An East Asian Community And The United States

This expert handbook explores the various means of political participation of East Asian Americans in the United States. Filling a gap in the literature on American minority politics, East Asian Americans and Political Participation offers the first systematic, thorough coverage of the impact of Chinese American, Korean American, and Japanese American individuals and groups on U.S. political process. Focusing on the post–World War II era—when rapidly growing East Asian American communities became more politically involved—the book explores the full range of formal and informal political actions, including protest politics, social movements and interest groups, electoral politics, and political office holding at every level. These general discussions are enhanced with evocative case studies on such important topics as Asian American participation in the civil rights movement, the campaign after the murder of Vincent Chin, the Redress movement, the Korean campaign following the Los Angeles riots, the promotion of the motherland, and more.

“One Hundred Questions and Answers About East Asian Cultures” is part of the Michigan State University School of Journalism series in cultural competence. This guide has sections on East Asian cultures, languages, religions, social norms, politics, history, politics, families and food. The guide is intended for people in business, schools, places of worship, government, medicine, law enforcement, human resources and journalism—anywhere it is important to know more about communities. We intended this guide for individuals and for groups. Questions include: What are major differences between East and Southeast Asia? Is it OK to ask Asians “where are you from?” What is the difference between South Korea and North Korea? What type of governments do East Asian countries have? What is the difference between China and Taiwan? Is Hong Kong different from China? Does one culture dominate East Asia? Do Asians value group success more than individual success? Is collective orientation related to “family honor” in Asian culture? What does it mean to “save face” or “lose face?” Why do some East Asians apologize so often? What is the humility or modesty value? What are Asian customs for bowing? What are gift-giving traditions in East Asia? Are East Asians generally more reserved than Americans? Why do some Asians take “American” names? Why is everyone named Lee or Kim? What is feng shui? Why do Chinese wear white or black at funerals but red at weddings? There's Japanese kendo and judo, Korean taekwondo, and Chinese kung fu and tai chi. Does Asian culture encourage fighting? What are major holidays for East Asians? How do Asians celebrate the Lunar New Year? What is the meaning of different animal years and the Chinese Zodiac? Are there beliefs about certain numbers in East Asia? What are manga and anime? What is Hello Kitty and what is “kawaii?” What is “hallyu,” or the Korean wave? Did karaoke begin in Asia? What is behind the emphasis on respect for elders? Do Asian parents try to control their children's lives? What is China’s “one-child policy?” Why do some East Asians value males more than females? Do East Asians get divorced and, if so, is it looked down upon? Is intermarriage discouraged? Does knowing one East Asian language make it easier to learn another? What are the major languages in China? Is it difficult for East Asians to learn English? Some East Asians seem to speak loudly and some seem quiet. Why? Why are Asians often quiet in meetings or social settings? What gives East Asian eyes their distinctive shape? Do all Asians have black hair and black pupils? Why is plastic surgery so popular in Korea? Can East Asians tell each other’s nationality on sight? Are Asians genetically smaller than Americans? Why do Asians come to America for college? Do Asians have to be rich to afford college in the United States? Are math and science emphasized in Chinese schools? Are Asians obsessed with grades? How do East Asian students in the United States afford expensive cars? Do Asians studying in the United States focus on medicine, engineering and business? What is the “model minority myth?” Do people from East Asia work long hours? Why do so many Asians in the United States work at nail salons? Do a lot of Asians run their own businesses in the United States? Does Asia have religious freedom? What religions are practiced in China? How is religion practiced in Japan? Are South and North Korea religiously similar? What is traditional Chinese medicine and does it work? What is the life expectancy in Asia? Is Asian food spicy? Is Chinese food in the United States like Chinese food in China? Do Chinese eat General Tso chicken in China? Do Japanese eat sushi every day? Why do some Asians eat food like chicken feet? Why do Asians eat so much rice? Why do some Asians decline dairy products? Are chopsticks used throughout Asia? Do some Asians still eat dog meat? Do some East Asians drink a lot of alcohol? This guide is published with John Hile of David Crumm Media, which publishes the Read the Spirit website.

Before World War II, family life in Asian American communities was greatly influenced by immigration policies and cultural practices. For some groups, such as the Chinese and the Filipinos, a dearth of females resulted in the appearance of bachelor societies. Among the Japanese, a healthy family society was maintained by the practice of sponsoring picture brides. The essays in this volume examine such issues as the role of the family, generational changes, and the significance of kinship, networks, newspapers, and credit associations in various Asian American groups.

This volume is a collection of papers written by nationals or former nationals of the respective country in ASEAN and Northeast Asia. Unlike other works written by scholars outside ASEAN or East Asia, it offers an insider’s point of view of the 10 ASEAN states, China, Japan and South Korea on regional community building. While a nationalist perspective may permeate throughout the study, it is also clear that pursuing regional cooperation is considered to be important by the respective author, denoting the non-exclusivity between nationalism and regionalism and the mutual reinforcement of the two. Each author of this volume has made a deliberate effort to introduce and survey the developmental challenges and experiences of his or her country from a historical perspective. All authors, without exception, have emphasized the importance and advantages in staying with ASEAN or linking up with ASEAN by China, Japan and South Korea in political-security, economic and socio-cultural terms. Their papers also reveal that the self-help and self-strengthening mechanism emphasized by the ASEAN Plus Three process will take time to bear fruits. In the meantime, it seems that bilateral interactions and cooperation between ASEAN and Northeast Asian states remain to be more dominant as shown in this study. One can argue that bilateral interactions are the building block of multilateralism interactions. To be sure, there is a deliberate effort in this study to highlight "unity in diversity" in East Asia in general and ASEAN in particular.

This collection of studies investigates the individual, micro-psychological, and macro-societal factors that promote or discourage the development of child and young adult heritage language learners' spoken and written skills in East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). The research presented in this book is based on empirical data from various learning and social settings in the United States and Canada. The contributors are themselves mostly from East Asian immigrant backgrounds and have worked closely with students from such backgrounds. This book also speaks to the needs for future research within East Asian communities that will (a) promote East Asian heritage language development in applied linguistics, (b) encourage parental, community, and national support for East Asian heritage language development, and (c) improve the teaching of oral and written skills for heritage learners of East Asian languages in various educational settings.

The last half century witnessed a dramatic change in the geographic, ethnographic, and socioeconomic structure of Asian American communities. While traditional enclaves were strengthened by waves of recent immigrants, native-born Asian Americans also created new urban and suburban areas. Asian America is the first comprehensive look at post-1960s Asian American communities in the United States and Canada. From Chinese Americans in Chicagoland to Vietnamese Americans in Orange County, this multi-disciplinary collection spans a wide comparative and panoramic scope. Contributors from an array of academic fields focus on global views of Asian American communities as well as on territorial and cultural boundaries. Presenting groundbreaking perspectives, Asian America revises worn assumptions and examines current challenges Asian American communities face in the twenty-first century.

"Easily the most informed and comprehensive analysis to date on how and why East Asian countries have achieved sustained high economic growth rates, this book] substantially advances our understanding of the key interactions between the governors and governed in the development process. Students and practitioners alike will be referring to Campos and Root's series of excellent case studies for years to come." Richard L. Wilson, The Asia Foundation Eight countries in East Asia--Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia--have become known as the "East Asian miracle" because of their economies' dramatic growth. In these eight countries real per capita GDP rose twice as fast as in any other regional grouping between 1965 and 1990. Even more impressive is their simultaneous significant reduction in poverty and income inequality. Their success is frequently attributed to economic policies, but the authors of this book argue that those economic policies would not have worked unless the leaders of the countries made them credible to their business communities and citizens. Jose Edgardo Campos and Hilton Root challenge the popular belief that East Asia's high performers grew rapidly because they were ruled by authoritarian leaders. They show that these leaders had to collaborate with various sectors of their population to create an environment that was conducive to sustained growth. This required them to persuade the business community that their investments would not be expropriated and to convince the broader population that their short-term sacrifices would be rewarded in the future. Many of the countries achieved business cooperation by creating consultative groups, which the authors call deliberation councils, to enhance accountability and stability. They also obtained popular support through a variety of wealth-sharing measures such as land reform, worker cooperatives, and wider access to education. Finally, to inhibit favoritism and corruption that would benefit narrow interest groups at the expense of broad-based development, these countries' leaders constructed a competent bureaucracy that balanced autonomy with accountability to serve all interests, including the poor. This important book provides useful lessons about how developing and newly industrialized countries can build institutions to implement growth-promoting policies.

Focusing on San Diego in the post-Civil Rights era, Linda Trinh Vo examines the ways Asian Americans drew together - despite many differences within the group - to construct a community that supports a variety of social, economic, political, and cultural organizations. Using historical materials, ethnographic fieldwork, and interviews, Vo traces the political strategies that enable Asian Americans to bridge ethnicity, generation, gender, language, and class differences, among others. She demonstrates that mobilization is not a smooth, linear process and shows how the struggle over ideologies, political strategies, and resources affects the development of community organizations. Vo also analyzes how Asian Americans construct their relationship with Asia and how they forge relationships with other racialized communities of color. Vo argues that the situation in San Diego illuminates other localities across the country where Asians face challenges trying to organize, find sufficient resources, create leaders, and define strategies.

With its long history of internal divisiveness and its intersecting cultural and linguistic cleavages, East Asia is undoubtedly a complex area. However, the idea of East Asia as a regional entity is one that is relatively recent – a concept that gained momentum after the financial crisis that rocked the region in the 1990s. In recent years, East Asia has become considerably more interdependent, connected and cohesive. This increased cohesiveness has been driven by a dense network of trade and investments, technology sharing and communication, among many other variables and has been reflected in the increasing institutionalisation of regional mechanisms like the ASEAN. Regionalism is not, however, entirely about economic interdependence. In today’s day and age, it means not only overarching social networks and a regional identity, but also strategic thinking that recognises common security interests. This book takes into account the regional discourses of two of East Asia’s biggest players – the United States and China. While the former has been a power to reckon with, albeit “externally”, deeply entrenched in the region since the end of the Second World War, the rise of China in the 21st century and its emergence as the largest power in East Asia has brought a new perspective to East Asian regionalism. In 2010, the United States began reasserting itself in East Asia, bringing into sharp focus the ideological differences between itself and China as each vied to shape the architecture of East Asian security. There is no doubt that heightened American interest comes at a time when China’s own views of regionalism have become noticeably less cooperative. While balance of power politics is one way to look at the geopolitical tug-of-war in East Asia, there are questions that have not yet been answered. How do the two countries look at a region that is so important for them? How has that perception influenced their foreign policy within the same arena? More importantly, how do they define East Asia? This book studies American and Chinese regional discourses from the end of the Cold War to the present day in order to highlight the rationale behind the natural balance of power politics between an established power and a rising one, and its subsequent effects on security regionalism in East Asia.