Franklin Ng - Böcker

Asian Americans have made significant contributions to American society. This reference work celebrates the contributions of 166 distinguished Asian Americans. Most people profiled are not featured in any other biographical collection of noted Asian Americans. The Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, Korean Americans, South Asian Americans (from India and Pakistan), and Southeast Asian Americans (from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) profiled in this work represent more than 75 fields of endeavor. From historical figures to figure skater Michelle Kwan, this work features both prominent and less familiar individuals who have made significant contributions in their fields. A number of the contemporary subjects have given exclusive interviews for this work.All biographies have been written by experts in their ethnic fields. Those profiled range widely from distinguished scientists and Nobel Prize winners to sports stars, from actors to activists, from politicians to business leaders, from artists to literary luminaries. All are role models for young men and women, and many have overcome difficult odds to succeed. These colorfully written, substantive biographies detail their subjects' goals, struggles, and commitments to success and to their ethnic communities. More than 40 portraits accompany the biographies and each biography concludes with a list of suggested reading for further research. Appendices organizing the biographies by ethnic group and profession make searching easy. This is the most current biographical dictionary on Asian Americans and is ideal for student research.

Despite the relatively short history of the Taiwanese in the United States, they have been a significant presence in America. Since 1965, immigration law changes have led to a dramatic increase in the Asian population in the United States. Taiwanese Americans, the immigrants from Taiwan and their descendants, are a prominent group in this increasing Asian population. This is the first book-length study about the Taiwanese American community in the United States. While most articles have discussed the economic impact of their immigration, this study focuses on their community organization, information networks, religious practices, cultural observances, and the growing second generation. Finally, it concludes with an assessment of the contributions of Taiwanese Americans to U.S. society. Biographical sketches of noted Taiwanese Americans complete the text.The identity of the Taiwanese American community is complex and evolving, because it is partly determined by the politics between Taiwan and China. As relations between Taiwan and China change, so will the identity of Taiwanese Americans. Other variables affecting their identity include the relations between mainlanders and native Taiwanese in Taiwan, political liberalization within Taiwan, the role of U.S. policy towards Taiwan and China, and the nurturing of a Taiwanese consciousness. An increasingly important variable is the orientation of the second generation, American-born Taiwanese Americans. They have the options of being simultaneously Taiwanese American, Chinese American, Asian American and American. Taiwanese Americans are helping to reinvent America by transforming the economic and cultural landscape of the U.S. as have previous waves of immigrants.

Many Asian Americans have made great strides in achieving the American Dream. However, this diverse population faces great challenges from outside their communities as well as from within. Asian American Issues brings to the fore eight major issues affecting the Asian American population today, including media stereotypes of a model minority, transnationalism, panethnicity, intergenerational conflict, and cultural expression. Students will find that the background narrative and questions for debate and discussion are a meaningful way to engage in the current events of this growing ethnic group.The history of Asian immigrants in the United States spans more than 200 years. Today, they are the third largest minority group. Almost half live in the West but there are population shifts to other regions of the country. As they become more visible, community dynamics continue to evolve. Each generation also struggles with what it means to be Asian American.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Since the immigration law changes in 1965, the population of Asian Americans in this country has increased dramatically and has also become more diverse as newer groups have joined the earlier Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, and Asian Indians. Especially notable are the refugees from the Vietnam War and other immigrants from Southeast Asia: Lao, Khmer, Hmong, Thai, and others. In addition, political and economic changes in Asia have stimulated the migration of highly educated Asians and the flow of capital from their trans-Pacific homelands to the United States. The essays in this volume provide a framework for understanding the historical experiences of Asians in the United States, with emphasis on the years after World War II.

Before World War II, family life in Asian American communities was greatly influenced by immigration policies and cultural practices. For some groups, such as the Chinese and the Filipinos, a dearth of females resulted in the appearance of bachelor societies. Among the Japanese, a healthy family society was maintained by the practice of sponsoring picture brides. The essays in this volume examine such issues as the role of the family, generational changes, and the significance of kinship, networks, newspapers, and credit associations in various Asian American groups.

Women have shaped immigrant families, reared new generations, and pioneered significant changes in their communities. These essays illuminate the complex and changing roles of Asian American women, examing such diverse subjects as war brides, international marriages, split households, stereotyping, women-centered kin networks, employment, immigrant prostitution, conflict with patriarchal attitudes, feminism, and lesbianism.

In recent years emphasis has been placed on the fluidity of identities of immigrants who have migrated across national boundaries. Scholars are more interested in cultural continuities and discontinuities, the adaptation of traditional practices, and the cultural invention of new practices. These essays explore the construction of new identities, changing group boundaries, generational conflict, the development of new categories such as multiracial Asians through intermarriage, and the maintenance of transnational ties.

The United States has seen several anti-Asian movements, as evidenced by immigration policies, naturalization laws, state and local statutes, and acts of violence. In recent years, Asian Americans have mobilized against prejudice and discrimination, organizing media groups and panethnic coalitions to achieve greater political effectiveness. These essays address recent issues of interethnic relations and conflict and politics in Asian American communities, ranging from the Japanese American redress movement for unjustified World War II internment, Japan-bashing, the model minority stereotype, resistance to urban renewal, interethnic conflicts with other groups, Asian American politics, Asian American panethnicity, and involvement in ancestral homeland politics.

In the late l9th and early 20th century, labor issues fanned the flames of anti-Asian sentiment, as they continue to do to this day. These essays explore the topics of immigration and work, ethnic economics and enclaves, the role of middlemen minorities, Southeast Asian refugee employment, and issues of class, hierarchy, immigrant recruitment, intra-community exploitation, and poverty in Asian American communities.