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to Asian American Voices
Asian
American Voices
Introduction
American
history courses typically begin on the Atlantic seaboard—either
in Jamestown or in Plymouth—and trace the movement of European
Americans gradually westward. But this approach is quite misleading.
The first Americans arrived from northeastern Asia, and in later
years Asians and Pacific Islanders played crucial, if often unrecognized
roles, in shaping American history.
The
fixation on the east has had several negative consequences. First
of all, it has hindered our understanding of the interconnections
between American history and world history. Two examples might
underscore this point. At the same time that the Spanish and Portuguese
were exploring the New World, they were also establishing trading
relations in India (at Goa) and in the Far East (in the Philippines).
Asian trade. It is not an accident then that Filipino crew members
were aboard the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Esperanz when
it landed in present-day California in 1587. Nor is it accidental
that Filipino seamen settled in Louisiana as early as 1763. Meanwhile,
in the early nineteenth century, influential American fortunes
were made in the China trade. One young man who made a fortune
selling opium in China was Warren Delano, whose daughter Sara
was the mother of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Secondly,
this eastern bias has impeded our understanding of important interconnections
in American history. The growth of manufacturing in the East not
only depended on slave grown cotton and an influx of European
immigrants, but on railroads, commercial farms and ranches, and
shipping in which Asian immigrants and their descendants played
a crucial role. In the early nineteenth century, the removal of
Indians from the east, the movement of slaves into the Old Southwest,
the migration of the Irish, the Germans, and the Scandinavians,
and the
Third,
the focus on the east coast has hindered our understanding of
role of race in American history. In the western United States,
the concept of race could never be reduced to a matter of black
and white. Racial categories in the West were far more diverse
than in the East, and nativism was directed not at the Irish or
the new immigrants but at Asian and American Indians, Mexicans,
the Chinese, Filipinos, and the Japanese, among other groups.
In the West, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and
Native Americans as well as European Americans interacted both
competitively and cooperatively among themselves. In the multicultural
West, non-white ethnic groups tended to maintain separate enclaves,
and racial stratification and economic stratification intertwined.
Discrimination fostered a strong group consciousness among Asian
immigrants and their descendants and also contributed to a sense
of pan-Asian identity.
Fourth,
the process of immigration takes on fresh meaning when one compares
Ellis Island with its West Coast counterpart, Angel Island in
San Francisco Bay. Ellis Island is romanticized as the golden
gate, where the huddled masses were welcomed. Angel Island, in
stark contrast, sought to keep out unwelcome immigrants. Protracted
detention, averaging two or three weeks, and rigorous interrogation
were the norm. Because Asians were denied citizenship, formal
negotiations took place between the U.S. government and those
of China and Japan.
In
understanding Asian American history it is essential not to view
individuals simply as victims, but as active agents who have left
a lasting imprint on American life. The architect I.M. Pei, the
author Maxine Hong Kingston, the cellist Yo Yo Ma, the director
M. Night Shyamalen, the physicist Amar Bose, and the sculptor
Isamu Noguchi are just a few of the Asian Americans who shaped
this country’s history and culture.
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