Encounters

Reviews / Votes

A compilation of scholarly essays, personal testimonials, family histories, and literary and artistic works, Encounters invites us to share the everyday experiences of persons of Asian descent in Latin America and the United States. Provocative and powerful, materials in this volume offer multiple challenges to social stereotype, ideological preconception, and a good deal of academic theory. A significant contribution to our understanding of cross-cultural interaction in a globalizing age. -- Peter H. Smith, University of California, San Diego For the Asian in the Americas, notions of home and narratives of history change with one's vantage point and knowledge. Encounters: People of Asian Descent in the Americas provides a vibrant complexity and humanity to the diverse experiences of Asians in the Americas. Roshni Rustomji-Kerns' thoughtful essay recognizes that 'different configurations of ethnicities, races, languages, and art as lived by individuals from Asia in different areas of the Americas' question current premises around Asian American, diasporic, global, Pacific Rim, and postcolonial studies. This is a collection that welcomes the future with a new vision. -- Russell C. Leong, University of California, Los Angeles Challenges readers to move beyond the neat categories established by previous and current studies of ethnic experiences in the United States. . . . Fertile ground for new explorations on how people of Asian descent interact with other non-dominant groups in the Americas; how they define themselves; and how they mediate the challenges of different cultural forces. -- Carina A. del Rosario * Pacific Reader * Encounters provides a multifaceted comparative and theoretical framework that is not only highly innovative, but which is a valuable contribution to diaspora studies. * Journal Of English and American Studies * Encounters is a fitting tribute to all peoples, especially peoples of Asian descent, who have made the courageous decision to leave familiar places for a better life. * Amerasia Journal * This anthology specifically strives to fill the subjective spaces ignored by or unknown to mainstream theories about the Asian American experience. It is concerned with the hemispheric diversity of Asian voices, with minority-minority relations, with differing minority encounters with the dominant majority culture. It thus fills a void that exists between received theories and lived experiences and uncovers new angles of vision and experience. -- Walton Look Lai, University of the West Indies