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Discusses the lives of some Asian Americans primarily known for their writing, including Amy Tan, David Henry Kwang, Dharati Mukherjee, Jessica Hagedorn, and Laurence Yep. ... Read more

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Univ. of Oregon, Eugene. Offers a framework for the conceptual development of Asian-American psychology and provides information for future methodological and conceptual directions for the field. Contains detailed graphs and charts to illustrate data presented. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Black Issues in Higher Education, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on June 2, 2005. The length of the article is 1254 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Physical sciences: Asian American baccalaureate.(TOP 100 DEGREE PRODUCERS: BACCALAUREATE DEGREES)(Illustration)
Publication: Black Issues in Higher Education (Refereed)
Date: June 2, 2005
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 28Issue: 8Page: 74(1)

Article Type: Illustration

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This digital document is an article from Black Issues in Higher Education, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on June 2, 2005. The length of the article is 1131 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Biological and biomedical sciences: Asian American baccalaureate.(TOP 100 DEGREE PRODUCERS: BACCALAUREATE DEGREES)(Illustration)
Publication: Black Issues in Higher Education (Refereed)
Date: June 2, 2005
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 28Issue: 8Page: 53(1)

Article Type: Illustration

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This digital document is an article from Black Issues in Higher Education, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on June 2, 2005. The length of the article is 1086 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Social sciences: Asian American baccalaureate.(TOP 100 DEGREE PRODUCERS: BACCALAUREATE DEGREES)(Illustration)
Publication: Black Issues in Higher Education (Refereed)
Date: June 2, 2005
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 28Issue: 8Page: 79(1)

Article Type: Illustration

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This digital document is an article from Black Issues in Higher Education, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on June 2, 2005. The length of the article is 479 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Agriculture, agriculture operations and related sciences: Asian American baccalaureate.(TOP 100 DEGREE PRODUCERS: BACCALAUREATE DEGREES)(Illustration)
Publication: Black Issues in Higher Education (Refereed)
Date: June 2, 2005
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 28Issue: 8Page: 49(1)

Article Type: Illustration

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This digital document is an article from Black Issues in Higher Education, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on June 2, 2005. The length of the article is 1118 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Health professions & related clinical sciences: Asian American baccalaureate.(TOP 100 DEGREE PRODUCERS: BACCALAUREATE DEGREES)(Illustration)
Publication: Black Issues in Higher Education (Refereed)
Date: June 2, 2005
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 28Issue: 8Page: 70(1)

Article Type: Illustration

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This digital document is an article from Black Issues in Higher Education, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on June 2, 2005. The length of the article is 1152 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Computer and information science and support service: Asian American baccalaureate.(TOP 100 DEGREE PRODUCERS: BACCALAUREATE DEGREES)(Illustration)
Publication: Black Issues in Higher Education (Refereed)
Date: June 2, 2005
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 28Issue: 8Page: 58(1)

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Immigrants from South Asian countries are among the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. This work, designed for students and interested readers, provides the first in-depth examination of recent South Asian immigrant groups--their history and background, current facts, comparative cultures, and contributions to contemporary American life. Groups discussed include Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Nepalis, and Afghans. The topics covered include patterns of immigration, adaptation to American life and work, cultural traditions, religious traditions, women's roles, the family, adolescence, and dating and marriage. Controversial questions are examined: Does the American political economy welcome or exploit South Asian immigrants? Are American and South Asian values compatible? Leonard shows how the American social, religious, and cultural landscape looks to these immigrants and the contributions they make to it, and she outlines the experiences and views of the various South Asian groups. Statistics and tables provide information on migration, population, income, and employment. Biographical profiles of noted South Asian Americans, a glossary of terms, and selected maps and photos complete the text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

great history
South Asian Americans provides a great history of one this country's fastest growing ethnic groups. It looks back through South Asian AMerican history from South Asia to America starting around the early 1900s to the present. It deals with ethnic and religious differences within the group as well as how they have adjusted to Ameirca. It explores how immigration policy has affected the numbers coming to this country. One of the more unique features of the book is that it deals with Indians that came to California in the early 1900s. Generally we think of south asians as being more recent immigrants but this book deals with how the came in early 1900s. These immigrants helped to shape the racial dynamics of California like the Koreans, Japanese and Chinese before them. ... Read more

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An interdisciplinary collection of essays, and historical documents, that introduces readers to the many issues fueling the growth of Asian American Studies ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (10)

Good book if you're Asian-American growing up / grown up in the US.

The book consists of many Asian-American youths' growing up stories in the US.

You see? being a minority always has its own challenges.

It's not the US being a racist society but it's more about minority being pressured by majority.

I especially liked the story of the girl from New York titled "Becoming Chinese Again". She's growing up in New York ChinaTown, from a low social background; she had holidays in China for a few months and she said it was the best time of her life where she did not have to pretend to be someone else to be liked by people, she could have all she wanted, etc and when she's back in the US, she said it's hard to make the English words coming out from her mouth and that she became the 6 year old she was when she moved to the US (with her family): all the innocent Chinese girl new to the country, happy and all.

I almost cried when I read that story about her. I keep asking myself: "Is there something wrong with being Chinese?" there is nothing wrong with being Chinese but remember, when you're in a country whose majority of people are not your people, these things happen all the time. When she's in China, she didn't experience these things because there, she's a majority. Her own country of heritage, looks the same as anybody else, her own language, her own cultures. People moved out of China because life in China was hard financially and politically but now Chine is getting better every single day. China is a better country in some ways for people of Chinese background living especially in countries dominated by those of European backgrounds. Each country has its pros and cons. You can't be in the US without experiencing those things because they know you're different to them.

Asian American X
I ordered this book from Amazon months ago as a non-Asian who had questions about the experience of Asians in the US, and I have purchased other books on this topic, as well. While this book has some value, I find it is probably the least useful book for both Asians and non-Asians; the former because it's, for the most part, nothing each and every Asian American reading couldn't have written him or herself. A book that is along the same lines as this one but with more depth in terms of stories, experiences and backgrounds is "Balancing Two Worlds: Asian American College Students Tell Their Life Stories." I agree with the review by Charles Chea, basically--the lack of diversity in contributers hurts the book, as well. Too many stories sound the same. A lot of the writers are part-white/part-Asian; where are the part-black/part-Asian or part-Latino/part-Asian writers? What about more LGBT Asians and South/Southeast Asians? Asians who did not attend college? There are a lot of voices, and, thus, a lot of variety in experiences missing here.

For non-Asians, particularly blacks and Latinos, we cannot help but notice how certain groups of people no longer exist. Many Asians and Latinos complain that they are left out of black/white binary discussions of race, but whenever I read stories by Asians (not just in this book) they do the same thing. "American" is defined as "white" and vice versa, and that's who Asians are concerned with in terms of acceptance and fitting in, the way many stories in this book and otherwise tell it. Yet, one of the more upsetting things to Asian Americans is not being considered/feeling American themselves. Too many stories repeated this theme of American-ness as whiteness and wanting to be American/like whites, though I'm sure this is very central to the Asian American experience...which is one of the reasons why I'm certain any Asian American could have written most of the stories in this book. At the same time, unlike a similar book about Latino college students entitled "Mi Voz, Mi Vida," in which many of the stories include the authors fessing up to racist ideas towards blacks and darkness in general among Latinos, and one contributer discusses her interracial relationship with an Asian, we get next to no sense of what Asians think of/interactions with blacks and Latinos (though we do get a sense of colorism among Asians). I think the focus on whites, in itself, reveals a lot about Asian Americans to a non-Asian reader, though.

A few stories do stand out for originality, particularly an essay by a woman who liked to sing but felt that being Asian would hold her back if she pursued singing as a career and another essay about struggling with weight/body image issues as an Asian. There is (I think only) one story about struggling with sexuality, which also is more original and interesting than many other stories in the book. Aside from that, this book is probably most helpful to Asian Americans who are always in predominantly white environments or otherwise have very little contact with Asian Americans and just want to know other Asian Americans out there go through what they go through. It doesn't delve deeply into the Asian American experience or psyche on various issues/backgrounds, and it does next to nothing to convince someone who believes otherwise that Asian Americans experience racism or other forms of alienation or hardship to a significant degree in the US. As I mentioned before, "Balancing Two Worlds...," while still not necessarily showing the full picture of racial difficulty Asian Americans experience, does present more diversity despite the fact that its contributors attended an Ivy League school and demonstrates more complexity (again, not necessarily racially, but in life experiences).

misrepresentation
The quality and thought put into each essay was excellent, though it could've been more diverse class and wealth wise.

While there is an obvious effort by the editors to include South/Southeast/East Asians and Pacific Islanders in order to represent diversely, there seems to have been a lackluster effort to include young APIA voices who are of college-age, but not in college. This would've broaden perspectives, assuming that most of them come from less educated and poorer backgrounds, exposing ideas, thoughts, and desires less uniform.

This a collection of APIA voices in college - hopefully, the editors will make better efforts to broaden the collection if they decide to create a second book.

and I thought I was alone...
I found this book immensly moving.It's not really because the quality of the writing is all that good.There aren't any deep or poignant metaphors, just real life.I think that's more important than anything.What I liked most about this collection of voices is that I found I related to exactly what people said.I wanted to read more about their lives just to learn more about mine. I recommend it to anyone, Asian or not.

Great read
This book provides insightful commentary on what life is like for young Asian Americans growing up in the United States. The collaborative treatment of the subject, driven by a group of talented writers, showcases a large spectrum of inspired voices. An enjoyable read. ... Read more

Product Description
Sooner or later every Asian-American must deal with the question 'Where do you come from?'. It is probably the most familiar if least aggressive form of racism. It is a tip-off to the persistent notion that people of Asian ancestry are not real Americans, that 'Orientals' never really stop being loyal to a foreign homeland, no matter how long they or their families have been in this country. Confronting the cultural stereotypes that have been attached to Asian-Americans over the last 150 years, Robert G. Lee seizes the label 'Oriental' and asks where it came from. The idea of Asians as mysterious strangers who could not be assimilated into the cultural mainstream was percolating to the surface of American popular culture in the mid-nineteenth century, when Chinese immigrant laborers began to arrive in this country in large numbers. Lee shows how the bewildering array of racialized images first proffered by music hall songsters and social commentators have evolved and become generalized to all Asian-Americans, coalescing in particular stereotypes.Whether represented as Pollutant, Coolie, Deviant, Yellow Peril, Model Minority, or Gook, the Oriental is portrayed as alien and a threat to the American family the nation writ small. Refusing to balance positive against negative stereotypes, Lee connects these stereotypes to particular historical moments, each marked by shifting class relations and cultural crises. Seen as products of history and racial politics, the images that have prevailed in songs, fiction, films, and nonfiction polemics are contradictory and complex. Lee probes into clashing images of Asians as (for instance) seductively exotic or devious despoilers of (white) racial purity, admirably industrious or an insidious threat to native laborers. When Lee dissects the ridiculous, villainous, or pathetic characters that amused or alarmed the American public, he finds nothing generated by the real Asian-American experience; whether they come from Gold Rush camps or Hollywood films or the cover of "Newsweek", these inhuman images are manufactured to play out America's racial myths. Orientals comes to grips with the ways that racial stereotypes come into being and serve the purposes of the dominant culture. Robert G.Lee is Associate Professor of American Civilization, Brown University.Amazon.com Review
As Edward W. Said noted in his groundbreaking study, Orientalism, theAsian is the eternal "other." Asian Americans, whether immigrants ornative born, are subject to a variety of overlapping stereotypes thatlabel them as "not American." What is "American" and what is not isdefined in part by popular culture. In Orientals, Robert G. Leeanalyses a broad range of artifacts of American pop culture--fromsilent films to blockbuster movies, popular magazines to pulp fiction,and stage dramas to 19th-century songs--to reveal the history of thesedefinitions.

Lee identifies six representations of Asian Americans--the pollutant,the coolie worker, the deviant, the yellow peril, the model minority,and the gook--and notes how, when, and why they emerged. As Lee notes,"each of these representations was constructed in a specifichistorical moment, marked by a shift in class relations accompanied bycultural crisis." For example, the image of the subservient "coolie"emerged as an undercutting threat to the developing white workingclass in the 1870s and 1880s, while the image of the Asian as modelminority appeared in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s and was held up toAfrican Americans and Latinos as a "successful case of 'ethnic'assimilation" and a model for nonpolitical upward mobility. Wellillustrated throughout, Lee's impressive study uses the Asian Americanexperience as a window through which to examine what makes a person a"real" American. Orientals is an excellent addition to thescholarly literature. --C.B. Delaney ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Popular Culture and the History of Racism
Robert G. Lee eloquently and effectively illustrates how the construct of race in America operated to perpetuate racist notions towards Asian American immigrants.The history of ascribed racism towards Asian Americans had its roots in the mid 19th Century, and it operated under an American system of placing cultural meaning on the body.Racist notions toward Asian Americans were created chiefly to solidify the American sense of nationality and cohesion that was absent, and needed in order to facilitate American identity. Lee examines how racist ideas were perpetuated and transmitted through popular culture in the "six faces of the Oriental," the pollutant, the coolie, the deviant, the yellow peril, the model minority, and the gook.These caricatures implied that all Asian Americans fell in to one of six categories, and this stereotyping precluded most Asian Americans from functioning as individuals in American society. Systematic "typing" of the Asian Americans in America, Lee argues, functioned to maintain systems that were larger and more socially driven.These complex social practices were not lost on many Asian Americans, however, and many Asian Americans consistently challenged the unfair ideology of a nation that at once promoted individuality while denying the right to that individuality though six invariable types.Lee cleverly illustrates how each of the six types gave meaning to the Asian body by showing how each stereotype functioned at different periods in America's history.America's first encounter with the Asian Americans quickly led to the idea that they were "pollutants" in their religious practices, or were, as Lee calls them, ""Heathen Chinee' on God's Free Soil."The alien body of the Asian American subsequently served as a system of white working class identity in the "coolie."As "deviants," the Asian Americans challenged not only racial but gendered ideas as well, and the forced prostitution of Chinese women prior to arriving to America led them to become a sexualized threat.Apparent as threats to Victorian ideas of domesticity and gentility, sexuality perpetuated the Chinese women' subservience not only to men but women as well.As the "yellow peril" Asian immigrants represented a larger anxiety towards all immigrants. Lothrop Stoddard's 1920 publication, The Rising Tide of Color was a pseudo-scientific rally to abort Asian immigration, claiming that the Asian immigrants were a racial threat to American society and thus their presence was indeed a "peril."The "model minority" during the Cold War functioned through the financial success of the Asian immigrants, establishing them as a veritable consumer market.The "model minority" gave birth to the "gook," which was actually a response to America's eventual de-industrialization after the Cold War.At this point, according to Lee, America continues to racialize Asians as "Orientals," through allusions to the previous six typecastings as well as newer forms of racial categories complexly tied to economics. Orientals:Asian Americans in Popular Culture is at once an excellent social history of Asian immigrants in America as well as a cultural history of American racism, and its questions lead to examining the problems and faults with the latest "oriental" category.

Identity and Association
This text is an interesting overview to the constant redefinition that society has in creating and labeling the term "Asian". I do not believe that the author chose to title the book "Orientals" as aderogatory term, rather as a word that has been misconstrued within westernideology. The title itself brings attention to the constant shift andmisrepresentation of Asians within Westernized culture.

Being AsianAmerican alone is no longer enough it seems within society. Mostindividuals currently label themselves as Filipino-American,Vietnamese-American, Korean-American, Indian-American, etc. The wholenotion of how a large group such as Asians identify themselves nowadays istoo large, and complicated of a subject to discuss in a literary commentarysuch as this one. I do admit that word "Orient" is a term thathas been used to label goods and products; it is a term that misrepresentedwhole nations of people. But one has to remember too that its originsderive from a period and society that considered people of color, andforeign locals as "goods" rather than people or individuals.

In reference to this text, it is an informative text but not one of thebest published. I would suggest Fanon, (Stuart) Hall, Spivak, and Trinh ifone were interested in searching about Diaspora and identity. ... Read more

Product Description
In this pathbreaking book sociologists Rosalind Chou and Joe Feagin examine, for the first time in depth, racial stereotyping and discrimination daily faced by Asian Americans long viewed by whites as the model minority. Drawing on more than 40 field interviews across the country, they examine the everyday lives of Asian Americans in numerous different national origin groups. Their data contrast sharply with white-honed, especially media, depictions of racially untroubled Asian American success. Many hypocritical whites make sure that Asian Americans know their racially inferior place in U.S. society so that Asian people live lives constantly oppressed and stressed by white racism. The authors explore numerous instances of white-imposed discrimination faced by Asian Americans in a variety of settings, from elementary schools to college settings, to employment, to restaurants and other public accommodations. The responses of Asian Americans to the U.S. racial hierarchy and its rationalizing racist framing are traced with some Asian Americans choosing to conform aggressively to whiteness and others choosing to resist actively the imposition of the U.S. brand of anti-Asian oppression. This book destroys any naïve notion that Asian Americans are universally favored by whites and have an easy time adapting to life in this still racist society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Very Comprehensive and Informative
The book explores the origins of the model minority concept and how it was developed by white elites during the 1960s as a way to affirm the American ideal that "anyone can make it" in order to respond to the Civil Rights Movement.Using information from Asian Americans that they interviewed, the authors refute the model minority concept by stating it is facile argument since Asian Americans come from many different cultures and national backgrounds and not all these cultures but a high value of education. Further, despite this concept, Feagin and Chou demonstrate that Asian Americans are often victims of hate crimes, are frequently discriminated against in spite of their abilities and do have poverty and unemployment rates higher than white Americans. They further assert that this concept is harmful to Asian Americans and may explain why many Asian American students commit suicide or drop out of school in high rates because of trying to live up to the stereotype. Lastly, they author conclude that this concept is a form of "divide and conquer" where America's racial minorities can fight to be America's favorite minority while white supremacy is safeguarded.

In addition to addressing the model minority myth, the authors assert that most white Americans have historically, and currently, seen Asian Americans as different and inferior. They write that Asian Americans are often excluded from white social groups and are made to feel inferior for maintaining their culture. In response to this, the writers note that many Asian Americans do not protest this discrimination for the fear of white retaliation and for the feeling that if they conform, they will be eventually accepted. Moreover, some Asian Americans have accepted white dominance as a fact of life. Because of these feelings, many Asian Americans abandon their ethnic heritage, marry white spouses, use surgery to look Caucasian and adopt the dominant white ideology, which causes many Asian Americans to develop pro-white sentiments while developing anti-black and Hispanic views.

So the book does not end on a pessimistic note, while noting that Asian Americans have not developed a strong counterframe to the dominant white ideology, the writers explores some of the ways that some of their interviewees have fought back against white supremacy, which can serve as a guide for Asian Americans to develop a racial consciousness and fight white racism.

I highly recommend this book. With the increase of immigration from Asian and Latin American countries, sociologists need to move beyond the white-black binary analysis which has been dominant in the past and show how other racial groups have been affected by the dominant white racial ideology. The use of interviews make this book every easy to read. This is a much needed book in response to the view of most Americans that Asian Americans are honorary white model minorities that prove that anyone can make it in American society.

ENLIGHTENING
This book is the most comprehensive and accurate portrayal of the inherent racism prevalent in our society today. I have experienced a lot of the situations, particularly in school, K through college that this book writes about. A must read for all Asians and people of color because it raises greater awareness and hopefully more preventive measures taken to stop the systematic racism that occurs on a daily basis.Bravo to the authors on such a prolific book!

Great book
Super fast delivery. brand new book as described.Will def. do business w/ again.

right on target
One of my graduate classes required me to look into "Asian Issues", so I bought a few books on amazon and this one really captured my attention. It was easy to read, it gave great examples/real life experiences, I could hardly put it down. It is also a great length if you are a busy person who wants to read a book that just gets to the point. I definitely recommend this book for all people. We should all strive to learn more about the issues people face, especially the often ignored/looked over Asian issues. Hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

Challenging Self and Society
This book really moved me. I can't help but sound cliche, but up until now I hadn't read anything that really captured my experience as an Asian American. I found myself identifying with the respondents in the book. I think the authors do a great job of being critical of stereotypes and explaining how the racial hierarchy is structured for a group that is considered neither black nor white.

The narratives can be really sad, and sometimes I found them hard to read, but necessary for this kind of work and to really get the untold story of Asian Americans out there. This book also challenged me to self-reflect on my own identity, my own prejudices about other races, my lack of effort to stand up for myself against racism, and how little I know about the history of racial oppression of Asians in the United States. I was also glad to see that Asian Americans from South and Southeast Asia were included because usually only East Asians and Pacific Islanders Americans are covered when talking about Asian Americans. ... Read more

Product Description
"This book argues that the invention of Asian American identities serves as an index to the historical formation of modern America. By tracing constructions of "Asian American" to an interpenetrating dynamic between Asia and America, the author obtains a deeper understanding of key issues in American culture, history, and society."--BOOK JACKET. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Waxing Poetic on the Trans-Pacific Express
I guess I'm behind the times, or perhaps just mentally unevolved but to me there is a real difference between being intelligent and lucid and being intelligent and obscurantist.David Palumbo-Liu is obviously a very cleverman.I think I understood some of what he said, and yes, it was prettyinsightful.BUT it was usually thrown away as a tag on the end of someinvoluted discussion of what anxieties might possibly have been on the mindof some middle-level bureaucrat in the Wilson administration. Or not.

He's got a good handle on the issues, and he sure can deconstruct, butunless you already have a good handle on racial politics, many of the booksinsights will just not be that obvious.

Don't get this book if you wantto learn about the Asian experience in America (Ron Takaki, Roger Danielsand Sucheng Chan are better sources for that).But if you want someintelligent musings on the unbearable lightness of Asian Americansubjectivity then be my guest.

A work exemplary in range, reach, & cultural-political care
This study of "Asian/American" identity (and disjuncture of identity), as a function of historical processes and shifting discursive formations, is founded in a research of prodigious learning, risk-taking,and far-reaching speculation.Readings of films, novels, sociologicalstudies, journalistic tracts and images that expose the inclusion/exclusionof Asian Americans as inside ("introjected" as model minority)and outside ("projected" as alien and foreign) the core Americannational identity are finely and relentlessly situtated within the terrainsof a shifting global economy which calls upon racialization phobias (yellowperil discourse) and assimilation myths (model minority stories)toinclude/exclude Asians to fit US trans/national needs.Brilliantlynuanced, demanding, and politically adjudicated readings of US culturalworks-- like The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Flower Drum Song, NativeSpeaker, Time and New Republic covers, Asiagate-- are enriched andcontextualized by counter-readings of transnationalizing urban spaces fromMonterey Park to Western Addition to expose and complicate the imbricationsof Asia within America: as economy, as phobic excess, as cultural flow, aspolitical ally, as geopolitical/civilizational antagonist.To my mind,this is one of the most important studies I know of the Pacific Ocean spaceand Asia Pacific imaginary as a racialized "frontier," liminalzone of innovation, and trans/national destiny that deeply implicates theUS in patterns of exclusion and inclusion and war and peace demanding ourfully historicized attention.David Palumbo-Liu's work offers tools ofcultural studies and political-economic care that are exemplary in theirrange, reach, and general decency in responding to the duplexAsian/American culture.While the categories of time, space, psyche, andbody are huge and meandering, the field of American Studies as such iscomplicated and enriched in its "field imaginary" by this valued,nuanced, probing, and fully situated contribution. The "seam" ofAsian and American, as bind and divide, is offered a cultural poeticsworthy of the racial problematic and the complicated history of USmodernity. ... Read more

Product Description
With different histories, cultures, languages, and identities, most Americans of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and Vietnamese origin are lumped together and viewed by other Americans simply as Asian Americans. Since the mid 1960s, however, these different Asian American groups have come together to promote and protect both their individual and their united interests. The first book to examine this particular subject, "Asian American Panethnicity" is a highly detailed case study of how, and with what success, diverse national-origin groups can come together as a new, enlarged panethnic group. Yen Le Espiritu explores the construction of large-scale affiliations, in which previously unrelated groups submerge their differences and assume a common identity. Making use of extensive interviews and statistical data, she examines how Asian panethnicity protects the rights and interests of all Asian American groups, including those, like the Vietnamese and Cambodians, which are less powerful and prominent than the Chinese and Japanese.By citing specific examples educational discrimination, legal redress, anti-Asian violence, the development of Asian American Studies programs, social services, and affirmative action, the author demonstrates how Asian Americans came to understand that only by cooperating with each other would they succeed in fighting the racism they all faced. Yen Le Espiritu is Assistant Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Major source of Asian American panethnic information
Yen Le Espiritu's book is probably the major source of research and theory dealing with Asian American panethnicity.While there are a few other researchers doing panethnicity work with other ethnic groups, this bookremains the main source for those studying Asian Americans.

Her summariesof theories of ethnicity are very short and perhaps leave out a little toomuch.But, the book does a good job of giving the reader an introductionto some major theories in preparation for her ideas.Her main areas arepolitics, funding, census classifications and anti-Asian violence.

Iappreciate this book a great deal in that it brings together some disparatepieces of information and puts it all in the context of panethnicity. ... Read more