AS310 Spring 2007

Lecturer: Miguel Llora, MA

You have been told to go grubbing in the library thereby accumulating a mass of notes and a liberal coating of grime. You have been told to choose problems wherever you can find musty stacks of routine records. This is called 'getting your hands dirty in real research.' Those who counsel you thus are wise and honourable men. But one thing more is needful: first hand observation. Go sit iin the lounges of the luxury hotels and on the doorsteps of the flop-houses; sit on the Gold Coast settees and in the slum shakedowns; sit in the orchestra hall and in the Star and Garter Burlesque. In short, gentlemen, go get the seat of your pants dirty in real research.

Robert Park. speaking to undergraduate students at the University of Chicago in the 1920s

The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarities, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play)

Michel Foucault

General Notes

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ASIAN 310 - Contemporary Issues in Asian American Communities - Spring 2007

ASIAN 310

Diaspora & Asia Pacific

1400 - 1515

AL102

I strongly encourage you to get familiar with BLACKBOARD...
Material also provided at the Docutek ERes or Electronic Reserves & Reserves Pages...

Contemporary Issues in Asian American Communities Spring 2007

Asian 310 - Film Lists (available at the Media Center):
Lecturer's Collection
Media Center Collection

Course Objectives:

AS310 - Contemporary Issues in Asian American Communities is an interdisciplinary course related to the phenomenon of migration and settlement from countries within the Asia Pacific region. The course seeks to deepen our understanding of the ways in which migration; race, racial discrimination, and resistance to racial discrimination have shaped and continue to shape social thought as well as institutions in the United States. The course is focused on understanding Asian migration and settlement into the United States. It is organized around four inter-related themes: migration and labor, racism and resistance, identity and community, as well as migration and globalization.

The course draws upon literature, film, anthropology, history, and cultural studies to examine the experiences of Asian Americans living in the US. The course will cover the colonial background to Asian immigration in the 19th century, 'racism' and anti-Asian movements in the US, and policies towards Asian Americans during the Second World War, the emergence of the Asian American movement during the 1960s, and most importantly we will explore how all these issues transition into contemporary issues in Asian American communities. Through reading critical essays supplemented viewing documentaries and full-length feature films and/or reading selected novels, short stories, oral histories, we will address issues such as racial stereotyping, media racism, and identity. The format for this course is that of a lecture/discussion. It is important that the student complete all readings prior to the sessions, and participate you should come to each session prepared with questions and ideas for discussion.

Exams and Assignments:

Your grade for the course will be determined as follows: Paper 1 (30%), Oral Presentation (with PowerPoint) (30%), Final Paper (comparative) (30%), Seminar Presentation and/or Participation (10%)

Paper 1: A four page critical summary of Omi and Winant's Racial Formations in the United States. Part 1 of the essay should be given over to an objective summary of the major arguments and themes contained in the chapter. Part 2 should be devoted to a critical appraisal (e.g. your reaction to and interpretation of the arguments presented by the authors). At the end of Part 2 you are required to raise a minimum of 2 questions stimulated by your summary and critique of this reading. Feel free to draw or compare against other readings from Takaki, Arendt, Dickens, as well as Castles and Miller. 30%

Oral Presentation: The class will be broken down into 10 groups. 2 groups will be assigned to each Ethnic Group under consideration. The groups will go out into the community and collect data and do a report. Material to be collected includes, but is not limited to (1) census information (consult the SDSU library), (2) community newspapers (collect samples, please), (3) Find out about social services provided to each group: translation services, community centers, and local libraries (and if those libraries provide material in the languages under study), (4) grocery stores and/or shops that cater to the needs of the community and their locations, (5) places to eat and gather and their locations, (6) housing and park services, and (7) an interview with at least one informant on the state of the community. Reports will be a maximum of 30 minutes each: broken down to 20 minutes of presentation and 10 minutes Q and A. 30%

Final Paper: A 10-page comparative analysis of 2 communities under consideration. Using Takaki's Strangers from a Different Shore as well as all the data previously gathered, this essay should focus on two different Asian American populations. Paper needs to include analysis of filmic representation of the groups under consideration. How are the groups identified and represented? How were their experiences similar and different? What were their defining racial and ethnic characteristics of each group as defined by the dominant 'majority'? What factors account for their relative position and status contemporary American society? In the previous exercise, two groups, on a given presentation day, will report on their findings on the same Ethnic Group or Asian American population. In this activity, the two groups will be split and paired with a group from another Asian American population and they will compare and contrast their group with another group culminating in a 10-page report looking at all, if not some, of the items outlined above. There will also be 5 groups in this project; there will be one report per group - submitted professionally in a package. 30%

Seminar Presentation: Class attendance and participation. 10%

The papers need to be done strictly according to MLA format. It is strongly recommended that students attend individual tutorials with me to discuss and plan their research projects.

Final Paper Resources:
SDSU
Infodome
Article Databases
Style Manuals and Citation Formats
Sample Citations in MLA Format

Required Text:
Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1998
Note: All other required readings on the syllabus (aside from Takaki) will be available ONLINE via Blackboard and ECR or HARDCOPY at the SDSU Reserve Book Room.

Grade Scale:

97 to 100 A/A+
94 to 97 A
90 to 94 A-
87 to 90 B+
84 to 87 B
80 to 84 B-
77 to 80 C+
74 to 77 C
70 to 74 C-
67 to 70 D+
64 to 67 D
60 to 64 D-
00 to 60 F

CLASS SCHEDULE & LECTURE OUTLINES

WEEK 1 - JANUARY 22/24: INTRODUCTION, GROUPINGS, AND LIBRARY SESSION
* The course syllabus: philosophy; approach; expectations and requirements
* Course goals and objectives: comparative analyses of immigration; a re-visioning of history; understanding the contemporary world
What is Asian American history?
What do you expect from this course?
Reading: Takaki 3-21
Video:
Stuart Hall: Race - The Floating Signifier (22581) TV7471V
Stuart Hall: Representation And The Media (23670) TV8583V
Further Reading:
Chan, Sucheng. Asian Americans - An Interpretive History. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991.
Literature
Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
America Is in the Heart: A Personal History by Carlos Bulosan
The Gangster of Love by Jessica Hagedorn
Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn

Race: The Floating Signifier

WEEK 2 - JANUARY 29/31: GEOGRAPHIES OF ASIAN IMMIGRATION
European colonialism and Asia, western expansion and Asian migrations, Asia in the colonial imagination; race in 19th century European and American thought, "Manifest Destiny" and continental empire, and early Asian arrivals in north America.
Reading: Said xi-xxviii (provided)
Arendt 124-134 (provided)
Dickens Great Expectations - Afterword (provided)
Video:
Edwward Said On Orientalism (22580) 1998 TV7470V
Great Expectations (1946) DVD-863
Great Expectations (1998) (Lecturer's Collection)

Geographies of Asian Immigration

WEEK 3 - FEBRUARY 5/7: EARLY PATTERNS OF ASIAN IMMIGRATION
The United States as a colonial power: 'Opening' Asia; Asia as Far East or Far West? Understanding the 'Push-Pull paradigm: conditions in countries of origin; conditions in the United States; 'rational choice' and immigration; limits of the push-pull paradigm, Gender and immigration (picture brides), destination countries other than the United States and Canada, The 'coolie' trade and human trafficking, sojourners and immigrants: why some stayed and others did not; laborers, political exiles, intellectuals, aliens and nationals, and commonalities and differences.
Reading: Takaki 132-147
Castles and Miller 18-42 (provided)
Video:
Wataridori: Birds Of Passage (22503) TV7545V
Further Reading:
Castles, Stephen and Miller, Mark. The Age of Migration: International Populations Movements in the Modern World 2nd Edition. London: The Guilford Press, 1998.

WEEK 4 - FEBRUARY 12/14: CROSSING BORDERS: THE US AS A 'NATION OF IMMIGRANTS'
Immigration and assimilation; and the vocabulary of immigration, migration and settlement
Reading: Takaki 132-178
Omi and Winant 57-69 (provided)
Further Reading:
Omi, Michael and Winant, Howard. Racial Formation in the United States, 2nd edition. New York and London: Routledge, 1994.

PAPER 1 - DUE WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 21

WEEK 5 - FEBRUARY 19/21: LABOR, ECONOMIC COMPETITION AND CULTURAL ATTITUDES
Perpetual Aliens, Samuel Gompers and organized labor, the business perspective, the radical labor perspective and class interests, missionaries and the paradox of America, and African Americans and Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
Reading: Takaki 147-162
Video:
Picture Bride (Lecturer's Collection)

In Class Films: Picture Bride (1994)

WEEK 6 - FEBRUARY 26/28: LEGISLATING RACE AND EXCLUSION
* Immigration Laws, origins and consequences: Nationality Act of 1790; Naturalization Act of 1870; Burlingame Treaty of 1868; Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907; Immigration Act of 1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone); Immigration Act of 1924, War Brides Acts of 1948, Filipino and Indian Naturalization Act of 1946; Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
* Yellow Peril in the American imagination; imperialism, race and war; immigrants and the Yellow Peril; the United States as a 'racial' state
Reading: Ancheta 19-40.
Video:
Crash (2004) DVD 1909
Crash (2004) (Lecturer's Collection)
Further Reading:
Ancheta, Angelo. Race, Rights, and the Asian American Experience. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2003.
Marchetti, Gina. Romance and the "Yellow Peril": Race, Sex and Discursive strategies in Hollywood Fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Legislating Race and Exclusion

WEEK 7 - MARCH 5/7: SEEING BROWN AND YELLOW: "COLORING" THE LANDSCAPE
Exploring race in filmic representations in U.S. popular culture.
Reading: Aguilar-San Juan 161-171 (provided)
Lye, Colleen. "A Genealogy of the "Yellow Peril" Jack London, George Kennan, and the Russo, Japanese War." in America's Asia: Racial form and American Literature, 1893-1945. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. (provided)
Marchetti, Gina. "Introduction." in Romance and the "Yellow Peril": Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. (provided)
Video:
In Class Film: Yellow Fever (Lecturer's Collection)
Cheat (1915) (Lecturer's Collection)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924) (Lecturer's Collection)
The Good Earth (1937) (Lecturer's Collection)
Bombs over Burma (1942) (Lecturer's Collection)
Lady from Chunking (1943) (Lecturer's Collection)
The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu, 4 Full-Length Episodes (1950s) (Lecturer's Collection)
The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) (Lecturer's Collection)
The Slanted Screen (Lecturer's Collection)
Further Reading:
Aguilar-San Juan, Karin, Ed. The State of Asian America: Activism and Resistance in the 1990s. Boston: South End Press, 1994.
Media and Popular Culture
Curran, James, and Gurevitch, Michael. Mass Media and Society. New York: Arnold Publishing, 2000.
Kwok, Jenny Wah Lau. Multiple Modernities: Cinema and Popular Media in Transnational Asia. Temple: Temple University Press, 2003.
Lee, Josephine; Lim, Imogene; and Matsukawa, Yuko. Eds. Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.
Lim, Shirley Jennifer. A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women's Public Culture, 1930-1960. New York: New York University Press, 2006.
Mank, Gregory William. Hollywood Cauldron: Thirteen Horror Films from the Genre's Golden Age. London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1995.
Martinez, Dolores. The World of Japanese Popular Culture: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures. Boston: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Napier, Susan J. Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
Pomerance, Murray. Ed. Bad: Infamy, Darkness, Evil and Slime on Screen. New York: State University of New York Press, 2004.
Wollstein, Hans J., Vixens, Floozies, and Molls: 28 Actresses of Late 1920s and 1930s Hollywood. London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1999.

In Class Films: The Slanted Screen, and Portions of: Yellow Fever, The Cheat (1915), Lady from Chunking (1943), Sayonara (1957), and The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969)

WEEK 8 - MARCH 12/14: ASIAN AMERICANS AND WORLD WAR II
Session 1 - The Watershed of World War II: Democracy and Race
Reading: Takaki 357-381
Session 2 - The Watershed of World War II: Democracy and Race
Reading: Takaki 382-405
Video:
Guilty By Reason of Race (16177) TV0208V
American Experience: The Massie Affair (Lecturer's Collection)

In Class Films: The Massie Affair

OUTLINES/DRAFTS/POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS OF REPORTS ON EACH OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN POPULATIONS DUE WEDNESDAY MARCH 14

WEEK 9 - MARCH 19/21: MODEL MINORITIES: RACE IN CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICA
War, Colonialism and post 1965 Migration to the United States, New Immigrants from Southeast Asia, Race in 21st century America, and Affirmative action
Session 1 - Post 1965 (part 1)
Reading: Takaki 406-432
Session 2 - Post 1965 (part 2)
Reading: Takaki 432-448
Video:
Afterbirth (11703) TV5000V
Race: The Power of Illusion Episode 1 (Race in America) VTC 2904
Race: The Power of Illusion Episode 2 (Filipinos) VTC 2905
Race: The Power of Illusion Episode 3 (Legislation and Disadvantage) VTC 2906

Communities in Transition

SPRING BREAK MARCH 23 TO APRIL 1

WEEK 10 - APRIL 2/4: CHINESE-AMERICANS
Session 1 - Gam Saan Haak: The Chinese in Nineteenth-Century America and Ethnic Islands: The Emergence of Urban Chinese America
Reading: Takaki 79-131 and 230-269
Videos:
The Joy Luck Club no #
Chinese-Americans: Living in Two Worlds DVD 1916
The Wedding Banquet DVD 919
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie DVD 993
Becoming American: The Chinese Experience (1) DVD 1759
Becoming American: The Chinese Experience (2) DVD 1758
Becoming American: The Chinese Experience (3) DVD 1757
The Year of the Dragon (Lecturer's Collection)
Further Reading:
Chang, Iris. The Chinese in America. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.

SESSION 2 - REPORT BY 2 GROUPS WORKING ON THE CHINESE-AMERICAN POPULATION
Chinese American Resource Page

WEEK 11 - APRIL 9/11: JAPANESE-AMERICANS
Session 1 - Ethnic Solidarity: The Settling of Japanese America
Reading: Takaki 179-229
Video:
From a Different Shore: The Japanese American Experience no #
Snow Falling on Cedars VTC 1507
Rabbit in the Moon VTC 3163
Come See the Paradise VTC 3059
Sayonara (Lecturer's Collection)
Further Reading:
Hasegawa, Susan Shizuko. Rebuilding Lives, Rebuilding Communities: The Post-World War II Resettlement of Japanese Americans to San Diego. F869.S22 H297 1998 (see BIBLIOGRAPHY)

Deep Fissures in a Community Tested

SESSION 2 - REPORT BY 2 GROUPS WORKING ON THE JAPANESE-AMERICAN POPULATION
Japanese American Resource Page

WEEK 12 - APRIL 16/18: KOREAN-AMERICANS
Session 1 - Struggling against Colonialism: Koreans in America and Sai-I-Gu
Reading: Takaki 270-293 and 493-497
Choy, Bong-youn. Koreans in America. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979.
Hurh, Won Moo and Kim, Kwang Chung. Korean Immigrants in America: A Structural Analysis of Ethnic Confinement and Adhesive Adaptation. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984.
Kim, Elaine and Yu Eui-Young. East to America: Korean American Life Stories. New York: The New Press, 1996.
Kim, Hyung-chan, ed. The Korean Diaspora: Historical and Sociological Studies of Korean Immigration and Assimilation in North America. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, Inc., 1977.
Latasha Harlins, Soon Ja Du, and Joyce Karlin: A Case Study of Multicultural Female Violence and Justice on the Urban Frontier by Brenda Stevenson
Video:
Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing DVD 779
Sai-I-Gu VTC 2941
Further Reading:
Kim, Kwang Chung, ed. Koreans in the Hood: Conflict with African Americans. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Melendy, H. Brett. Asians in America: Filipinos, Koreans, and East Indians. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977.

SESSION 2 - REPORT BY 2 GROUPS WORKING ON THE KOREAN-AMERICAN POPULATION
Korean Amercan Resource Page

WEEK 13 - APRIL 23/25: FILIPINO-AMERICANS
Session 1 - Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance: The Forgotten Filipinos
Reading: Takaki 315-356
Llora, Miguel. Fractured Communities: Filipino Americans in San Diego and the Imperial Valley. DS2.2 .L56 2005 (see REFERENCES)
Video:
Broken Promises: Filipino American Veterans of WWII (Lecturer's Collection)
APL Video (Lecturer's Collection)
Dollar A Day, Ten Cents A Dance no #
Closer to Home DVD 1004
Silent Sacrifices DVD 1545
The Debut DVD 678
American Adobo DVD 2069
Coming To America: Filipino (#5) (14402) TV5292V
In No One's Shadow: Filipinos in America (12796) TV4963V
Filipino Americans VTC 2069

Filipinos in the United States

SESSION 2 - REPORT BY 2 GROUPS WORKING ON THE FILIPINO-AMERICAN POPULATION
Filipino American Resource Page

WEEK 14 - APRIL 30 AND MAY 2: VIETNAMESE AMERICAN
Session 1 - Pushed by "Necessity": The Refugees from Southeast Asia and "Strangers" at the Gates Again: Mein and Hmong in America
Reading: Takaki 448-471
Cargill, Mary Terrell and Huynh, Jade Quang. eds. Voices of the Vietnamese Boat People: Nineteen Narratives of Escape and Survival. London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2000.
Kibria, Nazli. Family Tightrope: The Changing Lives of Vietnamese Americans. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Rutledge, Paul James. The Vietnamese Experience in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.
Tran, De; Lam, Andrew; and Nguyen, Hai Dai. eds. Once Upon a Dream: The Vietnamese-American Experience. Kansas City: Andrews & McMeel, 1995.
Zhou, Min and Bankston, Carl L. Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1998.
Video:
Vietnamese Americans: The New Generation DVD 1915
Heaven and Earth DVD 1049
Journey From The Fall (Lecturer's Collection)
VIETNAM: A TELEVISION HISTORY
1. Roots of A War (#1) (14053) VH TV3097AV
2. The First Vietnam War, 1946-1954 (#2) (17625) VH TV3097BV
3. America's Mandarin, 1954-1963 (#3) (14049) VH TV3098AV
4. LBJ Goes To War, 1964-1965 (#4) (14050) VH TV3098BV
5. America Takes Charge, 1965-1967 (#5) (17623) VH TV3099AV
6. America's Enemy, 1954-1967 (#6) (14051) VH TV3099BV
7. The Tet Offensive, 1968 (#7) (14047) VH TV3100AV
8. Vietnamizing the War, 1968-1973 (#8) (17621) VH TV3100BV
9. Cambodia and Laos (#9) (14048) VH TV3101AV
10. Peace Is At Hand, 1968-1973 (#10) (17622) VH TV3101BV
11. Homefront USA (#11) (14045) VH TV3102AV
12. The End of the Tunnel, 1973-1975 (#12) (17620) VH TV3102BV
13. Legacies (#13) (18343) VH TV3103V
Further Readings:
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam, a History. New York: Penguin Books, 1997.
Bandon, Alexandra. Vietnamese Americans. New York: New Discovery Books, 1994.

SESSION 2 - REPORT BY 2 GROUPS WORKING ON THE VIETNAMESE-AMERICANS
Vietnamese American Resource Page

WEEK 15 - MAY 7: MIGRATION AND THE CONTEMPORARY NATION STATE
A new regional division of labor, Citizenship and immigration, Policymaking Contemporary Immigration in the Asia Pacific, and Transnationalization of immigration
Reading: Takaki 472-509
Huntington 22-49
Barber 3-20
Sassen xix-xxxvi
Video:
Better Luck Tomorrow DVD 551
Further Reading:
Huntington, Samuel. "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs 72.3 (1993): 22-49.
Barber, Benjamin. Jihad vs. McWorld - Terrorism's Challenge to Democracy. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995.
Sassen, Saskia. Globalization and its Discontents. New York: New York Press, 1998.

FINAL PAPER - MONDAY MAY 7

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