For a certain breed of successful Asian American, there’s a lifestyle that I like to call the “Revolving Door.” This is the situation in which a young well educated Asian American in a high powered job constantly flits back and forth from Asia to the United States: a business meeting in Seoul, a quick flight to Shanghai to see family, a few weeks back in the United States before another business trip to Singapore and an extended layover in Taipei for some good street food, then another few weeks back in the United States including a stop in Vegas for a friend’s bachelor or bachelorette party, before another vacation to Tokyo and then a business trip to Paris, just for good measure. There’s also the semi-permanent variation of the Revolving Door: start your career at a tech company in Silicon Valley, work for Samsung in Seoul for 2 years, try your luck at a start-up in Beijing for a year, before it’s back to America and Silicon Valley, but not for long. Within a year, the all-too familiar trappings of subtle American racism towards the “Model Minority” gets to you, so you pack up to a new job at a start-up in Vancouver, before deciding since you’re in Vancouver anyways why not just go to Asia, so you take a job with yet another start-up in Shenzhen. Replace “tech” with “finance” and “start-up” with “hedge fund”, and the above description is equally apt.

Hong Kong: one of many expensive pit stops for Asian American Globalists

Let’s call this breed of Asian Americans the “Globalists”, to distinguish them from the Assimilationists. (Yes, I am aware that “globalist” is also an alt-right term used to insult people of the Jewish faith— this is an effort to reclaim that term by the original Globalists, Asian Americans, whose very existence implicitly involves spanning the entirety of the globe). The Globalist Asian Americans live a lifestyle that most Americans would consider glamorous, exciting, and wholly unattainable: Michelin starred sushi, expensive cocktails crafted by expert mixologists, vacations in 5 star boutique hotels that are just begging to be Instagrammed (all paid for with airline miles and Chase Sapphire points, of course!).

The type of place where Asian American Globalists stay on vacation

Unlike their insecure cousins the Assimilationists, Globalists embrace their Asian heritage — in fact, their fluency in their native language and culture is a big part of their professional success. Rather than seeing white America as their salvation, the Globalists understand the value (financially and socially) of embracing their Asian-ness in the Asian century. The Globalists display none of the obsequiousness towards white America that the Assimilationists are so well known for. To a Globalist, why would anyone look up to white America when the economy is growing faster in Asia, the food is better in Asia, people are less racist to them in Asia, the public transportation is faster in Asia, and they can comfortably fit in Asia as well as they can in America? The Globalists are as comfortable singing Big Bang at karaoke in Seoul as they are playing beer pong at a tailgate in Ann Arbor, as comfortable watching Johnny To’s latest gangster movie as they are dissecting the significance of “Moonlight”. Having come of age in a nation that made us feel like “perpetual foreigners,” we are natural code switchers who are many times more comfortable in unfamiliar settings than the average American.

The Globalists certainly tend to be wealthier than their Assimilationist cousins, and the gap in wealth is only growing as the world’s financial center of gravity shifts to Asia. This has caused some jealous chagrin among the Assimilationists, who believed that their proximity to whiteness had permanently established them above all other Asians in some imaginary status-whoring pecking order. Perhaps this explains some of the angry Internet hate the Assimilationist camp has launched at their Globalist kin? After all, what was all that kissing up to white people for if the Asian Americans who hung out with FOBs still ended up with the cooler Instagram pictures?

That’s not to say that Globalists are the super-rich; most of them rank among the managerial class: business consultants, finance professionals, top software engineers, corporate lawyers. They’re not Crazy Rich Asians, but you can definitely call them Vaguely Rich Asians, and they’re certainly much wealthier than the average American, with the sophisticated lifestyle to match.

A Vaguely Rich Asian Globalist nabs her dream man: A Crazy Rich Asian Globalist

When it comes to dating, Globalists don’t suffer from the nettlesome hangups plaguing the Assimilationists. It is certainly possible for someone to be a Globalist Asian American and date someone of another race, but more often than not, Globalists prefer dating other Asians for reasons related to cultural familiarity. That being said, Globalists often cross ethnic divides when they date: a Chinese Canadian woman dating a Korean man she met on a business assignment in Seoul, a Vietnamese Australian man dating a half Japanese hapa woman he met in Taiwan, or even a Chinese American economics professor dating the scion of a wealthy Singaporean family (imagine that)! They certainly do not have a preference for white partners, and most of them consider such preferences an embarrassing foible of their impressionable Assimilationist brethren.