I can't believe this book was published in 2000, and I've only just now read it. As an Asian American, I wish I had read it when it first came out, so I could have benefited from its clarity 20 years earlier.
This book chronicles when, where, and how Asian Americans have fit in within the tapestry of American history, politics, and culture. It's a must-read for all Americans, not just Asian Americans. Everyone should know how much Asian Americans have helped shape this country, and Asian Americans especially can benefit from Helen Zia's reassurance of our belonging here in America. This book made me feel seen.
Asian American Dreams is part memoir, part survey of Asian American history, and part commentary on current events. Though events from the 1990s are no longer "current", the same types of events - for better or for worse - are still happening. The first-person narrative is very readable.
Helen Zia's personal stories were particularly relatable for me as a Chinese American who grew up in a predominantly white suburb with immigrant parents. Though we are not the same age, I think I could have taken some of her stories and repeated them verbatim about myself, that's how similar our experiences were. Describing her childhood, she wrote, "[W]e stuck out like yellow streaks on a white-and-black canvas... The pressure on us was to fit in with the 'American' kids we looked so unlike, to conform and assimilate... But the joke was on us, because no matter how hard we might try to blend in with the scenery, our faces gave us away." (p. 7)
This book examines a number of events in modern America that have helped shape the Asian American consciousness: Vincent Chin's murder in Detroit; tensions between Korean shopkeepers and Black customers in NYC and LA; protests against Asian misrepresentation in entertainment; worker's rights for Filipino migrant workers in CA and Alaska and South Asian cab drivers in NYC; LGBTQ rights as civil rights worthy of support from all people, regardless of race. As a journalist, Helen Zia was personally involved in the activism surrounding a number of these movements; her deep dive into these issues included first-hand experience that provided invaluable details and insight.
It is meaningful and noteworthy that this book explores subjects that are commonly omitted in the Asian American narrative, like the inclusion of South Asians as part of the community. She quotes an activist whose words, unfortunately, still ring true today: "Asian Americans as a whole must re-evaluate what it means to be Asian American in order to finally stop the cycle of concentric exclusions... The alternative is that Tamils will continue to feel ignored by Sri Lankans, who are in turn tokenized by South Asian Americans, who feel marginalized by Asian Americans, who are invisible to Americans because they aren't black or white." (p. 222)
I appreciate that Helen Zia did not shy away from examining the context of Asian Americans in a racial landscape that is predominantly Black versus white. Excerpts such as the following are still relevant today: "We tried to explain that we recognized and respected African Americans' central and dominant position in the civil rights struggle; we wanted to show that we weren't trying to benefit from their sacrifices without offering anything in return. On the other hand, many European Americans were hostile or resistant to 'yet another minority group' stepping forward to make claims. Underlying both concerns was the suggestion, a nagging doubt, that Asian Americans had no legitimate place in discussions of racism because we hadn't really suffered any." (p. 68) I am greatly encouraged by how much progress has been made, though in some circles, whether or not the word "racist" can apply to African Americans being racially prejudiced against Asians is still up for debate. (p. 104)
Growing up, I identified as Chinese American because my parents were born in China. However, my parents were raised in Taiwan, are Taiwanese citizens, and consider Taiwan their homeland. Yet, we did not call ourselves Taiwanese, a label which, at the time, was reserved for native Taiwanese families. These days, as the separation between Chinese and Taiwanese is made more and more clear as tensions rise across the Taiwan Strait, I still identify as Chinese American, I also identify as Taiwanese American, and more and more often I find myself identifying as Asian American. This book opened my eyes to how this evolution in my own identity reflected the growth of the pan-Asian community in the United States. "Out of numerous disparate, even hostile, Asian ethnicities, we have forged a sense of shared experience and common future as Americans - Asian and Pacific Islander Americans." (p. 310)
This book describes how the term "Asian American" continues to be defined and re-defined by the people who claim the identity, from the first Chinese immigrants to modern day Hmong refugees and Korean adoptees in Minnesota to a new generation of hapa (a Hawaiian word for mixed-race people) across the country. Helen Zia assures us that as the Asian American community grows, Asian American groups and individuals will continue to find their place in America and their voice on issues in every facet of American life.
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