Asian American 
Bibliographic References

By Regina Garson

This bibliographic resource will provide a good starting point for research into Asian American studies, for academics, professionals, and those seeking culturally enlightening reading. The list is a cross section of classics and standards in Asian American scholarship, literature and popular writing. Works by some of today's top Asian American writers are included. They are being read, discussed, and debated. Their voices are being heard.

Fiction Selections
Non-Fiction
Biography And Personal Experience


Fiction Selections:

Buck, Pearl S. THE GOOD EARTH. New York, J. Day Company, 1931. The Pulitzer Prize winner about Chinese peasant life.

Brainerd, Cecilia Manguerra, Editor. FICTION BY FILIPINOS IN AMERICA, Cellar Book Shop, 1993.

Chin, Frank., Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn Hsu Wong. AIIIEEEEE! AN ANTHOLOGY OF ASIAN-AMERICAN WRITERS, Washington: Howard University Press, 1974. This collection depicts the distinct Asian American way of life.

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. ARRANGED MARRIAGES: STORIES, Anchor Books, 1996. A collection of short stories about the lives of Indian women who have moved with their husbands to the US.

Hagedorn, Jessica, Editor. CHARLIE CHAN IS DEAD: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN FICTION. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. One of the most popular anthologies of Asian American fiction.

Hong, Maria, Editor. GROWING UP ASIAN AMERICAN. New York: Morrow, 1993. On growing up in a culture that is not your own.

Ichioka, Yuji, Editor. VIEWS FROM WITHIN: The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, University of California, LA., 1989.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. A PALE VIEW OF HILLS, Vintage Books , 1990. The story of a Japanese woman reminiscing on Nagasaki.

Kim, Elaine. ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WRITINGS AND THEIR HISTORICAL CONTEXT, Philadelphia PA: Temple University Press, 1982.

Kingston, Maxine Hong. THE WOMAN WARRIOR: MEMOIRS OF A GIRLHOOD AMONG GHOSTS. Random House , 1986. About growing up as a Chinese American.

Lee, Chang-Rae. NATIVE SPEAKER, Riverhead Books, 1996. Korean immigrant life and issues from a man's point of view.

Lim, Shirley, Mayumi Tsutakawa, and Margarita Donnelly, Editors. THE FORBIDDEN STITCH: AN ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN'S ANTHOLOGY. Calyx Books, 1989.

Ling, Amy. BETWEEN WORLDS: WOMEN WRITERS OF CHINESE ANCESTRY. Elsevier Science Ltd, 1990.

Okada, John. NO-NO BOY, University of Washington Press, 1980. The story of a Japanese man who resisted the draft while imprisoned in a US concentration camp.

Peck, David R., Editor. AMERICAN ETHNIC LITERATURES: NATIVE AMERICAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN, CHICANO/LATINO, AND ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS AND THEIR BACKGROUNDS: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, Pasadena, California, Salem Press, 1992.

Sumida, Stephen. AND THE VIEW FROM THE SHORE, LITERARY TRADITIONS OF HAWAII. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991.

Tachiki, Amy, Eddie Wong, Franklin Odo, and Buck Wong. ROOTS: AN ASIAN AMERICAN READER, University of California LA, 1971. A current best seller tracing the birth of Asian American political consciousness.

Tan, Amy. THE JOY LUCK CLUB. Putnam Pub Group, 1989. For and about Asian American women, and their daughters. This best selling book, and hit movie sparks continuous controversy and debate.

Women of South Asian Descent Collective, Editors. OUR FEET WALK THE SKY: WOMEN OF THE SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1993. This anthology on the Indian American experience confronts religious and cultural issues faced in combining the Indian and American way of life.

Wong, Diane Yen-Mei and Emilya Cachapero, Editors. MAKING WAVES. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989. An anthology by and about Asian American women.

Wong, Sau-ling C. READING ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: FROM NECESSITY TO INDULGENCE, Princeton, 1993. For enlightenment on Asian American literature.

Wong, Shawn. AMERICAN KNEES. Scribner, 1996. By one of the best know contemporary Asian American writers, this love story explores what it is to be Asian in a white dominated society.

Wong, Shawn, Editor. ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE, Watson-Guptill, 1995. An anthology, a Harper Collins Literary Mosaic.

Yep, Laurence, Editor. AMERICAN DRAGONS: TWENTY-FIVE ASIAN AMERICAN VOICES, HarperTrophy, 1995. A collection of poems, stories and plays by a diverse group of Asian Americans.


 

Non-Fiction:

 Chan, Sucheng, Editor. ENTRY DENIED: EXCLUSION AND THE CHINESE COMMUNITY IN AMERICA 1882-1943, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991. On the Exclusionary Era in US history includes; essays and bibliographic references by Asian-American professors.

 Chan, Sucheng, Editor. THE FIRST SUBURBAN CHINATOWN, Temple University Press. Part of the Asian American History and Culture series.

 Chan, Sucheng, Editor. HMONG MEANS FREE, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. On life, Laos and Asian American history and culture.

 Fong, Timothy P. THE FIRST SUBURBAN CHINATOWN: THE REMAKING OF MONTEREY PARK, CALIFORNIA, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. An examination of the social, political, economic and demographic changes and conflicts which lead to the growth and prosperity of this Chinese American community.

Freeman, James A. HEARTS OF SORROW: VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN LIVES, Stanford California: Stanford University Press, 1989.

Howard, Katsuyo. PASSAGES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN REFUGEE EXPERIENCE. Fresno: California State University, Fresno, 1990.

Ichioka, Yuji. THE ISSEI: THE WORLD OF THE FIRST-GENERATION JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS, 1885-1924. New York: Free Press, 1988.

Irons, Peter. JUSTICE AT WAR: THE STORY OF THE JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT CASES, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. A history and examination of the main cases.

Kim, Hyung-chan, Editor. ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH GUIDE. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.

Light, Ivan & Bonacich, Edna. IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS: KOREANS IN LOS ANGELES 1965-1982, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

McWilliams, Carey. PREJUDICE: JAPANESE AMERICANS: SYMBOL OF RACIAL INTOLERANCE, Boston: Little, Brown, 1944.

Nee, Victor G. & Brett de Bary. LONGTIME CALIFORN': A DOCUMENTARY STUDY OF AN AMERICAN CHINATOWN, 1986. Stanford University Press, 1986. A study of San Francisco's Chinatown.

Okihiro, Gary. CANE FIRES: THE ANTI-JAPANESE MOVEMENT IN HAWAII, 1865-1945. Temple University Press, 1992.

Patterson, Wayne and Hyung-Chan Kim. KOREANS IN AMERICA, Lerner Publications Company, 1992. A history of the immigration of Koreans to America from 1903 to the present.

Santoli, Al. NEW AMERICANS: AN ORAL HISTORY, IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES IN THE U.S. TODAY. New York: Viking, 1988. The stories of nineteen immigrant families to the US.

Saran, Parmatma. THE ASIAN INDIAN EXPERIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES, Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing Co. Inc, 1985.

Saxton, Alexander. THE INDISPENSABLE ENEMY: LABOR AND THE ANTI- CHINESE MOVEMENT IN CALIFORNIA. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.

Takaki, Ronald. IRON CAGES: RACE AND CULTURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA, New York City: Knopf , Random House, 1979.

Takaki, Ronald. STRANGERS FROM A DIFFERENT SHORE: A HISTORY OF ASIAN AMERICANS, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1989. A comprehensive history of the immigration of nineteenth and twentieth century Asians into the United States.

Yuan, Gao. LURE THE TIGER OUT OF THE MOUNTAINS: THE THIRTY-SIX STRATAGEMS OF ANCIENT CHINA, New York: Simon & Schuster. 1991. These classical strategies have been handed down through generations, and are renowned for learning and developing business strategies.


Biography And Personal Experience:

 Bulosan, Carlos. AMERICA IS IN THE HEART, A PERSONAL HISTORY. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1974, 1981.

Houston, Jeanette Wakasuki. FAREWELL TO MANZANAR, Bantam Books, 1979. A true story about life in the Japanese internment camps during WWII, written by a native born American interred at age 7.

Kim, Esther Ahn. IF I PERISH, Moody Press, 1979. A true story about persecution from the Japanese during WWII.

Lee, Mary Paik. QUIET ODYSSEY: A PIONEER KOREAN WOMAN IN AMERICA. Seattle:University of Washington Press, 1990. An autobiography, immigration to the US was forced by Japanese soldiers.

Lord, Bette Bao. EIGHTH MOON: THE TRUE STORY OF A YOUNG GIRL'S LIFE IN COMMUNIST CHINA, as told to Bette Lord by Sansan. London: R. Hale, 1964.

Min, Anchee. RED AZALEA, New York: Pantheon Books, 1994. A memoir of life in communist China.

Pan, Lynn. SONS OF THE YELLOW EMPEROR. Kodansha, 1994. On the history of overseas Chinese and Chinese Americans.

Wong, Jade Snow. FIFTH CHINESE DAUGHTER, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989. A coming of age story of a Chinese American girl.

Wei, Katherine and Quinn, Terry. SECOND DAUGHTER. Boston: Little Brown, 1984. Autobiography

Yang, Hueson. THROUGH THE SPIRIT'S DOOR: A TRUE STORY OF THE HMONG PEOPLE AT WAR, 1975-1980. Arlington, Texas HYCO International, 1993. This autobiography documents the Pathet Lao after the American forces left. 


Back