A summary report, background paper, and transcript.

This volume is the first to take a broad-ranging look at the engagement of Asian Americans with American politics. Its contributors come from a variety of disciplines—history, political science, sociology, and urban studies—and from the practical political realm.

Following 1996's 'Asian Donorgate' campaign finance controversy, Chinese Americans, and by proxy all Asian Americans, were depicted in U.S. public discourse as foreigners subversively attempting to buy influence with U.S. politicians. Racial Politics in an Era of Transnational Citizenship asks, Will the perception of the Asian American as the 'perpetual foreigner' continue to reproduce itself uncritically, heightening during times of media-supported nationalism? Scholar Michael Chang's incisive work contributes greatly to current debates on civil rights and on the meaning of 'citizenship' and 'belonging' among a transnational community and in a globalized world.

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.

A leading voice in the Asian American community tackles what it means to be Asian American in contemporary America. This explosive book examines the current state of civil rights in the U.S. through the unique experiences of Asian Americans and how they view the democratic process.