Asian Pacific American Studies

'Āina Hānau / Birth Land is a powerful collection of new poems by Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) poet Brandy Nālani McDougall. 'Āina hānau--or the land of one's birth--signifies identity through intimate and familial connections to place and creates a profound bond between the people in a community. McDougall's poems flow seamlessly between 'Ōlelo Hawai'i and English, forming rhythms and patterns that impress on the reader a deep understanding of the land. Tracing flows from the mountains to the ocean, from the sky to the earth, and from ancestor to mother to child, these poems are rooted in the rich ancestral and contemporary literature of Hawaiʻi --moʻolelo, moʻokūʻauhau, and mele --honoring Hawaiian ʻāina, culture, language, histories, aesthetics, and futures. The poems in Āina Hānau / Birth Land cycle through sacred and personal narratives while exposing and fighting ongoing American imperialism, settler colonialism, militarism, and social and environmental injustice to protect the ʻāina and its people. The ongoing environmental crisis in Hawaiʻi, inextricably linked to colonialism and tourism, is captured with stark intensity as McDougall writes, Violence is what we settle for / because we've been led to believe / green paper can feed us / more than green land. The experiences of birth, motherhood, miscarriage, and the power of Native Hawaiian traditions and self-advocacy in an often dismissive medical system is powerfully narrated by the speaker of the titular poem, written for McDougall's daughters. 'Āina Hānau reflects on what it means to be from and belong to an ʻāina hānau, as well as what it means to be an 'āina hānau, as all mothers serve as the first birth lands for their children.

A survey of U.S. history from its beginnings to the present, American History Unbound reveals our past through the lens of Asian American and Pacific Islander history. In so doing, it is a work of both history and anti-history, a narrative that fundamentally transforms and deepens our understanding of the United States. This text is accessible and filled with engaging stories and themes that draw attention to key theoretical and historical interpretations. Gary Y. Okihiro positions Asians and Pacific Islanders within a larger history of people of color in the United States and places the United States in the context of world history and oceanic worlds.

Here Gananath Obeyesekere debunks one of the most enduring myths of imperialism, civilization, and conquest: the notion that the Western civilizer is a god to savages. Using shipboard journals and logs kept by Captain James Cook and his officers, Obeyesekere reveals the captain as both the self-conscious civilizer and as the person who, his mission gone awry, becomes a "savage" himself. In this new edition of The Apotheosis of Captain Cook, the author addresses, in a lengthy afterword, Marshall Sahlins's 1994 book, How "Natives" Think, which was a direct response to this work.

A groundbreaking anthology devoted to Asian/Pacific Islander American women and their experiences Asian/Pacific Islander American Women is the first collection devoted to the historical study of A/PI women's diverse experiences in America. Covering a broad terrain from pre-large scale Asian emigration and Hawaii in its pre-Western contact period to the continental United States, the Philippines, and Guam at the end of the twentieth century, the text views women as historical subjects actively negotiating complex hierarchies of power. The volume presents new findings about a range of groups, including recent immigrants to the U.S. and understudied communities. Comprised of original new work, it includes chapters on women who are Cambodian, Chamorro, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Native Hawaiian, South Asian, and Vietnamese Americans. It addresses a wide range of women's experiences-as immigrants, military brides, refugees, American born, lesbians, workers, mothers, beauty contestants, and community activists. There are also pieces on historiography and methodology, and bibliographic and video documentary resources. This groundbreaking anthology is an important addition to the scholarship in Asian/Pacific American studies, ethnic studies, American studies, women's studies, and U.S. history, and is a valuable resource for scholars and students. Contributors include: Xiaolan Bao, Sucheng Chan, Catherine Ceniza Choy, Vivian Loyola Dames, Jennifer Gee, Madhulika S. Khandelwal, Lili M. Kim, Nancy In Kyung Kim, Erika Lee, Shirley Jennifer Lim, Valerie Matsumoto, Sucheta Mazumdar, Davianna Pomaika'i McGregor, Trinity A. Ordona, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Amy Ku'uleialoha Stillman, Charlene Tung, Kathleen Uno, Linda Trinh Võ, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Ji-Yeon Yuh, and Judy Yung.

Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics brings together groundbreaking essays that speak to the relationship between Asian American feminisms, feminist of color work, and transnational feminist scholarship. This collection, featuring work by both senior and rising scholars, considers topics including the politics of visibility, histories of Asian American participation in women of color political formations, accountability for Asian American "settler complicities" and cross-racial solidarities, and Asian American community-based strategies against state violence as shaped by and tied to women of color feminisms. Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics provides a deep conceptual intervention into the theoretical underpinnings of Asian American studies; ethnic studies; women's, gender, and sexual studies; as well as cultural studies in general.

Asian Pacific American Politics presents some of the most recent research on Asian American politics, including both quantitative and qualitative examinations of the role of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in some of today's major political controversies. In the highly polarized politics of the United States in the early 21st century, non-Black racial minorities such as Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans will increasingly find themselves swept into the epicenter of many of the divisive controversies. This timely volume presents the latest scholarly research on some of these issues, examining questions such as Asian American support for #Black Lives Matter, responses to racially-charged attacks, and the differences in the political socialization, politicization, and community-based activism within and across sectors of the Asian American population. In addition to examining political identity, voting participation, political mobilization, transnational politics, and partisan formation, the volume also investigates important, but little discussed, issues such as the Native Hawaiian sovereignty movement, political incorporation of Filipino Americans, and the struggle to establish "comfort women" memorials in the United States. Contributors also examine, through dialogues, how Asian Americans fit into the larger world of American racial politics, the extent to which they are likely to build coalitions with other communities of color, and the boundaries and contours of Asian American political theory. Exploring and Expanding the Political World Pioneered by Don T. Nakanishi, Asian Pacific American Politics will be of great interest to scholars of race and ethnicity in American politics, immigration and minority incorporation, ethnic identity politics, and political participation and democratic inclusion of Asians. The chapters were originally published in Politics, Groups, and Identities.

This book sheds light on experiences relatively underrepresented in academic and non-academic sport history. It examines how Asian and Pacific Islander peoples used American football to maintain a sense of community while encountering racial exclusion, labor exploitation, and colonialism. Through their participation and spectatorship in American football, Asian and Pacific Islander people crossed treacherous cultural frontiers to construct what sociologist Elijah Anderson has called a cosmopolitan canopy under which Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and people of diverse racial and ethnic identities interacted with at least a semblance of respect and equity. And perhaps a surprising number of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have excelled in college and even professional football before the 1960s. Finally, acknowledging the impressive influx of elite Pacific Islander gridders who surfaced in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, it is vital to note as well the racialized nativism shadowing the lives of these athletes.

For undergraduate courses in Sociology of Asian Americans, Introduction to Asian American Studies, or any course focusing on Asian Americans. Combining the rigor of scholarship with the accessibility of journalism, this text examines the contemporary history, culture, and social relationships that form the fundamental issues confronted by Asians in America today. Comprehensive, authoritative, 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.

In dear elia Mimi Khúc revolutionizes how we understand mental health. Khúc traces the contemporary Asian American mental health crisis from the university into the maw of the COVID-19 pandemic, reenvisioning mental health through a pedagogy of unwellness--the recognition that we are all differentially unwell. In an intimate series of letters, she bears witness to Asian American unwellness up close and invites readers to recognize in it the shapes and sources of their own unwellness. Khúc draws linkages between student experience, the Asian immigrant family, the adjunctification of the university, and teaching methods pre- and post-COVID-19 to illuminate hidden roots of our collective unwellness: shared investments in compulsory wellness and meritocracy. She reveals the university as a central node and engine of unwellness and argues that we can no longer do Asian American studies without Asian American mental health--and vice versa. Interspersed throughout the book are reflective activities, including original tarot cards, that enact the very pedagogy Khúc advances, offering readers alternative ways of being that divest from structures of unwellness and open new possibilities for collective care.

Asian Americans have become the love-hate subject of the American psyche: at times celebrated as the model minority, at other times hated as foreigners. Wen Liu examines contemporary Asian American identity formation while placing it within a historical and ongoing narrative of racial injury. The flexible racial status of Asian Americans oscillates between oppression by the white majority and offers to assimilate into its ranks. Identity emerges from the tensions produced between those two poles. Liu dismisses the idea of Asian Americans as a coherent racial population. Instead, she examines them as a raced, gendered, classed, and sexualized group producing varying physical and imaginary boundaries of nation, geography, and citizenship. Her analysis reveals repeated norms and acts that capture Asian Americanness as part of a racial imagination that buttresses capitalism, white supremacy, neoliberalism, and the US empire. An innovative challenge to persistent myths, Feeling Asian American ranges from the wartime origins of Asian American psychology to anti-Asian attacks to present Asian Americanness as a complex political assemblage.

"Historic contributions and stories of resilience are shared in this dynamic graphic novel. An informative and engaging read!"--Maia and Alex Shibutani, two-time Olympic medalists and authors of Amazing: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Inspire Us All Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history is American history. The unique experiences, challenges, and contributions of AANHPIs are an integral part of our country's development, but they are rarely taught in American schools. For many Americans of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander descent who grew up in the United States, there continues to be a startling lack of opportunity to learn about our own history in our country. Even today, over 70% of Americans have little knowledge about AANHPI history or confuse it with Asian history.  Fighting to Belong! Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders from the 1700s Through the 1800s, written by best-selling writer Amy Chu (Wonder Woman, Deadpool, Ant-Man, Iron Man) and Alexander Chang and illustrated by Louie Chin (Bodega Cat), shares this important and dynamic part of the American experience in an accessible and engaging graphic novel format. In this book, the first volume of a three-book series, our middle school protagonists Padmini, Sammy, Joe, and Tiana and their guide, Kenji, embark on an amazing journey through time to witness key events in AANHPI history.  They witness the arrival of the "Manilamen" to the United States in the eighteenth century and fly through significant moments in the next 150 years. Fighting to Belong! helps new audiences young and old, AANHPI and non-AANHPI, understand how these stories are truly interwoven within the fabric of America.

his volume spotlights the unique suitability and situatedness of Filipinx American studies both as a site for reckoning with the work of historicizing U.S. empire in all of its entanglements, as well as a location for reclaiming and theorizing the interlocking histories and contemporary trajectories of global capitalism, racism, sexism, and heteronormativity. It encompasses an interrogation of the foundational status of empire in the interdiscipline; modes of labor analysis and other forms of knowledge production; meaning-making in relation to language, identities, time, and space; the critical contours of Filipinx American schooling and political activism; the indispensability of relational thinking in Filipinx American studies; and the disruptive possibilities of Filipinx American formations. A catalogue of key resources and a selected list of scholarship are also provided. Filipinx American Studies constitutes a coming-to-terms with not only the potentials and possibilities but also the disavowals, silences, and omissions that mark Filipinx American studies. It provides a reflective and critical space for thinking through the ways Filipinx American studies is uniquely and especially suited to the interrogation of the ongoing legacies of U.S. imperialism and the urgencies of the current period.

Recent discussions and dissemination of information regarding the rapid growth of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) across our nation are creating some awareness among administrators and educators in higher education institutions regarding the extensive diversity of AAPIs, the struggles of some AAPI populations in pursuing and succeeding in higher education, and the lack of support for their educational success. National discourse on AAPIs among educators, policymakers and AAPI communities underscores the need for more research”including more relevant research”that can inform policy and practice that will enhance educational opportunities for AAPIs who are underserved in higher education. The book focuses on diverse topics, many of which do not appear in the current literature. The chapters are authored by an array of distinguished and emerging scholars and professionals at various universities and colleges across the nation. The authors, whose insights are invaluable in understanding the diverse issues and characteristics that affect the educational success of underserved AAPI students, and they represent the ethnicities and cultures of Cambodian, Chinese, GuamanianChamorro, Filipino, Hispanic, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Native Hawaiian, Okinawan, Samoan, Vietnamese, and multiracial Americans. The authors not only integrate theoretical concepts, statistical analyses, and historical events, but they also merge theory and practice to advocate for social justice for AAPIs and other underrepresented and underserved ethnic minority groups in higher education.

In this anthology of contemporary eco-literature, the editors have gathered an ensemble of a hundred emerging, mid-career, and established Indigenous writers from Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and the global Pacific diaspora. This book itself is an ecological form with rhizomatic roots and blossoming branches. Within these pages, the reader will encounter a wild garden of genres, including poetry, chant, short fiction, novel excerpts, creative nonfiction, visual texts, and even a dramatic play--all written in multilingual offerings of English, Pacific languages, pidgin, and translation. Seven main themes emerge: "Creation Stories and Genealogies," "Ocean and Waterscapes," "Land and Islands," "Flowers, Plants, and Trees," "Animals and More-than-Human Species," "Climate Change," and "Environmental Justice." This aesthetic diversity embodies the beautiful bio-diversity of the Pacific itself. The urgent voices in this book call us to attention--to action!--at a time of great need. Pacific ecologies and the lives of Pacific Islanders are currently under existential threat due to the legacy of environmental imperialism and the ongoing impacts of climate change. While Pacific writers celebrate the beauty and cultural symbolism of the ocean, islands, trees, and flowers, they also bravely address the frightening realities of rising sea levels, animal extinction, nuclear radiation, military contamination, and pandemics. Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures reminds us that we are not alone; we are always in relation and always ecological. Humans, other species, and nature are interrelated; land and water are central concepts of identity and genealogy; and Earth is the sacred source of all life, and thus should be treated with love and care. With this book as a trusted companion, we are inspired and empowered to reconnect with the world as we navigate towards a precarious yet hopeful future.

A uniquely collaborative analysis of human adaptation to the Polynesian islands, told through oral histories, biophysical evidence, and historical records   Humans began to settle the area we know as Polynesia between 3,000 and 800 years ago, bringing with them material culture, including plants and animals, and ideas about societal organization, and then adapting to the specific biophysical features of the islands they discovered. The authors of this book analyze the formation of their human-environment systems using oral histories, biophysical evidence, and historical records, arguing that the Polynesian islands can serve as useful models for how human societies in general interact with their environments.   The islands' clearly defined (and relatively isolated) environments, comparatively recent discovery by humans, and innovative and dynamic societies allow for insights not available when studying other cultures. Kamana Beamer, Te Maire Tau, and Peter Vitousek have collaborated with a dozen other scholars, many of them Polynesian, to show how these cultures adapted to novel environments in the past and how we can draw insights for global sustainability today.

In the context of two hundred years of American colonial control in the Pacific, Katherine Irwin and Karen Umemoto shed light on the experiences of today's inner city and rural girls and boys in Hawai'i who face racism, sexism, poverty, and political neglect. Basing their book on nine years of ethnographic research, the authors highlight how legacies of injustice endure, prompting teens to fight for dignity and the chance to thrive in America, a nation that the youth describe as inherently "jacked up"--rigged--and "unjust." While the story begins with the youth battling multiple contingencies, it ends on a hopeful note with many of the teens overcoming numerous hardships, often with the guidance of steadfast, caring adults.

Leveraging Sovereignty: Kauikeaouli's Global Strategy for the Hawaiian Nation, 1825-1854 examines the leadership of Hawai'i's longest reigning monarch, King Kamehameha III. It highlights the early 1840s, when Kauikeaouli secured recognition from the United States, Britain, and France that he ruled over an independent and sovereign Hawaiian state. Britain and France, however, sought to limit his powers through forced extraterritorial treaties, and the king struggled to regain ruling control over key governance functions. At the same time, foreign merchants and traders increasingly dominated Hawai'i's economic activity, demanded institutional and social changes, and threatened to overwhelm the Hawaiian population already decimated by disease and out-migration. Kauikeaouli quickly responded to threats to the monarchy's power with a comprehensive strategy to regain and maintain full functional control. In Leveraging Sovereignty, J. Susan Corley upends the popular narrative begun in Kauikeaouli's own lifetime that his white ministers ruled in his stead. Adding a new layer of understanding, Corley's meticulous research reveals insights into historical events and Kauikeaouli's reign. She supports her findings of the king's policies and tactical negotiations with an extensive use of Kamehameha III's own commands as recorded in kingdom archives, letters and documents from government records, and contemporary Hawaiian- and English-language newspaper accounts. While this book includes an overview of the kingdom's administrative structure in the 1840s, its analysis focuses on the origination, implementation, and effectiveness of key statecraft tactics. The king's carefully planned strategy relied on the acquisition of western ministerial skills and of an English-language newspaper (the Polynesian) to publicly defend his sovereign rights and privileges at home and abroad. He ensured the enactment of legislation to defeat foreigners' challenges by strengthening juridical processes and safeguarding land-title rights for Hawaiians, and he deftly managed the multistage renegotiation of unequal international treaties. By the end of his reign in 1854, Kamehameha III had succeeded: The king had reclaimed unrestricted power and authority over all governance areas of the independent, sovereign Hawaiian state. He delivered to his successor Kamehameha IV a restructured, constitutional state whose sovereign status was protected by the three maritime powers of that time.

Made in Asia/America explores the key role video games play within the race makings of Asia/America. Its fourteen critical essays on games, ranging from Death Stranding to Animal Crossing, and five roundtables with twenty Asian/American game makers examine the historical entanglements of games, Asia, and America, and reveal the ways games offer new modes of imagining imperial violence, racial difference, and coalition. Shifting away from Eurocentric, white, masculinist takes on gaming, the contributors focus on minority and queer experiences, practices, and innovative scholarly methods to better account for the imperial circulation of games. Encouraging ambiguous and contextual ways of understanding games, the editors offer an "interactive" editorial method, a genre-expanding approach that encourages hybrid works of autotheory, queer of color theory, and conversation among game makers and scholars to generate divergent meanings of games, play, and "Asian America." Contributors. Matthew Seiji Burns, Edmond Y. Chang, Naomi Clark, Miyoko Conley, Toby Đỗ, Anthony Dominguez, Tara Fickle, Sarah Christina Ganzon, Yuxin Gao, Domini Gee, Melos Han-Tani, Huan He, Matthew Jungsuk Howard, Rachael Hutchinson, Paraluman (Luna) Javier, Sisi Jiang, Marina Ayano Kittaka, Minh Le, Haneul Lee, Rachel Li, Christian Kealoha Miller, Patrick Miller, Keita C. Moore, Souvik Mukherjee, Christopher B. Patterson, Pamela (Pam) Punzalan, Takeo Rivera, Yasheng She, D. Squinkifer, Lien B. Tran, Prabhash Ranjan Tripathy, Emperatriz Ung, Gerald Voorhees, Yizhou (Joe) Xu, Robert Yang, Mike Ren Yi

From three-time Newbery Honoree Christina Soontornvat and award-winning historian Erika Lee comes a middle grade nonfiction that shines a light on the generations of Asian Americans who have transformed the United States and who continue to shape what it means to be American. Asian American history is not made up of one single story. It's many. And it's a story that too often goes untold.  It begins centuries before America even exists as a nation. It is connected to the histories of Western conquest and colonialism. It's a story of migration; of people and families crossing the Pacific Ocean in search of escape, opportunity, and new beginnings. It is also the story of race and racism. Of being labeled an immigrant invasion, unfit to become citizens, and being banned, deported, and incarcerated. Of being blamed for bringing diseases into the country. It is also a story of bravery and hope. It is the story of heroes who fought for equality in the courts, on the streets, and in the schools, and who continue to fight in solidarity with others doing the same. This book is a stirring account of the ordinary people and extraordinary acts that made Asian America and the young people who are remaking America today.

2023 Caroline Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library 2023 WHA W. Turrentine Jackson Award From the earliest days of non-Native settlement of Montana, when Chinese immigrants made up more than 10 percent of the territory's population, Chinese pioneers played a key role in the region's development. But this population, so crucial to Montana's history, remains underrepresented in historical accounts, and popular attention to the Chinese in Montana tends to focus on sensational elements--exoticizing Chinese Montanans and distancing their lived experiences from our modern understanding. The Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky seeks to recover the stories of Montana's Chinese population in their own words and deepen understanding of Chinese experiences in Montana by using a global lens. Mark T. Johnson has mined several large collections of primary documents left by Chinese pioneers, translated into English here for the first time. These collections, spanning the 1880s through the 1950s, provide insight into the pressures the Chinese community faced--from family members back in China and from non-Chinese Montanans--as economic and cultural disturbances complicated acceptance of Chinese residents in the state. Through their own voices Johnson reveals the agency of Chinese Montanans in the history of the American West and China.  

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER * ONE OF TIME'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE * A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness "Brilliant . . . To read this book is to become more human."--Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen In development as a television series starring and adapted by Greta Lee * One of Time's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year * Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, New Statesman, BuzzFeed, Esquire, The New York Public Library, and Book Riot Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative--and its relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world. Binding these essays together is Hong's theory of "minor feelings." As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these "minor feelings" occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality--when you believe the lies you're told about your own racial identity. Minor feelings are not small, they're dissonant--and in their tension Hong finds the key to the questions that haunt her.  With sly humor and a poet's searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche--and of a writer's search to both uncover and speak the truth. Praise for Minor Feelings "Hong begins her new book of essays with a bang. . . .The essays wander a variegated terrain of memoir, criticism and polemic, oscillating between smooth proclamations of certainty and twitches of self-doubt. . . . Minor Feelings is studded with moments [of] candor and dark humor shot through with glittering self-awareness."--The New York Times "Hong uses her own experiences as a jumping off point to examine race and emotion in the United States."--Newsweek "Powerful . . . [Hong] brings together memoiristic personal essay and reflection, historical accounts and modern reporting, and other works of art and writing, in order to amplify a multitude of voices and capture Asian America as a collection of contradictions. She does so with sharp wit and radical transparency."--Salon

In The Movies of Racial Childhoods Celine Parreñas Shimizu examines early twenty-first-century cinematic representations of Asian and Asian American children. Drawing on psychoanalysis and her own perspective as a mother grieving for a deceased child, Shimizu considers how cinema renders Asian American children through sexualized racial difference, infantilization, and premature adultification. She looks at how Asian American childhood is characterized in film through experiences of alienation and trauma and contends that childhood development requires finding freedom and self-sovereignty through agentic attunement. In analyzing films that focus on queer Asian American youth such as Spa Night (2016) and Driveways (2019) and those that explore the trauma of being an immigrant like Yellow Rose (2019) and The Half of It (2020), Shimizu demonstrates that films can prompt viewers to evaluate their own childhood development. They also allow the opportunity to understand the demands placed upon Asian American children, particularly in regard to race and sexuality. In this way, cinema becomes a vehicle for empowering our inner child and the children all around us.

A dual biography of unruly activism that spans national and racial boundaries. Demanding liberation, advocating for the oppressed, and organizing for justice, siblings Mitsuye Yamada (1923-) and Michael Yasutake (1920-2001) rebelled against respectability and assimilation, charting their own paths for what it means to be Nisei. Raised in Seattle and then forcibly removed and detained in the Minidoka concentration camp, their early lives mirrored those of many second-generation Japanese Americans. Yasutake's pacifism endured even with immense pressure to enlist during his confinement and in the years following World War II. His faith-based activism guided him in condemning imperialism and inequality, and he worked tirelessly to free political prisoners and defend human rights. Yamada became an internationally acclaimed feminist poet, professor, and activist who continues to speak out against racism and patriarchy. Weaving together the stories of two distinct but intrinsically connected political lives, Nisei Radicals examines the siblings' half century of dedication to global movements, including multicultural feminism, Puerto Rican independence, Japanese American redress, Indigenous sovereignty, and more. From displacement and invisibility to insurgent mobilization, Yamada and Yasutake rejected stereotypes and fought to dismantle systems of injustice.

This book is written collaboratively by experts on different regions of Oceania. It presents a unique tool for instructors and general readers who wish to become more familiar with the peoples of the Pacific and for scholars looking for an analytical conspectus on this part of the world. Oceania combines surveys of prehistory and history with careful discussions of cultural patterns and problems arising out of contemporary political and economic change. Many of the issues discussed relate to concerns in other global regions, including North America and Australia. General discussions on specific islands or sub-regions are followed by wide-ranging studies that bring together classic themes and recent issues as viewed in current scholarship. Readers will find the book easy to understand, and instructors will find the layout of the materials easy to set into course syllabi. Each section of the book probes issues that are significant for the study of the peoples of Oceania. These issues range from the contemporary interpretation and manifestation of traditional concepts such as "aloha" ("pity," "love," "affection," "sympathy," or "empathy") to the development of ethnicity and political conflict between local and national levels within the state, to the long-term influence of forms of Christianity and their intertwining with indigenous religion and ritual. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize the vitality and adaptability of Pacific Islanders in the context of rapid and continuing transformations in their life worlds. In this completely revised second edition of the book, all sections have been comprehensively updated with regard to recent scholarly literature on and political changes in the societies studied. In their expanded Introduction, Stewart and Strathern have included further discussions of studies on religious change, on aesthetic genres, and in particular on the relatively new arena of Disaster Anthropology that they have been developing for a number of years. They acknowledge also the affinity of the indigenous Austronesian speakers of Taiwan with the Pacific Islanders discussed in this book.

In The Ocean in the School Rick Bonus tells the stories of Pacific Islander students as they and their allies struggled to transform a university they believed did not value their presence. Drawing on dozens of interviews with students he taught, advised, and mentored between 2004 and 2018 at the University of Washington, Bonus outlines how, despite the university's promotion of diversity and student success programs, these students often did not find their education to be meaningful, leading some to leave the university. As these students note, they weren't failing school; the school was failing them. Bonus shows how students employed the ocean as a metaphor as a way to foster community and to transform the university into a space that valued meaningfulness, respect, and critical thinking. In sharing these students' insights and experiences, Bonus opens up questions about measuring student success, the centrality of antiracism and social justice to structurally reshaping universities, and the purpose of higher education.

An innovative anthology showcasing Asian American and Pacific Islander women's histories Our Voices, Our Histories brings together thirty-five Asian American and Pacific Islander authors in a single volume to explore the historical experiences, perspectives, and actions of Asian American and Pacific Islander women in the United States and beyond. This volume is unique in exploring Asian American and Pacific Islander women's lives along local, transnational, and global dimensions. The contributions present new research on diverse aspects of Asian American and Pacific Islander women's history, from the politics of language, to the role of food, to experiences as adoptees, mixed race, and second generation, while acknowledging shared experiences as women of color in the United States. Our Voices, Our Histories showcases how new approaches in US history, Asian American and Pacific Islander studies, and Women's and Gender studies inform research on Asian American and Pacific Islander women. Attending to the collective voices of the women themselves, the volume seeks to transform current understandings of Asian American and Pacific Islander women's histories.

A new history of Asian peace since 1979 that considers America's paradoxical role   After more than a century of recurring conflict, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region have managed something remarkable: avoiding war among nations. Since 1979, Asia has endured threats, near-miss crises, and nuclear proliferation but no interstate war. How fragile is this "Asian peace," and what is America's role in it?   Van Jackson argues that because Washington takes for granted that the United States is a force for good, successive presidencies have failed to see how their statecraft impedes more durable forms of security and inadvertently embrittles peace. At times, the United States has been the region's bulwark against instability, but America has been a threat to Asian peace as much as it has been its guarantor. By grappling with how America fits into the Asian story, Jackson shows how regional stability has diminished because of U.S. choices, and why America's margin for geopolitical error is less now than ever before.

From their earliest encounters with Indigenous Pacific Islanders, white Europeans and Americans asserted an identification with the racial origins of Polynesians, declaring them to be racially almost white and speculating that they were of Mediterranean or Aryan descent. In Possessing Polynesians Maile Arvin analyzes this racializing history within the context of settler colonialism across Polynesia, especially in Hawai'i. Arvin argues that a logic of possession through whiteness animates settler colonialism, by which both Polynesia (the place) and Polynesians (the people) become exotic, feminized belongings of whiteness. Seeing whiteness as indigenous to Polynesia provided white settlers with the justification needed to claim Polynesian lands and resources. Understood as possessions, Polynesians were and continue to be denied the privileges of whiteness. Yet Polynesians have long contested these classifications, claims, and cultural representations, and Arvin shows how their resistance to and refusal of white settler logic have regenerated Indigenous forms of recognition.

Drawing on in-depth interviews, this text examines how Asian American teachers in the US have adapted, persisted, and resisted racial stereotyping and systematic marginalization throughout their educational and professional pathways. Utilizing critical perspectives combined with tenets of Asian Critical Race Theory, Kim and Hsieh structure their findings through chapters focused on issues relating to anti-essentialism, intersectionality, and the broader social and historical positioning of Asians in the US. Applying a critical theoretical lens to the study of Asian American teachers demonstrates the importance of this framework in understanding educators' experiences during schooling, training, and teaching, and in doing so, the book highlights the need to ensure visibility for a community so often overlooked as a "model minority", and yet one of the fastest growing racial groups in the US. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in the sociology of education, multicultural education, and teachers and teacher education more broadly. Those specifically interested in Asian American history and the study of race and ethics within Asian studies will also benefit from this book.

Explores the critical insights and creative energies of Pacific Islander youth. From hip-hop artists in the Marshall Islands to innovative multimedia producers in Vanuatu to racial justice writers in Utah, Pacific Islander youth are using radical expression to transform their communities. Exploring multiple perspectives about Pacific Islander youth cultures in such locations as Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Hawai'i, and Tonga, this cross-disciplinary volume foregrounds social justice methodologies and programs that confront the ongoing legacies of colonization, incarceration, and militarization. The ten essays in this collection also highlight the ways in which youth throughout Oceania and the diaspora have embraced digital technologies to communicate across national boundaries, mobilize sites of political resistance, and remix popular media. By centering Indigenous peoples' creativity and self-determination, Reppin' vividly illuminates the dynamic power of Pacific Islander youth to reshape the present and future of settler cities and other urban spaces in Oceania and beyond.

The Routledge Companion to Asian American and Pacific Islander Literature offers a general introduction as well as a range of critical approaches to this important and expanding field. Divided into three sections, the volume: Introduces "keywords" connecting the theories, themes and methodologies distinctive to Asian American Literature Addresses historical periods, geographies and literary identities Looks at different genre, form and interdisciplinarity With 41 essays from scholars in the field this collection is a comprehensive guide to a significant area of literary study for students and teachers of Ethnic American, Asian diasporic and Pacific Islander Literature. Contributors: Christine Bacareza Balance, Victor Bascara, Leslie Bow, Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson, Tina Chen, Anne Anlin Cheng, Mark Chiang, Patricia P. Chu, Robert Diaz, Pin-chia Feng, Tara Fickle, Donald Goellnicht, Helena Grice, Eric Hayot, Tamara C. Ho, Hsuan L. Hsu, Mark C. Jerng, Laura Hyun Yi Kang, Daniel Y. Kim, Jodi Kim, James Kyung-Jin Lee, Rachel C. Lee, Jinqi Ling, Colleen Lye, Sean Metzger, Susette Min, Susan Y. Najita, Viet Thanh Nguyen, erin Khuê Ninh, Eve Oishi, Josephine Nock-Hee Park, Steven Salaita, Shu-mei Shi, Rajini Srikanth, Brian Kim Stefans, Erin Suzuki, Theresa Tensuan, Cynthia Tolentino, Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu, Eleanor Ty, Traise Yamamoto, Timothy Yu.

A move at age ten from a Detroit suburb to Chattanooga in 1984 thrusts Anjali Enjeti into what feels like a new world replete with Confederate flags, Bible verses, and whiteness. It is here that she learns how to get her bearings as a mixed-race brown girl in the Deep South and begins to understand how identity can inspire, inform, and shape a commitment to activism. Her own evolution is a bumpy one, and along the way Enjeti, racially targeted as a child, must wrestle with her own complicity in white supremacy and bigotry as an adult. The twenty essays of her debut collection, Southbound, tackle white feminism at a national feminist organization, the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the South, voter suppression, gun violence and the gun sense movement, the whitewashing of southern literature, the 1982 racialized killing of Vincent Chin, social media's role in political accountability, evangelical Christianity's marriage to extremism, and the rise of nationalism worldwide. In our current era of great political strife, this timely collection by Enjeti, a journalist and organizer, paves the way for a path forward, one where identity drives coalition-building and social change.

In Surface Relations Vivian L. Huang traces how Asian and Asian American artists have strategically reworked the pernicious stereotype of inscrutability as a dynamic antiracist, feminist, and queer form of resistance. Following inscrutability in literature, visual culture, and performance art since 1965, Huang articulates how Asian American artists take up the aesthetics of Asian inscrutability--such as invisibility, silence, unreliability, flatness, and withholding--to express Asian American life. Through analyses of diverse works by performance artists (Tehching Hsieh, Baseera Khan, Emma Sulkowicz, Tseng Kwong Chi), writers (Kim Fu, Kai Cheng Thom, Monique Truong), and video, multimedia, and conceptual artists (Laurel Nakadate, Yoko Ono, Mika Tajima), Huang challenges neoliberal narratives of assimilation that erase Asianness. By using sound, touch, and affect, these artists and writers create new frameworks for affirming Asianness as a source of political and social critique and innovative forms of life and creativity. Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient

From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the Immigration Act of 1924 to Japanese American internment during World War II, the United States has a long history of anti-Asian policies. But Lon Kurashige demonstrates that despite widespread racism, Asian exclusion was not the product of an ongoing national consensus; it was a subject of fierce debate. This book complicates the exclusion story by examining the organized and well-funded opposition to discrimination that involved some of the most powerful public figures in American politics, business, religion, and academia. In recovering this opposition, Kurashige explains the rise and fall of exclusionist policies through an unstable and protracted political rivalry that began in the 1850s with the coming of Asian immigrants, extended to the age of exclusion from the 1880s until the 1960s, and since then has shaped the memory of past discrimination. In this first book-length analysis of both sides of the debate, Kurashige argues that exclusion-era policies were more than just enactments of racism; they were also catalysts for U.S.-Asian cooperation and the basis for the twenty-first century's tightly integrated Pacific world.

An essential resource that addresses the unique experiences of trauma, healing, and mental health in Asian and Asian American communities. Coauthors Soo Jin Lee and Linda Yoon are professional therapists who witnessed firsthand how mental health issues often went unaddressed not only in their own immigrant families, but in Asian and Asian American communities. Where I Belong shows us how the cycle of trauma can play out in our relationships, placing Asian American experiences front and center to help us process and heal from racial and intergenerational trauma. This book validates our experiences and helps us understand how they fit into the broader context of our family history and the trauma experienced by previous generations. Lee and Yoon draw on their own stories, as well as those of a diverse segment of the Asian diaspora, to help us feel seen and connected to our wider community. They provide essential therapeutic tools, reflection questions, journal prompts, and grounding exercises to empower readers to identify their strengths and resilience across generations and to embrace the beauty and fullness of their own identity and culture.

A survey of U.S. history from its beginnings to the present, American History Unbound reveals our past through the lens of Asian American and Pacific Islander history. In so doing, it is a work of both history and anti-history, a narrative that fundamentally transforms and deepens our understanding of the United States. This text is accessible and filled with engaging stories and themes that draw attention to key theoretical and historical interpretations. Gary Y. Okihiro positions Asians and Pacific Islanders within a larger history of people of color in the United States and places the United States in the context of world history and oceanic worlds.

A comprehensive encyclopedia covering a wide range of topics related to Asian American history, culture, and society.

With overview essays and more than 400 A-Z entries, this exhaustive encyclopedia documents the history of Asians in America from earliest contact to the present day. Organized topically by group, with an in-depth overview essay on each group, the encyclopedia examines the myriad ethnic groups and histories that make up the Asian American population in the United States. "Asian American History and Culture" covers the political, social, and cultural history of immigrants from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Pacific Islands, and their descendants, as well as the social and cultural issues faced by Asian American communities, families, and individuals in contemporary society. In addition to entries on various groups and cultures, the encyclopedia also includes articles on general topics such as parenting and child rearing, assimilation and acculturation, business, education, and literature. More than 100 images round out the set.

"Compared to many existing texts on this subject, which tend to take a rather historical approach, this book focuses on more contemporary Asian experiences. Thus, Min has provided a new tool for those of use who have looked for adequate material to teach current Asian American trends in advanced undergraduate courses in the sociology of race as well as in ethnic studies. Encompassing a variety of perspectives from prominent scholars makes this book a valuable device to examine the less visible aspects of Asian Americans′ lives. Students and educators alike would certainly benefit from diligent study of this text." --TEACHING SOCIOLOGY, reviewed October 2006 by Etsuko Maruoka, SUNY-Stony BrookOffering a broad overview of the Asian American experience, Asian Americansprovides an accessible resource for all students interested in the expanding and important Asian American population. While historical information is provided for each group, the main focus is on the variables and issues that impact Asian American life today. The scholars who author the chapters look at topics such as labor force participation and economic status, educational achievements, intermarriage, intergroup relations, and settlement patterns. Photo essays help to enhance the presentations.Key Features: Covers the Asian American population as a whole as well as individual ethnic groups, i.e. Korean Americans, Indian Americans, etc. Covers theories as well as providing sociological data to illustrate issues for Asian Americans as a whole and as individual groups. Visual essays on the following topics provide powerful illustrations of the text content. Filipino Americans Japanese Americans   Korean Americans Chinese Americans South Asian Americans   Southeast Asian Americans   Economic Adaptation Second Generation Experiences  Updated to not only include information derived from 2000 Census data, but also has a focus on the second generation experience.

Asian Americans are a growing, minority population in the United States. After a 46 percent population growth between 2000 and 2010 according to the 2010 Census, there are 17.3 million Asian Americans today. Yet Asian Americans as a category are a diverse set of peoples from over 30 distinctive Asian-origin subgroups that defy simplistic descriptions or generalizations. They face a wide range of issues and problems within the larger American social universe despite the persistence of common stereotypes that label them as a "model minority" for the generalized attributes offered uncritically in many media depictions. Asian American Society: An Encyclopedia provides a thorough introduction to the wide-ranging and fast-developing field of Asian American studies. Published with the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS), two volumes of the four-volume encyclopedia feature more than 300 A-to-Z articles authored by AAAS members and experts in the field who examine the social, cultural, psychological, economic, and political dimensions of the Asian American experience. The next two volumes of this work contain approximately 200 annotated primary documents, organized chronologically, that detail the impact American society has had on reshaping Asian American identities and social structures over time. Features: More than 300 articles authored by experts in the field, organized in A-to-Z format, help students understand Asian American influences on American life, as well as the impact of American society on reshaping Asian American identities and social structures over time. A core collection of primary documents and key demographic and social science data provide historical context and key information. A Reader′s Guide groups related entries by broad topic areas and themes; a Glossary defines key terms; and a Resource Guide provides lists of books, academic journals, websites and cross references. The multimedia digital edition is enhanced with 75 video clips and features strong search-and-browse capabilities through the electronic Reader's Guide, detailed index, and cross references. Available in both print and online formats, this collection of essays is a must-have resource for general and research libraries, Asian American/ethnic studies libraries, and social science libraries.

Featuring detailed maps and authoritative text, Atlas of Asian-American History offers an in-depth look at the political and social history of this diverse ethnic group. This important volume addresses an often-neglected area of our cultural studies, telling the story of not one group of people but many. Coverage includes: The Asian Heritage: The diversity of Asian culture; the geography of the many national and ethnic origins including India, China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia The Chinese in Nineteenth-Century America: Regional origins of Chinese immigrants; Chinese miners in California; San Francisco's Chinatown; the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Asian Indian Immigration: The Hawaiian plantation system; Japanese and Koreans in Hawaii; Filipinos and Hawaii Labor Strife; the Picture Brides A Question of Citizenship: Anti-Japanese discrimination; the India Welfare League; Asian Americans and World War II; Pearl Harbor; Japanese Internment From Red Scare to Yellow Power: After Internment; a revolution in China; the McCarran-Walter Act; the Confession Program; Hawaii's statehood; the post-war boom Model Minorities and Refugees: The Redress Movement; Southeast Asian refugees and the demographic profile; new immigrants from India and Korea; anti-Asian violence; the Los Angeles riot of 1991 Asian America Today: "Model Minorities;" Asian-American health statistics; SAT scores; Asian-American culture.

Asian Americans have been writing and publishing since the 19th century, but today the popularity and importance of Asian-American literature is greater than ever. ""Encyclopedia of Asian-American Literature"", a comprehensive new encyclopedia, traces American writers whose roots are in all parts of Asia, including China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and more. Coverage emphasizes works that are important in the high school and college literary canon, as well as the historically significant and the contemporary. The coverage includes: Carlos Bulosan; Donald Duk; Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton); Jessica Hagedorn; David Henry Hwang; Maxine Hong Kingston; Interpreter of Maladies; Gish Jen; Ha Jin; The Joy Luck Club; Jhumpa Lahiri; Chang-rae Lee; Bharati Mukherjee; Native Speaker; No-No Boy; Naomi Shihab Nye; John Okada; Cathy Song; Amy Tan; Waiting; and The Woman Warrior.

This comprehensive compilation of entries documents the origins, transmissions, and transformations of Asian American folklore and folklife. Equally instructive and intriguing, the Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife provides an illuminating overview of Asian American folklore as a way of life. Surveying the histories, peoples, and cultures of numerous Asian American ethnic and cultural groups, the work covers everything from ancient Asian folklore, folktales, and folk practices that have been transmitted and transformed in America to new expressions of Asian American folklore and folktales unique to the Asian American historical and contemporary experiences. The encyclopedia's three comprehensive volumes cover an extraordinarily wide range of Asian American cultural and ethnic groups, as well as mixed-race and mixed-heritage Asian Americans. Each group section is introduced by a historical overview essay followed by short entries on topics such as ghosts and spirits, clothes and jewelry, arts and crafts, home decorations, family and community, religious practices, rituals, holidays, music, foodways, literature, traditional healing and medicine, and much, much more. Topics and theories are examined from crosscultural and interdisciplinary perspectives to add to the value of the work. More than 600 entries Contributions from more than 170 expert contributors Introductory essays covering disciplinary theories and methods in the study of folklore and folklife An appendix of Asian American folktales

After emerging from the tumult of social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the field of Asian American studies has enjoyed rapid and extraordinary growth. Nonetheless, many aspects of Asian American history still remain open to debate. The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History offers the first comprehensive commentary on the state of the field, simultaneously assessing where Asian American studies came from and what the future holds. In this volume, thirty leading scholars offer original essays on a wide range of topics. The chapters trace Asian American history from the beginning of the migration flows toward the Pacific Islands and the American continent to Japanese American incarceration and Asian American participation in World War II, from the experience of exclusion, violence, and racism to the social and political activism of the late twentieth century. The authors explore many of the key aspects of the Asian American experience, including politics, economy, intellectual life, the arts, education, religion, labor, gender, family, urban development, and legal history.The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History demonstrates how the roots of Asian American history are linked to visions of a nation marked by justice and equity and to a deep effort to participate in a global project aimed at liberation. The contributors to this volume attest to the ongoing importance of these ideals, showing how the mass politics, creative expressions, and the imagination that emerged during the 1960s are still relevant today. It is an unprecedentedly detailed portrait of Asian Americans and how they have helped change the face of the United States.

Filling a significant gap in the cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary literature within the field of Pasifika (Polynesian) and Maori identities and mental health, this volume focuses on bridging mental health related research and practice within the indigenous communities of the South Pacific. Much of the content reflects both differences from and relationships with the dominant Western theories and practices so often unsuccessfully applied with these groups. The contributors represent both experienced researchers and practitioners and address topics such as research examining traditional and emerging Pasifika identities; contemporary research and practice in working with Pasifika youth and adolescents; culturally-appropriate approaches for working with Pasifika adults; and practices in supervision that have been developed by Maori and Pasifika practitioners. Chapters include practice scenarios, research reports, analyses of topical issues, and discussions about the appropriateness of applying Western theory in other cultural contexts. As Pasifika cultures are still primarily oral cultures, the works of several leading Maori and Pasifika poets that give voice to the changing identities and contemporary challenges within Pacific communities are also included.

An encyclopaedia of information on major aspects of Pacific life, including the physical environment, peoples, history, politics, economy, society and culture. The CD-ROM contains hyperlinks between section titles and sections, a library of all the maps in the encyclopaedia, and a photo library.

The Routledge Handbook of Asian American Studies brings together leading scholars and scholarship to capture the state of the field of Asian American Studies, as a generation of researchers have expanded the field with new paradigms and methodological tools. Inviting readers to consider new understandings of the historical work done in the past decades and the place of Asian Americans in a larger global context, this ground-breaking volume illuminates how research in the field of Asian American Studies has progressed. Previous work in the field has focused on establishing a place for Asian Americans within American history. This volume engages more contemporary research, which draws on new archives, art, literature, film, and music, to examine how Asian Americans are redefining their national identities, and to show how race interacts with gender, sexuality, class, and the built environment, to reveal the diversity of the United States. Organized into five parts, and addressing a multitude of interdisciplinary areas of interest to Asian American scholars, it covers: * a reframing of key themes such as transnationality, postcolonialism, and critical race theory * U.S. imperialism and its impact on Asian Americans * war and displacement * the garment industry * Asian Americans and sports * race and the built environment * social change and political participation * and many more themes. Exploring people, practice, politics, and places, this cutting-edge volume brings together the best themes current in Asian American Studies today, and is a vital reference for all researchers in the field.