Customer Reviews

The Sum of Our Parts: Mixed-Heritage Asian Americans (Asian American History and Culture)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been searching for a book like this. I bought some other personal testimonials, but this one combines personal stories and accounts and interviews with deeper analysis. I myself am mixed Asian-Spanish-Portugues-African born in Brazil, moved to Mexico at a young age and then, my family immigrated to the U.S. fiften yeers ago so this topic is close to my heart. I especially liked how the book deals with class issues, gender issues, and other issues that a lot of mixed-race and biracial research doesn't deal with. Especially worthy of mentioning is breaking the perspective that mixed-race issues and race matters in general are about black versus white conflicts. The last section of the book looks at mixed Asian communities in other parts of the world not just the Amerasians in the Philippines or Korea or Japan,but in SOuth America (Suriname), Europe (England), etc. Mr. Omi's Foreward adds a special sociological and cultural studies touch to the work. For these reasons, I think this book will be regarded as an important contribution.

This book isn't for the simple minded or someone who just wants an easy answer -- skip this one and read People or something. But if you're really interested in hapa issues (and I'm hapa so yes) it's a great, articulate, intelligent group of essays covering many different aspeacts of hapahood. Some of the writing takes some mental acuity to comprehend but I found it really worth the effort.

Hey, about time a critical examination of mixed heritage Asian Americans was published. It seems that many of the authors themselves are mixed or have a personal (as well as a professional) relationship to this topic. I like the combination of dispassionate academic inquiry AND a kind of personal insights into the world of mixed Asians. I especially enjoyed 1) Yen Espiritu's little blurb about her mixed family situation (though people don't identify her that way) 2) Cynthia L. Nakashima's piece on how a person's name is used to racialize and ethnically identify a person, 3) Teresa Williams-Leon's chapter that looks at race and sexual preference (I never thought of those issues before how race and sexuality are parallel, until I read this piece), 4) The Tiger Woods phenomenon by Jan Weisman and 5) Cathy Tashiro's work on organizing health knowledge for mixed people (interesting, for Tashiro, when she is identified as an Asian, her bone density for osteoporosis falls within the normal limits, but for a Caucasian person, her bone density could be recorded as abnormal. . . the biological analysis for a sociological dilemma called race & mixed-race. What's up with that?). All the chapters are pretty interesting, tackling all kinds of cross-experiences w/ mixed-ness among Asians. Finally, academic work that isn't just intellectual B.S. but is also accessible to average (mixed) Joes like myself. Great stuff on mixed Asians in different parts of the world too. I'd be willing to bet that THE SUM is going to become a collector's item. As a companion to this book, I'd suggest David Parker's & Miri Song's anthology too. Keep these books on mixed-race coming!

Being biracial Filipina/Mexican/Japanese/German, I try to follow up on all of the writings on
mixed-race/multiracial/biracial/multiethnic/multiracial identity that seem to be exploding all around us, as we've crossed over into the 21st Century. As someone who is part-Asian or HAPA (as I like to refer to myself), I was excited when I saw THE SUM OF OUR PARTS. I have been following the two Maria Root texts, the anthologies by Naomi Zack, Hara & Keller, and of course, the wonderful ethnographic interviews in WHAT ARE YOU? by Pearl Gaskins (Hey! There's some good stuff out there from poetry, prose, journalism, to social science works. . . but THE SUM OF OUR PARTS takes the discourse on mixed identity to THAT NEXT LEVEL we've all been waiting for: addressing issues of class, gender, sexual orientation, national identities, generations, international/diasporic perspectives, etc. WOOOOOOOOOO!
Talk about long-anticipated! Yes, you'll see the "usual suspects" (e.g. Spickard, Hall, Thornton, Nakashima, Williams, Valverde, etc.), but along with other authors, these chapters give us fresh perspectives and new insight into this ever growing topic of interest. . . from Tabitha in Bewitched to Voldemort in Harry Potter to Mr. Spock in Star Trek to Tiger Woods to Paul Kariya to Ann Curry to Keanu Reeves, HAPAs are here to reclaim their place in the American imagination. This compilation disrupts conventional thinking and illuminates!

Being biracial Filipina/Mexican/Japanese/German, I try to follow up on all of the writings on
mixed-race/multiracial/biracial/multiethnic/multiracial identity that seem to be exploding all around us, as we've crossed over into the 21st Century. As someone who is part-Asian or HAPA (as I like to refer to myself), I was excited when I saw THE SUM OF OUR PARTS. I have been following the two Maria Root texts, the anthologies by Naomi Zack, Hara & Keller, and of course, the wonderful ethnographic interviews in WHAT ARE YOU? by Pearl Gaskins (Hey! There's some good stuff out there from poetry, prose, journalism, to social science works. . . but THE SUM OF OUR PARTS takes the discourse on mixed identity to THAT NEXT LEVEL we've all been waiting for: addressing issues of class, gender, sexual orientation, national identities, generations, international/diasporic perspectives, etc. WOOOOOOOOOO!
Talk about long-anticipated! Yes, you'll see the "usual suspects" (e.g. Spickard, Hall, Thornton, Nakashima, Williams, Valverde, etc.), but along with other authors, these chapters give us fresh perspectives and new insight into this ever growing topic of interest. . . from Tabitha in Bewitched to Voldemort in Harry Potter to Mr. Spock in Star Trek to Tiger Woods to Paul Kariya to Ann Curry to Keanu Reeves, HAPAs are here to reclaim their place in the American imagination. This compilation disrupts conventional thinking and illuminates!

I commend this book for a lot of reasons. First, there are already enough anthologies of personal essays from mixed people. This anthology both shows and proves that mixed people can be subject to rigorous academic study. Second, most books on mixed people, focus on black-white. This book focuses on part-Asian, and not just Asian-white and not just biracial in the USA. Still, I have to agree with other reviewers that this book is a little dry. So many of the articles are just academics commenting on OTHER people's studies. The chapters read quickly, but while some are rich, others have little to say. For instance, the chapter comparing white-Asians to black-Asians said less about black-Asians than many of the other articles in the book. Further, this book is broken into four sections and the best section is the one where people speak more personally and avoid sociological studies. The best essay is about lesbigay mixed Asians. I applaud the editor for her piece. I'm glad this book was made, but lots of it left me unimpressed. As a whole, this was decent enough, just some things were problematic.

I'm reading this book for a class. It's pretty interesting. It goes into detail about how race is a big part of how people who are mixed identify. This is something my friends and I talk about a lot. I like the subject matter and am glad that a book on this is here. I think the book should also include a discussion on interracial dating and marriage. Without interracial dating and then marriage, there would be no discussion on mixed heritage people. I would like to see more written on Asian males dating and marrying non-Asian women and why Asian women are dating and marrying non-Asian men. What are the patterns? What are the reasons for these patterns? How does having an Asian father versus having an Asian mother influence how mixed heritage people identify. The book touches this subject a little bit (like in the Valverde chapter and the Root chapter), but overall, the book assumes that there is a category of people called "Mixed Heritage." I think this assumption is still premature because we haven't even dealt with interracial dating & marriage issues of Asian Ameirans adequately. Once we do, then, I think we can proceed into looking at mixed heritage issues. I still think this book is a good one. I would suggest this book to people who are dating interracially aor married interracially. If you want children, this book gives information on what it will be like for those children as they go through their various life stages. The good thing about this book is that it doesn't perpetuate the idea of mixed heritage people as mixed up. That's very positive. And most importantly, this book tells us that Asian Americans are no exempt from issues of race, power, and inequality. Interracial marriage does not mean the absence of racial inequality. This book comes close to hitting the mark.

Buying text books for college can be expensive! I bought most of my books (used) through Amazon and it was a great value. All of the books were in exatly the condition described, so I will have no problem re-selling them after the school year is over.

Academics are presumptuous. This is not for the everyday reader. Too bad. The topic is interesting (being mixed heritage Asian Americans). The book is boring --too academic. This is not for the average reader who wants to read something for fun. I would prefer What Are You? by Pearl Gaskins and the book, Half and Half (by biracial and bicultural writers) before I'd recommend this academic mumbo-jumbo. The book's title is misleading. It should be titled, "Academics Gotta Make a Project Out of Everyting, including hapas" The writings are presumptuous.