Distinguished Asian Americans

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."--BOOK JACKET.

Biographical entries on 96 Asian men and women who have succeeded in business reflect individual triumphs and the historic experiences of ethnic minorities. Entries are mainly from the 20th century, but some profile significant figures from the late 19th century. Profiles offer basic biographical information and information on the subject's business and background. B&w photos are included of most subjects. Author information is not given. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

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.

Students and the general reader will find inspiration in the profiles of Asian Americans who have achieved successful careers in politics and government, often despite impoverished beginnings and racial attacks. For each person, the profile includes summaries of education, awards, and positions held, followed by a profile of his or her life and career, with a list of sources. Nakanishi directs the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA; Wu is a doctoral candidate at the U. of Chicago. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

"In the past fifty years, Asian Americans have helped change the face of America and are now the fastest growing group in the United States. But as ... historian Erika Lee reminds us, Asian Americans also have deep roots in the country. The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day. An epic history of global journeys and new beginnings, this book shows how generations of Asian immigrants and their American-born descendants have made and remade Asian American life in the United States: sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500s to the Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. Over the past fifty years, a new Asian America has emerged out of community activism and the arrival of new immigrants and refugees. No longer a "despised minority," Asian Americans are now held up as America's "model minorities" in ways that reveal the complicated role that race still plays in the United States. Published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the United States' Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that has remade our "nation of immigrants," this is a new and definitive history of Asian Americans. But more than that, it is a new way of understanding America itself, its complicated histories of race and immigration, and its place in the world today"--Jacket.

Asian Americans are often stereotyped as the “model minority.” Their sizeable presence at elite universities and high household incomes have helped construct the narrative of Asian American “exceptionalism.” While many scholars and activists characterize this as a myth, pundits claim that Asian Americans’ educational attainment is the result of unique cultural values. In The Asian American Achievement Paradox, sociologists Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou offer a compelling account of the academic achievement of the children of Asian immigrants. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the adult children of Chinese immigrants and Vietnamese refugees and survey data, Lee and Zhou bridge sociology and social psychology to explain how immigration laws, institutions, and culture interact to foster high achievement among certain Asian American groups. For the Chinese and Vietnamese in Los Angeles, Lee and Zhou find that the educational attainment of the second generation is strikingly similar, despite the vastly different socioeconomic profiles of their immigrant parents. Because immigration policies after 1965 favor individuals with higher levels of education and professional skills, many Asian immigrants are highly educated when they arrive in the United States. They bring a specific “success frame,” which is strictly defined as earning a degree from an elite university and working in a high-status field. This success frame is reinforced in many local Asian communities, which make resources such as college preparation courses and tutoring available to group members, including their low-income members. While the success frame accounts for part of Asian Americans’ high rates of achievement, Lee and Zhou also find that institutions, such as public schools, are crucial in supporting the cycle of Asian American achievement. Teachers and guidance counselors, for example, who presume that Asian American students are smart, disciplined, and studious, provide them with extra help and steer them toward competitive academic programs. These institutional advantages, in turn, lead to better academic performance and outcomes among Asian American students. Yet the expectations of high achievement come with a cost: the notion of Asian American success creates an “achievement paradox” in which Asian Americans who do not fit the success frame feel like failures or racial outliers. While pundits ascribe Asian American success to the assumed superior traits intrinsic to Asian culture, Lee and Zhou show how historical, cultural, and institutional elements work together to confer advantages to specific populations. An insightful counter to notions of culture based on stereotypes, The Asian American Achievement Paradox offers a deft and nuanced understanding how and why certain immigrant groups succeed.

Biographical entries on 96 Asian men and women who have succeeded in business reflect individual triumphs and the historic experiences of ethnic minorities. Entries are mainly from the 20th century, but some profile significant figures from the late 19th century. Profiles offer basic biographical information and information on the subject's business and background. B&w photos are included of most subjects. Author information is not given. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

In 2012, the Pew Research Center issued a report that named Asian Americans as the “highest-income, best-educated, and fastest-growing racial group in the United States.” Despite this seemingly optimistic conclusion, over thirty Asian American advocacy groups challenged the findings. As many pointed out, the term “Asian American” itself is complicated. It currently denotes a wide range of ethnicities, national origins, and languages, and encompasses a number of significant economic and social disparities. In Redefining Race, sociologist Dina G. Okamoto traces the complex evolution of this racial designation to show how the use of “Asian American” as a panethnic label and identity has been a deliberate social achievement negotiated by members of this group themselves, rather than an organic and inevitable process. Drawing on original research and a series of interviews, Okamoto investigates how different Asian ethnic groups in the U.S. were able to create a collective identity in the wake of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Okamoto argues that a variety of broad social forces created the conditions for this developing panethnic identity. Racial segregation, for example, shaped how Asian immigrants of different national origins were distributed in similar occupations and industries. This segregation of Asians within local labor markets produced a shared experience of racial discrimination, which encouraged Asian ethnic groups to develop shared interests and identities. By constructing a panethnic label and identity, ethnic group members took part in creating their own collective histories, and in the process challenged and redefined current notions of race. The emergence of a panethnic racial identity also depended, somewhat paradoxically, on different groups organizing along distinct ethnic lines in order to gain recognition and rights from the larger society. According to Okamoto, these ethnic organizations provided the foundation necessary to build solidarity within different Asian-origin communities. Leaders and community members who created inclusive narratives and advocated policies that benefited groups beyond their own were then able to move these discrete ethnic organizations toward a panethnic model. For example, a number of ethnic-specific organizations in San Francisco expanded their services and programs to include other ethnic group members after their original constituencies dwindled. A Laotian organization included refugees from different parts of Asia, a Japanese organization began to advocate for South Asian populations, and a Chinese organization opened its doors to Filipinos and Vietnamese. As Okamoto argues, the process of building ties between ethnic communities while also recognizing ethnic diversity is the hallmark of panethnicity. Redefining Race is a groundbreaking analysis of the processes through which group boundaries are drawn and contested. In mapping the genesis of a panethnic Asian American identity, Okamoto illustrates the ways in which concepts of race continue to shape how ethnic and immigrant groups view themselves and organize for representation in the public arena.