Contemporary Asian America is the first volume to integrate a broad range of multi-disciplinary research on the ways in which the intersection of Asian immigration, community development, and socialization affect Asian American communities. It exposes its readers to developments within the discipline, from its inception as part of the ethnic consciousness movement of the 1960s to the more contemporary theoretical and practical issues facing Asian America at the century's end.

The volume includes 13 sections, and covers such topics as immigration, economic life, family and community, spiritual practices, gender, sexuality, racism and anti-Asian violence, the new second generation, youth gangs, domestic violence, visual culture, and theory. Contemporary Asian America provides an expansive introduction to the central readings in Asian America and Asian American Studies, presenting a grounded theoretical orientation to the discipline and framing key historical, cultural, economic, and social themes within a social science context.

Contributors include Shirley Hune, Dorinne Kondo, Lisa Lowe, Pyong Gap Min, Don Nakanishi, Gary Y. Okihiro, Ruben Rumbaut, and Ronald Takaki, among others.