How I became an American sociologist, and later an Asian Americanist, is rather accidental. I was born and raised in Zhongshan, a city in south China. Like many children in the turbulent China of the 1960s, I grew up too fast, bypassing a normal childhood to become the head of my household at age 10.... Min Zhou unpacks stereotypes and offers new thinking on contemporary Asian American immigrants Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean in her book, The Accidental Sociologist in Asian American Studies. This is a compelling auto-biographical and scholarly account from the perspective of a Chinese woman who grew up in the turbulent China of the 1960s, her life-changing decision to come to the U.S. (temporarily leaving her family, husband, and 10-month old son behind) and her international success as an Asian American sociologist, Asian Americanist, and renowned professor at UCLA. Min Zhou candidly discusses the challenges, obstacles, and decisions that can advance or disrupt one s academic life. Her concerns, her doubts, and her choices are certain to be interesting to many of her scholarly peers as well as younger graduate students who may face comparable situations, no matter what their field of study. The Accidental Sociologist in Asian American Studies recounts Professor Min Zhou s journey of critically examining the ever-changing experience of Chinese/Asian Americans. It is a part of the Asian Pacific Ideas' Professor-in-a-Pocket-Series. The Asian Pacific Ideas Professor-in-a-Pocket Series features the innovative thinking and research of individual faculty of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. The Center s professors represent more than twenty academic disciplines and fields of study and include many of the leading scholars in the fields of history, literature, public policy, political science, sociology, education, anthropology, women s studies, law, health sciences, film, cultural studies, and Asian American Studies. Each volume of the series is written for the general reader and introduces new ideas around the history and current experience of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders today.

The Accidental Sociologist in Asian American Studies

Min Zhou

UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press

Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave (Conflicts In Urban & Regional)

In Chinatown, Min Zhou examines how an ethnic enclave works to direct its members into American society, while at the same time shielding them from it. Focusing specifically on New York's Chinatown, a community established more than a century ago, Zhou offers a thorough and modern treatment of the immigrant enclave as a socioeconomic system, distinct from, but intrinsically linked with, the larger society. It is difficult for Americans to understand the Chinese experience in Chinatown: while it is located in New York City and many other American cities, this exotic and even forbidding world is really many worlds away. Some view the immigrant enclave as a place where newcomers--naive, ignorant of labor rights, and with language barriers--are mercilessly exploited by fellow Chinese. Zhou's central theme is that Chinatown does not keep immigrant Chinese from assimilating into mainstream society, but instead provides an alternative means of incorporation into society that does not conflict with cultural distinctiveness. In his Foreword, Alejandro Portes observes that this "may exploit some but... gives others their only chance of someday launching their own enterprises." Concentrating on the past two decades, Zhou maintains that community networks and social capital are important resources for reaching socioeconomic goals and social position in the United States; in Chinatown, ethnic employers use family ties and ethnic resources to advance socially. Chinese employees have access to employment opportunities in Chinatown that they would otherwise lack because of language difficulties, mismatched skills, and undervalued educational credentials. Zhou demonstrates that for many immigrants,low-paid menial jobs provided by the enclave are expected as a part of the time-honored path to upward social mobility of the family. Relying on her family's networks in New York's Chinatown and her fluency in both Cantonese and Mandarin, the author, who was born in the People's Repu

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Temple University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Min Zhou. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Min Zhou

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Min Zhou. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Accidental Sociologist in Asian American Studies

Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave (Conflicts In Urban & Regional)