Asian American Studies: Reference Books

This book presents key events in the Asian American experience through 25 well-developed, accessible essays; detailed timelines; biographies of notable figures; excerpts of primary source documents; and sidebars and images that provide narrative and visual information on high-interest topics. Arranged chronologically, the 25 essays showcase the ways in which Asian Americans have contributed to U.S. history and culture and bear witness to their struggles, activism, and accomplishments.

Organized topically by group, with an in-depth overview essay on each group, the encyclopedia examines the myriad ethnic groups and histories that make up the Asian American population in the United States. "Asian American History and Culture" covers the political, social, and cultural history of immigrants from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Pacific Islands, and their descendants, as well as the social and cultural issues faced by Asian American communities, families, and individuals in contemporary society.

A resource ideal for students as well as general readers, this two-volume encyclopedia examines the diversity of the Asian American and Pacific Islander spiritual experience.

Painters, photographers, sculptors, and installation artists are among the seventy-five artists represented in this guide to Asian American artists. Within each entry, Kara Hallmark describes the artists' early life, education and training, and impact on the art world both in their country of heritage as well as the U.S. While some artists dismiss any notion of their heritage influencing their work, others describe how assimilation and immigration affected themselves and their families, particularly those affected by World War II and the Japanese internment camps. Interviews with living artists, as well as extensive images, enhance entries that celebrate the contributions of Asian American Artists to American art.

"Encyclopedia of Asian-American Literature" traces American writers whose roots are in all parts of Asia, including China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and more. Coverage emphasizes works that are important in the high school and college literary canon, as well as the historically significant and the contemporary.

One hundred essays on varied historical periods, geographical locales, and artistic modes offer an extensive examination of racial representation and activism, interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to literary work, ethnic communities, space and place, transnational and transpacific flows, and genres such as speculative fiction, the detective novel, and melodrama.

In these volume, a cross-disciplinary team of specialists explains the health issues and diseases most common to Asian Americans, how and why disparities in both disease development and treatment exist for them, and what changes must be made to improve the health of this growing group.

The Routledge Companion to Asian American and Pacific Islander Literature offers a general introduction as well as a range of critical approaches to this important and expanding field.