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MySearchLab provides students with a complete understanding of the research process so they can complete research projects confidently and efficiently. Students and instructors with an internet connection can visit www.MySearchLab.com and receive immediate access to thousands of full articles from the EBSCO ContentSelect database. In addition, MySearchLab offers extensive content on the research process itself—including tips on how to navigate and maximize time in the campus library, a step-by-step guide on writing a research paper, and instructions on how to finish an academic assignment with endnotes and bibliography.

This book examines the contemporary history, culture, and social relationships that form the fundamental issues confronted by Asians in America today. Comprehensive, yet concise, it focuses on a broad range of issues, and features a unique comparative approach that analyzes how race, class, and gender intersect throughout the contemporary Asian American experience. Chapter topics cover the history of Asians in America; emerging communities, changing realities; Asian Americans and educational opportunity; workplace issues; anti-Asian violence; Asian Americans and the media; Asian American families and identities; and political empowerment. For anyone interested in an understanding and awareness beyond the simplistic stereotype of the “model minority” —through the exposure to important concerns of Asian American groups and communities.

Customer Reviews (1)

eths textbook
I use it in my eths class
there r so many to read....
i hate the reading, but the book is ok.
its not new ,but can be used. Meanwhile, its very cheap, thats important
thx ... Read more

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Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Today is the first major reference work focused on the full expanse of contemporary Asian American experiences in the United States. Drawing on over two decades of research, it takes an unprecedented look at the major issues confronting the Asian American community as a whole, and the specific ethnic identities within that community—from established groups such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans to newer groups such as Cambodian and Hmong Americans.

Across two volumes, Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Today offers 110 entries on the current state of affairs, controversies, successes, and outlooks for future for Asian Americans. The set is divided into 11 thematic sections including diversity and demographics; education; health; identity; immigrants, refugees, and citizenship; law; media; politics; war; work and economy; youth, family, and the aged. Contributors include leading experts in the fields of Asian American studies, education, public health, political science, law, economics, and psychology.

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Since the first three documented Chinese arrived in this country in 1848, more than six million Asians have followed. The huge immigrations of recent years have prompted a surge of interest in the new Asian American experience, about which little writing exists to date. In Asian Americans, these immigrants and their families present their own stories--why they came to America and what it means to be Asian in America today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

As if Studs Terkel met Asian America
Studs Terkel meets Asian America.The author, affiliated with Queens College at the time the book was compiled, records oral histories from first through fourth generation Asian Americans from China, Cambodia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, and Pacific Islands. (Chinese immigrants began to officially arrive in 1848; they were not allowed to apply for citizenship until 1943.Japanese and Koreans were not allowed citizenship until 1952; Filipinos and Asian Indians beat them by six years) These histories are grouped into three major section: Living In America; Americanization; and Refections on Interracial Marriage.In "Living In America", selections include Will Hao on being a true Hawaiian, and Andrea Kim on being born and raised in Hawaii, but not being Hawaiian.Sam Sue, a Chinese American lawyer, talks about growing up bitterly in Clarksdale Mississippi during a time of segregation.The Americanization section includes stories of escape and exodus, the bumpy road of acculturation, 3 stories just on run-ins with traffic cops (driving while Asian), and over 9 stories on Americanization, racism, tension, being Asian versus being American, and even on being a minority within a minority.Cao O discusses life as an ethnic Chinese in Vietnam and being Chinese-Vietnamese in America and dealing with social service agencies in Chinatown that is staffed by Hong-Kong born Chinese.In "No Tea, Thank You", Setsuko K. discusses the subtleties between the generations, such as politeness and their hidden meanings (when "no" means "yes", and "yes" means "no").In a sub-section of nine stories about family, Cao O discusses the idea of `obligation', while Hideo K talks about the "Company as Friend".Tony Ham discusses Mah-Jonng as a family social focus.In a sub-section on religion, there is an interesting piece on Koreans and church membership.In one of eight stories on "Interracial Marriage", Jody Sandler writes talks about "So He's Not a Jewish Doctor", in which a 23 year old Woodmere Long Island Five Town girl marries an Asian America and faces pressures from family and friends, and contrasts Tony's values with those she grew up with in Five Towns.

Profound study of Asian-Americana
This book by Joann Lee is an excellent book on Asian-Americans. It tells the life stories of Asian-Americans without so much stereotypical baggage found elsewhere.

It shows Asian-Americans as people. Instead of the shallow, stereotypical views found in the movies, it gave me a deeper view of what it feels like and means to be a person of Asian descent living in America. And it does so honestly. It gives the reader a view into a very intimate but often overlooked part of life in America.

I recommend this to all who are interested in this topic.The book reads well and easily.

Enjoy!

Asain Americans: An OrAl History
An excellent overview of what it is to be Asian American in America today.Joann Lee writes beautifully and puts you in touch with the individual struggles and victories of her subjects.A must read.

Honest Look in Asian American Culture
This book provided many personal accounts of Asian Americans.The people and their experiences are very different from one another, but they are all considered as one category 'Asian American' perhaps because of similarsocial problems they've encountered living in america.The accountsportrayed truthfuly, and give an honest look at racism and prejudice, andthe complexity of the issue.very inspiring ... Read more

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Asian Americans and the Media provides a concise, thoughtful, critical and cultural studies analysis of U.S. media representations of Asian Americans. The book also explores ways Asian Americans have resisted, responded to, and conceptualized the terrain of challenge and resistance to those representations, often through their own media productions.

In this engaging and accessible book, Ono and Pham summarize key scholarship on Asian American media, as well as lay theoretical groundwork to help students, scholars and other interested readers understand historical and contemporary media representations of Asian Americans in traditional media, including print, film, music, radio, and television, as well as in newer media, primarily internet-situated. Since Asian Americans had little control over their representation in early U.S. media, historically dominant white society largely constructed Asian American media representations. In this context, the book draws attention to recurring patterns in media representation, as well as responses by Asian America. Today, Asian Americans are creating complex, sophisticated, and imaginative self-portraits within U.S. media, often equipped with powerful information and education about Asian Americans. Throughout, the book suggests media representations are best understood within historical, cultural, political, and social contexts, and envisions an even more active role in media for Asian Americans in the future.

Asian Americans and the Media will be an ideal text for all students taking courses on Asian American Studies, Minorities and the Media and Race and Ethic Studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

No Azns preez
Author's note: I was encouraged by a blog reader to post this here. This book was very resourceful for the following essay I wrote for class on March 8, 2010. Some rights reserved. Email me at kwok[dot]jolin[at]gmail should you like to use (parts of) it for personal publication/essay-writing, thank you.

My class blog is thisisbanal[dot]wordpress :o)

:=:

No Azns, preez:
a discourse on the absence of leading roles in Hollywood films for Asian Americans

"Wow," I say, upon reading page 51 of Asian Americans and the Media by Kent A. Ono and Vincent N. Pham. "Did you know that Asian actors could barely play their own race in Hollywood for most of the 20th century? Most of the roles for Asians have been played by Whites or anyone else but Asians."

"Well, that's because there haven't been many prominent Asian [American] actors in the industry." My boyfriend is quick to reply.

"No," I respond, "that's just what [we] don't see; doesn't mean they're not there."

He then uses the economics of demand and supply to support his argument, stating it as a matter of fact: if there were more bankable Asian and Asian American (AAA) actors, logically, we would be seeing more of them. I try to explain that it may have to do with economics, but socio-political culture has more relevance to it.

"For instance," I say. "You know The King and I (1956)?"

"Yeah," he says, "Yul Brynner, right?"

"Is not Asian. Much less Thai, and yet he's cast as King Mongkut."

"But Yul Brynner is a good actor though. Not only did he do a great job at playing the King, his facial structures are unique enough that he looks ethnically ambiguous." He looks back at his laptop.

I look at my boyfriend. The way his argument is going seems to explain the very reason why we do not know many "prominent" AAA actors with leadings roles in Hollywood films: The dynamics of both explicit and implicit yellowface logics keep AAA actors in typecast roles in line with the constructed images of the Oriental Asian and the Model Minority.

YELLOWFACE MIMICRY

Over the years, I have seen bad kung fu movies where white men attempt to pass off as Chinese men with taped eyes and bad Chinese accent. I used to wonder why someone would subject themselves to a position that would bring upon ridicule from people who know the subject at hand better than they do. Then again, these `Chinese' white men often played the role of someone of high status in society like a Chinese official. Sometimes it felt as if they should be praised for trying to speak in a foreign language at all. While in those cases, they usually are found in the mass of Chinese people, in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Mr. Yunioshi-who is played by Mickey Rooney-is found in a mass of white people. He is portrayed as "inept, buck-toothed, puffy cheeked, and sexually depraved" (Ono and Pham 48). Little did I know, this contrast of racial portrayal is exemplary of the explicit yellowface logic.

Ono and Pham defines yellowface "as when a non-Asian or Asian American plays the role of an Asian or Asian American"; explicitly, this means that white human faces are made-up to look `Asian'-with exaggerated black-lined, taped Almond-shaped eyes, wigs, and acting in "an obsequious manner"-and sound vaguely Asian or speak infantile-like broken English (46). I try to imagine what it would have been like if a Japanese actor played Mr. Yunioshi and I realize that he would not produce the same comic effect as someone of a different, foreign race (i.e. a white person) would. Surprisingly, it is not the white actor who takes the hit of ridicule here but the image he attempts to represent-the Japanese race.

This is an important epiphany, because it relates to how "current practices of yellowface...blur Asian American identity and deploy cultural essentialism to view [AAA] people as "All Seem Identical, Alike, No different" (ASIAN). Writing scripts that assume "biological and phenotypical commonalities" in AAA people renders their life experiences banal and insignificant. This also reproduces "institutional and structural processes of disempowerment and disenfranchisement", continuing the "Orientalization and the foreignization of [AAA people]"(Ono and Pham 55). Moreover, it is the Western framework that first conceived the ideology of Orientalism "without input by the East" to define the position of the East in their relationship of power: "Europe is powerful and articulate; Asia is defeated and distant" (Ono and Pham 43-4). Originally made for "the pleasure of white audiences" by encouraging the "consumer's suspension of disbelief", yellowface focuses on the humane relation between white people than with their Asian counterparts; those who believed in its caricatures "became imprisoned in a world of racial caricatures and power relations" (Ono and Pham 47).

This has a lot to do with the so-called yellow peril discourse-the idea that Asian people are going to take over the [Western] world. By racializing their own xenophobia, the West assumes the White Man's burden to globally distribute public service announcements of their representations of the East (Ono and Pham 28). Ono and Pham summarizes the fate of AAA actors before the 21st century:

In part because of racism and specific racist and xenophobic policies against miscegenation, [AAA] actors could not even play genuine character parts in early media culture. [AAA actors] were not ordinarily given jobs in Hollywood, and [AAA] characters were scarce. When such characters did exist, a convention of yellowface ensured that they were played primarily by whites...Yellowface logics...help support and maintain a condition of unequal power relations between whites and [AAA people]. Whereas whites, blacks, and others have played Asian characters, Asian Americans, for the most part, have not been accorded such masquerading `privileges' (45-6).

Since Hollywood is populated mainly by European white actors, they act as the primary gatekeepers of the films produced, thus affecting the employment of AAA actors in leading roles. There are various examples of AAA actors being denied genuine characters of their races. In The King and I, AAA actors mostly played background roles like "the secondary wives of the King and the King's children", a casting that implies "the gendered and infantilizing ways in which [AAA people] take a back seat to whites and Latinos". Even the iconic Bruce Lee could not act in the lead role of Kung Fu (1972-1975), the very TV program he helped create,"because he `looked `too Asian'". The character was written to be "half American and half Chinese" so that it was easier to portray his White substitute David Carradine as "heroic" (Ono and Pham 51). For All-American Girl (1994-1995), a show based loosely on Margaret Cho's life, the "[p]roducers hired an acting coach to help her act more authentically Asian" (Ono and Pham 56). As an Asian myself, I can imagine few things to be more insulting than that. Honoring one's cultural background is a value especially venerated in the Asian culture. No wonder there is a lack of actors of Asian heritage fighting for their rights to be or to remain in Hollywood.

Some people may say that having non-AAA people play AAA roles "at least provides some level of inclusion" in the film narrative (Ono and Pham 53). My boyfriend also tells me I should take such interest of the other races as a compliment instead of an insult. But what theses critics of the yellowface logic do not seem to realize is that it "authorizes racist and degrading representations to be played for comedic effect" (Ono and Pham 53). It further implies that this is what AAA actors need to comply with in order to be successful in Hollywood (Ono and Pham 61). Having white actors in [AAA] roles may also imply the assumption that audiences "prefer" white actors. According to The Slanted Screen (2006), a revised script of The O.C. (2003) cancelled out non-white races from cool-kid roles. As positive role models, survey shows that American youths expect to see White people in positive roles whereas African Americans and Latino/as in limited roles like the maid or the janitor roles. They did not expect to see an Asian cast at all. ("The Slanted Screen")

YELLOWFACE GOES INVISIBLE

The denial of Bruce Lee as the lead actor of his own show and the denial of Margaret Cho's authentic portrayal of herself are prime examples of implicit yellowface. Implicit yellowface influences the ideas of what makes AAA people `authentically' Asian. According to Ono and Pham, "[l]ike explicit yellowface, implicit yellowface involves both stage and social actors looking, sounding, and acting according to some notion of normativized, authentic standard of Asianness". With the spotlight on "directed Oriental affections", the acting skills of AAA actors reduce in meaning. It "downplay[s] their own existential identities and experiences", even more so when they are playing what seems like an arbitrary role that belongs to "ethnic groups other than those they themselves know most intimately". While white actors do "play non-white ethnic roles", they do not get a "racial expectation" like ASIAN that results in the implicit yellowface logic (54).

Ultimately, the yellowface logics limits the diversity of roles AAA actors can take on successfully. This often pose a dilemma for mixed-race Asian American actors as they are often stuck with monoracial roles. As Ono and Pham write, "[i]t is extremely rare for...dominant media generally, to create a role for a mixed-race Asian American character" (55). Taking advantage of the "fudge factor" according to yellowface logics, Hollywood scripts bank in on the economical and political efficiency of "racial and ethnic ambiguity" (Ono and Pham 57). With the constant reproduction of stereotypical variants of Dr. Fu Manchu, Madame Butterfly, Dragon Lady, and Lotus Blossom, AAA actors are restricted from leading roles in Hollywood films. This underrepresentation of positive role models of their kind on-screen is disheartening and disempowering for the Asian communities. Although Bruce Lee broke the emasculating stereotypes by creating leading roles for actors who can fight well, actors like him are "the exceptions, not the rule" ("The Slanted Screen"). Ironically, Bruce Lee's cinematic success brought upon the stereotype that all Asians know kung fu, creating yet another limitation for AAA actors.

CHANGE OF THE MILLENNIUM

In the recent years, we can see a slow but steady change. The Slanted Screen claims that after years of playing the stereotype, Asian Americans are finally entering the mainstream as "truthful portrayals are finally beginning to emerge". Films like A Great Wall (1986), Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989), Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999), Charlotte Sometimes (2002), Torque (2004), as well as TV shows like 21 Jump Street, Heroes and Lost all have shown AAA actors and stories in leading roles and promising light. The National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) is cited to help to protect and ensure eligible the AAA actors' right to prominence in Hollywood ("The Slanted Screen").

However, this documentary may be overly optimistic. I am not sure how much things are really changing with a movie like Fu Manchu (2011) in the making ["Internet Movie Database (IMDb)"]. Statistics of "prime-time APIA regulars" suggest that even mainstream television is reluctant to represent Asian Americans, as much as most mainstream media would. (Ono and Pham 94-5). Moreover, the media [still] portrays Asianness generally as synonymous with being non-American. Many AAA actors are limited to action roles, often as villains; during the production of The Replacement Killers (1998), the producers were uncomfortable with Asian men portrayed as the heroes while the White men as the villains, so the villains became Asian men. In Romeo Must Die (2000), the producers cut the scene of Jet Li kissing Aaliyah ("The Slanted Screen"). This clearly shows how the urban audience is still disapproving of Asian males in strong romantic leading roles.

Outside the action film genre, in relation with the Model Minority myth, AAA actors are limited to two extreme types of character. They may either play the role of Charlie Chan, "someone successful even as he is dis-empowered" (Ono and Pham 82) or the role of the successful but less humane one, as found in medical roles today. Portrayed as machine-like "rote learners" who work for the

"modernist, capitalist, industrial society...the role of the doctor can double, ambivalently, for the villainous yellow peril image of yesteryear. In other words, by overrepresenting Asian Americans as doctors while underrepresenting them overall, the media evoke anxiety about a potential Asian `takeover' of yet another set of US jobs. It is clear that roles are still incredibly limited for Asian Americans, that single-occupational typecasting significantly restricts possible jobs for [AAA] actors, and that limiting actors to such roles radically reduces the ability to represent [AAA people] as diverse human beings" (Ono and Pham 86)

We can also explain the lack of leading roles for AAA actors by drawing parallels with the realm of US education. Parents are taking their children out of public schools and universities they feel are "overpopulated" by Asian students, regardless of whether they are first-generation Asian Americans or not. While `white flight' used to refer to how whites moved from the inner cities to the suburbs to escape the `overrun' of mainly African Americans, now `white flight' "refers to white families leaving top-notch academically superb high schools because of the influx of highly competitive, educationally superior Asians". Again, Asian Americans are "overrepresented" and are "taking over" the white country of America. Yet again, being successful at what one does here is accused of having the modus operandi to take over the world-a rehash of the yellow peril discourse. (Ono and Pham 60-94)

CONCLUSION

History shows us that the dominant media is comprised of the works of "those with little first-hand knowledge of the Asian American experience" (Ono and Pham 6). Following the yellowface logics, we saw that AAA actors "were excluded from working in Hollywood while simultaneously being mocked and made fun of in a form of racial masquerade" (Ono and Pham 61). This "assumed power differential" can be changed by the AAA people, as it relies on "popular consumption" of the masses (Ono and Pham 59). In spite of the hyperbolized xenophobia, "US Americans demonstrated enough...curiosity...about [the AAA people] to construct a complex representational edifice to include them visually and narratively but to exclude them physically" (Ono and Pham 50). Ideally, as far as Hollywood is concerned, it should create more non-racial-specific roles, not just for actors of Asian descent. To stir real change, it may be wiser for the AAA people to focus less on getting the leading roles and more on being part of the decision-making process-that is, to take on the roles of directors, producers, writers, executives, and performers-for it is the writing and directing that starts the form of the story. Like Tzi Ma, of Dante's Peak (1997) fame says, "you have to look not for a specifically Asian American role but an acting role." ("The Slanted Screen")
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Works Cited

"IMDb Search." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Col Needham, 2010. Web. 4 Mar 2010.

Ono, Kent, and Vincent Pham. Asian Americans and the Media. Cambridge, UK: Polity P, 2009. Print.

The Slanted Screen. Dir. Jeff Adachi. Perf. Frank Chin, Daniel Dae Kim, Bobby Lee, Jason Scott Lee, Will Yun Lee, Mako, Tzi
Ma, Dustin Nguyen, Phillip Rhee, James Shigeta, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Kelvin Han Yee. Asian American Media Mafia, 2006. DVD. ... Read more

Product Description
This research anthology is the fourth volume in a series sponsored by the Special Interest Group Research on the Education of Asian andPacific Americans (SIGREAPA) of the American Educational Research Association and National Association for Asian and PacificAmerican Education. This series explores and explains the lived experiences of Asian and Americans as they acculturate to Americanschools, develop literacy, and claim their place in U.S. society, and blends the work of well established Asian American scholars with thevoices of emerging researchers and examines in close detail important issues in Asian American education and socialization. Scholars andeducational practitioners will find this book to be an invaluable and enlightening resource. ... Read more

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This is the first textbook written to welcome those who are new to Asian American psychology. Concepts and theories come to life by relating the material to everyday experiences and by including activities, discussion questions, exercises, clinical case studies, and internet resources. Contributions from the leading experts and emerging scholars and practitioners in the field - the majority of whom have also taught Asian American psychology - feature current perspectives and key findings from the psychological literature.

The book opens with the cornerstones of Asian American psychology, including Asian American history and research methods. Part 2 addresses how Asian Americans balance multiple worlds with topics such as racial identity, acculturation, and religion. Part 3 explores the psychological experiences of Asian Americans through the lens of gender and sexual orientation and their influence on relationships. Part 4 discusses the emerging experiences of Asian Americans, including adoptees, parachute kids, and multiracial Asian Americans. Part 5 focuses on social and life issues facing Asian Americans such as racism, academic and career development. The text concludes with an examination of the physical and psychological well-being of Asian Americans and avenues for coping and healing.

This ground-breaking volume is intended as an undergraduate/beginning graduate level introductory textbook on Asian American psychology taught in departments of psychology, Asian American and/or ethnic studies, counseling, sociology, and other social sciences. In addition, the clinical cases will also appeal to clinicians and other mental health workers committed to learning about Asian Americans.

Customer Reviews (2)

Outstanding Resource and Interesting Book
This outstanding and comprehensive book is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in race, education, counseling, multiculturalism, culture, ethnicity, psychology, and Asian Americans in particular. The Editors, Drs. Nita Tewari and Alvin Alvarez have compiled senior and junior scholars, researchers, academics, and psychologists to cover the most current and relevant topics in Asian American Psychology. This book would be an excellent textbook in an Asian American Psychology, cultural studies, cross-cultural psychology, courses. The chapters include many resources from videos to websites and interdisciplinary literature. The chapters also include case examples, discussion questions, and new and emerging trends in the field. There are also photos in each of the chapters revealing the true diversity of the Asian American experience. I have to admit I learned so much reading this book and I highly recommend it.

Easy to read & understand
I bought this book on a recommendation.I am not a student studying the subject. The chapters covered a lot of areas of study which I found fascinating.I liked that each area was covered by a different research author thereby providing diverse points of view. I experienced many of the racial/ethnic issues covered and am glad there is a book that provides scholarly analysis and research about these issues in a way that is easy to read and understand. ... Read more

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This groundbreaking book traces the transformation of Asian Americans from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups into a self-identified racial group that is influencing every aspect of American society. It explores the events that shocked Asian Americans into motion and shaped a new consciousness. Helen Zia, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, writes as a personal witness to the dramatic changes involving Asian Americans.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

somewhat interesting, but contradictory at certain times
like she wrote that the fact asian americans are not a model minority because of how some whites started harassing/committing hate crimes against asians. huh. first of all, asian americans are a model minority because our poverty rate is less than half of other minorites, we are much more likely to obtain higher education, even our median income is higher than whites. we are much less likely to be incarcertated. are we a model minority for others? obviously yes. our cultural values are about relying on ourselves and encourage two parent families. there will always be hate crimes because there will always be haters.just because many whites don't consider asians to be americans (25%), it doesn't mean that we are not a good model minority. she mentioned that most asians support affirmtive action, but fails to mention that a.a. actually hurts asains because it reduces the number of asians admitted to colleges.(she even fails to mention about aa's details.) while it may help in hiring situations, it does more harm. she wrote that the asianon star trek is portayed as an asexual and there aren't enough positive asian roles. well, her book was published in 2005, and she failed to mentionLucy Liu in CHarlie's Angels, Hidden Tiger Crouching whatever, and the asexual asian of star trek became the captain!!! wow, he must be special to become a leader. She wants to destroy sterotypes. well, don't Harold and Kumar movies count? Never mentioned once. THere are many asian charcters now. LIke Angela Montnegro from Bones tv , a very popular series.angela's half,but you can tell she's part by looking at her. She mentions films that i've never hearof or only once and not the famous ones that we know of.while it has some interesting history, i feel like she's distorting info and her main goal's to sell books. asians americans feel alientated by the white majority thanks to some whites and we don't need this stranger telling us what already know. jeez.

Intriguing perspective into Asian Americans' lives
I came across this book because I was writing a final paper for a Rhetoric class and had to write on the subject of interracial marriage. As an American-born Asian and second generation, I took the stand for pro-interratial marriage and relationships. However while reading this book, I learned a lot of key events that have occurred in the United States over the last couple decades that helped me understand more deeply about why my parents are so traditional while my aunts and uncles in South Korea are so modern, and why they are so protective all the time. Major themes in the book were youth being in limbo trying to identify with a new culture vs. holding on to an old one. What Helen Zia says we should all be doing is sharing all cultures. We don't have to lose one to gain one. We can be part of all types of cultures fully and wholesomely. : )

A Wonderful Book

In this 356-page tome, author Helen Zia, a second generation American Chinese, Princeton gradate, and award winning journalist, details the trials and tribulations generations of Asian Americans have endured in the United States and the achievements they have accomplished in all aspects of American life, particularly in their pursuit of political representation and empowerment.Zia chronicles the history of Aisan Americans from the earliest arrivals in the 1500s through the end of the twentieth century.

The book documents such historical milestones as the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, the murder of Vincent Chin in Detroit in 1892, the founding of American Citizens for Justice in 1983, sa-i-gu, the event in which Korean grocers became the scapegoat of the LA riot in 1992, the one-day cab drivers' strike led by an Indian American in New York in 1998, the election of Gary Locke for the Governor of Washington in 1996, and the spy allegation against scientist Wen Ho Lee in 1999.Zia draws extensively on historical research and personal experiences. Having given up her medical study and dedicated herself to being a social activist and writer, Zia courageously and unapologetically exposes the evil brought on by the stereotyping of Asian American over the centuries.She offers a compelling narrative on how Asian Americans, with remarkably diverse backgrounds, have come to this new land, toiled along with other ethnic minorities, helped build America, and fought for justice and equality.She calls for "Asian Americans to make themselves visible and politically relevant".

Being a Chinese American, I am deeply appreciative of this profound realization that my people are an integral part of this country's heritage and that only by ending silence and by speaking up can any progress in political empowerment be even imagined. I used to be and still am very apolitical, but thankfully this book is serving as a wake-up call.It is typical of many Asian Americans, including myself, to consent to whatever the situation presents them, with ready acceptance of the fate they feel too powerless to change.Asians were one of the earliest immigrants in this country, yet we have lost generations of political development as a result of "positioning ourselves outside this white dominated society as well as the discriminating governmental laws and policies."

Zia's daring accounts of racial discrimination against Asian Americans and of her own involvement in the social and political arenas are made more riveting by her revelation that she is a lesbian, an announcement that filled me with initial confusion and surprise, only to be replaced by deepening respect for her. For a member of the predominately silent ethnic group to announce publicly that she also belongs to yet another much smaller and more marginalized minority group, it takes guts.

This book should be a must read for everyone in this country.I hope it will arouse the conscience of all the peoples of America, regardless of their ethnicity, in their sincere and collaborative effort in shaping the country into a land truthful to its ideal:a land of opportunity and fairness.

Interesting at times, but often contradictory
I know that this was a memoir, but at one chapter, the title is definately misleading, and many of the goals and events received highly biased coverage.

Ms. Zia begins with a survey of history of how Asians were treated in America.While I agree that the treatement was not ideal and certainly horrific by today's standards, there is absolutely no historical context here.Unfortunately, Blacks were treated MUCH worse.Catholics were vilified far before Asians were, and for much longer.The way she presents things, you would only think that Asians were getting the short end of the stick.

She also harps on the lack of positive images of Asians in the media.She self selects a small sampling, while there has been an increasingly large number of positive Asian role models in American culture.Do the Italians whine when most Italian characters in media culture are mobsters?She even imagines slights where they don't exist - for example, Sulu in Star Trek.He was hard working to be sure (not that there is anything wrong with that), but as any fan of the series will tell you, he DID have a swashbuckling side to him.If there is anyone who was emotionless and hard working, that would have been Spock, played by a white.Besides, Sulu eventually made captain of the best vessel in the fleet.So much for a negative image.

She gets into the issue of ethnic casting, focusing on Miss Saigon.Well, it works both ways.If only Asians can portray Asians, then Asians shouldn't portray whites either.Too bad Lucy Liu.Her character in Charlie's Angels was WHITE in the series, but was made half-Asian in the movies.Opps, Lucy isn't even half Asian.

I would like to see Helen come over here to Asia to complain about the negative images of foreigners.How many negative images of foreigners exist in Hong Kong and Japanese movies?There was an advertising campaign here in Taiwan where a company had three white men in jail costumes after being arrested.Foreigners are constantly portrayed by media outlets in several Asian countries in a negative light.Why can't you get on your soapbox about that?

She comments on how many Asians are complemented on their English even if they have been in the U.S. their whole life.Well, how many people who look white in Asia have been here their whole lives, but are still referred to as foreigners?It works both ways Ms. Zia.

She also gets into her homosexuality.What does THAT have to do with Asian American Dreams?Like most Americans, those of Asian descent are opposed to homosexuality.

Finally, there is the notion of hyphenated Americanism (though she technically doesn't succomb to it because the omits the hyphen.)She wants Asians to be treated as equals in America.I have no problem with that.I would like to see the same thing.However, when you put your ethnic homeland BEFORE American in what you call yourself, how do you think you will ever be accepted as truly American?

Beyond black and white
This book is a great introduction or supplement to the study of Asian-American culture, and an significant edition.While it does not give an overall comprehensive history of Asian-Americans (such as Ronald Takaki's "Strangers on a Different Shore"), its strength lies in just that.Zia choses to focus on more recent events to demonstrate her points.In the latter sections, Zia devotes whole chapters to significant moments in the recent history of Asian-Americans in the US - such as the LA riots, Japanese interment camps, issues of homosexuality amonst Asian-Americans etc.It is in these chapters that one can relate and realize that the race issues in America are not just black and white.One also realizes how important it is to bring these things issues to light, because as the "model minority" both the overground culture as well as Asian-Americans themselves have quieted and muted their struggles.

Zia is brutally honest in her descriptions of racism that has occured in her past (ie. being called china doll, continuously asked where she is "really" from).Her writing is lucid and scholarly without being overbearingly academic.She has lived an exemplary life which is admirable and her contributions significant.
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Alumkal examines the beliefs and life experiences of American-born/raised Asian American evangelicals in two congregations, one Chinese American and one Korean American, near New York City. He documents how the culture of American evangelicalism has shaped the worldviews of its second-generation Asian American adherents. The religious beliefs of the individuals in this study were indistinguishable from those of most white evangelicals. These individuals also affirmed the view that Christian identity transcends racial/ethnic lines. Yet, paradoxically, they testified to the significance of race and ethnicity in their lives and saw their churches as places to strengthen ethnic ties. In conclusion, scholars need new theoretical approaches for understanding the post-1965 immigrants and their offspring. ... Read more

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Excellent hard-hitting study, shaking up US racial frames...
Susan Koshy's first book (foreshadowing many to come) offers a sustained and lucid analysis of the structural and geopolitical constraints (as opposed to more liberal or volunaristic accounts) that act upon producing a certain kind of discourse on race and, later, ethnicity, within white-centered frameworks of the US legal system.She enacts an important intervention into the whole way American and Asian American Studies conceive of "whiteness" as a constituitive category of national belonging or the Asian American as an automatic subaltern, however privileged he or she is in class or worldly situation.The racism produced by various Asian groups against other Asian immigrants and blacks, in shifting historical contexts of capitalist modernity, is shown to be an ongoing function of legal constraints upon how (white) citizenship is established, and, later, how minority citizenship is signified and valorized as hybrid or exemplary as such.This later shift from racial to ethnic senses of belonging is an important one for the field-imaginary in a transnational era, and shows how the new discourse of ethnicity in a transnational context (within Asian-friendly Pacific Rim discourse) often obscures (yes this is so) the operations of race and class.

Koshy's examples-of Mississippi Chinese and shifting claims and constructions of South Asians-help to expose the porousness of whiteness as a container for that construct as wielded against black US citizens.The well-argued difference and originality in her account both outlines the complicity of various Asian American groups in affiliating themselves with forms and claims of white citizenship.At the same time her account shows how such claims had to emanate from within a hegemonic legal system (and related, more fluid cultural genres of representation) that did not allow for the subversive power of difference and counter-hegemonic force many credit Asian American legal subjecitivityand literature with.Thus, Koshy offers a grim, well researched, and Foucault-wise project that shows the full range of power to produce forms of complicity and to contain and delimit forms of resistance. Through thick descriptive detail and close reading of key libidinaltexts, the project traces the shift from narrating visions of tragic and sentimentalized exclusion (Long and Griffith) to more hybrid and creolized forms of US national belonging via "racial hybridity tropes" and cross-racial romance (Bulosan and Mukerjee).The latter examples by Asian American authors threaten to fall into versions of democratic idealism and what Koshy calls "conservative multiculturalism,"

Koshy's study thus reveals that the minority texts cannot be read as utopic instances of subaltern resistance and difference but as romantic-national works themselves implicated and contained in the legalistic and hegemonic force-fields of American liberal culture.Her chapter on the "Madame Butterfly" syndrome and long historical transformation is the best I know and a delight to read.This book is important he said she said...
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Asian Americans make up a diverse ethnic group in the Unites States and are among the fastest growing population of adults sixty-five years and older. Most Asian Americans are either first-generation immigrants who grew up in the United States or individuals who joined their American families later in life. Yet despite the significant presence of Asian Americans in this country, adequate resources tracking their health over the life span are surprisingly scarce.

With this book, Ada C. Mui and Tazuko Shibusawa provide necessary data on the psychosocial well-being of Asian American elders. Focusing on the six largest Asian American groups (Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese), they address issues relating to methodology, physical and mental health, intergenerational relationships, informal support, acculturation, stress, economic well-being, productive aging, and the utilization of services, such as Medicare, food stamps, physician care, home health care, community-based outreach, and emergency rooms and hospitals. By linking research findings to policy, practice, and program recommendations, Mui and Shibusawa create a vital resource that can be used in multiple disciplines, including social work, public health, nursing, geriatric medicine, social policy, and other helping professions. No other text offers such a comprehensive and up-to-date portrait of the unique challenges facing Asian Americans as they age.

Customer Reviews (4)

An Important Response
This anthology is a collection of works by 53 Asian American women that contains works of fiction, poetry and essays and is an "equal representation of all ethnic groups and of all written forms of expression" (p. ix). The aim of this anthology is to challenge the stereotypes vis-à-vis Asian women as docile and subservient (Asian Women United of California ix-xi). Stigmatized and vilified throughout history from their roots in China, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Korea; this collection challenges those stereotypes and tries to present a vision for the future. On of the more poignant pieces belongs to Elaine Kim. In War Story (Asian Women United of California 80-92), Kim writes about her half-sister's experiences vis-à-vis the Korean War. Kim balances the narrative with counterfactuals imagining that it could have been her sister in America and the reverse with her in Korea.

Despite the uniqueness of Kim's narrative, all the pieces share the same message of struggle, tension, and, in some cases, resolution. All the writers write using a language of those fighting for survival in a unsympathetic and often antagonistic environment. Some of the storiesinevitably overlap but all focus on one or the other issues involvingimmigration, war, work, generations, identity, injustice, and finally activism. In reading about the items identified in the last sentence, I learned a great deal about the history of Asian American women's work as they transitioned from trades and professions. This book broadened my perspective vis-à-vis the rage at injustices they face up to as women but more so as Asian Americans. Finally, hearkening back to Karen Aguilar-San Juan this book is also helpful for understanding the activism that has helped Asian American women to discover themselves.

Another anthology?
Another anthology - but it's OK, because "Making More Waves" is a follow-up on the 1989 anthology "Making Waves." These two books should be read together to show how the editors' definition of Asian American women and decision about what to emphasize and focus on changed between the late 1980's and the late 1990's. "Making Waves" contained a lot of historical introductory material, especially on Chinese and Japanese Americans. "Making More Waves" stretched itself to deal more with Indian, Cambodian, Laotian, and Filipino Americans, with some similar topics but many new ones, like Susan Ito's essay on mixed race identity, Dana Takagi's piece on sexual orientation, Lisa Park's thoughts on race and suicide, and Anuradha Advani's piece on organizing South Asian taxi drivers in New York City. Writers and thinkers like Helen Zia and Lisa Lowe contributed great essays to this new volume. There are a lot of published writers of poetry and novels as well. An excerpt from a Lisa See novel is included, as well as work by Kimiko Hahn, Mitsuye Yamada, Chitra Divakaruni, Marie G. Lee, Nora Okja Keller, Carolyn Leilani-Lau, Marilyn Chin, Myung Mi Kim, and Mong Lan. But what I like best is that first-time writers of really good stuff are sprinkled in among the veterans. A great collection.

Great Collection of Nom-Fiction from Asian American Ladies
Let me first qualify myself in saying that I'm not Asian nor am I female. I'm a Caucasian male who is also a pastor. Most of the people that I worship with and minister to are Asian Americans. I became fascinated with it when I read about it on Amazon a few years back. Not Long later I read about "Making More Waves," a follow-up book with many of the same ladies from the first book.

This book details the struggles that Asian ladies go through. Some of the things covered are immigration, tension w/parents, growing up in 2 cultures (Asian & American), sexism, racism, interracial marriages, among the many. It really is thorough from start to finish. One of the best parts about it is that it's written by several ladies, not just one. So in the end, you hear many voices instead of just one.

This book has been an immense help to me, both personally and professionally. It was both an eye-opener and a life changer. I'd recommend this book to all Asians and those who are friends with, dating, or married to an Asian.

Kudos to Elaine Kim and the other ladies that wrote this book!

Good book
Parts of it were good. The plot thickened in the midlle but faded nearer the end. An OK read for passing time. ... Read more

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Researchers and practitioners who work with Asian Americansconfront fundamental questions, such as the cultural validity of thediagnostic tools and systems that are available to them, how tomeasure dynamic constructs like acculturation and identity in waysthat meaningfully inform their work, and how to assess the culturalcompetence of care systems and training programs. Asian AmericanMental Health is a state-of-the-art compendium of the conceptualissues, empirical literature, methodological approaches, and practiceguidelines for conducting culturally informed assessments of AsianAmericans, and for assessing provider cultural competency withinindividuals and systems. It is the first of its kind on AsianAmericans. This volume draws upon the expertise of many of the leadingexperts in Asian American and multicultural mental health to provide amuch needed resource for students and professionals in a wide range ofdisciplines including clinical psychology, medical anthropology,psychiatry, cross-cultural psychology, multicultural counseling,ethnic minority psychology, sociology, social work, counseloreducation, counseling psychology, and more. ... Read more

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The Asian-origin population in the U.S. constitutes the fastest growing ethnic group.As of 2000, this group constitutes 4 percent of the total U.S. population, roughly 12 million.As a result, Asian American youth are quickly growing into their own subculture and carving out their own identity in American culture. This first-rate collection addresses the important topics concerning Asian American youth as a distinctive group and examines such topics as immigration, assimilation, intermarriage, socialization, sexuality and ethnic identification. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

good enough but not breaking the mold
A.A.Y.C.I.E. is a compilation of reports from various Asian American Studies writers. If you are not familiar with AAS literature it is a good intro with a wide breadth of community samplings and general facts in part 1. The book itself is rather restrictive with the definition of "Youth". The "youth" it focus' on is high school students and college students, the book does not make room for studies of Jr. high students who participate in these activities. The book does its job, reporting on findings of youths within communities, but that's where it ends. There is a small chapter (The conclusion) where it looks at where AA youth are headed but that's it. This book is not groundbreaking and it suffers from the same shortcomings of most AAS literature as of late. No direction of where the community is headed, how to solve reoccurring problems of gambling and alcohol within our families and completely ignores the mixed or "Happa" community. A good read but don't expect too much. ... Read more

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Asian American Religions brings together some of the most current research on Asian American religions from a social science perspective. The volume focuses on religion in Asian American communities in New York, Houston, Los Angeles, and the Silicon Valley/Bay Area, and it includes a current demographic overview of the various Asian populations across the United States. It also provides information on current trends, such as that Filipino and Korean Americans are the most religiously observant people in America, that over 60 percent of Asian Americans who have a religious identification are Christian, and that one-third of Muslims in the United States are Asian Americans.

Rather than organizing the book around particular ethnic groups or religions, Asian American Religions centers on thematic issues, like symbols and rituals, political boundaries, and generation gaps, in order to highlight the role of Asian American religions in negotiating, accepting, redefining, changing, and creating boundaries in the communities' social life.

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"Those who find themselves living in the Americas, no matter what their ethnic, educational, or economic background, must ultimately 'become their own personalities,' melding their point of view with their points of origin and their places of settlement. For immigrant or refugee families and their children, this 'process of becoming' often means struggling with the contradictions of race, generation, economics, class, work, religion, gender, and sexuality within the family, workplace, or school. . . . Perhaps nowhere is the struggle more raw, poignant, and moving than in the words of the younger generation at the cusp of such becoming. We readers can also find insights within the candid accounts of their personal lives and in the experiences of their family and friends."--from Balancing Two Worlds

Balancing Two Worlds highlights themes surrounding the creation of Asian American identity. This book contains fourteen first-person narratives by Asian American college students, most of whom have graduated during the first five years of the twenty-first century. Their engaging accounts detail the students' very personal struggles with issues of assimilation, gender, religion, sexuality, family conflicts, educational stereotypes, and being labeled the "model minority." Some of the students relate stories drawn from their childhood and adolescent experiences, while others focus more on their college experiences at Dartmouth.

Anyone who wants to learn about the changing concept of race in America and what it's like to be a young American of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Burmese, or South Asian descent--from educators and college administrators to students and their families--will find Balancing Two Worlds a compelling read and a valuable resource. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great book for first generation immigrants too.
As a first generation immigrant raising teenager children, I found this book very helpful. It shared real stories of growing struggle from different cultures. It helps me to have a better insight into the struggles my children might face when they get to college level. I will certainly have him/her read this book when he/she is ready.

Recording history with foresight
Editors did a superb job in collecting and publishing essays from Asian American college students to write about a difficult topic, themselves as they see which is difficult in spite of pervasive racism that seems to define who they can become in a world where these youngsters grow up with very little depictions of happy Asian couples/families on TV for instance which necessitate them to see white couples/families they routinely see in abstract to find reference/application/relevance points risking mockery on their separate heritage, coming out with bitter knowledge that understanding is greater than being understood. ... Read more

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Offering a rich and insightful road map of Asian American history as it has evolved over more than 200 years, this book marks the first systematic attempt to take stock of this field of study.

Customer Reviews (1)

A choice, concise guide to Asian American experiences
A choice, concise guide to Asian American experiences is offered by Gary Okihiro, the recipient of the American Studies Association Lifetime Achievement Award and past president of the Association for Asian American Studies. The experiences of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hmong, Indians and more are contrasted in chapters exploring migration patterns, racism issues, gender issues and much more. Columbia Guide To Asian American History is a recommended pick for any high school or college collection focusing on Asian-American immigrant, multicultural, or ethnic group experiences.
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Transnational Asian America: Literary Sites and Transits examines the diasporic and transnational aspects of Asian American literature and asserts the importance of a globalized imaginary in what has been considered an ethnic subgenre of American literature.The thirteen essays in this volume engage works of prose and poetry as aesthetic articulations of the fluid transnational identities formed by Asian American writers who move within and across national boundaries.With its emphasis on the transmigratory and flexible nature of Asian American literary production, the collection argues for an equally multivalent mode of criticism that extends our readings of these works beyond the traditional limits of the American literary canon.Individual chapters feature such writers as Chang-rae Lee, Karen Tei Yamashita, Jhumpa Lahiri, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Ha Jin, with attention to such discourses as gender, space and mobility, transnationalism, identity, genre, and post-coloniality. ... Read more

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"What Jeung has told us is a story very much in progress of unfolding.It gives us a window into salient features of American religion, a window into which it will be worth looking again as time goes on."—From the foreword by Robert N. Bellah, Elliott Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and winner of a National Humanities Medal in 2000

"A rich and insightful study, Faithful Generations brings much needed perspective to current discussions of pan-Asian American identity. This book will be important reading for scholars of religion, ethnicity, and the Asian American experience."—Nazli Kibria, Department of Sociology, Boston University

"An indispensable resource for the understanding of Asian American churches and their status in society today."—Fumitaka Matsuoka, professor of theology and executive director, PANA Institute, Pacific School of Religion

Religion—both personal faith and institutional tradition—plays a central role in the lives of the 12.5 million Asians in the United States. It provides comfort and meaning, shapes ethical and political beliefs, and influences culture and arts. Faithful Generations details the significance of religion in the construction of Asian American identity. As an institutional base for the movement toward Asian American panethnicity, churches provide a space for theological and political reflection and ethnic reinvention.

With rich description and insightful interviews, Russell Jeung uncovers why and how Chinese and Japanese American Christians are building new, pan-Asian organizations. Detailed surveys of over fifty Chinese and Japanese American congregations in the San Francisco Bay area show how symbolic racial identities structure Asian American congregational life and ministries. The book concludes with a look at Asian American–led multiethnic churches.

This engaging study of the shifting relationship between religion and ethnicity is an ideal text for classes in ethnicity, religion, and Asian American studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

forward the panAsians!
The book relates how the body of Christ is now manefesting itself with Asian- Americans as Asian. As a white who was over the last several decades trained to be sensistive to the different types of Asian heritages, this new panAsian church is something strange to me. The book is extremely useful in detailing new trends ... Read more

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Asian-American women writers of all ages explore a complex range of identities through poetry, fiction, essays, and memoirs, most of which have never been published. The contributors take on littleexplored topics and expand the limits of ethnic-based identity, resisting stereotypes and breaking silences. Candid and memorable, their essays, stories, and poetry change popular assumptions and engage readers.Amazon.com Review
Hailing by lineage or immigration from Asian posts such as Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, and India, the contributors to Making More Waves are as well known as Lisa See (On Gold Mountain) and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices ), and as new to print as 16-year-old poet Juno Parrenas. The story "Summer of My Korean Soldier" and the essay "Hambun-Hambun"neatly mirror one another, and illustrate an experience shared by all of these writers: the sense of being an outsider. In polished or jagged prose, the authors recount their lives and dig into feminist issues such as violence against women in war and peacetime, sexuality, and the nexus of race, class, and gender. They deftly explore how being Asian in America shapes such concerns and casts up others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Read!!!
I bought a copy of "Making Waves" by the same authors. It was a powerful book, to say the least. I really admired the honesty by all of the Asian American ladies that contributed to the book.
This book, which is the follow-up, is also a powerful book, too. You see, even though I'm a Caucasian male, I'm a Christian and an ordained minister. Most of the ministry and worship I do is with Asian Americans(most of the are college age and young adult). Since I didn't grow up Asian, this book and its predecessor were a valuable resource to me.
After seeing this book, I'm more sympathetic to the struggles that Asian Americans go through, and especially the females. Too often Hollywood and the Far Eastern Movie companies have portrayed Asian Females as the sultry and sexy "Gesha Girl" stereotype. This book lets the ladies speak and takes the reader into their hearts and minds. It lets the reader know what they've actually been through, what they struggle with(and still do), and what they do to surivive. I'm glad they've shared what they did. I think it's long overdue that their voices were heard.
I would reccommend this book to anyone doing ministry to Asian American females as I do or to any male dating or married to an Asian American female. Praise God for Elaine Kim and the Asian Women United!

~*~ a thick chunk of asian heritage ~*~
i suppose you expect a formal review of some sort, but i'm just writing something freshly thought out:

i LOVE this book! it's pretty rare to discover asian american works of writing published in today's world. Itiincludes stories, essays, poems, photography, and pictures of artwork doneas well.

Anyone who is interested in heritage, asian americanliterature, or just would like a good collection of writing to read, ihighly reccomend this book. ... Read more