Language, usage, and culture are always changing. Personally, I have evolved from identifying as Chinese-American in my childhood (because it was too hard to explain that Taiwan and Thailand were not the same to a bunch of white Midwesterners in the 90s) to now identifying as Taiwanese American. With the changes in language over the years, you may be wondering, “Is Asian American hyphenated?”
As of 2021, The New York Times, Associated Press, Chicago Manual of Style, and other style guides no longer hyphenate Asian American or any of its derivatives, such as Chinese American, Japanese American, or Pakistani American.
Is this just an issue of semantics or an important statement about Asian American identity? Let’s take a closer look.
Why is there no hyphen in Asian American?
For a long time, the term “Asian American” was hyphenated as a way to show the dual identity of Asian immigrants and their descendants. The idea was that we were equal parts Asian and equal parts American. In fact, one of the first publications for Asian Americans was titled Hyphen.
But the idea of a “hyphenated American” has not historically been a positive one. Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt bluntly said, “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism,” while his successor Woodrow Wilson asserted that, “Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready.”
A century later, the late L.A. Times editor Henry Fuhrmann pointed out, “Those hyphens serve to divide even as they are meant to connect. Their use in racial and ethnic identifiers can connote an otherness, a sense that people of color are somehow not full citizens or fully American.” His 2018 piece for the Conscious Style Guide advocated for dropping the hyphen in Asian American, which various newsrooms and style guides implemented in 2021 after the rise of anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Is…
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