New Land, New Rubrics: Presenting Diasporic Experience of Asian-American Immigrants in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Selected Short Stories

This research explored the lives and worldviews of Asian immigrants in the United States presented in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's stories in The Unknown Errors of Our Lives (2001). Central characters in Divakaruni's narratives embody the sufferings of immigrants in the New Land. Precisely it was proposed to study the stories from the perspective of the diaspora. In this collection, the researcher has selected five stories, including "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter," "The Intelligence of Wild Things," "The Blooming Season for Cacti," "The Names of Stars in Bengali," and "The Unknown Errors of Our Lives." Since the characters like Mrs. Dutta, Mira, Radhika, and Kahuku's mother emigrate from India to different zones of America, they combat issues of cultural contradiction, identity crisis, disruption and family strives. Unlike them, Tarun, Mrs. Dutta's son, and her family are assimilated into the American society, whereas the characters such as Mrs. Dutta, Didi, and Mira recurrently remember their original house and early childhood days with friends. It is because they are fragmented and frustrated in America. The study concluded that the characters in her stories are ambitious and want to live a luxurious life but because of the lack of opportunities, they could not fulfill their desires and even some of them decided to return to their homeland to get a better life.

The World through the Eyes of an Asian American: Exploring Verbal and Visual Expressions in a Graphic Memoir

This study aims at exploring verbal and visual expressions of Asian American immigrants depicted in Malaka Gharib’s I was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir (2019). Telling a story of the author’s childhood experience growing up as a bicultural child in America, the graphic memoir shows the use of code-switching from English to Tagalog and Arabic as well as the use of pejorative terms associated with typical stereotypes of the Asian American. Apart from the verbal codes, images also play a significant role in this graphic memoir by providing visual representations to support the narrative. By applying theories of code-switching, this paper examines the types of and reasons for code-switching in the graphic memoir. The linguistic analysis is further supported by non-narrative analysis of images in the memoir as a visual representation of Asian American cultural identity. This study reveals that code-switching is mainly applied to highlight the author’s mixed cultural background as well as to imply both personal and sociopolitical empowerment for minorities, particularly Asian Americans. Furthermore, through the non-narrative analysis, this paper shows that in her drawings, Gharib refuses to inscribe stereotypical racial portrayal of the diverse characters and focuses more on beliefs, values, and experiences that make her who she is, a Filipino-Egyptian American.

Alexandra Nickerson, Reimagining Suburbia

Since their origins in the post-World War II decades, American suburban communities have been battlegrounds for racial and socioeconomic conflict. Serving as enclaves for White privilege, many were purposefully designed to keep working class and minority residents out. Willow Lung-Amam's Trespassers? Asian-Americans and the Battle for Suburbia examines the bitter social and cultural tension that has plagued the affluent Silicon Valley suburbs since an influx of Asian-American immigrants in the 1970s. Her narrative illustrates how, by their very nature, suburban communities regress toward homogenity, enforcing ideas of who is welcome through their physical landscapes. However, it also inadvertently suggests that if we can use community planning, town ordinances, and other tools and practices to deliberately exclude, we too can use them to include. As our country continues to diversify, but also stratify, it is important that we create suburban landscapes that foster diversity, welcome newcomers, give everyone a shot at achieving their version of the American dream.

Immigration-related stressors and mental health problems among Asian-American Immigrants

Focusing on Asian-American immigrants in the National Latino and Asian American Study, this work examines (1) whether immigration-related stressors are associated with 12-month depressive disorder and suicidal ideation, and (2) how individual religious involvement moderates the associations. Findings from regression analyses reveal that limited English proficiency increases the risk of both 12-month depressive disorder and suicidal ideation. No significant differences in 12-month depressive disorder and suicidal ideation are found by age at immigration. Most importantly, religious coping — frequently seeking comfort from religion — buffers the negative effects of limited English proficiency on suicidal ideation. Our findings suggest the importance of individual religious involvement in helping Asian-American immigrants cope with stress associated with immigration. Mental health professionals may need to integrate religious coping mechanisms into the clinical setting to offer more effective treatments that are sensitive to individuals’ religious and spiritual needs.

Content and Intensity of Pride and Regret Among Asian American Immigrant Elders

Pride and regret are self-conscious emotions that develop later in life and become a source of emotional struggle. This study examines the content of regret and pride among Asian American elders. Among a convenience sample of 118 Asian American older adults, the researchers examined the contents and intensities of both regret and pride felt over events in life. Across three groups of Asian American immigrants, older adults in this study reported a variety of regrets and pride in the areas of college education, marital relationship, children’s problems, career aspirations, financial difficulty, immigration, and grief or losses that they have experienced in life courses. Findings further explored culture-specific sources of self-conscious emotions, and the intensities of regrets may be strongly influenced by cultural context.