Reflecting on an immigrant’s ‘stories’

Edy Parsons studied English and history in her hometown of Hong Kong, but always had a goal of teaching American history in the United States.

Parsons achieved that goal in 2005 when she began as an assistant professor of history at Mount Mercy College. Parsons arrived in Ames, Iowa in 1995 to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in English and Literature, and later switched to focus on the history of science and technology for her Master’s and Doctoral degrees at Iowa State University.

Parsons teaches students that history “is a series of stories,” and students respond well to her class lectures. “If you teach history as stories, you can connect history to what is happening here and now, and then you are able to make the connection to the past for your students,” she says. Parsons notes that today’s students feel that history is “dry,” but she argues that history is important in order to understand the foundation of America and that teaching history as stories makes it come alive. 

Just as “stories” form the backbone of her classroom lectures, Parsons also shares stories with her students about the hardships of her childhood in Hong Kong and her eventual immigration to the United States, which reveal the importance she places on cultural understanding.

Born in Hong Kong during British colonial rule, Parsons and her family were very poor and would often attend Catholic church services in order to receive handouts of noodles and powdered milk. One of Parsons’ siblings was already living in the United States when they jointly decided that their mother should apply for immigration to the U.S. prior to China taking back the city of Hong Kong in 1997. Their mother had previously lived under communist rule in China, and wished to avoid governance by a communist regime again. Her mother immigrated to the United States in 1990 – and then served as Parsons’ sponsor for immigration. Parsons had to wait four years before she was allowed to move to the U.S. in 1995.

Although Parsons was familiar enough with American culture to know what to expect when she arrived, she also had learned that some Chinese immigrants faced discrimination in the workplace.

While she was pursuing her Doctoral degree at Iowa State University, a fellow student chided her for thinking that she – as a native of China – would ever succeed in teaching American history to Americans. But Parsons did not experience any of the discrimination feared by other immigrants. “I don’t believe in special treatment because I’m an immigrant, and I never experienced racial discrimination in Iowa,” she says.

Through her study of history’s stories, she came to see that “we can’t ignore globalization.” For this reason, Parsons’ dissertation focused on how Chinese and Anglo-Americans viewed the other racially and culturally between 1870s and 1940s. Parsons has now adapted her dissertation into a book, Facing the Alien (NY: Cambria Press), which will be published this spring.  “If people view one another from each others’ point of view, problems can be solved,” she says. “It’s all about globalization and attempting to understand people in their own perspective.”

Parsons’ first impression of America – “if you work hard, you will be successful” – turned out to be true for her. She remains committed to the small college atmosphere provided at Mount Mercy, which “allows me to have personal contact with my students.” “Mentoring students can be as important as giving them knowledge,” she says, “and at bigger universities you cannot connect with students.”

Due to her research and interest in globalization, Parsons engineered the idea for the College to host a Race and Gender Series during the spring term. The events are free and open to the College’s students, faculty and staff, as well as members of the community. With support from the Cultural Affairs Committee, of which Parsons serves as chair, the College will host five events focusing on race and gender with a localized angle (see events listing at right/left). Parsons will also present a synopsis of her newly published book.

In order to encourage conversation about discrimination and globalization issues, Parsons often encourages students to think of her as a banana: yellow on the outside and white on the inside. “I’m Westernized and I want to make students more comfortable in stating their opinions on discrimination because we need to have these conversations,” she says.