The Accidental Sociologist in Asian American Studies

How I became an American sociologist, and later an Asian Americanist, is rather accidental. I was born and raised in Zhongshan, a city in south China. Like many children in the turbulent China of the 1960s, I grew up too fast, bypassing a normal childhood to become the head of my household at age 10....

Min Zhou unpacks stereotypes and offers new thinking on contemporary Asian American immigrants Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean in her book, The Accidental Sociologist in Asian American Studies. This is a compelling auto-biographical and scholarly account from the perspective of a Chinese woman who grew up in the turbulent China of the 1960s, her life-changing decision to come to the U.S. (temporarily leaving her family, husband, and 10-month old son behind) and her international success as an Asian American sociologist, Asian Americanist, and renowned professor at UCLA.

Min Zhou candidly discusses the challenges, obstacles, and decisions that can advance or disrupt one s academic life. Her concerns, her doubts, and her choices are certain to be interesting to many of her scholarly peers as well as younger graduate students who may face comparable situations, no matter what their field of study.

The Accidental Sociologist in Asian American Studies recounts Professor Min Zhou s journey of critically examining the ever-changing experience of Chinese/Asian Americans. It is a part of the Asian Pacific Ideas' Professor-in-a-Pocket-Series.

The Asian Pacific Ideas Professor-in-a-Pocket Series features the innovative thinking and research of individual faculty of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. The Center s professors represent more than twenty academic disciplines and fields of study and include many of the leading scholars in the fields of history, literature, public policy, political science, sociology, education, anthropology, women s studies, law, health sciences, film, cultural studies, and Asian American Studies. Each volume of the series is written for the general reader and introduces new ideas around the history and current experience of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders today.