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Book Displays: Asian American Heritage 5/25

A historical file on books on display at the Monroe University Libraries - and the occasion for which they were displayed

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month - May 2025

Books at Dr. Donald Simon Memorial Library (BX)

Reconstructing Chinatown : ethnic enclave, global change

An exploration of this fascinating community as a window on globalization. In the American popular imagination, Chinatown is a mysterious and dangerous place, clannish and dilapidated, filled with sweatshops, vice, and organized crime. In this well-written and engaging volume, Jan Lin presents a real-world picture of New York City's Chinatown, countering this "orientalist" view by looking at the human dimensions and the larger forces of globalization that make this vital neighborhood both unique and broadly instructive. Lin describes the public disquiet and official response regarding immigration, sweatshops, and the influx of Asian capital. He outlines the ways that local, state, and federal governments have directed and gained from globalization in Chinatown through banking deregulation and urban redevelopment policy. Finally, Lin puts forth Chinatown as a central enclave in the "world city" of New York.

An Introduction to the Buddha and His Teachings

Reveals "the way of the Buddha" through 33 original and accessible translations and commentaries. These translations are drawn from the key writings of Buddhism.

Fresh off the Boat : A Memoir

"Long before I met him, I was a fan of his writing, and his merciless wit. He's bigger than food."--Anthony Bourdain. Eddie Huang is the thirty-year-old proprietor of Baohaus--the hot East Village hangout where foodies, stoners, and students come to stuff their faces with delicious Taiwanese street food late into the night--and one of the food world's brightest and most controversial young stars. But before he created the perfect home for himself in a small patch of downtown New York, Eddie wandered the American wilderness looking for a place to call his own.

Bruce Lee - Artist of Life

A rare, never-before-seen collection of Bruce Lee's private letters and writing! Bruce Lee was an intense man with such sheer concentration of energy that no one who encountered him, on screen or in person, could help but be drawn to him and his enthusiasm for life and knowledge.

China, Inc

Draws on interviews with Chinese, American, and European businesspeople to predict economic challenges as a result of China's growing ability to produce U.S. products more cheaply, and to draw conclusions about China's future as a superpower.

Ethnic Foods of Hawaii

More than a cookbook, it gives residents an understanding and appreciation of their ethnic origins and introduces visitors and new residents to island foods, customs, and culture.

Asian American Actors

The acting profession is increasingly drawing more and more actors of Asian descent. Yet, even with the success of television programs (Martial Law), films (Mulan), and even Broadway plays (Miss Saigon) that include Asian characters, there are still limited roles for these actors. In the past, Asian characters like Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu were played by non-Asian actors in makeup. Many of the roles available for Asians today tend to be stereotypical: kung-fu sidekicks, emasculated or gang-member males, sexually accessible females, comic characters with a poor command of English. Seldom are Asian actors cast in race-neutral roles.

Asian/American

This book argues that the invention of Asian American identities serves as an index to the historical formation of modern America. By tracing constructions of "Asian American" to an interpenetrating dynamic between Asia and America, the author obtains a deeper understanding of key issues in American culture, history, and society. After the passage of the last piece of anti-Asian legislation in the 1930's, the United States found it had to grapple with both the presence of Asians already in America and the imperative to develop its neocolonial interests in East Asia. The author argues that, under these double imperatives, a great wall between "Asian" and "American" is constructed precisely when the two threatened to merge. Yet the very incompleteness of American identity has allowed specific and contingent fusion of "Asian" and "American" at particular historical junctures.

Tai Chi : A Practical Introduction

Tai Chi, the martial art that focuses on sequences of movements, promotes excellent health and relief from stress, and is suitable for people of all ages. This clear, accessible introduction includes a section on the history and philosophy of Tai Chi and a detailed explanation of the Tai Chi movements.

The Five Houses of Zen

For all its emphasis on the direct experience on insight without reliance on the products of the intellect, the Zen tradition has created a huge body of writings. Of this cast literature, the writings associated with the so-called Five Houses of Zen are widely considered to be preeminent. These Five Houses-which arose in China during the ninth and tenth centuries, often referred to as the Golden Age of Zen-were not schools or sects but styles of Zen teaching represented by some of the most outstanding masters in Zen history. The writing of these great Zen teachers are presented here, many translated for the first time.

Real World : a novel

In a crowded Tokyo suburb, four teenage girls indifferently wade their way through a hot, smoggy summer. When one of them, Toshi, discovers that her nextdoor neighbor has been brutally murdered, the girls suspect the killer is the neighbor's son. But when he flees, taking Toshi's bike and cell phone with him, the four girls get caught up in a tempest of dangers that rise from within them as well as from the world around them. Psychologically intricate and astute, Real World is a searing, eye-opening portrait of teenage life in Japan unlike any we have seen before.

West of Kabul, East of New York : An Afghan-American story

A passionate personal journey through two cultures in conflict Shortly after militant Islamic terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, Tamim Ansary of San Francisco sent an e-mail to twenty friends, telling how the threatened U.S. reprisals against Afghanistan looked to him as an Afghan American. The message spread, and in a few days it had reached, and affected, millions of people-Afghans and Americans, soldiers and pacifists, conservative Christians and talk-show hosts; for the message, written in twenty minutes, was one Ansary had been writing all his life. West of Kabul, East of New York is an urgent communiqueacute; by an American with "an Afghan soul still inside me," who has lived in the very different worlds of Islam and the secular West.

Books at New Rochelle Campus Library

The Brightened Mind

The brightened mind is one that is able to make better choices," says Sumano Bhikkhu. Having left the hectic world of Chicago real estate decades ago to become a Thai Buddhist monk, he knows what he's talking about. This simple, short introduction to meditation, particularly well suited to young people, can help anyone rattled with the stresses of living in today's society rife with financial uncertainty, war, crime, and the psychological assaults of bosses, teachers, and the media. His methods increase awareness, strengthen positive mental states, and develop insight.

Silence : a novel

Shusaku Endo's novel of enduring faith in dangerous times, Seventeenth-century Japan: Two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to a country hostile to their religion, where feudal lords force the faithful to publicly renounce their beliefs. Eventually captured and forced to watch their Japanese Christian brothers lay down their lives for their faith, the priests bear witness to unimaginable cruelties that test their own beliefs.

On Hinduism

In this magisterial volume of essays, Wendy Doniger enhances our understanding of the ancient and complex religion to which she has devoted herself for half a century. This series of interconnected essays and lectures surveys the most critically important and hotly contested issues in Hinduism over 3,500 years, from the ancient time of the Vedas to the present day.The essays contemplate the nature of Hinduism; Hindu concepts of divinity; attitudes concerning gender, control, and desire; the question of reality and illusion; and the impermanent and the eternal

Chinatown New York

A lush, vibrant tour that make New York City's Chinatown one of the world's most celebrated neighborhoods In the mid-nineteenth century, Chinatown became the destination for a small influx of Chinese immigrants. Today, this area boasts the largest concentration of Chinese in the Western Hemisphere, abundant fruit and fish markets, restaurants, and sundry retail shops. Chinatown NY provides a cultural snapshot of this captivating place through its immigration history, temples, associations, the stories of people who have lived there for generations. Volkwein invites readers to explore Chinatown's hundreds of restaurants. And the book is peppered with mouthwatering recipes from neighborhood chefs. Next, Volkwein encourages the reader to celebrate the Chinese New Year with neighborhood residents by attending the parade on East Broadway. No visit to Chinatown would be complete without a walk through its food markets and herbal medicine stores. Filled with vibrant photography.

Blue Tomato

With his East-West blend of ethnic cooking styles and fresh Island ingredients, Chef Alan Wong is a tireless ambassador for Hawai'i Regional Cuisine and a leader in America's farm-to-table movement. Now this James Beard Award winner celebrates the art of the possible in "The Blue Tomato"—a bold, beautiful look at what's next in contemporary cuisine.

Song of the Exile

In this epic, original novel in which Hawaii's fierce, sweeping past springs to life, Kiana Davenport, author of the acclaimed Shark Dialogues, draws upon the remarkable stories of her people to create a timeless, passionate tale of love and survival, tragedy and triumph, survival and transcendence. In spellbinding, sensual prose,

The Asian Grocery Store Demystified

A food lover's guide to all the best ingredients. Do you want to prepare an Asian meal as delectable as those in restaurants? Are you too intimidated by the exotic ingredients to try? And what's inside those mysterious bottles, bags, and boxes in your local Asian grocery store anyway? This handy "Take it With You "guide provides the answers.

Karate : the pursuit of excellence

Thompson, a World Champion karate athlete, describes origins of karate, how to get started and develop in the sport, how to tap secret energy and comments on the future of karate.

The Dream of the Red Chamber

For more than a century and a half, Dream of the Red Chamber has been recognized in China as the greatest of its novels, a Chinese Romeo-and-Juliet love story and a portrait of one of the world's great civilizations. Chi-chen Wang's translation is skillful, accurate and fascinating.

The Rise of India : its transformation from poverty to prosperity

The Risk of India: Its Transformation from Poverty to Prosperity is an extremely interesting read. The book speaks not only to the mind and intellect but also to the heart as it clearly demonstrates that economic development is above all a question of people. It also shows that the Indian society, and particularly its youth, is much more open to changes than its political and bureaucratic class, and would welcome a third wave of reforms that would help the poor to benefit from economic progress.

A Monroe University Research Guide

               THIS RESEARCH OR "LIBGUIDE" WAS PRODUCED BY THE LIBRARIANS OF MONROE UNIVERSITY             

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