New Encyclopedia Focuses On Information About Asian-Americans

Putting the histories of Asian-Americans, whose numbers top 7 million in this country, into six encyclopedia volumes would be daunting to anyone.

“It took my breath away,” said Cal State Fresno anthropologist and historian Franklin Ng.

But then Ng, a native of Hawaii who’s long been fascinated by ethnic diversity, took up the project.

The result is the Asian American Encyclopedia, the first reference book of its kind.

Edited by Ng and published by Marshall Cavendish of New York, the 1,900-page encyclopedia already is on many library shelves.

The encyclopedia, which costs $450 a set, was released in February. Its more than 2,000 entries range from simple definitions to 20 lengthy expositions - about 4,000 words each - on major topics such as the Asian-American Movement, families and the “model minority” image.

Noting that Asian-Americans are the fastest growing minority in America, the encyclopedia underscores that they are a multicultural, multilingual people whose experiences are unique and complex.

“We felt the encyclopedia should deal with all aspects of these people, from Southeast Asian music to immigration law to Jodo Shinshu Buddhism,” Ng said.

With more than 1,000 illustrations, the volumes present demographic profiles of six of the largest Asian American groups in the United States - Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Asian-Indian, Korean and Vietnamese - as well as smaller groups such as Hmong, Mien and Pacific Islanders.

The encyclopedia, organized in the traditional fashion from A to Z, including such topics as A. Magazine, a New York-based publication aimed at Asian-Americans, and VOLAGS, an acronym for volunteer agencies that help resettle Southeast Asian refugees.

In between is a rich array of information.

Topics include bilingual education, the Chinese-American press, Filipino family values and the political activism of early Asian Indian immigrants in Canada and America in the early 1900s.