Asian enclave or in a non-Asian area? David, let's discuss this. Yeah, this question pops up a lot on the internet, whether people are asking for themselves or maybe they're starting a family, they want to raise their kids and they want to pick the right environment. Andrew, make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, hop hop boys. You know, we're discussing silly things, serious things. I guess this could fit more on the serious side, Andrew, because the environment you're raised in could have a big impact on your possible outcomes, right? Yeah. And the reason why we are trying to answer this question, whether which the Asian enclave or the non-Asian enclave is better is because there are a lot of assumptions and a belief going around that if you raise your kid in a non-Asian area, then they will potentially be like a stronger person. They'll have to battle through more things and maybe reach higher highs because a lot of the celebrities in media right now are from non-Asian areas. However, on the other side, if you grow up in an Asian enclave, then your kid's probably more comfortable with being Asian. Yeah. I think also, Andrew, if you're raised in a non-Asian area, there are lower lows too. Let's talk about it. Hey, listen guys, there's pros and cons to everything. Of course, we're going to get into the internet reactions, our own takeaways. So yeah, again, make sure you hit the like button. Andrew, what is an enclave? An enclave to me is any zone in America, by the way, America is only 6% nationally Asian on a population level that is like 30 to 40 to 50 to 60% Asian. Like let's say, for example, Asians make a 40% of the population and then the other groups make up 2020. That means Asian is still the dominant group. Andrew, we're talking about places like SGV, Orange County's got a ton of places. Bay Area's got Cupertino, Fremont all over the Bay. It depends on which city you're in. You've got Vancouver, Toronto, parts of New Jersey, parts of Long Island, of course, Flushing Queens. Queens in general depends on what type of Asian you are. And of course, Andrew, we cannot neglect the OG Asian enclave, which is an entire enclave state in America, Hawaii. What do you think about that assertion, Andrew, that Asians that grow up in the non-Asian area are more well equipped to talk with diverse types of people. However, they could get broken down by it. Well, there was that Ali Wong quote that she had and Ali Wong obviously is this big comedian that now represents Asians, but she grew up in SF. So she was always around a lot of Asians, but maybe, maybe particularly, I wouldn't say her life was necessarily an Asian enclave per se, but she was saying things like, hey, ladies, like if you want to be a strong woman and have a lot of perspective and be like me, if that's something that you want to do, you can't just spend all day at the boba shop being these demure like Dossow. You're saying Ali Wong sort of took an anti-Asian enclave upbringing stance. I mean, I think that, yes, essentially she did, you know, and what we want to talk about is like, what are the pros and cons of each because, you know, we are people who grew up in a non-Asian enclave around some Asians, but not an Asian enclave. And then we lived in an Asian enclave 626 SGV for like six years. So we kind of got to see both. I would say the primary benefit that I've seen, Andrew, and whether you're a nerd from the enclave or you're this party, AZN, ABB, ABG, D-Boy, C-Boy, whatever the way you want to say, like I would say that most people from the enclave, they just have a very comfortable energy when it comes to their Asian identity. So it doesn't mean you're successful. It doesn't mean you're unsuccessful. It doesn't mean you're a party boy. It doesn't mean you're a nerd boy, but you're just comfortable with being Asian. Yeah. Being Asian has just been such an accepted part of your life that maybe when you're in a non-Asian zone, you might miss being Asian. You might miss all that food. You might miss the restaurants. You might miss the cafes. And I think the two major outcomes you see for people from non-Asian areas, of course, there's more, but the two major ones you see are one, Andrew. People either reject their Asian-ness and they assimilate super hard to either white culture or maybe black American culture, your two heritage legacy groups, or you become so withdrawn and broken down by how different you feel from everybody, you almost retract into a more introverted archetypical version of being Asian. Those are your two major outcomes you see from people raised in very, very non-Asian areas. I can agree. David, let's get into the comments and what other people on the internet's input was. Somebody said, I was rejecting being Asian when I was young, being raised in a very non-Asian city. And I just wanted to assimilate with whoever was around me. I would do anything to be cool, but I came around eventually. And I just know that I don't want my kids to go through what I went through. So I think I'm just going to pick raising them deep into Asian enclave. Yeah. I don't think this is wrong. Listen, as a parent who can move to different places, also what is going to be more enjoyable for yourself? Because you're like, oh, I already lived a life in a non-Asian zone. And I saw that it was uncomfortable. Maybe there's a non-Asian zone that is more comfortable, of course, because you won't be raising your kid in the same neighborhood that you're from. However, they're like, well, what's going to be more enjoyable for me? I want to be around Asian food. And then I want to raise my kid around that too and give them a different life I never had. Yeah. And it's true that when you grow up in a non-Asian zone, it depends on your family. People do have a tendency to want to adapt to whoever the coolest people is at their high school, right? That is a natural American teenager inclination. Somebody said, bubble Asians seem to be way more adjusted personally, but they have a hard time engaging with the most difficult issues that face our country because they grew up the majority of where they're from just thinking about the issues they want to think about, sort of like Hawaii. Yeah. I guess it would be interesting to see like statistics of like maybe depression between kids who grew up in Asian enclave versus Asian kids who grew up in a non-Asian enclave. There could be something there, but it seems like a hard survey to say. It could be a different type of depression because even in Asia, depression rates are kind of high, but it's because of the high pressure to succeed in the Confucian society, whereas a higher rate of depression amongst Asians that grew up in non-Asian neighborhoods could be from not fitting in. Do you think it's true that enclave Asians cannot relate or read social interactions with other races? This was an accusation made on Reddit. I think that there is some truth behind it because you're outside of your comfort zone and when you're not outside of your comfort zone, very often you might not fully know how to react and read things as well. However, if you're an Asian and you know you're Asian and you grow up in a non-Asian zone, like you're just outside of your comfort zone all the time. Like we are outside of our comfort zone a lot to the point where you just get used to it and then your comfort zone obviously expands or breaks down in general and you're just like, hey, I'm just operating in the world that it is versus I'm outside of my zone. I don't know. Yeah, I would say growing up not in the bubble man. You see some more upside cases, but you see some really down, down side cases. Somebody said, please guys, if you have a choice to where to raise your kids, pick the bubble because I was raised outside of the bubble. I got broke down by it. I don't like it. I don't trust anybody who's not Asian anymore because I got done so wrong by people around me. Maybe white people did me wrong, black people did me wrong. Whoever, everybody did me so wrong. I'm just so sick of it. Don't do it. Yo, this was an interesting comment because he, they said whoever he or she said that growing up now, I find it hard to trust non-Asians because because it was so volatile with the non-Asians that I grew up with. And I'm like, all right, this is pretty sad. I don't know what type of area they grew up in, but yeah, I mean, I know it. I saw it, man. Yeah, I saw it, dude. I think I don't want to say, but there might be some people even in our family that feel this way. I would say this, man, Andrew, doesn't it matter a lot what type of, if you have good or bad non-Asian friends? Yeah. And also, if your friends were good or what type of even like, let's be on a socio-economic level that the community was at too, because yeah, things get a little bit more tense and racial if, if everybody's sometimes What I noticed, Andrew, the nicer communities, not 10 out of 10 times, have nicer interactions. You know, somebody said it's all just pros and cons, man. Each kid could be raised in each place and turn out different. The environment provides the pings and the interactions, but also how you parent and teach your kid to process things mentally will matter a lot too, Andrew. This is basically calling in a question. Of course, it's very different being raised in the bubble, Asian bubble and outside, but at the end of the day, it has to do with your decisions, what type of character you are and how fit your character is built to navigate that specific environment. Yeah. I mean, sometimes there's even people within the Asian enclave that lean more into the Asian-ness than others. Yeah. So there's sometimes people who grow up in the Asian enclave where it almost feels like that they grew up partially in Asia, like in Singapore or Malaysia or like Hong Kong or something like that versus people who grow up in the bubble, they can still kind of interact with other people or they, maybe they're the way their family raised them to have a little bit more perspective. So it does come down to parenting a lot. All right. Somebody said, I noticed two things. The small town college Asians whose parents work at the college end up being really wholesome when they're raised deep in the rural Midwest. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. When it's an enclave, that means there's a lot of Asians, right? And a lot of Asians means there's a lot of different levels of Asians and different types of Asians. Now, within that, there can be a little bit more like, you know, Asian gang activity, right? Because that happens, right? There's a lot of Asians. You're saying in the Asian bubble, Andrew, the Asian geeks are Asian and the Asian streets are also Asian. Yeah. And then I'm saying, if you are in an area that's non-Asian and just, it happens that a lot of the Asian parents in that zone are also like maybe college educated and like, I don't know. Work at the college. Yeah. Work at the college. In this middle podunked, nowhere town. Or they just work as engineers. It's like that one or one of the three big companies out there. It's like, yeah, then you're not going to see a lot of like that, you know, kind of like ACN culture, right? ACN street culture. Yeah. I would say that we have a cousin that grew up in Pittsburgh and they definitely like had in their Asian identity, a lot of Jay Chow music videos, a lot of like anime covers on the piano, stuff that is more like, I guess more in the Asian nerd lane. So the truth is, you can still lean into Asian-ness even in a non-Asian zone nowadays. Yeah. Somebody said, I noticed all those Arena nightclub F boys and F girls or ABBs and ABGs and the streets and the beaks and the blah, blah, blah. They all come from Southern California. What's going on with that? All right. Well, here's the thing. Kevin Wynn, that meme, the Jenny Wynn, the Jenny Tran Wynn, Wynn mean, whatever the Wendy Shu meme or whatever it is, like those memes are coming out of the Enclave. They are referring to Enclave Asians and it is true when we moved from Seattle to LA and from K-town to 626, which are two also Enclaves in LA, right? I was like, oh my gosh, I started meeting Asian dudes who were like party guys throughout their entire life. Like, you know, there's these like certain guys who have certain behaviors that maybe wouldn't slide if they grew up in a non-Asian zone, but they grew up in an Asian zone and that's just their positioning there. Yeah. It reminded me more of Asia when you go to Asia and you meet kids that are raised in American school, Shanghai American school, Tokyo American school, Seoul American school, whatever. You know what I mean? Like it was almost like a whole different thing. What I noticed is that the most well-adjusted guys who are from the Enclave that I know, they always had some type of other experience with other races though. Like whether they were on a sports team or they dated someone from out there or they had a job or went to college somewhere, they learned the behaviors and like got calibrated in like a very balanced way from everybody else. I see a lot of people have mixed up bringings like maybe they were raised outside of the Enclave till 12 and then they moved to the Asian bubble at like 13 or something. Somebody said, you know, this question is valid, but in a way it's not valid, but because by the time your kids are having their formative developmental years and their teenage years, the Asian Enclaves will have changed so much by then. Do you think that's true, Andrew? Because there's a lot more Asians in America now at a lot more different income and educational ranges. It's not just like you raise your kid to be a geek in the Bay Area or you're in the ACN streets in SoCal anymore. Even though it seemed like previously 20, 30 years ago, that was the dichotomy. Right. Let's just get into the insights and takeaways, man. I think at the end of the day, there's no real answer to this question. Should you raise your kids in an Enclave or should you raise your kids in a mixed zone? Because it's all pros and cons. And guess what? Why MMV? Your mileage may vary. It's going to vary so much on the parents you are, the interactions they have, even just like a good accepting friend that's white or black or Latino in that mixed zone could change your whole 18 years. Yeah. I will say this. If you're a parent that has options, like you have options to move, I think very few parents will move, deliberately move themselves and their family to like a area where their kid would struggle a lot. They'd probably be like racist 1% Asian. They'd probably be like, well, if I have the means, I'm going to at least pick like a decent area for my kid. So of course, maybe that parent has a certain type of thinking. Trust me, it comes down a lot to your parents, their goals and their understanding of the area and the country. But would you agree with me, Andrew, that growing up in the non-Asian area and the Asian area, different things are valued, right? Oh, yeah. The culture is different enough. No, I would say, yeah, obviously, if you're a writer or a stand-up comedian, you have those type of skills or you really like to be that type of person. Maybe in the Asian Enclave, it's not as valued because that's just not as much Asian culture as it is American culture. Your same Jenny Tran is not looking for Kevin Wynn to be like the most quippy hipster writer. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think that many hipster writers come from those areas or if they do, they have to have some type of outside perspective. You know what you need to look at, Andrew? You just need to look at the type of tattoos that the tattoo shops are doing in Eagle Rock versus Alhambra. Just look at the tattoos. They look different. Culture is defined by the tattoo shops. Somebody said, by the way, guys, not all enclaves are the same. It's very different growing up in an Asian hood from a really high Asian Enclave or things that were high-income areas like San Marino or Palos Verdes that became very Asian over time. Yeah, no, definitely in the different types of Asians there are. I mean, listen, you could be the, I don't want to say the wrong type of Asian, but you could be the different type of Asian. What if you're Filipino growing up in the Chinese Enclave or vice versa, right? Or you'd be like us, we're Chinese growing up in the Filipino and Vietnamese Enclave. Yeah, more so. I mean, that's who was our friends. And then on Sundays, that was when we experienced a small slice of that Chinese Enclave because we go to Chinese church and then we go up to Chinatown. So that was the one like four-hour block of the week where we would experience somewhat of a Chinese like system, right? Yeah. From the church to the Chinatown. It went from B-Boy to C-Boy. From B-Boy to Church Boy. David, what's the breakdown? This is like a generalization, but you had an interesting breakdown about like more likely outcomes. From what I've seen, and this are obviously, these are all outliers, but there are different types of outliers. If you want to be a politician or actor, Andrew, those are usually from rich mixed suburbs. I, you know what I mean? Like a lot of actors. As an Asian. As an Asian. A lot of politicians and a lot of Asian actors come from rich mixed suburbs. I would say, Andrew, if you want to be a pop star or maybe like a street star, you have to come from an Asian enclave. And by the way, Andrew, when I say pop star, I'm talking about a pop star in Asia. You know how many pop stars in Asia came from places like Vancouver, Canada, Toronto, Canada, Irvine, Roland Heights? Well, you grow up in an Asian enclave that allows you to appeal to other Asians. You know the Asian sensibilities. You already know. Like, you know how many people look up to Taeyong as a guy or look up to like Black Pink in the Asian enclave? Think about it. The same kid who comes from Arcadia, California, like if they were raised in a non-Asian zone, they're not going to even get the repetition or the confidence to feel like that they're a star. They're going to be like, dude, that K-pop stuff is dumb. They're going to go against it. They're going to play sports or whatever. They might get shot down earlier. I do think that possibly if an Asian is raised in a lower income mixed area, they're more likely to become either an activist or a teacher or do something more relating to civil service or public service. Yeah. I mean, I feel that aspect, you know, even for our own selves, not saying, you know, our area was very middle to lower middle class. There was like some working class people. It was a factory zone. Yeah. So for us, we saw a lot of both sides. And then now moving to LA and now New York, then we're seeing like meeting all the kids who are from the fancier zones. You know what I mean? And also, I think that ultimately different stages of life mean different things. You know, some people grow up in the bubble and they move out. Some people grew up outside of the bubble. They seek the bubble later in life. I mean, David, listen, we're from a non-Asian area, primarily a non-Asian area. And then we moved to 626. I mean, wasn't that kind of eye-opening? Isn't there something that was like, oh, wow, like you're seeing Asians just be so comfortable being Asian? And that's why we want to make all the content about it. Because we were like, we saw something unique about this area. Actually, a lot of the writers from the 626 spent a lot of time actually in the San Fernando Valley instead of the San Gabriel Valley. Interestingly enough, Andrew, Sanford SFV and SGV are actually very close to each other. But if you grow up in one zone or the other, maybe your micro interactions are completely different on a day-to-day basis. Andrew, long story short, I think that most people like diversity in America, right? That's one of the great things about America. However, Andrew, it is complicated. And sometimes people grow up as Asian in the area where people don't value Asians or they dump on Asians. And other people grew up, especially if they were like really good at sports. They're really this tall, good-looking guy or this good-looking girl. And they have really upside interactions with growing up in a diverse diversity. It could vary so much person to person. Yep. And that's why it depends on the family. And yeah, the family background is huge. What do you think about the solution of picking like an enclave light? You know, maybe not a place that's like 50, 60% Asian, but what about 25%? Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of Asian Americans like us who grew up around non-Asians, we still see the value and we still relate to non-Asians to a certain level. So it's like, do I want to move my kids to a zone that's like 70% Asian? I don't know if I would, I don't know if I want to live there, right? But I would like maybe a area that's like 20 to 30% Asian. I remember I had two really good Black friends growing up. And one of their dads, Andrew, was more like the dad and everybody hates Chris playing Chris Rock's dad. And one dad was more like a Cosby's or like, you know what I mean, more like a corporate suit and tie type situation. And now anytime I watch those shows, I kind of relate to it because I have those life experiences. I wouldn't have had that situation if I would have grown up in the bubble. Exactly. And I will say, here's another takeaway, guys. There are more and more mini enclaves forming as time goes on. Listen, all these areas, even like the Quincy area outside of Boston, there's a growing Asian population anywhere where there's multiple big Asian supermarkets, multiple. If you got an H Mart, a 99 Ranch and like one more, that is a growing Asian suburb. Look at the supermarkets and look at what types of tattoos the tattoo shops are giving. Ultimately, I think it is best to raise your kid in a mixed zone that's nicer. I think if you've got the option, just pick a nice area that's not anti-Asian. Okay. That's the answer. Yeah. I mean, a nice suburb that's Asian friendly. Yeah. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think in the comment section below. There's so much debate. There's so many what ifs. Keep it civil. I think it's an interesting question. Why else does it keep popping up on the internet? Is it better to raise your kids in an Asian bubble or way outside of the Asian bubble or in a mixed zone? Let us know in the comment section below. Until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys. We out. Peace.