Asian America Rising - by Diane Wong & Mark Tseng-Putterman

Book Synopsis

A collection of movement flashpoints and insurgent visions for Asian American activism

In the late 1960s, Asian American political activism emerged to unite disparate Asian diasporic communities living in the United States behind a radical political identity shaped by the Black Power and anti-imperialist movements of their times. Today, Asian Americans are more diverse, and, at times, more politically divided than ever before. In media and electoral politics, Asian Americans are celebrated as the fastest-growing racial demographic in the United States and claimed as evidence of racial progress. Yet the "rise" of Asian America rarely centers the coordinated forms of grassroots political organizing that Asian Americans have used to shape their place in society.

In Asian America Rising, Diane Wong and Mark Tseng-Putterman bring together an interdisciplinary group of established and emerging scholars of Asian American activism and politics, community organizers, artists, archivists, and others to highlight the diversity of twenty-first century Asian American political movements across a number of critical areas. Based on deep collaborations between scholars and frontline organizers, contributors like Diane Fujino, Vichet Chhuon, Lakshmi Sridaran, and Kim Compoc examine different facets of the Asian American political experience, including the impact of immigrant detention and deportation; the emergence of conservative Chinese American opposition to affirmative action in higher education; abolitionist perspectives on the Stop Asian Hate movement; and transnational resistance to U.S. economic and military dominance in Hawai'i, the Philippines, and Okinawa.

Ultimately, Wong and Tseng-Putterman show important shifts and emergent directions for Asian American politics in the twenty-first century. Focusing on grassroots mobilization and bold interventions beyond the formal political sphere, they shine a light on the diversity and power of Asian American political activism, cultural work, community building, mutual aid, and multiracial issue-based organizing.

Review Quotes

"The breadth and timeliness of the grounded reflections composing Asian America Rising provide vital tools for collective critical study. Evidencing the tensions between liberal, progressive, and radical streams of collective activity within and across Asian American mobilizations, this collection reflects the ongoing internal contradictions and surrounding crises that define efforts to build and sustain old-and-new forms of social movement."-- "Dylan Rodríguez, author of White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logic of Racial Genocide"

"The stellar works in this collection update the radical commitments of the past Asian American movement to incorporate new frameworks for justice and address contemporary issues. Read this book to be inspired about the present and future of Asian American activism!"-- "Daryl Joji Maeda, author of Chains of Babylon: The Rise of Asian America"

About the Author

Diane Wong (Editor)
Diane Wong is Assistant Professor of Political Science, with affiliations in American Studies,
Global Urban Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies, at Rutgers University, Newark.

Mark Tseng-Putterman (Editor)
Mark Tseng-Putterman is a 2024-2025 Panda Express Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his PhD in American Studies from Brown University. His work has appeared in Huffington Post, Truth-Out, The Root, and the Asian American Writers' Workshop.