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by Jeanette Yep (Editor), Peter Cha (Editor), Susan Cho Van Riesen (Editor)
Go to the right school.
Become a doctor or a lawyer.
Marry a nice Asian.
These are some of the hopes of our Asian parents. Knowing that our parents have sacrificed for us, we want to honor their wishes. But we also want to serve Jesus, and sometimes that can seem to conflict with family expectations. Discovering our Asian identity in the midst of Western culture means learning to bridge these and other conflicting values. We need wise counsel on
- our parents' ways of loving us
- vocations that show respect for our parents and allow us to serve God
- the "model minority" myth and performance pressures
- marriage, singleness, and being male and female
- racial reconciliation
- spirituality and church experiences
- unique gifts Asians bring to Western culture
This book, written by a team of Asian American student ministry workers who have been there, can serve as our guide on a difficult journey. The authors represent a variety of perspectives, including the immigrant experience of a Korean man, a third-generation Japanese-American's understanding of his parents' experience in the internment camps during World War II, and a Chinese American woman's struggle to communicate with her parents. Their accounts of humorous, frusrating and heartbreaking personal experiences (as well as stories from other Asian American students and adults) offer support and encouragement. And their ideas for living out the Christian faith between two cultures show us the way to wholeness.
Author Biography
Paul Tokunaga (Master of Christian Studies, New College, Berkeley) is vice president and director of strategic ministries for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. He started with InterVarsity as a student at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and has also worked with 2100 Productions and as Southeast Regional Director.
Jeanette Yep, an American-born Chinese, served as coordinator for Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents. She was an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship student leader at Mount Holyoke College. After graduation she spent a year studying Chinese language and culture in Taiwan. Recently she received an M.A. in communications from Northwestern University. Now in her twenty-first year on IV staff, she is a divisional director, based in Chicago. She is affectionately known by Urbana Student Mission Convention delegates as "Auntie Jeanette." She serves as a special director of staff training and development, working with student movements around the world.
Peter Cha is associate professor of pastoral theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He received his graduate training in theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.Div. And Th.M.) and received his doctorate in religion in society and personality from Northwestern University. He previously served as a campus staff member with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and as a youth pastor, church planter and senior pastor. His publications include chapters in Following Jesus without Dishonoring Your Parents (InterVarsity Press), articles in Korean Americans and Their Religions (Pennsylvania State University Press) in Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns (Zondervan) and in This Side of Heaven: Race, Ethnicity and Christian Faith (Oxford University Press), as well as articles in several scholarly and denominational journals.
Van Riesen is an area director with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship serving students at Stanford University, Santa Clara University, UC Santa Cruz and California State Monteray Bay University. Her parents emigrated from Korea when she was five years old. She is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, California.
Greg Jao (JD, Northwestern University Law School) is a vice president and the director of campus engagement for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. He is the author of Your Mind's Mission, the LifeGuide Bible study The Kingdom of God, and he is a contributor to Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents, a book on Asian American discipleship.
