Despite Asian Americans’ noteworthy participation in activist movements over the decades, there is little known about the psychological experiences of Asian American activists let alone their activist identity development. Given the limited research about the lived experiences of Asian American activists, a qualitative study was conducted to explore the relationship between Asian American activists’ racial/ethnic identity development and activist identity development. Nineteen individuals, ages 23 to 46, with diverse genders and Asian ethnic backgrounds, completed demographic surveys and semi-structured interviews. Data analyses yielded a multi-part theoretical model for Asian Americans’ Negotiating Activist Commitment which illustrates how multiple dimensions of racial and cultural experiences affect how Asian American activists engage in their activist work, and vice versa. Results showed that individuals’ varied experiences with traditional Asian cultural values and the model minority myth influence the evolution of their racial, cultural, and activist identity development, ultimately shaping their level of commitment to an activist identity and activist-related activities. Study findings not only help to validate pre-existing literature about the racial and cultural experiences of Asian Americans but also offer more nuanced understanding of Asian American identity development as it intersects with activist identity.

This thesis explores the politics and problematics of Asian American self-representation in popular cinema by focusing on film adaptations of Asian American texts. In the first chapter I consider the Chinese American director Wayne Wang's adaptations of Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club (1989) and Louis Chu's novel Eat a Bowl of Tea ( 1961). Here I demonstrate how the representations of Asian Americans in the domain of popular cinema are "simplified" and constrained to universalizing tropes, such as "generational conflict," that negate the heterogeneous factors (i.e. culture, gender, class) that contribute to the making of Asian American subjectivity. As well, though I find that both films tend to de-problematize the United States as a context for the Asian American's assimilation, Eat a Bowl of Tea, in its historicizing efforts and cinematic flair, manages to posit a more ironic view towards the narrative of assimilation than Joy Luck does. In the second chapter I shift my discussion to David Henry Hwang's 1988 play M. Butterfly and its film adaptation by David Cronenberg. The opening (longer) section of this chapter explores Hwang's critiques of Western (American) discourses of sexism, racism, and imperialism in relation to Edward Said's and Judith Butler's theories of orientalism and gender performance respectively. When Hwang' s arguments are also understood in the context of Asian American history and contemporary debates over "identity" in the Asian American community, it is possible to see how his antiessentialist stance challenges all (Western and Asian) impositions of discursive power. The second section of this chapter compares the formal/performative construction of the play to that of the film version. Here I argue that Hwang' s utilization of Brechtian theatrical techniques corroborates his anti-essentialist political argument. Cronenberg's film, however, attempts to situate this critique within the traditions of realist cinema, and thereby significantly diminishes (and "simplifies") the Asian American perspective of the play. Taken collectively, these film adaptations, despite moments of opposition, attest to the ideological limitations that severely restrict the possibilities for complex Asian American self-representations in the realm of popular cinema. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

No description available.

With the onset of COVID-19 and the anti-Asian bias that has followed, there is growing importance in creating empirically valid measures of racial prejudice. In general, there has been limited research on workplace experiences for Asian Americans, despite this group being one of the fastest-growing racial minorities in the United States. Existing measures of prejudice can be susceptible to social desirability response biases, as they tend to focus on more cognitive and affective components of attitudes, rather than behavioral expectations. The goal of this study was to develop and provide initial validation for a behavior-based measure of racial prejudice called the East Asian American Situational Judgment Test (EAA-SJT). SJTs are designed to test behavioral judgments through context-based, realistic scenarios and close-ended plausible response options (Weekley & Ployhart, 2013; Whetzel et al., 2020). There has been some evidence that SJTs measuring latent constructs may produce stronger predictive accuracy of criteria compared to traditionally used, context-independent Likert scale measures (Peus et al., 2013; Teng et al., 2020). These traditional measures, often in the form of cognitive/affective survey questions around racial attitudes, can often lead to higher instances of social desirability response bias (Huddy & Feldman, 2009; Weber et al., 2014), in which participants may not answer questions truthfully due to social concerns. The themes for the EAA-SJT scenarios and response options were based on microaggression research on Asian Americans from Sue et al., (2007a), and the proposed factor structure was predicated on research from Hauenstein et al., (2014), who were the first to develop SJTs measuring latent prejudicial attitudes toward African Americans and women. To provide initial evidence for the validity of the EAA-SJT, 400 participants from a Qualtrics survey panel completed a 20-minute online survey consisting of demographics, the initial 35-item EAA-SJT, the Asian American Stereotypes scale to test for convergent validity, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale to test for discriminant validity, and two locally developed criterion measures to test for criterion-related validity. Results from the exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) provided evidence for a three-factor solution of Challenging, Ambivalence, and Reinforcing microaggressions. There was promising initial validity evidence for the EAA-SJT and evidence towards the incremental validity of the EAA-SJT over existing cognitive/affective measures. Next steps include building off the EFA results from this study and conducting a confirmatory factor analysis to finalize the EAA-SJT. Overall, microaggressions and other forms of racial biases in the workplace can have implications on employee well-being, as well as mental and physical health outcomes. The availability of different types of measurement tools such as the EAA-SJT may allow researchers to better understand prejudicial attitudes towards Asian Americans. / M.S. / Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there was a noted rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and instances of discrimination against Asian Americans (Jeung et al., 2021, Levin, 2021, Ruiz et al., 2020). This study aims to develop and provide initial validation for a measure of racial prejudice against East Asian Americans. This measure, the East Asian American Situational Judgement Test (EAA-SJT), provided scenarios of microaggressions against East Asian Americans along with four response options of behavioral expectations in reaction to those scenarios. The EAA-SJT can be taken by a member of any racial group and reframes the focus on the attitudes of those who potentially engage in microaggressions rather than only those who are affected by it. Preliminary evidence was found in support of the validity of the EAA-SJT.

It was the purpose of this study (1) to clarify the various stages and developments which took place in the period covered by the integration of the California Oriental Provisional Conference into the California-Nevada Annual Conference; (2) to make an account of the present status of the Oriental churcher in the California-Nevada Annual Conference; and (2) to make a report of the present standing of the Oriental ministers, who took part in the integration

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D. in English)--University of California, Berkeley, May 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-299).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 21, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-256).

Factors influencing the career development of Asian Americans have included family influences, including parental expectations and parent-young adult relationship, and adherence to Asian cultural values. Variables such as interests and values have been shown to be important factors in the career-related decisions of western, European American culture individuals, although interests have been found to be less important for Asian Americans. Research suggests that parental expectations and adherence to traditional Asian values have more influence on career development among this population. Sandhu found in 2011 that parental expectations are highly linked with career choice of a specific Asian subgroup. The current study examined the relationship between parental expectations, acculturation, career values, adherence to Asian cultural values, the parent-young adult relationship, and career choice in the Asian American population. The values gap between the parents’ and young adults’ cultural values as well as the gap’s effects on the parent-child relationship were assessed. A sample of 173 self-identified Asian Americans aged 18 to 25 were recruited from across the US to complete an Internet survey consisting of demographic questions, career choice questions, a measure of acculturation, an assessment of career-related values, an assessment of adherence to Asian cultural values, and an assessment of the parent-young adult relationship. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that the prestige of parents’ career expectations was a significant predictor of the prestige of young adults’ expected career choices. Although other family and process variables were not found to be significant predictors of young adults’ career choices, interesting correlations were noted among many of these variables.