Week 11: (Re)thinking Diasporas

(Re)thinking Diasporas

Dipesh Chakrabarty - “Notes toward a Conversation between Area Studies and Diasporic 
Studies”
         Chakrabarty critiques how liberal education in the West framed the study of non-Western countries by perspectives from Western countries. Chakrabarty states that this liberal perspectives of such studies tries to be enlightened and treat Asia in equal terms with the West. However although this education does not aim to exotify Asia, it still places the burden of “studying Asia” on the West as if intellectual study can only be done by the West.
        Chakrabarty also discusses the framework of critique done in engaging Area Studies and Diasporic Studies. What really are the connections the diaspora has with the “homeland”? What are the parameters that define an “area” that is studied (and by/for whom?) in Area Studies? Through his examples of literature and other art forms, he discusses how the diaspora can critically identify with the homeland in multiple ways such as, such as locality, class, economics, lanauge etc...
(written by Desun)

Anderson and Lee - "Crossing Borders of Disciplines" -Hyoung James Oh

           The hope, according to Anderson via San Juan, is not to build an Asian American studies through which to understand American Society but rather to build an Asian American studies with which to change the world.  Anderson discusses a new society in the wake of 9/11. 
Speaking on the violence towards Muslim-looking people, Anderson argues, “the current wave of globalization reflects the practice of everyday life.”  His point is that “Globally and locally, multiculturalism, the celebration of hybridity as a commercialized lifestyle, has become the ideology for managing the increasingly deep class and racial cleavages brought about by neoliberal economic policy.”  This in turn ultimately makes the lives of immigrants much more difficult.  Anderson illustrates the cause for growing difficulties for immigrants as a more intrusive and hostile state, decent housing and education placed beyond reach and the rise in exploitation current with unemployment.
           Anderson raises the issues on violence after 9/11 as a lead into a large idea.  He poses certain questions in regards to the epistemological, political, and institutional implications for our recognition of “Globalization from below”.  Also how our understanding of the Asian experience in the Americans as transnational or trans local experience of displacement shape our understanding of the processes of globalization, of empire, or identities. And what the disciplinary frameworks and institutional arrangements that will need to be built in order to accommodate that understanding.
           The goal of Anderson's article is to ultimately begin dialog among different disciplines.  He calls for Academic border crossing as a means of learning from other disciplines from other nations as a necessary and critical call for the opening of localities.    

Nancy Abelmenn - "Anthropology, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies"
           “Anthropology, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies: Open Systems, Closed Minds” by Nancy Abelmann discusses politics in academia.  Through various anecdotes, Abelmann explains how localities are made and enforced in academia.  She also proposes that we constantly reassess the way terms and ideas are classified.  Abelmann wants universities to encourage the continual learning of faculty members.  She wants professors to be given time in a collaborative environment so that they can rethink ideas and keep open minds.  This article goes along with the theme of rethinking diasporas because it talks about reevaluating the categorization of words such as “nation” and “diaspora” to cross various areas of study and become interdisciplinary.

Ien Ang - " "Beyond "Asian Diaspora" "
           Ien Ang discusses the inherent constant transforming of the categorization of "Asian Diasporas" but always with the fundamental idea of the relationship with the homeland. Ang also points out the importance of understanding how transnationalism and globalization directly characterize the concept of diaspora. To start off Ang discusses the origins of the term "diaspora" from the Jewish experience, in which it is often used negatively with the general meaning of forced dispersion and a strong desire to return to ones homeland (Ang, 286). However, "diaspora" is not longer used within negative connotations but rather in reference to many more groups who feel they do not belong or are partially alienated from the dominant culture of the host society (Ang, 286). "Diaspora" is also no longer "necessarily [a condition that] involves trauma and marginalization but also empowerment, enrichment, and expansion" (Ang, 287). This happens through crossing the nation-state boundaries and viewing themselves not as minorities but "transnational subjects" through the tools and abilities produced by globalization. As transnational subjects, multiculturalism/pluralism is fairly unavoidable and "diasporas" now have the power of "unsettling" the homogeneity of nation-states. Ang ends her short article by stating that "Asia" is a huge imagined construction that is used to suppress the internal heterogeneity of people (Ang, 288) and as subjects it is necessary to challenge the notion of "Asians" by understanding that is only a way of seeing people and categorizing. Ien Ang makes it clear that even with social constructions and categorizing, the transforming world into globalization and defying nationalism Asian diasporic communities will naturally "work towards its own productive analytical undoing" (Ang, 289).
(written by Mel)

Regina Lee - "Theorizing Diaspora: Three Types of Consciousness"
           Regina Lee discusses examining the theories of diasporic community through three main psychological states/forms of consciousness, "idealization of homeland, boutique multicultural manifestation, and transitional/transformational identity politics" (Lee, 54). Lee reminds their readers that it is necessary to understand the linkage between globalization, mobility and the economy to fully grasp the understanding of the previously stated consciences. 
            Homeland idealism is the idealization of the homeland by it's diaspora. Lee states, "the homeland-idealizing diasporic community is always marginalized because it is physically absent form the homeland (it's 'center') and (consequently) socially excluded from the host society and its narrative."  (Lee, 59). This idea provides the picture of the often occurring problem of finding a place to belong. Even with globalization allowing easier access to crossing national boundaries diasporic subjects are trapped in between the homeland and the host society. However, although they are caught in between often they reap the benefits of travelling to the host society which often allows for upward social or class mobility. Even within these beneficial economic circumstances diasporic subjects attempt to explain their conditions of being trapped. They aid in the narrative of existing as the "exotic Other community" which is of value to the host society and is known as "boutique multiculturalism" (Lee, 61).
          Boutique multiculturalism talks about diasporic subjects playing the multicultural game in which they choose to "have" their multiculturalism as opposed to actually being multicultural.  This idea is created by the western perspective of the "colonizer who feels looked at by the native's gaze and therefore has to work at producing the image of the native as object, silent and passive." (Lee, 62). This multiculturalism is casted upon diasporic subjects. However, there are "new diasporas [who] identify less with concerns of their predecessors" (Lee, 64) and are now beginning to disrupt the centrality of the fantasy of white supremacy. Within the idea of boutique multiculturalism, ethnicity, race, and politics are essentialized and therefore can easily be manipulated to increase the separation of the other and white supremacy or allow for sincerity in different aspects and groups of multiculturalism.  
Lee than discusses the importance of the hyphen in the dichotomy of diasporic identities. The hyphen acts as something that separates as well as joins two terms and Lee argues that is where diasporic communities sit now and determines where the future of diasporic communities will be. The indeterminant space in between (the hyphen) acts as potential to disrupt a lot of hegemonic ideals of national identity. Although this space does offer opportunity it is also tough for all diasporic subjects to have access to such a space, therefore there is a need for those that can access this space to make "this transitional consciousness as positively charged on" (Lee, 72). However, even with this urgency the hybrid space poses difficulty because it must be broken down to multiple components but at the same time must have some sort of coherence to enable the ability to move forward. 
Lee concludes that the problematizing of diasporic identity and its existence is the moving forward of diasporas. The hybrid space  created by the "hyphen" is where urgency is created and transforming of diaspora takes place. The consciences discussed as well as the phenomena of globalization allude to the concerns and issues facing diasporas today. 
(written by Mel)



Questions:
1. Does a "diasporic experience" have to be an experience that is experienced by the majority diasporic subjects within a certain diasporic group?
2. Is hybridity the same as multiculturalism?
3. What ways can Diasporic studies challenge and problematize  Western-centric perspectives of Area Studies?


Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DalYj2xvZo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNXoBFyolL8

Week 10: Asia as Home(land)

Movie: Oh, Saigon


Popular Music: Sounds of Home Resistance and Change - Kieu-Linh Valverde

Valverde discusses how artist, producers, and distributors engaged in the development and distribution of music in Vietnam, the US, and in the Vietnamese Diaspora in the US. These players had to navigate below and through the  Vietnamese government’s censorship (especially coming from the Vietnamese diaspora in the US) and anticommunist sentiments and groups within the Vietnamese diaspora in the US. Given these two seemingly conflicting players, musicians, mixers, club owners, video store owners, and distributors still produced and distributed music in both Vietnam and within the Viet Kieu. In fact, music in Vietnam is influenced by Vietnamese Americans and Vietnamese  musicians are influenced by the Vietnamese in Vietnam. Popular music from both Vietnam and Vietnamese American community is not necessarily mutually exclusive and is rather created by people from both places. Especially with the growth of information technology and travel, the flow of music was able to work around censorship from the two places and influenced each other’s development. . With the easing of controls from the US, Vietnam, and the Vietnamese in America during the past decade, it is expected that popular music in Vietnam and within the Viet Kieu will continue to meld together and grow.

I’m reminded of how K-Pop agencies in South Korea actively recruit Koreans in the US to become part of bands. It would be interested to research the history of the development of K-Pop and identify historical contacts, if any, that K-Pop had with the Korean diaspora (in the US?) (Interesting question: How did Korean trot develop from the Korean diaspora in Japan, many who were famous enka singers? John Lie talks about this, its history and contradictions in this article: http://www.tobiashubinette.se/hallyu_1.pdf) 

And for the Korean diaspora in the US, how do Korean American embrace K-Pop to their own musical developments or perhaps their ethnic and cultural identity within multicultural US? How does the history of K-Pop and Korean Americans intersect along which notions? Nationalism, historically, economically, politically?


Diaspora Politics, Homeland Erotics and the Materializing of Memory - Louisa Schein

In Louisa Schein article, she discusses the discourses and events that materialize a homeland for Hmong in diaspora. Because of a long history of origin and migrations, Schein argues that Hmong people have multiple homelands. She presents two vignettes. One vignette talks about a specific Hmong New Year in Fresno, California, and its spectacular event because of two Lao Royal guests have been invited to attend. The second vignette talks about how male Hmong Americans have visited the Hmong villages in China, only to sleep with the young women who are promised a chance to go to U.S., but are left behind and forgotten by these men.

For the first vignette, Schein explains a history of the migration of Hmong people, originating from China. Possibly from conflict with Chinese imperialists, Hmong crossed the Chinese borders and into the south-east Asia territories, such as Laos, that became their new homes and now have centuries of huge historical depth for them. Then, when the Vietnam War reached Laos, Hmong in Laos allied with the French and Americans to fight back the communists. Unfortunately, when the U.S. pulled out of the war, it left many Hmong in persecution. So Hmong had to leave Laos to Thailand refugee camps, and eventually to the U.S. and other receiving countries to survive. These Hmong refugees went from a settled lifestyle in south-east Asia, to years of war trauma, and then to a new westernized country where education and language barriers were hard to adjust to. Whereas China is remembered in the nostalgic, Laos is romanticized and remembered concretely. Thus “Hmong American spatial commitments, then, are multiple and not constricted by a unidirectional program of return.”

So what made the Hmong New Year in 1996 so special and different were because of the two Lao Royalty guests that attended. They are the offspring of the former Lao king who are now living in exile in Paris. Their presence at the New Year represented a unified identity of Hmong and Laos through their similar experiences in political standing and struggles. The ceremonies for the Lao Royalties were a way to recreate a lost culture of Hmong memories in Asia, and a time when these high status officials were once able to make important political decisions.
Hmong Americans also play a retrograde character to their co-ethnics in the Chinese homelands. Because the Hmong in China are still in great poverty, they look up to the Hmong Americans for mentorship, educational, and economical assistance.

Finally, the diasporic Hmong (or Hmong Americans) have revisited their painful and embarrassing past thwart with Laotian oppression, American exploitation, and Chinese gentrification.  Only, they come in droves of elitist, material driven wolves hungry to inflict or claim their rightful belongings in a space once called home, equipped with the Western weapons of colonialism, masculinity, and wealth.  But what, as Schein so poignantly posits in her observation of Hmong American males reconstructing their past, is the relation of eroticism and most intriguing, the implicit, perhaps even suppressed, priapic inclinations of these Hmong men to conquer their shortcomings through sexual prowess?  This leads to the belief and conjecture that at the very top of it all (dynasties, republics, monarchies, tribes, clans, etc.), and for those granted or earned the right to look down, all things seem absolute the same therewith (forgive my use of a cliché here and then some more in the following paragraphs describing Hmong phallic symbols and the justification of control by possession of the biggest phallus).

The message here is not why the Hmong American men use sex and wealth as a tool for reclaiming their dirt land and dying livestock, but the importance of citing any colonial power’s influence on their actions.  It is rather a historical survey on what, given years of racism and hatred, will happen to a group of marginalized people when they discover they too harbor that same destructive power unleashed upon them.  Is it not tempting to take up the power of the Dark side, to become Darth Vader, after a lifetime of goodness (“goodness” as in the sense of Hmong isolationism) that resulted in banishment?  The entire nonsense concerning the phallus is real for the Hmong American men who have tasted the sticky stick of truth.  For those who have sucked and gargled the sweetness of its strength and power, it is extremely hard to dismiss the sensuous excitement of its addictive elements.  It is this primitive longing, this addiction, or so it seems, that somehow erects itself as a sensible knee-jerk reaction to possession.  Unlike Schein, however, I believe homeland for the Hmong is not so easily materialized or fetishized in terms such as “eroticism” or “phallus”, or that these are implemented and premeditated as direct actions intended to reclaim the homeland.  Schein conveniently paints this picture of fragmentation and disillusionment, of an extended stop in the current home of the Hmong in America, and theorize that sex is, or has to be, the most logical discourse in understanding the idea of a nomadic group of people clinging to something that was and will never exist.

What then, given this inherent desire to sexually reclaim the homeland that does not really exist as aforementioned, affects the current home in America for the Hmong people?  Do the Hmong do their best to mimic the White Americans and adhere to enlightened and progressive concepts such as “eroticism” and “phallus” in order to only become puppet rulers?  Or this may create a new generation of rapacious Hmong individuals realizing that they must overtake America by these same means encouraged by phallic symbols.  The excitement of critiquing the Hmong people with Western philosophical concepts is something worth exploring, even if the concept is wholly meant to explain all races and ethnicities, or so we may assume.

Why Asian Girls go for White Guys (The PHALLIC conspiracy!!!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI3lPLsbwjw


From Japanese to Nikkei and Back: Integration Strategies of Japanese Immigrants and their Descendants in Brazil - Jeffrey Lesser

During the first half of the 20th century, many Japanese immigrants migrated to Brazil . It was suggested that these Japanese immigrants and their descendants were more original and authentic than those who were already members of the European descendant. Japanese residents in Brazil quickly began to construct a hyphenated ethnic identity that was both Brazilian and Japanese. Society’s goals were to incorporate Japanese culture and maintain a permanent Japanized space in Brazil through the preservation of language, culture, and religion. Community-run schools utilized Japanese education materials to exposed Brazilian-born children to the Japanese language and culture of their parents. Many Japanese immigrants married  Brazilians because it was a positive thing to do. They produced “white” children and this gave them a higher racial status because whites were known as the elite. Japanese immigrants who migrated to Brazil have lost nothing but the spectral connections of place and time. They have kept their culture and language; Brazil emerged into a multicultural country.

Question:
1. How does history play an important part in defining a Homeland? Why are Hmong Americans committed to multiple nation-states/homelands?

2. In your opinion, did the Japanese lose anything from migrating to Brazil?

3. What forces challenge and define transnational popular music development in Vietnam and within the Vietnamese in America?

By: Diana, Gaukue, Ninh, Desun, and Ving

Week 9: Digital Age and Cyber Space

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcuGdj0x_os

After the fall of Saigon, many Vietnamese fled the country. Though they were able to escape Vietnam, they had to leave lots of things behind, including people the care and love. Communication was very difficult between people in Vietnam and people who had escape from there. In “Social Transformation from Virtual Communities,” Valverde acknowledge readers about the developments of internet communication technology (ICT) in Vietnam. These developments gave Vietnamese diaspora connections with Vietnamese. This expanded No-Nike Campaign further with cyberspace.
 After the Vietnam War, there was very limited communication within and outside the boarders of Vietnam. Though technology was expanding in more develop countries, technology in Vietnam was very limited. Technology such as internet access was not available in Vietnam Many Vietnamese, who studied abroad, such as United States, had to leave all technology behind. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s many of those students and other overseas scholars push for ICT development. When internet was starting up in Vietnam, activists created VNforum to create connection with Vietnamese and Vietnamese diaspora.  This was very difficult for many Vietnamese because the Vietnam government and anticommunist always cracked down. Activist still fought for VNforum.
They development of internet in Vietnam they were able push for the No-Nike Campaign and created other opportunities. After exposure of Nike factories with the help of VNforum and internet access, they were able to give workers better labor conditions. VNBIZ was also created in the light of communication technology via internet. VNBIZ is similar to VNforum but is less threaten because it discusses less political topics. Dot Choui Non is a blogging site. All of these are monitored by Vietnamese government official. Some of these website requires real names, so posting and blogging it done at one own risks.   



“Mapping Networks of Support for the Zapatista Movement: Applying Social-Networks Analysis to Study Contemporary Social Movements” - Maria Garrido and Alexander Halavais

The Zapatista movement is unique from other movements because it used the internet to create its organization to expand its ideas, its support networks and take advantage of the globalization done by technology, particularly the internet. The Zapatista movement was a revolution in Mexico in 1994. The organization occupied a town with armory to fight against the poverty that plagued the indigenous communities. This organization used the internet “as a tool for global mobilization” for social change (Garrido & Halavais, 174). By using the internet for global mobilization, they united a forefront of workers throughout the world in disadvantaged economic positions. Together, these disadvantaged groups throughout the world could unite through “ties, roles and strategic alliances” (Garrido & Halavais, 174) to help fuel the Zapatista movement. The article states that globalization has taken away power from nations and decentralized that power into divisions of nonstate actors. Globalization through the internet has helped spread ideas and information throughout underrepresented groups and these groups can also spread their ideas throughout the global world wide web. - Nam Phuong Pham

1.) How did the Zapatista movement deal with online oppositions to the movement?

2.) In such an inclusive movement, what ways did the Zapatista movement centralize its focus and plan its next actions without a “leader”?

3.) Which different disadvantaged groups in different nations did the Zapatista movement influence and how much did they copy from the original Mexican movement?

        In the article, "Notes on Queer 'N' Asian Virtual Sex" by Daniel Tsang explains how techonology is a new way for queer Asians to "come out" of the closet and talk about their sexuality. For example, the Bulletin Board System (BBS) is a virtual community in cyberspace that is used by homosexualities, especially gay Asian Americans, to "meet others for affection, romance, love, and sex..." (432). However, through this virtual community people can lie about their real identity to protect their privacy, but others take advantage of this to create a whole new person. This includes changing peoples ethnicity, age, or sexual orientation. A Chinese man from Taiwan had changed his ethnicity to Caucasian, and realized that he receives more messages from people who are interested in him. 
       Moreover, many members of BBS are spending hours on the site, instead of going out to gay bars to meet new people. This has become the new way for gay Asians to interact with other gay people, since some of them might feel uncomfortable to be with the same sex partner in public. Also, a person who signs up to be a member on BBS doesn't necessarily mean that they are "coming out" because not all of them are using their real identity. Conversely, Asians are becoming more visible with their gay identities. In 1994, "...gay and lesbian Asian contingent has marched in San Francisco's Chinatown" (434). This is a great example to explain how gay Asians are starting to express their sexual identity, even though it may be against cultural norms. 
        
1) How have virtual communities affect one's identity? Do you think this is a negative or positive thing?

2) Is it important to have these virtual communities for queer or gay Asians to express themselves, even though they are deceiving other members with their false identity?

Week 8 Gender and Sexuality

“In the Shadows of Stonewall” -- Manalansan
As the globalization of the “gay” movement continues to grow, it also, Mansalan argues, increasingly invisibilizes and marginalizes the experiences of non-Western queer folks. Since much of the recognition of the roots of the Gay and Lesbian Movement is given to the Stonewall Riots, a very rigid definition of “gay” is established. “Gay” is understood as a very Western/Euro- centric term, and assumes that it is only that: a Western/European phenomenon. Ignorance is demonstrated in the fact that some countries deny the fact that there are gay and lesbian people in their country. Gay and lesbian immigrants face discrimination from their home country and in their host country as well. In facing that diaspora, “Ken Plummer warned against suggesting a convergence of homosexual lifestyles across the world, against ‘one true universal gayness’” (149). Gay culture varies just as political and social culture. Despite not having acceptance among nation-states, gay culture, although still sometimes underground in some countries, is still alive and thriving from its vast differences and identity. 

"10,000 Señora Lees: The Changing Gender Ideology of Korean-Latina-American Women in the Diaspora"-  Kyeyoung Park

In the article, "10,000 Señora Lees: The Changing Gender Ideology of Korean-Latina-American Women in the Diaspora" by Kyeyoung Park discusses the "spatial, historical, and cultural processes confronting Korean female immigrants now in the U.S. who were born or raised in South America" (161). In addition, she examines the deconstruction and reconstruction of Korean gender/sex ideology that these women experience in both countries. By doing this, she explores the individual’s way of life and how they act at work and home, especially with their spouse and family.

       In addition, gender roles were seen differently in South America and North America. In South America, Park talked about a Korean-Latino-American, who is influenced by his Peruvian co-worker. The Peruvian co-worker wears tight-fitting clothing, and do not have shame with exuding his body parts to get attention from female customers. Moreover, a Korean-Latina dates a married man without feeling embarrassed or shameful. Korean-Latina women were more worried about their appearances and wanted to be just like the Babies they played with. These are examples of how the Brazilian culture have influenced them to ignore their gender roles as Koreans, and live with no rules.
       When Koreans immigrated to the U.S., they encountered a different culture and environment. "They confronted a deeply polarized racial and gender structure" (168). The Korean-Latinas have a better chance to find a job or work for fashion industries. However, racism and discrimination is more prone in the U.S. than in South America. A Korean-Latina is "rejected" by the dominant population because she was not white. This is an issue she did not have to endure in Brazil, but color was not an issue. Therefore, she dated out of race to be different from the other Koreans. Even in the work force, they had racist employers who would make fun of them by naming them after Asian food.
       Park describes how the experiences in Brazil are different because their parents are more "flexible and understanding". They are able to join sports and not have to worry about their gender roles as much. However, in the U.S. the parents have more expectations for their children, and are stricter. Korean-Latina-Americans Diaspora experiences give them different perspectives on their culture. Depending on where Koreans are migrating from, they have different views on race and gender structures, which are influenced by the "diasporic experience and multiple displacements" (177).

“Filipino Sea Men: Identity and Masclinity in a Global Labor Niche” - Steven McKay
Diasporas is a consequence of nation states through their power of imperialism and postcolonialism. Through imperialism and postcolonialism, the rise in America’s shipping industry’s has created a new definition of Filipino gendered identity. Filipino seamen have been coined the term “Manilamen” and their masculinity has been determined by racial and class structures. This control of masculinity has become a dominant tool in shaping the control of the economic balance between trading nations in the postcolonial era. Filipino seamen, however, have constructed their own masculinity. Filipino seamen express their pride in their work through their creativity compared to that of their above-standing white officers, among other ways. By looking at masculinity in a way of creativity, they have changed the perspective of what masculine and made it their own. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obDDRNcDepY

1.) In response to the ignorant speech by people who believe that there are no gay people in their country because it is just a Western phenomenon, how do gay people in those countries feel and what choices do they see themselves having?

2.) Why does the different diasporic experiences influence Koreans change in gender roles?

3.) How does the change in gender roles affect Korea’s culture and values? Does this impact the culture as a whole, or just those living in those diasporic communities?

4.) How do they view masculinity in their commanding white officers since they have defined a new sense of masculinity for themselves?

5.) Considering the fact that Filipino seamen are seen as gay in the eyes of the dominant class on board, how does it affect their tension with the own culture’s perspectives of them as either heterosexual ? 6.) Sexuality, is one’s preference in sexual partners. Being gay and being a "waria" is two completely thing in Indonesia. If it is accepted in one culture, why not all?

7.) Waria's gender was biologically male but took on female aspects, why are they seen as "normal?"

Week 7 Topic: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity

K. Scott Wong. “Diasporas, Displacements, and the Construction of Transnational Identities”

A stark proclivity toward a globally multicultural hybrid identity created by “transnationalism and global exchange” is inevitable according to Wong.  That is, Wong evinces, due to communicative technological advancements, ease of access to global trade, and subsequently (perhaps the single most salient rationale) realistic and obtainable opportunities in the accumulation of massive capital, these isolated, pure, and authentic identities of the world demarcated under arbitrary bordered countries, nation-states, cities, and villages, have or will become indistinguishable under the pretense of capitalism.  This alchemic phenomenon characterized under transnationalism, whether serendipitous (the implied imperialistic, highly fictitious, narrative in which both sides benefit) or methodically orchestrated (militaristic aggression in which ultimately reconciliation and sympathetic admittance of guilt on behalf of the “good intentions” is the strategized solution to appease the victims, and to sustain good relations with the world) by those influential few with an insurmountable amount of power, has finally come to fruition.

           

The logic of identity deformation, reformation, and re-reformation in sectors and domains of the world is thus complicated, warped, and manipulated by these fantastical processes of interaction and perceived friendships built strictly on power, and oscillated between global capitalist markets through sheer ostentatious display of superfluous capital gains.  The dream of a utopian, authentic, and concomitantly harmonious identity or group of people in which the exchange of goods (monetary, cultural, spiritual, etc.) oscillate effortlessly, becomes the dominant narrative.  Individuals living under this newly designed, universal deformed mask of authenticity produced by hegemony must acquiesce, that is more clearly, reform their self-identity on the basis of differentiation, in order to merely survive.  Nevertheless, the efficacy of the logic of identity, however implemented under this transgressive power, is twofold. 

In result, a suspended oft-paradoxical narrative of universal identification subsisting on the rhetoric of heterogeneity as a means of freedom (Reconciliation?) from these hegemonic forces is put into action.  Individuation then, consequently and as a reactionary mechanism to oppression, racism, etc., becomes a powerful tool for authentic self-identification, subservient to, of course, the enduring hegemonic society.  As identity transforms and adapts, or discovers new ways in which to escape its own vices, so does hegemony.  The United States of America, given its history of nativism as a combative action against immigrants and outside influences, has since I believe, exhorted the conceit of an authentic American identity due to its uncontrollable growing and diverse demographics.  Although internally nothing has changed: even if this absolute, pure and authentic American identity becomes a reality, hegemony will perpetually discover new ways to adjust its narrative and rhetoric in performing insidious control. 

The two articles below closely examine the concept of a formulated authentic identity (the deformed mask) forced on by these superpowers but thwarted by these displaced individuals’ connections with their homeland politics, cultural values, and societies.  The result is a reformation of both territory and population (native and outsider) following the logic of identity, and this global push for a common hybridized idea of identification.

Questions:

1.     Is the strict process of establishing a global authentic identity, regardless of interaction caused by global trade, diaspora, or transnationalism, a subversive ploy implemented by hegemony?

2.     Subsequently, do we, by portraying and performing our “otherness” (strive for a heterogeneous population each with its uniqueness) forge the very edifice of hegemony?  Although the idea of the “Melting Pot” and assimilation has been criticized and dissected for its oppressive underpinning, does our individuation lubricate the mechanized system of hegemony?

3.     Finally, to what extent will our independence, perhaps that which will be viewed as a global mixture of sociological, cultural, and political ideologies, breed cynicism amongst those who view harmony and peace as regression?

“ When Minorities Migrate: The Racialization of the Japanese Brazilians in Brazil and Japan “ -Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda

In the article “ When Minorities Migrate: The Racialization of the Japanese Brazilians in Brazil and Japan,” Takeyuki Tsuda argues that diasporic subjects fundamentally “de-essentialize” race. According to Tsuda, to “de-essentialize” means to challenge the notions of racial conceptions of ethnic groups. The article focuses on the conflicts of Japanese Brazilian people. This diasporic community embraces their Japanese heritage in Brazil because being racially Japanese has positive cultural connotations. For example, Japanese Brazilian people’s success is seen as relating to their Japaneseness. Therefore, Japanese Brazilians allow Brazilians to outwardly refer and greet them as “Japonês” and to make slanty eye gestures,  although those actions are clearly racially distinct. However, in Japan, Japanese Brazilians explicitly segregate themselves from the homogeneously constituted Japanese majority ethnicity. They do so by practicing Brazilian traditions, such as through their greetings to each other, their clothing, dancing the traditional samba dance even though they don’t know it, and speaking Portuguese. Japanese Brazilians deliberately resist assimilation into Japanese culture because they want to demonstrate they are not Japanese despite their appearance and should not be held to Japanese cultural expectations. (written by Thanhthao and Mel)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7j6N5-Ajl0

Question:

4.     How does de-essentialization relate to cultural hybridity?

Bernard Scott Lucious. “Into the Black Pacific: Testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian Displacements”

Amerasians day laborer in Ho Chi Minh City, 1992 

In his article “In the Black Pacific,” Bernard Scott Lucious focuses on the testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians band their Diaspora. These testimonies are the manners of defining, redefining, proclaim, and affirming one’s body.  The author makes a number of interesting points on the Diaspora of these Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians. These people not only face national displace but also racial displacement in and outside of Vietnam because they are mix race.  The Vietnamese in Vietnam views them as the children of the Americans even though they are only half American, but can we even consider them American if they never experience living in America? Lucious talks about three types of contact zones. The three contact zones are: corporal, national and then international. By contact zones Lucious meant that the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians is displace because their skin color. The Vietnamese (in Vietnam) associate anyone not fully being yellow to not be true Vietnamese. Also, the darker the skin color, the more discrimination Afro-Amerasians would experience. In the corporal zone, racial discrimination is physical. It can be seen on the person’s skin, or body. These injuries are the direct result of the feeling of being mixed race and discriminated. Not only black is devalued but being an Afro-Amerasian woman is more unfavorable and is exploited more as well. The National zone is displacement within society. these are  displacement within the family, the Saigon’s street culture (also known as the street of Saigon), in school, and in labor camps. The international zone is Vietnamese Afro-Asian hoping to escape the discrimination in Vietnam. They either displaced on Cambodian borders or in America (known as “Vietnamrica”).

This is a song by Tasha, a Korean artist whose father was black and her mother was Korean. This song is about her life being mix raced in South Korea. It touches on the topics discussed in Lucious article of colorism, displacement and contact zones. Notice that the music video is in Black and White.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fAKvA7uIL8

Questions:

5.     Many French-Vietnamese Eurasians migrated to Europe and was granted citizenship. What are the possible reasons Vietnamese Amerasians did not travel to America?  

6.     What are the implications, pertinent to Dubois’s dual consciousness, which Lucious evinces in the Afro-Amerasians?  Not only are the perspectives of the individual through colored lens, but also what is the significance of this vision ultimately distorted by class and gender?  In relation to skin color, what can you make of class stratification, societal underpinnings, and ideologies that accompany a mixed-race immigrant individual?

By Ving Lee, Thanhthao Nguyen, Melody Tan, Mai Nguyen, and Shoun Thao