Negotiating the Model Minority Image: Performative Aspects of College-Educated Asian American Professional Men

Abstract

This study is a chapter in a larger work, in which the authors explore how eight college-educated Asian American professional men negotiate the model minority image to present the performative constructions of their multiple identities within the racialized and gendered context of U.S. organizations where they work. The authors first discuss the participants' perceptions of how others view their social identities as part of a homogenized concept, regardless of their diverse Asian American subjectivities. Then, they examine how the participants engage in performative aspects of the model minority image to promote positive impressions on others and to empower themselves in U.S. organizations. Exploring the subjective standpoint of being the model minority in the context of mainstream organizations, the authors aim to further reconsider the concept of identity as relational in the context of intercultural interactions.