Asian American Political Research Articles

Cultural Politics: The African American Connection in Asian American Jazz-based Music

The incipient period of Asian American jazz-based music is a compelling site for studying the African American influence on Asian American politics and culture more broadly in the 1970s and 1980s. The cultural politics of Asian American musician-composers on both the east and west coasts present a view of this Afro-Asian connection. In particular, Asian American jazz-based music in the 1970s and 1980s demonstrates the strong pull both politically and musically of Black Nationalism and its attendant art form, Free Jazz, at a time when Asian Americans were beginning a process of reinventing themselves. The early music of Glenn Horiuchi and Mark Izu of the San Francisco Bay Area's Asian Improv Arts Collective and New York musician-composer Fred Ho narrate the rise of a politicized music. All three artists, well known within the Asian American music world, share a sociopolitical stance, a penchant for improvisation, and an approach that explores the nuances of traditional Asian music. The political viewpoints and performative practices of African American jazz musicians in the 1960s did initially inspire and shape Asian American politics and creative music, but starting in the late 1970s into the 1980s a number of musician-composers began to chart new musical territory that embodied their own political and cultural consciousness. Asian Americans identified with jazz because it served as a collective voice of urban African American communi-

Behind the Numbers: Talking Politics with Foreign‐born Chinese Americans

AbstractThis paper discusses results of in‐depth follow‐up interviews conducted with selected individuals of Chinese descent residing in Los Angeles and San Francisco who were previously chosen at random to participate in the 2000 and 2001 Pilot National Asian American Political Survey. A total of 15 male and female informants who had migrated from Taiwan, mainland China, and Hong Kong were interviewed in Mandarin Chinese. They were asked to compare the performance of the US Government with that of the government in their respective ethnic homeland. They were also asked to explain their reasons for supporting a certain US political party, ideology, and type of candidate. In addition, they commented on the state of political participation or the lack of it among Chinese Americans. Finally, they explained the complexity of their ethnic self‐identification and experiences of racial discrimination. Their responses were interpreted within the context of the historical formation of the Chinese American community as well as the summary results of the mass opinion survey. The results help dispel myths about Chinese Americans being politically indifferent and irrational. They help illuminate the possible relationships among ethnic identity, homeland politics, and political participation in the host land. They also provide exciting insights into improving the survey instrument for a majority immigrant and non‐Anglophone population.

Asian Americans are People of Color, Too. . .Aren’t They? Cross-Racial Alliances and the Question of Asian American Political Identity

Asian Americans are involved in cross-racial community and advocacy coalitions. The article explores the barriers and problems that people in these groups encounter, which impede their progress in sustaining impactful and influential agenda and decisions. The central problem behind this is Asian American’s ambiguous political stance, thereby making coalition partners apprehensive. Asian American’s lack of definitive political identity and how they relate to other racial background pose as a problem to coalition building. A brief look to one of the earliest Asian American immigrants to the US shows that even from the very beginning Asian Americans have occupied a highly ambiguous position in American society. Discussed is the central question of what Asian Americans are fighting for in terms of social justice. Asian Americans need to discuss their political identification and agenda as a way to sustain cross-alliances and to have a secure future in American society. Asian Americans as an internally diverse group explain the difficulty of having a unified voice representing our political stance. Two Asian American grassroots organizations with clear political identities are explored.

Asian Americans are People of Color, Too. . .Aren't They? Cross-Racial Alliances and the Question of Asian American Political Identity

The first part of this article explores the ambiguity of Asian American political identity during the post-civil rights era; the second part discusses the impact of this ambiguity upon the formation of cross-racial alliances; the third part spotlights the crossracial coalition work of two Asian American grassroots organizing groups with highly defined political identities; and the conclusion considers how Asian Americans might think and talk about their political identity in preparation for the challenges of the future.

Distinguished Asian American political and governmental leaders

Introduction: From Exlusion and Disenfranchisement to Political Leadership--Asian Pacific American Elected Officials and Activists Profiles Aiso, John Fujio Akaka, Daniel K. Arakaki, James Y. Ariyoshi, George R. Barve, Kumar Bloch, Julia Chang Boggs, Grace Lee Buchholdt, Thelma Cayetano, Benjamin Chan, Wilma Chao, Elaine L. Chau, Nguyen Minh Chaudhary, Satveer Chow, Ruby Choy, Herbert Young Cho Chu, Judy Esteves, Jose Eu, March Fong Faleomavaega, Eni F.H. Fong, Hiram L. Fong, Matthew K. Furutani, Warren Gin, Mike Guingona, Michael P. Hayakawa, Samuel Ichiye Hayashi, Dennis W. Hirono, Mazie Honda, Mike Inouye, Daniel K. Ito, Lance A. Joe, Harry J. Kealoha, James Kimo Kim, Jay C. King, Jean Sadako Kochiyama, Yuri Koh, Harold Hongju Kwoh, Stewart Kwok, Daphne Lam, Tony Lau, Cheryl Ann Lau, Gordon Lee, Bill Lann Lee, Cherye Lee, Harry Lim, Joaquin Lim, John Liu, Carol Locke, Gary Luke, Wing Mansho, Rene Matsui, Robert Matsunaga, Spark Masayuki Matsunaka, Stanley T. Minami, Dale Mineta, Norman Y. Mink, Patsy T. Miyagishima, Kenneth Daniel Mollway, Susan Oki Morita, Hermina M. Nakano, George Narasaki, Karen Natividad, Irene Oh, Angela Eunjin Ong, Wing F. Park, Michael Quan, Gordon Saiki, Patricia Sangiolo, Amy Mah Santos, Sharon Tomiko Saund, Dalip Singh Shin, Paull Hobom Sibonga, Dolores Singh, Shamina Siv, Sichan Aun Tahir-Kheli, Shirin R. Tanaka, Paul K. Teng, Mabel Tokuda, Kip Underwood, Robert Uong, Chanrithy Valderrama, David M. Veloria, Velma Rosetta Vera Cruz, Philip Villamin Waihee, John David III Wong, Barry Wong, Delbert E. Wong, Martha J. Woo, Michael Woo, S.B. (Shien-Biau) Wu, David Xiong, Joe Bee Yaki, Michael Yamane, Brian Y. Yee, Leland Yih, Mae Yoneda, Karl Goso Appendix 1: Distinguished Asian American Political and Governmental Leaders by Birth Date Appendix 2: Distinguished Asian American Political and Governmental Leaders by Position Selected Bibliography Index

When You Are Related to the “Other”: (Re)locating the Chinese Homeland in Asian American Politics through Cultural Tourism

In 1972 eleven college-educated, secondthrough fourth-generation ChineseAmerican youths of Cantonese descent traveled toHongKong to study theCantonese language.1All had hoped to serve theChinatown community as activists, yet most could not even talk to the newly arriving non-Englishspeaking immigrants; they described their political dilemma in a 1973 selfpublished pamphlet called Going Back.2 The group decided to tour China, then embroiled in the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), “to return to the home of our ancestors, to learn about our history and to see how old China has changed into the socialist motherland of today.” Visiting their ancestral villages, they met their relatives. Some students labored in the fields to contribute to socialist reconstruction.Most, raised in the suburbs and politicized in the Third World student activism of the late 1960s, hoped Asian American activist politics could model itself on China’s revolution.3 As they put it: “3rd, 4th, 5th generation born in America, living in white middle-class

Asian American politics: law, participation, and policy

Asian American politics: law, participation, and policy

Asian American Politics: Law, Participation, and Policy (review)

Asian American Politics: Law, Participation, and Policy (review)

The Making of Asian America Through Political Participation. By Pei-te Lien. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001. 293p. $69.50 cloth, $19.95 paper

The field of Asian American politics is not uncharted terrain in American politics research, but it is certainly underexplored. The relative lack of scholarly attention, however, is likely to change, since Asian Americans are the fastest growing group in the United States and have occupied this position for the last several decades. They thus comprise a large potential electoral base, which is largely uncultivated. Although much of the literature on the topic is written from the vantage point of electoral politics, Asian American politics does not actually fit well into this paradigm. Instead, Asian American politics is multifaceted and is, moreover, complicated by a multiethnic base.

The making of Asian America through political participation

List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Charting a Hidden Terrain: Historical Struggles for Inclusion and Justice Prior to the Era of Civil Rights and Electoral Politics 2. Constructing a Community That (Almost) Cannot Be: Contemporary Movements Toward Liberation and Empowerment--After 1965 3. Participation in Electoral Politics: Evolving Patterns in Hawaii and Mainland States 4. How Can We All Get Along? Cross-Racial Coalition-Building Possibilities and Barriers 5. What Ties That Bind? Comparing Political Attitudes and Behavior Across Major Asian American Groups 6. Linking Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender: Asian American Women and Political Participation Conclusion Appendix: Researching Asian American Political Behavior with Sample Surveys: A Methodological Report Notes References Index

Additional Resources on Asian Americans

AbstractThe authors identify Asian American associations and organizations, academic journals, periodicals, and media resources. Selected annotated resources on Asian American activism and politics, counseling and psychology, educational issues, gender and sexual orientation, history, policy reports, and racial and ethnic identity are also included.

Global Forces, Foreign Policy, and Asian Pacific Americans

In his contribution to an important new collection on Asian-American politics, Don T. Nakanishi calls for “renewing a search for a paradign of Asian Pacific American politics” that takes into account “nondomestic political experiences and relationships” (2001, 106). This article addresses Nakanishi's challenge to consider efforts by Asian Pacific Americans to influence U.S.–Asia relations, especially in advocating changes in American foreign policy towards their countries of origin; the ways in which international processes and policies related to the flow of people, money, goods, and ideas impinge on the political behavior and status of Asian Pacific Americans; and the impact of international political conflicts and domestic political crises involving Asian homelands on interethnic and intracommunity political relations involving Asian Pacific American communities (2001, 106-7).

Asian Pacific-American Public Opinion and Political Participation

Studying Asian-American politics with public opinion data is a relatively new phenomenon. Only in the last decade have a number of surveys (collected mostly at the local or regional level) been taken, reflecting expanded interest in the growing Asian-American population and the development of ethnic sampling and interviewing techniques.In this article, the terms “Asian” and “Asian American” are used interchangeably. While most research on Asian-American political behavior focuses on voting, some work examines other forms of political participation. Recent scholarship concerns not only individual characteristics, but also contextual and institutional factors.

Language Policy and Identity Politics in the United States. By Ronald Schmidt, Sr. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000. 250p. $65.50 cloth, $21.95 paper.

In the late twentieth century, language conflicts became not only a central battle in public policy but also an essential medium for political expression among traditionally margin- alized groups. This is clearly reflected in a host of policy initiatives (from antiimmigrant propositions such as 187 in California, to English-only and antibilingual education move- ments in such states as Arizona, California, Colorado, and Florida) and the proliferation of studies linking language with Latino and Asian American politics (e.g., Antonia Darder and Rodolfo D. Torres, eds., The Latino Studies Reader: Culture, Economy and Society, 1998; and Louis De- Sipio and Rodolfo de la Garza, Making Americans, Remaking America: Immigration and Immigration Policy, 1998).

Foreshadowing Strategic Pan-Ethnic Politics: Asian American Campaign Finance Activity in Varying Multicultural Contexts

AbstractResearch on Asian American politics is hampered by data limitations. Asian Americans comprise a small proportion of the population, and few political candidates are of Asian descent. However, because the Asian American population is growing quickly, interest in the group's political behavior has grown. One source of data that can be exploited to understand Asian American political behavior is the state of Hawaii. Hawaii provides a natural experiment since the majority of its citizens are Asian American and Asian political candidates are commonplace. This study of Hawaiian politics focuses on Asian American campaign finance behavior. I find that as Asian Americans locate themselves in more multicultural settings, they become more politically strategic, less focused on national-origin groupings, and more inclined to embrace a pan-ethnic identity.

Asian Americans: Experiences and Perspectives

Preface. Introduction. 1. An Overview of the Asian American Experience. The History of Asians in America, Timothy P. Fong. Contemporary Asian American Sociodemographic Status, Larry H. Shinagawa. 2. Critical Perspectives. Asian American Historiography, Sucheng Chan. Is Yellow Black or White? Gary Y. Okihiro. Rethinking Race: Paradigms and Policy Formation, Shirley Hune. 3. Asian American Communities. The Acculturation Pattern of Orange County's Southeast Asian Refugees, Chor-Swang Ngin. Asian Americans in Enclaves-They Are Not One Community: New Modes of Asian American Settlement, Tom L. Chung. Filipinos Find Home in Daly City, Bert Eljera. Dixie's Global Village, Jeff Yang. Still Bitter All These Years, Angela E. Oh. 4. Education Issues. We Could Shape It: Organizing for Asian Pacific American Student Empowerment, Peter Nein-Chu Kiang. Educating Asian Pacific Americans: Struggles and Progress, Shirley Hune and Kenyon Chan. Multiculturalism: Battleground or Meeting Ground? Ronald Takaki. Being Different Together in the University Classroom: Multiracial Identity as Transgressive Education, Teresa Kay William, Cynthia L. Nakashima, George Kitahara Kich, and G. Reginald Daniel. 5. Employment and Occupation. The Inventing and Reinventing of Model Minorities: the Cultural Veil Obscuring Structural Sources of Inequality, Deborah Woo. Asian Americans in Public Service: Success, Diversity, and Discrimination, Pan Suk Kim and Gregory B. Lewis. San Francisco Guards Punished for Their Accents: Discrimination Spoken Here, Richard J.P. Cavosara. Immigrant Asian Women in Bay Area Garment Sweatshops: After Sewing, Laundry, Cleaning, and Cooking, I Have No Breath Left to Sing, Miriam Ching Louie. 6. Popular Culture, Imagery, and Stereotypes. The Rape Fantasy: The Cheat and Broken Blossoms, Gina Marchetti. The Death of Asia on the American Field of Representation, James S. Moy. Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck, Jessica Hagedorn. What Hollywood Should Know, Steve Park. A Disappointing All-American Girl, William Wong. 7. Families, Identities, and Culture. Chinese-America Families, Evelyn Nakano Glenn with Stacey G.H. Yap. Vietnamese American Families, Nazli Kibria. Invisible Americans: An Exploration of Indo-American Quality of Life, Snehendu B. Kar, Kevin Campbell, Armando Jimenez, and Sangeeta R. Gupta. A False and Shattered Peace, Katherine Kam. 8. New Asian American Families, Identities, and Culture. Asian American Panethnicity and Intermarriage, Larry H. Shinagawa and Gin Y. Pang. All of the Above, Angelo Ragaza. A Fighter for Gay Rights, Carlos Mendez. Stories from the Homefront: Perspectives of Asian American Parents with Lesbian Daughters and Gay Sons, Alice Y. Horn. 9. Asian American Political Empowerment. Becoming Citizens, Becoming Voters: The Naturalization and Political Participation of Asian Pacific Immigrants, Paul Ong and Don Nakanishi. Asian Americans and Latinos in San Gabriel Valley, California: Ethnic Political Cooperation and Redistricting, 1990-1992, Leland T. Saito. P.R. Elections in N.Y.C: Effects of Preference Voting on Asian-America Participation, Tito Sinha. Foreign Money Is No Friend of Ours, Ling-chi Wang. Asian-Americans under Glass: Where the Furor over the President's Fundraising Has Gone Awry-and Racist, Phil Tajitsu and Frank Wu. S.F. Rally Spotlights Kao Killing, Bert Eljera. 10. Future Directions in Asian American Studies. Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Marking Asian American Differences, Lisa Lowe. Postmodern Possibilities: Theoretical and Political Directions for Asian American Studies, Keith Osajima. Denationalization Reconsidered: Asian American Cultural Criticism at a Theoretical Crossroads, Sau-Ling C. Wong. Maiden Voyage: Excursion into Sexuality and Identity Politics in Asian America, Dana Y. Takagi. Contributors.

State, Culture, and Religion: Political Action and Representation among South Asians in North America

Diaspora 9:1 2000 ~,~ 'State~'.1 Culture, and Religion: ... e(Jf.· itiofl Action and Representation 'F amJ!Jftg South Asians in North America •iii:~ ~ti~-- ~~ j;~- Karen Leonard 1 University of California, Irvine In what ways, other than through aesthetics, is the politics of diaspora constituted? Pnina Werbner has suggested that, in the formation of diasporas, real politics might consist of transna- tional moral gestures of philanthropy and political lobbying ... grounded in ideas about a shared past and future. 2 Thus she urges us to interrogate the relationship between politics and art, or real politics and aesthetics, in diasporas and/or transnational communi- ties (concepts not the same, but increasingly conflated in the literature: Vertovec 277). This challenging question comes out of Werbner's work with South Asian Muslims in the British context, where one can talk of the moral community of Muslims as a diasporic one. There are Mus- lims in the UK from the Middle East, Cyprus, Malaysia, and else- where, but most are Pakistani and Indian immigrants with a shared past. In North America, however, many other Muslims preceded the South Asians, and in the US, African Americans constitute some 40% of the American Muslim community. Esti- mates of the Muslim population in the US range widely, but in 1992 the American Muslim· Council put it between 5 and 8 million, with indigenous Muslims at 42%, South Asians at 24.4%, and Arabs at 12.4% (Nu'man 13). Canadian Muslims are fewer in number, some 350,000; while many are Canadian-born, these are mostly second-generation rather than converts (Khan 29-30). In the US, not only are indigenous Muslims the single largest group, but immigrant Muslims represent many diasporas, not just one. However, it is the differences between Britain and America, and between Canada and the US, that make the relationship of art and politics an interesting question. Taking Indians and Pakistanis in North America to be a single diasporic community, I will nonethe- less draw religious and generational distinctions among them, con- sidering Muslims and, very briefly, Sikhs and Hindus. These dis- t inctions are then related to an issue much debated in Asian l ... merican studies and identity politics, the tension between the diasporic perspective and claiming America (Wong), to argue that Asian American and Muslim American politics both lead to a rlic:c:nlvinP r~t.hPr t.h~n ~ nPrj)Pt.irntion . of thP rlii:umoric nature of

At the Margins of the Asian American Political Experience: The Life of Grace Lee Boggs

(1999). At the Margins of the Asian American Political Experience: The Life of Grace Lee Boggs. Amerasia Journal: Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 18-41.

Diminishing Returns from Statistical Analysis: Detecting Discrimination in Public Employment

In their article, in public Service: Success, Diversity, and Discrimination, Kim and Lewis (1994) note that Asian experience within federal service, suggest that problem is pervasive and serious, and propose remedies. This writer has personally witnessed at least two incidents of employment against Asian Americans. Neither of these episodes involved federal personnel, but it seems reasonable that federal service is not totally immune to prejudices evident elsewhere in society. However, Kim and Lewis's statistics shed little light on such discrimination's pervasiveness. Anti-Asian may not be as important a federal phenomena as their article concludes. Kim and Lewis's lucidly presented statistics can be interpreted in varying ways. The alternative interpretation which follows may also have implications for identification of against other groups, such as women, Hispanics, and African Americans. Using 1990 and 1992 statistics, Kim and Lewis describe differences between Asian and nonminority whites. Asian make up 2.6 percent of civilian work force but constitute less than 1 percent of municipal officials. There are almost no Asian American mayors or city/county managers. Only .9 percent of Senior Executive Service is Asian, while 3.5 percent of federal work force and 4.3 percent of postal service are Asian (286-287). Twenty-seven percent of white men serving federal government are supervisors, but only 15 percent of Asian American men hold such positions. Twelve percent of white women in federal service hold supervisory positions, compared to only 7 percent of Asian women (288-289). Kim and Lewis also discovered grade discrepancies between Asian and whites. men [in federal service] tended to be .03 of a grade lower than white men with same amount of education, federal experience, and age who had same handicap and veteran (288). The disparity between Asian American and white females employed by service is greater; Kim and Lewis found Asian women to be .06 of a grade behind white women with the same, education, seniority, age, veteran status and handicap (289). Kim and Lewis assert, Because other factors also affect career success, persistence of grade gaps after controlling for age, education, federal experience, veterans preference and disability status does not prove discrimination, but it does indicate problems that government needs to investigate (287). Elsewhere they attribute disparities to more bluntly. Asian American women are said to face double discrimination but be held back more by their gender than their race (287). Kim and Lewis conclude that even this model minority faces discrimination. Policy makers should not ignore this evidence and assume that battle against has been won for Asian Americans (289-290). Readers seem to be presented with a stark choice: either envelop oneself in blanket denial of existence of any anti-Asian discrimination, thus ignoring evidence, designate anti-Asian as a serious problem requiring responses such as diversity training, special recruitment and placement, and Asian American political mobilization. This writer, however, remains uncertain about phenomenon's extent; Anti-Asian may be pervasive within public service, or it may consist largely of isolated incidents addressable through existing laws and grievance procedures. The statistical disparities cited above shed little light on this issue because plausible alternatives to hypothesis can be formulated. One alternative could be called immigrants' loss or educational devaluation hypothesis. Education's contribution to productivity is often contingent upon linguistic and cultural contexts, so immigration can devalue human capital. …

Making Law, Remaking Communities: Discrimination, Immigration, and Asian American Political Consciousness - Charles McClain, In Search of Equality: The Chinese Struggle Against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994). Pp 283. $45.00. - Bill Ong Hing, Making and Remaking Asian America Through Immigration Policy (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993). Pp. 191. $47.50.

Making Law, Remaking Communities: Discrimination, Immigration, and Asian American Political Consciousness - Charles McClain, In Search of Equality: The Chinese Struggle Against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994). Pp 283. $45.00. - Bill Ong Hing, Making and Remaking Asian America Through Immigration Policy (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993). Pp. 191. $47.50.