Asian Americans

I

Introduction

Asian Americans, residents of the United States who trace their ancestry to Asia. Pacific Islanders, such as Native Hawaiians and Samoans, are often grouped with Asian Americans. The rapidly growing Asian American community is comprised of many diverse groups, including Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, and Vietnamese Americans. Large numbers of people from India, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia have also immigrated to the United States. Asian tribal peoples, such as the Iu Mien and Hmong, have established communities in the United States as well.

According to the 2000 U.S. census, some 10.2 million Asian Americans live in the United States. They make up 3.6 percent of the U.S. population, a 199 percent increase from 1980 when they constituted only 1.5 percent of the population. Asian Americans reside throughout the United States, with California and New York home to the largest populations. However, the state with the largest percentage of Asian Americans is Hawaii. Other states with sizable Asian American populations include Texas, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, Virginia, Florida, and Massachusetts.

II

Influence on American Culture

The growing population of Asian Americans has significantly influenced American society. Many Americans enjoy a variety of Asian cuisine. Along with well-known Chinese dishes, such Asian foods as Japanese sushi, Asian Indian curries, Vietnamese pho noodles, and Thai coffee have become common in many parts of the country. Asian religions, such as Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Shamanism have many followers in the United States. Asian American community celebrations feature a rich variety of Asian art forms, such as Filipino tinikling dances and escrima martial arts, Vietnamese lion dances, and Japanese taiko drumming and karaoke singing.

Individual Asian Americans have also made many contributions to American society. Asian American authors, such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, and Bharati Mukherjee, have influenced contemporary American literature. Gifted athletes, such as figure skaters Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan, gymnast Amy Chow, and tennis player Michael Chang, have excelled in American sports. Asian American architects, such as Maya Ying Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., and I. M. Pei, designer of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, have built many of the most impressive monuments and buildings in the United States. The term Asian Americans originated in the late 1960s and 1970s, when Asian American activists sought to end the use of the word Orientals. Believing that the word Orientals was associated with negative images, they advocated the substitution of Asian Americans. The term gradually became accepted, and it is now widely used.

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III

History

Large-scale Asian immigration to the United States began in the 19th century. Drawn by economic opportunity, Asians migrated across the Pacific to the continental United States or Hawaii. The Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, and Asian Indians were prominent among early immigrants from Asia. Although Asian American labor helped develop the American West, anti-Asian prejudice eventually resulted in the enactment of laws virtually banning immigration to the United States from Asia in the late 19th century.

During World War II (1939-1945) the U.S. government forced many Japanese Americans living on the West Coast to move to camps in the interior of the country. Nonetheless, the war and its aftermath brought an improvement in the status of most Asians in the United States. Between 1943 and 1952 the U.S. government approved yearly immigration quotas for China, the Philippines, India, Japan, and South Korea. First-generation Asian immigrants were permitted to apply for naturalization. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 allowed larger numbers of Asians to immigrate each year. These new waves of immigrants reinvigorated established Asian American communities.

After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, many immigrants from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and other Southeast Asian countries settled in the United States. Today, along with other ethnic groups, Asian Americans are recognized as an important part of the American cultural mosaic.

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