It may be widely used now but the term “Asian American” is only a few decades old, being coined in 1968 by UC Berkeley activists Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka, as they sought an umbrella identity for their student organization, eventually hitting on the Asian American Political Alliance. The term caught on in part because it replaced the term “oriental”, widely considered to be racist and associated with aggressive campaigns of colonialism, and partly because it allowed the wider community of immigrants from Asia to band together to wield greater political influence.
The term remains popular but it has faced its share of criticism, among other things for obscuring the realities of those from less economically powerful and geographically centered Asian nations. An intriguing new art exhibition currently on show at New York University’s 80WSE Gallery seeks to interrogate and deconstruct the term while bringing forth an extremely wide variety of art created from within the community.
