“There’s no such thing as Asian”: A membership categorization analysis of cross-cultural adaptation in an Asian American business community

This paper examines the relationship between communication and cross-cultural adaptation through conducting a membership categorization analysis of interactions among members of an Asian American Chamber of Commerce (AACC). Analysis of audio-and-video-recorded data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork illustrates how immigrant AACC members adapt to US notions of race through adopting the “Asian” racial category yet define “Asian” in creative ways that meet institutional goals. AACC members also resist US essentialist racial ideology through identifying with ethnic categories that help members meet situated institutional goals. Overall, this paper highlights how members routinely switch among racial, ethnic, and professional identity categories when navigating structural constraints of racial ideology during cross-cultural adaptation in institutional contexts.