Synopses & Reviews
During the Cold War, Soviet propaganda highlighted U.S. racism in order to undermine the credibility of U.S. democracy. In response, incorporating racial and ethnic minorities in order to affirm that America worked to ensure the rights of all and was superior to communist countries became a national imperative. In Citizens of Asian America, Cindy I-Fen Cheng explores how Asian Americans figured in this effort to shape the credibility of American democracy, even while the perceived “foreignness” of Asian Americans cast them as likely alien subversives whose activities needed monitoring following the communist revolution in China and the outbreak of the Korean War. While histories of U.S. race relations during the Cold War have largely overlooked the significance of Asian Americans, Cheng challenges the black-white focus of the existing historiography. She highlights how Asian Americans made use of the governments desire to be leader of the “free world” by advocating for civil rights reforms, such as housing integration, increased professional opportunities, and freedom from political persecution. Further, Cheng examines the liberalization of immigration policies, which worked to improve the nations ties with Asian countries, providing an opportunity for the U.S. government to broadcast, on a global scale, the freedom and opportunity that American society could offer.
Review
“A marvelous and greatly-needed book, Chengs chronicle of Asian American battles against restrictive covenants, housing discrimination, and politically-inspired deportations as well as her accounts of battles for professional positions and honors, immigration reform, and civil rights adds important new ideas, evidence, and arguments to the social history of the U.S. by revealing the crucial role played by Asian American racial formation in shaping the broader racial imagination of the nation.”-George Lipsitz,author of How Racism Takes Place
Review
"Citizens of Asian America offers a significant contribution to the scholarship on Cold War racial politics by highlighting the significance of political discourse about and by Asians, particularly those of Chinese and Korean ancestry in the U.S. from World War II to 1965. Cheng deftly analyzes how various political actors provided competing cultural narratives about race, nation, and identity. Her interpretation of government reports, sociological studies, court cases, and other sources related to housing integration, alien sedition, and immigration rights, will be of interest to scholars of the Cold War, U.S. race relations, U.S.-Asia relations, and immigration.”-Judy Tzu-Chun Wu,Associate Professor of History and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ohio State University
Review
"Cheng (history and Asian American studies, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) illuminates matters of race during the Cold War that scholars often have overlooked as they focused on the plight of African American efforts to achieve civil rights during the era."-Choice,
Synopsis
Winner, 2013-2014 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, Adult Non-Fiction presented by the Asian Pacific American Librarian Association During the Cold War, Soviet propaganda highlighted U.S. racism in order to undermine the credibility of U.S. democracy. In response, incorporating racial and ethnic minorities in order to affirm that America worked to ensure the rights of all and was superior to communist countries became a national imperative. InCitizens of Asian America, Cindy I-Fen Cheng explores how Asian Americans figured in this effort to shape the credibility of American democracy, even while the perceived foreignness of Asian Americans cast them as likely alien subversives whose activities needed monitoring following the communist revolution in China and the outbreak of the Korean War. While histories of international politics and U.S. race relations during the Cold War have largely overlooked the significance of Asian Americans, Cheng challenges the black-white focus of the existing historiography. She highlights how Asian Americans made use of the government s desire to be leader of the free world by advocating for civil rights reforms, such as housing integration, increased professional opportunities, and freedom from political persecution.Further, Cheng examines the liberalization of immigration policies, which worked not only to increase the civil rights of Asian Americans but also to improve the nation s ties with Asian countries, providing an opportunity for the U.S. government to broadcast, on a global scale, the freedom and opportunity that American society could offer. "
About the Author
Cindy I-Fen Cheng is Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.