Managing multicultural lives : Asian American professionals and the challenge of multiple identities /

It is ironic that despite the US commitment to a multicultural society, ethnic identity and culture often are viewed as zero-sum games, meaning the more "American" one becomes, the less "ethnic" one can be. This results in a perspective of cultural compartmentalization versus cultural composites. A new framework is emerging regarding the concept of hybridity, allowing ethnic community members to express themselves along a fluid continuum of cultural expression. Dhingra (Oberlin College) focuses on how Asian Americans--namely, Korean Americans and Indian Americans in Texas--express the ethnic and American aspects of their selves in everyday life. Covering professional, private, community, and leisure worlds, the author tries to portray the negotiation processes that Asian Americans undergo traversing these boundaries and contexts. The book illustrates how second-generation ethnics do not cast their lot with either their American or ethnic sides; rather, they position themselves according to their circumstances, using their diverse backgrounds as valuable resources. Ultimately, as Dhingra states, it is not a matter of how much people display their identities, but how they do so. Focusing on the how frees the analysis from comparing quantities of American-ness or ethnic-ness in cultural expression and gets to the quality of the expression itself. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. G. C. David Bentley College