The views and opinions expressed on this site and blog posts (excluding comments on blog posts left by others) are entirely my own and do not represent those of any employer or organization with whom I am currently or previously have been associated.
Academic Version: Applying my personal experiences and academic research as a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies to provide a more complete understanding of political, economic, and cultural issues and current events related to American race relations, and Asia/Asian America in particular.
Plain English: Trying to put my Ph.D. to good use.
As we reflect on the major news events of 2006, one of the most prominent headlines were the recalls of a multitude of Chinese-made consumer products and stories that questioned the overall safety and quality of goods made in China. With these events in mind, should American consumer boycott all products made in China to force Chinese companies to improve Read More →
How has recent news and media coverage about China’s economic rise combined with negative publicity about its unsafe consumer goods affected its overall image around the world? To shed light on that question, the well-respected Pew Research Center says that in most countries, China actually has a better public image than the U.S., although there is a general downward trend Read More →
The recent troubles concerning the quality of Chinese products has undoubtedly hurt the reputation of all Chinese companies. But what about India? In many ways, India lags behind China in terms of economic development and still experiences high-profile incidents of bad publicity, but should these shortcomings suggest that all Indian companies are inferior?
I’m not exactly sure how many CEOs in the Fortune 500 there are, but I’m pretty sure it’s rather small, with just one Asian American female among that list. Whatever that number is, it just grew by one as Indian American Vikram Pandit was recently named as CEO of CitiGroup, one of the largest and most powerful financial services corporations Read More →
This post does not relate specifically to Asian Americans per se, but nonetheless it centers on an issue that is certainly important to me and can have implications for all kinds of racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious groups.
One of my core principles as a sociologist and a social scientist is that I want my academic research to have some kind of Read More →
As China continues to industrialize, the BBC News reports that rates of juvenile crime have been on the increase as well:
Juvenile crime is increasing rapidly in China and becoming a serious problem, Chinese experts have warned. The number of young offenders had more than doubled in 10 years, officials told a Beijing seminar. The offenders were getting younger, forming Read More →
One theme that I’ve written about, and that I think is very likely to become more common and prominent in the coming years, is how Asian Americans are increasingly using their cross-national social and professional networks to facilitate cultural or economic endeavors in Asian countries, most likely their country of origin (or that of their ancestors). As one example of Read More →
As we all know by now, China has been in the news recently mainly because of a rash of consumer recalls involving products made in China that were unsafe and potentially toxic. However, before these particular concerns became front page news, you might remember that China had been in the news because of recurring allegations of spying and espionage. Read More →
One common theme in many of my posts is the fact that as we move forward into the 21st century, the U.S. is becoming more and more diverse — demographically and culturally. As proof, New American Media points out that Asian surnames, particularly the Vietnamese name Nguyen, are becoming increasingly common:
Smith is still the number one family name in America. Read More →
One of the recurring themes within Asian American Studies and from Asian American scholars is the notion that, perhaps ironically, in order to truly understand the entire Asian American category, one must first recognize and understand each of the unique ethnic groups that are included within that larger category. As an example of this, Diverse Education reports that the University Read More →
As many media organizations report, the FBI has released their data on hate crimes reported in 2006 and the official statistics indicate that all hate crimes are up 8% from 2005. However, as this article at CBS News mentions, the real numbers of hate crimes committed is almost guaranteed to be much higher:
“It’s unfortunate that the numbers went up Read More →
The Vietnamese American community is one of the fastest-growing Asian ethnic groups in the U.S. Many scholars would also say that based upon their refugee experiences and their relative recent arrival into the U.S., Vietnamese Americans also have one of the highest levels of ethnic solidarity of all Asian groups as well.
Much of their social cohesion centers around Read More →
