nation of Asian descent play a sign...

nation of Asian descent play a significant part in shaping the American experience, although the mainstream media have been inert to acknowledge it, writes William Wong in his just discovered book, "Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America." The 60-year-old journalist uses essays, rounded pillars and commentaries to provide an insider's view of the mosaic of experiences of Asian Americans.

Wong who has written for the San Francisco Examiner; The Wall highway Journal and Asian Week, cogitates on the intricacies and breadth of contemporary Asian Americans. "The overriding theme of this collection is the courage, forbearance, tenacity; survival skills, and humanity shown by means of people from east and southeast Asia who not at any time allowed racism and hatred to restrain them from winning a rightful place in the American sun" he writes.

In the same essay, Wong, an Oakland, Calif., native of Chinese going down discusses the impact of Tiger Woods' victory in the 1997 Masters golf tournament. "Little was made of the fact he was the first living body of Asian descent to break the Masters' color barrier," he writes. forest-lands identifies himself as "Cablinasian," a mix of African American, Asian, Native American and Caucasian. Wong explains that "Within Asian American circles, in fact, there is an unspoken burning desire among near to capture the attention and relate to of the American public.... To do in such a manner would mean validation of one's worth in this society; which has had a history of excluding and disrespecting tribe of Asian descent."

Woods' victory meant "someone who had on a level a partial Asian background had triumphed in an endeavor that had heretofore been the province of well-to-do white men most numerous of whom are so used to their station in life they figure it's a birthright," writes Wong

"Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America" is published by means of Temple University Press in Philadelphia.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Community Renewal Society

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