Arcadia. Arcasia. Argaydia

Arcadia. Arcasia. Argaydia. These are few of the names people use to call my since-1997 hometown.

Arcadia [ahr-key-dee-uh] is the official name of the city.

Arcasia [ahr-kay-ee-sha] is the name used by those who would like to highlight the fact that Arcadia is a 45% Asian-American populated city.

Argaydia [ahr-gay-dee-uh] would be the name used by those who would like to call Arcadia lame. (THERE IS NOTHING LAME ABOUT BEING GAY, K?!) It is a name used mostly by the younger (homophobe/insensitive/unaware) crowd. Kids who are trapped in the suburban Arcadia. Kids who have lived in another more stimulating cities, cities like Hong Kong, Taipei, Shang Hai...etc. Kids are bored. These kids are so bored. They ended up playing with words to express how bored and frustrated they felt being trapped in Arcadia. Whether if they are innocent or not innocent of knowing that it ain't nice and it ain't politically correct to use "gay" as an adjective to describe one's "lameness", Argaydia is still, in my eyes, a beautiful word.

Because... hey, Argaydia is also known as Arcasia. Among those 45% Asian Americans, many of them are new immigrant families coming to America to make sure their kids get the best to excel in life, thanks to Arcadia's reputation of being the best city in California to raise kids. When everyone in the family are trying to learn English, who'd have known "gay" is not a good word to describe something "lame"?

Scenario:

Little Johnny from Shanghai, China, was probably thinking, "Well, the cool kid sitting next to me at the school said 'gay' in class. And, he made everyone laughed! It was cool! I want to be liked too! I am going to start using this word. Then, maybe I can make some new friends to sit with during lunch!!" Little Johnny made some friends with the new learned word, came home from school, and started telling Mommy and Daddy about his new friends and new vocabularies. Johnny's Daddy probably picked "gay" up from little Johnny too, thinking " So, I guess 'Gay' is a funny word, huh? I suppose... the TV does not censor this 'gay' word. They only beeped out 'Shit', 'Fuck' and 'Ass'... Yes, yes, those are the words I shall never hear from my little Johnny. I should try to use 'gay' at work when I feel like being funny."

OK. I know this might seem FAR-STRETCHED. But, this scenario is not impossible! My family got plenty of similar experiences back in our humbling adjusting years. I will share them when I feel like being funny.

Ciao for now!