Editor’s Preface

In the spring of 2003, when I began serving as editor of JAAS, I didn’t envision publishing twenty issues, more than 70 articles, and nearly 1,800 pages of text (and, that’s not counting review essays, reviews, awards, etc.). Had I fully appreciated the daunting task that lay in front of me, I may well have declined the opportunity. With issue 12.1 marking the completion of that journey, however, I look back with gratitude on my relative naiveté and the experiences resulting from it. Editing our field’s flagship journal has proved a most rewarding endeavor, and I must devote the majority of this space to thanking those most responsible for its success.

Past Association for Asian American Studies presidents Dana Takagi and Franklin Ng deserve words of special appreciation, the former for taking the sizable risk of entrusting JAAS to my care in the first place and the latter for appointing me to a second term. Min Hyoung Song and his predecessor as reviews editor, Kandice Chuh, in addition to fulfilling their responsibilities with efficiency and insight, offered generously of their advice and friendship. Bill Breichner, Journals Publisher for Johns Hopkins University Press, remained a steadfast advocate through some difficult times, and the journal as well as AAAS continues to benefit greatly from his material and relational support. To all of my colleagues who are engaged in the editorial enterprise, may you enjoy an approximation of the professionalism, flexibility, and good humor that have characterized all of my interactions with Mary Muhler, Journals Production Coordinator, and with Lynn Logan, who held this position before her. The many, many reviewers who have leant their expertise to the evaluation of manuscript submissions—and especially those who also have contributed their energies as members of the editorial board—have amassed a substantial “credit balance” on my account. Although the full measure of that debt may well exhaust the length of my career, I hope to offer them partial repayment over the coming years. And finally, the authors of those 70 or so articles have enriched my professional and personal life immensely, and I thank them for imbuing JAAS with the quality of their scholarship.

The scholars whose articles appear in JAAS 12.1 are more than worthy of membership in this group. Together, they represent the incredible layers of diversity that make Asian American Studies such a thrilling enterprise while exploring some particularly intriguing questions. I trust that you will find their work stimulating. I also join you in eagerly awaiting the publication of issue 12.2, the first to be assembled under the direction of incoming editor Huping Ling and her associate, Philip Yang, who oversaw compilation of the reviews that appear in this present edition. With such accomplished and fine people taking the helm, clearly the journal’s brightest days lie ahead. For whatever problems my own shortcomings might have left them to address, I extend my heartfelt apologies.