The Asian American Movement: A Social History. - book reviews

Reason, Dec, 1993 by John J. Miller

Joann Lee's collection of oral histories, Asian Americans, also offers a penetrating look at ordinary lives. Its voices present no unified front: Many are grateful for the economic and social opportunities available in the United States, others disenchanted by their own failures or turned off by a confusing, almost anarchic society. Most, however, seem to place some value on the freedom they have found here: "You decide what you want to be, then you work hard, and can achieve it," says Siu Wang Lai, a Chinese immigrant who spoke through an interpreter. But she also realizes that American freedom has its price: "The bad thing is the relaxed laws and the lack of family values." Like many immigrant parents, she worries about her children and whether they will lose touch with not only their families but also the home-grown cultural traits of diligence, discipline, and respect that gave their parents an edge over the competition.

Lang Ngan, who helps process Southeast-Asian refugee resettlement claims, corroborates: "I get a lot of complaints from parents. They say they come to this country to give their children the chance for a better education, but now they lose their children. That is the culture shock. The children now think they are free to do anything they want."

By these accounts, the various Asian-American experiences appear much like other ethnic experiences: full of difficulty and even regret, but also opportunity and, ultimately, assimilation. Despite what the naysayers proclaim, Asian Americans will continue their undeniable success. Indeed, the fact that Asian Americans even have activists trying to represent them says something about their accomplishments. Immigrants, of course, don't have the time or the interest to carp about a life full of promise--only their bourgeois children and grandchildren can manage that feat.

But the activists do raise larger questions, albeit unintentionally: Will Asian Americans hang on to the cultural traits that have helped them open stores, attend college, and keep their families together, or will they cast off that part of their heritage in an attempt to fit in with mainstream America? In short, will they assimilate out of the very qualities that have made their assimilation possible?