I RECENTLY took a whirlwind, seven-day trip to India to visit my extended family. It was a vortex of family: endless grandparents, aunties, uncles, assorted cousins and more. How different it was to return to my apartment in San Francisco and communicate with my few immediate family members, spread out across America's time zones.

From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1 882, which prevented Chinese immigrant laborers from reuniting with their wives, to the large number of Asian adoptees today - family has always been a complicated issue for Asian Americans. In this Family Issue of Hyphen, Adrienne Aguirre profiles different Asian American "families," from a couple with an adopted white daughter to an Asian American fraternity to newlywed Mormons. Ellen Lee checks in on the rising tide of Asian American parenting blogs and film editor Sylvie Kim investigates whether Asian American families will ever be portrayed with complexity in film. We are proud to publish "Playing the Sheik" by Shivani Manghnani - the winning story of the second co-sponsored Hyphen and Asian American Writers' Workshop short story contest - which looks at a South Asian family living in Hawaii.

I've been a part of the Hyphen family for over five years. A great thing about a family-like organization is that it allows you to grow and change. So, I am excited to announce that the brilliant Lisa Wong Macabasco will be taking over as managing editor in order to allow me to focus on the Books and Literature sections of this magazine - my true passions. See you all at the next family reunion.

Neela Banerjee

Managing Editor