Asian_American_Community_Organization

Asian American Community Organization: Annotated Bibliography Chan, Sucheng. “Asian Americans: An Interpretive History” The Social Organization of Asian Immigrant Communities. (1991): 63-78. Print. With many exclusionary laws that hindered the arrival of Asian immigrants to the United States, the Chinese immigrants that were already here needed to learn how to survive amongst themselves. The ability to form associations enabled Asians to carve a place for themselves in a host society that did not welcome them. (Chan 63) By forming these social organization, they allowed Asian immigrant to feel they have a common place where they are welcomed and be provided assistance if needed. Chan also in the chapter mentions the Six Chinese Companies, which consisted of six existing associations in California and their job was “to adjudicate quarrels among members of the different associations”. (65) Chan does a good job giving descriptive background information of the historical associations, family clans, tongs that existed in Asian enclaves, whose their purpose was to serve the people when the host society saw them as yellow peril. Singh, Jane. The Gadar Party: Political Expression in an Immigrant Community. Rutgers University Press, 2004. Print Would you form a nationalist revolution party if your homeland country were under colonial domination' This was exactly the mission of the overseas Asian Indians who formed the Gadar Party. Unhappy with the British domination over India, Har Dayal and members of the Gadar Party called for a revolution to end British control over India. Through their publication called Gadar, they voice their revolutionary message, which was printed in Urdu, and in Gurumukhi throughout Indian immigrant communities in the Americas, Europe, and parts of Asia. (Singh 38) Dayal informed his members that soon Germany would engage war with Britain and urged the people to return home at this time to launch revolution. (Singh 40) Incident such as the Komagata Maru affair made it hard for overseas Indian to return home, and British government eventually captured the few that did. The revolution did not turn out as planned but the appeal and influence of the Gadar Party was unprecedented at this time. The positive outcome of this movement was that it proved a group of minority was capable of gathering a revolution when they feel their homeland is being oppressed. It will be interesting to see how revolutionaries like the Gadar Party, who were much concerned with the politics back in their homeland, have in common with modern day organizations like Committee of 100. Murayama, Milton. All I Asking for is My Body. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994. Print This book finely illustrates the generational differences between the Issei and the Nisei. The main character, Tosh, and his siblings grew up in a Hawaii sugar plantation and lived an American way of life. Because of Japanese tradition, Tosh was bounded by filial piety and had to inherit the family debt. Tosh often rebelled against his parents to break free of tradition and long for the day of returning to school. His younger brother, Kiyoshi also feel the same way but he is more filial of their parent’s traditional outlook on life decision. This book introduced many aspects of generational difference and also detailed the life of Hawaii sugar plantation. It will be interesting to see how generational conflict today compare to the 1940s. Umemoto, Karen. “On Strike!: San Francisco State College Strike, 1968 - 1969: The Role of Asian American Studies”. Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader (2nd edition) Zhou, Min and Gatewood, J.V. (New York: New York University Press, 2007). Print Umemoto focuses her attention on the San Francisco State College strike, which is the longest student strike, lasting 5 months. She analyzes the development of the strike in four stages from 1964 to 1969 and defining the dominant concepts along the way. (Umemoto 26) She gives in good detail of the many student organizations that formed in part of the strike, strategies and tactics used in resistance, and the lasting impact of the strike. According to Umemoto, the most evident accomplishment was the birth of the first School of Ethnic Studies, and secondly was “a less tangible, but equally significant, outcome of the strike was the emergence of a new generation of fighters who either remained on campus or entered their communities.” (Umemoto 51) Petersen, William. “Success Story, Japanese-American Style” The New York Times 9 January 1966. Petersen in this article describe Japanese American as model minority in a very conniving way. Although it may sound complementary at first, as you read further into the article, it becomes very euphemistic and sometimes a bit radical. Petersen gives comparing statistics on poverty, education level, salary and even life expectancy with Japanese Americans and Whites. Petersen suggest that the Japanese American had inherited their strong parental values from the samurais of the Tokugawa period. (Petersen 42) One who reads this must take into consideration that it was written in the 1960s, only twenty years after Japanese Americans were interned, so there is still an undertone throughout the article of seeing Japanese Americans as not part of the norm. I will see how the organization view on model minority and see if they think the view has shifted today.