The Rice They Carried (2004)

Christian Tom: The Twinkee, Self

Quotes 

• The Twinkee : Yeah, they just expect us to be smart. And I'm like, "Nope, sorry, you got the wrong Asian here." In that way, I'm definitely not Asian. Like, I'm supposed to do well in school, math and science? Not happening. Geometry? Not happening.

• The Twinkee : [about his growing up in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood of the Upper East Side, NYC]  So you can say I haven't really pursued the "Asian Sensation" because I haven't really met any of those Asian girls. But now I'm here

  [at this new school with a more diverse student body] 

  The Twinkee : and I want to find out what I have been "missing out on."

• Anna Barnett : [about a dinner party]  He only has chopsticks... you can't use chopsticks, can you?

  The Twinkee : Yeah, I can! The two little sticks and the wood, and the... yeah, I'm good. Don't worry.

• Naomi Hyman : If you want me to like you, stay true to yourself. If you're Caucasian, don't try to act like an African-American. If you're Asian, don't try to act Caucasian. Just be whoever you are. I want to see the confidence you have in yourself. That's it. Then I'll like you.

  The Twinkee : But again, what is being "Asian?" I don't know how to be "Asian." If I was raised in a white community all my life and I have no sense how to be Asian, even if I look it, what do you think that makes me? For the generation of Asian people raised in this country, I think this a problem that all of us have.

• The Twinkee : [about being a Chinese-American]  If you don't have a Chinese accent on your English... then... what are you?