[~.Linh.~]

So, I have to write an essay/paper w/e for my English class. Approximately >20 pages long
And why? Because we "have to learn how to rely on our own abilities to complete a task"...sth along those lines. Oh, right: and the paper is part of my final exams in...1year (deadline for the whole essay is in January 2010, but I have to know the topic by next week )
German schools are a bit complicated -.-

Our teacher gave us different topics, but ...none of them was appealing to me (cause I'm not that interested in...Welsh language or the James Bond films before and after the fall of the Iron curtain, etc... ).
I wanted to write something with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight-Series cause the movie just came out and I absolutely loved the book
But then again, I don't know whether I can write a good 20pages(or more) on Twilight - depends on the topic, I guess. That's why I suggested the topic "Asian Americans in the US". My teacher kind of forgot everything about Twilight as another possibility (it seemed like that T_T) and asked me to do a paper on Lee Chang-Rae's Native Speaker. Has anyone read it so far? It had some really good reviews but I'm not that interested in spying, etc...not when it concerns my GPA -.-

So...I wonder, do you
1) know any good books to analyse the subject "Asian Americans in the US" or
2) know anything that relates to the topic but is...more defined? (Asian Americans in the US IS a very general topic...lol)

I hope you can help me
Thanks in advance

[Yui.]

I suggest the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. It's also made into the movie. You can read it (easy read) and watch it. Amy Tan was also the writer for the cartoon Sagua(sp?) if I'm not mistaken. It's a book about mother-daughter relationship. The difference is the daughters are American and the mothers are immigrants.

Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori is another good book. I guess it's more about Asian. >_<;; It's not Asian-American, but it displays the culture difference of how woman are treated, etc. If you are interested you could check it out but =x it's not asian-american.

[~.Linh.~]

I suggest the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. It's also made into the movie. You can read it (easy read) and watch it. Amy Tan was also the writer for the cartoon Sagua(sp?) if I'm not mistaken. It's a book about mother-daughter relationship. The difference is the daughters are American and the mothers are immigrants.

Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori is another good book. I guess it's more about Asian. >_<;; It's not Asian-American, but it displays the culture difference of how woman are treated, etc. If you are interested you could check it out but =x it's not asian-american.

Wow, thanks a lot
the joy luck charm club does sound interesting! You saved my GPA
LOL, at least for now

[Yui.]

: D maybe this'll help too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_iKIXuOAJc

you can always youtube for more info.

[Yuenie]

Asian Americans in the US....

There's a million of different things you could write on it. Stereotypes for instance? Tons of info on that - and probably most easiest topic to do. You could possibly zero on a certain aspect of stereotypes, like Asian stereotypes in Western entertainment (ie. television, movies, etc). Or you could possibly do a paper on conflicts of American Born Asians finding a balance between being American or Asian? Although that would probably require more deep research. A novel about a Chinese girl's struggle to being Asian or "American" is interestingly exemplified in a book by Gish Jen called Mona in the Promised Land. It takes place in the 70s when basically racism was still pretty obviously around and the main character Mona is a Chinese girl with utter fob parents but she has trouble being "white" or "chinese" - lol she later becomes Jewish.

Another suggestion...not Eastern Asian but doing an essay on the Middle East could work very well and be very interesting too. Especially if you could make it revolve around the book Kite Runner and relating it to real history in Afghanistan.

[~.Linh.~]

: D maybe this'll help too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_iKIXuOAJc

you can always youtube for more info.

I'm gonna check that out

Asian Americans in the US....

There's a million of different things you could write on it. Stereotypes for instance? Tons of info on that - and probably most easiest topic to do. You could possibly zero on a certain aspect of stereotypes, like Asian stereotypes in Western entertainment (ie. television, movies, etc). Or you could possibly do a paper on conflicts of American Born Asians finding a balance between being American or Asian? Although that would probably require more deep research. A novel about a Chinese girl's struggle to being Asian or "American" is interestingly exemplified in a book by Gish Jen called Mona in the Promised Land. It takes place in the 70s when basically racism was still pretty obviously around and the main character Mona is a Chinese girl with utter fob parents but she has trouble being "white" or "chinese" - lol she later becomes Jewish.
Another suggestion...not Eastern Asian but doing an essay on the Middle East could work very well and be very interesting too. Especially if you could make it revolve around the book Kite Runner and relating it to real history in Afghanistan.

LOL@the Jewish part
Yeah, I thought about doing the paper on the difficulty of finding balance between the two cultures or so. Stereotypes were also one of the things crossing my mind first...but like you siad, too easy for a 15pg paper. Even if a topic does require more deep research...that's what we're supposed to do
And I think I could use a bit of my own experience and take it as an advantage - somehow (that's why i'm more interested in Eastern Asians)
But till now...a friend of mine just happened to talk about the book in her literature classes xD
The Joy Luck Club absolutely stunned me and I've just read the first pages, it was so touching I'm so easily touched
So my first attempt of a possible headline is...
" "The Joy Luck Club" - a portrait of Asian-Americans coping with their roots" "

I'm so proud of myself cause I even thought about that and came up with an idea xD (thanks to you guys
...hm..perhaps I should change "roots" to "ethnic origin"...sounds...smarter in a scientific way?

EDIT: ....uhm..does "portrait" even make sense