Too Much Self Esteem Can be Bad For Your Child

Lam is the author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora.

SAN FRANCISCO In the age of Myspace and YouTube and Google Earth, the space between East and West seems to shrink. But in the area of self-perception, especially, there remains a cultural gap that can often be as wide as the ocean.

Take Jeong-Hyun Lim, 24 year-old business student in Seoul. Popularly known as Funtwo on YouTube, his rock rendition of Pachelbel’s Canon has turned him into a global phenomenon. Lim’s dizzying sweep-picking – sounding and muting notes at breakneck speed – has had some viewers calling him a second Hendrix. His video, uploaded by someone on YouTube has been viewed 24 million times so far.

But Funtwo himself is self-effacing, a baseball cap covering much of his face. No one knew who he was until Virginia Heffernan wrote about him in the New York Times last August. She called his “anti-showmanship” “distinctly Asian,” adding that “sometimes an element of flat-out abjection even enters into this act, as though the chief reason to play guitar is to be excoriated by others.”

Some in the West with this kind of media spotlight and Internet following would hire an agent and make a CD. But Lim told Heffernan, “I am always thinking that I’m not that good a player and must improve more than now.” In another interview, he rated his playing around 50 or 60 out of 100.

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