My mother is Korean and has a Western name. So does her sister and one of her brothers. They now go by Angela, David, and Monica. I think that they did it because it made them feel more comfortable and because, at that time, I think there was more of a mindset that American people were the bomb and they wanted to be everything American.
Tibs.
I’m asian-american (ethnic chinese) born in the U.S. but I have an english first name. I have a chinese ‘variant’ name that my parents call me by but the english first name is really my birth name. My chinese name is actually a fairly close equivalent to my english name. I think it’s an American tradition to change your name to something that’s deemed more “American.” After all “white” immigrants from europe and other ethnicities around the world all did it when they came here. I don’t see what the big deal is, because i’d rather have someone call me by me easy to pronounce english name than butcher the chinese version. I’ve known a couple russian immigrants and they changed their slavic names to “american” sounding ones as well.
I think the topic is a bit misleading and slightly prejudiced, since I was born here wouldn’t I be american anyways? Why is there a distinction between asians taking american names etc…
Btw, this is usually what happens when you are the minority in any culture. Anglo friends of mine who lived in japan adopted japanese names.