Books by Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu
When Half is Whole: Multiethnic Asian American Identities
When Half is Whole is a collection of stories of people whose lives balance diverse cultural heritages and construct border crossing identities. The themes of their lives involve balancing, connecting, and finding meaning in these multiethnic roots. Misunderstood, or regarded by others as “half,” the stories here show how these individuals have engaged in the process of becoming whole, by making meaning of their mixed heritage. In their searching they discover connections that bring them into contact with others; healing themselves and their communities. They recover surrendered identities, becoming spokespersons for multiple, flexible, and...
Read MoreSynergy, Healing, and Empowerment: Insights From Cultural Diversity
Too often in the West, valuable resources like healing and knowledge are in scarce supply, with access favoring those with power and prestige. Synergy, Healing, and Empowerment seeks an exciting, new alternative to that devastating situation. Focusing on the concept of synergy, we describe how valuable resources can expand and become renewable and accessible to all. As a result, the good of one becomes the good for all, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Those previously denied access are now empowered, as they become active participants in the generation and utilization of valuable resources. To better understand synergy, we...
Read MoreStanford Journal of Asian American Studies
The Stanford Journal of Asian American Studies is an online journal featuring excellence in the field of Asian American Studies at Stanford. In addition to original research papers, we publish essays, short fiction, poems, and visual art. I am the editor of several issues, including thematic issues on transnational perspectives and literature The special issue, Transcultural and Multiethnic Asian American Perspectives features themes of multiethnicity, shifting identities, cultural borrowing, cultural nationalism and panethnic identity in global Asian communities. The literary issue contains prose and poetry from Shimon Tanaka, Ken Chen, and Sarah...
Read MoreTranscultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender, and Identity
Transcultural Japan provides a critical examination of being Other in Japan. Portraying the multiple intersections of race, ethnicity, class, and gender, the book suggests ways in which the transcultural borderlands of Japan reflect globalization in this island nation. The authors show the diversity of Japan from the inside, revealing an extraordinarily complex new society in sharp contrast to the persistent stereotypical images held of a regimented, homogeneous Japan. Unsettling as it may be, there are powerful arguments here for looking at the meanings of globalization in Japan through these diverse communities and individuals. These are not...
Read MoreJapan’s Diversity Dilemmas: Ethnicity, Citizenship, and Education
Japan’s Diversity Dilemmas reveals how Japanese society is now in the midst of dramatic transformation brought on by demographic change and globalization. Foreigners are coming to Japan and many more will come in the near future to meet the demands of an economy that needs workers to compensate for an extremely low birth rate. The ramifications of this influx of foreigners into a society that has based its identity on a mythical ethnic purity are enormous. This book examines the effects of globalization on both new and older ethnic communities. It shows the ways in which minorities, in particular Koreans, are changing their conceptions and...
Read MoreAmerasian Children: An Unknown Minority Problem
Amerasian Children introduced the subject of mixed race to the Japanese public in a global historical and political context. It places the discourse of “Amerasian” in a framework of American militarism and wars in Asia as well as occupation and permanent military bases. The focus, however, is on illuminating how individual lives are affected by social, political, and economic forces, when one’s parents are of different nationalities. Individual chapters are on Asia, U.S. and Japan, while special attention is given to the situation in Okinawa. The book also discusses the contemporary image of transnational elites who are of mixed race and the...
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