Asian American

History

As Asian Americans originate from many different countries, each population has its own unique history.[2]

By 1587, "Luzonians" set foot in North America arrive in Morro Bay, (San Luis Obispo) California on board the Manila-built galleon shipNuestra Senora de Esperanza under the command of Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno.[36][37]

In 1635, an "East Indian" is listed in Jamestown, Virginia[38] This preceded Indian immigrants settling on the East Coast of the United Statesbeginning in the 1790s.[39]

In 1763, Filipinos established the small settlement of Saint Malo, Louisiana, after fleeing mistreatment aboard Spanish ships.[40] Since there were no Filipino women with them, the Manilamen, as they were known, married Cajun and Native American women.[41]

Chinese sailors first came to Hawaii in 1778,[42][43] the same year that Captain James Cook came upon the island. Many settled and marriedHawaiian women. Some Island-born Chinese can claim to be 7th generation. Most Chinese, Korean and Japanese immigrants in Hawaii arrived in the 19th century as laborers to work on sugar plantations. Later, Filipinos also came to work as laborers, attracted by the job opportunities, although they were limited.[44][45]

Economy

Asian Americans have made major contributions to the American economy. In 2012, Asian Americans own 1.5 million businesses, employ around 3 million people who earn an annual total payroll of around $80 billion.[56] Fashion designer and mogul Vera Wang, who is famous for designing dresses for high-profile celebrities, started a clothing company, named after herself, which now offers a broad range of luxury fashion products. 

An Wangfounded Wang Laboratories in June 1951. Amar Bose founded the Bose Corporation in 1964. Charles Wang founded Computer Associates, later became its CEO and chairman. David Khym founded hip-hop fashion giant Southpole (clothing) in 1991. Jen-Hsun Huang co-founded the NVIDIA corporation in 1993. Jerry Yang co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in 1994 and became its CEO later. Andrea Jung serves as Chairman and CEO of Avon Products. Vinod Khosla was a founding CEO of Sun Microsystems and is a general partner of the prominent venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Steve Chen and Jawed Karim were co-creators of YouTube, and were beneficiaries ofGoogle's $1.65 billion acquisition of that company in 2006.

In addition to contributing greatly to other fields, Asian Americans have made considerable contributions in science and technology in the United States, in such prominent innovative R&D regions as Silicon Valley and The Triangle.

Socio-Economical

After observing the rapid economic growth of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as the success Asian Americans achieved, scholars took notice of a cultural commonality. All of them are influenced by Confucian values. In 1979, Herman Kahn, the world-famous futurist, pointed out the cultural strengths of the Confucian Ethic in the pursuits of industrialization and affluence. He predicted, “the Confucian ethic—the creation of dedicated, motivated, responsible, and educated individuals and the enhanced sense of commitment, organizational identity, and loyalty to various institutions—will result in all the neo-Confucian societies having at least potentially higher growth rates than other cultures.” [78] In 1980, Roderick MacFarquhar, the world-renowned China expert and former Director of the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University declared: “That ideology [Confucianism] is as important to the rise of the east Asian hyper-growth economies as the conjunction of Protestantism and the rise of capitalism in the West.

Education

Among America's major racial categories, Asian Americans have the highest educational qualifications. This varies, however, for individual ethnic groups. Dr. C.N. Le, Director of the Asian & Asian American Studies Certificate Program at the University of Massachusetts, writes that although 42% of all Asian American adults have at least a college degree, Vietnamese Americans have a degree attainment rate of only 16% while Laotians and Cambodians only have rates around 5%.  It has been noted, however, that 2008 US Census statistics put the bachelor degree attainment rate of Vietnamese Americans at 26%, which is not very different from the rate of 27% for all Americans. According to the US Census Bureau in 2010, while the high school graduation rate for Asian Americans is on par with those of other ethnic groups, 50% of Asian Americans have attained at least a bachelor's degree as compared with the national average of 28%,and 34% for non-Hispanic Whites. Indian Americans have some of the highest education rates, with nearly 71% having attained at least a bachelor's degree in 2010. [100] According to Carolyn Chen, director of the Asian American Studies Program at Northwestern University, as of December 2012 Asian

Americans made up twelve to eighteen percent of the student population at Ivy League schools, larger than their share of the population. For example, the Harvard Class of 2016 is 21% Asian American.

Culture

Asian Americans number more than 12.5 million (in 2001) in the United States and represent more than thirty different nationalities and ethnic groups, including Samoan, Tongan, Guamanian, and native Hawai'ian from the Pacific Islands; Lao, Hmong, Mien, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, Burmese, Malay, and Filipinos from Southeast Asia; Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, and Sri Lankan from South Asia; Afghani and Iranian from Central Asia; and Korean, Japanese, and Chinese from East Asia. In 2000, the three largest Asian nationalities in the United States were Chinese, Filipinos, and Asian Indians. The diversity of Asian Americans, in terms of their various languages, cultures, and histories is remarkable.

Furthermore, within a single nationality, there are significant differences in regional dialect, religion, class background, educational level, and political perspective as well as distinctions based on generation, gender, and lifestyle orientation. Two Filipinos, for example, may have to communicate with each other in English because one's native language is Tagalog while the other's is Ilocano. In a group of Chinese, one may have come from rural China, another from cosmopolitan Hong Kong, a third from war-torn Vietnam, a fourth from Jamaica, and a fifth from Ohio - each with obviously distinct stories to share. Other factors also contribute to the diversity and complexity of the Asian American population, including the high rates of interracial marriage among some Asian groups who now have growing numbers of biracial/multiracial Asian American and Amerasian children. Furthermore, thousands of Asian children, particularly from Korea have been adopted by families in the United States who may not be Asian American themselves. One may see, for example, a recently arrived Vietnamese Amerasian teenager who looks just like his African American father but speaks only Vietnamese or a Korean adoptee who may look obviously Asian but might be named Susan Williams.

http://asiasociety.org/understanding-our-perceptions-asian-americans

Population

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Asian American population, including those of multiracial and Hispanic and Latino ancestry, had increased to 18,205,898 by 2011 (wiki)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Asian_Americans#Population

Homicide Victim

4.7 in 1000 fatal or Homicide victims.

www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/anhpivc.pdf

Graduation Level

50.5%The percentage of Asians, age 25 and older, who have a bachelor's degree or higher level of education. Asians have the highest proportion of college graduates of any race or ethnic group in the country and this compares with 28 percent for all Americans 25 and older.

http://www.asian-nation.org/14-statistics.shtml

Business Own

Asians owned 1.5 million nonfarm U.S. businesses operating in the fifty states 

https://www.census.gov/econ/sbo/getsof.html?07asian