Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact, and Exoticism in Modern America

by Henry Yu

Thinking Orientals is a groundbreaking study of Asian Americans and the racial formation of twentieth-century American society. It reveals the influential role Asian Americans played in constructing the understandings of Asian American identity. It examines the unique role played by sociologists, particularly sociologists at the University of Chicago, in the study of the "Oriental Problem" before World War II and also analyzes the internment of Japanese Americans during the war and the subsequent "model minority" profile.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Race

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Flora]

Enlightening but I started skimming about 2/3 of the way through. It was interesting to see how Asian-American Studies evolved, and to get some idea of the cultural shift in academia, but really a lot of it was ultimately not that interesting to me.

[Lisa]

This book tacks back and forth between a history of sociology about "Orientals" and sociology by "Orientals." Both are important histories, but I was more interested in the former.