Product Description

In this groundbreaking collection of personal writings, young Asian American girls come together for the first time and engage in a dynamic converstions about the unique challenges they face in their lives. Promoted by a variety of pressing questions from editor Vickie Nam and culled from hundreds of submission from all over the country, these revelatory essays, poems, and stories tackle such complex issues as dual identities, culture clashes, family matters, body image, and the need to find one's voice.

With a foreword by Phoebe Eng, as well as contributions from accomplished Asian American women mentors Janice Mirikitani, Helen Zia, Nora Okja Keller, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Elaine Kim, Patsy Mink, and Wendy Mink, Yell-Oh Girls! is an inspiring and much-needed resource for young Asian American girls.

Customer Reviews (25)

Half and half.
Well, I have read this book twice (the second time, I found it in a high school library and finished it all in one day).

I do applaud Nam for having the courage and patience to put out a book like this, but every single one of the stories is from a young Asian female in high school or college. Also, despite the obvious differences in surroundings, characters, and plots, they all seem to be so staged as the stories always come up to the same conclusion: I did terrible, or Mom/Dad did me wrong, but I can always keep trying. It's a good message, but when you hear it in about three or four dozen stories over a course of a book literally as thick as your thumb, it does get pretty redundant.

Like the other reviewers pointed out, I'm wondering what happened to these writers. I'm sure they'd all be in their thirties or at least twenties now; this was all written and published in 2000 and 2001.

Good for the high school and college Asian American girls; may be a bit boring and repetitive for the rest.

Just what I wanted
The book was just what I wanted, I second-hand copy. The condition is fine and I'm happy with my purchase.

great!!!
When i first started reading Yell-oh girls, it was kind of boreing and i didn't think i would like it. What drew me to it was the reveiw ont he back of the book. Eventually after i got through the first few pages, i found the book to be really interesting and informative. I thought the author did a great job putting this book together, with all the stories she added into it. I really enjoyed all of them. I never knew what these young girls had to go through. Being called a foreigner everywhere you go,and being stuck between two countries and not knowing which to choose. It must have been really hard!! overall, i thought this book was great!!! :)

Worth YELL-ing about!
"YELL-Oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American," an anthology edited by Vickie Nam, contains more than 80 pieces (both poetry and prose) written by young Asian American women.There are also a few "mentor pieces" by established Asian American women.The book is organized thematically into 5 main sections: "Orientation: Finding the Way Home," in which writers "explore the Asian American landscape"; "Family Ties," which focuses on relationships with family members; "Dolly Rage," which deals with the intersections of physical appearance, difference, and discrimination; "Finding My Voice," about "wrestling with language, trying to somehow find the words to portray ourselves"; and finally "Girlwind: Emerging Voices for Change," which celebrates the activism of "the women warriors of tomorrow."

Each author is identified by her name (except for a small number of anonymous or pseudonymous pieces), age, and town they have lived or currently live in.Cities from many parts of the United States (California, Hawai'i, Illinois, Virginia, Wisconsin, Texas, etc.) are represented, and there is at least one writer from Canada.The young writers, who range in age from 14 to 22, have cultural/ancestral roots in many different nations: Korea, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Laos.

Over 300 pages long, this anthology is full of fascinating selections.Most of them are very short.Some seem like seeds of what could become longer pieces.Some pieces seem to whet the appetite more successfully than satisfy it, but the best pieces are really noteworthy.

Some of the selections I found most impactful are as follows."Her Three-Inch Feet," by Jenny Yu: a moving portrait of a great-aunt who had evidently undergone footbinding."The Other Sister," by Kim McKee: about being adopted and having Caucasian family members."Going Undercover," by Wendy M. Thompson: a reflection on having both Chinese and African American parentage."Zine Grrrl," by Kristy Chan: a fascinating piece about alternative literary creativity."Waving Fans," by Mia Chan Mi Park: about being the drummer for an all-Asian American female rock band.This last piece has my favorite line from the whole book: "YES, Asian American women also rock. . . and we rock hard, dammit!"

This book challenges stereotypes and offers bold new images of young Asian American women.And while rooted in the Asian American female experience, the book addresses many themes that are equally relevant to men and to women of other ethnic/cultural groups.Overall, this is a fine anthology, and a fitting companion to such groundbreaking anthologies as "Home Girls" and "This Bridge Called My Back.""YELL-Oh Girls!" is, in my opinion, a good choice for college courses, for reading groups, or for individual reading.

Expected more
I went into this book with the expectation of learning more about the asian american story- instead I got very generic stories.I think it would be better if the writters weren't all just teenagers and early twenties. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is one of the first scholarly analyses of the current social constructions of Chinese American masculinities.Arguing that many of these notions are limited to stereotypes, Chan goes beyond this to present a more complex understanding of the topic. Incorporating historical references, literary analysis and sociological models to describe the construct a variety of masculine identities, Chan also examines popular novels (Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan), films (Bruce Lee), comic books (Master of Kung Fu), and literature (M. Butterfly). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good book plagued by poor research
Let me preface my review by stating my interest in this book was the author's interpetation of the Fu Manchu character. Overall, this was a good book on an important topic that receives scant attention: prejudice against Asians. The Fu Manchu character, like most fiction from Colonial Britain, has racist elements. However, the author is not sufficiently familiar with the work of the character's creator, Sax Rohmer. Rohmer loved what was then called the Orient. His heroines are Oriental. Fu Manchu is depicted as a genius and a man of integrity at all times. Later books in the series (Rohmer wrote of the character from 1912 to 1959) depict him not as evil, but as devoted to a cause often (but not always) at odds to the West. The rise of Communism in China is at cross-purposes to Fu Manchu's ambitions and the last few books see the character more on the side of the Western protagonists in defeating their common enemy. What is more, Fu Manchu was part of a tradition (owing much to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarity and Sherlock Holmes) of villains and heroes with veiled admiration for one another and who would clearly unite if not for their divisive principles. The author seems to be reacting more to the hackneyed portrayal of the character in film and television adaptations (which are far from faithful to Rohmer's text). Case-in-point, the infamous Fu Manchu moustache which the author emphasizes as a racial stereotype is not the invention of the character's creator who described Fu Manchu as devoid of facial hair in all thirteen novels and four shorter works that he appeared in. Even in the earliest, most racially insensitive books, Rohmer was quick to note that most Chinese immigrants were law-abiding citizens. The harmful stereotype that sprung from the character developed seperately from the writer who loved all things Eastern and wanted to share that love with his readers the world over.

Critical and necessary book on Chinese/Asian-Am. men!!!
So much of men's studies does not take men of color into account.Then, that which does focuses on African-American men, and sometimes Latino men.Thus, Chan's book is a direly needed intervention.The book focuses upon Chinese-American men, but it is applicable to Asian-Ams of many ethnicities.This book would be a wonderful edition to any collection of Asian-American studies texts or works on men of color.Chan has two projects.First, he discusses the history and racist underpinnings of four Chinese-Am men in popular culture of this century:Fu Manchu, Charlie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Shiang-Chi.Second, Chan is trying to formulate a Chinese-American masculinity that is neither sexist nor homophobic.He thus encourages "ambi-sexuality" and borrows the idea of "democratic manhood" from Michael Kimmel.My only critique of this text is that it did not have photos of the characters Chan examines.(I mean, I have heard of Charlie Chan, but I've never seen any of the decades-old films that use him.)In brief, if you enjoyed what Lisa Lowe said about Asian-American women in "Immigrant Acts", you will really love what Chan says about male counterparts in this book.Many readers may be turned off by the deeply academic, and some might say overly "PC" lingo that the author employs.Still, I think every Chinese-American man should own this book.I am very pleased that I bought and read this book; it's brilliant! ... Read more

Product Description
These brief anthologies of ethnic American literature are ideal for ethnic, multicultural and American literature courses. They are designed to introduce undergraduates to the rich but often neglected literary contributions of established and newer ethnic writers to American literature. Each text is organized chronologically by genre and represent a wide range of literature. An introduction provides an historical overview and a celebration of the diversity within each ethnic group. It also addresses the general literary concerns students are likely to encounter in their readings. A seperate thematic table of contents provides the instructor with more flexibility in the classroom. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An impressive gathering of Asian American voices
"Asian American Literature: A Brief Introduction and
Anthology," edited by Shawn Wong, is an impressive
achievement. The book gathers a range of pieces in many genres by more
than 30 authors. The authors represented are a diverse group. There is
a good balance of male and female writers. The authors represent both
United States-born individuals and immigrants. One author, Frank Chin,
is a fifth-generation Chinese American. Other authors trace their
roots to Japan, India, China, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines,
Indonesia, Malaysia, or Laos. Some represent biracial
backgrounds. Several generations of writers, from Sui Sin Far
(1867-1914) to Monique Thuy-Dung Truong (b. 1968) are
represented.

Several genres of literature are also represented. The
selections in the anthology are grouped into four sections: nonfiction
prose, fiction, poetry, and drama. Each author's contribution is
preceded by an interesting individual introduction which contains
useful bibliographic data; this material is further supplemented by a
bibliography at the end of the book. Editor Wong also includes a
fascinating preface to the whole book. This supplemental material is
full of interesting information, such as the story of Wong's
rediscovery of pioneering Japanese American writer Toshio Mori.

There
are many highlights to this fine anthology: Amy Tan's essay
"Mother Tongue," in which she reflects on "the
different Englishes" she uses; Bienvenido Santos' "Quicker
with Arrows," a story of interracial love during World War II;
Bharati Mukherjee's "The Management of Grief," a story about
the aftermath of an apparent terrorist bombing; Lawson Fusao Inada's
"Legends from Camp," a cycle of poems about the internment
of Japanese Americans in U.S. concentration camps during World War II;
Watako Yamauchi's "The Music Lessons," a play about the
struggles of a Japanese American family during the Depression of the
1930s; and much more.

I did find a small number of typographical
errors or apparent factual mistakes throughout the book; for example,
at one point Frank Chin's novel "Donald Duk" seems to be
mistakenly referred to as "Donald Pink" (I know of no novel
by the latter name). And the concluding bibliography, while useful, is
confusingly presented. But these problems aside, I found "Asian
American Literature" to be an enriching anthology. This is one of
those wonderful books that is excellent both for classroom use and for
individual reading. I believe that this book will move you emotionally
and impress you artistically while at the same time educating you
about Asian American culture.
... Read more

Product Description
This text reinterprets a misunderstood epoch of the Asian American experience_the Asian American movement (AAM). The authors address the AAM's dramatic impact on the direction of Asian American political and social activity beginning in the 1960s, particularly in terms of neighborhood redevelopment, civil rights, international solidarity, and the Jesse Jackson presidential campaigns. They argue that the movement became the vehicle to bring Asian American communities into the mainstream of civil life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An asset to Asian American research and history
The Snake Dance of Asian American Activism is a pivotal work in Asian American research.Liu, Geron and Lai explore the multiple aspects of the Asian American Movement and the history surrounding it.They open up a new world of information for any student, scholar or researcher.For anyone who is interested in diving into or learning more about Asian America, this book is a must!

Awesome!
Long awaited book on the Asian American Movement.

Important background of the moment we are in with Asian American activism. Explains the legacy and origins of important campaigns (Vincent Chin, internment reparations) and institutions in the community from health centers and service organizations to grassroots groups. For anybody who wants to figure out how to do good in the world and create a movement for change, especially in the Asian American community. ... Read more

Product Description
Minority invisibility has gone unnoticed in the communication discipline. It denies the existence of racial problems by consciously or unconsciously downplaying, ignoring, or over-simplifying the issues. This is evidenced from the claims of color-blindness and reverse discrimination, the belief in model minorities, and exaggerated, negative, or purposeful racial displays that permeate American culture.Using in-depth interviews with Asian-American professionals from various metropolitan areas, this study investigates these professionals' perceptions on minority invisibility and model minority status. It explores Asian Americans' ethnic consciousness on four levels, discussing how the group perceives their individual invisibility, their group members' invisibility, the invisibility of other American co-cultural groups, and finally their expectations in changing minority invisibility in the United States. The work considers diverse viewpoints on minority invisibility, model minority, satisfaction and dissatisfaction with mainstream American culture, and co-cultural ethnic relations.This study is useful to graduate and undergraduate students and researchers with an interest in race relations, Asian-American studies, co-cultural theory, and intercultural communication studies. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is conceived as a reader for use in American studies, Asian American studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender studies, performance studies, and queer studies. It also contains new scholarship on Asian/American sexualities that would be useful for faculty and students. In particular, this volume highlights materials that receive little academic attention such as works on Southeast Asian migrants, mixed race cultural production, and Asian/American pornography. As an interdisciplinary anthology, this collection weaves together various forms of _knowledge__autobiographical accounts, humanistic research, community-based work, and artistic expression. Responsive to the imbrication of knowledge and power, the authors aspire to present a diverse sample of discourses that construct Asian/American bodies. They maintain that the body serves as the primary interface between the individual and the social, yet, as Elizabeth Grosz noted over a decade ago, feminist theory, and gender and sexuality studies more generally, _has tended, with some notable exceptions, to remain uninterested in or unconvinced about the relevance of refocusing on bodies in accounts of subjectivity._ This volume attempts to address this concern. ... Read more

Product Description
Asian American Studies/Literary Theory

A polemical analysis of the ways Orientalism speaks through the texts of prominent Asian American writers.

Asian American resistance to Orientalism-the Western tradition dealing with the subject and subjugation of the East-is usually assumed. And yet, as this provocative work demonstrates, in order to refute racist stereotypes they must first be evoked, and in the process the two often become entangled. Sheng-mei Ma shows how the distinguished careers of post-1960s Asian American writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Frank Chin, and David Henry Hwang reveal that while Asian American identity is constructed in reaction to Orientalism, the two cultural forces are not necessarily at odds. The vigor with which these Asian Americans revolt against Orientalism in fact tacitly acknowledges the family lineage of the two.

To identify the multitude of historical forms appropriated by the deathly embrace of Orientalism and Asian American ethnicity, Ma highlights four types of cultural encounters, embodied in four metaphors of physical states: the "clutch of rape" in imperialist adventure narratives of the 1930s and 1940s, as seen in comic strips of Flash Gordon and Terry and the Pirates and in the Disney film Swiss Family Robinson; the "clash of arms" or martial metaphors in the 1970s and beyond, embodied in Bruce Lee, Kingston's The Woman Warrior, and the video game Mortal Kombat; U.S. multicultural "flaunting" of ethnicity in the work of Amy Tan and in Disney's Mulan; and global postcolonial "masquerading" of ethnicity in the Anglo-Japanese novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.

Broad in scope, penetrating in insight, Ma's work exposes the myriad ways in which Orientalism, an integral part of American culture, speaks through the texts of Asian Americans and non-Asian Americans alike. The result is a startling lesson in the construction of cultural identity.

Sheng-mei Ma is associate professor in the Department of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University and the author of Immigrant Subjectivities in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Literatures (1998).

Translation Inquiries: University of Minnesota Press ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great premise....which then goes flat.
Sometimes I wonder what's left for ethnic studies scholars to write about.I mean, once you know early Chinese American men weren't allowed to bring their wives over and that Asian immigration substantially increased after 1965, what's next?Once African Americans have studied slave narratives and the Harlem Renaissance, what's left?Though Professor Ma analyzes issues that many other Asian-Americans scholars have already done (Chan did Fu Manchu comics, Zia did the Vincent Chin murder, Bow did Joy Luck Club), she provides a fresh theory by which to look at Asian-American matters.Basically saying that it's hard to escape Said, Ma suggests that Asian-Americans are trapped in reproducing Orientalism, even as they try to escape it.Admittedly, Ma applauds herself noting that she covers topics from the 1920s to the present in multiple genres.Still, she makes this great thesis that Orientalism and Asian-American identity have a four-staged "deathly embrace."At first, I planned to just read selected chapters, but Ma's introduction and thesis enticed me to read the entire book from page one.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book somewhat disappoints.First, not all of the chapters deal with Asian-American agency.This group had no part in the manufacture of Charlie Chan or Fu Manchu.How can Vincent Chin, a hate crime casualty, be blamed for Orientalist narratives?The penultimate chapter discusses Ishiguro, an Anglo-Japanese, not an Asian American.Further, while Ma exhausts ideas about Orientalism, she says little about Asian-American identity.I thought for sure she'd rely upon Wei's book on student activism or Espiritu on panethnicity, but it didn't happen.She leaves several stones unturned.For instance, while she discusses African-American viewers' pleasure with Bruce Lee, when discussing the video game Mortal Kombat, she never mentions that many African-American playersprefered to be the black character Jax (short for Jackson?specifically Jesse Jackson?).The book even ends with a defensive two-paged epilogue where Ma basically says, "I knew you weren't going to like this book?!"

Two things are abundantly clear here:Ma's generational status and her age.Ma knows Chinese fluently and immigrated here after years of living in China.African Americans and Afro-Brazilians often fantasize about Africa as just a place to dance and beat drums.Most Irish Americans can only imagine what Ireland was like before the famine in the 1840s.That's what ethnics in America do:have dreams about their homeland.Yet here, Ma consistently attacks Asian Americans whose multilingual skills and travel experiences are not as extensive as her own.At times, this book feels more like comparative literature than ethnic studies.

Like bell hooks' rants against Spike Lee, Ma has an axe to grind with Amy Tan.This attack has the trait I described above.It somewhat reminds me of Africanists who derided Eddie Murphy's portrayal of African royalty in "Coming to America."Again, this is due to Ma's 1.5 generational status.Though I haven't read Tan's children's story "Sagwa," I watch its cartoon everyday.Just as Black parents have embraced "The Lion King" and Latinos have embraced "Road to El Dorado," if I were an Asian-American parent, I would want my child to watch "Sagwa."Far from maligning China, the show consistently presents the country as full of tales and history and wonders.

Ma admits that she saw no problems with "Swiss Family Robinson" as a child outside of the US, yet she attacks Asian-American actors and viewers for embracing "Mulan."What kind of age bias is that?

Ma mentions biraciality often (Fu Manchu's daughter, Tan's characters, she even says Bruce Lee was 1/4 British).Still, she neither stands against miscegenation nor celebrates diversity here.Maybe it's because I'm also reading "Sum of Our Parts," but it struck me that Eurasians are just here, with nothing more said.

This was a slim text but it spoke profoundly.This was interesting, though confusing, cultural studies.This was quite a risky and ambitious text, but I'm not blown over by the result. ... Read more

Product Description
From pamphlets denouncing slavery to boycotts of Hollywood, African Americans have fought for adequate representations of themselves in the mass media industries of the United States. This book provides readers with an interdisciplinary overview of the past, present, and future of African Americans in U.S. media and the ongoing project of gaining racial equality in media: a process which spans generations. Catherine Squires introduces the reader to the varied ways in which Black Americans have navigated cultural, political, and economic obstacles both to make their own media and to critique mainstream media.

Synthesizing the work of social scientists, historians, cultural critics, as well as comments from audience members and media producers, African Americans and the Media gives readers a lively entry point to classic and contemporary studies of Black Americans and mass media. Across the chapters, readers follow African Americans’ struggles to harness the power of print, broadcasting, film, and digital media, through five main themes which are woven through the book: representation, circulation, innovation, audience and responsibility. Taking in examples as diverse as Blaxploitation films, the work of 20th Century black activist journalists such as Ida B. Wells and A. Philip Randolph, and popular television such as The Cosby Show, this book will be essential reading for all students and scholars of media and communications and African American studies. ... Read more

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Crime and Racial Constructions: Cultural Misinformation about African Americans in Media and Academia critically examines how the film industry and criminologists have constructed African Americans in their effort to explain observed race differences in crime. Of particular concern is how the images they paint of violent, out-of-control blacks result in hardline criminal justice policies. ... Read more

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While some Asian American films and filmmakers are beginning to achieve acclaim in mainstream U.S. culture, neither academic scholars nor society as a whole has sufficiently taken account of the history of this rich and growing body of cinematic production. In "Asian America Through the Lens", Jun Xing accomplishes the colossal task of surveying Asian American cinema for the first time, allowing its aesthetic, cultural, and political diversity and continuities to emerge. Unique insight into Asian American experience in both mainstream and alternative film production is provided by textual analysis as well as by the voices of filmmakers and actors themselves. With constant attention to the specificities of Asian American histories and cultures, Xing engages a broad range of issues and theoretical perspectives, drawing insight from such bodies of scholarship as African American and Latino film studies, Marxian cultural theory, ethnic studies and the politics of representation, and post-structuralist and feminist discourses. ... Read more

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A meticulous work of history, cultural criticism, and political analysis, 'Monitored Peril' illuminates the unstable relationship between the practices of commercial television programs, liberal democratic values, and white supremacist ideology. The book clearly demonstrates the pervasiveness of racialized discourse throughout U.S. society, especially as it is reproduced by network television.

Hamamoto addresses a wide variety of issues facing diverse Asian American communities: interracial conflict, conservative politics, U.S.-Japan trade friction, and post-colonial Vietnam. Through an examination of selected television programs from the 1950s to the present, he attempts to correct the consistently distorted view of network television. He proposes an engaged independent Asian American media practice, and calls for the expansion of public sector television. ... Read more

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This book situates news and popular magazines' coverage of Asian Americans and Mormons within minority discourse, explains the discourses' problematic nature, and points out how the two discourses shape power relations between majorities and minorities in American society. Preface by Kenneth Starck No questions ignite debate in the United States more than those pertaining to differences in religion and ethnicity: Is religion an important consideration in how people regard one another? How significant is ethnicity in making one's way in America? In what ways do religion and ethnicity figure in how a person or group of persons fit into American society? How do media depict for us - that is, those of us on the outside - those who adhere to a different religion or those from a different racial or ethnic background? These are large questions and, as with large questions, probably unanswerable in any definitive way. But the questions are worthy of attention. How we think about them and on what basis helps determine the future of the country. Events of 9-11 and afterwards only intensify interest. Fortunately for us, Dr.Chiung Hwang Chen does not shirk the responsibility of a scholar to tackle tough issues. Her concern is with how media construct our images of minorities in this country. In terms of media, she looks at magazines. In terms of minorities, she focuses on Mormons and Asian Americans. Magazines, as a representative of media, make sense. But why Mormons and Asian Americans? Probably because she's a member of both minority groups. Her vantage point infuses her work in a way that lends plausibility and credibility to the contribution that she has made in advancing our understanding of minority groups in the United States. This book operates at several levels. Indirectly and most fundamentally, the book confronts the question of what is it to be an American. Or, to put it more precisely: What is it to be "Americanized?" In a way the question envelops the whole of the history of the United States. For what is the composition of this nation if not a rainbow of human colors and a kaleidoscope of hopes and dreams? At another level, the book addresses key issues of assimilation and enculturation. How do assimilation and enculturation occur? Or, do they?Assuming they do, is there a middle ground for people - yielding to assimilation yet maintaining group identity? Not a melting pot per se. But more of a tossed salad imagery, as some maintain, or, as others of a gustatory bent argue, a nation given to cross-cultural stir fry - different cultures influencing and being influenced by other cultures. This change in our thinking about assimilation portends a change in the way we perceive of assimilation. Though writing mainly about immigration and such contemporary phenomena as globalization and identity politics, Jacoby argues in favor of a new definition of assimilation that simultaneously embraces diversity and unity (Tamar Jacoby, ed., Reinventing the Melting Pot, 2004). Dr. Chen's examination of the experiences of Mormons and Asians would suggest that this re-definition has been taking place for sometime. At yet another and arguably more controversial level, Dr. Chen's book deals with the every-day concerns of any group that exists apart from the mainstream.How easily it is for us to associate Mormonism with polygamy - or the construction of a welfare system during the Great Depression that continues to be the envy of people everywhere. It is just as easy to think of Asians as representing the yellow peril - or academic and professional models of what we might like our own children to aspire to. Discrimination, prejudice, stereotype - how do these attitudes and behaviors come about? Do mass media play a role in their creation and perpetuation? Dr. Chen's work deals with all of these issues by examining the misfortunes and, ultimately, fortunes of two important minority groups in the United States. How these groups are portrayed in popular news magazines over the span of nearly six decades forms the basis of the study. In both cases, members of the minority groups, often vilified, not only overcome numerous obstacles to become successful in the larger social arena but to emerge as exemplars of comportment, role models for other groups. Hence, the term "model minorities," a complex and, as evident in Dr. Chen's discussion, a much misunderstood label.From an academic standpoint, the book will interest scholars from several disciplines, notably sociology and communication. Sociologists of immigration and assimilation will find fresh insights on how people different most others in religion and ethnicity cope with their environment. When and how perceptions of minority groups change over time have long been the subject of scholarly inquiry, and Dr. Chen contributes to this debate. Those interested in mass media, both as an academic enterprise as well as the production of content, will find much in this book to test their theories and practices. The book challenges the press to ask itself questions about the way it covers minorities, from the narrative or story-telling approach to the overall impact of culture on the practice of journalism. It shows how news and popular media, while not conspiratorial, unintentionally support interests in power. It echoes Lippmann's words written nearly a century ago: "For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see" (Public Opinion, 1922, pp. 54-55). Dr. Chen's method of inquiry itself will spark debate.Employing critical discourse analysis, her concern is with meaning in a broad sense - culturally, historically, socially and interpretatively. She certainly is not objective, that is, producing results that are verifiable and reproducible. But she does not profess to be objective. She wants to challenge and question deeply embedded theories and practices. "Consciousness raising," in her words. In this and in other ways she succeeds admirably. ... Read more

Product Description
Le broadens the idea of assimilation to include socioeconomic and institutional examples of integration by analyzing outcomes such as income, occupational prestige, small business ownership, residential segregation, and intermarriage for five Asian American groups, with an emphasis on Vietnamese.The results show that most Vietnamese Americans experience little disadvantage or inequality compared to other Asian Americans (and many times with Whites) when it comes to achieving structural integration.Le hypothesizes that Vietnamese have been able to overcome challenges in a relatively short amount of time by using collective resources and maintaining ethnic solidarity to weave together a pattern of achievement and mobility combined with tradition and cohesion. ... Read more

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Stimulating and insightful, these essays on the relationship among the media, popular culture, and the postwar African American freedom struggle offer new perspectives on the nature of the Civil Rights Movement and its legacies. At the same time, they suggest how much the struggle itself shaped important trends in American culture and mass media in the 1950s and 1960s. Bringing together a range of voices seldom heard together, this book challenges readers to reconsider the ways in which a simplistic "master narrative" of the Movement has come to dominate popular, and even some scholarly, understandings of the meaning of the freedom struggle. ... Read more

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"National Geographic" magazine is an American popular culture icon that, since its founding in 1888, has been on a nonstop tour classifying and cataloguing the peoples of the world. With more than ten million subscribers, "National Geographic" is the third largest magazine in America, following only "TV Guide" and "Reader's Digest". "National Geographic" has long been a staple of school and public libraries across the country.In "Veils and Daggers", Linda Steet provides a critically insightful and alternative interpretation of "National Geographic". Through an analysis of the journal's discourses in Orientalism, patriarchy, and primitivism in the Arab world as well as textual and visual constructions of Arab men and women, Islam, and Arab culture, "Veils and Daggers" unpacks the ideological perspectives that have guided "National Geographic" throughout its history. Drawing on cultural, feminist, and postcolonial criticism, Steet generates alternative readings that challenge the magazine's claims to objectivity.In this fascinating journey, it becomes clear that neither text nor image in the magazine can be regarded as natural or self-evident and she artfully demonstrates that the act of representing others 'inevitably involves some degree of violence, decontextualization, miniaturization, etc.' The subject area known as Orientalism, she shows, is a man-made concept that as such must be studied as an integral component of the social, rather than the natural or divine world."Veils and Daggers" repositions and redefines "National Geographic" as an educational journal. Steet's work is an important and groundbreaking contribution in the area of social construction of knowledge, social foundations of education, educational media, and social studies as well as racial identity, ethnicity, and gender. Once encountered, readers of "National Geographic" will never regard it in the same manner again. Linda Steet is Assistant Professor of Social Foundation of Education and Co-Coordinator of the Women's and Gender Studies Program at the University of Michigan, Flint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It's about time
It's about time someone took National Geographic to task for their ethnocentric coverage of the world. Steet does this with a sophisticated, yet accessible (and sometimes humorous) understanding and use of theory. Her analysis and discussion of one hundred years of photographs published by NG is provocative and educational. This book is great for curriculum classes, journalism classes, photography classes, cultural studies, women studies, and many others I am sure. ... Read more

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Say It Loud! is the first comprehensive examination of African-Americans' reception of media messages in television, film, music, print press and cyberspace. Chapters which focus on how African American identity is contructed, maintained, and represented in mass media and how African Americans negotiate these presentations. Say it Loud! promises to provide a rare, in-depth exploration into African-American audiences and their response to media's presentation of Black identity. African-American interpretations are largely absent from scholarship, and this book fills a knowledge gap in media studies by turning to audiences directly to garner their own insights into representation of race in media. ... Read more

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Seattle's International District: The Making of a Pan-Asian American Community traces the journey of early Asian immigrants to Seattle, describes their early settlements, and chronicles the evolution of the International District from its early times to the present. It covers the ebb and flow of the area, the struggles to preserve it, internal and external conflicts, and the important forces, government policies, events, and people who have shaped the District. It is a story about the movement of the Chinatowns, the heydays of the 1920s, Filipino immigrants and union organizing, the internment of Japanese Americans, the decline of the District and how it fought back, the changing social and political structure of the neighborhood, the areaís residential and commercial revitalization, and its emergence as a present-day pan-Asian American community. ... Read more

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Asian American Women: Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy reveals the struggles of Asian American women at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder where hunger, illness, homelessness, sweatshop labor, exposure to hazardous chemicals and even involuntary servitude are everyday realities. Asian American women of all socio-economic classes suffer from domestic violence whose root causes stem from the particular forms of patriarchy that exist in Asian cultures. Their health and lives are endangered due to prevalent but wrong stereotypes about Asian women. The model minority myth hides the appalling level of human and civil rights violations against Asian American women. The lack of research or the lumping together of the over 24 subgroups of Asian Americans into a homogeneous whole misleads the public as to the extent of injustices inflicted on Asian American women. The book captures their suffering and also the fighting spirit of Asian American women who have waged social and economic justice campaigns and founded organizations to right the wrongs against them. The book is a call to action to Asian Americans, policy makers, civil rights organizations and the philanthropic community to support Asian American women in their struggles to advance their social justice agenda. ... Read more

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Past research has revealed that prevalence of intergenerational conflict between parents and children among Asian Americans in general, and Korean Americans in particular, is significant putting many of these families at risk of psychological distress and family conflict. In 2008, Time magazine published an article based on a research finding that family conflict is a strong predictor in suicide and suicide ideation among Asian Americans. Despite the relevance of this topic, there has been less attention given in empirical literature, particularly regarding the ways in which children and parents cope with intergenerational conflict. Therefore, the book covers a study where anonymous survey responses were collected and matched between Korean American college students and their parents to further understand the interpersonal dynamics related to this phenomenon. Given the increasing number of Korean Americans in the United States, this book also aims to provide clinical implications for helpers who work with this population. ... Read more

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The African-American Odyssey, Volume 1 is a clear and comprehensive narrative of African-American history, from its African roots to the late 1800s. This book discusses the journey of the African-American from slavery, abolition, and the quest for freedom, through the civil war, emancipation, and black reconstruction. This is an essential read for those interested in the whole of American history. ... Read more