Asian Americans

Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent. It includes people who indicated their race(s) as "Asian" or reported entries such as "Chinese", "Indian", "Filipino", "Korean", "Japanese", "Vietnamese", and "Other Asian" or provided other detailed Asian responses. They comprise 4.8% of the U.S. population alone, while people who are Asian combined with at least one other race make up 5.6%As of 2012, Asian Americans had the highest educational attainment level and median household income of any racial demographic in the country, and in 2008 they had the highest median household income overall of any racial demographic.

Terminology

As with other racial and ethnicity based terms, formal and common usage have changed markedly through the short history of this term.

Prior to the late 1960s, people of Asian ancestry were usually referred to as Oriental, Asiatic, and Mongoloid. The term Asian American was coined by historian Yuji Ichioka, who is credited with popularizing the term, to frame a new "inter-ethnic-pan-Asian American self-defining political group" in the late 1960s.

Asian American Journalists Association

The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) was founded in 1981 by several Asian American journalists who felt a need to support greater participation by Asian Americans in the news media. The first national president of the association was television journalist Lloyd LaCuesta.

Its goals are:

AAJA is a nonprofit organization. Its national office is based in San Francisco. It has 20 chapters in the United States and Asia, with over 1,600 members.

AAJA has chapters throughout the country and in Asia. There are four different chapters in California alone—Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento. In addition to Los Angeles, the largest chapters are New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Members span the globe from Paris to Bangladesh.

Laura Ling

Laura G. Ling (born December 1, 1976) is an American journalist and writer. She worked for Current TV as a correspondent and vice president of its Vanguard Journalism Unit, which produced the Vanguard TV series. She was the host and reporter on E! Investigates, a documentary series on the E! Network. In November 2014, it was announced that Ling joined Discovery Digital Networks as its Director of Development.

Ling is the sister of Lisa Ling, who is a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show, National Geographic Explorer, and CNN. Laura Ling and fellow journalist Euna Lee were detained in North Korea after they illegally crossed into North Korea from the People's Republic of China without a visa. They were tried and convicted, then subsequently pardoned after former U.S. President Bill Clinton flew to North Korea to meet with Kim Jong-il.

Early life

Ling's father Doug is a Chinese immigrant, born in China during the 1920s; her mother Mary Mei-yan (née Wang) is a Taiwanese immigrant from Tainan, Taiwan, and was the head of the Los Angeles office of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs. They divorced when Laura was four years old and her sister Lisa was seven. Following the divorce, the two sisters were raised in the city of Sacramento, California, by their father. Ling describes herself as Chinese American, but a friend described her as "a true Valley girl ... about as Chinese as the cuisine at Chin Chin".

Lisa Ling

Lisa J. Ling (born August 30, 1973) is an American journalist, television presenter, and author. She is currently the host of This is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN. She is the former host of Our America with Lisa Ling on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, former co-host of ABC's The View (from 1999–2002), host of National Geographic Explorer, reporter on Channel One News, and special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN. She was the host of reality television show, The Job. Ling is the older sister of journalist Laura Ling.

Early life

Ling was born in Sacramento, California. Ling's father Doug is a Chinese immigrant, born in China during the 1920s; her mother Mary Mei-yan (née Wang) is a Taiwanese immigrant from Tainan, Taiwan, and formerly served as the head of the Los Angeles office of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs. Her grandfather, who was from Guangzhou, Guangdong, was one of the first Chinese students allowed to study in the United States in the 1930s. He received his graduate degree from New York University and an M.B.A degree from University of Colorado. He struggled to find a job in the United States and eventually opened the first Chinese restaurant in Folsom, California.