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.
