Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity by Jennifer Lee; Min Zhou
Review by: Pyong Gap Min
International Migration Review, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Summer, 2005), pp. 523-524
Published by: The Center for Migration Studies of New York, Inc.
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Book Reviews 523
moved to France, is at his best when he selves have lost their peasant identities, and
demonstrates how destructive emigration is the peasant communities they've left behind
to the underdeveloped communities from are often shells of their former selves ? per
which migrants are drawn. As one Algerian haps the final wound of colonialism.
living in France puts it,
"All of our people The long and arduous passage of this
are in France; we are filling France and book from conception to
publication is an
a result, for the difficulties faced
emptying the village" (p. 12). As apt metaphor by
rural communities inAlgeria are disintegrat international migrants, and like many mi
scars.
laborers are lost and tasks grants, this book bares its journey's
ing. Discernibly,
go undone, but Sayad contends something of the
The English additionof The Suffering
was 15 years after Say
more is afoot. "The
entire peasant Immigrant published
sweeping
ad's demise, and in spots it seems dated,
spirit has been seriously damaged and all the
both in terms of the migratory flows it ex
old values are being undermined" (p. 21).
amines and the scholarly discourse it en
how
Sayad's ethnographic work illuminates The the Im
to emigrate often is. gages. Nonetheless, Suffering of
desperate the decision
its ethnographic re
As one emigrant asks, "What kind of life is migrant, particularly
search, is a valuable and insightful work,
itwhen, in order to feed your children, you
and a worthy legacy of a dedicated scholar.
are forced to leave them?" (p. 59).
As a point of intellectual entry, privi
over immigration allows Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and
leging emigration
Lee and Min
to tackle this phenomenon from its Ethnicity. Edited by Jennifer
Sayad
a more robust account Zhou. New York and London: Routledge,
inception, providing
2004. Pp. 359.
of international migration. It also brings
into relief certain in global migra
changes
Pyong Gap Min
tion. Until the mid-twentieth century or so,
Queens College and the Graduate Center of
were mostly trusted representatives
migrants
to go temporarily the City University ofNew York
sent by their communities
to France to earn money for their peasant
communities back in Algeria. Researchers have paid close attention to the
Emigration
was one
of many tasks undertaken children of post-1965 Asian immigrants
just by
as since the late 1980s. As a result, several
peasants for the benefit of the community
? a articles focusing on 1.5
a whole. There was no "myth" of return books and many
one Alge and Asian Americans
great many actually returned. As second-generation
rian puts it, "There's a whole army of have been published. Nevertheless, almost
- and I am one of them - who never all these studies on younger-generation
them
Asian Americans focus on a particular issue,
stop coming and going between here and
a
France" (p. 13). mostly ethnic identity, for particular Asian
But emigration undermined the co group.
hesiveness of the peasant communities it To my knowledge, Asian American
was intended to preserve. Increasingly it Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity, ed
"was no longer a way of helping the group, ited by Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, is the
but a way of escaping its constraints" first comprehensive book that covers the
(p.
39). More and more, especially after Alge culture, identity, and ethnicity among vari
ria's independence, came to ous 1.5- and Asian
immigrants second-generation
France on their own initiative, and on their American with to several
subgroups regard
own behalf.
Algerians established insular different topics. The subgroups and topics,
and permanent social structures covered in the twenty-chapter book, include
seemingly
in France that are as removed from their multiracial Asian Americans, the DJ scene
country of origin as they are from their in Filipintown, import car racing among
them Asian American in Southern
country of residence. The migrants young people
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524 International Migration Review
romance in California
California, Vietnamese youth gangs in Little courtship and before
Saigon, second-generation Korean Ameri World War II, Matsumoto points out that
can campus
evangelicals, Asian American second-generation Japanese women "in
professional
actors in and gay creasingly challenged the practice of ar
Hollywood,
in favor of'love marriage"
Asian American youth. The vast majority of ranged marriage
the chapters cover the children of post-1965 (p. 94).Namkung links Asian American
Asian adults' participation in import car
immigrants, with only three chapters young
on the children of racing, associated with masculinity and
focusing pre-1965 Asian
to their effort to
immigrants. The contributors include his hypersexuality, challenge
torians, a legal analyst, a clinical psycholo the negative stereotypes of Asian American
men as asexual.
gist,
a film-video editor, a
print journalist, By analyzing personal ads in
and a physician, as well as sociologists and gay magazines, Ng shows how Asian Ameri
can gay men are desired as
anthropologists. "sissy bottoms"
The scholars who take a because of the stereotypes of Asian Ameri
immigrant
cans as
are passive and submissive.
typical sociological approach mainly
Most previous studies of 1.5- and
concerned with the extent towhich the chil
second-generation Asian Americans focus
dren of post-1965 immigrants preserve their on identities and the
ethnic traditions, including their ethnic/pan-ethnic
language.
But most chapters of this book provide the positive effects of ethnic retention on school
performance. This suggests that both are
"emergent" views of Asian American youth issues for younger
culture and identity that are shaped not very important
generation Asian American experiences. But
only by Asian cultural influences, but also, this book does not include any chapter that
and more importantly, by young Asian
Americans' reactions to racial prejudice and systematically examines either issue for 1.5
and second-generation Asian Americans in
discrimination in the United States. For ex
general. Despite this limitation, Asian
ample, Namkung claims that Asian Ameri
American Youth is a significant contribution
can
youth in Southern California innovated
to the literature on Asian Americans.
the contemporary Asian car as Espe
import racing the writings are very lively,
a result of their exclusion from other forms cially because
this book should serve as an ideal textbook
of popular car culture. Yu D?nico and
for many Asian American courses.
Trinh Vo also interpret Asian American
youth's obsession with cyber caf?s as their The Impact on
of Immigration African
effort to create a safe and comfortable space Americans. Edited by Steven Shulman. New
to socialize to escape from racial
profiling Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers,
and harassment by the police. Lakandiwa de 2004. Pp. xiii; 170.
Leon associates Filipino DJs' promotion of
African American culture with Nelson Lim
hip-hop
their rejection of white culture and assimi RAND
lation to white society. As he put it, "The
process of assimilation is not toward white Given the recent "jobless recovery," the call
culture but rather toward hip-hop culture, for a restricted immigration policy is on the
which the media has depicted as a rise. There are those who worry that immi
purely
African American art form,
especially in the grants will not assimilate into the existing
most visible form, or social hierarchy, but instead merge with a
emceeing rapping" (p.
197). "rainbow underclass," and thus change the
In addition to race, several contribu American way of life.Others are convinced
tors have
paid attention to gender as an im immigrants assimilate so
effectively that
factor that contributes to young
portant they will harm the dispossessed by pushing
Asian Americans' culture and identity. For them further down in the hierarchy. Editor
example, in her analysis of Nisei daughters' Steven Shulman belongs
to the latter group.
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