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      • Afghanistan

      • American Samoa

      • Armenia
      • Australia
      • Azerbaijan
      • Bahrain
      • Bangladesh

      • Bhutan

      • Brunei

      • Cambodia

      • Central Asia
      • China
      • Cook Islands

      • Cyprus
      • East Asia
      • East Timor
      • Fiji

      • French Polynesia

      • Georgia

      • Guam
    • Column Two
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Iran
      • Iraq
      • Israel
      • Japan
      • Jordan
      • Kazakhstan
      • Kiribati
      • Kuwait

      • Kyrgyzstan
      • Laos
      • Lebanon
      • Macau
      • Malaysia
      • Maldives
      • Marshall Islands
      • Micronesia

      • Mongolia

    • Column Three
      • Myanmar

      • Nauru

      • Nepal

      • New Caledonia

      • New Zealand

      • Niue
      • North Korea

      • Northern Marianas
      • Oceania
      • Oman

      • Pakistan

      • Palau
      • Palestine

      • Papua New Guinea
      • Philippines
      • Qatar

      • Samoa
      • Saudi Arabia
      • Singapore

      • Solomon Islands

    • Column Four
      • South Asia
      • Southeast Asia
      • South Korea
      • Sri Lanka
      • Syria
      • Taiwan
      • Tajikistan
      • Thailand
      • Tibet
      • Tokelau
      • Tonga
      • Turkey

      • Turkmenistan

      • Tuvalu
      • United Arab Emirates
      • Uzbekistan
      • Vanuatu
      • Vietnam
      • Wallis and Futuna
      • West Asia
      • Yemen
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Asia In-Depth Podcast: Asian American Ghosts

January 14th, 2021
Naturalization Ceremony Held For 50 New Citizens At Rockefeller Center In NYC

New U.S. citizen Chiung Yi Chiu, originally from Taiwan, holds an American flag and flowers after reciting the Oath of Allegiance during a naturalization ceremony at Rockefeller Center on September 17, 2019 in New York City. 


Drew Angerer/Getty Images

asiasociety · Asian American Ghosts

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For over a century, Americans of Asian descent have occupied an in-between space on the country’s racial spectrum — eluding simple definition in a society conditioned to viewing race in Black and white terms. This ambiguity came into stark relief in 2020. In the early spring, during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asians across the United States reported a disturbing rise in racist harassment and violent attacks. The Black Lives Matter protest movement that triggered a nationwide discussion of race led Asian Americans to reckon with who they are — and why they’re here in America.

Jia Lynn Yang takes this topic head on in “Asian American Ghosts,” an article recently published in Asia Society Magazine, a new publication from Asia Society. She argues that this identity crisis faced by Asian Americans is an unintended consequence of the 1965 Immigration and Nationalization Act, a law that facilitated the arrival of millions of Asians to the United States — an outcome its sponsors did not intend.

Yang, a deputy national editor at The New York Times, is the author of One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965, which was published in May 2020. In this episode of Asia In-Depth, she spoke with Asia Society Museum Director Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, herself a contributor to Asia Society Magazine. 

 

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About the Author

Profile picture for user Matt Schiavenza

Matt Schiavenza is the Assistant Director of Content at Asia Society and Senior Editor of Asia Society Magazine. His work has appeared at The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, The New Republic, The Wire China, and strategy + business among other publications.

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