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Asian Americans as a force for political change on both sides of the Pacific
The Transnational Politics of Asian Americans
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edited by Christian Collet and Pei-te Lien, foreword by Don Nakanishi
"The range of chapters and activities examined is excellent … The book conveys the sense that there is something dynamic, complex, and compelling at work here when considering the transnational dimension of Asian American political lives."
—Paul Watanabe,Director of the Institute for Asian American Studies and Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Boston
As America’s most ethnically diverse foreign-born population, Asian Americans can puzzle political observers. This volume’s multidisciplinary team of contributors employ a variety of methodologies— including quantitative, ethnographic, and historical—to illustrate how transnational ties between the U.S. and Asia have shaped, and are increasingly defining, Asian American politics in our multicultural society.
Original essays by U.S.- and Asian-based scholars discuss Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese communities from Boston to Honolulu. The volume also shows how the grassroots activism of America's "newest minority" both reflects and is instrumental in broader processes of political change throughout the Pacific. Addressing the call for more global approaches to racial and ethnic politics, contributors describe how Asian immigrants strategically navigate the hurdles to domestic incorporation and equality by turning their political sights and energies toward Asia. These essays convincingly demonstrate that Asian American political participation in the U.S. does not consist simply of domestic actions with domestic ends.
Contributors include: Eiichiro Azuma, Augusto Espiritu, Hiroko Furuya, Peter Kiang, Ikumi Koakutsu, Michel Laguerre, Sangay Mishra, Hiromi Monobe, Shirley Tang, Tritia Toyota, Janelle Wong, and the editors.
Excerpt
Reviews
"Bookended by two historical case studies, and filled in between with original studies on political behavior of diverse new Asian immigrant communities, The Transnational Politics of Asian Americans further elucidates the characteristics of Asian American political participation and activism in the U.S. This fine volume poses the question of whether transnational political behavior ultimately advances Asian incorporation into an increasingly multicultural and globalized America."
—Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Professor of History and Ethnic Studies, Director, Center for the Studies of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University
"Editors Christian Collet and Pei-te Lien provide a succinct summary of the development of the concept of transnationalism and a useful overview of the debate over the concept.... The editors have done an excellent job of highlighting the widely ranging ways that transnationalism can operate.... This collection makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the political behavior of today’s immigrants, and it suggests that there is much continuity underlying the substantial change that immigrants bring to America."
—Perspective on Politics
"This collection of essays combines historical analyses and current accounts of transnational politics among a variety of Asian-American ethnic groups: Cambodians, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Indian, and Vietnamese. It is a must for any library on ethnic studies…. [M]any of the essays on specific groups are the best written and most informative, especially the excellent pieces on Japanese Americans by Eiichiro Azuma on how Japanese Americans in California in the 1910s sought aid from the Japanese government and Japanese businessmen to counter the nativist campaign in California."
—Multicultural Review
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Foreword
Acknowledgments
1. The Transnational Politics of Asian Americans: Controversies, Questions, Convergence
PART I: Asian States and Nationalisms in Asian American Politics: Then and Now
2. Dancing with the Rising Sun: Strategic Alliances between Japanese Immigrants and Their “Home” Government
3. Journeys of Discovery and Difference: Transnational Politics and the Union of Democratic Filipinos
4. Contested Nation: Vietnam and the Emergence of Saigon Nationalism in the United States
PART II: The Practices and Sites of Asian American Transnational Politics
5. Transnational Dimensions of Community Empowerment: The Victories of Chanrithy Uong and Sam Yoon
6. Working Democracy: Transnational Repertoires of Citizenship among New Chinese Americans
7. The Limits of Transnational Mobilization: Indian American Lobby Groups and the India–U.S. Civil Nuclear Deal
8. Network Governance of Asian American Diasporic Politics
PART III: Transnational Political Behavior and Asian American Identities
9. Like Latinos? Explaining the Transnational Political Behavior
of Asian Americans
10. The Intersection of “Americanization” and “Racial Expansion”: Nisei Identity Politics in Prewar Hawai‘i
11. Does Transnational Living Preclude Pan-Ethnic Thinking? An Exploration of Asian American Identities
Notes
References
About the Contributors
Index
About the Author(s)
 | Christian Collet is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at the International Christian University, Tokyo. |
 | Pei-te Lien is Professor of Political Science affiliated with Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her book The Making of Asian America through Political Participation (Temple) received the 2002 Best Book Award on Political Participation, Voting, Elections, and Political Behavior from APSA ’s Division on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. She is also the co-author of The Politics of Asian Americans: Diversity and Community. |
Subject Categories
Asian American Studies
Asian Studies
Political Science and Public Policy
In the series
Asian American History and Culture, edited by Sucheng Chan, David Palumbo-Liu, Michael Omi, K. Scott Wong, and Linda Trinh Võ.
The "standard" written histories of Asian immigrants to the United States have been imbued with Western cultural biases. As a critique and corrective to earlier work, Asian American History and Culture, edited by Sucheng Chan, David Palumbo-Liu, Michael Omi, K. Scott Wong, and Linda Trinh Võ, aims to develop a history of Asian Americans that is compatible with their own experience, that treats Asian Americans as agents of historical change and as creators of a new culture. In addition, this series intends to focus on the groups that are flourishing in the contemporary U.S.—Filipinos, Koreans, Vietnamese—about whom little has been written as well as to add to the substantial work done on the Chinese and Japanese in this country.