Thanks to Hilda Yao, executive director of the Claire Giannini Education Fund, thousands of teachers across California's starving public school system will no longer have to eat the cost of classroom supplies for the upcoming school year on their own.

read more

In December of 2008, a study was released that showed married women in Japan who live with their in-laws are at higher risk of suffering a heart attack. Another study released last year confirmed that in-laws were one of the leading cause of divorce among Indian, Chinese, and Malay couples in Malaysia. But I'm sure this idea has a wider reach and can be applicable to many married Asian American women who have close contact with their in-laws.

read more

You might be interested to read the following posts from September of years past:

• 2009: Another Controversy at Tufts: Racism or Free Speech?
  A controversy at Tufts University involving Asian American students on opposite sides highlights the tricky nature of free speech and how to best challenge racial stereotypes.
• 2008: Addressing Depression and Mental Illness Among Students
  How model minority expectations lead to high levels of stress and mental illness among young Asian Americans and how to help them
• 2007: Who Deserves Freedom of Speech?
  A few high-profile incidents highlight the notion that freedom of speech belongs to everyone, not just to those we agree with.
• 2006: Asian American Buying Power
  New data points to the rising purchasing power of the Asian American population and along with it, perhaps more social influence.
• 2005: New Asian American Communities
  The growth of a new Chinese American community in northwest Philadelphia highlights the multifaceted nature of population and cultural change.
• 2004: New Asian American Voters Survey
  Voting data from the 2004 election highlights some interesting patterns among Asian American voters.

James Lee, a 43-year-old Washington, DC, resident, was shot and killed by police following a four hour standoff at Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

read more

Full disclosure: This past weekend, I spent my Saturday night in New Jersey in the company of something like tens of thousands of screaming tween girls, their equally excited mothers, and plenty of iPhone-wielding dads who gave each other knowing looks across the aisle. A friend of mine was working on a story about Justin Bieber, or more specifically, his signature hair swoosh, and so as part of the reporting process, I found myself at the Prudential Center in Newark, head bobbing to Bieber’s tunes and marveling at the epic proportions of a YouTube craze gone viral.

read more

SAALT "Jazz and Justice" Fundraiser (Washington, DC)
Thursday, Sept. 2 from 6:00pm - 10:00pm

read more

As the new academic year starts for many colleges around the country, like many professors, I am busy preparing to teach my courses. In my case, I usually teach two courses in the fall semester: “The Asian American Experience” (a ‘conventional’ classroom course with 40 students) and “Bridging Asia and Asian America” (a once-a-week, two-hour colloquium with 30 students, taught in the lounge of one of the residence halls). While these two courses are distinct, obviously there is a lot of overlap in terms of examining the histories and experiences of Asian Americans and their connections back to Asia.

With that in mind, I would like to share my list of films, videos, and documentaries that I think are good choices for showing in introductory Asian American Studies classes (the videos are most suited for college and advanced high school courses). As the study of Asian Americans continues to grow, hopefully instructors of these kind of courses and others interested in Asian Americans in general will find this list useful.

The following list is organized by topic and corresponds to the chronological order in which I discuss each topic in my “Asian American Experience” course. For each topic, I highlight the documentary that I tend to show the most often, followed by other videos that I’ve shown and consider to be good choices for that topic as well.

Basic Concepts: The Racialized Landscape

In this first section of the course, I lay out the sociological framework and institutional nature of the U.S.’s racial/ethnic landscape into which Asian Americans fit. I focus on how, contrary to historical and contemporary ideals of being “colorblind,” American society has been and continues to be highly racialized and how social institutions reinforce and perpetuate racial distinctions.

• The Color of Fear: Made in 1992, this video is “just” a group of men from various racial backgrounds sitting around talking about race, but their words sharply illustrate many of the basic and also subtle ways in which racialization gets played out on the individual level and ultimately highlights the failures of trying to be colorblind.
• Race: Power of an Illusion
• Race, the World’s Most Dangerous Myth
• Understanding Race

Immigration and Settlement

In this section, I describe the history of Asian immigration to the U.S., how the 1965 Immigration Act has impacted the current demographics of the Asian American population, and the dynamics of Asian American ethnic communities, from the first urban Chinatowns to emerging suburban enclaves like Little Saigon.

• Saigon USA: Summarizes the exodus of refugees out of Viet Nam, how many of them eventually settled in Orange County CA, the formation of the Little Saigon enclave, and the ways in which Vietnamese Americans reflect both old and new ways, and the ways in which they’re socially divided yet united as well.
• Monkey Dance
• Carved in Silence: Chinese Immigration During Exclusion
• Golden Venture
• Ancestors in the Americas: Chinese in the Frontier West
• Little Manila: Filipinos in California’s Heartland
• Chinatown: Strangers in a Strange Land
• Becoming American

Assimilation and Ethnic Identity

This section explores the multidimensional and multi-level process of assimilation and ethnic identity formation. I discuss how these ideas involve more than just acculturation, how ideas of what it means to be an American have evolved through the years, and how these dynamics play out among adopted and mixed-race Asian Americans.

• Daughter From Danang: This critically-acclaimed documentary chronicles the experiences of an Amerasian from Viet Nam who was adopted by a White mother and her journey back to reconnect with her birth family in Viet Nam. Along the way, she comes to some powerful and painful realizations about her identity.
• Banana Split
• First Person Plural
• Sentenced Home
• Passing Through
• Refugee
• From a Different Shore: The Japanese-American Experience
• Who is Albert Woo?
• Yellow Tale Blues
• No Turning Back

Women, Gender, and Family

Emphasizing the histories, experiences, challenges, and contributions of Asian American women, I highlight their paths of immigration into American society and the contemporary and often contradictory pressures they face, from familial expectations, to academic success, to dealing with exoticization and “yellow fever.”

• Never Perfect: This video portrait follows a young Vietnamese American woman and her decision to have eyelid surgery. In between, it highlights the historical and contemporary pressures on how Asian American women are expected to look and behave.
• Slaying the Dragon
• Quiet Passages
• Good for Her
• Miss India Georgia
• Knowing Her Place
• A Life Without Fear

The Model Minority Image

This section examines the origins of Asian Americans portrayed as the “model minority” and in what ways a seemingly “positive” stereotype is true and beneficial to Asian Americans, and how it also distorts the reality of life for many of us as it overgeneralizes and carelessly lumps all Asian Americans together.

• “The Governor” segment of Searching for Asian America: This segment of the Searching for Asian America video features Gary Locke and his victory as Governor of Washington state in 1992 and how his personal story both reinforces and contradicts the model minority image.
• aka Don Bonus
• Whatever It Takes
• The Story of Vinh
• Kelly Loves Tony
• Another America
• Wet Sand

Work and Employment

How do Asian Americans differ in terms in terms of their occupational and employment success? I analyze two different aspects of that question in this section — glass ceiling barriers that many Asian Americans still confront in the workplace and secondly, how many choose to bypass those hurdles altogether by owning their own small business.

• Labor Women: This documentary profiles three young Asian American women who work as labor organizers in the Los Angeles area and in the process, fight against the traditional patriarchal notions of women’s work in their communities while forging important ties to other communities of color.
• “Outsourcing” episode of 30 Days
• Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night
• “Oklahoma Home” segment of Searching for Asian America
• Roots in the Sand
• Punjabi Cab
• Taxi Vala

Part 2 of my list of best documentaries about Asian Americans will focus on videos relating to discrimination & racism, interracial relationships, faith, spirituality, & religion, sexuality & creative expression, social movements & collective action, and emerging issues in the 21st century.

Writer Koji Steven Sakai and director Quentin Lee worked together on the indie hit The People I’ve Slept With. The film, a sexy romp about a naughty girl who goes good after finding out she’s knocked up, opens in limited release in Los Angeles after sold-out festival showings and an engagement in New York. The pair has more films in the pipeline together.

read more

Back in the day, when Hyphen was just starting, Angie Myung was a volunteer graphic designer who helped us create an early version of our website. Soon though, she moved to Los Angeles with her then-boyfriend (and now husband) Ted Vadakan and launched Poketo, a company that creates limited-edition, art-driven wallets, accessories, apparel and house wares.

read more

The following are announcements about jobs for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes only and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.

American Studies, University of Hawai’i at Manoa

The University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Department of American Studies, invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor appointment, full-time, 9-months, to begin August 2011, pending position clearance and availability of funds. Duties: Teach Indigenous Studies/American Studies undergraduate and graduate courses; conduct research in Indigenous Studies/American Studies; work with graduate students; and other duties as assigned by chair.

Minimum qualifications: Ph.D. in American Studies or related area, ABDs will be considered. Ability to teach undergraduate/graduate courses and conduct research in Indigenous Studies with emphasis on North America and/or Asia/Pacific including Hawai’i. Desirable qualifications: Ability to teach and conduct research in American Studies. Salary commensurate with qualifications and experience.

To apply, send letter of application indicating how you satisfy the minimum and, if applicable, desirable qualifications, curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and graduate school transcripts (copies are acceptable, original transcripts will be required at time of hire) to Indigenous Studies Search Committee Chair, Department of American Studies, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 1890 East-West Road, Moore Hall 324, Honolulu, HI 96822-2318.

Departmental representatives plan to conduct invited interviews at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association. For inquiries contact Professor Kathleen M. Sands, Indigenous Studies Search Committee Chair, kmsands@hawaii.edu or 808-956-9093. Closing Date: October 1, 2010. An EEO/AA Employer.

Asian Policy Issues, University of Texas

The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin has multiple Tenure-Track openings in Global Policy Studies at the rank of Assistant Professor, (exceptional candidates may be considered at more senior levels).

Focus for one opening includes but is not limited to an interest in Asian Policy Issues. Candidates should have strong interests in Policy relevant research and a Doctoral equivalent degree, by start date, in Policy relevant disciplines.

Successful candidates will have an outstanding academic record and significant original research as well as develop a research program, teach graduate and undergraduate courses, collaborate with other Faculty from varied disciplinary backgrounds and provide service to the University, their profession and society. Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply. EEO/AAE. Background check conducted on applicant selected.

Applicant Instructions: Please visit http://facultyjobs.utexas.edu for complete job description and to apply for Job ID: 10072800001.

Contact Info:
lbjfacultyrecruitment@austin.utexas.edu
Website: http://www.utexas.edu/lbj

Asian American Studies, University of Colorado

The Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder seeks to fill a full-time, three semester Instructor position in Asian American studies. Candidates must be able to teach Introduction to Asian American Studies and other courses in the field. Those who employ comparative frameworks or demonstrate the ability to teach a comparative Foundations of Ethnic Studies course will receive fullest consideration. Ph.D. in hand or advanced ABD preferred.

This position will be rostered in Ethnic Studies and will last for three semesters (beginning in January 2011 and terminating in May 2012). Teaching load will be six classes per academic year. There is no formal application process. If you are interested (or know of viable candidates), please email daryl.maeda@colorado.edu with a c.v. and list of classes you have taught or are prepared to teach. Review of files will commence immediately and continue until the position is filled.

Daryl J. Maeda
Assoc. Professor of Ethnic Studies
University of Colorado at Boulder

http://spot.colorado.edu/~maeda

The New Legacy Issue is in the hands of subscribers and at newsstands near you. Our site's been updated with a preview of the magazine and some full articles for your reading pleasure.

read more

With the London 2012 Summer Olympics just around the corner, Britain’s national tourist agency has issued an etiquette guide to help its notoriously persnickety citizens to welcome tourists.

While I’m sure the etiquette guide was written with the best of intentions, some of the culture clashes that VisitBritain is seeking to avoid read like a hilarious list of national stereotypes.

read more

Wednesday August 25th -- Oakland

Binh Danh: New Work

The Mills College Art Museum presents a solo exhibition of new work by Bay Area multimedia artist Binh Danh, entitled "Collecting Memories", featuring daguerreotypes, chllorophyll prints, photographs, and historical artifacts, which capture past and present memories of the Vietnam War. Through December 12, 2010.

8/25: Opening reception 5:30 to 7:30 pm

Mills College Art Museum

5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland

read more

Social scientists know that one institution of American life that is crucial to either alleviating or perpetuating inequalities is our education system. With that in mind, I would like to highlight a few recent news stories, articles, and announcements that include positive news as they relate to Asian Americans and higher education. With each step that the Asian American community (and other racial/ethnic communities as well) takes, hopefully it represents another positive development in reducing social inequalities for all Americans.

Wallace Loh Named New President of Univ. of Maryland

I would like to offer my congratulations to Dr. Wallace Loh on being named the new President of the University of Maryland (home of one of the best Asian American Studies Programs in the country, headed by my friend and colleague Larry Shinagawa).

Dr. Loh and his family left China in 1961 to escape communist oppression, first immigrating to Peru (Dr. Loh is also fluent in Spanish) and then coming to the U.S. for college. He completed his Bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College in Iowa in Psychology (take note of that young Asian Americans — he is not an engineer or physical scientist), a Master’s from Cornell, a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and finally a law degree at Yale. He was also Dean of the University of Washington’s law school (where he was also a close advisor to then-Governor Gary Locke) and most recently, Provost at the University of Iowa.

As you can see, Dr. Loh is extremely accomplished and as an Asian American in higher education, I am thrilled to see another Asian American attaining the Presidency of a major university. I wish Dr. Loh the best success in his new position.

Special Issue on Asian American and Pacific Islander Higher Education

The academic journal AAPI Nexus (2010, Volume 7, Number 1 and published by UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center) has just released its second issue of a three part education series, focusing on Higher Education, guest edited by Mitchell J. Chang (UCLA) and Peter Nien-chu Kiang (University of Massachusetts Boston). Below is a listing of the articles included in the issue:

• Ling-chi Wang: Establishing a Chinatown campus of the City College of San Francisco
• Rick Wagoner and Anthony Lin: Southeast Asian American community college students who transfer to four-year institutions
• Jillian Liesemeyer: Historical comparison of exclusionary quotas against Jewish and Asian American college students
• Oiyan Poon: Recent policy changes in eligibility of admissions in the University of California system
• Julie Park and Mitchell Chang: Improving the future influence of AAPI communities on educational matters

While I have yet to read the articles in this issue, from their descriptions it looks like they each tell a story in which Asian Americans — individually and collectively — have faced and continue to face various challenges when it comes to achieving educational access and success. In their own ways, each article seems to highlight ways in which Asian Americans have worked individually and collectively to confront those barriers and in the process, they have not only empowered themselves but others around them to work toward greater inclusion.

Not Just Scientists & Engineers: Asian American College Students Diversify Their Majors

International Business Times reports that Asian American college students are increasingly turning to other fields of study and majors, rather than the more stereotypical ones of physical sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics:

Larry Shinagawa, director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland, said that . . . First-generation immigrant Asians typically pursue STEM careers — fields that are secure, prestigious, pay well, and have low barriers to entry. He added that two generations ago, Asian Americans (even those born and raised in the U.S.) also largely pursued stereotypical STEM careers.

However, Asian Americans (second-, third-, or fourth-generation) have recently begun to defy the STEM stereotype. Now, a greater number of them study humanities and social sciences versus STEM disciplines. And after completing their studies, an increasing number of them are entering into law and business.

Shinagawa said that many Asian Americans feel more “Americanized” and believe they have a broader range of occupational choices. As to why they choose business and law specifically, he explained that many Asian Americans do not feel they can compete with immigrant Asians in STEM fields, so they opt for law and business, which offer the same or better pay and prestige compared to STEM jobs.

As I’ve always said, there’s nothing wrong with becoming a scientist, engineer, mathematician, etc. if that’s what you truly enjoy doing. But if it’s mainly the parents who are pushing their children towards these occupations, that’s a recipe for future alienation and resentment. For Asian American college students in that position, you owe to yourself to have an honest talk with your parents about what you want to do for the rest of your life.

Further, as diverse as the Asian American population is, so too should be our occupational distributions. We need Asian Americans as doctors, scientists, engineers — and also as musicians, authors, professors, corporate executives, journalists, actors, etc. The take home message is: do not limit yourself.

Frank Wu Named New Dean of Univ. of California Hastings Law School

I also offer a belated congratulations to Frank Wu, renowned civil rights scholar and activist, for being named as the new Dean of the Law School at the University of California, Hastings:

Wu, a Michigan native, has said he changed his career plans from architecture to law as a teenager in response to the racially motivated murder of a young Chinese American man in Detroit in 1982 (Vincent Chin).

He first practiced law with a San Francisco firm and later taught at Columbia, the University of Michigan and Stanford. He became the nation’s youngest law school dean at Wayne State University in Detroit in 2004 and served until mid-2008.

Wu was chairman of the Washington, D.C., Human Rights Council in 2001-02. He is the author of the 2003 book Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, and was a co-author of the 2001 textbook Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment.

As with the cases of Wallace Loh (mentioned above), Jim Young Kim at Dartmouth, and other accomplished Asian American leaders in higher education, it is very gratifying to see Asian Americans in these positions of leadership. With these accomplishments, Asian Americans continue to demonstrate that, contrary to some stereotypes, we can be excellent leaders in helping the U.S. succeed in the age of globalization and transnationalism.

Chinese College Students Flocking to U.S. Campuses

USA Today reports that several colleges and universities around the country have seen a recent surge in students from China enrolling on their campuses:

Last year alone, 98,510 Chinese graduate and undergraduate students poured into U.S. colleges and universities, lured by China’s emphasis on academic achievement and the prestige of U.S. higher education.

China is second only to India when graduate students and undergrads are counted. But undergraduates are the newer phenomenon. Nationally, an 11% growth in undergrad enrollments last year was driven largely by a 60% increase from China, a report by the Institute of International Education says. Grad student enrollments were up 2%. . . .

The increase also reflects a “strong dialogue” between the two countries, says U.S. State Department deputy assistant secretary Alina Romanowski. She says the recent growth can’t be pinned to specific changes in visa policy, but some U.S. college officials say they detect a friendlier attitude among U.S. embassies and consulates, which review visa applications. One key question for any country is whether visa-seeking students can prove they will return to their home country upon graduating from a U.S. college.

“Because the Chinese economy has improved, students feel there are opportunities there waiting for them,” says Gretchen Olson, director of international programs at Drake University in Des Moines, where there are 28 undergraduates from China this fall, up from one in 2003.

Overall, I agree that these increases in “academic exchange” (the proliferation of Confucius Institutes around the U.S. are another example) are a positive development in terms of fostering more interaction between Chinese and Americans, which according to the “contact hypothesis” should by itself result in more understanding and tolerance between two groups, which the USA Today article discusses.

However, Chinese educational and government authorities, along with Chinese students who come to U.S. colleges, should remember that they need to conform to American norms and expectations in regard to things like who gets to determine curriculum (in China, the government does — in the U.S., the colleges, departments, and faculty do) and lax standards when it comes to academic dishonesty.

Overall, each of these recent news items represent a positive step forward for Asian Americans and all of American society in general. The next steps of course, are to keep the momentum going and to ensure that all racial/ethnic groups are also included in what will hopefully be a rising tide of greater empowerment and achievement as we move forward.

Who are those hardcore souls who give so much of their MSG-laced sweat and hot sauce-induced tears to Hyphen magazine? This month, as part of Hyphen’s fundraising campaign, you’ll get to know some of these ass-kicking heroines and heroes who aren’t anyone’s sidekicks or comic relief, and who live beyond the final scenes. Way beyond....

read more

When you donate your electronics (shipping is on us!), all proceeds go to Hyphen, and if your goods are valued at $18 or over (the qualifying amount for donations), you get a free 1 year subscription to our magazine. If the value is $57 and over, you get a two-year subscription in addition to a snazzy t-shirt.

read more

Who are those hardcore souls who give so much of their MSG-laced sweat and hot sauce-induced tears to Hyphen magazine? This month, as part of Hyphen’s fundraising campaign, you’ll get to know some of these ass-kicking heroines and heroes who aren’t anyone’s sidekicks or comic relief, and who live beyond the final scenes. Way beyond....

read more

Last week, the campaign to elect Republican congressional candidate Mike Pompeo used Twitter and Facebook to direct its supporters to read an inflammatory blog post . The post called Kansas State Representative and congressional candidate Raj Goyle a “turban topper” and questioned his ability to govern due to his ethnicity and alleged religious beliefs.

read more

Randall Park is an oddity.

read more

So, this Arizona law is alternately familiar and weird to me.

When I first heard about it, I got this weird déjà-vu feeling where I kept thinking that I’d seen this law somewhere before. Then I realized that I had.

read more