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An Asian American is generally defined as a person of Asian ancestry who was born in or is an immigrant to the United States. The term Asian American was used informally by activists in the 1960s who sought an alternative to the term Oriental arguing that the term was derogatory and colonialist. Formal usage was introduced by academics in the early 1970s, notably by historian Yuji Ichioka, who is credited with popularizing the term. Today Asian American is the accepted term for most formal purposes, such as government and academic research. In common language, the full compound term Asian American is rarely used; instead the single adjective Asian is applied to people of Asian heritage. As with other racial and ethnic groups, formal and common usage have changed markedly through the short history of this term. The most significant change occurred when the Hart-Celler Act of 1965 eliminated highly restrictive "national origins" quotas. The new country-specific quotas enabled significant immigration from every country in Asia, which led to dramatic and ongoing changes in the Asian American population. As a result of these population changes, the formal and common understandings of what defines Asian American have expanded to include progressively more of the people with ancestry from various parts of Asia. Definition of Asian American While Asian and American are familiar words, the term Asian American has varying usage in formal or common language. In general, formal definitions depend on the particular use (e.g., legal, census), while common usage is more dependent on perceptions, experiences, and context. In the United States, Asian frequently refers only to East Asia and Southeast Asia. South Asian Americans were classified as non-White Americans in the census and government purposes until South Asian American business groups successfully lobbied for inclusion in the Asian category. Several regions in Asia are not typically represented in either formal or common-usage definitions. Notably, places such as the Asian Middle East (Southwest Asia), Siberia, and Central Asian states are not included, even though geographically, these areas are considered to be part of Asia. Further ambiguity stems from variations in the use of the word ''American''. In some contexts, American refers specifically to citizens of the United States, but this definition is inappropriate for many purposes. For example, discussions of Asian American businesses rarely require the owners to be citizens. In other cases, American refers to people born in the United States (an immigrant and her American grandchildren), or people raised in the U.S.A. (e.g., someone who immigrated as a child and "acts" American), or people living in the U.S.A. (e.g., census counts). These contexts represent various common usages of the term American that demonstrate how formal and fixed definitions capture only part of the meaning of Asian American. Formal usage Definitions for many government and research purposes follow the classifications of the U.S. Census Bureau. Asian Pacific Islander was a racial/ethnic grouping in the 1990–2000 Census but has since been split apart. According to physical anthropologist Larry Chrystal, who worked on the team to formulate the 2000–2010 racial definitions, the majority of Pacific Islander Americans and Asian Americans chose to identify as separate groups. Some people still advocate use of Asian-Pacific American even though the majority of people who would be included identify as two separate groups. The Census Bureau currently classifies Middle Easterners, Siberians, and peoples of formerly Soviet Central Asian states in the white racial category (not the Asian category), which determines many formal definitions of racial and ethnic groupings. (Some government agencies classify Middle Easterners as West Asians.) According to the Census Bureau, the term Asian American was first applied to East Asian ethnic groups, which are seen as being distinct from Middle Eastern groups. Asian American in the formal 2000–2010 US Census sense was only established in the year 2000 by the United States Office of Management and Budget, but informally could include any person. The definition of Asian was established on the 2000–2010 Census questionaire. It was formulated by a team of anthropologists who asked people prior to the distribution of the Census form what their own opinions of their racial identity. This polling established the formal definition of Asian as the people with origins in the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent. According to Chrystal, someone could still mark Asian on the 2000–2010 Census who did not meet the formal definition. He was specifically mandated by the team of anthropologists to count people in the category they chose regardless of the race or ethncity he perceived. Regardless of which definition is used, Asian Americans, like White Americans or Hispanic Americans, cannot be defined as a homogeneous group of people sharing similar cultures or physical features. For example, considerable differences physically, linguistically, and culturally exist between Chinese Americans and Pakistani Americans. Like the term White American, saying that a person is Asian American is not specifically referring to a certain lifetyle or culture and could refer to a wide range of different Asian ethnic sub-groups. In other words, Asian American is not a very precise or accurate term, and some people prefer it to be replaced by the use of separate terms for each Asian cultural or geographical group. The development of conventional notions of Asian and American can be seen in several key Supreme Court decisions that pertain to naturalized citizenship. Historically, the Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted naturalized citizenship to "free white persons". In the 1922 case Takao Ozawa v. United States, Mr. Ozawa, an immigrant from Japan, claimed to be eligible for naturalized citizenship on the logic that his skin complexion fit the definition of "white." The decision by Justice George Sutherland held that white referred exclusively to Caucasians, and so Japanese were not eligible for naturalized citizenship. The next year, in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, Justice Sutherland reversed this logic. Mr. Thind argued that South Asians should be eligible for naturalized citizenship because they were considered to be Caucasian, consistent with the Ozawa decision. Justice Sutherland deployed a reverse logic in Thind, writing that "It may be true that the blond Scandinavian and the brown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim reaches of antiquity, but the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences between them to-day". This decision interpreted the term white persons in the Naturalization Act to refer only to people of European descent. Informal usage According to Sharon M. Lee in her 1998 publication, for many non-Asian Americans in the United States (in 1998) Asian American means Oriental, Chinese American or Japanese American. This is due to the Chinese and Japanese immigrants being the first immigrants into the United States. Today, with the increasing demographic of Korean Americans, South Asian Americans and Southeast Asian Americans the definition among United States citizens of who is Asian American is expanding. In the United States, Asian American has widely supplanted Oriental as the term that describes all East Asian residents regardless of their nationality, upbringing, or origin. Some have argued that Oriental is politically loaded and a reference to a colonial other (see Orientalism and cultural imperialism). To many Americans, the term Oriental is an unfriendly, even derogatory term. This is similar to the transition from the terms Negro or colored to black or African American in decades following the American Civil Rights Movement. Even though Asian American is now a very widely used term in the United States, it is mostly the younger generation of Asian Americans who refer to themselves this way. A simple analogy would be the use of terms Irish American and Italian American. The double allegiance represented in such denominations (Asian and American) was largely discouraged in the early twentieth century. Ford Motor Company, for instance, encouraged all recent immigrants to think of themselves as American and not as Irish American. The American Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s (re)introduced the use of such dual-identifier terms of ethnicity. Today, many younger Asian Americans speak of Asian pride. First-generation Asians are more likely to refer to themselves as Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. This is mainly because first-generation Asian Americans are much more conscious of their Asian sub-group backgrounds and cultures and tend to avoid generalizations. However, Asian is almost never considered an unfriendly word, and is still currently widely used in many English-speaking countries, although there are differences in its meaning in different countries. Also note that oriental outside of N. America does not have negative connotations. Many believe that the self-identification as Asian American originated from the first significant U.S. pan-Asian unified movement in protest of the controversial decisions by the U.S. courts of the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982. Demographics The 2000 U.S. census recorded 12.3 million people who reported themselves as having either full or partial Asian heritage, 4.3% of the U.S. population. The largest ethnic subgroups were Chinese (2.7 million), Filipinos (2.4M), Asian Indians (1.9M), Vietnamese (1.2M), Koreans (1.2M), and Japanese (1.1M). Other sizable groups are Cambodians (206,000), Pakistanis (204,000), Laotians (198,000), Hmong (186,000), and Thais (150,000). The Asian American population is heavily urbanized, with nearly three-quarters of Asian Americans living in metropolitan areas with population greater than 2.5 million. Asian Americans are concentrated in the largest U.S. cities, with 40% of all Asian Americans living in the metropolitan areas around Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City. Half of all Asian Americans (5.4M) live in Hawaii or the West Coast, mostly in California (4.2M). Census data shows that Asian American populations are developing in major metropolitan areas off of the West Coast, with visible communities in areas in and around Washington, D.C./Baltimore and Houston, to name the largest examples. Asian Americans are visible and growing, but "underrepresented" (against the national aggregate) in several of the largest areas, including Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, although sizable concentrations (double the national percentage) can be found in urban neighborhoods of these cities such as Albany Park in Chicago and Olney in Philadelphia. Additionally, similar Asian populations are found in suburbs of these cities such as Naperville near Chicago; King of Prussia, Upper Darby, and Cherry Hill near Philadelphia; Lowell and Lexington near Boston. Until recently, Chinese were the only Asian American group who had a noticeable presence in large cities when it came to neighborhoods. In fact, besides having traditional Chinatowns, areas around cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles have extensive suburban enclaves that are dominated by Chinese. The schools in these neighborhoods are attended by many Chinese Americans and Mandarin is usually offered as a second language. Following recent immigration waves, however, "Koreatowns" and "Little Saigons" have appeared in several cities. Large Japantowns once existed up and down the West Coast of the United States, but the ones that remain are mere vestiges of once vibrant pre-internment communities. Demographic trends Asian Americans tend to have larger families and earn slightly less per capita than white populations (however, they have higher median income than whites as well as higher percentage of home ownership and college graduation rate). The proportion of Asian Americans at many selective educational institutions far exceeds the 3% national population rate. Such trends are less common among Asians emigrating to the United States from southeast Asian countries such as Laos, and Cambodia, among others; many of these immigrants can be considered refugees from Communist and totalitarian states and, as such, often do not have the educational or socioeconomic advantages of other Asian Americans. Many immigrants are often forced to work in minimum wage or below-minimum wage jobs, including in menial sweatshop or restaurant labor, because they fear that mainstream employers will not hire them or, if they have entered the country illegally, will report them to the government. Criminal issues Although Asians comprise 3.6% of the population, they account for less than 1% of all jail inmates. In fact, Asians make up such a small percentage of the criminal population that the Department of Justice often does not present specific data for Asians when accounting for criminals by race. However, this is not to say that Asians in the U.S. do not engage in criminal activity. Some Chinese communities have had issues with Triads, while communities inhabited by other Asian ethnicities/races have had problems with gangs. Social scientists have theorized that Asian American gang members seek membership because of the difficulties and struggles of the immigrant experience, as well as the clash of Confucian traditions with modern American individualistic culture. Health issues The life expectancy for Asian Americans was 83, compared to 79 in Japan in 1996, and 76 for European Americans. For most diseases and cancers, and indicators such as infant mortality, Asian Americans have lower rates than the national average. Rates of AIDS were 3 times lower than national average in the 1990s, though they are getting closer to parity. In New York City, no births to babies exposed to cocaine were recorded. In Massachusetts, the rate of pregnant smoking was only one-quarter of the average. In California, the rate of heart disease was only one-third of the average. Infant mortality in California was only half the average rate. Most health studies simply omit figures on Asian Americans rather than publicize health outcomes that are better for Asian Americans, or state that data is insufficient to establish accurates rates for AIDS, even though Asians are a majority or the 2nd largest minority in some states. However, there are problem areas. Researchers at the New York University School of Medicine report that East Asian immigrants in New York City are at a higher risk than other Americans for hepatitis B, a potentially deadly disease that can result in liver cancer. Approximately 1 in 7, or nearly 100,000 East Asians tested were carriers of the chronic disease. The 15% incidence of infection is more than 35 times the national average, with Chinese immigrants having the highest rate of infection. Some kinds of lung cancer and stomach associated with stir fry cooking and pickled or dried foods popular in Asian diets are also higher, though other studies have tried to show Asian health declining in association with American style diets with more sugar and fat. Breast and cervical cancer rank as the top cause of death amongst Asian American women. In studies published by the UCLA School of Public Health lower rates of acculturation correlated with higher rates of later stage breast cancer. Additionally newer immigrants (10 years or less) were 75% more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer as opposed to similar age demographics in China. Asian American history Early history In 1763, Filipinos established the small settlement of Saint Malo in the bayous of current-day Louisiana, after fleeing mistreatment aboard Spanish ships. Since there were no Filipino women with them at the time, the Manilamen, as they were known, married Cajun women and Indians. In Hawaii, Chinese sailors came to Hawaii in 1778, the same year that Captain James Cook stumbled upon the island. Many settled and intermarried with Hawaiian women. Some Island-born Chinese could be well into the 7th generation. A smaller proportion of Chinese, Korean and Japanese laborers were brought in during the 19th century to work on sugar plantations. Later, Filipinos were also brought in as laborers. A large number of Chinese and Japanese began immigrating to the U.S. in the mid 19th century. Many of these immigrants worked as laborers on the transcontinental railroad. A surge in Asian immigration in the late 19th century gave rise to a fear from some, referred to as the "yellow peril." Effects of war Asian participants in the American Civil War were not given citizenship, voting rights, or access to public schools because they were legally declared "neither black nor white." During World War II, the United States government declared Japanese Americans a risk to national security and undertook the Japanese American Internment. This controversial, forcible relocation of approximately 112,000 to 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans, 62% of whom were United States citizens, from the west coast of the United States to hastily constructed housing facilities at internment camps, called War Relocation Centers, in remote portions of the nation's interior was authorized by President Franklin Roosevelt with United States Executive Order 9066. Starting in 1990, the government paid some reparations to the surviving internees. Despite the internment, many Japanese American men served in World War II in the American forces. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team/100th Infantry Battalion is the most highly decorated unit in U.S. military history. Composed of Japanese Americans, the 442nd/100th fought valiantly in the European Theater even as many of their families remained in the detention camps stateside. The 100th was one of the first units to liberate the Nazi extermination camp at Dachau. Immigration trends Immigration trends of recent decades have dramatically altered the statistical composition and popular understanding of who is an Asian American. This transformation of Asian America, and of America itself, is the result of legislation such as the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 and the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965. The McCarran-Walter Act repealed the "free white persons" restriction of the Naturalization Act of 1790, but it retained the quota system that effectively banned nearly all immigration from Asia, with an annual quota of 50 Chinese, for example. Asian immigration increased significantly after the 1965 Immigration Act altered the quota system, and the preference for relatives, designed to reduce the number of Asian immigrants eventually acted to accelerate their numbers. Historically, Asian Americans have largely been perceived as members of the two most numerous East Asian ethnic groups, specifically Chinese and Japanese before 1965, as well as Filipinos who became colonial subjects of the US in 1898 due to the Spanish-American War (also see Philippine-American War). This occurred despite the early presence of Korean and Indian immigrants in the early 1900s. The rapid change in Asian American demographics occurred after enactment of the 1965 Immigration Act. This act replaced exclusionary immigration rules of the Chinese Exclusion Act and its successors, such as the Reed-Johnson Act or 1924 Immigration Act, which effectively excluded "undesirable" immigrants, including Asians. The 1965 rules set across-the-board immigration quotas for each country, opening the borders to immigration from Asia for the first time in nearly half a century. Two other influences, however, have been equally worthy of attention. First, in the wake of World War II, immigration preferences favored family reunification. This may have helped attract highly skilled workers to meet American workforce deficiencies. Another instance related to the war was the Luce-Celler Act of 1946, which helped immigrants from India and the Philippines. Secondly, the end of the Korean War and Vietnam War and the so-called "Secret Wars" in Southeast Asia brought a new wave of Asian American immigration, as people from Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia arrived. Some of the new immigrants, as in the case of the Korean War, were war brides, who were soon joined by their families. Others, like the Southeast Asians, were either highly skilled and educated or part of subsequent waves of refugees seeking asylum. Some factors contributing to the growth of sub-groups such as South Asians and mainland Chinese are higher family sizes, higher use of family-reunification visas, and higher numbers of technically skilled workers entering on H-1 and H-1b visas. Japanese Americans and South Asians are emblematic of the dramatic changes since the immigration reforms of the mid-20th century. Japanese Americans are among the most widely recognized of Asian American sub-groups. In 1970, there were nearly 600,000 Japanese Americans, making it the largest sub-group. Today, Japanese Americans are the sixth-largest group, with relatively low rates of births and immigration. In 2000, there were between 800,000 and 1.2 million Japanese Americans (depending on whether multi-ethnic responses are included). The Japanese Americans have the highest rates of the native born, citizenship, and assimilation into American values and customs. In 1990, there were slightly fewer South Asian in the U.S. than Japanese Americans. By 2000, Indian Americans nearly doubled in population to become the third largest group, with increasing visibility in high tech communities such as Silicon Valley and Redmond, Washington. High rates of immigration from across Asia will make Asian Americans increasingly representative of the continent itself. Indian Americans have among the highest rate of academic achievement among American ethnic and religious groups, with most immigrants speaking English. Though the South Asians are racially closer to Europeans in ancestry, they are generally categorized on the basis of geography and culture with other Asians by the US Census and increasingly accepted by most Asian organizations as another significant Asian group. Asian Americans today In politics
In education see main article Education outcomes in the United States by race and other classifications (Issued August 2003) Educational Attainment by race and gender: 2000 Census 2000 Brief Percent of Adults 25 and over in group Ranked by advanced degree HS SC BA AD Asian alone . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.4 64.6 44.1 17.4 Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.1 52.5 26.1 10.0 White alone, not Hispanic or Latino.. . . . 85.5 55.4 27.0 9.8 White alone... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.6 54.1 26.1 9.5 Women. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.7 51.1 22.8 7.8 Two or more races. . . . . . . . . . . . 73.3 48.1 19.6 7.0 Black or African American alone . . . . . 72.3 42.5 14.3 4.8 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 78.3 44.6 13.8 4.1 American Indian and Alaska Native alone . . 70.9 41.7 11.5 3.9 Hispanic or Latino (of any race).. . . . . 52.4 30.3 10.4 3.8 Some other race alone . . . . . . . . . . . 46.8 25.0 7.3 2.3 HS = high school completed SC = some college BA = bachelor degree AD = advanced degree Asian Americans are extremely well represented in the education sector, especially in the college level with the highest average college graduates at around 52% and the whole Asian people constitutes around 20% of Ivy League colleges. Asian Americans are the largest ethnic group on some of the most selective University of California campuses. Compared with their population size of 4% of the American population, they attend college, graduate, and earn higher grades in average than any other ethnic group in the United States. Asian Americans were considered a minority when the University of California needed to show how many non-white students were enrolled in its campuses. When the University of California sought to increase numbers of non-Asian minorities after the ban on racial prefences, they were excluded in minority student counts. Depending on the institution, ethnic group, and the period of time, Asian Americans have been included under affirmative action preferences, excluded, or in the case of Lowell High School in San Francisco and Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California, held to higher standards in order to meet racial desegregation quotas. Asian Americans are under-represented in some professional fields such as law, but they are no longer under-represented in general as law students. Asian Americans are less represented as teachers or professors than they are as students. Fields with the highest numbers of Asians have traditionally been technical fields such as science, math, and engineering, though interest in other areas is increasing. In business Asian Americans are major contributors to the American economy. An Wang founded Wang Laboratories in June 1951. Jen-Hsun Huang co-founded the Nvidia corporation in 1993. Jerry Yang co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in 1994. Andrea Jung serves as Chairman and CEO of Avon Products. Vinod Khosla was a founding CEO of Sun Microsystems and is a successful general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Sabeer Bhatia co-founded Hotmail which was acquired by Microsoft. In general Asian Americans are well represented in the professional sector relative to their population base and tend to earn higher wages, especially in technology and business. However, much has been written about the glass ceiling as Asians have been far less represented in higher levels of management relative to other ethnic groups. When Asians were largely excluded from labor markets in the 19th century, they started their own businesses with Chinese laundries, now rare, and Chinese restaurants which still can be found across the USA. Since the late 20th century, Asians have also taken up ethnic-niche small businesses, such as dry cleaners (Korean), corner markets (Korean, Indian), motels (Indian), donuts and nails (SE Asians), often characterized by low pay, family labor, and long hours. Tensions between Korean American small business persons and African Americans were noted in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, and the Rodney King riots. In sports
In arts and entertainment Architect IM Pei shot to international prominence in 1964 following his selection by Jacqueline Kennedy to design the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Minoru Yamasaki designed the World Trade Center the following year (construction was completed in 1972). In architectural design, Maya Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Yo-Yo Ma is considered by some as the best cellist in the world. Zubin Mehta also remains a prominent name among modern conductors. Most recently, ImaginAsian Entertainment has made a major contribution by starting the first national 24/7 Asian American television network. Asian American jazz is a musical movement in the United States begun in the 20th century by Asian American jazz musicians. In music, American R&B singer, Amerie, is considered one of the most talented R&B singers of today. She has won numerous awards, and is often referred to in America and elsewhere as “Korean American R&B singer, Amerieâ€. Rock musician James Iha, formerly the guitarist of The Smashing Pumpkins, is Japanese American. Mike Shinoda and Joseph Hahn are successful Asian Americans in the popular rap rock band Linkin Park. Mike Shinoda is half Japanese half white and Joseph Hahn is of Korean descent. Also, Jin Au-Yeung is credited as being a pioneer in the Asian American hip hop scene. Asian American involvement in the entertainment industry extends all the way to the first half of the 19th century, with Chang and Eng Bunker (the source for the term "Siamese Twins"), who became naturalized citizens. Nevertheless, significant progress by Asian Americans in the fields of television, cinema, and comedy has only come about slowly. Early Asian American forays into cinema such as those made by Anna May Wong and Bruce Lee encountered a movie-making culture that wanted to typecast them as caricatures. As a result, the San Francisco born Lee achieved world-wide fame only after first abandoning the West and finding success in Hong Kong. George Takei (of Star Trek fame) and Pat Morita (Happy Days) fared somewhat better domestically playing secondary roles on the small screen during the 1960's and 1970's, and Cambodian American Haing Ngor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1985. Today, the situation is much improved for Asian American women, as there are a number of famous actresses such as Lucy Liu and Kelly Hu. Margaret Cho won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian in 1994. Leading role opportunities for Asian American men in the movies and television continue to be rather limited. Filipino Americans also form a large body of Asian Americans who are working in the entertainment Industry. The list includes: Apl.de.ap of Black Eyed Peas, Jasmine Trias and Camile Velasco of American Idol, Tia Carrere, Jocelyn Enriquez, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, the actor Rob Schnieder, and Mark Dacascos of the Crying Freeman. Asians continue to be overlooked in casting of mass-market films, however, and they are vastly underrepresented in both film and television. For example, in the 2006 animated film Cars, a low rider voiced by Hispanic actor and comedian Cheech Marin, but Marin's longtime partner Tommy Chong was not cast in his signature hippie role (that part went to George Carlin instead); furthermore none of the Asian cars were cast with an Asian American voice. Disney's Mulan, an animated film set in China, featured many non-Asian voices along with a prominent Asians. In a particularly glaring example, Hospital dramas have very few Asian American characters, despite the fact that in real life Asian Americans are very well-represented in medicine. ER has not had any East Asians in the cast for some years, though a hospital in Chicago, where the show is set, would almost certainly have many on staff. The Shanghai Renaissance (colloquially named after the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's, has witnessed the emergence of the greatest Asian American cultural recrudesence in American history. Graphic artist Moon Lee is one of the greatest purveyors of Asian American counter-culture. His Geisha Look, created in early 2006, has grown in importance amongst Asian Americans, and has been compared with the Ghost Dance in late 18th Century Native American cultures. In Science and Technology Asian Americans have made notable contributions to science and technology. For example, Chinese Americans Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in particle physics. Their work, which disproved the conservation of parity, was supported by the experimental results of Chien-Shiung Wu, who was known to many scientists as the "First Lady of Physics". Indian American Har Gobind Khorana shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 for his work in genetics and protein synthesis. In 1984, Taiwanese American Dr. David D. Ho reported for the first time the "healthy carrier state" of HIV infection, which identified otherwise healthy individuals who tested positive for the virus but did not show any physical signs of the disease. Daniel Tsui shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998 for his contributions to the discovery of the fractional Quantum Hall effect, while American born Steven Chu shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 for his research in cooling and trapping atoms using laser light. Most of the technology and computer companies are located in the west coast of the U.S. where there are a large concentration of Asian Americans compared to other sections of the U.S. Referring to Asian groups It is considered offensive by some people to label an Asian person with a specific nationality without certainty. For example, when one sees someone who looks South Asian, they could make the mistake of referring to them as an "Indian". This may be offensive to Pakistani Americans and other South Asians who do not see themselves as being of Indian origin. Another example would be to call an East Asian "Chinese" without knowing their specific national origin. This can be offensive to Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, and other East Asians who may consider themselves ethinically and culturally separate. It is considered polite, if one is using racial or ethnic terms, to use "South Asian," "Southeast Asian," "East Asian," or simply "Asian." Model minority myth The reference to Asian Americans as model minorities has to do with the work ethic, respect for elders, and high valuation of family and elders present in their culture. Despite the fact that this concept seems to valorize Asian Americans, it comes with an underlying notion of their apoliticality. Moreover, such a label one-dimensionalizes Asian Americans as having those traits and no other human qualities, such as vocal leadership, negative emotions, or intolerance towards oppression. Asian Americans are labeled as model minorities because they have not been as much of a "threat" to the U.S. political establishment due to a smaller population and less political advocacy. This label seeks to suppress potential political activism through euphemistic complements. (Reference: Asian Americans and Politics: Perspective, Experiences, Prospects by Gordon H. Chang.) In the environment of public education, Asians are often stereotyped as over-achieving students. Surprisingly, many Asians tend not to be classified in the "nerd" category because much of their achievement in academics stem from parental support. The "smart" stereotype is attached with the concept that Asians play a musical instrument--such as violin or piano--or participate in more cerebral extra-curricular activities such as chess. As is the case with stereotypes, many Asians do not fall into the over-achieving category. This stereotype of Asians as over-achievers also aversely affects Asian Americans in that sometimes they are judged at higher standards of achievement. The "bar" is set higher for them because they are "expected" to over-achieve. Asian American culture Many Asian Americans are becoming disillusioned with the legacy that American prejudices and stereotypes have bequeathed upon them. Professor Tim Hovde, a sociologist specializing in Asian cultures at the University of Minnesota, Morris, has charted this loss of faith in the Asian American dream in his book Beyond Internment and the Grocery Marts. The book is mainly notable for its insistance that a majority of Asian Americans are incapable of bearing the burden of greatness history has placed upon them. Among these are the needs to be smarter, cleaner, and more adept with technology than the average American. Notables of Contemporary Asian American Culture The Shanghai Renaissance (colloquially named after the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's) has witnessed the emergence of the greatest Asian American cultural recrudesence in American history. Graphic artist Moon Lee is one of the greatest purveyors of Asian American counter-culture. His Geisha Look, created in early 2006, has grown in importance amongst Asian Americans, and has compared with the Ghost Dance in late eighteenth century Native American cultures. Asian pride Asian pride is the slogan for self-affirmation of one's Asian race in the United States. It is used mainly by Asian American youth to describe their sense of connection to other Asians. East Asian American and Southeast Asian American, specifically Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Cambodian Americans and Filipino Americans are largely the Asians who espouse Asian pride. People from the continent of Asia, but who are not considered racially Asian (E.G. Russians and Arabs) do not use the term Asian pride. Also people with South Asian heritage generally do not use the term, such as Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, etc See also Further reading | |||||||||||
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