Guy M. Wong challenged the wisdom of changing Chinese to Asian. He wrote on March 14:
I am quite disappointed to read in today's newspaper that Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco may be changing its name to something like Center for Asian Advocates, thus burying the fact that it is a Chinese American organization. I don't know why so many Chinese Americans are so ashamed of their Chinese heritage. You don't see that among the Japanese or the Korean groups. Neither JACL nor KAC is going to change its name anytime soon. The argument that hiding the word "Chinese" would promote more exchange with other Asian minorities is hog wash. If we C-A's are ashamed of our own heritage, how can we expect other to respect us? I was angry at Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's Chinese New Year greeting last year when he wrote about the contributions by Asian Americans in building the railroad. But how can I get mad at him when so many Chinese American have the need to hide their heritage? Chinese Americans are the biggest subgroup among the APIs. Changing from Chinese to Asian will not increase our strength much, if any. Just as we are getting more C-A legislators and political appointees, we should be proud of the fact that we are of Chinese descent.