Editor's Preface

Asian American studies is a dynamic and vibrant field of study. Within four decades following its creation, Asian American studies has established itself as a well-developed academic discipline. It embraces degree-granting graduate and undergraduate programs and course offerings on university and college campuses across the United States, and has a national organization with annual meetings, regional suborganizations, and an offcial journal-the Journal of Asian American Studies. Asian Americanists have pioneered and engaged in research and writing on burning issues pertaining to the field, mirroring the field's rapid growth and development.

The Major Development and Principal Issues of Asian American Studies

In the first two decades following its birth, Asian American studies was preoccupied with the tasks of justifying its very existance and of institutionalizing its academic programs. Scholarly discourses of this period focused on the nature and scope of Asian American studies and its core theories. Interdisciplinary and multidisplinary in nature, Asian American studies focused on history, identity, and community in both curricular development and research. Scholars applied verious theoretical approaches-Marxism, racial formations, colonialism, imperialism, postcolonialism, postmodernism, among others-in their investigations of assimilation and adaptation, identity and consciousness. Meanwhile, being keenly aware of its existance as the product of a social movement, Asian American studies consciously linked itself with the community and activism. It served as a training center for future community leaders, and connected academics and students with grassroots community organizations.

In recent decades, facing increasingly intensified globalization and a more diverse Asian American and Pacific Island population consisting of U.S.-born Asian Americans, refugees from Southeast Asia, and new immigrants from the Asian Pacific Rim and other places of the world, scholars have made concerted efforts to develop alternative paradigms. Some scholars reconceptualize Asian American experience in terms of heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity (Lisa Lowe). Others propose a dual-domination model for understanding Asian Americans through examining diplomatic relations between the United States and Asian countries and the extraterritorial interaction between Asian American communities and their respective homelands (Ling-Chi Wang). Still others use the term "denationalization" to address the transnational experiences between Asia and Asian America (Sau-Ling C. Wong) or apply a "hemispheric" approach to compare Asian American experiences in various localities of the Americas (Erika Lee and Lok Siu).

Investigating unique traits of the recent Asian American communities, some scholars emphasize the "quasi-kin" characteristic in explaining why contemporary Japanese Americans are able to retain high levels of involvement in their ethnic community while a vast majority of them have become structurally assimilated into mainstream American life (Stephen S. Fujita and David J. O'Brien). Meanwhile, other writers note the "fluidity" of recent Asian American communities (Linda Vo and Rick Bonus), conceptualize comtemporary Asian American communities in hinterland and suburban areas as a "cultural community" (Huping Ling), or caution about the danger of the "victimization and alienation" models for the representation of a refugee- or immigrant-based community (Shilpa Davé, Leilani Nishime, Tasha G. Oren, and Robert G. Lee).

The Emerging Themes and Concerns of Asian American Studies in the Next Five Years

The emerging themes and concerns of Asian American studies in the next five years will continue to reflect its original mission in promoting understanding and closer ties between and among various subgroups within Asian American studies, in advocating and representing the interests and welfare of Asian Americans, and in educating American society about the history and aspirations of Asian Americans. In particular, there are several concerns that merit attention.

First, a number of emerging constituencies within Asian America deserve more investigation. Although the Southeast Asian conflict ended more than three decades ago, Southeast Asian Americans still remain understudied, despite their rapid population growth. The field needs more studies of Vietnamese ( the fifth largest group of Asian Americans in the United States according to the 2000 census), Cambodians (seventh), Laotian (ninth), Hmong (tenth), and Thai (eleventh). Similarly, other new populations emerging within Asian America should not be ignored. Meanwhile, scholars should continue their studies of the longtime Asian Anmeicans-the Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, and Asian Indians-especially the newer subgroups among the older Asian...