ABSTRACT The Chinese Diaspora in the United States has a long history of involvement in homeland ... more ABSTRACT The Chinese Diaspora in the United States has a long history of involvement in homeland political development and change. Much of the prior research, however, has been historical in focus and qualitative in methodological orientation and does not engage quantitative approaches in systematically analyzing the relationships between divergent origins and political attitudes of the contemporary population. This study uses primary data collected from a national telephone survey of U.S. residents of Chinese descent originated from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in fall 2007 to explore the role of transnational ties in structuring immigrant pinions on homeland government and politics.
... The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities , Berkeley, CA : Universit... more ... The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities , Berkeley, CA : University of California Press View all references; Simon 200547. Simon , Scott 2005 Tanners of Taiwan:Life Strategies and National Culture , Cambridge : Westview View all references). ...
ABSTRACT: Who are (or can count as) Taiwanese Americans? To what extent and in what ways do they ... more ABSTRACT: Who are (or can count as) Taiwanese Americans? To what extent and in what ways do they participate politically in the United States? This study attempts to unpack the concept of Chineseness by examining various formations of identity boundaries of Taiwanese Americans. We empirically assess their “success” in political participation and incorporation by analyzing patterns of political participation of U.S. voting-age adults who were born in or originated from Taiwan, as compared to those who were born in or originated from (Mainland) China and Asia as a whole. We argue that Taiwanese Americans occupy a distinct space in modern Asian American history and a better understanding of the experiences of this often overlooked and misunderstood community can further explicate the complexity of being Chinese in contemporary America. However, we discuss multiple sets of methodological challenges in systematically studying the population through U.S. census survey and several other types of quantitative data. Whereas we find immigrants originated from Taiwan to be generally more active in electoral politics than those from Mainland China, our findings challenge the pluralist assumptions of a linear process of political incorporation and reject an overtly simplistic characterization of Taiwanese Americans as a “model-minority” success story.
This book examines the scope and significance of the rise of Asian (and Pacific Islander) America... more This book examines the scope and significance of the rise of Asian (and Pacific Islander) Americans in US elective office over the past half-century. By scrutinizing the political trajectory of pioneering figures and their significant followers in each of the major Asian ethnic communities, this book provides unprecedentedly broad and detailed coverage of the development of the electoral landscape of the relatively unknown community in American politics. This book aims not only to fill a missing piece of American electoral history but to challenge the “model minority” and “perpetual foreigner” tropes of Asians in American society and politics. To help interpret the complex experiences of these political women and men situated at the intersection of race, gender, and other dimensions of marginalization, this book adopts an intersectionality framework that puts women of color at the center of storytelling and analysis. Our account includes their trajectories to office, their divergent...
This chapter provides an aggregate-level view of the evolution of the electoral landscape that be... more This chapter provides an aggregate-level view of the evolution of the electoral landscape that began in the territory and state of Hawaii. It analyzes the growth and transformation of the population structure of the APA community since 1965 to help contextualize continuities and changes in the contours and makeup of the population of APA elected officials (APAEOs) between 1980 and 2020. The chapter appraises the various gaps in descriptive representation by gender, ethnicity, and nativity among APAEOs across levels of offices nationwide and between Hawaii and California, the top two states in the number of APAs elected to offices. Then, focusing on Asian city council members in California and using data collected over eight time points, the chapter appraises sustainability issues in their political incorporation and the relationship between demography and representation over time. It also examines the significance of local officeholding in political ascension and assesses the facili...
The Gender and Multicultural Leadership Project (GMCL) is a national study of America's polit... more The Gender and Multicultural Leadership Project (GMCL) is a national study of America's political leadership in the 21st century, with a focus on race, ethnicity, and gender. The project specifically addresses African American, Latina/o, Native American, and Asian American elected officials in U.S. politics. The 2000 U.S. Census points to a need to understand the role of gender and race/ethnicity in today's elected leaders and how this increasingly diversified leadership is becoming incorporated into the governing structures of a nation projected to be "majority-minority" within the next fifty years. Key components of the GMCL Project include a national database of more than 10,000 elected officials of color, by race and gender; an annotated bibliography and analytical framework on the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, class; and an interactive project website.
This essay addresses a research vacuum in comparative political studies by comparing the evolutio... more This essay addresses a research vacuum in comparative political studies by comparing the evolution and current status of citizenship education in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Each of the three Chinese-speaking societies represents a different stage of development and democratization in global politics. What do middle-school students socialized in these societies think about democracy, citizenship, and minority rights in the early part of the twenty-first century? What elements separate and unite them? After providing an overview of the major shifts in the paradigms of contemporary citizenship education in the respective societies, the essay employs both primary and secondary survey data associated with a leading survey on international civic and citizenship education to provide empirical answers to the research questions.
Okiyoshi Takeda: One area in which Asian Americans have made significant progress in the past 20 ... more Okiyoshi Takeda: One area in which Asian Americans have made significant progress in the past 20 years is in the number of members of Congress. In 1999, there were only six Asian Pacific American members. In the House, there were only four: Patsy Mink (D-HI); Robert Matsui (D-CA); Robert Scott (D-VA, who is one-quarter Filipino and three-fourths African American); and David Wu (D-OR). In the Senate, the two senators were both from Hawai'i: Daniel Inouye (D) and Daniel Akaka (D, who was part Native Hawaiian and part Chinese). By the 116th Congress (2019–2020), the number of Asian Americanmembers increased to a record number of 17: 14 in the House (counting only voting members) and three in the Senate (Cohen, Rundlett, and Wellemeyer 2019).1 The three senators are Mazie Hirono (D-HI, Japanese American), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL, half Thai), and Kamala Harris (D-CA, half Asian Indian and half African American, and who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination but w...
ABSTRACT Different from the majority of past research on gender gaps in political officeholding, ... more ABSTRACT Different from the majority of past research on gender gaps in political officeholding, we adopt an intersectionality framework and move beyond traditional individual factors to explore what implications certain elements in the political opportunity structure may have for women and men of color elected officials serving in county, municipal, and local school board offices. We argue that structural and contextual factors, such as type of institutions, election systems, and jurisdictional racial makeup, may influence the calculations women of color make concerning the accessibility of elective office. Using data from the Gender and Multiracial Leadership (GMCL) project, we find county offices to be the least, and seats on school boards the most, accessible to women of color. Of the types of electoral arrangements, we find multimember districts (MMD) to be the most significant variable predicting the likelihood of women of color in office. Although both Black and Latina women benefit from having a significant share of coethnics or nonwhites in jurisdictions, the two groups of women have an opposite relationship to their racial constituent makeup than that held by their male counterparts.
ABSTRACT The Chinese Diaspora in the United States has a long history of involvement in homeland ... more ABSTRACT The Chinese Diaspora in the United States has a long history of involvement in homeland political development and change. Much of the prior research, however, has been historical in focus and qualitative in methodological orientation and does not engage quantitative approaches in systematically analyzing the relationships between divergent origins and political attitudes of the contemporary population. This study uses primary data collected from a national telephone survey of U.S. residents of Chinese descent originated from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in fall 2007 to explore the role of transnational ties in structuring immigrant pinions on homeland government and politics.
... The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities , Berkeley, CA : Universit... more ... The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities , Berkeley, CA : University of California Press View all references; Simon 200547. Simon , Scott 2005 Tanners of Taiwan:Life Strategies and National Culture , Cambridge : Westview View all references). ...
ABSTRACT: Who are (or can count as) Taiwanese Americans? To what extent and in what ways do they ... more ABSTRACT: Who are (or can count as) Taiwanese Americans? To what extent and in what ways do they participate politically in the United States? This study attempts to unpack the concept of Chineseness by examining various formations of identity boundaries of Taiwanese Americans. We empirically assess their “success” in political participation and incorporation by analyzing patterns of political participation of U.S. voting-age adults who were born in or originated from Taiwan, as compared to those who were born in or originated from (Mainland) China and Asia as a whole. We argue that Taiwanese Americans occupy a distinct space in modern Asian American history and a better understanding of the experiences of this often overlooked and misunderstood community can further explicate the complexity of being Chinese in contemporary America. However, we discuss multiple sets of methodological challenges in systematically studying the population through U.S. census survey and several other types of quantitative data. Whereas we find immigrants originated from Taiwan to be generally more active in electoral politics than those from Mainland China, our findings challenge the pluralist assumptions of a linear process of political incorporation and reject an overtly simplistic characterization of Taiwanese Americans as a “model-minority” success story.
This book examines the scope and significance of the rise of Asian (and Pacific Islander) America... more This book examines the scope and significance of the rise of Asian (and Pacific Islander) Americans in US elective office over the past half-century. By scrutinizing the political trajectory of pioneering figures and their significant followers in each of the major Asian ethnic communities, this book provides unprecedentedly broad and detailed coverage of the development of the electoral landscape of the relatively unknown community in American politics. This book aims not only to fill a missing piece of American electoral history but to challenge the “model minority” and “perpetual foreigner” tropes of Asians in American society and politics. To help interpret the complex experiences of these political women and men situated at the intersection of race, gender, and other dimensions of marginalization, this book adopts an intersectionality framework that puts women of color at the center of storytelling and analysis. Our account includes their trajectories to office, their divergent...
This chapter provides an aggregate-level view of the evolution of the electoral landscape that be... more This chapter provides an aggregate-level view of the evolution of the electoral landscape that began in the territory and state of Hawaii. It analyzes the growth and transformation of the population structure of the APA community since 1965 to help contextualize continuities and changes in the contours and makeup of the population of APA elected officials (APAEOs) between 1980 and 2020. The chapter appraises the various gaps in descriptive representation by gender, ethnicity, and nativity among APAEOs across levels of offices nationwide and between Hawaii and California, the top two states in the number of APAs elected to offices. Then, focusing on Asian city council members in California and using data collected over eight time points, the chapter appraises sustainability issues in their political incorporation and the relationship between demography and representation over time. It also examines the significance of local officeholding in political ascension and assesses the facili...
The Gender and Multicultural Leadership Project (GMCL) is a national study of America's polit... more The Gender and Multicultural Leadership Project (GMCL) is a national study of America's political leadership in the 21st century, with a focus on race, ethnicity, and gender. The project specifically addresses African American, Latina/o, Native American, and Asian American elected officials in U.S. politics. The 2000 U.S. Census points to a need to understand the role of gender and race/ethnicity in today's elected leaders and how this increasingly diversified leadership is becoming incorporated into the governing structures of a nation projected to be "majority-minority" within the next fifty years. Key components of the GMCL Project include a national database of more than 10,000 elected officials of color, by race and gender; an annotated bibliography and analytical framework on the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, class; and an interactive project website.
This essay addresses a research vacuum in comparative political studies by comparing the evolutio... more This essay addresses a research vacuum in comparative political studies by comparing the evolution and current status of citizenship education in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Each of the three Chinese-speaking societies represents a different stage of development and democratization in global politics. What do middle-school students socialized in these societies think about democracy, citizenship, and minority rights in the early part of the twenty-first century? What elements separate and unite them? After providing an overview of the major shifts in the paradigms of contemporary citizenship education in the respective societies, the essay employs both primary and secondary survey data associated with a leading survey on international civic and citizenship education to provide empirical answers to the research questions.
Okiyoshi Takeda: One area in which Asian Americans have made significant progress in the past 20 ... more Okiyoshi Takeda: One area in which Asian Americans have made significant progress in the past 20 years is in the number of members of Congress. In 1999, there were only six Asian Pacific American members. In the House, there were only four: Patsy Mink (D-HI); Robert Matsui (D-CA); Robert Scott (D-VA, who is one-quarter Filipino and three-fourths African American); and David Wu (D-OR). In the Senate, the two senators were both from Hawai'i: Daniel Inouye (D) and Daniel Akaka (D, who was part Native Hawaiian and part Chinese). By the 116th Congress (2019–2020), the number of Asian Americanmembers increased to a record number of 17: 14 in the House (counting only voting members) and three in the Senate (Cohen, Rundlett, and Wellemeyer 2019).1 The three senators are Mazie Hirono (D-HI, Japanese American), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL, half Thai), and Kamala Harris (D-CA, half Asian Indian and half African American, and who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination but w...
ABSTRACT Different from the majority of past research on gender gaps in political officeholding, ... more ABSTRACT Different from the majority of past research on gender gaps in political officeholding, we adopt an intersectionality framework and move beyond traditional individual factors to explore what implications certain elements in the political opportunity structure may have for women and men of color elected officials serving in county, municipal, and local school board offices. We argue that structural and contextual factors, such as type of institutions, election systems, and jurisdictional racial makeup, may influence the calculations women of color make concerning the accessibility of elective office. Using data from the Gender and Multiracial Leadership (GMCL) project, we find county offices to be the least, and seats on school boards the most, accessible to women of color. Of the types of electoral arrangements, we find multimember districts (MMD) to be the most significant variable predicting the likelihood of women of color in office. Although both Black and Latina women benefit from having a significant share of coethnics or nonwhites in jurisdictions, the two groups of women have an opposite relationship to their racial constituent makeup than that held by their male counterparts.
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