Chains of Babylon: The Rise of Asian America

Critical American Studies

by Daryl Joji Maeda

In Chains of Babylon, Daryl J. Maeda presents a cultural history of Asian American activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, showing how the movement created the category of "Asian American" to join Asians of many ethnicities in racial solidarity. Drawing on the Black Power and antiwar movements, Asian American radicals argued that all Asians in the United States should resist assimilation and band together to oppose racism within the country and imperialism abroad.

As revealed in Maeda's in-depth work, the Asian American movement contended that people of all Asian ethnicities in the United States shared a common relationship to oppression and exploitation with each other and with other nonwhite peoples. In the early stages of the civil rights era, the possibility of assimilation was held out to Asian Americans under a model minority myth. Maeda insists that it was only in the disruption of that myth for both African Americans and Asian Americans in the 1960s and 1970s that the full Asian American culture and movement he describes could emerge. Maeda challenges accounts of the post-1968 era as hopelessly divisive by examining how racial and cultural identity enabled Asian Americans to see eye-to-eye with and support other groups of color in their campaigns for social justice.

Asian American opposition to the war in Vietnam, unlike that of the broader antiwar movement, was predicated on understanding it as a racial, specifically anti-Asian genocide. Throughout he argues that cultural critiques of racism and imperialism, the twin "chains of Babylon" of the title, informed the construction of a multiethnic Asian American identity committed to interracial and transnational solidarity.

Genres: Asian American, Nonfiction, History, Race, Asian Literature

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

barely had a background in asian american history before reading this, loved to learn about the AA political identity and how AAs have defined identity internally through cultural production and expression. the writing style was very accessible!

[jiyoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

CHAINS OF BABYLON is an excellent corrective to the narratives that surround asian american racialization + leftist activism in the U.S.—i.e., the erasure of asian american leftists and activists in the anti-war movement of the 60s and 70s; the idea that all asians were passive and submitted to the model minority myth perpetuated by white conservatives; the notion that the term "asian america/n" was born from a desire to create a demographic category rather than as a form of resistance to U.S. capitalism and imperialism that oppresses asians both within the united states and internationally. we need more asian americans in fields like history, ethnic studies, and sociology to ensure that these histories aren't forgotten and to prevent the work of those who bravely fought for justice and liberation from being diluted by the state + white liberalism.

yellow people everywhere: know your history! know the struggles we've inherited, recognize the power of the term "asian america" as a political construct rather than taking it for granted as a census category, and never stop resisting the white supremacy that displaced our ancestors and brought us to this country in the first place.

[Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first few chapters for class and finished the rest for a project. This is a general overview, with the most in-depth (and interesting) chapters being the Student Strike and Red Guard chapters. Maeda clearly sides with the Marxist side of the AsAsm movement over the cultural side (Frank Chin, etc.) When he does give credit to the cultural side, he transposes a Marxist politics onto their performances.

I wish he was able to bring the same critical edge to the radical groups as he does with Frank Chin and Hayakawa. There is no sense of contradiction or conflict when he discusses the groups he prefers. For instance, what are the drawbacks to the Red Guard "imitating" blackness? Were there limits to this cultural nationalist approach for the Asian diaspora — limits that persist today?

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really nice introduction to the history of the Asian American movement with some stakes for this history today.

[Julia Xiang-Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super interesting and informative + Prof Maeda responded to my request for a zoom call

[Parag · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, focused read.