Inventing Asian America

Summary

Before we go deeper into the idea of Radical Buddhism, we have to understand Asian America. What if we saw Asian America as it was originally intended: a political strategy, a way to bring people together for liberation? How might this social context open new possibilities for Buddhism in America?

Until 1968, we were still ‘Orientals.’ Then thousands of young people, including my parents, began the Asian American Movement, a national political and cultural effort to assert rights and dignity. My guest is May Chen, who was one of the first to teach classes and organize as an Asian American. I’ll ask her how that movement came to be, and how it was not only about race, but labor and solidarity—a radical idea that’s still evolving. 

May Ying Chen is an activist and union officer who represented immigrant garment workers in New York City's Chinatown for 20-30 years. May was a founding member of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). Now retired, she promotes and shares projects related to labor history and Asian American Studies.

Ryan Lee Wong is author of the novel Which Side Are You On, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. He’s trained in Buddhism for over a decade, and lived for two years at a Zen temple in upstate New York. He co-facilitates Roots and Refuge, an annual Asian American Buddhist writing retreat. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, the son of a fifth-generation Chinese American father and a Korean immigrant mother, and has organized several exhibitions on the 1970s Asian American Movement.

Find Ryan on Substack: https://ryanleewong.substack.com/ Instagram: @ryanlwong or his website: https://www.ryanleewong.com/  

Radical Buddhism is a production of Axis Mundi Media, and made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, which seeks to deepen public knowledge of religion. Andrew Gill is the producer, with original music by Scott Okamoto and cover art by Eric Zwierzynski. The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies is our fiscal sponsor.

www.foundationsandfutures.org

www.laborarts.org/1982

www.apalanet.org

“Asian American & American Zen”: Ryan’s personal essay about merging the Asian American Movement and American Buddhism.

Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA): More on the history and current work of APALA, which today represents nearly 1 million union members. 

Cornell University ILR School Online Resource: Details the history of the ILGWU and the story of the major 1982 Chinatown strike, as well as a short documentary on the strike

May Chen Papers: for researchers interested in learning more about May’s life and work through her archives. 

Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties by Karen L. Ishizuka: An oral history-driven overview of the Asian American movement from one of its veterans. 

Black, Brown, Yellow, and Left: Radical Activism in Los Angeles by Laura Pulido: Charts the overlaps and affinities between The Black Panthers, El Centro de Acción Social y Autonomo (CASA), and East Wind during the 1960s and 70s.