Asian American Identities and Practices: Folkloric Expressions in Everyday Life probes the intersection, interplay, and interconnection of Asian and Asian American folklore and folklife in globally fluid and culturally creative landscapes among Asian American communities and subjects. Asian American folklore, as a way of life and practice, has emerged and continues to emerge as Asian Americans lay claim and take root in the American mosaic. As such, the contributors in this volume all show how the Asian American historical experiences and continued international migration inform the production of new folkloric practices, subjectivities, and ideologies, which in turn strengthen specific Asian American ways of life while normalizing folklore that are squarely produced in Asian America. This collectionillustrates that Asian American folklore and folklife is interwoven with social relationships, the creation of various types of ethnic, cultural, and national identities, and adaptive strategies within the particular historical periods, communities, and shifting boundaries and demographics of Asian America. The global context of Asian American folklore and folklife, especially in the racially charged post-9/11 context, bespeaks how Asians, past and present, maneuver the cultural spaces of their host society and old traditions to create new sites and new opportunities for cultural folkloric production and expression in everyday life.

The nine essays in Asian North American Identities explore how Asian North Americans are no longer caught between worlds of the old and the new, the east and the west, and the south and the north. Moving beyond national and diasporic models of ethnic identity to focus on the individual feelings and experiences of those who are not part of a dominant white majority, the essays collected here draw from a wide range of sources, including novels, art, photography, poetry, cinema, theatre, and popular culture. The book illustrates how Asian North Americans are developing new ways of seeing and thinking about themselves by eluding imposed identities and creating spaces that offer alternative sites from which to speak and imagine. Contributors are Jeanne Yu-Mei Chiu, Patricia Chu, Rocio G. Davis, Donald C. Goellnicht, Karlyn Koh, Josephine Lee, Leilani Nishime, Caroline Rody, Jeffrey J. Santa Ana, Malini Johar Schueller, and Eleanor Ty.

In a series of essays based on original ethnographic research, Pyong Gap Min and his contributors examine the unique identity issues for second generation ethnic Asians, from Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Indian, and Vietnamese descent. They describe how societal expectations and structural barriers have a powerful influence on the formation of ethnic identities in a strongly racialized American society. Key factors discussed are the importance of culture and language retention, ethnic attachment, transnational ties, pan-Asian coalitions and friendships, social and geographic mobility, racial domination and racial awareness, life cycle changes, immigrant women's sexuality and gender traditionalism, deviant behavior, and educational and occupational achievement. This book will be a valuable resource in the study of Asian American culture, race, ethnicity and American society.

This book examines how second generation Asian American professionals bring together contrasting identities in the cultural spaces of daily life, and the implications for theories of immigrant adaptation and stratification.

Based on interviews with second-generation Chinese- and Korean-Americans, “this book is filled with a number of illuminating empirical findings” (American Journal of Sociology). In Becoming Asian American, Nazli Kibria draws upon extensive interviews she conducted with second-generation Chinese and Korean Americans in Boston and Los Angeles who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s to explore the dynamics of race, identity, and adaptation within these communities. Moving beyond the frameworks created to study other racial minorities and ethnic whites, she examines the various strategies used by members of this group to define themselves as both Asian and American. In her discussions on such topics as childhood, interaction with non-Asian Americans, college, work, and the problems of intermarriage and child-raising, Kibria finds wide discrepancies between the experiences of Asian Americans and those described in studies of other ethnic groups. While these differences help to explain the unusually successful degree of social integration and acceptance into mainstream American society enjoyed by this “model minority,” it is an achievement that Kibria’s interviewees admit they can never take for granted. Instead, they report that maintaining this acceptance requires constant effort on their part. Kibria suggests further developments may resolve this situation—especially the emergence of a new kind of pan–Asian American identity that would complement the Chinese or Korean American identity rather than replace it.

"This sourcebook is a resource for new and seasoned educators and practitioners as well as for students. As former student affairs practitioners ourselves, we believe it is crucial for educators to have a basic understanding of the needs, experiences, and theoretical frameworks relevant to Asian Americans in order to both inform your work and challenge your thinking about how best to serve this diverse population. For those of you new to learning about Asian American students, we hope the information in this volume will provide you with knowledge that can broaden your perspectives on today's college students. For those already working with Asian American students, we hope this volume will provide you with evidence to support and/or advocate for your programs and services as well as additional ideas for best practices. For Asian American students, we hope this sourcebook will help to validate and make sense of your own experiences as you move through your college career."--Page 6.