Resources
Bald, Vivek. Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America, April 12, 2012. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674067578.
This book discusses how Bengali immigrants married Puerto Rican, Creole, and African American women to form multicultural family networks
Hong, Maria. Growing up Asian American. New York, NY: Perennial, 2003.
A diverse collection of essays, excerpts, and short stories about growing up in the U.S., all written by Americans of Asian descent that address such global issues as parent-child relationships, self-realization and identity, and the discovery of cultural heritage
Jarczok, Anita. “Reminiscing the Past, Pointing to the Future: Immigrant Memoirs from the Early- Twentieth-Century United States.” Świat i Słowo 34, no. 1 (March 10, 2020): 127–46. https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0014.3067.
Lee, Erika, and Judy Yung. Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America. Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2012.
This book covers the history of Angel Island from 1910 to 1940, an immigration station in San Francisco served as the processing and detention center for people coming mainly from China and Japan, but there were also immigrants from India, the Philippines, Korea, Russia, Mexico, and over seventy other countries. It was published to commemorate the immigration station's 100th anniversary.
Lee, Mary Paik, Chan, Sucheng. Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America, University of Washington Press, 2019.
This autobiography details Lee's life from her birth in Korea in 1900, her family's flight to America as political refugees in 1905, and her experiences facing poverty, hard labor, and racism in California.
Lim, Julian. Plenary Powers: Chinese Immigration, Sovereignty Challenges, and the Making of Federal Immigration Power in the U.S. West, Journal of American History, Volume 112, Issue 3, December 2025, Pages 482–512.
Mabalon, Dawn Bohulano. Little Manila is in the Heart: The Making of the Filipina. Durham: Duke University Press, 2020.
Ngai, Mae M. Impossible subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Polk, David. “Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir.” PBS, July 20, 2023. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/stream-amy-tan-unintended-memoir-documentary/17722/.
Qin, Amy. "This Man Won Birthright Citizenship for All," New York Times, February 10, 2025.
“Remembering ‘Bambi’ Artist Tyrus Wong.” CBS News. Accessed July 10, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/remembering-bambi-artist-tyrus-wong/.
A good video to share with the students. Good section on his kite designs.
Rouse, Wendy L. The Children of Chinatown: Growing Up Chinese American in San Francisco, 1850-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
The routledge companion to Asian American and Pacific Islander literature. Accessed August 13, 2026. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292359670_The_routledge_companion_to_Asian_American_and_Pacific_Islander_literature.
The Routledge Companion to Asian American and Pacific Islander Literature, Rachel Lee, Routledge, Jun 5, 2014. Essay 31: Asian American Autobiography/ Memoir by Traise Yamamoto
This article is to demonstrate that memoirs, which are usually examined in terms of their connection to the past, are often oriented towards the future. Using immigrant memoirs from the early twentieth century United States, this essay shows that immigrant authors wrote their memoirs with a specific audience in mind, an audience they believed they can instruct.
Yang, Kao Kalia. The Song Poet. Accessed June 15, 2026. https://www.kaokaliayang.com/product/the-song-poet/.
Yang retells the life of her father, Bee Yang, the song poet―a Hmong refugee in Minnesota, driven from the mountains of Laos by America’s Secret War.
Yang, Kao Kalia. The Latehomecomer. Grand Rapids, MN: ICTV, Inc, 2011.
This book is Yang’s tribute to her grandmother, whose resilience and spirit kept the family together through imprisonment and displacement during the Secret War in Laos.
The Routledge Companion to Asian American and Pacific Islander Literature, Rachel Lee, Routledge, Jun 5, 2014. Essay 31: Asian American Autobiography/ Memoir by Traise Yamamoto
Waters, Mary C., and Ueda, Reed, eds. 2007. The New Americans : A Guide to Immigration Since 1965. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Accessed July 8, 2026.
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