Asian Americans

“ America has made great progress in advancing civil rights since the days when Asian workers were exploited and labored under crushing hardship. A second significant wave of immigration brought doctors, nurses, engineers, musicians, scientists, and other professionals. Now-familiar names like Yo Yo Ma, Midori, Seiji Ozawa, Amy Tan, Michael Chang, and Kristi Yamaguchi today symbolize the rich heritage that Asian and Pacific Americans have added to our culture. ”

“ The entrepreneurship and innovation of Asian/Pacific Americans have strengthened our economy. Asian/Pacific Americans enrich our Nation with their strong values of love of family and community. Many Asian/Pacific Americans are serving the cause of freedom and peace around the world, and our Nation is grateful for their service. These good men and women defend our safety and contribute to the character and greatness of America. ”

“ Too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying, waking up each morning the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are at stake. They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated, and harassed. ”

“ Asian/Pacific Americans bring to our society a rich cultural heritage representing many languages, ethnicities, and religious traditions. Whether in government, business, science, technology, or the arts, Asian/Pacific Americans have added immeasurably to the prosperity and vitality of our society. ”

“ As we approach the 21st century, Asian and Pacific Americans are playing an increasingly important role in the life of our Nation, helping us to maintain our leadership in the global economy. More important, they are inspiring us to embrace the wider world, to recognize and appreciate the blessing of our great diversity, and to become one America. ”

“ From the lion dances in San Francisco to festivals in Atlanta and parades in New York City and Washington, D.C., Americans of Asian descent carry on the vibrant traditions of their forefathers and enrich America's cultural diversity. ”

“ Over time, other immigrants journeyed to America from East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Asian Subcontinent. Today, Asian/Pacific Americans are one of the fastest growing segments of our population, having increased in number from fewer than 1.5 million in 1970 to approximately 10.5 million in 2000. ”

“ Through the years, many of the indelible contributions by Asian and Pacific Americans to our land have come from immigrants. These quiet heroes and heroines have known oppression and poverty in their native lands and have courageously struggled to reach the United States and make a new life for themselves and their children. ”

“ The exclusion of the Chinese from citizenship, and in some States from immigration, is but a small symptom of the general situation. If any considerable number of Burmese or East Indians or Japanese should come, the situation would be the same, and it would be intensified with the increase of the numbers. They would not find the Americans inclined to make an open career for the Oriental talents. ”

“ The cultural and economic penalty for not recognizing East-Asian talent is immense, and unsurprisingly in this century we have witnessed in particular the anglophone world recruiting Chinese students and immigrants in unprecedented numbers. In 2005, 65,000 Chinese and 75,000 Indians studied in the US; 60,000 and 20,000 in Britain (IIE, 2006; People Daily, 2006/04/05) . For comparison, only 6,800 US students came to China, most of them American ethnic Chinese or ‘hai gui’ (海龟, sea turtles) (Chinadaily, 2005/12/20) . ”

“ Much more important has been the introduction of the negro, whose numbers have increased many fold, so that they form now about one-eighth of our whole nation. For a certain length of time the immigration of Asiatic nations seemed likely to become of importance in the development of our country, but the political events of recent years have tended to decrease their immediate importance considerably, although we do not venture to predict that the relation of Asiatics and white Americans may not become a most important problem in the future. ”

“ The United States is a Nation comprised almost entirely of immigrants and their descendents. The interaction of different cultures, each of which has become a vital part of a culture uniquely American, constantly revitalizes our national spirit and heritage.
Among the most significant components of the American cultural blend are the ancient Asian-Pacific cultures. Asians have brought to the United States values and traditions that profoundly enrich American life. ”

“ The most important social reason for the exclusion of these two races is that the differences of race and religion existing between Asiatics and native Americans render assimilation of the Chinese and Japanese extremely difficult, if not impossible. ”

“ If we want to realize Pan-Asianism in this new world, what should be its foundation if not our ancient civilization and culture? Benevolence and virtue must be the foundations of Pan-Asianism. With this as a sound foundation we must then learn science from Europe for our industrial development and the improvement of our armaments, not, however, with a view to oppressing or destroying other countries and peoples as the Europeans have done, but purely for our self-defense. ”

“ Such a condition would be deplorable in itself, but in addition it must be understood that just as we Americans derive our chief impression of the Chinese nation from the Chinese quarters in Boston, New York, Chicago and San Francisco, so the Chinese in their home form their impression of Americans from the American communities in the Orient, in which the daughters of shame are most in evidence. ”

“ In the vast solitudes of Asia, whence the Indian races migrated to this continent, so far as the loneliness of savage deserts and endless plains might exert an influence, we should expect to find the same general character. But the Asians are almost universally pastoral—the Americans never ”

“ But as soon as the Syro-Christians were in the minority and the Christians of European stock in the majority, persecution and intolerance commenced, and the word of the great Oriental Prophet Jesus Christ was sadly mutilated and misunderstood by that superior race, the “Whites.”
But even then you could not rid yourselves of our subtle Asian influence. I know your gifts of energy and your spirit of progress; but we men of Asia have a power of resistance and a capacity for rapid recuperation which you can never fathom. ”

“ At last their confidence in the United States has been justified. We have succeeded in removing the barriers to full participation in American life, and we welcome the newest Asian immigrants to our shores-refugees from Indochina displaced by political, and social upheavals. Their successful integration into American society and their positive and active participation in our national life demonstrates the soundness of America's policy of continued openness to peoples from Asia and the Pacific. ”

“ At the present time the Japanese are trying to stir up anti-foreign feeling and make the Chinese believe the Americans and English are responsible for China not getting Shantung back, and also talking race discrimination for the same purpose. ”

“ Today, as never before, we need a new orientation toward Asian; we must intensity the cultural identity with our ancient kin, and make common cause with them in our drive toward prosperity and peace. For this we shall require the understanding of ourselves and of Asia that exceeds acquaintance; we require the kind of knowledge that can only be gained through unabating scholarship on our histories, cultures, social forces and aspirations, and through more active interaction with our friends and neighbors.
What threatens humanity in another area threatens our society as well. ”

“ Asiatic Immigration.—Utterly distinct from all other immigrants in the nineteenth century are the Chinese. Coming from a civilization already ancient when Europe was barbarian, the Chinaman complacently refuses to assimilate with Americans, and the latter reciprocate by denying him the right of citizenship. His residence is temporary, he comes without his family, and he accumulates what to him is a fortune for his declining years in China. The gold discoveries of California first attracted him, and the largest migration was 40,000 in 1882, the year when Congress prohibited further incoming. ”

“ In foreign affairs, our conduct has been characterized by stronger assertion and greater involvement in the schemes of the Afro-Asian community in general and in Southeast Asia in particular. Our moral and political role has been accepted in Southeast Asia, and we have found identity with the Afro-Asian Nations in aspiration and ideals. ”

“ Her toy dinners and playhouse teas offer her the first experiences in the entertainment of guests. With her dolls, she takes her first lessons in the domestic relations and affections.
No science has ever originated and been carried to any degree of perfection in Asia. There is no reason why this statement should cause the noses of Europeans and Americans to twitch in derision and pride, for there is another fact equally momentous in favor of the Asiatics,—viz., no religion that originated outside of Asia has ever been carried to any degree of perfection. ”

“ I am inclined to believe that there is, on the surface, more natural sympathy and understanding between Americans and Chinamen than between Americans and Japanese. The Chinaman is more easily comprehensible to us. ”

“ When we take into consideration the further fact that the typical white man, the world over, acts as if he were a lord of creation, and treats Asiatics with more or less condescension as if they were his inferiors, we can understand the very natural resentment of the Chinese, who have just as much pride of race as we have, and who indeed consider themselves the most highly civilized people in the world. ”

“ Japan will harp on the color question first, last, and all the time. She will tell the Chinese what she has been telling them ever since Pearl Harbor—that Americans look down on nonwhite peoples and that the Chinese can never hope to be treated on terms of equality by America. "Why fight for the white man?" Japan dins into Chinese ears.
To counteract this propaganda you have to show the Chinese that Americans treat the Chinese as we treat any of our allies, and that we respect them as human beings on an equality with ourselves. ”

“ The only other argument is that, if this is the case, the white man must get out of Asia. There too, it seems to me, is a weak spot. The white man in Asia—as man to man—does not lower the standard of the civilization of the native; nor is he ever likely to migrate in numbers large enough to create a problem. ”