Intergenerational

Trauma

Third Generation

Second Generation

First Generation

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I plan to examine the impacts of trauma on Evelyn’s role as a mother and Joy’s self-expression and identity. Through the use of media objects, like movie clips and memoirs, I will represent the effects of intergenerational trauma, which include overcompensation due to the pressures that younger generations feel, struggles with racial identity for Asian Americans, and lack of communication within the family.  

Focus of Exhibit

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Focus of Exhibit -

The Meaning Behind Intergenerational Trauma

“stepping over mutilated bodies, seeing dead babies, fearing retribution for the activities of family members... ”
— a Korean mother's exposure to the war

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Intergenerational trauma can be defined as “historical trauma that spans multiple generations and affects communities and their descendants.” 2 Generational trauma is something that many Asian American families covertly struggle with, but has only recently become a topic of conversation as the sheer impact of trauma on younger generations has come to light. In order to fully comprehend intergenerational trauma within Asian American households, it is significant to examine the historical events that pushed Asians to immigrate to the United States, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, and further study the inflicted pain that could only be processed by projecting their affliction onto their children and generations to follow. The Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans are just a few of the historical events that caused a huge impact on the minds of earlier generations of Asian households. In a study looking at second-generation immigrant Asian Americans, more than half of the participants share their family’s stories of escaping political turmoil from the war and seeking safety in America. A second-generation Korean American describes her mother’s exposure to the war as “stepping over mutilated bodies, seeing dead babies, fearing retribution for the activities of family members.” 3 These scarring images caused a lot of anxiety about stability for her mother who constantly reminded her daughter that the proper steps in life are to get an education, get a job, and then a house to have “made it” in life. This leads to the first effect of intergenerational trauma on younger generations that I would like to emphasize: overcompensation. 

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Effects of Intergenerational Trauma

  • Overcompensation is the idea that younger generations feel the need to take excessive measures to ease their parents’ anxieties and worries.

  • There is a lack of communication surrounding trauma in Asian-American families, which leads to passive-agressive conflicts and no transparency in family dynamics.

  • Intergenerational trauma hinders how Asian Americans percieve their own identity, possibly even distancing themselves from their heritage.

Overcompensation

Children of immigrant Asian parents are more likely to have excessive reactions to what their parents ask or expect of them in an attempt to ease their parents’ anxieties and worries. Younger generations may feel like they have to constantly overachieve to feel a sense of accomplishment and pride, due to the environment that their parents have fostered. The overbearing feeling of anxiety originates from the instability many immigrant parents faced while living through major historical events.

To measure the effects of trauma transmission on the psychosocial development of second-generation Asian Americans, Nguyen used the Southeast Asian American Psychosocial Model to study factors, like emotional and social competency. He found that traumatized immigrant parents are “unable to form positive and secure attachments with their American-born children,” which negatively impacts their child’s ability to cope with stress, understand emotional cues, and form interpersonal competency when they go to college.” 5 The consequences of historical trauma reflect the need to overcompensate to please one’s parents because individuals are accustomed to relying on their parents for everything.

Moreover, Asian Americans are constantly juggling their loyalty to their family and their longing to explore their own identity. Interdependence is a substantial value in Asian families that originates from feelings of guilt. Children are aware that immigrant parents have had to make many sacrifices for their children, so it is difficult for individuals to form their own opinions or values. 6

In Everything Everywhere All at Once, Evelyn is burdened by her responsibility to take care of Gong Gong at all times. She is seen constantly dropping everything to give him food and do whatever to make sure he is happy and satisfied. If we look at the next generation, Joy is also weighed down by her mother’s high expectations and reaches her breaking point when she can’t handle the pressure of trying to please her mother anymore. In one scene of the film, Evelyn and Joy are in the alpha-verse, and Evelyn still finds a way to criticize Joy, making disapproving comments about her sexuality, her tattoos, and dropping out of college. Before standing up for herself, it is implied that Joy overcompensated to be the mold of the perfect daughter that Evelyn desired.

As Seen in Sports

Arnaldo analyzes how an annual flag football tournament becomes a competition between white and Asian-American college women. Not only do Asian-American women in sports have to overcompensate against men to appease the larger audience, they also have to prove themselves further against white women. Asian-American women are often racialized as “petite, small, and non-aggressive” and fetishized as Oriental beings. 7 Putting Asian-American women in the context of an aggressive, context sport like flag football seems unbelievable to many, so they had to give their best performance just to be considered a legitimate force. This form of overcompensation is slightly different than the dynamic that we see between immigrant parents and children, but the underlying pressure to act a certain way is still present.

Silence has become the main form of communication in many Asian American families as immigrant parents shy away from acknowledging the trauma they endured, which results in implicit barriers between family members.

According to a study by A.S. Cheng on children of immigrant parents who experienced a war in their home country, there was “a notable lack of information about their parent’s lives prior to immigration.” 8

One of the participants, Bo Xing, learned about his own mother’s past through her friend in China. Hearing about personal details through an indirect source taints Bo and his mother’s relationship to an extent as there will always be a sense of disloyalty of his mother keeping unintentional secrets from him.

Another participant, Sara, shared how her father sustained a gunshot from the Vietnam War, yet her parents claimed that the war “did not matter” 9 They denied this trauma in order to avoid the floodgates that would open once they started acknowledging the atrocities they experienced. Sara’s dad parented aggressively and threatened abandonment, which was very similar to the war environment he grew up in. In turn, Sara felt forced to distance herself from her parents. Thus, even though Sara did not experience the Vietnam war herself, it is clear how her parents’ experiences ultimately impacted her development significantly.

In the film, Gong Gong holds a grudge against Evelyn for marrying Waymond and leaving China to go to the U.S. It is implied that Gong Gong has his reasons for not wanting Evelyn to go, but he never has a transparent conversation with her and lets her go, which makes Evelyn feel abandoned. The miscommunication leaves their relationship no hope to be fixed.

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Lack of Communication

An absent mother, or even parent, can take on different forms. In the case of a Filipina mother, it means moving across the country to work in the U.S. and leaving her child in her home country. The ideals of womanhood, motherhood, and family duty are centered around a stable financial future for the children, even if that means sacrificing a traditional parent-child relationship. In the reading “A Mother Who Leaves is a Mother Who Loves,” an increasing number of Filipina mothers are finding economic independence in working domestic occupations abroad. One mother describes her new role as a migrant mother, “I'm becoming a different kind of mother. Because, more on providing. Even though sometimes I fail at some of her needs, but I mostly provide for her, I have achieved that. But there are things that you want to be hands-on about that you can't do. But when I send money back, I don't just let her go.” 11 The mother’s hesitancy and ambivalence in not being there physically for her child is evident. This physical meaning of an “absent” mother can be compared to the emotional sense of an “absent” mother that takes on the role of Evelyn in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Although Evelyn is physically there for Joy in terms of financial stability and being a “traditional” mother, she is emotionally absent as Joy does not feel listened to or supported by Evelyn. Joy even goes on to tell her girlfriend that criticism and insults are Evelyn’s way of showing affection. Because Joy never communicates her frustrations to Evelyn, Evelyn falsely believes she is fulfilling her role as a mother that provides with money and discipline. Only when Evelyn becomes aware of how Joy feels is she able to become the mother Joy needs.

Note: It is important to acknowledge that the experience of Filipina and Chinese women differ on many levels and the hardships of each culture should not be conflated to one.

Physical Distance or Emotional Distance?: The Absent Mother

Racial Identity

The lack of stories about family history can play an important role in the development of an individual’s racial identity. 12 When children are not taught certain parts of history behind their heritage, they can become alienated from their family or community, and more importantly, hinder how they view themselves as Asian Americans. Without any framework, children tend to rely on stereotypes and narratives in media to mold their identity and may even become ashamed of their ethnicity. There are not many Asian American characters on T.V. and even if there is one in the cast, they are often stereotyped to be the nerdy side-kick of the main characther. Children grow up not knowing their culture and past and piece together a misguided storyline based on T.V. shows, books, and glimpses from their parents. It can be strenuous for children of immigrant parents who endured trauma to accept themselves for who they are without knowing the full story of their family line.

Further, Nagata et a. contribute to this conversation with their observations of the Sansei generation’s outlook on life. The Sansei generation feel an “inherited” need to downplay their Japanese identity and culture and measure their self-worth based on how others perceive their “American-ness” because of the mass rejection their parents were subjected to. 13

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As seen in media…

How is intergenerational trauma in Asian American families portrayed in the media? In your favorite TikToks, books, movies, and more?

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The Korean Vegan

Joanne Molinaro is an attorney, chef, and content creator who cooks traditional Korean food, but puts her own spin on things as she “veganizes” the food and tells heart-aching stories about her childhood, her parents’ traumatic history growing up as refugees, and her current life. One particular TikTok caught my eye as Joanne beautifully assembled spicy and crunchy garlic tofu while describing the traumatic stories behind her ancestors growing up in both North and South Korea. Joanne’s great-grandmother poisoned herself in front of her son, her grandfather had an arranged marriage at thirteen years old, and her father was abused by his grandfather (The Korean Vegan). 16 These appalling chain of events were triggered by intergenerational trauma as her grandfather abused his son because he was scarred from witnessing his own mother’s suicide. However, at the end of the video, Joanne expresses her gratitude for her own father never having hurt her. The transparency behind her family’s history, along with her trauma, has allowed Joanne to heal and her father to come to terms with his trauma. Moreover, the dichotomy between the harsh stories and the traditional Korean food adds a layer to Joanne’s identity as an Asian American and connection to her culture. She often expresses her gratitude for Korean food bringing her and her father together, due to the language barrier. 


Spicy and Crunchy Garlic Tofu from the Korean Vegan’s Tiktok

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In the film, Joy was never explained the history behind her relatives, especially Gong Gong, and she cannot understand why Evelyn expects so much from her. Hearing about what Gong Gong went through in China and in turn, how he raised Evelyn may have provided perspective for Joy. Putting the Korean Vegan’s story time and the film side by side captures the essence of silence as a form of communication within intergenerational trauma. 

At Liberty Podcast: The Impact of Intergenerational Immigrant Trauma

Stephanie Foo is a Malaysian American writer who recently published a memoir called What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma, which covers her experience with intergenerational trauma and complex-PTSD. The ACLU had her as a guest on their “At Liberty” podcast in which Foo “details her path of healing from the physical and emotional abuse she endured from both her parents” and emphasizes her realization of the broader impact trauma can have on the Asian immigrant community. Foo specifically touches on how her immigrant parents were born during a war, the Malayan emergency, and how her grandparents spent time in jail due to racism; she had never learned the details of her family history. Foo delves into how she came to understand why her parents were so hypervigilant and did not seem to nurture the same way her friend’s parents did. As a child, Foo could sense the traumatic past, whether it be sexual assault, poverty, or war, underlying her parents’ pain. This forced her and her siblings to get into good colleges, secure internships, and eventually achieve the American Dream because they had no other choice. Evidently, overcompensation is a recurring pattern in the context of intergenerational trauma. She differentiates between PTSD and complex-PTSD in that PTSD can develop if you’re exposed to a single incident of trauma, but c-PTSD when that trauma reoccurs over and over again and the triggers result in damaging one’s self-perception and interaction with others. This distinction is significant in how the iteration of trauma within intergenerational trauma can physically alter the development of an individual. 

In the film, Joy forgives her mother after seeing the way she was treated by Gong Gong and let go so easily when she needed her father the most. Although Joy does not see Evelyn as a complete angel now, she is able to better understand her mother’s worries and criticisms. Awareness of the intergenerational trauma brings their relationship a step forward.

Stephanie Foo is the author of What My Bones Know and guest speaker on a podcast.

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“So when the hands came, we offered our cheeks. We offered ourselves as conduits for their anguish because they had suffered so we wouldn’t.” - Stephanie Foo 18

“Looking Back For Hahl-Muh-Nee On My First Day of Kindergarten”

The Korean Vegan’s grandma standing by their flower garden.

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The Korean Vegan, or Joanne Molinaro, unsurprisingly also has a knack for writing. In this blog post, she reminisces over her days in elementary school when her grandmother would pack her Kimbap (Korean food) for lunch and make her wear a sok-neh-bok (an undershirt). She was angry with her grandma for not packing her the “proper lunch” and making her wear an undershirt, a foreign concept that the other kids made fun of her for. She viewed her Asian American identity as a curse and pushed away her grandmother, who was an integral part of this identity. The way in which Joanne perceived her racial identity was hindered not only by her classmates, but also growing up hearing “hushed stories of [her grandma] hiding in caves and running in the night to avoid being captured…” 21 The theme of lack of communication and racial ethnicity comes up once again within intergenerational trauma.  

In the film, Evelyn has lasting feelings of resentment towards Gong Gong for letting her go so easily when she dismissed her identity as an obedient daughter by marrying Waymond and immigrating to the U.S. In contrast, Joanne’s grandmother did not let Joanne lose pieces of her culture, even when she continuously dismissed them.

Crying In H Mart

By Michelle Zauner

Michelle Zauner is a Korean-American musician in an alternative pop band called Japanese Breakfast and an author of her memoir Crying in H Mart. In the memoir, Zauner grieves over her mother’s cancer diagnosis and discusses how she bonded with her mother in the last few months of her life by learning how to cook Korean food. Zauner and her mother did not have an easy relationship growing up and often struggled to understand each other due to cultural differences.  Her mother was an immigrant from Korea and came to the U.S., leaving her sisters and parents behind, which impacted the way that she raised Michelle. As a biracial woman, Zauner felt like her Korean identity faded away with her mother’s passing away, and because her mother showed affection through food, she explored different Korean recipes to keep her ethnic identity alive. In the film, Joy and Evelyn prepare scallion noodles and rice to give to Gong Gong. Although not explicitly mentioned, the audience can assume that this is something that Joy and Evelyn are accustomed to doing. Cooking is one way that Asian Americans solidify their identity when intergenerational trauma hinders their self-perception.

A photograph of Michelle Zauner’s memoir Crying in Hmart.

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Turning Red

Turning Red is about a 13-year-old girl Mei who strives to be perfect for her family, in terms of grades and carries on her family responsibilities and burdens. She puts an immense amount of pressure on herself to live up to her mother’s expectations, which builds up into intense emotions and leads to her transformation into a giant red panda. Historically, the panda spirit has been viewed as a curse that gets banished into an object during a ritual, and there has never been a discussion if anyone were to want to keep this identity as a red panda. In the clip shown above, Mei surprises everyone when she decides she wants to keep the panda spirit, especially her overbearing mother Ming who has disapproved of this decision before. However, Mei pushes Ming down and releases her own suppressed panda spirit, which turns out to be the size of a skyscraper and reflects how much pressure Ming has been under as a child and while raising Mei. Mei realizes that shame is what drives Ming’s overprotective personality. This critical moment highlights how intergenerational trauma passed down in this family led to silence surrounding the panda ritual, even though Mei’s own mother, Ming, was struggling with the same things Mei was struggling with. This clarifying moment eventually led to Mei’s perception of her identity and her journey finding her true self. 

This can be equated to Joy’s journey of exploring multiple identities of Jobu Tupaki after enduring the projected stress from Evelyn wanting her to be the perfect child. Jobu Tupaki takes on wild identities, like a tennis player, a salsa dancer, a piñata, and more to represent the struggle in trying to find her authentic self, similar to Mei. Joy is quite literally pushed to take on this personality of Jobu Tupaki who has a nihilistic mindset and believes nothing matters because her genuine authentic self in the “real” world, where she is dating her girlfriend, is not good enough for her mother. 

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Moving Forward: Time-Image Episodes

This exhibit has shown has how healing behind with acknowleding the trauma one has endured and intiating difficult, but transparent conversations.

 According to a study conducted by Yvonne Kwan, the concept of time-image episodes, in which imagination and reality of historical trauma are juxtaposed, encouraged individuals to picture themselves in that context and become more involved with their community and culture. She surveys how proliferating this silence among the survivor generation of the Cambodian genocide affects memories of the post-generation. With only silence and fragments of the trauma available to interpret, the post-generation had to reconstruct their families’ histories based on narrative and non-narrative accounts. The survivor generation realized that intergenerational trauma is summed up by the notion of knowing that the genocide has caused all of this pain, but not knowing the details of this past that “supposedly shapes one’s identity”. 12 Being aware of the silence that has destroyed Asian American families is a step towards learning about breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma. 

Notes

  1. Allyson Riggs, 2022, From left, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Michelle Yeoh, and James Hong in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” A24, Accessed 12 December 2022, <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/movies/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-interviews.html?>

  2. Marschall, A. (2022, January 19). What is intergenerational trauma? Verywell Mind. Retrieved November 16, 2022, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-integenerational-trauma-5211898

  3. Liem, R. (2019). History, trauma, and identity: The legacy of the Korean War for Korean Americans. Amerasia Journal, 29(3), 111–130. https://doi.org/10.17953/amer.29.3.k2t76468016pg455

  4. 1951, Weary Korean girl trudges by a tank with her brother on her back, Library of Congress, accessed 12 December 2022, <https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/bomb-korean-war/>

  5. Nguyen, S. T. (2013). The Effect of Trauma Transmission: Psychosocial Development of Second-Generation Southeast Asian American College Students. Journal of the Student Personnel Association at Indiana University, 35–44. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jiuspa/article/view/3672

  6. Nguyen, 36

  7. Arnaldo, C. R. (2021). “We’re just as good and even better than you”: Asian American Female Flag Footballers and the Racial Politics of Competition. Journal of Asian American Studies, 24(1), 115–144. https://doi.org/10.1353/jaas.2021.0014

  8. Cheng, A. S. (2005). Narratives of second-generation Asian American experience: Legacies of immigration, trauma, and loss.

  9. Cheng

  10. Kojo Apeagyei, Medium, Evelyn and Joy hugging each other, accessed 12 December 2022, <https://medium.com/@KojoApeagyei/were-small-stupid-and-useless-alone-that-s-the-point-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-9800eefde3b>

  11. Francisco-Menchavez, V. (2019). A mother who leaves is a mother who loves: Labor migration as part of the filipina life course and motherhood. Journal of Asian American Studies, 22(1), 85-102. https://doi.org/10.1353/jaas.2019.0008 

  12. Cai, J., & Lee, R. M. (2022). Intergenerational communication about historical trauma in Asian  American families. Adversity and Resilience Science, 3(3), 233–245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42844-022-00064-y

  13. Nagata, D. K., Kim, J. H., & Nguyen, T. U. (2015). Processing cultural trauma: Intergenerational effects of the Japanese American incarceration. Journal of Social Issues, 71(2), 356–370. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12115

  14. Allyson Riggs, NY Times, Jobu Tupaki, accessed 12 December 2022, <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/style/stephanie-hsu-everything-everywhere-all-at-once.html>

  15. Madison Echlin, 2022, Cartoon portrayal of Alpha-Evelyn, The State News, Accessed 12 December 2022, <https://statenews.com/article/2022/05/film-review-everything-about-everything-everywhere-all-at-once?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest>

  16. Joanne Molinaro. [@TheKoreanVegan]. (n.d.) [TikTok profile]. TikTok. Retrieved 2 December 2022, from https://tiktok.com/@thekoreanvegan 

  17. Joanne Molinaro, 2021, Spicy and Crunch Garlic Tofu, The Korean Vegan, Accessed 14 December 2022, <https://thekoreanvegan.com/spicy-crunchy-garlic-tofu-kkampoong-tofu/>

  18. Ciesemier, K., & Foo, S. (Hosts). (May 2022). The Impact of Intergenerational Immigrant Trauma [Audio Podcast Episode]. In At Liberty Podcast. ACLU. https://www.aclu.org/podcast/the-impact-of-intergenerational-immigrant-trauma

  19. Bryan Derballa, headshot of Stephanie Foo, ACLU, Accessed 14 December 2022, <https://www.aclu.org/bio/stephanie-foo.>

  20. Joanne Molinaro, 2022, old film photo of Joanne’s grandma, The Korean Vegan, Accessed 14 December 2022, <https://thekoreanvegan.com/looking-back-hahlmuhnee/>

  21. Molinaro, J. (2021). Looking Back for Hahl-Muh-Nee On My First Day of Kindergarten. The Korean Vegan. https://thekoreanvegan.com/looking-back-hahlmuhnee/

  22. Andrea Mongia, 2018, photo of Crying in H Mart, The New Yorker, Accessed 14 December 2022, <https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/crying-in-h-mart>

  23. VWORLD INTERNATIONAL. (2022, March 11). Turning Red (2022) movie “I’m Keeping It” clip. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R332fkDkYP4

  24. Kwan, Y. Y. (2020). Time-image episodes and the construction of transgenerational trauma narratives. Journal of Asian American Studies, 23(1), 29–59. https://doi.org/10.1353/jaas.2020.0001