Product Description

This collection, designed to be the primary anthology or textbook for courses in Asian American history, covers the subject's entire chronological span. The volume presents a carefully selected group of readings that requires students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians, and draw their own conclusions.

Product Description
In an extraordinary blend of eloquent narrative history, vivid personal recollection, and oral testimony, Ronald Takaki relates the diverse 150-year history of Asian Americans. Through richly detailed vignettes--by turns bitter, funny, and inspiring--he offers a stunning panorama of a neglected part of Americanhistory. 16 pages of photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

The First Step to World Peace is Understanding Another's Culture
There is so much misunderstanding and miscommunication in this planet and home we call Earth.

Over the years, people of different ethnic groups started to drift apart and create their own unique and functional societies. As you've seen over the years, tensions from different ethnic groups have caused racism, suffering, death, and war.

I believe that, even though this was assigned to me in a class, everyone can still find something useful in this book. Many times, I would turn to another chapter that I was purely interested about, say for example the Koreans. I have no idea how they think or what happened in their history.

With that said, pick this book up because you might contribute to an eventual world peace and unity. Understanding another's culture and spreading that curiosity and knowledge is a small feat but makes a huge difference.

Great catch
I am very pleased with the book. It's an essential item to have in a library and the hardback cover makes it that much better. The low price is amazing and the book is in great condition. I hate it when my used books I buy are all marked up. Took a little while to deliver though, but worth it for the most part. Thank you!

a review from an asian
I purchased this book in order to save a couple dollars from buying the same book at my school's book store. Little did I know, I didn't need the book for class. But regardless, the book does have some interesting stories and information about Asian American history, and best of all, at least for my experience, it's a damn good paper weight. I'm satisfied with this book and I advise all people to purchase this book for its sheer paper weight qualities alone.

Scenes of Asian American History
"Strangers" is a comprehensive history of Asian American immigration into the US. This is history that one will not get from mainstream history classes.Dr. Takaki weaves his story with extensive research and eyewitness accounts.

For me, it brought home their struggles to come to America, to make a living and to be accepted as American.On a personal note, some of the types of incidents described in the book were experienced by my relatives and myself.

Dr. Takaki shows that the characteristics that establishedAmericans reviled in these "strangers" were a by-product of exclusionary policies.For example, exclusionary immigration policies constrained the population of eligible immigrant females forcing immigrant males to find company with white females. This led to interracial dating/marriage and raised the ire of white Americans.Laws against miscegenation, interracial marriage, followed.

It's not an easy read, but definitely worthy of your consideration.

Best Book I Have Ever Read
its about how Asians are still not welcomed here after a few centuries. People of all races should read this book. America targets Asians and finding ways to extort money from them, which is still happening today. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Fantastic Resource
This exhaustive reference contains dozens of easy, fun projects for kids, interspersed with fascinating nuggets of historical information. Great for teachers, as well as the children in your life - Asian or not. You'll want to incorporate some of these fun activities and traditions into your family holiday celebrations. ... Read more

Product Description

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.
... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Beautiful unparalleled book of the period
This is a beautiful book with text and photographs of the period art that cannot be found elsewhere. These Asian American artists of this first generation of immigrants lived through some problematic treatment and times and their work is relatively unknown by the public.The paperback version is a substantial book about 2 inches thick and it is wonderful that this is available at a reasonable cost that allows more people to own and experience it.This is also a lovely gift.

about time
It's about time we had a volume devoted to Asian American art history.The book is history in the making itself.A wonderful resource and highly recommended.

Asian American Art: a History 1850-1970
The most comprehensive work on this subject, which is a part of American art history but neglectedby academia. In recent years works on this subject start to appear on the market place, but no other book went the distance as this one does. A lot of blank areas of the Asian artists in American is reviewed or mentioned but on the survey end, however, there is no other book like this. A must read book if you are interested in the Asian American history, a must have if you are interested in the Asian artists and their historical positions in America, the book will take you to the beginning of the story and bring one closer to the now. ... Read more

Product Description
Remapping Asian American History discusses new frameworks such as transnationalism, the political contexts of international migrations, and a multipolar approach to the study of contemporary U.S. race relations. Collectively, the essays in this volume challenge some long-held assumptions about Asian-American communities and point to new directions in Asian American historiography. ... Read more

Product Description
Using a wide arrangement of visual tools, this atlas offers a detailed overview of the experiences and important events surrounding Americans of Asian descent. Long neglected in general studies, Asian-American history resources have been scarce. Featuring detailed maps and authoritative text, this book tells the story of not one group of people but many.Photographs, line graphs, charts, chronologies, box features, and maps help explore the cultural, historical, political, and social history of Asian Americans. Coverage also profiles key events and issues in their homelands, especially those factors that influenced their movement to the United States. ... Read more

Product Description
This book describes the historical and legal experiences of Americans of Asian ancestry who began to come to the United States in the mid-19th century. Like all immigrants in America, they arrived with hopes of making a better life and home in a free country. Instead, Asian-Americans have been mistreated and discriminated against by their fellow Americans--even by Congress and the Supreme Court, which should have made and judged laws without prejudice. This study examines the way immigration and naturalization laws were unfairly administered against Asian immigrants and throws light on a less than admirable period of American legal history. It will be of great interest to scholars in Asian American studies, legal history, and American history. ... Read more

Product Description
Active for more than two decades, the Asian American movement began a middle-class reform effort to achieve racial equality, social justice, and political empowerment. In this first history and in-depth analysis of the Movement, William Wei traces to the late 1960s, the genesis of an Asian American identity, culture, and activism.

Wei analyzes the Asian American women's movement, the alternative press, Asian American involvement in electoral politics. Interviews with many key participants in the Movement and photographs of Asian American demonstrations and events enliven this portrayal of the Movement's development, breadth, and conflicts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Don't waste your time
This book was notable in being the first mass-market book on the Asian American Movement.As far as I'm concerned, that was its only selling point. I was struck by his hostility towards the movement [and all things radical, it seems], and I would have let that slide if only he could even get the facts right.

As a former board member of one of the organizations mentioned in his book, the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, I know for a fact that it was not related to the Asian American movements on the west coast.CAAAV was founded in the 1980's in New York City and its founders had nothing to do with the "Serve the People" programs.So, wrong time and place.Also, I was invoved with the flag-burning issue and am certain that the Revolutionary Communist Party never claimed that flag-burning would or could lead to revolution.The RCP does support revolution and flag-burning so it might be easy for the casual observer to conflate the two, but for a piece of research, it's unacceptable.I am not in a position to refute the other historical claims he makes, but I believe more than a little skepticism is in order.

Don't get me wrong, I don't insist that authors be "unbiased", which is impossible, only that they be open about their biases and try to utilize facts to support their arguments.Wei doesn't do the first and doesn't do a great job of the second..

For a better reading, try the State of Asian America edited by Karen Aguilar-San Juan and Legacy to Liberation edited by Fred Ho.

Good for its historical insight
Years ago, I took a class called "Producing Asian-American Sexuality" at Brown University in which we read this book.I may be a little sketchy on the details.But I think it contributes nicely to Asian-American studies with its focus on the history of activism.The articles talk about Asian Americans, particularly on the West Coast, who were influenced by Black Power, feminism, and the antiwar movement, and decided to start their own political groups.Its focus is on the 1960s and 1970s.I would add it to any Asian American studies collection.Further, I am sure that this book is required reading in a number of ethnic studies courses around the nation.So I'm a little shaky on the facts, but I recall this being a decent book. ... Read more

Product Description
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

Product Description
Recovered Legacies: Authority and Identity in Early Asian American Literature employs contemporary and traditional readings of representative works in prose, poetry, and drama to suggest new ways of understanding and appreciating the critically fertile but underexamined body of Asian American writing from the late 1800s to the early 1960s. The essays in this volume engage this corps—composed of multiple genres from different periods and by authors of different ethnicities—with a strong awareness of historical context and a keen sensitivity to literary form. As a collection, Recovered Legacies re-establishes the rich and diverse literary heritage of Asian America and argues persuasively for the significance of these works to the American literary canon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

More than "Stangers from a Different Shore"
Chan wrote an introduction to the history of Asians in the United States from the 1840s to the present. Chan begins her book by positing that Asian Americans have been looked at traditionally from four perspectives: 1) as deviant or deficient, 2) in a celebratory and in terms of their cultural contributions, 3) as victims, and 4) as agents of history (Chan, Asian Americans xiii). Using existing scholarship, Chan represents Asian-Americans not simply as victims of racial discrimination, but rather as agents of change trying to, "...make choices that shape their lives, even when these may be severely limited by conditions beyond their control (Chan, Asian Americans xiii). One of the major arguments Chan makes in Asian Americans is that they have been treated as a collective entity because, "for the most part, the host society has treated them as alike" (Chan, Asian Americans xiii).As a function of resistance to exclusionary laws and occurrences of anti-Asian violence, Chan counteracts the victim narrative with examples of legal and/or political responses by individuals or groups to impact their conditions (Chan, Asian Americans 67, 75, 80-81, 94-100, 111, 117-118, 167, 171-181). The last chapter is a comprehensive view of the status of Asian Americans and examines their contribution to American life through film, writing, and other areas (Chan, Asian Americans 167-185). Notwithstanding Asian "success", Chan - much like Okihiro, Kim, and Takaki -- warn against unreflective acceptance of Asians as "model minority" Chan, Asian Americans 167-168, 169, 171, and 188).Chan argues from very early on in the book that there are marked differences between Asian groups and cross comparisons - particularly within this thesis of the "model minority" is both unfair and does not reflect the reality on the ground. As a function of learning from and eventually teaching the story of Asian Americans, Chan includes a very useful chronology and filmography and is a coherent and accessible counterpoint to Takaki's tome Strangers from a Different Shore.

Chan writes, "The first Asians to set foot in the New World came with the Manila galleon trade. Filipino and Chinese sailors and stewards were employed in the specially constructed ships that carried cargoes of Chinese luxury goods between Manila and Acapulco from 1565 to 1815. A number of Filipinos apparently had settled in Acapulco by the late sixteenth century, while some Chinese merchants had setup shop in Mexico City by the seventeenth. Marina E. Espina and Fred Cordova have surmised that the Filipinos known as Manilamen found in the marshlands of Louisiana's Barataria Bay (about thirty miles south of New Orleans) in the 1760s were descendants of sailors who had worked on the Manila galleons (Chan 25). In Chan's Asian Americans, she writes in broad contexts but ground her descriptions in specifics. According to Chan, the narratives of early Asian immigrants primarily lived their everyday lives through social organizations that became the loci of their being. Asian Americans banded together by forming fraternal organizations as well as robust cultural, religious, and community organizations (Chan, Asian Americans 75). Notwithstanding their involvement with civic organizations, what differentiated Asian from a non-Asian immigrant in the United States was the sticking point of race. Viewed along this framework of racial/ethnic difference, what set the Asian American experience apart from a non-Asian was that the Asian was also seen as a sexual threat (Chan, Asian American 60-61). World War II, according to Chan, served as political motivation for granting American citizenship by linked to the state-of-war situation of the United States against the Asian homeland, as it was important to strengthen its relationship with its allies and protectorates (Chan 121-142). Given American influence in Philippines, Chan argues that the needs in the New World outweighed the Old World kinship ties and the manongs opting for more pragmatic alternatives (Chan 75). Becoming "normal" as deviant/dysfunctional Asians need to, "assimilate into the majority Anglo-American" milieu (Chan iii) has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, as indicated by Chan, it grew out of the need to reconcile with the New World shedding of Old World provincial roots. We need to reconcile what Espiritu's cultural reification (in Home Bound - Filipino American Lives Across Cultures, Communities, and Countries), with Bonus's claim of performative function (in Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of Space) Chan's claim to the contradiction of becoming more community based by shedding one's more passive, less "in your face" imported home bound values.

difficult experiences for over a century
Not a casual read. Chan describes well over a hundred years of Asians emigrating to and growing up in the United States. Many of the pages describe years of backbreaking toil, especially in the California goldfields, and in the building of the transcontinental railroads. Exacerbated by periodic bouts of discrimination by the European settlers and immigrants.

In a relatively short book, the account cannot be comprehensive. Complexity is added, due to the different nationalities of Asians that came over. Chinese. Japanese. Filipinos. Koreans. There never was one unitary Asian bloc in the US. Thus descriptions of various benevolent social and cultural organisations that arose are often split by ethnicity or nationality.

The text also shows that the civil rights movement of the 1950-1970s, while primarily for Negroes, also benefited Asians. Something not necessarily widely known or appreciated today.

Excellent Reference
This book give a little overview of a multitude of topics, nothing indepth, but rather a 'light read'.

Excellent general resource
Sucheng Chan offers a statistic-rich, informative history ofAsian-Americans, from their first immigration to current issues of As-Amsas "model minorities". I definitely prefer Chan's style toTakaki's quote-heavy, anecdotal approach; she is both thorough and concise. ... Read more

Product Description
The Filipino American population in the U.S. is expected to reach more than two million by the next century. Yet many Filipino Americans contend that years of formal and covert exclusion from mainstream political, social, and economic institutuions of the basis of their race have perpetuated racist stereotypes about them, ignored their colonial and immigration history, and prevented them from becoming fully recognized citizens of the nation. Locating Filipino Americans shows how Filipino Americans counter exclusion by actively engaging in alternative practices of community building.

Locating Filipino Americans, an ethnographic study of Filipino American communities in Los Angeles and San Diego, presents a multi-disciplinary cultural analysis of the relationship between ethnic identiy and social space. Author Rick Bonus argues that alternative community spaces enable Filipino Americans to respond to and resist the ways in which the larger society has historically and institutionally rendered them invisible, silenced, and racialized. Bonus focuses on the "Oriental" stores, the social halls and community centers, and the community newspapers to demonstrate how ethnic identities are publicly constituted and communities are transformed. Delineating the spaces formed by diasporic consciousness, Bonus shows how community members appropriate elements from their former homeland and from their new settlements in ways defined by their critical stances against racism, homogenization, complete assimilation, and exclusionary citizenship. Locating Filipino Americans is one of the few books that offers a grounded approach to theoretical analyses of ethnicity and contemporary culture in the U.S. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Meaning Making in Spaces of Identity Reification
Locating Filipino Americans by Rick Bonus is by definition an ethnographic study. Having said that, ethnographic studies carry with them the benefits and risks of undertaking such a project. As most ethnographic studies of this nature are concerned one is able to push forward an agenda without really stating one's agenda up front. In this case, however, bonus is clear that his agenda is plainly descriptive. He deftly moves to describe the Filipino American communities in both Los Angeles and San Diego. Bonus is also clear that he is working within a multi-disciplinary framework and he is examining the connection between identity and space. Locating Filipino Americans is unique in that Bonus is grounded in a theoretical framework that allows us to get a better understanding of the state of affairs. As much as labels allude to a sense of clear-cut definitions, Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian-American group in America just behind the Chinese. The Filipino-American community should be grateful and use this book in an effort to get a better understanding and potential that is clearly self-evident. Bonus has done an important piece that is as informative and thought provoking as it is inspiring.

Bonus posits that particular spaces allow Filipino Americans to react to, oppose the ways in which the dominant discourse has throughout history, and via hegemonic institutions have removed this group of agency, hence voice. Bonus zeroes in on three particular "spaces.": [1] "Oriental" stores, [2] the community centers (where the pinoys practice "palengke" politics), and [3] through the media via the local newspapers. Identifying the spaces and articulating our mechanisms of resistance, Bonus does us a big favor. First, he allows us to see what we are doing. In this sense, he makes us more self-reflective. Second, through this articulation we can now be self-reflective of how we use these mechanisms of resistance to our advantage. Self-reflexivity then allows us to move forward more aware of our actions and move towards some form of positive change. Bonus is also good at showing us how we "invent" ourselves (although the fetish for liminality does not really allow us to pin stuff down in any definite way) and through a reverse sense of "Orientalism" (see his references to Edward Said) in that we tend to appropriate what is needed and exclude what is not useful in an effort to cope with the situation at hand. On the other hand, it seems like Bonus is flirting with the idea that migration becomes a homogenizing experience - which the next generation is losing touch with their roots and becoming more "american" or what they perceive "american" to be. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing but that it is part of an ever-changing landscape of self-identity. Bonus alludes to several key things that he does not really follow through. What is missing is the complexity within the community itself. Bonus begins to write about the 150+ sub-groupings under COPAO in San Diego and another 200+ sub-groupings in San Diego. He alludes to a historical development in terms of migration (with a link to colonialism) and intra-ethnic division and loyalty that undermines social as well as political unity. Consider this work then a seed to even further complexity and exploration.

Power in Everyday Life
This review was published in the fall 2001 issue of _The Pacific Reader:An Asian Pacific North American Review of Books_.

Why do I feel such a deep sense of comfort when I am rummaging through dried fish, canned sardines and Spam at one of the many corner groceries along Jackson Street and Beacon Hill?What social function could "Filipino Time" (i.e., being perpetually late for meetings) serve for Filipino Americans?Or why is it that many times community meetings proceed like chaotic and politically-heated yelling matches?

Perhaps one of the more auspicious experiences of a reader is the time when something, whether a written or visual work, empowers one to see the everyday world freshly and with new eyes.Moreover, for someone like myself, who was a student of Asian American Studies, it is additionally gratifying to witness a new generation of Filipino American scholars making significant contributions to academia in such an original manner.Rick Bonus is currently an assistant professor of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington, and he obtained his Ph.D. in Communications at the University of California, San Diego.His first book, Locating Filipino Americans:Ethnicity & the Cultural Politics of Space, is a highly accessible ethnographic study that analyzes the seemingly mundane worlds of Filipino "Oriental" stores and strip malls, community newspapers and beauty pageants in Southern California, and uncovers a powerfully rich and complex network of community building and resistance to racialization by Filipino American women and men.

Central to Bonus' argument is that although Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American group in the nation, and the largest in California, there is a common complaint that they are mostly invisible from mainstream history, scholarship, media and positions of power.This systematic form of exclusion on the basis of race and ethnicity has encouraged Filipino Americans "to respond to and resist invisibility, exploitation, silencing, and racial constructing, by history and by institutions, as well as a desire to claim a `space' within the rubric `American' on their own terms."

His analysis of these "spaces" in stores, community centers, newspapers and pageants shows Filipino Americans attempting to construct an identity that is both Filipino and American while interrogating it at the same time.This dynamic of resistance and interrogation is something that has historical roots in the Philippines' colonial history and a people's cultural attempts to flourish and define themselves despite oppression, categorization, and tremendous regional diversity.Bonus argues that these particular cultural practices directly challenge these forms of exclusion and invisibility while also reflecting an effort to claim a self-determined space in America.

In his study of these commercial establishments, Bonus combines oral interviews, multi-disciplinary theories, history and ethnographic fieldwork and provides sophisticated and thorough analyses of his findings.What is refreshing is not only the telling Taglish (i.e., a combination of Tagalog and English) responses by interviewees to his questions, but his scholarly commitment to the interviewees of the study.One can see that he understands the art of the interview because he is successful in having their rich voices and concerns speak for themselves.He preserves the excruciating details of the interviews so well that I can imagine them taking place before me - facial expressions, hand gestures and all.

Furthermore, I appreciated his conscious admission of his own location as an ethnographer in relation to the interviewees, and how his facility in Tagalog, his education and generational status opened certain doors to him that perhaps would not be open for other ethnographers.Bonus' scholarly eye roamed in these spaces being very much aware of his position as both a critical observer and a Filipino American, absorbing the meaningful details in his encounters with great openness, depth and reflection.Throughout the book, there are numerous instances where he lyrically describes the bustling in a community center before a big pageant, the cramped quarters of a small newspaper's offices and a reporter's passion to cover a story, or the noise and pungent smells of the market.Such descriptions capture a particular cultural spirit, setting the foreground for the poetic and political voices of the community members and their own views of what these spaces mean to them as individuals and as a collective.

Bonus' first book is an important contribution to interdisciplinary studies on the politics of race and space, and how identity is constructed and communities are enlivened on a daily basis.I don't think I will approach an Oriental store or participate in a meeting in the same manner anymore because this book has provided a sophisticated articulation of what such individual activities mean on a local, national and international scale.Now that this promising scholar is currently teaching at the University of Washington, I am very eager to see his research relate to Filipino Americans in the Pacific Northwest.

Power in Everyday Life
This review was published in the fall 2001 issue of _The Pacific Reader:An Asian Pacific North American Review of Books(..) Central to Bonus’ argument is that although Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American group in the nation, and the largest in California, there is a common complaint that they are mostly invisible from mainstream history, scholarship, media and positions of power.(...)

Power in Everyday Life
This review was published in the fall 2001 issue of _The Pacific Reader:An Asian Pacific North American Review of Books_.

Why do I feel such a deep sense of comfort when I am rummaging through dried fish, canned sardines and Spam at one of the many corner groceries along Jackson Street and Beacon Hill?What social function could "Filipino Time" (i.e., being perpetually late for meetings) serve for Filipino Americans?Or why is it that many times community meetings proceed like chaotic and politically-heated yelling matches?

Perhaps one of the more auspicious experiences of a reader is the time when something, whether a written or visual work, empowers one to see the everyday world freshly and with new eyes.Moreover, for someone like myself, who was a student of Asian American Studies, it is additionally gratifying to witness a new generation of Filipino American scholars making significant contributions to academia in such an original manner.Rick Bonus is currently an assistant professor of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington, and he obtained his Ph.D. in Communications at the University of California, San Diego.His first book, Locating Filipino Americans:Ethnicity & the Cultural Politics of Space, is a highly accessible ethnographic study that analyzes the seemingly mundane worlds of Filipino "Oriental" stores and strip malls, community newspapers and beauty pageants in Southern California, and uncovers a powerfully rich and complex network of community building and resistance to racialization by Filipino American women and men.

Central to Bonus' argument is that although Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American group in the nation, and the largest in California, there is a common complaint that they are mostly invisible from mainstream history, scholarship, media and positions of power.This systematic form of exclusion on the basis of race and ethnicity has encouraged Filipino Americans "to respond to and resist invisibility, exploitation, silencing, and racial constructing, by history and by institutions, as well as a desire to claim a `space' within the rubric `American' on their own terms."

His analysis of these "spaces" in stores, community centers, newspapers and pageants shows Filipino Americans attempting to construct an identity that is both Filipino and American while interrogating it at the same time.This dynamic of resistance and interrogation is something that has historical roots in the Philippines' colonial history and a people's cultural attempts to flourish and define themselves despite oppression, categorization, and tremendous regional diversity.Bonus argues that these particular cultural practices directly challenge these forms of exclusion and invisibility while also reflecting an effort to claim a self-determined space in America.

In his study of these commercial establishments, Bonus combines oral interviews, multi-disciplinary theories, history and ethnographic fieldwork and provides sophisticated and thorough analyses of his findings.What is refreshing is not only the telling Taglish (i.e., a combination of Tagalog and English) responses by interviewees to his questions, but his scholarly commitment to the interviewees of the study.One can see that he understands the art of the interview because he is successful in having their rich voices and concerns speak for themselves.He preserves the excruciating details of the interviews so well that I can imagine them taking place before me - facial expressions, hand gestures and all.

Furthermore, I appreciated his conscious admission of his own location as an ethnographer in relation to the interviewees, and how his facility in Tagalog, his education and generational status opened certain doors to him that perhaps would not be open for other ethnographers.Bonus' scholarly eye roamed in these spaces being very much aware of his position as both a critical observer and a Filipino American, absorbing the meaningful details in his encounters with great openness, depth and reflection.Throughout the book, there are numerous instances where he lyrically describes the bustling in a community center before a big pageant, the cramped quarters of a small newspaper's offices and a reporter's passion to cover a story, or the noise and pungent smells of the market.Such descriptions capture a particular cultural spirit, setting the foreground for the poetic and political voices of the community members and their own views of what these spaces mean to them as individuals and as a collective.

Bonus' first book is an important contribution to interdisciplinary studies on the politics of race and space, and how identity is constructed and communities are enlivened on a daily basis.I don't think I will approach an Oriental store or participate in a meeting in the same manner anymore because this book has provided a sophisticated articulation of what such individual activities mean on a local, national and international scale.Now that this promising scholar is currently teaching at the University of Washington, I am very eager to see his research relate to Filipino Americans in the Pacific Northwest. ... Read more

Product Description
As a book about cultural memory and retrieval, this collection of essays asks readers to reconsider who represents Asian America and what constitutes its history. Defining the early period as spanning the nineteenth century and the 1960s, the original essays here speak to the difficulty of recovering a past that was largely unrecorded as well as understanding the varied experiences of peoples of Asian descent. Interdisciplinary in approach, the essays address the Asian American individuals and communities that have been omitted from "official" histories; trace the roots of persistent racial stereotypes and myths; and retrieve artistic production that raises vexed questions of what counts as "art" or as Asian American. By reconsidering the political, cultural, and material history written in the last three decades, this volume contributes to a new understanding of Asian America's past and relationship to the present. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Asian American Studies
This book was quite interesting though the class at the university was more about theories and politics than I had liked. The stories and experiences that the people share in this book were truly touching and intriguing. ... Read more

Product Description
From the perspectives of ethnic studies, history, literary criticism, and legal studies, the original essays in this volume examine the ways in which the colonial history of the Philippines has shaped Filipino American identity, culture, and community formation. The contributors address the dearth of scholarship in the field as well as show how an understanding of this complex history provides a foundation for new theoretical frameworks for Filipino American studies. ... Read more

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In this incisive and polemical book, E. San Juan, Jr., the leading authority on Philippines-U.S. literary studies, goes beyond fashionable postcolonial theory to bring to our attention the complex history of Philippines-U.S. literary interactions. In sharp contrast to other works on the subject, the author presents Filipino literary production within the context of a long and sustained tradition of anti-imperialist insurgency, and foregrounds the strong presence of oppositional writing in the Philippines. After establishing the historical context of U.S. intervention and Filipino resistance, San Juan examines the work of two very significant writers. The first, Carlos Bulosan, a journalist and union activist, became in the author's words a 'tribune' of the people. Bulosan's writings which combine critique and prophecy do not allow us to forget the atrocities inflicted on the Filipino people.The other, Jose Garcia Villa, lapsed into premature obscurity on account of the complexity of his writings about the Filipino predicament. Read through San Juan's eyes, these writers are revealed as multifaceted thinkers and activists, not stereotypical ethnic artists.San Juan goes beyond literary studies and contemporary debates about nationalism and politics to point the way to a new direction in radical transformative writing. He uncovers hidden agendas in many previous accounts of U.S.-Philippine relations, and this book exemplifies how best to combine activist scholarship with historically grounded cultural commentary.Author note: E. San Juan, Jr. is Fellow of the Center for the Humanities and Visiting Professor of English, Wesleyan University, and Director of the Philippines Cultural Studies Center. He was recently chair of the Department of Comparative American Cultures, Washington University, and Professor of Ethnic Studies at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He received the 1999 Centennial Award for Literature from the Philippines Cultural Center. His most recent books are "Beyond Postcolonial Theory", "From Exile to Diaspora", "After Postcolonialism", and "Racism and Cultural Studies". ... Read more

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Combining archival research in Chinese language sources with oral history interviews, Ranqiu Yu examines the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (CHLA), an organization that originated in 1933 to help Chinese laundry workers break their isolation in American society. Yu brings to life the men who labored in New York laundries, depicting their meager existence, their struggles against discrimination and exploitation, and their dreams of returning to China. The persistent efforts of the CHLA succeeded in changing the workers' status in American society and improving the image of the Chinese among the American public.

Yu is especially concerned with the political activities of the CHLA, which was founded in reaction to proposed New York City legislation that would have put the Chinese laundries out of business. When the conservative Chinese social organization could not help the launderers, they broke with tradition and created their own organization. Not only did the CHLA defeat the legislative requirements that would have closed them down, but their "people's diplomacy" won American support for China during its war with Japan. The CHLA staged a campaign in the 1930s and 40s which took as its slogan, "To Save China, To Save Ourselves." Focusing on this campaign, Yu also examines the complex relationship between the democratically oriented CHLA and the Chinese American left in the 1930s. ... Read more

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With different histories, cultures, languages, andidentities, most Americans of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, andVietnamese origin are lumped together and viewed by other Americanssimply as Asian Americans. Since the mid 1960s, however, thesedifferent Asian American groups have come together to promote andprotect both their individual and their united interests. The firstbook to examine this particular subject, Asian American Panethnicityis a highly detailed case study of how, and with what success, diversenational-origin groups can come together as a new, enlarged panethnicgroup.

Yen Le Espiritu explores the construction of large-scale affiliations,in which previously unrelated groups submerge their differences andassume a common identity. Making use of extensive interviews andstatistical data, she examines how Asian panethnicity protects therights and interests of all Asian American groups, including those,like the Vietnamese and Cambodians, which are less powerful andprominent than the Chinese and Japanese. By citing specificexamples—educational discrimination, legal redress, anti-Asianviolence, the development of Asian American Studies programs, socialservices, and affirmative action—the author demonstrates how AsianAmericans came to understand that only by cooperating with each otherwould they succeed in fighting the racism they all faced. ... Read more

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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

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At a time when Asian-American theater is enjoying a measure of growth and success, Josephine Lee tells us about the complex social and political issues depicted by Asian-American playwrights. By looking at performances and dramatic texts, Lee argues that playwrights produce a different conception of 'Asian-America' in accordance with their unique set of sensibilities. For instance, some Asian-American playwrights critique the separation of issues of race and ethnicity from those of economics and class, or they see ethnic identity as a voluntary choice of lifestyle rather than an impetus for concerted political action. Others deal with the problem of cultural stereotypes and how to reappropriate their power. Lee is attuned to the complexities and contradictions of such performances, and her trenchant thinking about the criticisms lobbed at Asian-American playwrights-for their choices in form, perpetuation of stereotype, or apparent sexism or homophobia-leads her to question how the presentation of Asian-American identity in the theater parallels problems and possibilities of identity offstage as well.Discussed are better-known plays such as Frank Chin's "The Chickencoop Chinaman", David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly", and Velina Hasu Houston's "Tea", and new works like Jeannie Barroga's "Walls" and Wakako Yamauchi's "12-1-a". Author note: Josephine Lee is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. ... Read more

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limited history of roles
On the American stage, Lee contends that a relatively underserved topic has been the Asian American experience. As expressed in the ethnicity of the actors or in the subject material. Her book fleshes out in much detail this thesis.

Describing the paucity of roles available to Asian actors, for example.

To the extent that Asians have been depicted on stage, she also delves into how these roles were often stereotypical. Rarely did two things happen. That an Asian role would appear in a play. And that the role would be meaningful and original. ... Read more