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The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority
The Color of Success tells of the astonishing transformation of Asians in the United States from the "yellow peril" to "model minorities"--peoples distinct from the white majority but lauded as well-assimilated, upwardly mobile, and exemplars of traditional family values--in the middle decades of the twentieth century. As Ellen Wu shows, liberals argued for the acceptance of these immigrant communities into the national fold, charging that the failure of America to live in accordance with its democratic ideals endangered the country's aspirations to world leadership.
Weaving together myriad perspectives, Wu provides an unprecedented view of racial reform and the contradictions of national belonging in the civil rights era. She highlights the contests for power and authority within Japanese and Chinese America alongside the designs of those external to these populations, including government officials, social scientists, journalists, and others. And she demonstrates that the invention of the model minority took place in multiple arenas, such as battles over zoot suiters leaving wartime internment camps, the juvenile delinquency panic of the 1950s, Hawaii statehood, and the African American freedom movement. Together, these illuminate the impact of foreign relations on the domestic racial order and how the nation accepted Asians as legitimate citizens while continuing to perceive them as indelible outsiders.
By charting the emergence of the model minority stereotype, The Color of Success reveals that this far-reaching, politically charged process continues to have profound implications for how Americans understand race, opportunity, and nationhood.
367 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
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August 23, 2020
I'm an Asian American. When I was in college (a couple decades ago), I didn't even know that Asian American Studies was a thing. If I had taken any classes in it, I imagine this is the kind of book I would have read for class (though this particular book, published in 2013, wasn't available back then).
While absolutely informative, I also found this book to be academic and dense. I'd give 4-plus stars for the content, but maybe 3-minus stars for readability. That averages out to be something like 3.5 stars, and having to choose, I rounded down.
This book focuses on the Chinese and Japanese experiences, as those have been the most visible Asian ethnicities in U.S. history, and they are the populations around which the model minority emerged. Going into this book, I had a working knowledge of major pieces of Chinese and Japanese American history as separate and distinct events, but this book - for the first time I have encountered - studies Japanese internment alongside the Chinese Exclusion Act. During World War II, when the U.S. allied with China to fight Japan, Japanese Americans suffered from their assumed allegiance to their ethnic country of origin, while Chinese Americans benefited from the same assumption.
After WWII, integration became even more complicated as U.S.-Japan relations were strained and Communism took hold in China and threatened to spread throughout East Asia. Both Japanese and Chinese Americans loudly declared their support for American ideals, but at the same time, there was value on the international stage in promoting cultural plurality in America, to show that America truly was a place of equal opportunity, regardless of race.
Both groups were cast as "assimilating Others," capable of being culturally American despite clearly being racially distinct. Asian Americans were definitely not white, but also definitely not black, and the model minority was consciously created as a "simultaneously inclusive and exclusive reckoning" (p. 9) of Asian Americans as part of the national identity. Asian Americans themselves engaged in self-stereotyping, eager to "dislodge deeply embedded 'yellow peril' caricatures." (p. 6) It was a conscious effort to align themselves with white middle class Americans, and to separate themselves from African and Mexican and Filipino Americans (despite sharing common experiences of oppression), thereby upholding white supremacy in the process. Inevitably, the model minority became a wedge that divided Asian Americans from other minority groups seeking equal rights, particularly African Americans.
Personally, I would have liked to learn more about the model minority in the post-1960s era - the time in which I've lived and have first-hand experience - but this time period is only discussed briefly in the Epilogue, which touches upon the "repudiation of the model minority and its assimilationists origins...[as well as how activists] deliberately inverted the trope of non-blackness and instead embraced affinities with" other racial minorities. (p. 247)
While absolutely informative, I also found this book to be academic and dense. I'd give 4-plus stars for the content, but maybe 3-minus stars for readability. That averages out to be something like 3.5 stars, and having to choose, I rounded down.
This book focuses on the Chinese and Japanese experiences, as those have been the most visible Asian ethnicities in U.S. history, and they are the populations around which the model minority emerged. Going into this book, I had a working knowledge of major pieces of Chinese and Japanese American history as separate and distinct events, but this book - for the first time I have encountered - studies Japanese internment alongside the Chinese Exclusion Act. During World War II, when the U.S. allied with China to fight Japan, Japanese Americans suffered from their assumed allegiance to their ethnic country of origin, while Chinese Americans benefited from the same assumption.
After WWII, integration became even more complicated as U.S.-Japan relations were strained and Communism took hold in China and threatened to spread throughout East Asia. Both Japanese and Chinese Americans loudly declared their support for American ideals, but at the same time, there was value on the international stage in promoting cultural plurality in America, to show that America truly was a place of equal opportunity, regardless of race.
Both groups were cast as "assimilating Others," capable of being culturally American despite clearly being racially distinct. Asian Americans were definitely not white, but also definitely not black, and the model minority was consciously created as a "simultaneously inclusive and exclusive reckoning" (p. 9) of Asian Americans as part of the national identity. Asian Americans themselves engaged in self-stereotyping, eager to "dislodge deeply embedded 'yellow peril' caricatures." (p. 6) It was a conscious effort to align themselves with white middle class Americans, and to separate themselves from African and Mexican and Filipino Americans (despite sharing common experiences of oppression), thereby upholding white supremacy in the process. Inevitably, the model minority became a wedge that divided Asian Americans from other minority groups seeking equal rights, particularly African Americans.
Personally, I would have liked to learn more about the model minority in the post-1960s era - the time in which I've lived and have first-hand experience - but this time period is only discussed briefly in the Epilogue, which touches upon the "repudiation of the model minority and its assimilationists origins...[as well as how activists] deliberately inverted the trope of non-blackness and instead embraced affinities with" other racial minorities. (p. 247)
March 1, 2022
Focuses primarily on Chinese and Japanese Americans, with Hawaii and statehood at the end. Time period is largely early- to mid-1900s.
This is an essential and ambitious academic work providing an entire structure of ligaments in the understanding of of early to mid century U.S. racial, political, and international relations. I honestly appreciated what others considered a "lack" of argument--there was plenty of argument, but it was rooted in a necessarily- and rightly-rendered expanse and complexity of context.
This is an essential and ambitious academic work providing an entire structure of ligaments in the understanding of of early to mid century U.S. racial, political, and international relations. I honestly appreciated what others considered a "lack" of argument--there was plenty of argument, but it was rooted in a necessarily- and rightly-rendered expanse and complexity of context.
September 4, 2020
Growing up in very white surroundings in suburban Massachusetts, I got the model minority stereotype of Asian-Americans from both sides: from the right, either resentful of Asian-American success or wondering why black and Hispanic people couldn’t be more like Asians, and from liberals, who cited Asians as exemplars of successful diversity. Of course, minus some of the right’s (seemingly fading?) resentment, the two ideas rest on a lot of the same assumptions. Historian Ellen Wu attempts to get to the historical origin of the stereotype in this work of cultural history.
Wu chose to narrow her focus to Japanese and Chinese Americans, which makes a certain degree of sense on a number of levels. One is contrast- from having been treated quite similarly under the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century restriction regime, the two groups experienced the sea change of the Second World War drastically differently. Japanese Americans were, of course, rounded up and interned into what we only hesitate to call “concentration camps” because we (imprecisely) call Nazi extermination camps the same thing. Chinese Americans, on the other hand, were all of a sudden white America’s little buddies, allies in the war, and Congress revoked Chinese exclusion in 1943. Both suffered reversals, as Japanese Americans came to be associated with the heroic war record of Nissei combat units and the Chinese American community split over the results of the Chinese Revolution. In both cases and for well after World War II, American foreign relations played a major role in shaping the construction of an Asian American racial identity.
As the Cold War set in, American race relations became a foreign policy issue. The US’s massive race problems, especially their formal legal instantiations, posed a problem for American policymakers attempting to extend leadership in the decolonizing and developing world. This both opened opportunities and imposed limits on the black civil rights struggle, as historians have noted, and Wu points out it did much the same for Asian American efforts at full citizenship. On the one hand, especially when paired with martial patriotism, domestic anticommunism (pro-nationalist elements fairly firmly quashed pro-communist elements in most Chinese American communities), and thoroughgoing respectability politics, Cold War geopolitics opened doors for Asian Americans. The Hawaii statehood debate shows this- objected to for decades on the basis of Hawaii’s Asian population, it was in the late 1950s as concerns over American relations with the Pacific that consensus came around Hawaii’s admittance. On the other hand, this straitjacketed Asian American communities into a particular mold: ultrapatriotic, uncomplaining, devoted to the “American Way” as then understood, and as Wu puts it, “definitively not black.” This is when the comparisons between black and Asian communities by whites began, and not coincidentally, when the Model Minority stereotype really came into its own.
Wu emphasizes both Asian participation and opposition to this race-making process. Early chapters take the reader back to the forties, when far from being America’s richest ethnic group and a model of assimilationist success, Japanese American communities were mostly poor, farm or slum dwelling, and Japanese teens joined Mexican and black kids in “zoot suiting,” wearing outlandish clothes and refusing adult respectability. Numerous Japanese Americans, understandably enough, wanted nothing to do with the American war effort after having been interned, and the Japanese American community groups took an authoritarian stance towards their charges in encouraging them to enlist and otherwise conform. Even as the path to Asian assimilation became clearer, many Asians resisted the bargain, insisting on solidarity with the black freedom struggle and on pointing to the social contradictions within their own communities that community leaders covered up with feel-good model minority stories. This is a conflict that goes on to this day, as Wu and some of my Asian comrades would remind us and as both the model minority (especially as a parenting style) and the “Yellow Peril” from a resurgent China gain in cachet.
This is my first time listening to a history book that didn’t have at least one eye on a mass market, like Tim Snyder did with “Black Earth,” though clearly this one had enough crossover appeal to attract Audible’s attention. While I did miss being able to check endnotes, it was still a pretty good experience, testament to solid writing chops on Wu’s part. It’s a little “dissertation-y;” I would have liked to have seen more about what the model minority experience meant once embraced by the national consciousness, especially as, in the epilogue, Wu points to its adaptivity- starting as a product of Cold War liberalism, but adapting to the conservatism of the Reagan years and the War on Terror. But you can see why Wu would want to reign it in and stick to the origins of the stereotype, as promised. ****
Wu chose to narrow her focus to Japanese and Chinese Americans, which makes a certain degree of sense on a number of levels. One is contrast- from having been treated quite similarly under the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century restriction regime, the two groups experienced the sea change of the Second World War drastically differently. Japanese Americans were, of course, rounded up and interned into what we only hesitate to call “concentration camps” because we (imprecisely) call Nazi extermination camps the same thing. Chinese Americans, on the other hand, were all of a sudden white America’s little buddies, allies in the war, and Congress revoked Chinese exclusion in 1943. Both suffered reversals, as Japanese Americans came to be associated with the heroic war record of Nissei combat units and the Chinese American community split over the results of the Chinese Revolution. In both cases and for well after World War II, American foreign relations played a major role in shaping the construction of an Asian American racial identity.
As the Cold War set in, American race relations became a foreign policy issue. The US’s massive race problems, especially their formal legal instantiations, posed a problem for American policymakers attempting to extend leadership in the decolonizing and developing world. This both opened opportunities and imposed limits on the black civil rights struggle, as historians have noted, and Wu points out it did much the same for Asian American efforts at full citizenship. On the one hand, especially when paired with martial patriotism, domestic anticommunism (pro-nationalist elements fairly firmly quashed pro-communist elements in most Chinese American communities), and thoroughgoing respectability politics, Cold War geopolitics opened doors for Asian Americans. The Hawaii statehood debate shows this- objected to for decades on the basis of Hawaii’s Asian population, it was in the late 1950s as concerns over American relations with the Pacific that consensus came around Hawaii’s admittance. On the other hand, this straitjacketed Asian American communities into a particular mold: ultrapatriotic, uncomplaining, devoted to the “American Way” as then understood, and as Wu puts it, “definitively not black.” This is when the comparisons between black and Asian communities by whites began, and not coincidentally, when the Model Minority stereotype really came into its own.
Wu emphasizes both Asian participation and opposition to this race-making process. Early chapters take the reader back to the forties, when far from being America’s richest ethnic group and a model of assimilationist success, Japanese American communities were mostly poor, farm or slum dwelling, and Japanese teens joined Mexican and black kids in “zoot suiting,” wearing outlandish clothes and refusing adult respectability. Numerous Japanese Americans, understandably enough, wanted nothing to do with the American war effort after having been interned, and the Japanese American community groups took an authoritarian stance towards their charges in encouraging them to enlist and otherwise conform. Even as the path to Asian assimilation became clearer, many Asians resisted the bargain, insisting on solidarity with the black freedom struggle and on pointing to the social contradictions within their own communities that community leaders covered up with feel-good model minority stories. This is a conflict that goes on to this day, as Wu and some of my Asian comrades would remind us and as both the model minority (especially as a parenting style) and the “Yellow Peril” from a resurgent China gain in cachet.
This is my first time listening to a history book that didn’t have at least one eye on a mass market, like Tim Snyder did with “Black Earth,” though clearly this one had enough crossover appeal to attract Audible’s attention. While I did miss being able to check endnotes, it was still a pretty good experience, testament to solid writing chops on Wu’s part. It’s a little “dissertation-y;” I would have liked to have seen more about what the model minority experience meant once embraced by the national consciousness, especially as, in the epilogue, Wu points to its adaptivity- starting as a product of Cold War liberalism, but adapting to the conservatism of the Reagan years and the War on Terror. But you can see why Wu would want to reign it in and stick to the origins of the stereotype, as promised. ****
May 25, 2021
Super interesting history about the status of Japanese and Chinese Americans mostly covering the mid 1930s to the late 1960s, when they went from internment camps and exclusion acts (respectively) to being lauded as "model minorities". The progression was on the one hand a result of decades of political lobbying, public relations campaigns, Hollywood films, literature, community activism, etc. on the part of the groups themselves and people sympathetic to their plight. On the other, we learn that the gradual inclusion of these two Asian groups into American society served important geopolitical and domestic objectives, whether it be in the fight against communism, the international image of the USA as a melting pot, or, more darkly, in contrasting their success with blacks and attributing it entirely to cultural factors.
A few thoughts:
•Articles written in the 30s, 40s, and 50s were so cringingly direct in their statements and titles. It's hard to fathom that pamphlets titled Shake Hands with the Dragon or praising the all-American Yankee Japs were the cultural materials in praise of Asian Americans
•Social scientists in the 50s and 60s made efforts to find commonalities between Chinese/Japanese culture and American (read: white) culture to figure out the success of both groups. A large group of them determined that both were strongly patriarchal societies, and therefore were far more likely to be civil and obedient in contrast with matriarchal black society :(
•The question of Hawaii statehood led to a dizzying array of concerns I would never have considered. Many apparently were worried that the high rates of inter-racial marriage would spill over into the larger white society, but were apparently comforted that being an island chain thousands of miles away, its influence on the mainland would be limited
For a social science textbook it's fairly readable, not to say I didn't need to look up a few terms (imbricated, really?). I was hoping to learn some things about affirmative action but that probably deserves a book on its own.
A few thoughts:
•Articles written in the 30s, 40s, and 50s were so cringingly direct in their statements and titles. It's hard to fathom that pamphlets titled Shake Hands with the Dragon or praising the all-American Yankee Japs were the cultural materials in praise of Asian Americans
•Social scientists in the 50s and 60s made efforts to find commonalities between Chinese/Japanese culture and American (read: white) culture to figure out the success of both groups. A large group of them determined that both were strongly patriarchal societies, and therefore were far more likely to be civil and obedient in contrast with matriarchal black society :(
•The question of Hawaii statehood led to a dizzying array of concerns I would never have considered. Many apparently were worried that the high rates of inter-racial marriage would spill over into the larger white society, but were apparently comforted that being an island chain thousands of miles away, its influence on the mainland would be limited
For a social science textbook it's fairly readable, not to say I didn't need to look up a few terms (imbricated, really?). I was hoping to learn some things about affirmative action but that probably deserves a book on its own.
July 12, 2022
Solid 5/5 stars.
Likes:
+ Comprehensive history of the early Asian-American experience in the United States
+ Chronologically organized and easy to follow
+ Thesis on how the modern model minority myth comes into being
+ Gives a nod to the vital role that inter-minority community collaboration and coordination is to advancing civil rights
Difficulties:
- Very dense, logical but laborious
- Focuses too heavily on just Chinese and Japanese American experiences (To be fair, the study and analysis would be unwieldy if the scope wasn’t narrowed so I understand)
Likes:
+ Comprehensive history of the early Asian-American experience in the United States
+ Chronologically organized and easy to follow
+ Thesis on how the modern model minority myth comes into being
+ Gives a nod to the vital role that inter-minority community collaboration and coordination is to advancing civil rights
Difficulties:
- Very dense, logical but laborious
- Focuses too heavily on just Chinese and Japanese American experiences (To be fair, the study and analysis would be unwieldy if the scope wasn’t narrowed so I understand)
April 11, 2020
In-depth history of the model minority myth; highly recommend for general history of Asian Americans as well
August 14, 2024
hot damn
January 20, 2019
This great research overturns the common myth that East Asians in America became a "model minority" because of a TV spot and newspaper article. This book recovers the history of how Chinese and Japanese in America politically maneuvered themselves from "yellow peril" in the 1940s to "model minority" in the 1960s, a remarkable turnaround when seen from the lens of aspiring towards whiteness. This book provides absolutely critical facts and reporting about what we did and why.
Despite its focus on a commonly misconstrued topic and excellent research, I gave this book 4 stars. On a very positive note, the analysis in the intro does hold space for narratives on anti-blackness in America. The author also deftly identifies how the rise to model minority was tied to fighting communism in Asia and black liberation in America by discrediting both through the illusion of success based on East Asian culture rather than class.
However, the author concludes their analysis that East Asians didn't know any better about how their actions impacted black people in particular. Wu in the conclusion also diverges from her general analysis in the book, suddenly commending East Asians for their hard-won participation in white culture, as though this participation did not still contribute to discrediting socialist movements or black liberation. I wish there was a deeper analysis of anti-blackness and internalized capitalism in East Asian communities at that time, as well as some treatment of how we navigated our new life in America in the context of our family still remaining in "the homeland."
Despite its focus on a commonly misconstrued topic and excellent research, I gave this book 4 stars. On a very positive note, the analysis in the intro does hold space for narratives on anti-blackness in America. The author also deftly identifies how the rise to model minority was tied to fighting communism in Asia and black liberation in America by discrediting both through the illusion of success based on East Asian culture rather than class.
However, the author concludes their analysis that East Asians didn't know any better about how their actions impacted black people in particular. Wu in the conclusion also diverges from her general analysis in the book, suddenly commending East Asians for their hard-won participation in white culture, as though this participation did not still contribute to discrediting socialist movements or black liberation. I wish there was a deeper analysis of anti-blackness and internalized capitalism in East Asian communities at that time, as well as some treatment of how we navigated our new life in America in the context of our family still remaining in "the homeland."
April 26, 2021
While there is no doubt about how important this work is, in an academic sense, the readability level comes in at around a 2. Incredibly dense and at times difficult to digest, the information is still well-researched and offers many other resources to explore.
Focusing specifically on the Chinese and Japanese American experiences, it was illuminating to see both groups juxtaposed against the Chinese Exclusion Act as well as the Japanese internment during WWII.
Ultimately, the “model minority” stigma did exactly what it was designed to do - ostracize East Asian Americans from other minority groups and “othered” them just enough so they were in a class all their own: not quite aligned with Black and Brown people (despite having similar experiences as the hands of white supremacy) and not aligned close enough with white people.
Focusing specifically on the Chinese and Japanese American experiences, it was illuminating to see both groups juxtaposed against the Chinese Exclusion Act as well as the Japanese internment during WWII.
Ultimately, the “model minority” stigma did exactly what it was designed to do - ostracize East Asian Americans from other minority groups and “othered” them just enough so they were in a class all their own: not quite aligned with Black and Brown people (despite having similar experiences as the hands of white supremacy) and not aligned close enough with white people.
January 7, 2016
This was a spectacular book about the reimagination of Japanese and Chinese Americans from unassimilable to the model minority. It is particularly salient in the implications for this new understanding of Asian Americans on other communities of color (particularly African Americans). As the model minority has persisted past the Cold War, these questions are still important.
June 22, 2021
Meh... I struggled to get into this book but it also was not bad. The best think I can say about it is it got me interested in learning more about the Japanese internment camps. The worst thing I can say is that she did not define all of the 6 or 7 Japanese words used to refer to different groups of Japanese in the first chapter.
May 1, 2021
This book covers in great detail, the problems Asians faced during the WWII timeline. My biggest disappointment was events occurring from 1960 to 2013 ( when the book was published) are barely touched upon and condensed into a final short chapter.
May 12, 2021
A must read for serious thinking on the East Asian experience in America.
July 24, 2021
This is the type of history that is not taught.
May 27, 2022
apush lol
November 19, 2023
"Moreover, JACL maintained a serious investment in renewing Japanese Americans' racial dissimilarity. After all, despite its perennial avowals of assimilationism, the league could only flourish so long as Japanese Americans remained a distinct group. Its very power derived from its claims to the mantle of racial 'spokesorganization.' In an era of volatile fluctuations in US-Japan relations, this reproduction of otherness was a risk that league leaders assumed in their quest to retain their position atop the ethnic community's hierarchy."
"...indicated to audiences that Japanese Americans had chosen the acceptable, if not ideal, route to assimilation, and thus were rewarded accordingly. The insinuation was that hard work along with unwavering faith in the government and liberal democracy as opposed to political protest were the keys to overcoming racial barriers as well as achieving full citizenship."
"In his (Moynihan) view, Japanese Americans fostered 'singularly stable, cohesive, and enlightened family life' - the stark opposite of African American households - a culture that laid the groundwork for successful achievement in the face of racial discrimination. The Japanese Americans, in essence, were a model minority whose recovery ought to inspire hope in all Americans for the possibility of eradicating black people's 'tangle of pathology.'
The Moynihan controversy thus crystallized what had been emerging for two decades: a national racial order, merging regional dynamics into a dominant black-white paradigm both complicated and reinforced by Nikkei as a model minority."
"The contingency of Japanese American achievement in these narratives, then, indicates that the main function of the success stories was to discipline Nikkei themselves...A key component of this desirability was the idea that Nikkei were apolitical.:
"The Quiet Americans did not offend an African American colleague: 'Our lab wit, a black chemist who did not object to the 'Quiet' as a possible implied unfavorable comparison to the demonstrating blacks, said: 'Quiet' is good here; it's an 'in' word now. 'Quiet means you don't hit a cop over the head with a brick."
"San Francisco's Chinese American social workers taught their coethnics white, middle-class standards of parenting, housekeeping, and hygiene as part of a larger project of demonstrating their collective respectability as well as fitness for civic membership. In the process, they effectively reconstructed the local image of the community as one populated by sympathetic, properly Americanizing nuclear families."
"Pointing to the many 'corruptions' still thriving in the enclave, Dong encouraged honest explorations of 'our inefficiency, our lacks, our challenges'...the nondelinquency pigeonhole impeded Chinese American assimilation by dismissing any imperatives for cultural and behavioral modification."
"(Moynihan) 'No people came t our shores poorer than the Chinese,' he avowed, yet their descendants had gone on to remarkable heights of educational attainment despite continued concentration in urban centers. And like Nikkei, a 'singular stable, cohesive, and enlightened family life' paved the way for socioeconomic mobility. Chinese Americans were definitely not-black."
"...indicated to audiences that Japanese Americans had chosen the acceptable, if not ideal, route to assimilation, and thus were rewarded accordingly. The insinuation was that hard work along with unwavering faith in the government and liberal democracy as opposed to political protest were the keys to overcoming racial barriers as well as achieving full citizenship."
"In his (Moynihan) view, Japanese Americans fostered 'singularly stable, cohesive, and enlightened family life' - the stark opposite of African American households - a culture that laid the groundwork for successful achievement in the face of racial discrimination. The Japanese Americans, in essence, were a model minority whose recovery ought to inspire hope in all Americans for the possibility of eradicating black people's 'tangle of pathology.'
The Moynihan controversy thus crystallized what had been emerging for two decades: a national racial order, merging regional dynamics into a dominant black-white paradigm both complicated and reinforced by Nikkei as a model minority."
"The contingency of Japanese American achievement in these narratives, then, indicates that the main function of the success stories was to discipline Nikkei themselves...A key component of this desirability was the idea that Nikkei were apolitical.:
"The Quiet Americans did not offend an African American colleague: 'Our lab wit, a black chemist who did not object to the 'Quiet' as a possible implied unfavorable comparison to the demonstrating blacks, said: 'Quiet' is good here; it's an 'in' word now. 'Quiet means you don't hit a cop over the head with a brick."
"San Francisco's Chinese American social workers taught their coethnics white, middle-class standards of parenting, housekeeping, and hygiene as part of a larger project of demonstrating their collective respectability as well as fitness for civic membership. In the process, they effectively reconstructed the local image of the community as one populated by sympathetic, properly Americanizing nuclear families."
"Pointing to the many 'corruptions' still thriving in the enclave, Dong encouraged honest explorations of 'our inefficiency, our lacks, our challenges'...the nondelinquency pigeonhole impeded Chinese American assimilation by dismissing any imperatives for cultural and behavioral modification."
"(Moynihan) 'No people came t our shores poorer than the Chinese,' he avowed, yet their descendants had gone on to remarkable heights of educational attainment despite continued concentration in urban centers. And like Nikkei, a 'singular stable, cohesive, and enlightened family life' paved the way for socioeconomic mobility. Chinese Americans were definitely not-black."
May 28, 2024
for AAPI month, i wanted to learn more about asian american history, especially since most of my classes did not cover it. this book covers the history of japanese americans and chinese americans during and shortly after world war ii and it's incredibly informative in describing how these minorities mobilized and approached activism, the creation of the model minority, and the standards of white supremacy that got them there. the author also adds additional context about world war ii and the cold war that makes the activism make more sense, and altogether, i learned so much from this book.
however, this book is incredibly academic and dense, even moreso than other books i've read for my classes. i almost wonder if it would've been easier to read had the japanese and chinese experiences been split into two sections rather than alternating chronologically? but there's not much story-making/story-telling here, it's just the straight facts as they happened. this could make the book less accessible for the general reader, and that's unfortunate.
i was also more interested in learning about the model minority myth and race-making in the modern era, but this book primarily covers the two/three decades during and after wwii. still worth a read, just be ready to be patient with it.
however, this book is incredibly academic and dense, even moreso than other books i've read for my classes. i almost wonder if it would've been easier to read had the japanese and chinese experiences been split into two sections rather than alternating chronologically? but there's not much story-making/story-telling here, it's just the straight facts as they happened. this could make the book less accessible for the general reader, and that's unfortunate.
i was also more interested in learning about the model minority myth and race-making in the modern era, but this book primarily covers the two/three decades during and after wwii. still worth a read, just be ready to be patient with it.
July 19, 2018
This book was in a rather more academic register and I had to draw back on my college experiences to remember how to read books like it, but once I did it was okay. The book discusses the origins of the model minority myth about Asian Americans, tracing the shift from the '30s and before, when they were seen as these inscrutable others, to the '70s and beyond, where they’ve become the "model minority": highly educated, middle class, etc. This book discusses how that shift in popular perception came about. It touches on at the end, but doesn’t go into a lot of detail about, how the model minority myth is problematic itself. This book seems well-researched and accurate but I know almost nothing about this history so it could be all wrong I guess but I expect it isn’t.
August 6, 2025
In this book, Wu describes Japanese and Chinese Americans broadly speaking. The reason it wasn't my favourite is that I have generally striven all my life to hold a candle in comparison to these people and I have felt embarrassed by being "shown up" every single time.
In this book, she writes Hawaii as Hawai'i, which I have seen spelled out before - I suppose it is the preferred way. I have looked into the several languages in the islands but not very extensively yet.
Maybe I'll look at this again if I could find a paperback version though.
In this book, she writes Hawaii as Hawai'i, which I have seen spelled out before - I suppose it is the preferred way. I have looked into the several languages in the islands but not very extensively yet.
Maybe I'll look at this again if I could find a paperback version though.
January 30, 2022
If you want an in-depth exploration of the politics in surrounding the repeal of the Exclusionary Act and the fight for Hawaiian statehood, this is the book for you.
Author does a great job exploring the pre model minority world of Chinese and Japanese Americans, in particular the zoot suited underworld of Anti authority Japanese youth.
The events of this book largely take place in San Francisco, which made it easy for me, a resident, to follow.
Author does a great job exploring the pre model minority world of Chinese and Japanese Americans, in particular the zoot suited underworld of Anti authority Japanese youth.
The events of this book largely take place in San Francisco, which made it easy for me, a resident, to follow.
April 14, 2021
This is a terrible book. It reads like a high school history book at best and at worst propaganda for the various advocacy groups mentioned. I’ve been trying to better understand whatever racial identity issues I have as a a Filipino American and this book did not provide any insight. It was more like a timeline of historical events without any in depth context provided. Don’t waste your time.
January 9, 2020
I agree with a review below. Content was 4 stars. The readability (and narration, since I did audio) was not great.
November 4, 2021
I thought this was an excellent book because it’s well-argued and well-researched. Wu’s argument is tightly woven throughout the entire book: Asian Americans had a hand in crafting the model minority narrative. She focuses on a key period—mainly after WWII and through the Cold War era. She argues this period is crucial in understanding how the narrative about Asian Americans changed from the 1800s image of Asians as “yellow peril” to today’s dominant image of Asians as “model minorities.”
There are many academic articles and books that address the model minority stereotype, yet why Wu’s book is impactful is because she answers how this stereotype arrived. Asian Americanist cite the famous 1966 NYT/Newsweek article of amazing model minorities. Wu asks and answers, how did we get to that image? Using a combo of original research and secondary research, she examines the 1940s and 1950s, a missing era in research about the model minority stereotype. She offers overwhelming evidence about overwhelming evidence about how Asian ethnic groups shaped this image model minorities as a way towards full American citizenship and acceptance during the Cold War era politics. She follows the historical narrative of two Asian American ethnic groups—Japanese and Chinese—and how they changed America’s perception of Asian Americans. Through targeted public relations media campaigns and concerted lobbying from organizations like JACL and Chinatown organizations, Japanese and Chinese Americans show how they are loyal Americans during WWII, Cold War communism spread, and Vietnam War.
Taking a look at her notes and citations in the back, she’s done a remarkable amount of original research across America, tapping into archival centers like the JACL, newspaper articles, Hawaii, Congressional Records, National Archives, and Presidential Libraries. It’s a sweeping example of solid methodological research. It’s definitely a dense academic tome, and I was on the ragged edge understanding the historical context. Wu alludes to major historical events like the Korean War, Sino-Japanese War (19-43) but provides not much background on these events. You’ll need to have some historical context to understand her argument and historical evidence within the global arena. Overall, an excellent and remarkable model of Asian American history and scholarship! Highly recommend!
There are many academic articles and books that address the model minority stereotype, yet why Wu’s book is impactful is because she answers how this stereotype arrived. Asian Americanist cite the famous 1966 NYT/Newsweek article of amazing model minorities. Wu asks and answers, how did we get to that image? Using a combo of original research and secondary research, she examines the 1940s and 1950s, a missing era in research about the model minority stereotype. She offers overwhelming evidence about overwhelming evidence about how Asian ethnic groups shaped this image model minorities as a way towards full American citizenship and acceptance during the Cold War era politics. She follows the historical narrative of two Asian American ethnic groups—Japanese and Chinese—and how they changed America’s perception of Asian Americans. Through targeted public relations media campaigns and concerted lobbying from organizations like JACL and Chinatown organizations, Japanese and Chinese Americans show how they are loyal Americans during WWII, Cold War communism spread, and Vietnam War.
Taking a look at her notes and citations in the back, she’s done a remarkable amount of original research across America, tapping into archival centers like the JACL, newspaper articles, Hawaii, Congressional Records, National Archives, and Presidential Libraries. It’s a sweeping example of solid methodological research. It’s definitely a dense academic tome, and I was on the ragged edge understanding the historical context. Wu alludes to major historical events like the Korean War, Sino-Japanese War (19-43) but provides not much background on these events. You’ll need to have some historical context to understand her argument and historical evidence within the global arena. Overall, an excellent and remarkable model of Asian American history and scholarship! Highly recommend!
April 20, 2023
Learned a lot! Still haven't figured out where model minority came from, Petersen didn't coin it.
Want to read
July 22, 2024DNF
I just couldn't get through it. Was it informative? Yes, very much so. However, it was too academic and dense for me. This is not to discourage others from reading it, but it wasn't for me.
I just couldn't get through it. Was it informative? Yes, very much so. However, it was too academic and dense for me. This is not to discourage others from reading it, but it wasn't for me.
February 12, 2025
Excellent. Foundational reading for Asian American Studies.
March 31, 2023
Wu's work feels a bit repetitive at times, but is a great place to start if you're looking to learn more about the creation (and detrimental effect) of the model minority stereotype.
December 5, 2021
I read this book for my HIST 499 class. This was the hardest read that I have had yet for this class, but I definitely learned so much. It was so interesting learning about the relationship of assimilation and acceptance from the perspective of Asian Americans post Cold War. The concept of "race making" is something I want to learn more about and study to really see how that hierarchal structure has been ingrained into our society and the minds of minorities.
July 19, 2020
Comprehensive recap of Asian Americans history, the struggles, the blessings and the price of being the Model Minority in America. How two simple words, "Model Minority", created a facade of equality and excluded in equal representation.
Read
February 14, 2014305.89507 W9592 2014
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