I found The Grace Lee Project very interesting, as a search for identity through names and associated stereotypes. Before we watched the movie, I actually had no clue this was such a common name amongst Asian Americans. Up here in Minnesota, a lot of the Koreans I have met whom have common names are like Kim Lee or Joe Kim. But I suppose that, had I lived in Calfornia, with its larger Asian American population, I would have known that.
It was interesting how, after she began her digital interactions with other Grace Lees, she was able to construct a common stereoptype of Grace Lees, like how she is 5'3" and born in America from immigrant parents. Even the Grace Lee that seemingly was the biggest moldbreaker, the one who set her high school on fire, sounded like she fit the mold of otherwise nice and very smart. I think that the older Grace Lee from Detriot seemed to not fit the stereotype of other Grace Lees, and in the biggest way I think, was that she was very head strong and did what she wanted and felt was right, like fighting for the rights of African Americans and inner city youth. The fact that she is a very strong woman goes against the typical Asian female stereotype of being quiet, passive, and in the background. I related to Grace Lee the filmmaker of the documentary, because I do not feel like I fit the typical Asian American female mold. When she asked people on the street what they think when they think of Asian females, common responses were "quiet, shy, very studious, really petite"; in Grace's words "aren't these all words for passive?" Although I am petite and physically a "typical" Asian, I do not want to think I am passive, quiet, or shy. I am outspoken like Detriot Grace Lee, I am definately NOT soft-spoken, and although I am a hard worker, I myself feel, like filmmaker Grace Lee, that I do not feel like an over-achiever who always has known what she was going to be. Through the handful of Grace Lees she meets, she lets them tell their stories and gives them a voice amongst all the other Asian Americans and amongst all the other Grace Lees out there. There may be a lot of similarities between the women, but they are coincidental, each of these Grace Lees are different and unique.
One common thread I found in this film, was that there wasn't a lot of direct, obvious suffering, like The Angela Shelton focused on, but there was a lot of emotional suffering and stress due to one common Asian stereotype, which is the parents put immense pressure on their children to succeed. You saw that in the reason one Grace Lee set her school on fire, in the younger Grace Lee who used "dark art" to express her frustration with pressure from her dad, and in the lesbian Grace Lee from Korea who later withdrew consent to be shown in the movie, out of respect for her parents. One Grace Lee was indeed physically abused when she was younger, but a common thread was more emotional distress from parental pressure. In my experiences with other Asian Americans, parents who immigrate here put a lot of pressure on their children to succeed, because that is the exact reason why they came here in the first place; yet the children want to be able to find their own voice. It's hard to be an Asian American, because you want to keep in touch with your Asian heritage, yet you want to be a mainstream American as well. I feel like those two conflicts showed up in quite a few of the Grace Lees.
I think that, after her journey, she found that Grace Lee as a name might seem like it defines a person, but what truly defines someone can come from the same source of their name: their family and background can affect how you develop and grow, whether that be as a "PK", or a nurse, or a helping hand to someone who has been abused, or a filmmaker from California.