Takaki's indispensable portrait of Asian American history!

Professor Takaki is one of the "maestros" of Asian American literature--this 1989 book is the foundation of almost every Asian American Studies program!

Takaki's book identifies Asian American experiences--pulling together the stories of immigrants from different Asian backgrounds to combine into an Asian American "storybook." The Asian American identity is a relatively new one--early immigrants to America often retained their separate identities as Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese or Indian in the face of extreme social and economic isolation. But when their children grew up in America, they had looser ties to their parents' mother country. But, unlike other immigrants like the Irish and the Italians who assimilated after much struggle, Asian immigrants could not "melt" into the background and be treated as full-fledged Americans.

Takaki addresses the various nuances that ring true in many Asian American experiences--the social challenges of entering workplaces or neighborhoods with few immigrants or few Asian faces, and the constant awareness of "foreignness" by virtue of one's Asian features. And he does so in a manner that is not accusatory or vitriolic. Rather, Takaki lets the personal stories of Asian Americans tell the stories, where their own words convey the frustration or fear without any filter.

And the key to the success of this book is that Takaki writes in a very accessible manner--this is not the stereotypically dense academic tome. He incorporates historical documents, individual stories, and even his own personal reflections to weave a complex collection of images of Americans of Asian descent. For instance, he begins the book with personal references to his own life as an Asian American--offering one story of how local churches and Rotary clubs in his midwestern college town would invite him to dinners for foreign students, even though he was "born in America, and [his] family has been here for three generations." (Takaki, Strangers From a Different Shore, p. 4)

There is an increasing number of books being published now on the experiences of Asian Americans as a whole and those of specific Asian American ethnic groups. The one that most closely rivals Takaki's book is Sucheng Chan's Asian Americans: An Interpretive History. I do not feel qualified to review Chan's book, as I haven't had time to read it yet. However, I know that it, too, attempts to cover the span of Asian American history from the first Asian immigrant to modern times.

Other books (both fiction and non-fiction) that I have read and highly recommend (all in my personal library) include:
* Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings By and About Asian American Women edited by Asian Women United of California
* The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
* The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker by Eric Liu
* Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories by Hisaye Yamamoto
* No Physical Evidence by Gus Lee
* Eastern Standard Time (a guide to Asian American culture) published by the editors and staff of A. Magazine (see my epinion on A. Magazine!)

I also have more books on Asian American experiences that I haven't yet read, but they came recommended or just appealed to me:

* Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire edited by Sonia Shah
* Under Western Eyes: Personal Essays from Asian America edited by Garrett Hongo
* The State of Asian America: Activism and Resistance in the 1990s edited by Karin Aguilar-San Juan
* Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco by Judy Yung
* Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction edited by Jessica Hagedorn
* On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family by Lisa See

I hope to read these this summer and to post epinions. Check back soon!