Asian-American Books

Written by a female Chinese-American psychologist with over 30 years of experience in mental health services, Learning From My Mother's Voice: Family Legend And The Chinese American Experience is both a cathartic memoir and a strong testimony of the experience of immigrant Chinese-Americans and their families throughout history, yet particularly in the past half-century. Chapters discuss common Western myths perpetuated about Chinese men and women, including infamous movies and characters that deified white men and repeatedly reduced Chinese women to the roles of victims or whores, the role of storytelling in helping families adjust to difficult situations, cultural symbols and universal bonds, the daily experience of Chinese-American family life, and more. Particularly examining the life of her mother, the author applies the cultural lessons learned from studying her mother's life to better understand life as a Chinese-American. An eye-opening examination that will prove extremely revealing for anyone seeking to better understand the psychodynamic and cultural forces behind the Chinese-American family, and especially recommended reading for anyone who career or daily life takes them into contact with Chinese-American communities.

When I first picked up this book, I was very skeptical. I was afraid that it would be another informative yet jargon filled account of Asian Americans in the political sphere. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the contributors in this anthology are activists. They passionately discussed issues ranging from U.S. political prisoners to campus activism and revolutionary acts through the arts. They also revealed their commitment to a life of activism and improving the world we live in.

There have been several noteworthy books about Asian American activism such as The State of Asian America: Activism and Resistance in the 1990's. Yet, the first person accounts of sacrifice, commitment and struggle distinguish Legacy to Liberation from the rest. Grassroots organizing and participation is more than a theory to these writers but a way of life. Their stories are refreshing, inspiring and humanistic.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to know how Asian Americans have worked for social justice and liberation both locally and globally.

Masuda, his family and friends suffer the humiliation and shame of being forced into camps. Then Masuda decides to fight for the country that put them in the camps. His remarkable choice is never questioned in years of letters, no matter how painful his combat experience. His correspondence reflects not only what is happening on the Europe front, but, insofar as it responds to correspondence from his wife and other Japanese-Americans, it reflects the human toll from the internment program. What makes this book so good is that Masuda is a gifted letter writer (a nearly lost art). The editor also did an outstanding job of providing historical context for Masuda's letters, as well as helping with abreviations and the occasional Japanese word. For anyone whose life was touched (no matter how remotely) by Japanese internment, this book is a must-read!

For centuries, people from the Indian subcontinent have been on the move. They migrated to Southeast Asia and East Asia as emissaries of trade and religion. They traveled to the outposts of the British Empire in Africa, the Caribbean, Guyana, and the Pacific Islands as indentured laborers. They journeyed to North America as students and swamis, laborers and merchants. Living in America offers snapshots of the South Asian diaspora in North America. Written with panache and passion, some of the experiences strike a resonant chord in the soul of the reader. Bapsi Sidhwa, for instance, wryly narrates harrowing encounters with American immigration officials. Kirin Narayan evokes the remorse and anguish of the native, returning from the motherland. Javaid Qazi examines the psyche of the unemployed professional, a victim of corporate downsizing. Chitra Divakaruni poignantly recalls the plight of poor Sikh laborers in California at the turn of the century. Particularly outstanding vignettes deal with culture conflict; not the traditional conflict between the dominant white culture and the immigrant value system but an interesting variation of the old theme, namely, the clash of values between South Asian immigrants and South Asian-Americans. Minal Hajratwala pleads with immigrant parents for compassion and acceptance of their bisexual offspring. Tahira Naqvi depicts the betrayal and shame of a Pakistani family when their daughter weds an American boy. Jyotsna Sreenivasan portrays the frustrations of an Indian-American school girl with a classmate just arrived from India. Rajini Srikanth captures the anger and tension that emanate from a South Asian American woman seeking space and privacy from her immigrant counterpart. The writings in this anthology are not gut-wrenching "ghetto" tales or soul-searing "barrio" experiences. Instead, they reflect the yearnings and concerns of a predominantly middle class, English speaking, educated South Asian community straddling two cultures and struggling to define its identity. While the ethnic profile bolsters popular stereotypes of the model minority, it doesn't quite explain their relative anonymity in the social fabric of American life. Does the low social visibility of South Asian- Americans imply successful assimilation? Did the acculturation process begin in the American universities, where most of them spent their initial years? Or, is it a marginalized existence of accommodation without assimilation? Demographic changes have made it harder for South Asians to maintain a low profile. The more recent immigrants are often not as well educated as the relatives who sponsored them. On arrival, they enter the work force, eschewing university life for a paycheck. Many end up as service providers, driving taxicabs and manning toll-booths, making them vulnerable to racial confrontation. A more insidious change stems from the aging of the community. As more retired professionals join the ranks of senior citizens, what will their twilight years be like in America? Perhaps the next anthology will reflect these shifting trends and the response of the South Asian-American community to the new challenges

This is a new modern "classic" childrens book! It's a beautifully illustrated tale of the generational culture clash faced by many immigrant families today. It's part cultural heritage, part mythology, part Calvin & Hobbes-all good. I bought this book for my nephew (9) and niece (6) because I knew they would identify with Lo, the main character, and the cultural dillemas he faces everyday. It's a complex subject matter told in a whimsically simple way that any child can understand and identfy with. I bought 4 more copies for my cousin's and friend's kids.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has children or knows a child, even if they are not Chinese-American. The theme is universal, the drawings are great and the characters are charming. This moden fairy tale is a must-have for your children's reading library.

In these days of tragedy and uncertainty, it was a pleasure to seek escape in a beautiful presentation of the past. The Nees' work gives a most complete and engrossing portrait of San Francisco's Chinatown in the early 1970s. Through 400 intensive, but mostly informal, interviews, the authors developed a comprehensive picture of the crowded Chinese ghetto in the heart of the city, one of the oldest continuing ghettos in the USA. While most Americans may have a rather tinsely picture of "Chinatown" as a place to eat great food or buy exotic merchandise, this book presents the more, down-home truths about the place. Poverty and unemployment stalked the streets, low wage garment and restaurant industries allowed new immigrants little scope to learn English or skills usable outside Chinatown. Decent housing was scarce, delinquency and gangs were on the rise. The tightly-packed area of a few city blocks had seen the transition from a bachelor society---created by bigoted immigration laws---to a family society when Chinese women were allowed to immigrate and then when general immigration began in 1965. Chinatown politics revolved around the Six Companies' conservative role as bearers of the Kuomintang standard and upholders of the status quo versus factions of younger, Americanized Chinese who wanted to attract and control newly-available government money for minorities and the war on poverty.

Not long ago, I read another book on San Francisco's Chinatown, "The Hatchet Men" by R. Dillon. Though they used some of the same historical documents, the Nees work is far superior in every way to Dillon's as a study of Chinatown because the latter contains no Chinese voice. Listening to so many Chinese and Chinese-Americans from many walks of life, you get a real feel for what life was like at that time, in that place. Dillon looked at Chinatown as an outsider studying a rather exotic place while LONGTIME CALIFORN' emphasizes the common human problems that crop up everywhere that immigrants are crammed into small areas with few resources. The Nees interviewed garment workers, waiters, mothers, students, youth gang members, cooperative organizers, businessmen, old retired bachelors, Christians, housing project residents, and tong members. They identify what made them unique as well as what they had in common with others. Their voices, plus the history and local politics written up in readable style make this a gem of a book.

The "Pantheon Village Series", of which this is a part, was one of the great series in social anthropology of its time (1966-c.1981). I have read a number of them and reviewed some for Amazon.com. I strongly recommend LONGTIME CALIFORN' to anyone who is interested in Chinese society in America, in San Francisco and its social history, or to all those who would just like to read excellent community study. `If you forget the past, you can separate yourself from it'---says one man at the end of the book. In a world full of immigrants and refugees, it is indeed useful to remember that the history of most North American families begins with an immigrant or refugee. This eloquent study of Chinatown can be a way to think about the past for anybody.

Drawing from the extant Tibetan and Chinese translations of the lost Sanskrit original Hodge has produced an amazing rendition of the Maha-Vairocana Sutra. His introduction is thorough and his outline of its major themes makes the reading thereof more than intelligible. His method of translation is also to be praised, for instead of sticking unnecessarily close to the literal method or, the other too common error of translations of Buddhist texts, mixing in philosophical terminologies of post-renaissance Western thought, he has instead left all key terminologies untranslated; their various meanings explored in Buddhaguyha's commentray and in the very welcome glossary. All-in-all this is a great starting point in the study of the Maha-Vairocana Sutra, itself one of the most important text of Vajrayana/Mantrayana Buddhism.

This is by far the most accurate and extensive book written about tarab music along with its culture and art. Prof. Ali Jihad Racy examines the concept of tarab in many ways by dividing this book into 7 chapters. An introduction to tarab, the culture or tarab, Performance, Music, Saltanah, Lyrics, and finally a perspective look at tarab in the modern world.
I recommend this book for individuals seeking a deep and clear understanding of this underappreciated art and what classical Arab music is all about.

Eric Marcus records that men of color were questioned when they attended Mattachine events before Stonewall. Books and films concerning the Stonewall era and covering both coasts include Blacks and Latinos, but not Asians. Most work on gay men of color focus upon their struggles with HIV/AIDS. Urvashi Vaid writes that groups for gays and lesbians of color are largely invisible, underfunded, and short-lasting. When taking all these givens into account, an oral history about gay male Asian organizing pre-Stonewall and pre-AIDS is quite revolutionary and needed.

I am sooooo glad Wat had the vision and dedication to make this book. I was worried it would be a rough-around-the-edges dissertation, but it is smooth, well-conceived writing with a nice cover and everything. Finally, we get to hear about how gay Asian-American men negotiate their identities and make their own choices. This book is a gem.

This book is very much about the rise and fall of a gay Asian organization. Constructionists will love it. Essentialism is avoided in this work. Wat does a good job in predicting where gay Asian-Am activism is headed as well.

There are some problems with this book. Based on pure truth and no dilution from the author, a lot of this book focuses upon older white tops ordering around and manipulating Asian younger bottoms. People-of-color loving gay people of color will have a hard time swallowing these sections of the text. There's a catch-22 between the author and his interviewed subjects in which the subject's talking just prattles on but the author's analysis and academic sitations completely slow down the flow of the book. I'm kind of disappointed at how other gay men of color are erased from this history. For example, many of the subjects said they first met and spoke of organizing at a gay club that was half-Asian and half-Latino, yet no Latino is interviewed for this book, while whites are. The best chapter in the book deals with gay Asians as they try to become a part of mainstream Asian-American activism, yet the chapter is named after some "rice queen." Further, gay Asian in this book means male and "yellow", rather than "brown" or Polynesian here.

A few anthologies have chapters about gays of color and their organizing, but I can think of no book-length discussions. I am so glad I found this book. I think progressives and activists of all colors should read this book.

About the same time a group arose in Judea proclaiming the worship of a messiah this group recorded it's movement from Judea to neighboring Parthia. According to their own story the Mandaeans took this step as a means of better following the teachings of John the Baptist who used ritual immersion as a central tenet of his practice.
Their life, customs and religious tracts or Ginza Rba are all lovingly recorded and described by Elizabeth Stephens Drower. While today the sect numbers around 15,000 they record an amazing history of survival against the Parthians and others including Saddam Hussein who would later attempt to extinguish them and their unique means of religious observance.
Although it is true that Mandaeanism as a religion bears certain Gnostic elements, it is an oversimplification to simply deem their practice "gnostic" and leave it at that without -- as Drower among others does -- without taking the necessary pains to completely understand the faith in its varied beliefs and practices which range from prayer honoring the Egyptians who died in the Israelite crossing of the Red Sea to a daily prayer which asserts that Jesus was a false messiah.
Bracketed with Islam the study of Mandaeanism is the study of a religion building on certain Old Testament truths but attempting to do so in a way which maintains the unique identity of a unique theology.
Unfortunately the companion Drower work -- the Mandaean Prayerbook -- seems to be currently out of print but would be ideally suited to be read along with this work.