Asian American Histories of the United States

ReVisioning American History #7

by Catherine Ceniza Choy

An inclusive and landmark history, emphasizing how essential Asian American experiences are to any understanding of US history

Original and expansive, Asian American Histories of the United States is a nearly 200-year history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the US. Reckoning with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian hate and violence, award-winning historian Catherine Ceniza Choy presents an urgent social history of the fastest growing group of Americans. The book features the lived experiences and diverse voices of immigrants, refugees, US-born Asian Americans, multiracial Americans, and workers from industries spanning agriculture to healthcare.

Despite significant Asian American breakthroughs in American politics, arts, and popular culture in the 21st century, a profound lack of understanding of Asian American history permeates American culture. Choy traces how anti-Asian violence and its intersection with misogyny and other forms of hatred, the erasure of Asian American experiences and contributions, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted are prominent themes in Asian American history. This ambitious book is fundamental to understanding the American experience and its existential crises of the early 21st century.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Asian American, Race, Social Justice, American History, Audiobook

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 2, 2022

About the author

Catherine Ceniza Choy's most recent book is Asian American Histories of the United States from Beacon Press in their ReVisioning History book series. The book features the themes of anti-Asian hate and violence, erasure of Asian American history, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted in a nearly 200 year history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the US. Choy argues that Asian American experiences are essential to any understanding of US history and its existential crises of the early twenty-first century.

An engaged public scholar, Choy has been interviewed and had her research cited in many media outlets, including ABC 20/20, The Atlantic, CNN, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, New York Times, ProPublica, San Francisco Chronicle, and Vox, on anti-Asian, coronavirus-related hate and violence, the disproportionate toll of COVID-19 on Filipino nurses in the United States, and racism and misogyny in the March 16, 2021 Atlanta spa shootings.

The daughter of Filipino immigrants, Choy is Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Her leadership experience includes having served as Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice in UC Berkeley’s Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies Division, and Department Chair of Ethnic Studies. She received her Ph.D. in History from UCLA and her B.A. in History from Pomona College.

Reviews

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was part of a series called ReVisioning History. I think it's a brilliant series name. This is not about rewriting history but seeing it through a wider lens. This was brief foray into Asian American history. A tremendous amount of American history that is glossed over and/or not taught in schools. So much erasure, minimalization, oppression and hatred. Also, so much has been accomplished to becoming firmly established in the American tapestry. An excellent quick tour of parts of history. Choy attempted to paint portraits of the variety of cultures that fall into the category "Asian American". It's an extremely broad categorization, and as such, she hits on the most obvious connections (Japan, China, Vietnam, Philippines etc). And obviously in this very short tour, there isn't a lot of time to delve into meaningful distinctions even internally within the various cultures. She says in her intro that this book is meant to be a seed for more books, not all encompassing. I thought it was great for what it was and an important start for me to try to understand American cultures outside of my own. Truth be told AANHPI+ Heritage Month is what brought me to this book, but I will definitely be exploring more. A great primer that deserves more readers, hopefully beyond AANHPI Heritage Month!

4+ Stars

Listened to the audiobook. Cindy Kay did an excellent job in narration.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, though aspects of it were quite heartbreaking. As a sort of overarching look at the the history of Asian people in the US, as well as US involvement in Asia, and the socio-political fallout and outcomes of all of the above, PLUS the Covid pandemic and the huge increase in anti-Asian attitudes because of it, it covered a LOT of ground. But I didn't know quite a lot of the information presented here, and had only heard of a handful of the cases of anti-Asian violence, so I think it was a timely read. (Note: This came available from the library in the last week of April, so it was opportune, but not specifically selected because of AAPI Heritage month.)

Anyway, I did really find this interesting and informative for the most part. There were some sections of second-person POV that I'm just never going to be a fan of, and that took away from the book a bit in my opinion. I understand why it was used here, I really do, but I just can't help feeling like it makes sections feel contrived and forced when I can understand, empathize with, and appreciate the experience without it.

Still, overall, I would still highly recommend this. Not just this month, but every day.

[Jobelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's difficult to write about such a broad history and experience and make it feel inclusive and holistic within the limited confines of a single book. I think Catherine Ceniza Choy does well in this. The book is a bit dry at times, coming across a bit like a textbook, but still captures the reader's attention with stories of real Asian Americans throughout history who are just as impactful and important (but not nearly as uplifted) as the most commonly taught names in American history. I learned plenty of new histories. I'm glad this talks about AAPI figures in relation to the abstract laws and movements — that's how our experiences get humanized. I believe my own experiences and viewpoints would have been a lot different growing up if I had had a book like this in school.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: The multiple, interleaved histories of the diverse Asian American peoples who migrated to, built communities in, contributed to, experienced discriminatory acts in the United States.

If you look closely at the title of this book, you will note that it is not a singular history but rather plural “histories.” Asian American peoples have been migrating to the United States from various countries in various waves over the past two hundred years. Catherine Ceniza Choy sets out in this work to sketch the outlines of these multiple stories. Two aspects of that methodology stood out to me in the reading. One was that she followed a reverse chronology, taking more recent key events and migrations first and working back in history to 1869. The other aspect of this work is that it is a people’s history, sketching not just the large contours and key events but the stories of individual persons and families–showing us the hopes, hardships, and particular experience of anti-Asian discrimination at different periods

She considers:

2020. The outbreak of Anti-Asian hatred during the pandemic, blaming those of Asian appearance for the origin and spread of the disease. At the same time, Filipino nurses, a mainstay in many hospital systems, were dying in disproportionate numbers.

1975. The journeys of Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees to the United States at the fall of Saigon. We learn of Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian who became the “donut king.”

1968. The student strike at San Francisco State College and the growth of the Asian American Movement on campuses across the country.

1965. The passage of the Hart-Cellar Act equalizing the numbers of immigration visas for all countries, allowing for expanded immigration from Asian countries, both highly skilled entering the professions as well as less-educated working in businesses like nail salons and restaurants, including the Filipino nurses among which came the author’s parents.

1965. The Delano Grape Strike was part of the birth of the United Farm Workers, led by Filipino American Larry Itliong, often overlooked in the histories that focus on Cesar Chavez.

1953. Permission to adopt transracial children of mixed birth from Korea and Japan, left behind when American soldiers returned home. This history raises the specter of the anti-miscegenation laws preventing inter-racial marriages.

1942. Executive Order 9066 resulting in the forced removal of Japanese Americans in western states, losing property and belongings without due process to be interned in camps. George Takei and many others have told the stories of these camps.

1919. The story of both Korean Americans and Filipino Americans seeking independence from Japan and the United States, respectively. The U.S. would remain silent about Korea due to their own hegemony in the Philippines.

1875. The Page Act, ostensibly passed to keep out prostitutes, was used to keep Chinese women out of the United States, representing various laws that would keep Asians out of the country. This episode also reflects the sexualized stereotypes of Asian women as dragon ladies, lotus blossoms and prostitutes.

1869. The completion of the transcontinental railroad. Chinese workers build much of the Central Pacific Railroad, yet were excluded from the celebratory photographs at Promontory Point and treated hostilely.

As may already be evident, Choy addresses three themes throughout the work: violence, erasure, and resistance. I was aware of both the violence and resistance but Choy makes evident that strategies of erasure are not new, whether it is blocking the publication of photographs, the scrubbing of stories from our history books, or even overshadowing the celebration of the centenary of the gurdwara in Stockton, California with a brutal mass killing at another gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. She also makes us aware that perhaps the greatest tragedy is the “othering” of those who have contributed so much as Asian Americans. Choi gives us not only Asian American histories, but also histories of the United States that both confront us with our failures to live up to our highest ideals and the opportunities before us to do so.

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid primer regarding the myriad histories of Asians in the U.S. The non-chronological structure allowed for the construction and elevation of thematic through lines across different points in history, illustrating how seemingly "old" problems are still relevant today, how the same issue could morph and manifest differently depending on the time. Language is accessible while still covering nuanced perspectives and ideas.

Felt repetitive since, as the book points out, I attended the Claremont Colleges, which is one of the few university systems that offers Asian American studies. Plus, AsAm/AAPI history is often glossed over in U.S. history courses. But for someone who may not have had the opportunity to take Asian studies courses or who may not belong to/be familiar with Asian communities, this would be a great intro to events, laws, cultural phenomena, and general history. Would definitely recommend for anyone interested in learning more.

[Max Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook.

This was a really creative approach to an acknowledging and celebrating a people who are a cultural mosaic in this country.

Choy really succeeds in bringing recognition to countless subgroups and individuals of a people that have been consistently written out of our history. Choy also really excels in creating a text that is accessible without sacrificing aspects of these histories.

Absolutely worth the read.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars all the way. I cried multiple times while reading this, including when it ended. It’s so powerful to see a history that’s so often erased, brought to light. Concise yet comprehensive, this book taught me so much about my own people.

I didn’t expect to enjoy the non-chronological structure of the book, but I did! It helps fill in the gaps that my old understanding of American history didn’t, and having thematic chapters helped me understand trends over time as opposed to events over time. Especially with such a large and multi-ethnic group as “Asian”, it was really helpful to see parallels and intersections across different ethnicities in terms of immigration, colonization, discrimination, and triumph.

I always wanted to take a class with Prof Choy at Berkeley, and now I feel like I have. Thank you so much for creating such an important piece of work and for cataloguing our history in a broadly accessible form.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

didn't finish reading this because it felt repetitive and i didn't feel like i was actually learning that much history. going to try to find other books about this topic bc it felt like very basic surface-level stuff (although maybe that's just because i only got like 30% in)

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

No history. No self. Know history. Know self.
I especially enjoyed reading of the Philipino, Korean and Indian stories, in addition to the more well known Japanese and Chinese stories.

[Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!! What can I say? It is incredible to me that so much of American history has been deliberately not taught. There is so much American history that Asians contributed to that it blows my mind that I did not know. I find it sad that the American history that Asian Americans contributed to has been overshadowed by the American history that black Americans have contributed to. I’m not saying one part of American history is more important than another, what I’m saying is that the entirety of American history is important whether we like it or not, and it should be taught without prejudice. I had no idea that so many Asian Americans were as much victims of discrimination as black Americans. I was never taught that in 1942 the United States Imprisoned so many Asian Americans without due process and stripped them of their God-given rights. I had no idea that it used to be illegal for Asian Americans to marry white Americans. I am appalled that until 2014, Asian American representation of their contribution to the building of the intercontinental railroad, was deliberately left out of the history books in the images taken in 1869, not six years after black Americans had been liberated from slavery.

I recommend this book to everyone interested in the entire truth of American History. Who knows how much more has been left out of the history books?!

[James Klagge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using significant events in the history of various Asian countries and US-Asian communities, this book traces various paths into our present state of things. More anecdotal than systematic, but all the more engaging for that.
The author offers the challenge (p. 171) that "Many Americans cannot name one well-known Asian American." If you leave out athletes (Ohtani), leaders (Marcos), authors (Amy Tan) and singers (Yoko Ono), this may well be true. I thought of S.I. Hayakawa--a linguist and former US senator. But the question reminded me how little I and we know.
Although the term "Asian American" is well-entrenched, the author reminds us of how much variety is hidden in the "Asian". But it is odd that people don't pay any attention to the variety hidden in the "American". It is unfortunately used as a synonym for US--but of course all of North and South America is "American", and it is too bad that we US folks continue to co-opt this label for ourselves.

[gpears · Rating 5 out of 5]

the achronological approach of this book did an amazing job of tackling the broad and varied histories of asian americans that have been erased from the public consciousness. the book was very “people focused” and told the stories of abstract well known legislation and historical events in relation to the asian american individuals involved. personal anecdotes and the interlude on asian food was refreshing for a history book. History of immigrant workers in california, the parts on Black and Asian solidarity, and the explanation of how legislation contributed to fetishization of asian women were particularly interesting. I learned something new in each chapter!

[Zarif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book at a store in Asheville, NC, last summer and I finally found the time to read it. There’s clearly deep emotional moments where the author delves into histories that describe the deep pain various Asian American communities have felt. The only reason it doesn’t get 5 stars is because there’s many moments this reads like an academic textbook. I understand the author is a professor at Berkeley, so academic writing habits a difficult to detach oneself from. Regardless, I’m very thankful to have read this book.

[Anhhuy Do · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring and moving book that succinctly covers a substantial portion of major historical moments in Asian American history, while also shining light on the humanity, hardship, and resilience of Asian Americans. Combining historical scholarship along with personal accounts and family stories, Dr. Choy has fully demonstrated that she is not only *the* historian of Asian America of our time but also a deeply compassionate and caring person whose interest in history is informed by healing the trauma and violence our communities have faced.

[Timothy Yoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book filled with important historical acts and dates along with appropriate anecdotes. An important read for any individual starting to read about asian american history. Nothing too in detail that draws your attention away and really emotional short anecdotes that keep blowing your mind and drawing tears.

[E Money The Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently read (listened to) Unassimilable and Bianca cites this book a few times so I had to follow it up!

I expected a textbook about Asian Americans but instead got a love letter to the lives and struggles of so many different peoples. Certainly plan on reading the authors previous work, “Empire of Care” down the line.

[Margie Tang-Whitmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chefs kiss 🤌

[Heather Heckman · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
It is informative and more than informative, it is challenging and inspiring and filled with emotionally moving narratives.

[hafsa khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel very academic

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this review is kind of written like throwing spaghetti at a wall & seeing what sticks.

I'm going to start with a very basic thing, because the point is that since AAPI people make up about 50% of the human population, it's a heavy catchall & so to do it justice one needs to acknowledge more ethnic differences & solidarities.

The very minimal take away from this book is that due to the amount of peoples in Asia, you need to acknowledge the different ethnicities even as you use catchall terms. The term asian-(us)american is helpful for dealing with usamerican white supremacy (for example, Chinese-usamericans got improved treatment as the japanese-usamericans got worse with the "internment" camps. But after the war, things went sour again.)


The first quarter of the book focuses a lot on the impact of the covid-19 pandemic era (which is still happening). There's discussion of labor organizing among Filipino nurses which then takes is back to around the 1960's when the racial & pan-ethic term "Asian American" got termed, alongside the era of "third world" solidarity.

So this book focuses on Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, India, Vietnamese, Cambodian, experiences. Southwest & Central Asia aren't talked about much. The 1965 immigration act reforms are seen as a tipping point, and it's acknowledged lawmakers had wanted Europeans to immigrate instead of Asians.

The rivalry fueled by white supremacists between Asian-americans & black people circa the 1960s are discussed.

Yellow face is discussed. Reviews for how the yellow face performances were received isn't mentioned, but here's one for Mickey Rooney (by the way, I would've included this in progress notes, but I kind of just wanted to finish listening to the book already), apparently his performance got called "broadly exotic" in the NYT on 1961 October 6. (Basically, white supremacist media is trash.)

I was amazed at the discussion of interracial families, because I haven't heard of many, and yet interracial relationships between Asians & other usamericans was so common based on what the book was saying that it gave me a lot of hope. While I feel awkward saying that to some degree, especially since my family can be shitty, I do prefer living in areas that are multicultural. Yay, solidarity!

Oh adoptions were talked about too. I've only started listening to the harm that's been done in our capitalist adoption systems. I don't think the book went into that as much, but I've seen articles about Korean adoptees emigrating to Korea.

[John Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who cares about diversity, this is a must read. This is especially true coming off a pandemic our last president blamed on Asians and the Asian hate so many people in this country experienced since those years. Ms. Choy packs more learning, stories, inspiration, and facts in 175 pages than I thought possible. Many of my pages have more yellow highlighted words than white background because I learned so much, despite having read other books on Asian American history.

The author highlights a few themes that weave untold American history – generalizations about Asians that is presented as common knowledge, the hidden history of Asian accomplishments, this nation’s long-time unjust laws aimed at people of color and Asians including immigration laws that favored Europeans and punished Asian immigrants, and the impact of American wars in Asian countries. There is considerable fresh information in this well written and documented book. My book will not go to the little community library down the street but stay on myself to read – and learn more – again.

Consider how Asians are left out of our viewed society:
 While 10-15,000 Chinese workers toiled on building our continental railroad system between 1865 and 1869, comprising nearly 90% of the workforce, those workers were excluded from the famous photograph marking the last spike that joined the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads at Promontory Summit in Utah.
 For decades, yellow face was utilized in Hollywood, giving Asian character spots to white actors in part because anti-miscegenation laws banned interracial marriages and impacted the 1930 Motion Picture Production code that forbid romantic relationships between people of color and white actors. It is a recent experience to produce Hollywood movies that feature Asian actors.
 Most people know the important impact of labor leader Cesar Chavez who led Latino farm workers but few, even those who read about labor, know the contribution of Filipino American Larry Itliong who joined forces between Asians and Latinos, hand-in-hand with Chavez to take on the boss in the 1965 Delano Grape Strike.
 Rosie the Riveter was a white character who highlighted the importance of women assuming manufacturing jobs during WWII even though Asian Americans and African Americans helped with those employment lapses when men were sent off to battle. Instead, Japanese Americans were sent behind fences unjustly.
 Even though Filipino nurses are a major portion of the workforce in metro hospitals, comprising 18% of nurses in NYC in the 1990’s and 18% in 2016 in California registered nurses, they are not included in popular television shows like ER.

Indian, Chinese, Filipinos, Korean, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese account for 85% of all Asian Americans as of 2019. American wars had a significant impact on how and who comes into our country. The author spelled out how many people came to our country, usually then becoming citizens when permitted. Often, they arrived under unfair clouds and in desperate ways, such as the “boat people,” from Vietnam. Choy speaks about how wars, funded by US taxpayers, made conditions where people fled war torn counties to try to find the American dream. She argues that we would be better off if Americans learned about the background of Southeast Asian refugees who risked their life to come to our country. She spoke about the waves of immigrants, with some better connected, better educated, and having easier access to our country than others. The book also covers the interracial children who were the result of US servicemen in the post-WWII occupation of Japan (1945-52), during the US colonization of the Philippines, the Korean War (1950-53) and, later, the Viet Nam War. Japanese and Korean societies rejected these mixed-race children due to religious believes since the children were born “out of wedlock.” The children were called “occupation babies” and “GI babies.” Some escaped such horrible situations through international adoptions and the private bills where the Senate authorized each individual adoption. In 1953, there was a small window in the Refugee Relief Act.

The largest growth of races in the 2020 census was mixed race. This is a major change. Due largely to anti-miscegenation laws and the foundation that allowed such atrocious laws, the percentage of intermarriages shot from 7% in 1980 to 17% in 2015. Less and less, people are not feeling like they are the “only one” because they are mixed race.

There were some amazing stories in this book, such as the journey of Cecilia Suyat who moved from the Philippines in 1948 and became the secretary of a leader of the NAACP. She grew close to lawyer Thurgood Marshall as she typed the legal briefs for the 1954 Brown v Board of Education; the next year they married and continued their union throughout his service as the first African American on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Throughout the book Ms. Choy points to a brighter future. She takes the reader back to the late 1960’s when Black and Asian students came together in California and pushed for more inclusive studies. She highlights organizations and tactics that developed as Asian Hate became prevalent, aided by the megaphone of the last president.

The book covers the establishment of the Philippine Nurses Association of American (PNAA) in 1979, a place where nurses and nurse practitioners join to welcome immigrant nurses, speak up in a collective voice, celebrate their shared heritage, and speak against unfair laws. She gave the powerful story about how 2018 Emmy co-host Michael Che disclosed during the show: “TV has always had a diversity problem. I mean, can you believe that they did 15 sessions of ER without one Filipino nurse? Have you been to a hospital?”

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, people we now call Asian Americans have made major contributions to American society. You have only to look around you in a hospital, where Philippine American nurses work in huge numbers. Or to glance at the headlines about the CEOs of high-tech companies. Today, numbering some 24 million, Asian Americans comprise 7.3 percent of the country’s population. That’s about one out of every fourteen people living in the United States. Yet to most of us, Asian Americans are essentially invisible. We know little or nothing about what has brought them to this country, what their lives have been like, or how they have changed our own lives. And that gap in our understanding of the country we live in is what UC Berkeley Professor Catherine Ceniza Choy set out to fill in her illuminating new book, Asian American Histories of the United States.

ASIAN AMERICAN IDENTITY IS BARELY HALF A CENTURY OLD
One of the reasons so few of us are familiar with Asian American history is that the label itself was only first used a half-century ago. Before that, there were Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Indian Americans, Philippine Americans, and so forth, but nobody (including themselves) thought of them collectively as Asian. The term grew out of the “radical consciousness that emerged in the late 1960s . . . [signifying] a political sensibility that valued solidarity with Black, Chicano, and American Indian social justice movements.” Two UC Berkeley graduate students coined the term in 1968 “when they founded the Asian American Political Alliance in Berkeley.”

A CENTURY AND A HALF OF DISCRIMINATION AND HATRED
Asian American history a deserves full, authoritative treatment. Someday, someone—perhaps even Prof. Ceniza Choy—will write that book. But this one isn’t it. Instead, Asian American Histories of the United States is a long essay which alternately celebrates and laments the experience of Asian Americans over the past 150-plus years. Ceniza Choy emphasizes the challenges they’ve faced, noting that “three interconnected themes: . . . violence, erasure, and resistance” dominate Asian American history. And the evidence she cites is abundant, employing both insightful stories of individual people and historical events and trends.

At the outset, Chinese laborers imported to work the mines and build the railroads faced constant abuse, almost universal hatred, and, sometimes, violent attacks. And that hatred was institutionalized for nearly a century in both state and local laws and court decisions that made virtually all those of Asian heritage second-class citizens—even after they were belatedly permitted to become citizens at all.

KEY DATES IN ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY
As she skips around the past century and a half, Ceniza Choy lights upon the key dates in Asian American history. It’s worth reviewing them here in chronological order:

1849: the California Gold Rush, which brought the first large numbers of Chinese laborers to the United States

1882: passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, “prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplomats.” It was the first law limiting immigration to the country—and the only one ever directed exclusively at a single ethnic group. (The 1882 act was only repealed in 1943, when China was a wartime ally.)

1924: enactment of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, which effectively barred immigration from any Asian country (except the Philippines, which was a US dependency). The legislation instituted a highly discriminatory formula based on national origins, designed to favor immigration from northern Europe.

1941: when at least 125,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in 75 internment camps throughout the West. FDR issued Executive Order 9066 at the behest of the United States Army, California Governor Earl Warren, and numerous other politicians who had succumbed to racial hysteria.

1965: passage of the Hart-Celler Immigration Act, which abolished the national origins formula of the 1924 legislation. To the surprise of its sponsors (and practically everyone else), the principal result of the act was a flood of Asian immigrants. More than any other single piece of legislation, the 1965 immigration act has shaped the multiethnic character of the United States today.

1975: the fall of Saigon, which ultimately led to the admission of more than one million Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, and Hmong refugees

Ceniza Choy cites other key dates to introduce aspects of her story. But these seem to me to be the major ones.

AN ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY BOOK WITH AN UNUSUAL STRUCTURE
The book is structured in a way I’ve never come across in any other history. Each of the nine chapters is centered on events in a single year. Most of these years are recent (from 1965 to 2020). Ceniza Choy uses those benchmarks as points of entry into the historical background. This becomes confusing at times, and it leads to repetition. The author’s intent was clearly to paint a picture of the current state of Asian American life and not to survey Asian American history as a whole. Sometimes it works well, sometimes not.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catherine Ceniza Choy is a Professor of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies and Comparative Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Asian American Histories of the United States is her third book. She holds a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Pomona College, Claremont, and both master’s and PhD degrees from UCLA. The daughter of Filipino immigrants, she was born and raised in New York City. Ceniza Choy lives in Berkeley with her husband.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work made very interesting and compelling points. However, the organizational structure made some changes or details tricky to track, and it was frustrating to feel like the author re-tread the same ground on some topics multiple times. (I understand why this was done, outlined in the introduction, but it did not work well for me.)
Approach this work with the understanding that it's a series of short essays organized around different themes of Asian American experiences and not a traditional chronological history.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this ARC from the publisher

Well researched and well written.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout American history, Asians have been stereotyped as both "subhuman and superhuman threats." (p. x) "An Asian American woman is a lotus blossom, but also a dragon lady." (p. xi) Asian Americans are "whiz kids... who do not complain" (p. ix) but also "harbingers of disease and immorality." (p. x) How did we get here? The author addresses this question "by emphasizing three interconnected themes in Asian American histories of the United States: violence, erasure, and resistance." (p. xii)

Notably, she immediately dispels the myth that Asian Americans are a monolith. She showcases the diversity within the demographic by purposely "writing this book... to narrate and to integrate less well-known stories about Asian Americans... such as Indian, Korean, Filipino, and Cambodian Americans, as well as mixed race and adopted Asian Americans, among others." (p. xvi)

In the preface, the author explains how most Asian American history courses and books tend to cover topics chronologically, "ending approximately in the 1980s...with scant attention to more contemporary issues." (p. xvii) I have found this to be exactly the case in my experience, and I was intrigued by her decision to feature "multiple temporal origins of Asian American history, beginning in 2020, with subsequent chapters moving back in time... [to] illuminate connections among historical events hitherto unseen, such as... the continuity of historical alliances between Black and Asian Americans, from Frederick Douglass's 1869 speech advocating for Chinese immigration to Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X's friendship in the 1960s." (p. xvii)

Truly, the author's unique approach made Asian American history feel less like static past events and more like modern-day issues. For example, the book started with the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the work of Stop AAPI Hate in documenting anti-Asian violence and discrimination, and tied the resurgence of racism at the start of the pandemic to the long history in America of "association of Asian bodies with disease" (p. 2) dating back to the first wave of Asian immigrants in the 1800s. It also provided context to how "COVD-19 was taking a disproportionate toll on Filipino American nurses" (p. 12) by fleshing out the decades-long history of Filipino nurses in the American healthcare workforce. She also connected the 2021 killings of 6 Asian American women in spas in north GA to America's history of sexualizing and objectifying Asian women, starting with the Page Act of 1875, which "created a system of enforcement that conflated Asian women's migration with prostitution." (p. 158)

Other often overlooked Asian American histories that are discussed in this book: the arrival and contribution of refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, including the involvement of the U.S. in creating the situations from which they fled; the role of Asian Americans in U.S. farming, agricultural workers' rights, and the restaurant industry; the service and treatment of Asian Americans in the U.S. military; the effect of imperialism and the struggle for independence in their homelands on Korean, Filipino, and Indian immigrants.

Overall, this book is a great survey-level introduction to parts of Asian American history that are somehow both commonly overlooked and also contemporarily relevant. It does not delve into any great detail, and is not academically dry. The author frequently presents anecdotal stories of diverse Asian American experiences that personalize the topics, including episodes from her own life, showing that Asian American history is not just a field of study, but a living history unfolding all around us, even within our own Asian American families.

Incidentally, I have just one complaint: On page 46, the author refers to a "Lao Student Association" that promotes "Lao culture", and then on page 47, there's a "Laotian American Society" that supports the "Laotian community". What's the difference between "Lao" and "Laotian"? An explainer would have been helpful. I searched it up and found this article: "Is it 'Lao' or 'Laotian'? In Laos, There's a Big Difference".

[Jjyoo92 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as an accessible introduction to Asian American history. The book focuses on key touchpoints as opposed to serving as a comprehensive tome on the entirety of Asian American history. Even so, the book covers a wide range of historical moments and issues and Choy does an admirable job showing the links between seemingly disparate moments in history. I appreciated that Choy inserted her own views and perspectives, informed by her long academic career and work as a professor at UC Berkeley. I also found the reverse-chronological structure of the book refreshing, and a nice way to keep the reader engaged by speaking first to the most proximal and top-of-mind events to provide a scaffolding for earlier histories. My one critique of the book is that it seemed determined to paint Asian American histories as uniformly defined by victimization, martyrdom, solidarity, and triumph. While I feel this is a common styling of ethnic studies literature, I think I'd have found the book more compelling if it touched on the messy spaces, the divisions within Asian Americans and moments in which Asian Americans failed to live up to ideals of integrity and solidarity for other minorities. As an example, the book goes in depth on progressive Asian American leaders including Marilyn Strickland, but in the same breath omits mention of Michelle Steel and Young Kim, two other Asian American congresswomen elected during the same election cycle but with vastly different politics who had voted to limit a women's right to choose, remove protections for gender and sexual minorities, and most recently carve away at America's social safety net via the "One Big Beautiful Bill". Despite this, I was moved by the stories and resilience captured in the book and found myself asking myself constantly 'why is this the first time I'm learning about this!' A moving, well-researched primer to Asian American history.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had not read the author's other book but was curious after it popped up in my library. It's what it says on the tin: a series of looking at Asian American history in the United States through a series of important events ranging from anti-Asian racism in the era of COVID-19 to when the first Asian Americans arrived in significant numbers to the US.

It's not a comprehensive history, but rather a series of stories looking at specific time periods and years that are significant. A wide range of issues are discussed, from racism to civil rights, to immigration to abortion and more. Some of it you know and likely some of it will not be familiar to you, either.

That's pretty much it. As mentioned, it is not a comprehensive read, nor is it meant to be. It's readable on its own, but wouldn't be surprised to see it on class syllabi on Asian American history, either. It was fine to be read on its own, though.

Pick it up if you're not sure where to start and need more information about the APIA community but do understand this is definitely more basic as a primer and you would probably do well to supplement this with other material ('The Making of Asian America' is a good one, but be aware that's a rather heavy book in terms of topics and in genuine size.)

Borrowed this from the library and that was best for me. Might make for a good purchase to read on your own time.

[lillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1965, Yuri Kochiyama, a second-generation Japanese American woman, cradles her close friend's head as he draws his final breath. That friend is Malcolm X. Newspapers of the time publish the picture of Malcolm X's final moments, not mentioning the Asian American woman who accompanies him in those final moments, erasing the powerful history of Black-Asian solidarity.

This book was the first time I was confronted, on paper, with the erasure of Asian America throughout history. I have lived it, and I have felt unsettled by my own invisibility in America. But never have I been able to trace my personal history and situate it in the greater story of America. I see now that Asian American history is American History. Asian American history is Black history, is Latin American history.

Catherine Ceniza Choy delineates the numerous histories of Asian America and traces them back to specific events throughout American history. At once crucial to American identity and incredibly tragic, this compact survey of the Asian American histories of the United States demonstrates the necessity of uncovering our histories and telling them over and over again.

Ceniza Choy writes in the aftermath of the Atlanta spa shootings, and so a bulk of her writing pays homage to the Asian American women who fell victim to Asian hate. I found myself having to pace myself as I read this book because of how dense the text is but also because of how heavy some of the topics are. Even this review took more time for me to write than usual; I had to sift through all my feelings first before I could pick the ones to write about.

A must-read for every American, in identity or residency.

[Jifu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catherine Ceniza Choy focuses on three repeating themes in this work - violence, erasure, and resistance. And of this trie, it definitely erasure that stood out to me the most by far and away. It was as if I couldn't get through five pages without another curtain pulling back and revealing some part of the nation past that would make me think with a start, "Hold on, how come I'm only learning about this now?" Suffice to say, I discovered long list of gaps where my schooling has failed me. Thankfully, Asian American Histories of the United States was the perfect introduction to this component of American history that was previously very-little known to me - and I'm already at work on picking things from there. Literally as I write this, I have several other tabs on my computer opened up, each one containing information on either a specific book that the author referenced, or book lists recommending various nonfiction or fiction relevant to the Asian American experience. I feel like I have ways to go, but at least I feel like Choy has provided exactly the right foundation to help get me started.

[Debi Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm constantly learning more about the history of my people in this country & my family's country of origin. History that was relegated to maybe a paragraph or a page in my high school textbook and barely a mention in my college textbook, mentions that weren't even put in the right context of the U.S. pulling a sleight of hand on the Philippines & never framing the war against Spain & then against the U.S. as wars for the country's independence. Catherine Ceniza Choy takes historical events that many AsAms know now & expands upon them, linking the different events & experiences amongst Asian immigrants & AsAm together in one throughline. The author also provides history of not just East Asians, as is often the focus in the general population, she includes SEA & SAs in equal measure & how laws targeting Chinese immigrants affected all Asian immigrants & U.S. born AsAms. While this is not a comprehensive history, it's a good starting point for people who know little & want to learn. AsAm history told by an AsAm is refreshing when much of what is taught today is still haole-centered.