“In Hawaii and parts of the West Coast, there’s a sort of unified “lower middle-class” pan-Asian America (at least East and SE Asian American) urban youth culture forming. It’s partially informed by black culture, particularly the music and clothes, but quite unique in it’s own way, with it’s souped up and customized cars and motorcycles, illegal road racing, tech bling, pan-Asian random pastiche aesthetic and b-boy dance-offs. I have far too many cousins who are into that lifestyle.”

Very interesting. I’ve gotten a few glimpses of this myself in Torrance, CA. I’d like to hear more.

The differences in political leanings between “all Hindus” and “Asian-American Hindus” implies that there are at least some. Or is the survey(s?) just that noisy?

Romney and Ryan’s share of the Jewish vote went up considerably, in both the Edison and Reuters-Ipsos exit polls.

I suspect the Edison exit poll showing of a huge falloff since 2008 in Asians voting Republican was partly real, partly just an error due to small sample size. Unfortunately, the Reuters poll doesn’t break out Asians separately, but there are catch-all “Other Minorities” bin doesn’t jibe with a huge fall in Asians voting Republicans. Down some, but not a collapse like in the more publicized Edison exit poll.

Last Pew poll: Obama 50%, Romney 47%
Actual results: Obama 50.6%, Romney 47.8%
http://www.people-press.org/2012/11/04/obama-gains-edge-in-campaigns-final-days/

Last “We ask america” WI poll: Obama 51.5%, Romney 44.8% MOE 3%
Actual results in WI: Obama 52.8%, Romney 46.1%
Interestingly, this poll got the difference between the candidates exactly correct at 6.7%!
http://weaskamerica.com/2012/11/02/hot-off-the-presses-2/

i’m pretty sure they’re converting in large numbers. churches brought them over, and i have known of a fair number of hmong. they’re not 90% xtian, but large numbers did convert to protestant churches.

Perhaps Theravada Buddhism developed its comparably strong identity because it was working over a fairly regularized Hindu substrate,

no, it’s highly animist. interestingly most of the thai groups (in which the shan are bracketed) actually were mahayana when they arrived. the mon and khmer converted them.

I was a bit perplexed by your original wording, because it seemed to imply that highland Southeast Asians converted to Christianity in disproportionate numbers when they come to the U.S. AFAIK, the Hmong are the only highland group which has come to the U.S., and while some are Christian, I’m not sure there’s enough of them (or any other group worth speaking of) to talk about a trend within America.

As to Asia, absolutely. Admittedly, I’m more familiar with the Christianized groups in Northeast India (Nagas, Mizos), than those in Burma or elsewhere, but it seems the same general trends are evident.

Perhaps Theravada Buddhism developed its comparably strong identity because it was working over a fairly regularized Hindu substrate, whereas in East Asia each of the philosophies and religions (Taoism, Shintoism, local interpretations of Buddhism, etc) was essentially a warmed-over patina on top of inconsistent animist theology?

Same with a lot of East European degrees. I knew a lot of Estonians, Latvians, Hungarians working as engineering lab technicians who would have been qualified engineers in their own countries. I even knew a German guy who was driving a road grader.

Yuan Yichuan, ‘Attitude and Motivation for English Learning of Ethnic Minority Students in China’ (Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press 2007).

What do you mean by “Southeast Asian highlanders?” Hmong? Shan? Karen?

Yes, as a man you has fallen in love with his share of smoking hot north Indian sikh women, I can testify this is, alas, all too true.

No, I’m sure I’m biased. The more I thought about this topic yesterday, the more I realized that most of the Korean Americans I went to church with are still religious. So, I’m probably a little atypical, and I wasn’t looking outwardly enough when I posted before. I do recall a number of Koreans who became Christian after coming to America because they were integrating into an American community of Koreans who were churchgoers. And I recently read a NYTimes article about Chinese in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn who were becoming Christians and attending a Chinese American church. I think a lot of these immigrants become Christian to fit in with their compatriots, which is kind of strange if you think about it. They’re not being converted, usually, by white Americans but people from their own communities. They’re doing it to fit into a somewhat segregated ethnic enclave of Christians in America whose church services are usually in another language. But the group itself is doing it to be more American? I’m not sure.

considering how old this community is, what’s surprising is the very low level of conversion to christianity! in any case, i think that yes, secularization is kicking in for 3rd and 4th generation japanese and chinese americans. they come from societies where institutional religion was weak in the first place, allowing them to become xtian to assimilate, but now that that’s not necessary, they seem to be shedding it.