Asian American Students

from East Wind Vol. 2 No. 2 (Fall/Winter 1983)

by Eric Nakano

College - a time for learning, growth and struggle. Packed into four or five short years is the stuff that shapes the future of each new generation of Asian students. College is like an intensive preparatory course on life; hopes and aspirations are shaped, self-identity is molded, political views are crystallized, and commitments are forged.

Above all, college is a time of struggle. There is the classroom struggle - surviving through the next set of exams; the social struggle - in search of friendship in the jungle that is the University; finding one's self in the historical struggle - learning of the history of oppression and resistance that is the story of Asians in America; coping with today's societal realities - searching for solutions to pervasive racism and injustice; and for each of us, tackling the many personal struggles involved in mapping out our futures, solidifying our values, and making our commitments.

In this issue's FOCUS section, we hear from students themselves describing the struggles and prescribing directions. Some of the major concerns on the minds of Asian students today are wrestled with - we hear frorn a leading activist in the student movement talk about the current struggle on the campuses for educational rights; four students give their viewpoints on choices and implications for that biggest of questions - careers and commitment; Asian men and women talk about relationships and interracial dating; student activists give us the inside line on prominent Asian student organizations on the campus scene today.

These articles cannot hope to paint a complete picture of the broad diversity among Asian students today. But they can give us some sense of the climate on the campuses, as a reflection of developments in society overall. And as Asian students come to establish their place in society and in the community, they can give us some insight into the future of the Asian Movement which they inherit