The Global Silicon Valley Home: Lives and Landscapes Within Taiwanese American Trans-Pacific Culture (Asian America) [Hardcover]

Shenglin Chang (Author)

Book Description

Series: Asian America | Publication Date: November 28, 2005

The economic boom of the 1990s that led to the rapid rise of computer hardware and software companies (on both sides of the Pacific Rim) also led to the rise of a trans-Pacific commuter culture, a culture in which thousands of Taiwanese-born high-tech engineers realized that they could greatly increase their career opportunities by establishing a life-style that allowed them and their families to regularly commute between two homes, one in Silicon Valley and the other in Taiwan.

The Global Silicon Valley Home takes a close look at how participants in the jet-set, wired-to-the-Net, trans-Pacific commuter culture have invented new ways of thinking about how their homes reflect their personal identities.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Chang's nuanced readings of her subjects' self-narratives and physical settings provide a new wealth of detail concerning the material manifestations of mobile lives."—The International History Review

“This is a powerful and poetic work that is both informative and engaging. It combines personal history with solid scholarship to tell the story of the Taiwanese who occupy multiple homes and communities, both real and imagined. Rarely is such a solid scholarly treatment so readable and accessible.” —Mark Francis,University of California, Davis

From the Inside Flap

The economic boom of the 1990s that led to the rapid rise of computer hardware and software companies (on both sides of the Pacific Rim) also led to the rise of a trans-Pacific commuter culture, a culture in which thousands of Taiwanese-born high-tech engineers realized that they could greatly increase their career opportunities by establishing a life-style that allowed them and their families to regularly commute between two homes, one in Silicon Valley and the other in Taiwan.
The Global Silicon Valley Home takes a close look at how participants in the jet-set, wired-to-the-Net, trans-Pacific commuter culture have invented new ways of thinking about how their homes reflect their personal identities.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press; 1 edition (November 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080475215X
• ISBN-13: 978-0804752152
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,033,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Global Life, Global Home, March 27, 2007

By 

Mary J. Dosh - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Global Silicon Valley Home: Lives and Landscapes Within Taiwanese American Trans-Pacific Culture (Asian America) (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed Chang's book, The Global Silicon Valley Home, Lives and Landscapes within Taiwanese American Trans-Pacific Culture. It is an excellent narrative of home identity crisis within the populations of people who are relocating from their native homes to further their high tech occupations and enrich their personal lives. I found it especially advantageous for our generation, for whom this is a totally different transition from the experiences of their ancestors, who left their homes, many of them never to return. As an educational tool, it will enlighten readers on how so many people in our culture have designed their lives and landscapes around their trans-pacific cultural experience. I highly recommend it as a learning tool, and entertaining reading experience, for everyone who has ever had to adjust to relocating from one home to another.