Immigration and Exclusion, Wars and Imperialism, and Pacific Islander Studies

Vocabulary terms covering Asian American and Pacific Islander history, immigration laws, wartime experiences, and cultural concepts.

Panethnic

An identity where people of various ethnicities are grouped together, largely for political reasons such as resisting racial oppression and sharing resources.

Orientalism

A term described by Edward Said (1978) as a Western style of dominating, restructuring, and having authority over Asia while framing the East as "feminized" and "othered."

Yellow Peril

An extension of Orientalism framing Asians and Asian nations as economic, political, sexual, or moral threats to the West, emphasizing perceived foreignness and fear of invasion.

Model Minority Myth

A racialized stereotype depicting Asians as culturally or biologically smarter, successful, and obedient, which functions to divide oppressed communities and reinforce the idea of a meritocracy.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

The first major U.S. law to exclude a group based on race, specifically banning Chinese laborers due to fears of job competition and taking over the country.

Page Act of 1875

The first U.S. law created to exclude people based on race, which forbade Chinese women from immigrating if they were deemed prostitutes.

1907 Gentlemen’s Agreement Act

An agreement that restricted Japanese laborers from immigrating to the United States while still enabling some women to emigrate as family members.

Anti-miscegenation laws

Laws that strictly prohibited interracial marriage and sexual relations between whites and non-whites.

Asiatic Barred Zone

A 1917 restriction that halted immigration from India and other parts of Asia.

Picture Brides

Japanese women whose marriages were arranged through go-betweens and the exchange of photographs to facilitate immigration to Hawai’i and the U.S. between 1908 and 1920.

Immigration Act of 1965

Legislation that ended the 1924 quota system, prioritizing family reunification and professional skills, and opening immigration to more Asians and people of color.

Coolies

A term for indentured laborers from Asia, particularly China and India, who worked under contract in Latin America and the U.S. often under conditions similar to slavery.

Pidgin

A common dialect developed on Hawaiian plantations that incorporated Hawaiian, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, and English phrases and rhythms.

Hilot

A traditional Philippine form of massage therapy or chiropractic manipulation used to relieve aches and pains.

White Man’s Burden

A phrase from a Rudyard Kipling poem used to justify Western imperialism as a moral obligation to guide and "civilize" non-white peoples.

38th Parallel

The line of latitude that has divided the Korean peninsula into North (DPRK) and South for over seventy years.

Executive Order 9066

A 1942 presidential order authorizing the mass removal and incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans and residents categorized as "enemy aliens."

No-no Boys

Japanese American detainees who answered "no" to two specific loyalty questions (27 and 28) on a government questionnaire and were often sent to the Tule Lake Segregation Center.

Khmer Rouge

A communist regime led by Pol Pot in Cambodia (1975–1979) that attempted to create a classless agricultural society, leading to the genocide of an estimated 1.5 to 3 million people.

Refugee

A person who has no choice but to flee their homeland due to war or political danger, often lacking a formal plan of departure or resources compared to typical immigrants.

Oceania

A region comprising a diverse sea of moving peoples, cultures, and islands in the Pacific, traditionally based on values of interconnection and sustainability.

Native Hawaiian

According to the OMB, a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii; it does not include individuals simply born in the state.

Settler Colonialism

A system where non-indigenous people settle in lands and create institutions and policies that displace or erase indigenous cultures for the benefit of the settlers.