Comparison of Suicide Rates Among Asian Americans in 2000 and 2010

This brief report used the mortality data to separately examine suicide rates of the six largest Asian American groups: Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. In 2000, Japanese American men (13.8 per 100,000) showed significantly higher suicide rate than Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese American men (7.3, 4.0, and 6.1 per 100,000), whereas Chinese, Korean, and Japanese women (3.7, 3.9, and 4.3 per 100,000) showed higher suicide rates than Indian women (1.2 per 100,000). In 2010, Korean and Japanese American men (19.9 and 15.7 per 100,000) showed higher suicide rates than men of other Asian groups. Korean and Japanese American women (8.1 and 5.0 per 100,000) showed higher suicide rates than Indian and Filipino American women (1.5 and 1.8 per 100,000). The findings challenge the notion that Asian Americans are at low risk for suicide and underscore the importance of examining ethnic variation in suicide behaviors among Asian Americans.

Download Full-text

Melodrama and Asian American Performance

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.931 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Eunha Na

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Asian Americans ◽

Asian American ◽

Public Perception ◽

Japanese American ◽

American Theater ◽

The Public ◽

Social And Emotional ◽

Uncle Tom's Cabin ◽

Wedding Banquet

American theater has long used melodramatic elements to shape the contour of racial dynamics and its representations for white mainstream audiences. Recurrent tropes of racial melodrama have appeared in such works as George Aiken’s stage adaptation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1858) and Dion Boucicault’s The Octoroon (1859), asserting a strong influence on the public perception of the ethical flaws of slavery and the ambiguity of racial identities. With its sympathetic portrayals of racial minorities as virtuous, innocent victims of social injustice, racial melodrama engaged white viewers in stories of racialized characters that aroused basic human feelings of compassion and sympathy as well as a sense of moral righteousness that encouraged and mobilized political actions, such as abolitionist movements, well beyond the theater. Modern and contemporary Asian American dramatists have adopted formal and thematic elements of melodrama and its affective strategies as a way to gain public visibility and re-articulate prevailing ethnic stereotypes formulated within a binary framework peculiar to melodrama. Melodrama’s emotional intensity and stylistic excesses effectively help to convey the historical, social, and emotional experiences of Asian Americans, including migration, displacement, and injustices such as Japanese American World War II incarceration. At the same time, Asian American dramatists’ critical revision of the melodramatic mode complicates the gendered and racialized dynamic that has defined the cultural identity of Asian Americans against white, mainstream America. The clearly melodramatic characteristics in Gladys Ling-Ai Li’s The Submission of Rose Moy (1924) seemingly reaffirm the stark division between Asian and American identities, only to reveal their ambiguities and uncertainties. While Velina Hasu Houson’s Asa Ga Kimashita (1981) and Tea (1987) render the suffering of Japanese American female characters emotionally relatable to the viewer as a universal experience, Asian female victimhood also serves as a melodramatic sign of national abjection under the violence of American racism and imperialism. Melodrama meets stage realism in Wakako Yamauchi’s The Music Lessons (1980) and in Philip Kan Gotanda’s The Wash (1985), where melodramatic pathos is facilitated through the plays’ attention to socio-political and psychological realism. Contemporary Asian American culture’s continued use of melodrama is most notable in transnational films such as The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Saving Face (2004), works that explore the potentials and limitations of melodrama as a critical aesthetic strategy.

Download Full-text

Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage. Josephine LeeOrientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture. Robert G. LeeMasking Selves, Making Subjects: Japanese American Women, Identity, and the Body. Traise Yamamoto

Signs ◽

10.1086/495608 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 561-565

Author(s):

Rachel C. Lee

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

Asian Americans ◽

Race And Ethnicity ◽

The Body ◽

Japanese American ◽

Asian America ◽

American Women

Download Full-text

Japanese Americans in Academia and Political Discourse in Japan

Trans-Pacific Japanese American Studies ◽

10.21313/hawaii/9780824847586.003.0019 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Okiyoshi Takeda

Keyword(s):

Asian Americans ◽

Asian American ◽

American Studies ◽

The United States ◽

Japanese Americans ◽

Political Scientist ◽

Japanese American ◽

Asian American Studies ◽

Princeton University ◽

The U.S

I am a political scientist specializing in Asian American politics. Although I earned my PhD in the United States, my initial interest was in the U.S. Congress and not in Japanese American studies or Asian American studies. What shifted my interest toward Asian American studies was that I had witnessed firsthand a campus sit-in at the Princeton University president’s office, where students were fighting for the establishment of an Asian American studies program. Witnessing such an incident, I realized that Asian Americans were an understudied topic in the field of political science. There is also a tendency for scholars from Japan to focus exclusively on Japanese Americans and to disregard other Asian American ethnic groups. Since I did not start out my study on Asian Americans in a graduate school in Japan with an interest in Japanese Americans, I have been able to avoid taking that kind of path....

Download Full-text

Happiness of Asian Americans

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.2003.93.3f.1032 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 93 (3_suppl) ◽

pp. 1032-1034 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Charles N. Weaver

Keyword(s):

Job Satisfaction ◽

Socioeconomic Status ◽

African Americans ◽

Asian Americans ◽

Asian American ◽

Positive Relation ◽

Asian American Women ◽

American Women ◽

Mean Differences

Past surveys found a positive relation between job satisfaction and socioeconomic status, with Asian Americans scoring low and African Americans and Euro-Americans scoring higher. As job satisfaction is a component of happiness, the question arises whether this relationship holds for happiness in general. Responses of a sample of 499 Asian Americans, 24,432 Euro-Americans, and 2,828 African Americans were analyzed. For both sexes, Asian Americans rated happiness significantly higher than African Americans. The rated happiness of Asian American and Euro-American men was not significantly different, but Asian-American women rated happiness significantly lower than Euro-American women. Mean differences were less than one point.

Download Full-text

Behavioral, chronic and mental health in minority women: results from the national Latino Asian American study

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/s0924-9338(11)73359-4 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (S2) ◽

pp. 1655-1655

Author(s):

H. Appel ◽

A. Ai ◽

B. Huang

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Services ◽

Asian Americans ◽

Asian American ◽

American Study ◽

Health Issues ◽

Asian American Women ◽

American Women ◽

Mental Health Issues ◽

Ethnic Subgroups

IntroductionAsian Americans and Latino women underutilize mental health services.Studies show Asian American women have higher depression scores and less physical activity than their male counterparts. Ethnic minorities are deterred from seeking mental health care in a timely manner or from following appropriate treatment guidelines. Asian American women are less likely to seek mental health services compared to Latina and white women. Mental health issues in Asian and Latina women may be masked by psychosomatic complaints. Data from the National Latino Asian American Study, the first comprehensive epidemiological study of Asian Americans and Latinos in the USA.ObjectivesTo examine the behavioral, chronic and mental health issues in Latina and Asian American women.Methods3,012 Asian American and Latina American women from six ethnic subgroups (Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Cuban, Mexican, and Puerto Rican Americans) from metropolitan areas were interviewed. Measures include behavioral, drug, chronic health conditions, and mental health issues, and frequency of health service seeking using T-tests and ANOVA.ResultsThe results showed Asian Americans women have less heart disease compared with Latina American women, but higher rates of smoking. More Filipinos rated their health as “Excellent” compared with Chinese and Vietnamese, and experience less major depressive disorder than their Asian counterparts. All three Asian American subgroups experience less anxiety than Latina American women.ConclusionsWhile raters of mental health problems may be low, they are unique in how they manifest themselves, and in the distinct ways in which they seek health services. There are marked differences among major ethnic subgroups.

Download Full-text

Correction to: Asian American Candidate Preferences: Evidence from California

Political Behavior ◽

10.1007/s11109-021-09705-x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Vivien Leung

Keyword(s):

Asian Americans ◽

Asian American ◽

Voter Turnout ◽

Vote Choice ◽

National Origin ◽

Japanese American ◽

Indian American ◽

Candidate Support

Using the 2012–2018 California State Assembly races, Sadhwani finds that Asian Americans who live in places that are 15–30% have higher voter turnout. Turnout in these districts is also increased when an Asian candidate is on the ballot (2020). Although turnout is increased when an Asian American is on the ballot, it is unknown whether or not Asian voters also have a preference for candidates of the same race or candidates of the same national-origin. There is limited research on how Asian Americans use racial and national-origin cues (if any) in their vote choice. Tam notes that assuming a ‘pan-Asian’ hypothesis (i.e. a unified Asian preference for policy and candidates), is problematic (1995). In an analysis of candidate support for Mike Honda and Ro Khanna, Sadhwani finds that Honda, a Japanese American, received more support from Vietnamese. His opponent, an Indian American named Ro Khanna, received more support for Chinese and Indian voters in that district (2017; 2021).

Download Full-text

Inequalities and Impact of Socioeconomic-Cultural Factors in Suicide Rates Across Italy

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000084 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 178-185 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Maurizio Pompili ◽

Marco Innamorati ◽

Monica Vichi ◽

Maria Masocco ◽

Nicola Vanacore ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Suicide Rate ◽

Age Groups ◽

Premature Death ◽

Mortality Rates ◽

Mortality Data ◽

Italian Population ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Suicide Rates ◽

Younger Age ◽

Age And Sex

Background: Suicide is a major cause of premature death in Italy and occurs at different rates in the various regions. Aims: The aim of the present study was to provide a comprehensive overview of suicide in the Italian population aged 15 years and older for the years 1980–2006. Methods: Mortality data were extracted from the Italian Mortality Database. Results: Mortality rates for suicide in Italy reached a peak in 1985 and declined thereafter. The different patterns observed by age and sex indicated that the decrease in the suicide rate in Italy was initially the result of declining rates in those aged 45+ while, from 1997 on, the decrease was attributable principally to a reduction in suicide rates among the younger age groups. It was found that socioeconomic factors underlined major differences in the suicide rate across regions. Conclusions: The present study confirmed that suicide is a multifaceted phenomenon that may be determined by an array of factors. Suicide prevention should, therefore, be targeted to identifiable high-risk sociocultural groups in each country.

Download Full-text