Asian Americans as a force for political change on both sides of the Pacific.

Through the perspectives of mass politics, this book challenges popular misconceptions about Asian Americans as politically apathetic, disloyal, fragmented, unsophisticated and inscrutable by showcasing results of the 2000-01 Multi City Asian American Political Survey.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Lai was trained as an engineer but blazed a trail in the field of Asian American studies. Long before the field had any academic standing, he amassed an unparalleled body of source material on Chinese America and drew on his own transnational heritage and Chinese patriotism to explore the global Chinese experience. In Chinese American Transnational Politics, Lai traces the shadowy history of Chinese leftism and the role of the Kuomintang of China in influencing affairs in America. With precision and insight, Lai penetrates the overly politicized portrayals of a history shaped by global alliances and enmities and the hard intolerance of the Cold War era. The result is a nuanced and singular account of how Chinese politics, migration to the United States, and Sino-U.S. relations were shaped by Chinese and Chinese American groups and organizations. Lai revised and expanded his writings over more than thirty years as changing political climates allowed for greater acceptance of leftist activities and access to previously confidential documents. Drawing on Chinese- and English-language sources and echoing the strong loyalties and mobility of the activists and idealists he depicts, Lai delivers the most comprehensive treatment of Chinese transnational politics to date.

Asian Pacific American Politics presents some of the most recent research on Asian American politics, including both quantitative and qualitative examinations of the role of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in some of today’s major political controversies. In the highly polarized politics of the United States in the early 21st century, non-Black racial minorities such as Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans will increasingly find themselves swept into the epicenter of many of the divisive controversies. This timely volume presents the latest scholarly research on some of these issues, examining questions such as Asian American support for #Black Lives Matter, responses to racially-charged attacks, and the differences in the political socialization, politicization, and community-based activism within and across sectors of the Asian American population. In addition to examining political identity, voting participation, political mobilization, transnational politics, and partisan formation, the volume also investigates important, but little discussed, issues such as the Native Hawaiian sovereignty movement, political incorporation of Filipino Americans, and the struggle to establish "comfort women" memorials in the United States. Contributors also examine, through dialogues, how Asian Americans fit into the larger world of American racial politics, the extent to which they are likely to build coalitions with other communities of color, and the boundaries and contours of Asian American political theory. Exploring and Expanding the Political World Pioneered by Don T. Nakanishi, Asian Pacific American Politics will be of great interest to scholars of race and ethnicity in American politics, immigration and minority incorporation, ethnic identity politics, and political participation and democratic inclusion of Asians. The chapters were originally published in Politics, Groups, and Identities.

Table of contents

Envisioning America is a groundbreaking and richly detailed study of how naturalized Chinese living in Southern California become highly involved civic and political actors. Like other immigrants to the United States, their individual life stories are of survival, becoming, and belonging. But unlike any other Asian immigrant group before them, they have the resources—Western-based educations, entrepreneurial strengths, and widely based social networks in Asia—to become fully accepted in their new homes. Nevertheless, Chinese Americans are finding that their social credentials can be a double-edged sword. Their complete incorporation as citizens is bounded both by mainstream discourse in the United States, which paints them racially as perpetual foreigners, and by an existing Asian-Pacific American community not always accepting of their economic achievements and transnational ties. Their attempts at inclusion are at the heart of a vigorous struggle for recognition and political empowerment. This book challenges the notion that Asian Americans are apathetic or apolitical about civic engagement, reminding us that political involvement would often have been a life-threatening act in their homeland. The voices of Chinese Americans who tell their stories in these pages uncover the ways in which these new citizens actively embrace their American citizenship and offer a unique perspective on how global identities transplanted across borders become rooted in the local.

Following 1996's 'Asian Donorgate' campaign finance controversy, Chinese Americans, and by proxy all Asian Americans, were depicted in U.S. public discourse as foreigners subversively attempting to buy influence with U.S. politicians. Racial Politics in an Era of Transnational Citizenship asks, Will the perception of the Asian American as the 'perpetual foreigner' continue to reproduce itself uncritically, heightening during times of media-supported nationalism? Scholar Michael Chang's incisive work contributes greatly to current debates on civil rights and on the meaning of 'citizenship' and 'belonging' among a transnational community and in a globalized world.