Asian American Studies Essay

This essay delves into the multifaceted experiences of Asian Americans, focusing on historical and contemporary challenges. It examines the early recruitment of Asian immigrants as laborers, the subsequent discrimination and racism they faced, and the development of the Asian American movement. The essay also highlights the unique struggles of Asian American women, their activism, and their contributions to the broader movement for social justice. Furthermore, it explores the complexities of cultural adoption and retention, the impact of the 1965 Immigration Act, and the persistent stereotypes that continue to affect Asian Americans today. The work includes analysis of literary works that depict the challenges faced by Asian immigrants and their descendants, illustrating the ongoing struggle for equality and recognition.

Asian and Asian American Studies 1
Asian and Asian American Studies
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Asian and Asian American Studies 2

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Table of Contents
Essay 1.............................................................................................................................................3
Essay 2.............................................................................................................................................7
Essay 3...........................................................................................................................................10
Essay 4...........................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................19

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Essay 1
The Asian immigrant groups were first recruited as a labor force into Hawaii and Western U.S.
in 1840 in WWII. The groups were seen to include Filipinos, Chinese and Japanese. The people
from these groups were termed as “monkeys” and “goo-goos”. The challenges of Asian
Americans towards intense racism were seen due to various governmental actions and policies
post the Civil War. Prior to the war, the Asian Americans were seen to be present at the other
end of the immigrant hierarchy and therefore they were seen as unfit for American citizenship
(and termed as the despised ‘pig-tailed coolie’), unassimilable aliens, yellow perils. American
culture thought their culture to be entirely alien and foreign and therefore deemed them to be
unsalvageably incompatible.
It was seen that the blacks proved out to be highly useful due to cheap labor as slaves and other
economic benefit, the next target were Asian immigrants who were exploited next. The Asian
immigrants were seen as a threat to the U.S. and were then accused of taking up the employment
opportunities from the American citizens. Therefore, they were denied the same rights as whites.
They were forced to work and live under hazardous conditions at the transcontinental railroad
segments (Woo, D., 1994). Especially the Chinese immigrants were subjected to the
discrimination to the greatest extent with horrific racism by making them work at the degraded
conditions under worst conditions. Under the case of economic threats, they were pushed out of
the country, and business was aggravating to the racism. The Asian Americans were called as
barbarous, and heathens and filthy exactly like the African Americans were called. When the
whites witnessed their racial purity to be threatened by the Chinese people various laws were
made to make the interracial marriages (between whites and Asians, esp. Chinese) as illegal. The

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Chinese immigration like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (A&T) and head tax of fifty-five
dollar was ratified by the government for controlling them (Wong, E. F., 1985).
Chinese were not even permitted for naturalising and became the American citizens and were
also beset by the laws which led to discrimination against the Chinese in the parts of California
schools with school segregation. Due to these anti-miscegenation laws, the American
Chinatowns were seen to have the larger ratio of men to women and were termed as the
bachelors.
The major concern of whether the Asian Americans were migrants in the United States from
Asia was considered to be sojourners or the settlers. Usually, the Asians were considered to be
sojourners and were seen as temporary migrants for seeking economic opportunities, acquiring
funds, sending remittance to their relatives and might return to their homeland. But with the
emergence of various Asian American movement from the 1960s, the Asians suggested that they
had established their roots in the United States. The Anti-Asian attitudes came from hostile
politicians, demagogues and yellow journalists who believed Asians to have entered the USA in
order to extract wealth. (Tchen, J. K. W., & Yeats, D., 2014).
Siu has explained that the term sojourner is used for people who go to abroad in order to perform
a job but have the intent of coming back in a while. These individuals always entertain the idea
of travelling back to their homeland. According to Siu, the attitude of Sojourner was not seen to
be found in the Chinese and other international students, diplomat, missionaries, etc. This term
has predominately being applied for the Chinese compared to the other Asians.
With the onset of Asian American movement in the 1960s, a new identity was given to the
Asians. During this process, the Asians presented various facts as to how they have helped the

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USA to build its economy, and their contribution has continuously being ignored. In the
nineteenth century after the establishment of their homes and communities, they were termed as
foreigners.
Further, they were addressed as yellow peril and forever foreign by the media for explaining the
behaviour of various individuals. The press considered them as economic competitors and a
cultural menace towards the sophisticated American society. Till now, the notion of yellow peril
has, and sojourners have not gone away completely. The media still highlights the people from
Asian communities in case of crimes and violence.
Till now, the racial stereotypes have not died as they have not even faded away. Although the
Asian Americans have achieved a status of successful minority status when compared to the
majority of the Americans through their dignified gritty and demeanour. The Asian Americans
are seen to achieve their work ethic over but still face racial discrimination, now that
prominently, though. Wth the change in political, social and cultural climate the times have
improved further, but the negative stereotypes are still the same due to recurring physical and
cultural differences between the American and Asian Americans.
The scapegoating of Chinese people as yellow peril has obscured the effective analysis of
various debates in the Unites States, but it has also silenced and ostracised the communities and
individuals who are on the verge of American fantasy. The vigilante violence along with
repression of state has suppressed the efforts of these communities of yellow colour to organise
their success.
Although now the situation has changed as the Asian Americans do get equal opportunities and
enjoy equal rights as the Americans and are striving further in almost every field. The laws

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regarding inter racial marriages and discrimination in schools have now been lifted and every
enjoys equal space. But the Asian Americans are still not able to fit into the module as
comfortably as they aim for.

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Essay 2
The Asian communities were predominately male dependent due to a large number of men and
young boys were recruitment labourers and the women could not join the defence services owing
to the U.S. Congressional exclusion acts. The societies of Asian Americans were considered to
be bachelors due to the low population of the women and ladies. Chinese men were seen to
outnumber the Chinese women at a large scale in the United States. During the whole process,
the Asian American women were seen to battle male chauvinism and sexism leading to
pigeonhole them as support workers and care take instead of recognising them as public speakers
and leaders or talent theorist. A great critical role was played by the social organisations in order
to build support for such people.
Since the inception of an Asian American women movement (feminist movement) in the late
1960s, the Asian American women were seen to organise themselves cordially and tried their
best to form relationships and bonds with other women for advocating their rights as women and
also as a racial minority. The very initial wave of the Asian women towards organising the
movement was inspired by the anti-Vietnam War and civil rights movement in the 1960s. Most
of the Asian American women noticed that the Asian American men and women are suffering
from the same set of issues like equity, social, human rights and justice.
In 1950 and 1960s with the onset of the Asian American movement, the social movement of the
national importance was organised in New York and San Francisco where various groups with
campus activism, political campaigns were present in order to improve the lives of Asian
American and achieving equality for them. With this, a myriad of groups was organised and
women participated wholeheartedly in those. These groups became a vehicle for women to voice

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their issues and to challenge sexism and started practising leadership. The women of the Asian
American origin were adamant about their situation and position due to extreme oppression and
repression. They started combining these two forces in order to attain liberation.
The women co-founded or founded AAA and AAPA (Asian American Political Alliance) and
rose to prominence in the IWK and KDP with the aim of uniting the Pan-Asian ethnic group and
rise them to prominence. Women were seen to entrench within the Asian American movement in
a firm manner even while critiquing the sexism of the movement as they were clear of the
integration of the racism and sexism in the society. The women of Asian American origin were
seen to support their brothers whole-heartedly in the movement in order to reform their practices
and attitudes. They joined in the movement and the fight so as to eliminate the cases of
overarching formation of class, sexism and racism exploitation. An International Hotel Women's
Collective was formed by these women who were participating the struggle associated with I-
Hotel and other organisations which aimed to call out for the men who were seen to patronise
and sexualize women and wanted to build the consciousness of the women and to inculcate the
leadership skills.
Such efforts by Asian American women has been considered as one of the most critical women's
liberation movement in the world. The movement helps in improving the role and status of these
women in the American society. The women were seen to gather in the form of informal groups
which were termed as rap sessions or the study groups. In the mid-1970s, the whole movement
was seen to experience a resurgence, therefore becoming the most dynamic aspect of the whole
movement. Various women activist were aware of their role and challenged the issues. There
were two projects namely the educational project focusing on the education of women and
outreaching programs that would ameliorate the condition. Further, the feminist's women were

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seen to voice their views in order to make everyone hear their issues and problems and to
generate global interests (Chow, E. N. L., 1992).
The Asian American women started meeting all the groups within the country and shared their
ideas and experiences and thoughts with other groups by using a journal. While going through
almost all parts of the country, they realised that all these problems were common to the women.
Asian women also published their studies a year later which became famous among all the
activists. This study has attained the highest status of classics in the academia of Asian American
Studies.
This times led to the creation of Asian Women United-San Francisco (AWU-SF), Organization
of Pan Asian American Women Inc. (Pan Asia) and Organization of Asian American Women
(OAW). The AWU-SF was interested in the education of women, and the OAW depicted its
interest in the political study (Lie, G. Y, 1999). Both the organisation had a large number of
women belonging from strong ethnic communities so as to contribute to the society. Pan Asia
was more of a harbinger as it was a great step towards embracing the mainstream issues of
women. The members of these societies and other local agencies working in the same field urged
all their men and brothers to support them in their goals for building relationships and bonds of
mutual respect. The women were seen to sign “With love, your sisters.”
The movement, however, had a significant number of flaws in which but the whole Asian
American women movement was seen to be an arena which led to the development of women as
activists and helped in honing their leadership skills and helped in hearing their voices and
opinions.

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Essay 3
It is the story of two girls who were migrated from the Vietnamese who faced many problems
since their mother died and they were insulated by the Vietnamese's American community. They
found that they were bounded by the cultural, family and demands of their ageing father. Both
the girls felt unmetered and the burden of secrets due to which both of them never confide with
each other (Hoa et al., 1957). Van has faced many problems in her married life whereas the linny
has drifted into the serious affair with the white married men. The short girls record the pitfalls
which are governed by all families. The author shows the complexity faced by the immigrant
girls which include the complexity of culture, ambition and duty. The meaning passage in the
story came when the life of Linny got the negative turn due to affair with the white guy who is
married, and she is plagued by the bad memories of the unhappy married life of their parents,
and another reason was long term suspension of her father's infidelity, and their brothers thought
that their mother had died since nine years (Xu et al., 2011). From all the problems in her life
despite boyfriend and few girlfriends she felt along in the world, and she saw the husband of the
van with other women in the hotel of Chicago then she came to realise that she is not the only
one with the problems. It is the meaningful message in the story which shows that everyone is
facing the problem in their life.
Meaningful passage in the Southland by Nina Revoyr
The Southland is the compelling story of racial tragedy and family. The author describes the
history of Southern California brutal and the survival of family with the tenacity, love and
dignity. The author focuses on the past and presents to the racial justice in the Los Angeles. It is
the mystery murdered novel which took place in the forties and nineties when the racial
discrimination is at the high peak. The two characters, namely, Cutis Martindale and Frank

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Sakai who were affected by the racism in the neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The meaningful
passage in the story includes the reveal of mystery when the investigation is reopened by the
Jackie and James in which they are pointing the Lawson because he hates black and he was
present at the night of the murder in the shop of Frank (Kuroki et al. 2011). When the
investigation goes deeper into the past of Cutis, then it tolls on the three years relationship with
his girlfriend who Laura. The past and present clues were disclosed which shows that the
romantic link between the Frank and mother of Cutis. When the suspense of killing is figured
then the dark conclusion of racial intolerance and justice is determined. The meaningful passage
in the story includes the discrimination faced by the people in the Los Angeles due to which the
mystery of family is investigated by the granddaughter of Frank. The mystery is a will
investigates in which it is revealed that then Cutis was the son of Frank due to which he leave his
store in the name of his son. The main issues describe in the story was discrimination due to
which the relationship between the people of two different community leads to the punishment
faced by the lovers which result from the rape by his wife and beaten half to death. The primary
issue of the story is the discrimination. It can been seen from the hate faced by the victor and his
wife and how the attempt of white women in befriending Victor leads to punishment of the loved
ones of Victor by the white community. This leads to the rape of her wife, and he drowns in
alcohol. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were targeted and were killed which can
be seen from the murder of Kazau.
Dilemma faced by contemporary Asian American
In both the stories, the discrimination is faced by the contemporary Asian American such as
racial discrimination due to which the black men are not allowed to befriend with the white