ASIAN-AMERICAN STUDIESmodel in standard texts on racial and ethnic stud-
ies. Second, consistent with the radical theme, was
the apparent influence of Marxian views on race
and ethnic relations, which posited that African-
American and other minorities are victims of op-
pression in a capitalist society.
Expectedly, the civil rights movement began a
renewed interest in research on the experiences of
the earliest Asian Americans. With time the titles
ranged from well-documented academic publica-
tion to insightful popular readings for the lay
public (Chen 1980; Daniels 1988; Choy 1979;
Ichioka 1988; Miller 1969; Nee and de Bary 1973;
Saxton 1971; Sung 1971; Takaki 1989; Wilson and
Hosokawa 1980).
Asian-American studies was established in the
1970s as an academic discipline in a number of
institutions of higher learning, particularly in Cali-
fornia, at a time when there were only a few major
publications as sources of information for under-
graduates (e.g., Kitano 1961–1976; Lyman 1974;
Petersen 1971). The birth of an academic specialty
was marked by the conspicuous absence of avail-
able materials, particularly on Filipinos, Koreans,
Vietnamese, and the peoples of the Indian sub
continent (Min 1989). In response to this void, the
Asian-American Studies Center at the University
of California at Los Angeles published two collec-
tions of papers (Roots and Counterpoint) and a
quarterly journal, The Amerasia. On the Atlantic
Coast, a group of U.S.-born professionals pub-
lished an intellectual nonacademic monthly, The
Bridge, for nearly a decade. In the 1970s and 1980s,
these publications were recommended as collater-
al readings for college students interested in Asian-
American studies. Amerasia has since become more
academic in the 1980s and 1990s while Bridge, for
the lack of funds, quietly folded after nearly one
decade. In its place, two new academic publica-
tions appeared in the 1990s: the Journal of Asian
American Studies, which is a U.S. East Coast com-
plement (at Cornell University) to Amerasia; and
the Journal of Asian American Health, that serves
health research readers as well as the general
public. In addition, funded research on health and
mental health by the U. S. Department of Health
and Human Services has greatly enhanced the
research productivities on Asian Americans as well
as cumulative bibliographies.
The New Age of Asian-American Research:
Emerging Theories and Concepts. Stanley Lyman
at the University of California at Berkeley, and S.
Frank Miyamoto at the University of Washington,
are generally acknowledged as pioneers in Asian-
American research. Through his numerous pa-
pers and books, Lyman has maintained a theoreti-
cal relevance and has demonstrated an historical
insight into the origin and growth of Asian-Ameri-
can communities, especially those of the Chinese
and Japanese. As a social historian, he based his
research, by and large, on archival documents (see
Lyman 1970b). Miyamoto, on the other hand,
belongs to a founding generation of Japanese-
American researchers whose long-time associa-
tion with the University of Washington and his
training under Professor Herbert Blumer at the
University of Chicago gave him a mix of symbolic
interactionist bend and logical positivist approach
to the establishment of sound theoretical proposi-
tions in the study of Japanese Americans.In the 1980s and 1990s, a few well-trained
sociologists began to emerge, many of them for-
eign born and foreign educated, with American
postgraduate training—the ‘‘first-generation new
immigrants’’—scholars who arrived at a time when
America had become sensitive to diverse cultures.
The new breed of Asian-American researchers are
increasingly more vocal, questioning traditional
sociological theories and concepts based on stud-
ies of European immigrants in the early 1920s and
1930s. There is also a reflection of the postmodern
and world community perspectives that have be-
come influential intellectual trends of the time.
These new studies of Asian-American communi-
ties have added much to a field that had been
underserved by the social sciences. In addition, as
Asian-American studies became a new academic
discipline in line with the African-American and
other ethnic minority and gender studies, the
need grew for more social science information.
The lack of usable and more accurate estimates on
many attributes of Asian Americans based on
adequate sample design and culturally appropri-
ate survey instruments employed in federal sur-
veys has frustrated many Asian-American research-
ers, in spite of the special publication of information
on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the
1980 and 1990 censuses. Asian-American research-
ers constructively point out how such statistics can