Sooner or later every Asian American must deal with the question, "Where do you come from?" It is probably the most familiar if least aggressive form of racism. It is a tip off to the persistent notion that people of Asian ancestry are not real Americans, that "Orientals" never really stop being loyal to a foreign homeland, no matter how long they or their family have been in this country. Confronting the cultural stereotypes that have been attached to Asian Americans over the last 150 years, Robert G.

Lee seizes the label "Oriental" and asks where if came from. Orientals comes to grips with the ways that racial stereotypes come into being and serve the purposes of the dominant culture.