Emma Gee

Emma Gee is an American activist and writer, who coined the term "Asian American" with Yuji Ichioka.

Emma Gee
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Occupationwriter
Known forCo-originator of the term Asian American

Biography

In 1968, Chinese American Gee and her Japanese American partner and future husband Yuji Ichioka, both graduate students at University of California, Berkeley, founded the Asian American Political Alliance and coined the term "Asian American."[1][2][3][4][5] She was instrumental in bringing together writings from Asians in America, most notably in the work Counterpoint (1978).[6] Gee taught some of the earliest classes in Asian American studies at Berkeley and University of California, Los Angeles.[7]

Gee is also an advocate of Asian American women and urged them to write and share prose and poetry. This included editing the book Asian Women (1971), developed from the first class ever taught on Asian Women in Berkeley.[7][8][9] She was later also involved in the Pacific Asian American Women Writers West, established in 1978.[10]

In 2004, UCLA's Asian American Studies Center created the "Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee Endowment for Social Justice and Immigration Studies" in honor of Ichioka and Gee's work.[4]

Works
  • Gee, Emma, ed. (1978). Counterpoint: Perspectives on Asian America. Los Angeles, CA: Asian American Studies Center.
  • Gee, Emma, ed. (1971). Asian Women. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

References
  1. Kaur, Harmeet. "The term 'Asian American' has a radical history". CNN. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  2. White, Alexis (6 June 2022). "Clarified: Understanding Asian American identity". WDSU. Archived from the original on 19 December 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  3. Wallace, Nina (2017-05-08). "Yellow Power: The Origins of Asian America". Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  4. Cheng, Cheryl (15 March 2021). "The Asian American Studies Center's Enduring Legacy". UCLA. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  5. Kambhampaty, Anna (22 May 2020). "In 1968, These Activists Coined the Term 'Asian American'—And Helped Shape Decades of Advocacy". Time. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  6. Choy, P. P. (1 December 1977). "Review: Counterpoint: Perspectives on Asian America, by Emma Gee". California History. 56 (4): 370–371. doi:10.2307/25139130.
  7. Fujino, Diane Carol (2012). Samurai Among Panthers: Richard Aoki on Race, Resistance, and a Paradoxical Life. U of Minnesota Press. pp. 185–186. ISBN 978-0-8166-7786-3.
  8. Grice, Helen (2002). Negotiating Identities: An Introduction to Asian American Women's Writing. Manchester University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-7190-6031-1.
  9. Leong, Russell (2014). Asian American Sexualities: Dimensions of the Gay and Lesbian Experience. Routledge. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-134-71778-1.
  10. Wei, William (1993). The Asian American Movement. Temple University Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-56639-183-2.
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