Contributions by Hena Ahmad, Linda Pierce Allen, Mary J. Henderson
Couzelis, Sarah Park Dahlen, Lan Dong, Tomo Hattori, Jennifer Ho, Ymitri
Mathison, Leah Milne, Joy Takako Taylor, and Traise Yamamoto
Often referred to as the model minority, Asian American children and
adolescents feel pressured to perform academically and be disinterested
in sports, with the exception of martial arts. Boys are often
stereotyped as physically unattractive nerds and girls as petite and
beautiful. Many Americans remain unaware of the diversity of ethnicities
and races the term Asian American comprises, with Asian American
adolescents proving to be more invisible than adults. As a result, Asian
American adolescents are continually searching for their identity and
own place in American society. For these kids, being or considered to be
American becomes a challenge in itself as they assert their Asian and
American identities; claim their own ethnic identity, be they immigrant
or American-born; and negotiate their ethnic communities.
The contributors to Growing Up Asian American in Young Adult Fiction
focus on moving beyond stereotypes to examine how Asian American
children and adolescents define their unique identities. Chapters focus
on primary texts from many ethnicities, such as Chinese, Korean,
Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, South Asian, and Hawaiian. Individual
chapters, crossing cultural, linguistic, and racial boundaries,
negotiate the complex terrain of Asian American children's and
teenagers' identities. Chapters cover such topics as internalized racism
and self-loathing; hypersexualization of Asian American females in
graphic novels; interracial friendships; transnational adoptions and
birth searches; food as a means of assimilation and resistance;
commodity racism and the tourist gaze; the hostile and alienating
environment generated by the War on Terror; and many other topics.
