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The article explores the internationalization of Asian American cultural criticism and its relevance on Asian Canadian studies. It cites two events, which took place in 1980's and 1990's, that can be used to discern how Asian American studies has taken an international turn. The first event involves the redefinition and reconstruction of Asian American studies by placing Asian Americans within the global context. While the second event involves the "East of California" movement that attempts to identify, critique, and intervene in the California-centric nature of scholarship and curricula for Asian American studies.

The article explores the consequences of the absence of academic institutions for research and teaching on Asians in Canada by reframing the lack of Asian Canadian Studies as a problem of lateness. It defines lateness in two types, the first describes how academic institutions have been late to respond to the contemporary Canadian society, while the second derives from the critique of identity politics that defers any disclosure between identitarian categories and the communities to which they supposedly refer. It suggests that addressing the problem of lateness is critical to understanding the relationship between Asian Canadian Studies and Asian American Studies.

The author reflects on the status and conditions of Asian Americans in higher education and Asian American Studies. He mentions that Asian Americans are the most visible racial minority in the U.S. universities and colleges wherein they have experienced a bifurcated pattern of enrollment showing their socio-economic status, discrimination and others. Asian American Studies is an interdisciplinary study of the experiences of various Asian immigrants that arrived in the U.S. to meet the demands for low cost labor.

The author talks of his experiences teaching an Asian American history survey class for undergraduates at the University of Michigan. The teacher begins his classes with a discussion of the academic scene in the late 1960s. It was this period that sparked the beginning of Asian American studies under pressure by students and activists of the time. The author refuses to have his class on the list of recommended courses that would help students meet their "race and ethnicity" requirement as this would increase his class size with students "forced" to be there as opposed to those with an honest interest in the subject.