Introduction to Special Issue: Activism as the Asian Feminist Critical Race (AsianFemCrit) Praxis

Abstract

The introduction article of the special issue draws from a rich history of Asian American feminist activism, highlights the evolution of this movement across various domains, and emphasizes the role of intersectionality in combating racism, xenophobia, and misogyny. We propose an Asian Feminist Critical Race (AsianFemCrit) framework with activism as its praxis. Asian American feminist activism is a form of resistance and a transformative practice aimed at dismantling systematic inequalities and advocating for solidarity and justice. Through AsianFemCrit praxis, we offer (a) listening and storytelling and (b) community care and collective intergenerational healing as new ways of understanding our relationships with ourselves, our community, and our integrity. Articles in this special issue present a blend of theoretical insights, empirical studies, and practical interventions, offering a diverse view of Asian American feminist activism’s past, present, and future trajectories. Through this lens, the special issue aims to advance understanding, inspire solidarity, and foster collective healing and liberation, underscoring the strength found in unity and celebrating the persistent spirit of Asian American feminist activism.

Keywords:

• Asian American feminism
• activism
• Asian feminist critical race

Introduction to Special Issue: Activism as an Asian Feminist Critical Race (AsianFemCrit) Praxis

This special issue extends a focused and nuanced look into the gendered and racialized oppressions Asian American women experience, and the resistance to these oppressions from the intersecting positions of race, gender, and immigration status against racism, xenophobia, and misogyny. It also aims to highlight the legacies of resilience, strength, and activism of Asian American women who have not only survived but advocated and led Asian American communities and built solidarity with other marginalized groups. Furthermore, as we look to the future of Asian American feminist psychology, this special issue works to forge and center the Asian American narratives in healing from past and current violence and thriving through a strength-based framework. Before introducing the articles in this special issue, we offer a brief overview of the background and history of Asian American feminist activism and some contemporary challenges. We propose an Asian Feminist Critical Race (AsianFemCrit) framework and situate activism as its praxis to help contextualize the needs, evolution, and future of Asian American feminist activism and as a backdrop of the contributing articles.

Asian Americans, in this special issue, refers to individuals of Asian descent who reside in the territory of the U.S. Under this umbrella term, a wide diversity exists, including different languages, ethnicities, histories, cultural practices, etc. In addition, it is also important to note that Asian American ethnic groups are racialized differently. For example, even though Asian Americans are frequently racialized as model minorities, Southeast Asian Americans are often seen as both conforming to and deviating from these stereotypes, such as gang members, dropouts, or sex workers. Based on the 2021 Pew Research Center report (Budiman & Ruiz, 2021), approximately 57% of Asian Americans, including 71% of Asian American adults, were born in another country, contrasting with 14% of all Americans and 17% of all American adults​. A significant proportion of Asian Americans live in the West (45%, nearly 30% in California alone), specifically in states like Hawaii (57% of the state population) and California (17% of the state population), about 24% live in the South, 19% in the Northeast, and 12% in the Midwest. Around 55% of Asian Americans over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher, which is significantly higher compared to 35% of the total U.S. population. While these statistics offer an overall picture of the diversity of Asian Americans, it is not a complete picture. It does not capture the depth and complexity within and between ethnic groups and a disaggregation of the data is required for a more nuanced understanding. For example, among those who were born outside of the U.S., more than 40% are less than proficient in English, which presents significant issues such as language barriers, cultural stigma, and difficulties in accessing care, education, and public services. Furthermore, despite doing well on the overall economic indicators (e.g., 10% of all Asians live in poverty compared to 13% of all U.S.), subgroups vary widely, with Asian Indians having the lowest rates at 6% and Mongolian and Burmese at 25%, which is almost twice the national average. People from Asia also made up about 15% of the 10.5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in 2017, which has implications for labor exploitation, trafficking, and immigration rights.

Background and History of Asian American Feminist Activism

Asian American feminist activism has a rich and diverse history that has evolved over the decades. Influenced by women’s movements across Asia, where activism was often connected to national independence movements, social reform, and combating gender-based inequalities, Asian feminist activists navigated the challenges of feminism within Asian contexts, contributing to a unique transnational feminist consciousness (Roces & Edwards, 2010). In the wake of the civil rights movements in the early 1960s and the feminist movement in the mid-1960s, Asian American feminist consciousness development was significantly influenced by the dual challenges of racial discrimination and gender bias, and the intersection of race, gender, class, and culture, leading to a nuanced understanding of feminism and the intersectional nature of feminist activism, emphasizing the importance of addressing multiple axes of oppression (Chow, 1987) and boarder efforts to address sexism, racism, and imperialism (Kao, 2009). Key focuses include combating stereotypes and misrepresentations (e.g., Shimizu, 2007), advocating for social justice and policy, especially concerning workplace equity and violence against women (e.g., Shah, 1997), and highlighting the specific socio-economic challenges faced by Asian American women (e.g., Espiritu, 1997).

1960s-1970s: Emergence and Solidarity

Asian American feminist activism emerged from the broader women’s liberation movement and the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Asian American women’s emergence into feminism was anchored to ethnic/racial and class identity and experiences, because Asian Americans’ alliances and solidarity with other racially minoritized and ethnically diverse communities were suppressed and exploited as ‘internal colonies’ or ‘Third World” within the U.S. (Young, 2006). The “Asian Women’s Caucus” at the historic Women’s Liberation Conference in 1969 is considered a pivotal moment that highlighted the unique struggles of Asian American women within the feminist movement, with activists like Grace Lee Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama. Grassroots advocates, middle-class campaigners, and student activists were the primary architects of the early Asian-American feminist movement, rallying around community-based concerns. For example, a women’s collective in Los Angeles established an Asian Women’s Center in 1972, offering drug abuse rehabilitation and childcare and other women’s health services, such as pregnancy counseling, birth control, and abortion referrals. It also became a crucial meeting place for the Asian American movement (Ling, 1989).

The 1968 Third World Liberation Front student strikes marked a pivotal moment in higher education, challenging the White, Eurocentric curriculum and demanding equal access to public universities for all minorities. It paved the way for the offering of ethnic studies courses in colleges and served as a catalyst for Asian American feminist activism. The first course on Asian American women was offered at the University of California at Berkeley in 1970. At the University of California at Los Angeles, the course “Asian Women in America” incorporated readings on women’s social activism work in Asia (e.g., Vietnam, China, and Japan) and actively engaged the community as part of the course. This included conducting classes in the Asian Women’s Center and the Pilipino Community Center and welcoming community members’ attendance and having women in local grassroots movements as speakers. The 1974 conference on Asian American women’s studies class with eight California colleges presented the concept of “triple oppression” or triple jeopardy, as the theoretical orientation for the course: racism, sexism, and capitalism, regarding contradictions in race, sex, and class status that Asian American women face (Chu, 1986).

1980s-1990s: Intersectionality and Cultural Critique

Intersectionality, or the recognition of multiple identities, including race, gender, and other social categories and the ways in which power, privilege, and oppression interact with each other and affect people’s lived experieces, became a focus in activist and academic circles in the 1980s and 1990s. Activists critiqued the lack of representation and the stereotyping of Asian American women in mainstream media and popular culture. Issues such as immigration, labor rights, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ Asian Americans gained prominence. An example of mainstream media and culture activism was the Asian Women United, founded in 1979 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area Asian American women. The group focused on producing educational materials, such as videos and films that were shown on public television, films festivals, and college classrooms across the country, and publications, like the 1989 publication of Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and about Asian American Women, which was used in most of the Asian American women studies courses in the 1990s (Kim, 2000).

In the 1990s, Asian American feminist discourse emphasized the importance of bicultural experiences, the process of decolonization, and cultural elements in the feminist activism specific to the lives of Asian American women. For examples, Esther Ngan-Ling Chow (1992) pointed to the internal and external barriers Asian American women faced in political activism as practiced in the U.S., such as the Asian cultural emphasis on the community and the collective over the individual, which sometimes conflicted with the direct (at times confrontational), individualistic, and public style of American activism. Sonia Shah’s (1994) work on the pan-Asian feminist agenda shed light on the ways colonial legacies, socio-economic disparities, and cultural traditions intersect to shape Asian American women’s lives. Her advocacy for a pan-Asian feminist agenda was rooted in the belief that collective action and mutual support can lead to meaningful change. The recognition of differing experiences within the pan-ethnic Asian American category, expanded by new immigrants, also facilitated separate racial/ethnic feminism, such as “Pinayism” or “Pinay Power,” a Filipina feminist response to the once hegemonic “Yellow Power” (De Jesus, 2005). Haunani-Kay Trask (1996, 2012), a Kanaka Maoli/Native Hawaiian scholar, educator, and activist, focused on decolonization and the intersection of gender, race, and colonialism, and advocated for the empowerment of Hawaiian women and the dismantling of patriarchal structures that oppress indigenous cultures. Trask emphasized the importance of indigenous knowledge and leadership in the feminist movement, challenging both Western feminism and the ongoing impacts of colonization, to assert the sovereignty and dignity of Native Hawaiian women within their own cultural paradigms.

Asian American feminist psychologists, such as Reiko Homma True, explored and re-centered a collectivistic conceptualization necessary for effective mental health care with Asian American women. True (1990) highlighted the significance of recognizing both sexism and racism and how “cultural scripts” could be different for Asian American women while in psychotherapy. In noting this intersectionality, she made specific recommendations for psychotherapy, especially encouraging White therapists to respect Asian American clients’ cultural scripts, in which family may be a center of focus over the individual. This respect for clients may also mean that therapists consider reluctance for verbal or emotional expressiveness not as pathological but as being culturally adaptive within an Asian American cultural context. True also recommended therapists be thoughtful about self-disclosure and support Asian American women by utilizing therapy to connect clients to their sense of agency.

2000s-Present: Global Perspectives

Asian American feminist activism in the 21st century has embraced global perspectives, addressing issues such as globalization, human rights, colonialism, and violence against women globally. The internet and social media have played a significant role in connecting activists and amplifying their voices. Online platforms provide spaces for dialogue, organizing, and advocacy. Activists continue to address issues such as workplace discrimination, domestic violence, sex trafficking, and the challenges faced by immigrant and refugee women, such as https://www.asianamfeminism.org. Simultaneously, focusing on allying with other marginalized groups, both within the U.S. and globally, has been an important direction for Asian American feminist activism. There has been a concerted effort toward alliance building with other groups of color, such as Black, Indigenous, and Latine groups, as well as LGBTQ+ communities. Asian American feminist voices continue to argue for consciousness-raising around the structural oppression and power structures that enable patriarchy, heterosexism, racism, sexism, ableism, classism, and colonialism to persist, and that Asian American positionality should be of a restive stance (Kimoto, 2018).

Asian American feminist psychologists have engaged in activism addressing racism, xenophobia, and discrimination, particularly in response to incidents like the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. For example, Cheng et al. (2021) proposed a conceptual model that emphasized the importance of rechanneling the experience of COVID-19 anti-Asian racism toward resilience. They identified a tripartite process of collective psychosocial resilience comprised of critical consciousness of discrimination as a common fate, critical consciousness-informed racial/ethnic identity, and advocacy, for empowering Asian Americans and protecting them against the harmful effects of COVID-19 anti-Asian racism during and beyond the pandemic. Chopra and Tsong (2023) offered a critical consciousness-informed anti-racist pedagogy as a form of activism and anti-racist feminist practice to cultivate racial healing and liberation for Asian American counseling and psychology students and recommend anti-racist teaching strategies that include educators’ modeling, challenging internalized oppression and teaching accurate history, building community and collectivism, cultivating solidarity with other communities, and supporting student activism. Tsong et al. (2022) proposed a critical consciousness-informed antiracist parenting framework for Asian American parents, practitioners, and educators who work with Asian Americans to understand and heal from existing and continuing racial trauma as well as strategies and tools to enact social change toward a more just future, with recommendations that include cultivating antiracist awareness, building skills and engaging in activism, and fostering an antiracist parent-child relationship.

Asian American feminist activists also have worked to increase political representation at all levels of government. This includes supporting Asian American candidates, advocating for policies that address the needs of their communities, and encouraging voter participation. For example, Tania Israel, a public scholar-activist and psychologist, conducts policy-relevant research about LGBTQ issues that informs policymakers and engages in political campaigns, community organizing, and political advocacy to advance mental health issues, such as presenting at the Congressional briefing on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women’s Act and participating in the First White House Bisexual Community Policy Briefing. Michelle Wu, Mayor of Boston, was the first Asian American woman to serve on the Boston City Council and the first woman and first person of color to have been elected mayor of Boston. While on the city council, Wu advocated for health insurance access for transgender individuals, paid parental leave, and affordable housing. As Mayor, she supports fare-free public transportation, invests in public schools, and advocates for policies to combat climate change. In response to the 2023 fires in Lahaina, Maui Medic Healers Hui, led by Noelani Ahia, represents a Kanaka Maoli, indigenous, and community response that also continues to work in solidarity with other marginalized communities to address healing and decolonization within the context of this most recent community trauma. Organizations like Asian Americans Advising Justice (AAJC) work to empower Asian American communities through advocacy, education, and litigation to address issues such as voting rights, immigration reform, language access, and combating discrimination. National Korean American Services & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) are examples of organizations that have campaigned for comprehensive immigration reform, including pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and family reunification.

Contemporary Challenges of Asian American Feminist Activism

One of the primary challenges facing Asian American feminist activism today is ensuring the movement remains inclusive and intersectional. This involves recognizing and addressing the diverse experiences within the Asian American community, including differences in ethnicity, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and immigration status. Ensuring these varied voices are heard and their concerns addressed is crucial for the movement’s integrity and effectiveness. Secondly, despite progress, Asian American women continue to face significant underrepresentation in media and politics. For example, a 2023 report by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative examining films from 2007 to 2022 found that across 1,600 films and 1,784 directors, only 10 directors were Asian American women (0.005%) (Smith, Pieper, & Wheeler, 2023). Even though Asian American women are 3.7% of the total U.S. population, 1.9% of all current voting Members of Congress, 0.1% of all Members of Congress to date, and 1.3% of all state legislators are identified as Asian American Pacific Islander women (Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), 2024). This lack of visibility perpetuates stereotypes and limits the community’s influence on public discourse and policymaking. Amplifying Asian American women’s voices in these arenas is essential for promoting a more accurate and nuanced understanding of their experiences and contributions. Furthermore, the surge in anti-Asian racism and violence, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, poses a significant challenge. Asian American feminist activism must navigate these heightened tensions, advocating for safety, justice, and systemic change to combat racism and xenophobia effectively. Lastly, economic disparities and labor exploitation disproportionately affect Asian American women, particularly those in low-wage jobs and undocumented immigrants. Addressing these issues requires a concerted effort to advocate for fair labor practices, economic justice, and support for the most vulnerable members of the community.

AsianFemCrit Framework

We propose an Asian Feminist Critical Race (AsianFemCrit) theoretical framework as an extension of Critical Race Theory and Asian Critical Theory (AsianCrit). AsianFemCrit draws on the strengths of critical race theory and AsianCrit and further emphasizes the intersectionality of experience with oppression and resistance and the need to extend conversations about race and racism beyond Black and White in the U.S. It also underscores the multiplicity of gendered and racialized colonization processes that inform and shape the research in this special issue.

AsianCrit

Iftikar & Museus (2018) offered Asian Critical (AsianCrit) theory as an extension and adaptation of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to address the unique historical, cultural, and socio-political experiences of Asian Americans. It outlines a unique set of tenets that are designed to provide a useful analytic framework for examining and understanding the ways that racism affects Asian Americans in the U.S. AsianCrit adopts and adapts key concepts from CRT, such as racial realism, which acknowledges the enduring nature of racism, and interest convergence, which suggests that advances for racial minorities are often only made when they align with the interests of the dominant group. AsianCrit also introduces new concepts or significantly reinterprets existing ones to better reflect the specificities of Asian American racialization, such as the focus on the model minority myth and its implications, intersectionality with a specific emphasis on intra-ethnic diversity and the impacts of immigration status, and the transnational dimensions of Asian American identities. This work has highlighted the need for more nuanced policies and practices that recognize the diversity within Asian American communities, as well as the structural barriers they face.

AsianFemCrit

We propose an Asian Feminist Critical Race (AsianFemCrit) perspective that incorporates additional knowledge of Asian American racial, gender, and other intersectional realities that are crucial in the examination of Asian American issues and experiences through the lens of Asian American feminism and the work of Asian American feminist activism as the praxis. The historical binary logic that places women of color on the periphery of anti-racist and anti-sexist struggles are rigid and dualistic ways of thinking that often oversimplify and overlook the unique experiences and challenges faced by women of color. This type of logic prioritizes the struggles of either race or gender, leaving women of color in an intermediate and marginalized position where their intersectional experiences are not fully acknowledged or addressed. Scholars in feminist politics and Asian American studies, such as Fujiwara & Roshanravan (2018) and Lisa Lowe (1991), argue for the importance of examining inter-ethnic privilege and power and the reproduction of oppression. They emphasize the critical consciousness of solidarity and coalition because intersectionality highlights the inadequacy of the hierarchical and binary approach in understanding the intricacies of Asian American challenges. It also underscores the necessity for collaborative action in Asian American feminist work, whether it be research, clinical practice, teaching, or community engagements. It is essential to cultivate a critical consciousness of the multiple layers of power and privilege we occupy or resist.

Feminist theory focuses on gender equity, intersectionality, and the critique of patriarchal systems. Integrating feminist theory into AsianCrit tenets enriches the analysis of race, gender, and power dynamics affecting Asian Americans and the diaspora communities and the unique challenges and experiences. Asian American feminisms have been defined by their fight against oppression and dedication to community support. This movement, as scholars have observed, has always emphasized caring for the community through informal networks, a trend that was already noticeable in the 1960s and 1970s (Chow, 1987; Serafica et al., 2000; True, 1990). The ability of Asian American women to navigate both their ethnic and racial identities alongside their feminist objectives has been highlighted as a key aspect of this movement (Root, 1995). This challenges the false notion that views Eastern traditions as outdated and the West as the epitome of progress and modernity, a perspective that tends to prioritize White European American feminist narratives. The resilience of Asian American feminists, particularly in their struggle against sexism, predates many recognized feminist efforts. Despite the patriarchal tendencies reinforced by Confucianism within Asian American families and communities, other philosophical traditions like Taoism and Buddhism have offered more balanced views on gender, shaping women’s understanding of gender equality (Chin, 2007). Thus, we offer the following AsianFemCrit tenets:

1. The centrality of racialized sexism and gendered racism: Recognizing how systemic gendered racism and racialized sexism shape educational, economic, and social opportunities.

2. Challenging and disrupting dominant, colonial, and patriarchal ideologies and narratives: Questioning and problematizing the ideology and narratives that uphold white supremacy, patriarchy, and model minority myths that have been socialized over a lifetime and across generations.

3. Gendered transnational contexts: Acknowledging the gendered global, historical, and colonial contexts affecting the Asian diasporas and the related identity and community dynamics.

4. Intersectionality and Anti-Essentialism: Challenging essentialist views and recognizing the complexity of diverse identities within the Asian American and diaspora communities and how systems of oppression intersect and affect individuals in different ways.

5. Commitment to Solidarity and Justice: Advocating for solidarity and a broad conception of social justice and pursuing equity and liberation for all marginalized groups.

The Centrality of Racialized Sexism and Gendered Racism

AsianCrit emphasizes that race and racism are central to understanding the lived experiences of Asian Americans (Iftikar & Museus, 2018). It argues that racial dynamics in the U.S. and globally significantly impact Asian Americans from immigration policies to societal stereotypes. Feminist theory emphasizes the intersection of race and gender, highlighting how Asian American women and non-binary individuals experience racism intertwined with sexism. AsianFemCrit examines how patriarchal and racial stereotypes specifically impact these groups, such as through hypersexualization or emasculation. It necessitates a nuanced understanding of how racism is gendered and how sexism is racialized (Mukkamala & Suyemoto, 2018). For example, women of Asian descent are often hypersexualized, a phenomenon rooted in historical stereotypes such as the “Lotus Blossom” or “Dragon Lady” (Espiritu, 1997; Kim & Chung, 2005). These stereotypes portray Asian women as either submissive and sexually available or as cunning and sexually dangerous. This hypersexualization is a product of both racial and gendered perceptions, leading to significant social and psychological impacts. AsianFemCrit perspective emphasizes the gendered aspect of racialization, showcasing how these stereotypes contribute to sexism, violence against women, and the fetishization of Asian women. This dual lens offers a comprehensive critique of how societal narratives perpetuate both racism and sexism, affecting the lived experiences of Asian American women.

Challenge and Disrupt Dominant, Colonial, and Patriarchal Ideologies and Narratives

AsianCrit challenges the dominant ideologies that perpetuate racial hierarchies and inequalities, particularly those affecting Asian Americans. This includes debunking the “model minority” myth, which falsely portrays Asian Americans as a monolithic group of successful and compliant minorities. This myth obscures the real, diverse experiences of Asian Americans, including struggles with racism, poverty, and identity, as well as the historical and intergenerational resiliencies. The model minority myth also obfuscates the underlying hierarchical dynamics of White supremacy and the ways in which anti-Asian racism serves as a tool toward anti-Black racism (Kim, 1999). The work of Wang and Santos (2023) illustrates how Asian Americans are both victims and perpetrators of racial oppression and the negative community impacts of such triangulation on Asian Americans, including minimization among Asian Americans about the realities of anti-Asian racism and a sense of needing to deprioritize these realities in the context of anti-Black racism. AsianFemCrit challenges patriarchal, White supremacist ideologies, and by applying a feminist lens, this tenet can be expanded to critique not only the model minority myth but also how this myth and other dominant narratives erase or diminish the experiences of women and non-binary people within Asian communities. It calls for dismantling ideologies and narratives that uphold White supremacy, patriarchy, and global colonial structures.

Gendered Transnational Contexts

AsianCrit examines how historical and contemporary migrations, colonial histories, and global economic policies affect Asian diasporas. It considers how these factors contribute to the formation of identities, communities, and struggles within Asian American populations. Feminist theory examines how gender shapes migration patterns, global labor divisions, settler colonialism, and transnational families. AsianFemCrit perspective reveals the gender-specific impacts of global inequalities on Asian diasporas, such as the exploitation of female migrant labor. It also examines how traditional gender roles are challenged and reconfigured in diasporic contexts, affecting identity and community dynamics.

Intersectionality and Anti-Essentialism

AsianCrit anti-essentialism challenges the notion of a fixed Asian American identity, recognizing the diverse and dynamic nature of individual and collective identities within these communities. Building on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s (1991) concept of intersectionality, AsianFemCrit underscores the complexity of identities, including gender, sexuality, race, and class, critically examines how systems of oppression intersect and affect individuals in unique ways, challenges essentialist views of Asian American communities, and promotes a more inclusive understanding of diverse experiences within these communities, especially those of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized groups. Queer Asian Americans, for example, navigate complex landscapes of identity, facing discrimination and marginalization both within and outside their racial communities (see a comprehensive review by Ching et al., 2018). Their experiences highlight the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and, sometimes, immigration status. AsianFemCrit allows for a nuanced understanding of these intersectional identities. It emphasizes the importance of considering how systemic oppressions interlock, impacting individuals’ lives in multifaceted ways. This approach advocates for inclusive practices and policies that recognize and address the diverse needs of queer Asian Americans.

Commitment to Solidarity and Justice

Finally, feminist theory’s commitment to dismantling patriarchal structures and promoting gender equity complements AsianCrit’s focus on racial justice. AsianFemCrit asserts Asian Americans rightful place within the fabric of the U.S. society and resists the Orientalizing gaze of White heteropatriarchy. Concurrently, it calls for active engagement in self-reflection regarding Asian American privilege, given our unique racial positioning in the U.S., and acknowledges our involvement in the broader context of settler colonialism and the attempts to align with Whiteness. AsianFemCrit asks Asian American feminists to navigate the complex space of deliberate objectification or unconscious projections of the Asian body while also striving to dismantle the model minority myth and confront the structural powers that perpetuate White supremacy and heteropatriarchy. In essence, Asian American feminisms are committed to fostering unity in the fight against racism directed at and exclusion of various marginalized groups and advocating for a broader conception of social justice that includes fighting against gender oppression, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, and pursuing equitable opportunities and liberation for all marginalized communities. This involves both critiquing existing social structures and actively working toward transformative change that benefits not only Asian Americans but also other oppressed groups. AsianFemCrit enriches the analysis of race, gender, and power but also fosters a more inclusive and equitable approach to addressing the complexities of identity and oppression in Asian American and diaspora communities.

Activism as an Asian American Feminist Critical Race Praxis

In this special issue, we define “activism” broadly as actions that promote change in various spheres of influence, such as individual and community intervening actions, public engagements and advocacy, scholarship, teaching, training and supervision, clinical preventions and interventions, etc. Through the lens of the AsianFemCrit framework, we understand and posit activism as its praxis. It is not only a form of resistance, but a transformative practice aimed at dismantling systematic inequalities and advocating for solidarity and justice. It offers a nuanced critique of power structures and targets stereotypes, discrimination, and marginalization to address issues such as sexism, patriarchy, racism, and cultural expectations limiting Asian American women and other marginalized communities’ opportunities and rights. Asian American feminist activism recognizes the intersectionality of identity as a strength rather than a barrier and highlights the importance of solidarity and empathy. In reimagining activism as the AsianFemCrit praxis to address the contemporary challenges, we offer the following new ways of understanding our relationships with ourselves, our community, and our integrity: (a) listening and storytelling and (b) community care and collective, intergenerational healing.

Listening and Storytelling

Storytelling through the lens of AsianFemCrit allows us to disrupt dominant, colonial, and patriarchal narratives that have been socialized over a lifetime and across generations. It may take the form of academic case studies, artistic expression, or spiritual community practices and creates space and freedom to construct a new narrative that focuses on post-traumatic growth and resiliency. This represents liberatory practices that foster growing and expanding our work beyond the dominant “culture of silence” and “circles of certainty” (Freire, 1990) and push back on patriarchal boundaries of academia and clinical practice to reclaim ancestral healing practices. It allows us to resist stereotypes of Asian Americans by centering intersectionality. Diverse voices are revealed and flourish through the disaggregation of restricted and constricted U.S.-centric monolithic experiences and identities. AsianFemCrit praxis asks us to reconnect to our history and reframe psychology to center a sociopolitical and transnational perspective (Mohanty, 1984) and move beyond individualized case conceptualization to consider the impact of power and privilege on an individual’s psyche within the context of intergenerational resiliencies and traumas, along with geopolitical realities including settler colonialism and interethnic discrimination.

AsianFemCrit provides a framework to excise the model minority myth from the U.S. imagination and explore the vulnerable realities of internalized oppression and the nuances of racialized sexism and gendered racism. Events like the shootings in Atlanta in 2021 remind us there is no path to wholeness in settling for honorary Whiteness as Asian American women continue to be objectified through the lens of White supremacy and what Rankine & Loffreda (2015) refers to as the racial imaginary. AsianFemCrit calls for us to move away from “imperial scholarship” that perpetuates racial and gender stereotypes and White supremacist and patriarchal hierarchies and move toward leveraging listening and storytelling. Listening has been explored as a form of activism that reinvigorates a sense of agency, politicization, and a reconnection to resilience (Halliwell & Shannahan, 2024). Listening can be a powerful reclamation of the feminist values of consciousness-raising and political awakening. It is an act of moving toward hope, resourcing strengths, and elevating relationships while moving away from medicalization, victimization, and pathologization. Feminist activism that centers on listening takes the personal into the political realm while personalizing connection and intimacy over control. It involves the concurrent work of generating hope while acknowledging and responding to pain with the understanding that “resilience and justice [are understood] as parallel relational activities” (Halliwell & Shannahan, p.19). Resilience emerges from the relational activity whereby resources are called up, including present, past, and imagined resources. Ancestors may be brought into the relational frame along with other sources of support and help individuals connect with themselves along with a lineage beyond their imagination until now. Resilience, health, and hope are not just an internal individual experience but a relationally cultivated act. As an AsianFemCrit praxis, resilience is a relational and revolutionary activity with the dance of listening and storytelling as the central dimension of a co-created reality.

Community Care and Collective Healing

The concept of communal mastery (Miller et al., 2022) provides a helpful, healing, strength-based Asian American cultural perspective away from the harms of stereotypes like the model minority myth. Unlike social support which is a one-way receiving of guidance or support, communal mastery is derived from interpersonal connection and efficacy that emerges from a challenging situation. That is, relationships form the foundation and central strategy for overcoming challenges. We may expand upon the Asian American feminist recommendations made decades earlier by Homma True (1990) to utilize a family orientation. Rather than pathologizing the collectivistic and interdependent orientation as codependent or enmeshed, communal mastery emphasizes the strength of these connections and encourages people to build boundaries and relationships to reconnect with their own vision, values, and integrity. It is a collective and mutual coping process that emphasizes forming coalitions with significant others and where individuals see themselves being able to effectively achieve their goals and cope with life challenges by being connected to significant people in their lives, including family, friends, and community (Miller et al.). Mohanty’s (2003) framework also offers a significant understanding of activism and collective healing within the context of marginalized communities. She emphasized the importance of “solidarity” over “sisterhood,” suggesting that genuine connections among women must be based on shared struggles against systems of oppression rather than a presumed universal female identity.

Asian American feminist activism as an AsianFemCrit praxis centers on solidarity and calls for collaborative healing processes that recognize the shared histories of oppression and resilience among different communities, fostering a collective approach to healing. An example of community care and collective healing as Asian American Feminist Activism praxis is the intergenerational healing and justice activism efforts on the profound historical trauma of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II. Asian American feminist activism played a crucial role in the Redress Movement, which sought formal apologies and reparations for incarcerated Japanese Americans. Feminist leaders like Amy Mass emphasized the need for healing and restitution, framing the issue within broader discussions of racial justice and equality. The trauma of incarceration affected not just those who were directly incarcerated but also their descendants and activists like Satsuki Ina who have also gone beyond the boundaries of academia to speak out in solidarity with current communities facing mass incarceration and to lead in community, intergenerational healing. Asian American feminist activists have focused on intergenerational healing, recognizing the complex ways in which trauma affects family dynamics, identity, and community ties, as well as building solidarity with other marginalized groups and recognizing the interconnectedness of all oppression. Feminist activists have also been at the forefront of opposing contemporary policies that echo the injustices of the past, drawing parallels to the incarceration camps to contest racial profiling, mass surveillance, xenophobia, and the detention of immigrant communities. By fostering alliances with other racial, ethnic, and social justice movements, Asian American feminists have contributed to a broader understanding of social justice that includes but is not limited to a single community’s specific experiences.

Overview of the Special Issue Articles

This special issue is born out of collaborative work over a 3-year process between the editor of Women and Therapy, Debra Kawahara, the guest editors, Yuying Tsong, Grace Kim, and Kayoko Yokoyama, the contributing authors, and the reviewers, encompassing the COVID pandemic starting from 2020. The call for proposals invited submissions of quantitative and qualitative studies, theoretical papers, analytical reviews, and best practices. There are five articles in this special issue, including this introduction. Articles include a best practice of a grassroots organization working with targeted immigrant, asylum-seeking, Black, and Indigenous groups; a best practice of an intergenerational mentorship program for Filipina/x/o youth in Southern California; a qualitative study utilizing collaborative autoethnography between six researchers in three mentor-mentee dyads exploring what it means to pursue Asian/Asian American feminist mentoring; and a qualitative study interviewing 18 Asian American activists. These articles collectively present various forms of Asian American feminist activism as a blend of theory and action that embody a commitment to create a more equitable world and offer a blueprint for challenging the status quo and inspiring changes across societal boundaries.

Newlin (2024) introduces Tsuru for Solidarity, a grassroots organization and a Japanese American initiative that champions anti-racism through activism, community engagement, and healing circle gatherings. It explores the intergenerational trauma stemming from WWII incarceration and how this history propels the Japanese American community toward solidarity with other marginalized groups. The concept of Transformative Solidarity, grounded in Feminist Solidarity, is highlighted as a means for healing and social change through cross-community alliances. It offers a narrative that weaves personal experiences with broader socio-political contexts, emphasizing the importance of remembering history to prevent its repetition.

Saavedra and her colleagues (2024) discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wellbeing of Filipinas, focusing on their experiences of gendered racial capitalism. It explores the radical healing processes within the Lakas Mentorship Program, a Southern California initiative aimed at empowering Filipina/x/o American youth through feminist activism and mentorship. The authors, leaders within the program, utilize Pinayism and the Psychological Framework for Radical Healing to discuss healing from intersectional oppressions. It emphasizes the importance of community-engaged healing, critical reflection, and the reclamation of agency for Filipinas, challenging conventional therapeutic approaches and contributing to the discourse on psychological wellbeing and activism.

Kim and her colleagues’ (2024) study on Asian/Asian American feminist mentoring (A/AAFM) within academia focuses on the experiences of three mentor-mentee dyads in psychology. It discusses the unique challenges faced by Asian and Asian American faculty and students, emphasizing the importance of mentoring that acknowledges racial, cultural identities, feminist values, and activism. The study advocates for mentoring approaches that foster community, mutual growth, and the flattening of power hierarchies, aiming to empower students and faculty of Asian descent through collaborative, culturally sensitive practices that challenge systemic inequities and promote inclusivity in predominantly white institutions.

"Voices Unveiled" by Chopra and her colleagues (2024) explores the experiences and reflections of Asian American activists, challenging the "model minority" stereotype through intersectional feminist activism. It highlights the activists’ journeys to awareness and action against oppression, fostered by education, community support, and personal experiences of racism. The study emphasizes the importance of critical consciousness, community, and counter-narratives in sustaining activism. It also discusses the impact of activism on relationships and the necessity of self-care and hope in combating burnout. The findings underscore the collective struggle for liberation and the diverse ways activism can manifest, offering insights and recommendations for future Asian American activists.

Conclusion

The aim of this special issue is to highlight the legacies of resilience, strength, and diverse praxis of Asian American feminist activism and its rich tapestry of resistance and advocacy that has and continues to shape the lives and experiences of Asian Americans, particularly Asian American women. We offer the Asian Feminist Critical Race (AsianFemCrit) framework as a robust lens through which to understand and navigate the complexities of identity, oppression, and resistance and assert Asian American feminist activism as the AsianFemCrit praxis. The articles within this issue collectively affirm the necessity of a continued commitment to solidarity, community care, and collective healing, echoing the vital importance of storytelling and listening as tools for empowerment and transformation. Together, these articles offer a comprehensive view of the current state of Asian American feminist activism and wellbeing. They highlight the necessity of intersectional understanding, community engagement, and the acknowledgment of historical and cultural contexts in fostering effective activism and mentoring relationships. The emphasis on healing, solidarity, and empowerment underscores a progressive shift toward more inclusive and responsive academic and social practices. As we look to the future, this special issue serves as a call to action, urging us to embrace the praxis of Asian American feminist activism in our ongoing fight against systemic inequalities and as a transformative path toward collective healing and liberation.

Disclosure statement

We have no conflict of interest to disclose.