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Chapters: Military History of Asian Americans, Ronald Takaki, Him Mark Lai, Asiatic Exclusion League, Ruthanne Lum Mccunn, Rho Psi. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 44. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Asian Americans have fought on behalf of the United States since the War of 1812 until today. Due to the small population of Asian Americans in the 19th Century their contributions were not heavily recorded. In the 20th Century as the population of Asian Americans have increased contributions and documentation of their contributions have increased in kind. Map of Battle of New OrleansThe first recorded history of Asian Americans fighting on behalf of the United States was recorded as far back as 1815 when General Andrew Jackson recorded "Manilamen" had fought alongside his in defense of New Orleans, under the command of Jean Baptiste Lafitte. After this Asian Americans were not recorded in the annuls of U.S. Military History until the American Civil War when in 1861 a Chinese American by the name of John Tomney joined the New York Infantry, eventually dying of wounds received at the Battle of Gettysburg. He was to be followed by William Ah Hang in 1863, a Chinese American who became of one the first Asian Americans to enlist in the U.S. Navy. In total more than 50 Chinese Americans fought, on both sides, of the Civil War. Of those who have served only a handful received recognition of their service in the form of pension, benefits, or citizenship. A noted exception is Ching Lee who took the alias Thomas Sylvanus and served in 81st Pennsylvania Regiment. Another lull of recordings of Asian American service followed the end of the civil war until the Spanish American War when it was recorded that Japanese Americans served aboard US Warships in the Battle of Manila Bay; the Philippine...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=24360229 ... Read more

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This book grows out of the question, "What is South Asian American writing and what insights can it offer us about living in the world at this particular moment of tense geopolitics and inter-linked economies?" South Asian American literature, with its focus on the multiple geographies and histories of the global dispersal of South Asians, pulls back from a close-up view of the United States to reveal a wider landscape of many nations and peoples.

Drawing on the cosmopolitan sensibility of scholars like Anthony Appiah, Vinay Dharwadker, Martha Nussbaum, Bruce Robbins, and Amartya Sen, this book argues that to read the body of South Asian American literature justly, one must engage with the urgencies of places as diverse as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Burma, Pakistan, and Trinidad. Poets, novelists, and playwrights like Indran Amirthanayagam, Meena Alexander, Amitav Ghosh, Michael Ondaatje, Shani Mootoo, Amitava Kumar, Tahira Naqvi, and Sharbari Ahmed exhort North American residents to envision connectedness with inhabitants of other lands. These writers' significant contribution to American literature and to the American imagination is to depict the nation as simultaneously discrete and entwined within the fold of other nations. The world out there arrives next door. ... Read more

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This collection of essays centers on the formation of an ethnic identity among Chinese Americans during the period when immigration was halted. The first section emphasizes the attempts by immigrant Chinese to assert their intention of becoming Americans and to defend the few rights they had as resident aliens. Highlighting such individuals as Yung Wing, an ardent advocate of American social and political ideals, and Wong Chin Foo, one of the first activists for Chinese citizenship and voting rights, these essays speak eloquently about the early struggles in the Americanization movement.

The second section shows how children of the immigrants developed a sense of themselves as having a distinct identity as Chinese-Americans. For this generation, many of the opportunities available to other immigrants' children were simply inaccessible. In some districts explicit policies kept Chinese children in segregated schools; in many workplaces discriminatory practices kept them from being hired or from advancing beyond the lowest positions. In the 1930s, in fact, some Chinese-Americans felt their only option was to emigrate to China, where they could find jobs better matched to their abilities. Many young Chinese women who were eager to take advantage of the educational and work options opening to women in the wider U.S. society first had to overcome their family's opposition and then racism. As the personal testimonies and historical biographies eloquently attest, these young people deeply felt the contradictions between Chinese and American ways; but they also saw themselves as having to balance the demands of the two cultures rather than as having to choose between them. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2006. The length of the article is 9509 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Disrupting Asian America: South Asian American histories as strategic sites of narration.
Author: Sridevi Menon
Publication: Alternatives: Global, Local, Political (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 31Issue: 3Page: 345(22)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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What does it mean to be queer and Asian-American at the turn of the century? The writers, activists, essayists, and artists who contribute to this volume consider how Asian-American racial identity and queer sexuality interconnect in mutually shaping and complicating ways. Their collective aim (in the words of the editors) is "to articulate a new conception of Asian-American racial identity, its heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity-concepts that have after all underpinned the Asian-American moniker from its very inception.

Q & A approaches matters of identity from a variety of points of view and academic disciplines in order to explore the multiple crossings of race and ethnicity with sexuality and gender. Drawing together the work of visual artists, fiction writers, community organizers, scholars, and participants in roundtable discussions, the collection gathers an array of voices and experiences that represent the emerging communities of a queer Asian-America. Collectively, these contributors contend that Asian-American studies needs to be more attentive to issues of sexuality and that queer studies needs to be more attentive to other aspects of difference, especially race and ethnicity. Vigorously rejecting the notion that a symmetrical relationship between race and homosexuality would weaken lesbian/gay and queer movements, the editors refuse to "believe that a desirably queer world is one in which we remain perpetual aliens-queer houseguests-in a queer nation.Amazon.com Review
This groundbreaking anthology presents us with 26 essays andfiction pieces that discuss, explicate, and exemplify the alwayscomplex, sometimes confusing, and often surprising intersectionsbetween the identities of "gay," "Asian," and "American." The essayscover topics ranging from sex to traditional family values to religionto AIDS and queer activism, and are written in a variety of styles, atturns highly personal or academic. Richard Fong's "Looking for MyPenis" explores images of Asian men in gay porn; Patti Duncan's"History of a Disease" is an impressionistic, experimentalautobiographical meditation on family history and being a KoreanAmerican lesbian. While the writers and their topics all concernaspects of Asian American and gay life, the ultimate portrait thatemerges from Q & A is one of a United States culture that bearslittle resemblance to the "America" portrayed in the media or even bycontemporary history. What Eng and Hom have done is not simply giveAsian American gay men and lesbians a venue for their voices butchallenge how each of us imagines and conceptualizes his or hernational identity, extending the anthology's importance beyond itsrelevance to gay or Asian studies. --Michael Bronski ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Captivating, Enlightening, truly amazing
I was in the bookstore and started flipping through the book and couldn't stop reading it, I was totally awed and drawn by the content and simply overjoyed to see what I have witnessed, experienced and lived in such acoherent fashion.I would definitely recommend this as priority readingfor all Asian Americans regardless of sexual orientation.

Groundbreaking
Every comment I've ever read about this book refers to it as "groundbreaking." A cliche, yes, but also true. This sprawling, yet tightly edited, collection breaks new ground not only in itsjuxtaposition of Asian and queer issues, but also in its unique andprogressive vision: a refusal to break queer Asians into merely acollection of P.C. buzzwords, and an assertion of the unique and wholeindividuals who constitute queer Asian America.

The best reading I've hadthis year.........
I found this book to have perspectives not only for gayAsians, but forall gay men and women of color. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Good Read but some weaknesses
I don't know how well this book has sold but I seem to fit the demographic almost perfectly.I'm Chinese American, born in San Francisco and familiar with various locations referred to in the book:Chinatown, Chinese Playground and St. Mary's Catholic Center.I'm also an avid basketball fan as I watch, coach, play and officiate basketball.

Therefore reading this book was a treasure trove.The chapters on the Hung Wah Kues, Helen Wong Lum and Willie "Woo Woo" Wong were terrific.Books on Chinese immigration to America are great in number.There are not many that focus on the Chinese athletic experience and this book was the first one that I was aware of.

While the historical aspects were great, I did find room for improvement.The book is quite short at 120+ pages with the rest being bibliography information.The author also tries to squeeze in some analysis of the portrayal of Asian-Americans during the early days.While some of the imagery and analysis are good, some I feel may have missed the mark a bit.

Also, being very familiar with the sport of basketball, I feel the author didn't know the sport that well.Some of the basketball terms she used did not seem to match the imagery she was trying to portray.

Despite some of the negatives, I give the book a 4-star rating because the history is a good read.I hope this book encourages other authors to detail the athletic experiences that Asian-Americans have but may not be as well known.

Fantastic telling of a little known aspect of Chinese-American history.
This was a fantastic read, with vividly-drawn writing.The quotes from
the players were great.I particularly liked the chapters about
the Hong Wah Kues and the Mei Wahs, and how they toured the US.
Also appreciated the parallels Prof. Yep drew between other minority
groups, and her comments on the current state of media coverage.
... Read more

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Challenging the prevailing view of Hawaii as a mythical"racial paradise," Gary Okihiro presents this history of a systematicanti-Japanese movement in the islands from the time migrant workerswere brought to the sugar cane fields until the end of World WarII. He demonstrates that the racial discrimination against JapaneseAmericans that occurred on the West Coast during the second World Warclosely paralleled the less familiar oppression of Hawaii’s Japanese,which evolved from the production needs of the sugar planters to themilitary’s concern over the "menace of alien domination."

Okihiro convincingly argues that those concerns motivated theconsolidation of the plantation owners, the Territorial government,and the U.S. military-Hawaii’s elite-into a single force thatpropelled the anti-Japanese movement, while the military devisedsecret plans for martial law and the removal and detention of JapaneseAmericans in Hawaii two decades before World War II. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Japanese in Hawaii
Problematizing the orthodox view of Hawaii as a fabled "racial paradise," In Cane Fires: The Anti-Japanese Movement in Hawaii, 1865 - 1945, Gary Okihiro narrates a history of a systematic anti-Japanese movement in the Hawaiian Islands from initial immigration to the sugar cane fields (1865) until the end of World War II (1945). Although the persecution of Japanese Americans on the U.S. West Coast is much discussed; in comparison, little is known about the Japanese American experience in Hawaii. Okihiro argues that the racial discrimination against Japanese Americans that occurred on the West Coast during World War II closely resembles the less familiar oppression of Hawaii's Japanese (Issei) and Japanese Americans (Nisei), which developed as a phenomenon starting from the production requirement of the sugar planters to culminating with military's concern over the "menace of alien domination." Conflict over economic and social issues degenerated as the Japanese demanded fair treatment from the exploitive plantation owners, and the concurrent rise of Japan as a world power complicated the issue. Okihiro argues that both these concerns motivated the amalgamation of the plantation owners, the Territorial government, as well as the U.S. military. This bonding Hawaii's elite into a combined force drove and informed the anti-Japanese movement. According to Okihiro, the military devised clandestine plans for martial law and the removal and detention of Japanese Americans in Hawaii for almost 20 years prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Okihiro sees Hawaii's Japanese selective relocations during World War II as just as important (if not more significant vis-à-vis racialization) as that on the mainland. ... Read more

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Chapters: Japanese American service in World War II, Tammy Duckworth, Military history of Asian Americans, List of Asian American Medal of Honor recipients, Young-Oak Kim, Francis B. Wai, Daniel Akaka, Bhagat Singh Thind, John Fugh, James Yee, Mun Charn Wong, John Pippy, Daniel Choi, Stephen Funk, Elmelindo Rodrigues Smith, Ralph Siu, Vietnamese American Armed Forces Association, Quang X. Pham, Susan Ahn Cuddy, Wah Kau Kong,. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 118. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Ladda Tammy Duckworth (born March 1968) is the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. She was previously the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran and former U.S. Army helicopter pilot whose severe combat wounds cost her both of her legs and damaged her right arm. She continues to serve as a Major in the Illinois Army National Guard along with her husband, Major Bryan W. Bowlsbey, a signal officer and fellow Iraq War veteran. In the 2006 election, Duckworth was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives seat for the sixth district of Illinois which was being vacated by long-time Representative Henry Hyde. Duckworth lost to her opponent, Representative Peter Roskam, by 2% of the vote. A supporter of the presidential election campaign of Barack Obama, Duckworth was given a prime-time speaking slot on the third night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Duckworth was born in Bangkok, Thailand, to Frank and Lamai S. Duckworth. Her father (died 2005) was a former longtime member of the U.S. military who traced his family roots in America all the way back to the Revolutionary War; her mother, a native of Thailand, is of Chinese ancestry. She has one br...http://booksllc.net/?id=3691615 ... Read more