Finding Asian America In Cyberspace

Discovering new worlds on the Internet

by Oliver Wang and Larry Wong

As the Internet weaves its way into the business, educational, and personal lives of all Americans, Asian America has taken the technology into its own hands and used it in some surprising ways.

A few years ago, the Internet promised to revolutionize the way Americans conduct business and alter the avenues for social intercourse. In fact, when AsianWeek first reported on the increasing presence of APAs on the Internet in 1995, we predicted: "As we bear down on the upcoming millennium at an alarming pace, going on-line might be one of the ways we stay connected and unified in a world that's becoming increasingly fragmented." And so we have.

Indeed, the most relevant development for Asian Pacific Americans has been the growth of APA-focused World Wide Web sites and Internet resources. Just two years ago, there was no Channel A, no APANet, no sites devoted to everything from hapa issues to pictures lifted from John Woo movies.

While many companies are tripping over each other to develop technological ties with the Pacific Rim and Asia, there has yet to be a similar wave of development in the area of Asian American resources and sites--whether business, cultural, or political. This disproportionate gap suggests that perhaps Asian Americans are not developing as strong an Internet presence as suspected.

According to Steve Chin, co-founder and executive editor of Channel A, an on-line magazine for Asians and Asian Americans, 5 percent of the APA population are Internet users. In comparison, Nielsen Media Research states that 16 percent of the general U.S. population (16 and older) are Internet users.

The cultural and linguistic biases and limitations inherent with the Internet may explain the relative scarcity of active on-line users among APAs. "While the Internet is technically global, it's still very much within the context of American/Western sensibilities," said frequent on-line user Philip Djwa. "Mostly, we use text in the English language."

But still, the presence is impressive. As Wataru Ebihara writes in An Asian American Internet Guide, "Within this immense international interconnected network of computers, Asian Americans are alive, active, and articulate. Communicating over the music of modems and the tapping of computer keyboards, a poetry of electronic culture emerges from Asian America."

As an example of this "poetry," a search for APA-specific sites using Yahoo, one of the most popular Internet search engines, and the search term "Asian American" yields 279 sites reflecting the scope and diversity of Asian American interests. Included here are sites devoted to Asian American literature, health, writers workshops, jazz festivals, women's groups, and regional organizations, as well as the now standard Internet fodder of sex sites and the strange. (See sidebar for recommended sites.)

Asian Pacific Americans see the Internet as an effective tool to improve communication and exchange information. For Chin Yao, co-founder of the recently formed Asian Buying Consortium, a company that is using the Internet to bridge the Asian business sector with members of the APA community, access remains a top priority. "As long as [the cost for] access to the Internet remains low, and the reasons for people to get onto the Internet grow," Yao said, "it will continue growing into an even more effective channel to bridge business with the community.

"I think in the business sector many APAs have taken leadership roles and started businesses utilizing the Internet. Jerry Yang is one outstanding example in regards to his vision for the need for an Internet directory--thus the birth of Yahoo."

In fact, Yang has become one of the wunderkinder of the Internet, having co-founded Yahoo as a student at Stanford University and helped lead it to the top of the nation's Internet companies. After the latest quarterly financial earnings reports were released last month, Yahoo emerged as one of the three most successful--some analysts deemed it the most successful--Internet-related company.

Aside from the business side of the Internet, APA grass-roots and community organizations have increasingly relied on the technical advantages of on-line communication to alert and mobilize mass action.

"Just five years ago, keeping up with APA issues and campaigns took much more work," Chin explained. "We depended on lots of phone calls and a few community newspapers to stay informed. Today, the Internet gives concerned APAs instant access to the latest developments in politics, the social scene, and grass-roots organizing efforts."

Matthew Finucane, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, added, "Labor and other social justice movements are already benefiting from the ability to communicate and organize on local and global issues through the Internet, and I would cite the rapid Internet mobilization on the racist National Review cover as one recent example."

Finucane refers to the quick response by members of the APA political community to the recent cover of the National Review, which depicted the president, first lady, and vice president with Asian caricature. Within days of the magazine hitting newsstands, electronic notices and calls to protest were racing across APA student, civic, and community networks. Within two weeks, not only had the Internet been used to schedule meetings and protests, but full interview transcripts of debates between National Review Editor John O' Sullivan and Daphne Kwok, executive director of the Organization of Chinese Americans, were made available on-line.

As the controversy surrounding the National Review cover continues, advocates note wryly that they helped the magazine become more visible than it had ever been. It seems safe to say that many more people knew of the cover via the Internet than would have ever seen the magazine.

The role of the Internet in ethnic communities is part of the larger issue of the rapidly changing telecommunications industry. One of the consequences of the recent merger between Pacific Bell and Southern Bell Corp. was the allotment of approximately $50 million for community education and empowerment in the form of a Community Technology Fund. While the amount is sizable on any relative scale, the mission of the fund is equally massive: to help bring the benefits of telecommunications to traditionally underrepresented communities in California.

J. Craig Fong, general counsel for the Asian Pacific American Community Partnership, suggests that the community response to the Technology Fund should be tempered with caution. "The critical immediate issue is the administration and governance of the fund," he said. "The Asian Pacific community must be represented by one or two community-based, politically astute, respected people on the governance board of the fund. If not, the money could be used by organizations that do not have the interest of California's Asian Pacific Islanders at heart."

Moreover, the role of the telecommunications revolution may not necessarily be an improvement on existing modes of communication. Heidi Tom, coordinator for the Asian Pacific Islander Health Information Network, acknowledges the benefits of telecommunications to help move information on APA health issues nationwide, but reminds people that new isn't always better.

"While on-line information is quite expansive and the Internet has quickly become the preferred communication and information-sharing mode, the appropriateness and effectiveness of such usage still need to be considered," she said. "For instance, maybe it is still better for the community health clinic to offer free in-person health education classes rather than for the clinic's patients to be referred to some health-care home page that has the same information. A lot is to be said for traditional, personal interactions."

Tom draws attention to how the changing role of telecommunications does not come without cost. For example, many on-line users are finding World Wide Web-based travel sites a much easier and faster way to book flight tickets and car rentals. While this certainly is a plus for consumers, it is having a major adverse effect on the livelihood of careers such as travel agents and bank tellers, many of whom are finding their positions eliminated as a result of Internet alternatives.

But these concerns are unlikely to slow the march toward on-line access for APAs. As Internet Guide author Ebihara urges: "Venture out onto the hidden alleys and avenues of the information superhighway, and become and Asian American cybernaut ... an explorer, a dreamer pushing the envelope of cyberspace into the new world of information. They are voyagers like our immigrant Asian parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and 'boat people' who came to America without knowing what to expect. Saluting the spirit of [Star Trek's] Sulu, we explore strange new worlds, and boldly go to where no one has gone before."

Oliver Wang is the founder of the Asian Community Online Network (www.acon.org/acon) and can be reached at: oli@uclink4.berkeley.edu. Larry Wong is associate editor of AsianWeek.

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