Michael Luo, Executive Editor at The New Yorker and author of "Strangers in the Land," delves into the historical narrative of Chinese Americans. He discusses the rise in violence against Asian Americans and how these struggles echo past injustices faced by earlier immigrants. Luo highlights the crucial role of figures like Frederick Douglass in advocating for Chinese immigrants’ rights. With a powerful message that "Asian American history is American history," he invites listeners to re-examine the broader implications of immigration and identity in America.
19:30
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Personal Encounter Sparks Book
Michael Luo shares a personal story where he was told to "go back to China" on the street, which made him reflect on his daughter's future in America.
This moment spurred him to write about Asian American history and its enduring struggles with belonging.
insights INSIGHT
Origins of Chinese Migration
The Chinese migration to America started around the Gold Rush, with word spreading through letters and newspapers.
Many who came were young teenagers traveling alone, facing a daunting and perilous journey across the ocean.
insights INSIGHT
Early Chinese Welcome Was Cynical
Early Chinese immigrants were initially welcomed for economic reasons, especially during the California Gold Rush and Transcontinental Railroad construction.
However, this welcome was short-lived and quickly gave way to violence and growing hostility by the 1870s.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made
Irving Howe
World of Our Fathers traces the journeys of Eastern Europe's Jews to America over four decades, beginning in the 1880s. The book offers a rich portrayal of the East European Jewish experience in New York, detailing how the immigrant generation tried to maintain their Yiddish culture while becoming American. It covers social, political, religious, and cultural aspects of immigrant life, including union organizing, journalism, and literary contributions. This work is essential reading for understanding the challenges and achievements of these immigrants and their impact on American culture and society.
Strangers in their own land
Anger and Mourning on the American Right
Arlie Russell Hochschild
In this book, Arlie Russell Hochschild travels from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, to the conservative heartland of Louisiana to understand the rise of the Tea Party movement. She profiles individuals such as Mike Schaff, a former oil industry worker whose town was devastated by a drilling accident, and Lee Sherman, who suffered from toxic waste dumping. Hochschild seeks to overcome the 'empathy wall' between liberals and conservatives by exploring the deep emotional and social reasons behind their political views, including feelings of loss, anger, and a sense of betrayal. The book provides a nuanced understanding of why people might vote against their apparent self-interest and argues for the possibility of mutual compassion and understanding between the right and the left.
In recent years, there’s been a stark uptick in the level of violence and hate crimes that Asian Americans have experienced, but the “precarity of the Asian American experience is not new,” Michael Luo tells David Remnick. Luo is a longtime New Yorker editor, and the author of a new book about the Chinese American experience. He looks at how tensions over labor—with native-born workers often blaming immigrants for their exploitation by business interests—intersected with racial and religious prejudice, culminating in episodes of extraordinary violence and laws that denied immigrants civil rights and excluded new arrivals from Asia. “The way politicians, craven politicians, talk about immigrants today could be just torn from the nineteenth century,” he points out. “I do think that the ‘stranger’ label is still there.” But Luo also uncovers the extraordinary support of Chinese Americans from Frederick Douglass, who argued extensively for the immigrants’ political participation and civil rights. “Asian American history is American history,” Luo says. “I want all the dads who are reading about World War Two, . . . who are interested in Civil War literature, to read about this different racial conflagration.” Luo’s book is “Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America.”
The New Yorker Radio Hour 
