What is Bamboo Ceiling

This chapter, based on fieldwork conducted in 2007 at a large public university in Hawaii, explores Asian American college students’ relationships with education and technology, and the role of educational and technological factors in their process of negotiating professional and cultural self-identities as contemporary Americans of Asian descent. The chapter elaborates upon the following key factors in this regard emerging from the study: (a) Education; (b) Access; (c) Prestige; (d) Survival; (e) Avoidance; and (f) Transnationalism. The chapter subsequently outlines a theoretical framework – based on Willis’ (1977) reformulation of the Marxian concept of “praxis” – characterizing the informants’ educational and technological endeavors as proactive attempts to create an empowered self-identity in response to their socio-cultural environment.