Week 10 ___ Anna Yang

In the reading of Theorizing Diasporas by Regina Lee, she explains the three different and main types of psych states and consciousness. These types are first idealization of a person's homeland, multicultural manifestation and transitional identity in politics. These topics are connected to the class and overall course that we have learned about different diasporas. In the first type of homeland idealization which means a strong connection to the person's homeland and feeling like a certain belonging towards it than the one you actually live in. For lee, it is that by idealizing a homeland, you, yourself feel trapped and isolated from this sense of belonging that is so far away. With globalization being inherently connected through both lands, it can help mend the connection and reduce feelings of isolation and allow them to build a hybrid connection of being able to feel home away from home.

Q : If globalization helps boosts economy, how can it help promote hybrid cultures for diasporas abroad?

Week 1 and 2, Anthony Tran, ASA 114

In week one, there was the topic of Introduction & Course Guidlines / Definition of Diaspora. The readings came from Kieu-Linh Valverde for the first reading the second is from Anderson and Lee. The piece “Transnationalizing Viet Nam'' was interesting because of the discussion of what a diaspora is “tends to evoke a sense of positive connections to a homeland, but sometimes a country and parts of its overseas population do not have good relations” (1-2). The work focuses on the connections between the Vietnamese and its overseas population in the United States. The chapter shows the significance of the Cold War and their impacts on Vietnam with the United States. With the other histories discussed, anticommunism and how it affected everyone including North Vietnam was an enormous factor of how people were so hurt and can be seen with the feelings between the diaspora and the homeland. The Anderson and Lee piece focuses on the harsh realities between class and rave on a global scale and “serves to contain and to neutralize [Ethnic Studies] as an emergent discipline.” (16).

Q: What do the authors mean when they say “neutralize” ethnic studies? 

In week two, there was the topic of globalization. In the article “The Ordeal of Ethnic Studies in the Age of Globalization” by E. San Juan Jr., there is a discussion of “war on terrorism” and events of September 11, 2001 and the aftermath which still hurt many people of color today. People too frequently have targets based o ethnic and racial stereotypes and “homeland having automatically undergone surveillance and security checks” (270). The Evelyn Hu-Dehart reading talked about the visibility of Asian Americans in the United States and how we are still misrepresented with the model minority stereotype with our “largely immigrant nature” (8). 

Q: how can we start combatting the nature of model minority stereotyping beyond counter narratives? In regards to globalization, how can we benefit from that erasure? 

ASA 114 Leng Vang_Week 10

In the reading, "Crossing Borders of Disciplines and Departments, we see the racism and injustice that Muslim face after the terrorist attack of 9/11.  Muslim were discriminated against across the nations, losing jobs, being arrested indiscriminately, being deported for no reasons, etc.  The notion of prejudice because of what you are is not new to Asian Americans. 
Now, Asian Americans are being deported back to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos because of crimes they have committed in their youth.  Some of these Asians are arrested for insignificant crimes like possession of marijuana which the government has deemed crimes that are deportable.  Also, with the news of corona-virus in the world, Asian Americans especially Chinese are facing racism and prejudice worldwide because they are deem to have the virus just because they are Asian or Chinese. 

Is there a way for Asian Americans to stand together as a whole to combat these racism and prejudice ? Or do you think that Asian American groups are too divide to stand together?


Work Cited.

Anderson and Lee. "Crossing Borders of Disciplines and Departments." Displacements.

Image:https://phnompenhpost.com/national/nine-new-us-deportees-touch-down-kingdom

Week 10 - Mimi Le

Anderson and Lee “Crossing Borders of Disciplines and Departments” raised awareness  to the 9/11 attack that caused racial inequality and social injustice  to American Americans, especially Arabs and Muslims, that they had to face. By being deported for small crimes such as traffic violation and immigrants struggling to find work in America took a huge toll on some families. The way Sher Singh was brutally shot after proven not being a terrorist, having to justify his business trip in order to be released from an arrest that didn’t need to happen in the first place. It caused an uproar in the community, showing the injustice that was brought upon him. Following events of immigrants being shot dead in front of gas stations how Muslims were now new targets. This is upsetting because similar to the corona virus, people are finding excuses to act a certain way or be racist towards Asian Americans.



Question: Does history actually repeat itself? Are people reverting back to the racial inequality that once divided the nation?

Work Cited:

Anderson and Lee. “Crossing Borders of Disciplines and Departments.” Displacements.

https://ephemeralempire.wordpress.com/2017/11/17/161/amp/

Week 10 Presentation

Reading 1: Parrenas and Siu “New Conceptions, New Frameworks.” Asian Diasporas

Diaspora is defined for the book, Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions as an ongoing and contested process of subject formation embedded in a set of cultural and social relations that are sustained simultaneously with the "homeland" (real or imagined), place of residence, and compatriots or coethnics dispersed elsewhere" (1, Parrenas). They argue that diaspora studies is an ongoing political and social project that transcends the binary of homeland vs. place of residence. In Asian American Studies, the diaspora largely focuses on this binary. They recognize the danger of pointing out Asia with its geographical proximity and racial and cultural similarities. Asia is both heterogeneous and vastly different while simultaneously produced as a pan-ethnic, homogeneous entity that is produced in Asian American studies, political projects, etc. Asia also provides an undeniable opposing identity to the West. Recognizing the diaspora as resistance also means recognizing the larger structures that play at community and individual levels. Typical examples of these include globalization, social inequities, and racism or xenophobia. Diaspora is a constantly shifting dynamic and identity. It is being a part of something while existing somewhere else as well as never being a part of either fully. To participate, one needs certain conditions for consistent re-identification. To understand diasporas, one has to explore and understand both the making of and the experience of being in the diaspora. Some diasporic populations are dislodged from political participation and social representation, without a choice. This is an example of double displacement. In the diaspora, there can be multiple forms of displacement whether physically or socially on a number of levels. And those displacements can happen double or even triple fold. The meaning of diaspora transcends meaning "home". It also represents the loyalty and connection one may feel to their homeland. Ethnic identities are actively constructed based on the amount and type of displacements one may have, the social atmosphere, economic standing of the host country, and dispersed community of coethnics globally. 

Reading 2: Anderson and Lee “Crossing Borders of Disciplines and Departments” Displacements

This chapter introduces Nancy Abelmann and San Juan’s political and ethical implications on globalization. Shortly after 9/11 attack happened, a man named Sher Singh, a Sikh American, was stopped from a train to be arrested. To people, they deemed him as a terrorist from the way he was dressed (turban and bearded). The news quickly spread, media decided to have their own inputs on the situation, and Singh was able to prove that he was not a terrorist after being searched down to only carrying a sacred knife on him, that everyone in his culture carries. His arrest triggered multiple similar events that follow, and others being targeted and shot dead. Life after this for immigrants, especially Asian immigrants to have eyes on them. The state became hostile and intrusive. Unemployment to the community was real and deportation of families for little things such as traffic ticket was uncanny. Hundreds of Arab and Muslims had to register with Immigration and Homeland Service, most ended up being detained and deported. The mass arrest, government surveillance, and deportations of immigrants showcase the racial injustice that the American government possesses. Abelmann introduces how transnational experiences can shape the international students experiences with Korean American interactions. By disclosing the fact that one is more Korean than other and raises the issues of interdisciplinary borderlands. We move onto San Juan who reminds us that 9/11 attack contradicts race and class on a global scale. By reminding us of the social injustice that globalization has brought upon Asian American. The study of American Asian goal is how to build the Asian American community to better the world than to understand the American society. 

Reading 3: Nancy Abelmann “Anthropology, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies” Displacement

This chapter reflects on Abelmann’s complications she encountered when attempting to offer a course titled, “The English Language Ethnography of Korea.” She later receives a letter that asks her to “limit the course by design to ONLY English literature, as English is the medium in which that campus teaches. Abelmann believed that despite the backlash that she faced when trying to implement this course into University of Illinois’ campus, Abelmann firmly believed that the topics she would cover would delimit the field beyond what the title implies. We see this in a lot of academia today, where certain courses have to follow a certain curriculum and anything that diverts from that curriculum doesn’t necessarily see the light of day. Unfortunately, like most folks that try to implement an ethnic studies course, not only do they meet many restrictions, they also face the harsh reality that “there are rules that have to be met,” implying that the only way to get classes approved for curriculum is to have meet the standards of those in charge of what is allowed to be taught on these campuses. 

Reading 4: Ien Ang “Beyond “Asian Diaspora” Asian Diasporas

    Ien Ang first indicates that the essays in this book Asian Diasporas attempts to examine the movement of Asian folks and it's complicated history. Ang then goes on to redefine diasporas, as in today’s context, the term now includes all groups who “have a history of dispersion, groups variously referred to as immigrants, expatriates, refugees, guest workers, exile communities, overseas communities, ethnic minorities, etc.” Ang further describes that the term is reserved for collectives that were not fully accepted and alienated from dominant culture. 

    Ang then indicates that although diaspora was mainly used to describe past traumatic experiences of a group, but now focuses on trauma in the present through the forms of marginalization and discrimination from nation-states. Diasporas are no longer centered around the past experiences and their motivations for diasporic movements are now centered around the “heightened process of globalization.” in other words, because of how prominent globalization is, especially under the context of how it interconnects everyone so much easier, not only does it stray away from using traumatic experiences as a motivation factor for diasporic movement, but also the notions of empowerment, enrichment, and expansion have become a central part of migration as well. 

    Lastly, Ang describes that there are no Asian diasporas, rather seeing diasporas as Asian. Looking at it through this angle allows for “highlighting the shifted and situated multiplicity of identities and trajectories that now characterize the lives of millions of people with regard to whom the term asian says both too much and too little,” and these term “Asian” needs to be further aggregated in order to understand the differences economically, socially, and politically between those that fall under the Asian umbrella. 

Reading 5: Regina Lee “Theorizing Diaspora: Three Types of Consciousness” 

Regina Lee differentiates between "three types of consciousness", labeling them as 

"Homeland Idealism", "Boutique Multiculturalism", and "Transitional or Transformational Identity Politics". Homeland Idealism largely has to do with nostalgia, idealization of a mythical homeland, as well as the physical, cultural, and psychological displacement from it. These dislocations place a focus on the "return to the homeland" as a powerful motivator for diasporic experiences. Many immigrants migrate with the intention of returning back home. The journey back is most likely pushed back farther than initially anticipated. Eventually reality drastically reduces the chances of returning home at all. Lee argues that this sort of diaspora is "trapped within an idealized historical space and time". Generally, the homeland idealization community is marginalized for its physical displacement from the homeland and social exclusion from host society. Globalization and national economic value determines cultural, class, and community relations. 

Boutique Multiculturalism is about negotiating differences, where race and ethnicity are the most significant. It transforms ethnicity into an accolade so much so that sometimes, professionals can take advantage of it and transform it into economic value. By holding onto what makes you "different" in the name of cultural pride, boutique multiculturalism actually plays into the same power structures that keep minorities subordinate in the first place. Lee condemns professionals who profit off multiculturalism and normalize the concept by creating spaces and literary pieces that support that idea. Boutique multiculturalism does not bring about equality by claiming your ethnicity. Rather, it creates a different standard based on your ethnicity, further deepening the divide that separates minorities from Caucasian people. 

Lastly, transitional or transformational ethnic identities are a highly politicized category. A good representation of it is the hyphen that exists in most ethnic identities. For example, Chinese-Australian or Asian-American. The first word represents an idealized homeland, where the second represents the somewhat problematic present location. The transitional ethnic identity is aptly named, because it is consistently ambivalent that highlights the shaky aspect of diasporic identities. 

Work Cited: 

Parrenas and Siu. “New Conceptions, New Frameworks.” Asian Diasporas.

Robe Dipesh Chakrabarty. “Notes toward a Conversation between Area Studies and Diasporic Studies.”

Anderson and Lee. “Crossing Borders of Disciplines and Departments.” Displacements.

Nancy Abelmann. “Anthropology, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies.” Displacements.

Ien Ang. ““Beyond “Asian Diaspora.” Asian Diasporas.

Regina Lee. “Theorizing Diaspora: Three Types of Consciousness.”

Week 10: Neil Castro - ASA 114

Source: Map of the South East Asian Diaspora 

In Regina Lee's article Theorizing Diaspora: Three Types of Consciousness, she talks about the three characteristics of the Diaspora. In this article, they are the idealized homeland where immigrants move to away from their home in order to attain some kind of gain whether it is social or monetary gain, the incorporation of new cultures as the article talks about how the diaspora mixes with other cultures in order to create what in this class called "Hybrid Cultures" and the framing of the moving of going between countries which can be noted as the experience of their homeland and adopted country, This article reiterates what the class has been teaching about. The diaspora is when people move to provide some stability that they might never had when living in the their homeland but how there is an interconnected-ness or the globalization/transnational effect of understanding it. This article captures how the class is being taught. To understand the the notions of the diaspora within a globalization and transnational aspect in our post-modern world. 

What happens if there are new ways to transform the diaspora like how the internet did at the start of the post-modern era?

Works Cited

Regina Lee. “Theorizing Diaspora: Three Types of Consciousness.”

Week 10, Anthony Tran, ASA 114

In this week’s discussion (with no particular topic in Asian diasporas), we have seven readings. Of all of them, I found Ien Ang’s “Beyond ‘Asian Diasporas’” to be quite interesting in how they brought up transnational marriages and really well redefined the term diaspora. Transnational marriages with the complexities of gender politics, interracial and intrracial racism, religion, and the title of legalities, being a “legal” or “illegal” citizen. With even more complex topics of Vietnamese men and women being treated very differently when migrating to America, and the Japanese Brazilians being treated differently when they return to Japan. Even in the homeland are they not treated the same. Though out the rest of the reading, I found the definition of diasporas to be quite refreshing. The concept is definitely not new, but it was good review. I liked the example with the Jewish, because their history, it bring in a different level of complexity where they do not have a homeland necessarily. They were displaced multiple times, but a sense of “longing for a return to the homeland is classically assumed too be integral to diaspora consciousness” (Ang 286). But with what we’ve been talking about in class very often is just connection to the homeland, whether that is physically (born there and leaving) or ambivalence, like love/hate. 

Q: Can we go over more common stories with multiple displacement outside of the Vietnam War? Or is that the biggest one in recent Asian history?