Book Review of Takaki, Ronald. a History of Asian American: Strangers from a Different Shore.

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Book review Takaki, Ronald. A history of Asian American: strangers from a different shore. New York: First Back Bay People back edition, Updated and revised .1998 “A white Women from new jersey …. Once raved to to William Wong of the Oakland tribune about a wonderful new Vietnamese restaurant in her town:” we were there the other night and we were the only Americans there” Wong noted with regret: “She probably meant the only white people”” (6) Too often history has not been kind in its portrayal of Asian American, leaving them out of the books or skipping all the details of their history. People carry this stereotypical image of Americans being necessarily blond and white. The belief that Americans do not include people with Asian background is usually expressed causally and innocently. This reflects the widely shared assumption in American culture, one that shows the narrow view of American history. However this book fills in those skipped and ignored role an Asian American played in the formation of America in 80s and 90s, how they created a world for themselves in an alienated place and their coming generation, .us and that is the very reason why I really like this book. Ronald Takaki puts in many short story told by Asian who lived in that period and also poems and sayings of them too. Along the immigration of male laborers to the main lands of America and Hawaii, many women also migrated but in a smaller proportion. The Chinese women who migrated to Hawaii were mostly wives of the labors as the immigration was carefully regulated by government. However Chinese women in California was largely composed of prostitute, mostly sold or kidnapped. Unlike the Chinese, Japanese women were more receptive to the idea of emigration than the Chinese. This is the result of the just equality between men and women granted by Meiji government. One of the most

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