Asian American dreams : the emergence of an American people

...The race name lately assigned to them — Asian-American — is a shifting, unstable thing, as race names tend to be. Sometimes Asian-Americans figure prominently, as in debates over affirmative action. Sometimes they are simply invisible, as in opinion polls that catalog Americans as black, white, Hispanic & other.That anxious adolescent conversation also contains the premise of ”Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People.” Helen Zia’s goal seems to be threefold: to argue that Asian-Americans, collectively the fastest growing group in the country, count as an American category; to illuminate some of the fissures among them; & to highlight recent episodes that have shaped the idea of the Asian in America.The book is part memoir, part social history. Because it is polemical in tone, the rich ordinariness of the many Asian-American lives Zia describes, not least her own, sometimes gets lost. And much of the information here will be familiar to scholars of Asian-American history. Still, this is an important book because it seeks to answer a question that few other popular works pose: What does it take for people like the author to become fully American? - HelenZia.comHELEN ZIA is the author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, a finalist for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize (Bill Clinton referred to the book in two separate Rose Garden speeches). Zia co-authored, with Wen Ho Lee, My Country Versus Me, which reveals what happened to the Los Alamos scientist who was falsely accused of being a spy for China in the “worst case since the Rosenbergs.” She is also a former executive editor of Ms. magazine. The daughter of immigrants from China, Zia is a Fulbright Scholar & a graduate of Princeton University’s first coeducational class. She received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the City University of New York School of Law for bringing important matters of law & civil

The fascinating story of the rise of Asian Americans as a politically and socially influential racial group

This groundbreaking book is about the transformation of Asian Americans from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups into a self-identified racial group that is influencing every aspect of American society. It explores the junctures that shocked Asian Americans into motion and shaped a new consciousness, including the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, by two white autoworkers who believed he was Japanese; the apartheid-like working conditions of Filipinos in the Alaska canneries; the boycott of Korean American greengrocers in Brooklyn; the Los Angeles riots; and the casting of non-Asians in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon. The book also examines the rampant stereotypes of Asian Americans.

Helen Zia, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born in the 1950s when there were only 150,000 Chinese Americans in the entire country, and she writes as a personal witness to the dramatic changes involving Asian Americans.

Written for both Asian Americans -- the fastest-growing population in the United States -- and non-Asians, Asian American Dreams argues that America can no longer afford to ignore these emergent, vital, and singular American people.

The fascinating story of the rise of Asian Americans as a politically and socially influential racial group This groundbreaking book is about the transformation of Asian Americans from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups into a self-identified racial group that is influencing every aspect of American society. It explores the junctures that shocked Asian Americans into motion and shaped a new consciousness, including the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, by two white autoworkers who believed he was Japanese; the apartheid-like working conditions of Filipinos in the Alaska canneries; the boycott of Korean American greengrocers in Brooklyn; the Los Angeles riots; and the casting of non-Asians in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon. The book also examines the rampant stereotypes of Asian Americans. Helen Zia, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born in the 1950s when there were only 150,000 Chinese Americans in the entire country, and she writes as a personal witness to the dramatic changes involving Asian Americans. Written for both Asian Americans — the fastest-growing population in the United States — and non-Asians, Asian American Dreams argues that America can no longer afford to ignore these emergent, vital, and singular American people. This book is about the transformation of Asian Americans from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups into a self-identified racial group that is influencing every aspect of American society. It explores the junctures that shocked Asian Americans into motion and shaped a new consciousness, including the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, by two white autoworkers who believed he was Japanese; the apartheid-like working conditions of Filipinos in the Alaska salmon canneries; the boycott of Korean American greengrocers in Brooklyn; the L.A. riots; and the casting of non-Asians in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon. The book also examines the rampant stereotyping of Asian Americans, which has an impact on key issues concerning all Americans, from affirmative action and campaign finance to popular culture and national security.

Helen Zia, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born in 1952, when there were only 150,000 Chinese Americans in the entire country, and she writes as a personal witness to the dramatic changes involving Asian Americans.

"This book is about the transformation of Asian American; from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups that is influenced in every aspect of American society. It explores the junctures that shocked Asian Americans into motion and shaped a new consciousness, including the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, by two white autoworkers who believed he was Japanese; the apartheid-life working conditions of Filipinos in the Alaska salmon canneries; the boycott of Korean American greengrocers in Brooklyn; the L.A. riots; and the casting of non-Asians in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon. The book also examines the rampant stereotyping of Asian Americans, which has an impact on key issues concerning all Americans, from affirmative action and campaign finance to popular culture and national security."--BOOK JACKET.

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

John Kuo Wei Tchen

. . . a wonderful, sophisticated, lively sociohistorical biography . . . Herein Helen Zia emerges as the foremost activist-chronicler of the eighties and nineties.

"This groundbreaking book is about the transformation of Asian Americans ... into a self-identified racial group that is influencing every aspect of American society"--Page 4 of cover.;Beyond our shadows. From nothing, a consciousness -- Surrogate slaves to American dreamers -- The awakening. Detroit blues: "Because of you motherfuckers" -- To market, to market, New York style -- Gangsters, gooks, geishas, and geeks -- Up from innocence. Welcome to Washington -- Lost and found in L.A. -- For richer, for poorer -- Moving the mountain. Out on the front lines -- Reinventing our culture -- The last bastion -- Living our dreams. An account of the emergence of the Asian American consciousness in the United States explores the history that led to disparate groups of Asians seeing themselves as a single, cohesive ethnic community with political power.