LibGuides: Ethnic Studies Resources for Faculty and Students: Asian American Studies

Books, Articles, & Videos

Asian America by Cathy J. Schlund-Vials (Editor); K. Scott Wong (Editor); Jason Oliver Chang (Editor)
ISBN: 0300195443
Publication Date: 2017-01-10
An essential collection that brings together the core primary texts of the Asian American experience in one volume. This collection of core primary texts draws from a wide range of fields, from law to visual culture to politics, covering key historical and cultural developments that enable students to engage directly with the Asian American experience over the past century.
Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics by Lynn Fujiwara (Editor); Shireen Roshanravan (Editor); Piya Chatterjee (Series edited by)
ISBN: 9780295744353
Publication Date: 2018-12-01
Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics brings together groundbreaking essays that speak to the relationship between Asian American feminisms, feminist of color work, and transnational feminist scholarship.
Asian American History: a Very Short Introduction by Madeline Y. Hsu
Call Number: E184.A75 H89 2017
ISBN: 9780190219765
Publication Date: 2016-12-07
This book provides a sweeping and nuanced history of Asian Americans, revealing how and why the perception of Asian immigrants changed over time.
A Different Shade of Justice by Stephanie Hinnershitz
ISBN: 1469633698
Publication Date: 2017-10-02
In the Jim Crow South, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and, later, Vietnamese and Indian Americans faced obstacles similar to those experienced by African Americans in their fight for civil and human rights. Although they were not black, Asian Americans generally were not considered white and thus were subject to school segregation, anti miscegenation laws, and discriminatory business practices.
Discriminating Sex by Amy Sueyoshi
ISBN: 0252050266
Publication Date: 2018-02-21
Freewheeling sexuality and gender experimentation defined the social and moral landscape of 1890s San Francisco. Amy Sueyoshi draws on everything from newspapers to felony case files to oral histories in order to examine how whites' pursuit of gender and sexual fulfillment gave rise to racial caricatures.
East Meets Black by Chong Chon-Smith
ISBN: 9781628462050
Publication Date: 2015-03-31
East Meets Black examines the making and remaking of race and masculinity through the racialization of Asian and black men, confronting this important white stratagem to secure class and racial privilege, wealth, and status in the post-civil rights era.
Killing the Model Minority Stereotype by Nicholas D. Hartlep (Editor); Brad J. Porfilio (Editor)
ISBN: 9781681231105
Publication Date: 2015-06-10
Killing the Model Minority Stereotype comprehensively explores the complex permutations of the Asian model minority myth, exposing the ways in which stereotypes of Asian/Americans operate in the service of racism.
Little Manila Is in the Heart by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon
Call Number: F870.F4 M33 2013
ISBN: 9780822353256
Publication Date: 2013-06-17
Little Manila was home to the largest community of Filipinas/os outside of the Philippines until the neighborhood was decimated by urban redevelopment in the 1960s. Narrating a history spanning much of the twentieth century, Dawn Bohulano Mabalon traces the growth of Stockton's Filipina/o American community, the birth and eventual destruction of Little Manila, and recent efforts to remember and preserve it.
Our Voices, Our Histories by Shirley Hune (Editor); Gail M. Nomura (Editor)
ISBN: 9781479821105
Publication Date: 2020-03-10
Our Voices, Our Histories brings together thirty-five Asian American and Pacific Islander authors in a single volume to explore the historical experiences, perspectives, and actions of Asian American and Pacific Islander women in the United States and beyond.
Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown by Guenter B. Risse
ISBN: 9781421405100
Publication Date: 2012-04-16
By probing public health interventions in the setting of one of the most visible ethnic communities in United States history, Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown offers insight into the clash of Eastern and Western cultures in a time of medical emergency.
Race, Nation, and Refuge by Doug Coulson
ISBN: 9781438466613
Publication Date: 2017-10-01
Explores the role of rhetoric and the racial classification of Asian American immigrants in the early twentieth century.
Restoried Selves by Kevin Kumashiro
ISBN: 1136572643
Publication Date: 2013-04-03
Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian / Pacific American Activists presents the first-person accounts of 20 activists--life stories that work against common stereotypes, shattering misconceptions and dispelling misinformation. These autobiographies challenge familial and cultural expectations and values that have traditionally forced queer Asian / Pacific Americans into silent shame because of their sexual orientation and/or ethnicity.
Saving Face by Angie Y. Chung
ISBN: 9780813569826
Publication Date: 2016-09-20
Saving Face offers a nuanced portrait of Asian immigrant families in a changing world as recalled by the people who lived them first-hand: the grown children of Chinese and Korean immigrants. Drawing on extensive interviews, sociologist Angie Y. Chung examines how these second-generation children negotiate the complex and conflicted feelings they have toward their family responsibilities and upbringing.
Taste of Control by René Alexander D. Orquiza
ISBN: 9781978806429
Publication Date: 2020-07-17
Taste of Control tells what happened when American colonizers began to influence what Filipinos ate, how they cooked, and how they perceived their national cuisine. Food historian René Alexander D. Orquiza, Jr. turns to a variety of rare archival sources to track these changing attitudes, including the letters written by American soldiers, the cosmopolitan menus prepared by Manila restaurants, and the textbooks used in local home economics classes.
Trespassers? by Willow Lung-Amam
Call Number: E184.A75 L86 2017
ISBN: 9780520967229
Publication Date: 2017-05-16
Trespassers takes an intimate look at the everyday life and politics inside Silicon Valley against a backdrop of these dramatic demographic shifts. At the broadest level, it raises questions about the rights of diverse populations to their own piece of the suburban American Dream.
Two Faces of Exclusion by Lon Kurashige
ISBN: 9781469629438
Publication Date: 2016-09-26
Kurashige explains the rise and fall of exclusionist policies through an unstable and protracted political rivalry that began in the 1850s with the coming of Asian immigrants, extended to the age of exclusion from the 1880s until the 1960s, and since then has shaped the memory of past discrimination. In this first book-length analysis of both sides of the debate, Kurashige argues that exclusion-era policies were more than just enactments of racism; they were also catalysts for U.S.-Asian cooperation and the basis for the twenty-first century's tightly integrated Pacific world.
When Half Is Whole by Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu
ISBN: 9780804775175
Publication Date: 2012-10-10
The son of an Irish American father and Japanese mother, Murphy-Shigematsu uses his personal journey of identity exploration and discovery of his diverse roots to illuminate the journeys of others. Throughout the book, his reflections are interspersed among portraits of persons of biracial and mixed ethnicity and accounts of their efforts to answer a seemingly simple question: Who am I?

America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
Call Number: PS3603.A8754 A44 2019
ISBN: 9780735222427
Publication Date: 2019-04-02
America Is Not the Heart is a beautiful and heartbreaking debut about love, family, identity, and the Filipino experience.
Big Little Man by Alex Tizon
Call Number: E184.F4 T59 2014
ISBN: 9780547450483
Publication Date: 2014-06-10
An award-winning writer takes a groundbreaking look at the experience and psyche of the Asian American male.
The Body Papers by Grace Talusan
Call Number: ENGL 105 Erpelo
ISBN: 163206183X
Publication Date: 2019-04-09
Winner of The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Grace Talusan's critically acclaimed memoir The Body Papers, a New York Times Editors' Choice selection, powerfully explores the fraught contours of her own life as a Filipino immigrant and survivor of cancer and childhood abuse.
Citizen Internees by Linda L. Ivey; Kevin W. Kaatz
Call Number: D769.8.A6 I89 2017
ISBN: 9781440837005
Publication Date: 2017-03-27
Citizen Internees: A Second Look at Race and Citizenship in Japanese American Internment Camps is an edited selection from a collection of more than 2,000 pieces of correspondence--some of which is previously unpublished--regarding the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans from Redwood City, CA.
Contagious Divides by Nayan Shah
Call Number: RA448.5.C45 S53 2001
ISBN: 0520226291
Publication Date: 2001-10-29
Examining the cultural politics of public health and Chinese immigration in San Francisco, this book looks at the history of racial formation in the U.S. by focusing on the development of public health bureaucracies.
Impossible Subjects by Mae M. Ngai
Call Number: KF4800.N485 2004
ISBN: 9780691074719
Publication Date: 2003-12-07
In well-drawn historical portraits, Ngai peoples her study with the Filipinos, Mexicans, Japanese, and Chinese who comprised, variously, illegal aliens, alien citizens, colonial subjects, and imported contract workers. She shows that immigration restriction, particularly national-origin and numerical quotas, re-mapped the nation both by creating new categories of racial difference and by emphasizing as never before the nation's contiguous land borders and their patrol.
The Latinos of Asia by Anthony Christian Ocampo
Call Number: F869.L89 F47 2016
ISBN: 9780804797542
Publication Date: 2016-03-02
In The Latinos of Asia, Anthony Christian Ocampo shows that what "color" you are depends largely on your social context. Filipino Americans, for example, helped establish the Asian American movement and are classified by the U.S. Census as Asian. But the legacy of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines means that they share many cultural characteristics with Latinos, such as last names, religion, and language. Thus, Filipinos' "color"--their sense of connection with other racial groups--changes depending on their social context.
Legions of Boom by Oliver Wang
Call Number: F870.F4 W364 2015
ISBN: 9780822359043
Publication Date: 2015-05-05
Armed with speakers, turntables, light systems, and records, Filipino American mobile DJ crews, such as Ultimate Creations, Spintronix, and Images, Inc., rocked dance floors throughout the San Francisco Bay Area from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s. In Legions of Boom noted music and pop culture writer and scholar Oliver Wang chronicles this remarkable scene that eventually became the cradle for turntablism.
Pacific Diaspora by Paul Spickard (Editor); Joanne Rondilla (Editor); Debbie Hippolite Wright (Editor)
Call Number: E184.P25 P34 2002
ISBN: 9780824825621
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Although Pacific history, society, and culture have been the subjects of much scholarly research and writing, the lives of Pacific Islanders in the diaspora (particularly in the U.S.) have received far less attention. The contributors to this volume of articles and essays compiled by the Pacific Islander Americans Research Project hope to rectify this oversight.
Serve the People by Karen L. Ishizuka; Jeff Chang (Foreword by)
Call Number: E184.A75 I84 2016
ISBN: 9781781688625
Publication Date: 2016-03-01
The Asian American Movement was an unabashedly radical social movement, sprung from campuses and city ghettoes and allied with Third World freedom struggles and the anti-Vietnam War movement, seen as a racist intervention in Asia. It also introduced to mainstream America a generation of now internationally famous artists, writers, and musicians, like novelist Maxine Hong Kingston
Yellow Peril! by John Kuo Wei Tchen; Dylan Yates
Call Number: E184.A75 Y45 2014
ISBN: 9781781681244
Publication Date: 2035-12-31
Written by two leading scholars and replete with paintings, photographs and images drawn from dime novels, posters, comics, theatrical productions, movies, polemical and pseudo-scholarly literature, and other pop culture ephemera, this book is both a unique and fascinating archive and a modern analysis of this crucial historical formation.

Alemi, Qais, and Carl Stempel. “Discrimination and Distress Among Afghan Refugees in Northern California: The Moderating Role of Pre- and Post-Migration Factors.” PloS One, vol. 13, no. 5, Public Library of Science, 2018, pp. e0196822–e0196822, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0196822.

Bodemer, Margaret B. “Using Personal Narratives to Reposition and Reimagine ‘the Chinese American Experience’ in American History and Culture.” Chinese America, History and Perspectives, Chinese Historical Society, 2018, p. 75–.

Campney, Brent M. S. “Anti-Japanese Sentiment, International Diplomacy, and the Texas Alien Land Law of 1921.” The Journal of Southern History, vol. 85, no. 4, The Southern Historical Association, 2019, pp. 841–78, doi:10.1353/soh.2019.0245.

Cha, Dongho. “Assimilation, Self-Identity, American Racism: Korean Americans as Labor.” The Midwest Quarterly (Pittsburg), vol. 60, no. 4, Pittsburg State University - Midwest Quarterly, 2019, pp. 370–367.

Cheng, Pei-Han, et al. “The Relationship Between Racial Identity Status Attitudes and Acculturation Among Chinese and Korean Americans: A Criterion Profile Analysis.” Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, vol. 43, no. 2, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2015, pp. 97–108, doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.2015.00067.x.

dela Cruz, Felicitas A., et al. “The Factor Structure of a Short Acculturation Scale for Filipino Americans in an Adult U.S.‐born Sample.” Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 46, no. 5, Wiley Subscription Services, Inc, 2018, pp. 535–50, doi:10.1002/jcop.21955.

Flora X Tang. “Purity Culture, Racism and the Violence Against Asian Women in Atlanta.” America (New York, N.Y. : 1909), vol. 224, no. 6, America Press, Inc, 2021, pp. 1–2.

Hai, Yan, and Haibin Dong. “Asian American Woman Cinematic Image: The Exotic Beauty And/or Perpetual Foreigner.” China Media Research, vol. 15, no. 1, Edmondson Intercultural Enterprises, 2019, p. 85–.

Jeong, H. O. “ChineseE-American’ Political Engagement: Focusing on The Impact of Mobilization.” Trames (Tallinn), vol. 21, no. 2, Estonian Academy Publishers, 2017, p. 115–, doi:10.3176/tr.2017.2.02.

Nadal, Kevin L. "The Brown Asian American Movement: Advocating for South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Filipino American Communities." Asian American Policy Review, vol. 29, 2019, p. 2+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A645063413/ITOF?u=plan_skyline&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=39cccb02. Accessed 7 July 2021.

Nguyen, Jenny, et al. “From Yellow Peril to Model Minority: Perceived Threat by Asian Americans in Employment.” Social Science Quarterly, vol. 100, no. 3, Wiley Subscription Services, Inc, 2019, pp. 565–77, doi:10.1111/ssqu.12612.

Suyemoto, Karen. “Ethnic and Racial Identity in Multiracial Sansei: Intergenerational Effects of the World War II Mass Incarceration of Japanese Americans1.” Genealogy (Basel), vol. 2, no. 3, MDPI AG, 2018, p. 26–, doi:10.3390/genealogy2030026.

Timothy Baba. “Japanese Americans: The Journey from Behind the Lines to the Frontline of Minority Rights in the United States.” Journal of the West, vol. 59, no. 4, Journal Of The West Incorporated, 2020, p. 39–.

Tuazon, Victor E., et al. “Colonial Mentality and Mental Health Help‐Seeking of Filipino Americans.” Journal of Counseling and Development, vol. 97, no. 4, 2019, pp. 352–63, doi:10.1002/jcad.12284.

Please also check out Film and Television and Video Representations pages of Skyline College Library's Anti-Asian/Asian American Racism: A Resource Guide.

The American Dream of the Chinese
The American Dream has drawn millions of people to the New World with the promise that all can reach their full potential if they work hard enough, regardless of the circumstances of their birth. In this program six Chinese citizens arriving in the U.S. over a 30-year period share their stories of how that dream has played out for them. A geophysicist who came in 1978 speaks movingly of finally being able to pursue his academic studies, forbidden during the Cultural Revolution, while a 21-year-old defends China at a Free Tibet rally. Providing insight into the hopes and sacrifices of transplanted peoples, the video brings to light the range of attitudes and lifestyles among those who have left their homeland.
Asian Americans Good Americans (PBS)
This series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, and cultural innovation. It is a timely look at the role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. During the Cold War years, Asian Americans are simultaneously heralded as a Model Minority and suspected as the perpetual foreigner. It is also a time of ambition, as Asian Americans aspire for the first time to national political office
Long Story Short
Combining a poignant family story with the stigma of racism, this film gives insight into the Asian-American experience, including the trauma of internment. The latest film from Academy Award-nominated director Christine Choy tells the fascinating story of Larry and Trudie Long, a popular husband-and-wife nightclub act of the '40s and '50s.
One hundred eggs a minute
One Hundred Eggs a Minute is an experimental documentary film about the reflections of a second-generation Chinese-American woman who grew up working in her family’s fortune cookie factory in San Francisco from ages 5 to 23. This is a film about one immigrant family’s means of survival, as much as it is a story about work, filial piety, sacrifice and the meaning of choice
Resistance at Tule Lake
Resistance at Tule Lake tells the long-suppressed story of 12,000 Japanese Americans who dared to resist the U.S. government's program of mass incarceration during World War II. Branded as "disloyals" and re-imprisoned at Tule Lake Segregation Center, they continued to protest in the face of militarized violence, and thousands renounced their U.S. citizenship. Giving voice to experiences that have been marginalized for over 70 years, this documentary challenges the nationalist, one-sided ideal of wartime "loyalty."
Turbans
Turbans explores the conflict within an Asian Indian immigrant family torn between cultural traditions and a strong desire for social acceptance. Based on the memoirs of the filmmaker's grandmother, Turbans illuminates issues of assimilation faced by all immigrants. The compelling story concerns the young Singh boys who, although born in the U.S., are attacked for being different. The turbans they wear, a tradition sacred to their Sikh ancestors, identify them as outsiders in the prejudiced landscape of their time and place.
Uncommon Courage : patriotism and civil liberties
Uncommon Courage: Patriotism and Civil Liberties explores the personal histories of second generation Japanese Americans who served in the U.S. Army' Military Intelligence Service (MIS) during World War II as Japanese language specialists in the Pacific, and after the War during the Occupation of Japan. This documentary examines the motives and actions and uncommon courage of these soldiers whose faith in the future of America fueled the desire to prove themselves defending their country while many of their families and friends were imprisoned in isolated incarceration camps, stripped of their civil liberties.
You Don't Know Jack: The Jack Soo Story
This film tells the fascinating story of a pioneering American entertainer Jack Soo, an Oakland native who became the first Asian American to be cast in the lead role in a regular television series Valentine’s Day (1963), and later starred in the popular comedy show Barney Miller (1975-1978). The film also explores why Soo, a former internee who was actually born Goro Suzuki, was forced to change his name in the post WWII era, in order to perform in clubs in the mid-west. Because of his experiences, throughout his career in films and television, Soo refused to play roles that were demeaning to Asian Americans and often spoke out against negative ethnic portrayals.

A Country within a Country: Understanding San Francisco's Chinatown (OER Commons) activity licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

ASIANetwork Exchange (ASIANetwork) an open access journal of ASIANetwork, a consortium of around 160 North American colleges, that strives to strengthen the role of Asian Studies within the framework of liberal arts education.

Chinese Exclusion Act (CALISPHERE) for licensing information read Using this exhibition at the bottom of the page

Early Chinese Immigration to the US (OER Commons) primary source licensed under CC BY

Eating Identities: Reading Food in Asian American Literature (JSTOR) ebook licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Gender and Representation of Asian Women (MIT OpenCourseWare) course licensed under CC BY NC SA

Hmong Studies Journal open-access, peer-reviewed journal

Introduction to Asian American Studies: Literature, Culture, and Historical Experience (MIT OpenCourseWare) course licensed under CC BY NC SA

Japanese-American Internment (OER Commons) activity licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA

Japanese American Internment During World War II primary source licensed under CC BY

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement (Purdue University) open-access, interdisciplinary journal.

Louder and Faster: Pain, Joy, and the Body Politic in Asian American Taiko (JStOR) ebook licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

New Waves - Educational Research & Development (Chinese American Educational Research and Development Association) open-access, peer-reviewed journal

Race and Gender in Asian America (MIT OpenCourseWare) course licensed under CC BY NC SA

Representations: Doing Asian American Rhetoric (JStOR) ebook licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

South Asian Migrations (MIT OpenCourseWare) course licensed under CC BY NC SA

The United Farm Workers and the Delano Grape Strike (OER Commons) primary source licensed under CC BY

The Asian American Achievement Paradox (Project MUSE) see terms of use.

Asian Americans (Advancing Justice LA)
The Asian Americans K-12 Education Curriculum seeks to inspire a deeper understanding of the history, current experience, and future trajectory of our nation's fastest-growing demographic group through relevant and engaging lessons plans and activities. Important content and themes explored in the series will be used to teach concepts while meeting national content standards.

Asian American Data Links (U.S. Census )

Links to social, economic and other characteristics on the Asian population in the United States.

The Asian American Movement (Project MUSE) see terms of use.

Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit (Asian American Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment)
This toolkit represents the work and thinking of 15 grassroots organizations with Asian American bases living in the most precarious margins of power: low-income tenants, youth, undocumented immigrants, low-wage workers, refugees, women and girls, and queer and trans people. All of the modules are designed to begin with people's lived experiences, and to build structural awareness of why those experiences are happening, and how they are tied to the oppression of others.

Asian-Nation: Asian American History, Demographics, and Issues “One-stop information resource and sociological exploration of the historical, demographic, political and cultural issues that make up today’s diverse Asian American community.”

Asian Voices (Digital History)

From the University of Houston, details key events in Asian American history from the 16th to the 20th centuries.

Chinese Americans and the Politics of Race and Culture (Project MUSE) see terms of use.

Contemporary Asian American Communities (Project MUSE) see terms of use.

Densho (Denscho)

A grassroots organization dedicated to preserving, educating, and sharing the story of World War II-era incarceration of Japanese Americans in order to deepen understandings of American history and inspire action for equity.

Facing History and Ourselves: Resource Library
Facing History and Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.

Flashpoints for Asian American Studies (Project MUSE) see terms of use.

The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive (The Bancroft Library)

The Bancroft Library's documentation of the Japanese American experience during World War II includes over 250,000 pages from an extensive collection of manuscripts and photographs. We invite you to explore these personal materials and recount the daily lives of Japanese Americans while in the confinement sites during World War II.

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Data Links (U.S. Census)

Links to social, economic and other characteristics on the Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population in the United States.

Redefining Race: Asian American Panethnicity and Shifting Ethnic Boundaries (Project MUSE) see terms of use.

South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)

SAADA creates a more inclusive society by giving voice to South Asian Americans through documenting, preserving, and sharing stories that represent their unique and diverse experiences.

Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project

Created in 2011, Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project assembles, preserves, and disseminates the diverse life stories of Vietnamese Americans in Southern California for future generations.

Vietnamese American Heritage Project (Vietnam Center & Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University)

Created in 2008, the Vietnamese American Heritage Project (VAHP) supports the Vietnam Archive’s mission to document the war from all perspectives by providing documentation of the post-war social and political history of Vietnamese Americans who immigrated to the United States during and after the Vietnam conflict.