Trespassers?: Asian Americans and the Battle for Suburbia

by Willow Lung-Amam

Beyond the gilded gates of Google, little has been written about the suburban communities of Silicon Valley. Over the past several decades, the region’s booming tech economy spurred rapid population growth, increased racial diversity, and prompted an influx of immigration, especially among highly skilled and educated migrants from China, Taiwan, and India. At the same time, the response to these newcomers among long-time neighbors and city officials revealed complex attitudes in even the most well-heeled and diverse communities.  Trespassers? takes an intimate look at the everyday life and politics inside Silicon Valley against a backdrop of these dramatic demographic shifts. At the broadest level, it raises questions about the rights of diverse populations to their own piece of the suburban American Dream. It follows one community over several decades as it transforms from a sleepy rural town to a global gateway and one of the nation's largest Asian American–majority cities. There, it highlights the passionate efforts of Asian Americans to make Silicon Valley their home by investing in local schools, neighborhoods, and shopping centers. It also provides a textured tale of the tensions that emerge over this suburb's changing environment. With vivid storytelling, Trespassers? uncovers suburbia as an increasingly important place for immigrants and minorities to register their claims for equality and inclusion.  

Genres: Race, Urban Planning, Asian American

265 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 16, 2017

Reviews

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, I'm the first to review! I heard about this book from a high school friend's post on FB and decided to order the paperback. Felt very surreal to read this because I'm a graduate of MSJ (c/o 2006), was in eighth grade at Hopkins Jr. High during the infamous boundary disputes with Weibel/Irvington, AND my parents' home is in "Mission Ranch", an area I didn't know had a name, but was apparently the site of contentious disputes over "McMansions" vs preserving the neighborhood character.
Because this book hits so close to home (like, literally) I have a lot of thoughts that won't fit into a Goodreads review, and would require me to give this a second reading to fully absorb everything. The book alternated between two types of narratives: 1) anecdotes via interviews with various Fremont students, parents, residents, council members, and 2) discussion of policies, CCRs, zoning ordinances, and national laws (ex 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act).
Since I'm a sociology nerd, I found the second type of narrative to be much more interesting, and learned much from reading about how laws, policies, and systemic changes have molded suburban communities, affecting the population distribution and the types of landscapes (both home, school, and "the third space" shopping centers). As this book will tell you, though it appears that the Asians in Fremont have achieved the American dream by living in an area so affluent with so many diverse options for food/worship/community, they have faced many challenges from "native" residents and city officials questioning their place in Fremont and their rights to shape their environment.
I'm not entirely sure how I felt about the many quotes regarding MSJ's competitive and privileged climate. Some of it seemed salacious and provocative, but at the same time they were all accurate. Back in high school I was also familiar with jokes about how the students drive nicer cars than the teachers, how each graduation had more valedictorians than a classroom, how an A minus is an Asian fail, etc etc. I guess because this is all something I've lived through AND critiqued myself back in the day, so I don't really know what to say about it. I do wish that the author had provided more sources/statistics for some statements in the book (can't recall any specific ones) since I felt a few times that some of it sounded like hearsay and wasn't very convincing to me. But overall the book was extensively well-researched. I would recommend it to anyone who went to MSJ and is curious about how our town is represented, AND in general to anyone who's interested in city planning and learning about the interplay of personal vs political as immigrants strive to assimilate and live comfortably in suburban American, an area that was not always welcoming to those who are different.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a reading group with friends, two of whom are from Fremont, which made me enjoy this book a lot. Fremont is the focus of this book as a suburb that has seen a tremendous influx of Asian American residents. The book discusses the conflicts about suburban inclusivity in local politics that this influx has engendered.

I'm surprised to learn that well-off suburbs in a place as liberal as the Bay Area would be the site of conflict (in the form of urban planning policy) between Asian Americans, which I often feel is a group that doesn't face a large number of specialized modern political issues, and White Americans. It's perhaps not as surprising once you learn that Fremont's Asian population—many of whom are members of immigrant families who, taken collectively, hold different patterns of values than other segments of people in Fremont—grew from 2% in 1970 to 51% in 2010. When I entered college, I was surprised to meet students from the Bay Area whose high school student bodies were 90% Asian. That kind of rapid demographic change forces some difficult conversations about how institutions in the community should adapt. I don't think there is a clear answer of what schools and homes in Fremont would ideally look like, but I would tend to agree with the author that we should view existing and new urban planning policies with a critical eye and strive for communities in which reasonable differences in people's values can coexist.

This is a well-written and interesting book for readers who are interested in issues of race in urban planning, for people interested in Asian American issues, and for people who are familiar with the South Bay.

(Reading this makes me wonder what kind of issues are prominent in the local politics of my hometown. I didn't follow local politics while I was living there.)

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who grew up nearby but not in Fremont (mostly grew up in Cupertino, parents now live in Milpitas) as the kid of two Chinese immigrants, this was a very personally illuminating book in revealing a lot of the ways that local institutions and use of space are racialized, as well as examining the significant role of class in belonging and shaping the "community." It was a bit, er, almost traumatizing to read the chapter about public schools since it brought up a lot of painful memories but I would highly recommend this book especially as it covers a topic (upper middle class and wealthy Asian "ethnoburbs") that isn't commonly examined and is not too heavy in academic jargon.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

The meat of the book comprises three chapters: education and the increasingly hyper-competitive culture of the local high school; Asian shopping centers; and housing, zoning, and resistance to McMansions. Of the three sections, I found the second one on shopping centers to be the most engaging and convincing. I think I found myself less moved by the first and third sections simply because it was hard to ignore the issue of extreme wealth, e.g. the battle over McMansions is really just a battle between two groups of very wealthy people who want to do what they want with their neighborhood, and the role of race seemed much more tenuous.

I guess the book also seemed a bit inconsistent because at times the narrative seemed to appeal to free markets, e.g. there is market demand for Asian shopping centers, and so developers are justified in building them and complaints of there being "too many" reek of racism. I find this basically convincing (which is why I liked the second section best). But then in the first section it felt like the author wanted me to sympathize with people who chose to move to a hyper-competitive school district and then felt sad when some people moved away because it was too competitive. All in all the book raised some interesting and important issues, but the delivery could have been better.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The ritualistic terrain of everyday life is often at the center of the politics of difference and where they are most bitterly fought” (178). Dr. Lung-Amam sensitively and incisively puts together a framework for understanding Asian American suburbia in the Bay Area, and generally how change and difference play out in immigration, schools, retail, and housing. In the end, the author lays out a case for planning that eschews stereotyping and cultural essentialization and instead actually listens to the needs and meaning people put behind their everyday lives without the othering so frequently put towards Asian Americans. Meanwhile, she also recognizes that the particular group of focus in Fremont often comes with financial privilege, but even that is not enough to counter the conservative forces that maintain the status quo.

And throughout, she allows us to see the everyday of how the stories emerge. From coffee shops to living rooms, she shows some of the beautiful mundanity of the stories she tells. And personally, this is a book that helps me actually see my own experience (finally) in the planning world that I work in—

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book looking at how race and ethncitiy shapes suburbs. The author's work is instrumental in building bridges and understanding how cities/suburbs have evolved with racial power dynamics.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

for asian american history course

[winnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

a 3.5 but i rounded up

as someone who grew up in the bay, this book is super interesting. but i have to echo another reviewer that, especially in the housing section (and as someone who grew up without much money in this upper middle class suburb lol), the book's disengagement with wealth/class is extremely palpable. like it does often mention affluence, but doesn't really work through how exactly this affluence impacts what you can extrapolate/generalize from this. this is talking about the richest slice of Fremont immigrants. ultimately we're talking about who gets to stake a claim over multi-million dollar homes lol. for example, at one point she talks about community spaces in the neighborhood, vs community spaces in the home (which is more common w/ immigrants), i feel like there should be some acknowledgement that money enables a particular kind of insularity here. and it's fine to have a focus, but to not talk about any dynamics between immigrants (or specifically Asian American immigrants, if you prefer) in the area who have notably less money, well.

still pretty interesting though, so i was generous and rounded up to 4 instead of rounding down

[Joaquin A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great account of Mission San Jose