{"id":4861,"date":"2007-11-17T08:07:03","date_gmt":"2007-11-17T13:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=4861"},"modified":"2007-11-17T05:36:47","modified_gmt":"2007-11-17T10:36:47","slug":"kiran_chetry_on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/17\/kiran_chetry_on\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiran Chetry on the “South Asia” Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just in case you were unaware of it, Kiran Chetry<\/a>, the CNN anchor, is half-Nepali, and was born in Kathmandu. \"kiran-chetry.jpg\"<\/p>\n\n

In an interview in Nepal Monitor<\/a> recently posted on our News Tab, Kiran is asked, predictably perhaps, a number of questions relating to her background. For me, her most interesting response came following a question about her “South Asian” identity:<\/p>\n\n

Question<\/strong>: And this is about being a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153South Asian.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Because you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really seem like a South Asian unless somebody does some research on you! There are very few South Asians actually doing major shows on cable television in the US. What does being a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153South Asian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d mean to you?<\/strong>

\n\nKiran Chetry<\/strong>: I define it in a more narrow term. I feel that being half-Nepalese is my heritage, something I have always grown up being proud of and living with. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never been something that I dwell on a lot; I think that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just my life, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s who my family is, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s who my father is.<\/strong> My cousins, many of them that are my age, are here in the US, either studying or now have jobs here. And that is just a part of our culture. And I have lived straddling both.<\/strong><\/blockquote>\n\n

Fair enough — much of what she said there should resonate with many SM readers. Even if your family isn’t bi-cultural, growing up in the U.S. forces you to always in some sense “straddle both” cultures. But it’s when Chetry gets to terminology beyond “helf-Nepali” (or as she says, “Nepalese”) that she starts to hedge:<\/p>\n\n

But you are right, when people look at me they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wow, Kiran must be Asian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kiran must be from Nepal.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But I think that when you get to really know me and you spend any time with my family, you see what an influence it is. Since my father is from Nepal and that is what I grew up around. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just me.

\n\nAnd there are not a lot of South Asians, if you want to put it that way, that are represented in the news.<\/strong> However, there are a lot more at CNN, which is interesting. We have our special correspondent Sanjay Gupta<\/strong>, also Betty Nguyen<\/strong>, who is on our air and Alina Cho<\/strong>, one of our American Morning correspondents. All of them are Asian, or South Asian. So I think it is wonderful to be able to see more faces of diversity. And, I am one of them, even though I may not look like I am! I think I understand what being part of the Asian culture is like, not to put everybody into one big generalization. But I definitely understand a perspective because it is part of how I grew up. (link<\/a>)<\/blockquote>\n\n

She seems a bit uncomfortable with the term “South Asian,” preferring the more narrowly national “Nepali” or the more general term, “Asian.” And while she mentions Dr. Sanjay Gupta, she’s also quick to mention Alina Cho and Betty Nguyen.<\/p>\n\n

While most desis I know do define “South Asian” as a subset of “Asian,” I’ve never met anyone who wanted to deemphasize (or reject) the “South” in favor of a more generalized “Asian” identity — to be defined as just<\/em> Asian, and not South<\/em> Asian.<\/p>\n\n

What might be behind Chetry’s terminological discomfort? (Unfortunately, we kind of have to speculate here, since I don’t think Kiran Chetry has done any other interviews where she’s discussed these kinds of identity issues.)\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just in case you were unaware of it, Kiran Chetry, the CNN anchor, is half-Nepali, and was born in Kathmandu. In an interview in Nepal Monitor recently posted on our News Tab, Kiran is asked, predictably perhaps, a number of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4861"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}