What does it mean to be an Asian American in the twenty-first century? In mainstream America, cliched stereotypes about Asian people as model minorities, asexual techno-geeks, hypersexual dragon ladies, perpetual foreigners, or Yellow Peril “threats” continue to persist — though they are frequently concealed behind politically correct slogans like colorblindness and diversity. Where Are You From?: An Anthology of Asian American Writing challenges these viewpoints.
The writings and art in this anthology envision Asian American identity, culture, and politics on our own terms, through our own experiences and unique perspectives. Incorporating a diverse range of personal essays, stories, critical articles, poems, art, and other work, this anthology seeks to express the truth of our lived realities and to give voice to an Asian America that is frequently marginalized by society. The very title of our book — Where Are You From? — questions the common prejudice often expressed by the majority culture that Asian Americans are alien or foreign to the USA. In the words of Lawson Inada, we want to tell people where we come from — where we’re really from.
Other contributors include Professor Darrell Y. Hamamoto, Andrew Lam, Lee Tonouchi, Matthew Salesses, Curtis Choy, Polo Catalani, Tony Robles, Dmae Roberts, Valerie Katagiri, Sapna Cheryan, Roberta May Wong, Beth Kaufka, Marivi Soliven Blanco, Robert Francis Flor, Michael Lai, Min K Kang, Byron Wong, Zach Katagiri, Larry Yu, Sonia Sarkar, Simon Tam, Ben Efsanem, Koh Mo Il, Victoria Yee, Diem Tran, Luan Nguyen, Souttalith Vongsamphanhn, Bikash Khada, Mary Niang, Ngoc Minh Tran.