Those who live in fear today imagine that America is being overrun by foreign , disease-carrying , tax-sucking criminal hordes . Eric Liu : Words are expressions of power and identity , and even punctuation matters . Liu : As I explain in my new book , I call myself `` Chinese-American '' -- without a hyphen . He says the hyphenated `` Chinese American '' signifies a transaction between zero parties . Eric Liu : Similarly , `` ABC , '' or Chinese -born Chinese , is also inadequate in its identity label .
Eric Liu : Words are expressions of power and identity , and even punctuation matters . Liu : As I explain in my new book , I call myself `` Chinese-American '' -- without a hyphen . He says the hyphenated `` Chinese American '' signifies a transaction between zero parties . Eric Liu : Similarly , `` ABC , '' or Chinese -born Chinese , is also inadequate in its identity label .