Full Description
When Eleanor Swent began teaching English as a Second Language in 1967 at a school for adults in Oakland, California, she soon learned that many of the Asian immigrants in her classes had remarkable tales to tell of struggles in their homelands and their efforts to make new lives in America. This oral history, based on interviews Swent conducted with her students over thirty years, documents the Asian immigrant experience as never before. Here are the stories of desperate individuals who swam to escape from China to Macao and Hong Kong; of Chinese daughters considered worthless by their families; of political refugees from Vietnam; of ethnic Chinese who fled by boat from Vietnam; of refugees from the genocide in Cambodia. As these remarkable new Americans learn different words and customs, they also enlarge our national vision, enriching our culture while assuring us that human dignity can rise above terrible circumstances.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Judy Yung
Preface
Chapter 1. Newcomers from China
Chapter 2. Newcomers from Vietnam
Chapter 3. The First Wave, 1975
Chapter 4. Looking Back, Years Later
Chapter 5. The Second Wave, The "Boat People"
Chapter 6. Newcomers from Cambodia
Chapter 7. The Land of the Free
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
