Envisioning America

New Chinese Americans and the Politics of Belonging

Tritia Toyota

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780804762427, 9780804762410
• eBook ISBN: 9780804772822
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Asian American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Envisioning America is a groundbreaking and richly detailed study of how naturalized Chinese living in Southern California become highly involved civic and political actors. Like other immigrants to the United States, their individual life stories are of survival, becoming, and belonging. But unlike any other Asian immigrant group before them, they have the resources—Western-based educations, entrepreneurial strengths, and widely based social networks in Asia—to become fully accepted in their new homes.

Nevertheless, Chinese Americans are finding that their social credentials can be a double-edged sword. Their complete incorporation as citizens is bounded both by mainstream discourse in the United States, which paints them racially as perpetual foreigners, and by an existing Asian-Pacific American community not always accepting of their economic achievements and transnational ties. Their attempts at inclusion are at the heart of a vigorous struggle for recognition and political empowerment.

This book challenges the notion that Asian Americans are apathetic or apolitical about civic engagement, reminding us that political involvement would often have been a life-threatening act in their homeland. The voices of Chinese Americans who tell their stories in these pages uncover the ways in which these new citizens actively embrace their American citizenship and offer a unique perspective on how global identities transplanted across borders become rooted in the local.

APPENDIX 1

Selected Survey Results from the 2000 Democratic National Convention

From August 14 to 17, 2000, the Democratic National Convention took place at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. During the four days and three evenings of the convention, I attended events sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander American Caucus of the Democratic National Committee. The events included daily caucus briefings, private meetings, luncheons, and dinners. Asian Pacific Islander (API) Democrats were randomly sampled as they entered or left these gatherings or were prevailed upon during mealtimes and between scheduled events. The four-page survey was intended for descriptive purposes only and included 26 questions relating to Asian Pacific Americans and the political process. It was formulated with assistance from Mitch Chang, James Lai, Don Nakanishi, and Paul Ong as part of a graduate research project I conducted in cooperation with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. There were 306 individuals who answered the structured survey, although not everyone answered every question, so total numbers differ.

Ethnic Breakdown of Those Surveyed

Korean	26.2%
Chinese	22.3%
Japanese	17.9%
Filipino	16.3%
Multiple ethnicities	5.3%
Pacific Islander	1.7%
Cambodian	1.0%
Vietnamese	0.3%
Other	9.0%

Birthplace

United States	50.1%
Korea	20.1%
Philippines	11.0%
India	6.7%
China	3.7%
Hong Kong	2.3%
Japan	1.7%
Taiwan	1.3%
Cambodia	0.7%
Pacific Islands	0.3%
Vietnam	0.3%
Other	1.8%

TABLE 1

Question: What is your opinion of the following statement?

APIs don’t get their money’s worth when they give money to political candidates, parties, or issues.

Agree	Disagree
244	55
(81.6%)	(18.4%)
Total Asian Pacific American respondents = 299.

TABLE 2

Question: What is your opinion of the following statement?

Democratic investigators discriminated against APIs by tracking campaign contributors based solely on the fact that they had Asian surnames.

Agree	Disagree
272	27
(91%)	(9%)
Total Asian Pacific American respondents = 299.

TABLE 3

Question: What is your opinion of the following statement?

Mainstream news media reports on the fund-raising investigation made few distinctions between Asians and APIs and thus often racially categorized an entire community.

Agree	Disagree
290	11
(96.3%)	(3.7%)
Total Asian Pacific American respondents = 301.

TABLE 4

Question: What is your opinion of the following statement?

The fund-raising investigation reflected negatively on APIs and limited their ability to participate fully in the political process, su...

Table of contents

• ASIAN AMERICA - A series edited by Gordon H. Chang
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• ONE - Transforming the Field
• TWO - History and Race
• THREE - Envisioning America
• FOUR - California Lifestyles
• FIVE - Coming of Age
• SIX - Seeking New Allies, Building New Community
• SEVEN - Still the Problem of the Twenty-first Century
• APPENDIX 1 - Selected Survey Results from the 2000 Democratic National Convention
• APPENDIX 2 - Los Angeles County Communities with Chinese Populations (including Taiwanese) of More Than 20 Percent
• APPENDIX 3 - Socioeconomic Differences
• Notes
• References
• Index