Cultures of asian americans

Not all Asians look alike, nor are all Asian American experiences the same. That sounds like common sense, yet for generations in America the representation of Asians has been reduced to racial stereotypes that linger painfully. Asian Americans have been historically misrepresented as a monolithic group, but within this broad category lies a wealth of divergence in perspectives, history and culture. Twenty million Asian Americans can trace their ancestral origins to over 20 countries in East, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Within each of these origin groups are unique histories, cultures and languages.

American Asians comprise one of the fastest growing groups in North America. They are highly diverse, including dozens of ethnicities and languages; these include individuals from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Laotian, Philippine, Thai, and Vietnamese ancestry. The first Asians to settle the United States were Chinese Filipinos, who had originally migrated to Mexico then moved to what is now Louisiana. Beginning in the 's, increasing numbers of Chinese workers immigrated to the western U.

American culture encompasses the customs and traditions of the United States. The United States is the third largest country in the world with a population of more than million, according to the U. Census Bureau.

Among ethnic minorities, the Asian and Pacific Islander API American group is the fastest growing, and, as a whole, is quite longevous. Although there is a significant literature on the history and religious traditions of API cultures, little has been published on death rituals and beliefs of the American descendants of these groups. The purpose of this study was to begin to explore cultural variations in response to the process of dying and grieving among four Asian American populations--Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Filipino. To this end, key informants and focus group interviews were conducted with members of these ethnic groups, and significant differences among, and within, groups were found. The small size and Hawaiian base of the sample preclude generalization of findings to the United States as a whole.