Studying Asian America
Social scientists utilize two general types of methods in studying a population: quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative methods refer to data-collection procedures that capture respondents’ opinions and both demographic and socioeconomic conditions through numerical measurements. Surveys are the most common type of instrument within quantitative methods. The most popular national survey is the US Census (including its American Community Survey). This method captures a wide range of information on numerous people. The questions are descriptive in nature. For instance, if one was interested in what enabled poor refugees to become middle class once in the United States, one could survey hundreds of refugees, both poor and middle class. Included in the survey could be questions on respondents’ education level, English abilities, career background, number of siblings, and other variables that might influence mobility. From there, researchers using statistical procedures could determine which variable, such as English-language ability, most impacted mobility.
Yet still unresolved from this survey would be why or how these variables influenced mobility. Surveys and quantitative methods generally cannot probe into respondents’ reasons for their actions to learn why individuals act as they do. What is it about one’s career background, for instance, that leads to different mobility patterns? Qualitative methods are best suited for these latter kinds of questions.
Qualitative methods refer to a mode of investigation meant to assess people’s reasoning and motivations for action, that is, how they feel and think about their lives. Common techniques include in-depth interviews and observations of human behavior (i.e. ethnography). Qualitative methods can answer “why” and “how” people behave, whereas quantitative methods address “what” people do, “how much” they do it, and “with what consequence.”
Like quantitative methods, the qualitative approach also has its drawbacks. Interviewing or observing others in depth is very time consuming. For instance, some ethnographers spend years in “the field,” that is, within a single community learning about its members’ way of life. Such an approach prevents learning about a large number of people, as surveys allow. Instead, qualitative methods enable a “case study.” Case studies refer to the study of a single group or individual who is thought to be representative of a broader phenomenon or population. For instance, for the study of mobility among refugees, one could find a group of middle-class refugees and poor refugees of the same ethnicity and living in the same city. Interviews and observations with fifty individuals from each class group would provide detailed information, such as about how they perceive the job market, how their lives abroad influence their job aspirations, and the like. Even as this method targets a small number of refugees, it would offer insight into how socioeconomic class affects the refugee experience and vice versa. Such a study, combined with the quantitative approach, would create a robust set of findings. Given the pros and cons to quantitative and qualitative methods, the best research strategy incorporates both types.
The theoretical perspectives frequently – not always – map onto particular methodologies. The various assimilation/incorporation paradigms often use quantitative methods. Because the theories concern how much a group is like or unlike the majority or other minorities, statistical evidence is most useful. In order to ascertain how individuals understand their background and what meaning race and other social categories have for people, it is best to utilize qualitative methods. This is most typical of the racialized minority approach. Having said that, scholarship increasingly uses a heterogeneity of methods and perspectives.
How to read this book
The goal of this book is to demonstrate how Asian Americans inform broader topics that impact them, other Americans, and diasporic communities generally. It brings together the various theoretical perspectives when possible. In the process, the book advances the conversation on the direction of studying Asian Americans rather than just summarizes it. Throughout the book, we are especially concerned with the ways Asian Americans negotiate with institutions, given the kinds of inequalities they experience and the sorts of identities they possess.
This book is organized into three parts. Part I, “Framing Asian America,” of which this Introduction is part, is the “framing” section of the book, meant to sketch out the key analytic framework and historical context through which to then approach subsequent chapters. In chapter 2, “Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality,” we explain how Asian Americans experience race in particular, along with gender and sexuality, which future chapters then elaborate upon. The chapter first defines key terms and reviews the dominant Asian-American stereotypes: the “model minority” and “yellow peril” (including the post-9/11 “terrorist”); the geisha and dragon lady; and the effeminate gay and nonexistent lesbian. Beyond reviewing the stereotypes, the chapter explains how race, gender, and sexuality operate within the larger constructs of the nation, patriarchy, capitalism, and imperialism. Substantive issues that demonstrate these hierarchies include hate crimes (most notably the murder of Vincent Chin), the exotification of gay Asian men, the treatment of other minorities relative to Asian Americans, and more.
In chapter 3, “Arrival and History,” we review major historical episodes and explain the arrivals and major changes of each ethnic group, including gender differences between them. In particular, why did Asians come to the United States in the 1800s and later construct bachelor societies? How were Asian Americans treated legally and how did they contest that, including Japanese-American internment? How did Asian Americans move discursively from a despised to an admired minority post World War II? Why did the United States invade the Philippines and with what impact on Filipinx emigration? What were the social protests of the late 1960s? Why did Asians arrive after 1965 and as refugees tied to US imperialism? And what occurred during the 1992 Los Angeles riots involving Korean Americans? In explaining this progression of topics, the chapter argues that Asian Americans have been brought in as labor, as seen within immigration laws, and often constructed as threats. This is not to say that Asian Americans have not benefited from the process. But this colonial dynamic disrupts the immigrant narrative of the United States having fairly incorporated immigrants.
Part II, “Identities and Exclusion,” focuses on the ways Asian Americans understand their own identities and they negotiate the ways their identities are constructed in American society. “Media and Popular Culture,” in chapter 4, are tools for promoting identities and discourses on minority groups and for contesting those same things. This chapter explains both ends of this issue. The media, for this purpose, consist of film, television, print (i.e. magazines and newspapers), theater, and internet. They are a key institution for the production, dissemination, and consumption of popular culture such as music, sports, or fashion. The chapter starts with a sociological discussion of the media as a social institution to appreciate how they function. It then examines key questions within this topic: how have Asian Americans been depicted in the media over time? What have their reactions been to those depictions (e.g. protests or appreciation)? What do Asian-American performers think of their performances? What images are presented within Asian Americans’ own artistic creations? These questions inform the relationship of minorities to the media more broadly. The chapter argues that fuller images of Asian Americans today are due to the increased presence of Asian Americans