Week 6 Blog Post: Culture

            In the following series of articles, we will be discussing the practices of cultural art and production, and how the identities expressed are in constant flux and ever-changing due to the current postmodern environment of globalization and transnational networks. Stuart Hall discusses the ways that cultural identity is presented while addressing cultural hybridity, and Caroline Valverde discusses Chau Huynh’s art and how its attempt at cultural hybridity resulted in anti-communist protests that suppress freedom of speech that are not conducive to the mob’s ideology. Finally, with Sunaina Mara’s article, we discuss South Asian American youth and their hybridizing of their cultural traditions with American hip hop ethos, and the desire to fit in both worlds while embracing the positive aspects of both.

Stuart Hall. "Cultural Identity and Diaspora." Reader
 

            In the article “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,”Stuart Hall discusses Caribbean and the “Third Cinema” in relation to the questions about identity, cultural practices, and cultural production. According to Hall, there are two ways of seeing cultural identity. First, identity is a shared and collective history among people of the same ancestry and that it is stable overtime. Second, identity is also seen as unstable and that identity is always developing and transforming. A common belief is that identity is fixed; however, identity is also a production which is always developing through time and culture. Hall claims that it is important to look at forgotten histories, in other words, hidden histories in order to reclaim the cultural identity of Africa. Hall discusses that Africa is the center of our cultural identity; however, many failed to know the meaning and importance of this. Cultural identities have histories, but it overcomes a lot of transformation. Histories is spoken through one’s experience and it is subject to changes due to memory, fantasy, culture and power.
           Hart exemplifies this concept of identity through three “presences” that constitutes the complex Caribbean cultural identities; they are Présence Africaine, Présence Européenne, and Présence Américaine. Présence Africaine “is the site of the repressed.” They are the history of Africa and slavery, hidden in the Caribbean culture.Through the history of revolution, civil rights movement, and reconstruction of identity, the origins of the term “Africa” is no longer there because it has been transformed. Hart talks about this “displaced homeward journey” experience, where one has an imaginary or real cultural identity that they wish to return to. But before they can reach that identity, they go through a long route through Europe and the United States. By the end of their journey, they finish off with a western twist instead of being in their homeland with their traditional music and monuments. Hart explains that it is “by another route” that the African identity has become.Présence Européenne, which is about domination and power becoming a part of our own identity. Présence Américaine is the “New World” where all these different cultures meet to create a new assimilated culture and the history that we know it today. The “New World” represents the beginning of diaspora. Hart describes the term diaspora as an identity of hybridity, where the identities are constantly producing and reproducing through history.

Kieu-Linh Valverde. "Creating Identity, Defining Culture, and Making History from an Art Exhibit: An Unfinished Story: A Tribute to my Mothers'" in Transnationalizing Viet Nam.

In discussing how diaspora impacts cultural identity, and the declaration of cultural identity in both old and new spaces, Kieu-Linh Valverde in “Creating Identity, Defining Culture, and Making History from an Art Exhibit: An Unfinished Story: A Tribute to my Mothers’” looks into the Vietnamese Community and the case of Chau Huynh and the protesting of her work entitled “Pedicure Basin” which appeared in a 2008 edition of the Vietnamese American newspaper called the “Nguoi Viet Daily.” The controversy, of the North and South Vietnamese flag stitched together, resulted in large anti-communist protests over the nature of her work. However, the personal intention of the art was dismissed in favor of courting anti-communist sentiment. The reason for the stitching of two flags together come from Chau’s experience as the daughter of Communist party members, and growing up in an environment that celebrated pro-Communist propaganda, while hiding the truth about what had really gone with the 4.3 million South Vietnamese refugees. Chau came to the United States in 1999 as an international bride, after several years of being in conflict with a South Vietnamese-American, and had constant arguments about their differing ideologies. Since her perspective on the Vietnam War differed greatly from Vietnamese Americans who came in post 1975 with anti communist sentiments, she did not identify with the South Vietnamese women at the nail shop she worked at. However, after coming to learn the truth, she later had to confront her own understanding of the two worlds of Vietnam that do exist. Stitching together the flags was her artistic and symbolic contribution to this methodical epiphany, and came from a place of not meaning to offend, but really in trying to comprehend her life.  In this chapter of her book, Valverde shows us that extremist Vietnamese Americans who are very anti communist obtained political control through cultural control.

Sunaina Maira. "Mixed Desires: Second-Generation Indian Americans and the Politics of Youth Culture" in Displacements.

By protesting Huynh’s “Pedicure Basin” they are able to shape the Vietnamese community and how Vietnamese Americans are perceived. Valverde’s point here is that by dominating the media and news outlet, anti communist groups succeeds in putting fear into the Vietnamese American community and silencing their free speech. These anti communist ideology has censored so many in the Vietnamese American Community, resulting in many Vietnamese Americans being unable to voice their freedom of speech because the fear of being labeled a communist and attacked by the community. This acceptable harassment continued with F.O.B. II: Art Speaks exhibit, ironically an exhibit of 50 Vietnamese artists that was meant to end self-censorship and simultaneously open dialogue from various groups. With an unacceptable showing of communist symbols, the anti-communist protests continued with zeal about what was the ‘wrong’ sentiment to show, while still continuing to ignore the significance of the artwork presented within the community. It later went into rather ugly personal attacks, using patriarchy and slurs such as ‘con di’ or whores to describe the women who ran the exhibit, showing that the cultural control that is required to keep an appropriate, homogeneous form of view regarding Vietnamese communism.

Other incidents that were similar to Chau Huynh’s case were the 1999 Hi tek protest, and the case of Kim Oanh Lam Nguyen being fired as superintendent of Westminster’s School District where Kim Oanh she was fired shortly after being hired because people from the Vietnamese American community had label her as a Communist. Valverde sees that these tactics are currently the predominant type of political actions in the Vietnamese Diaspora community. Valverde suggests that these incidents might be signs that the Vietnamese American community today is at a crossroad, more and more people like Huynh are attempting to challenge the  dominance of the anti communist ideology, in order to grasp the complexity of their existence, rather than running high on anti-communism sentiment.

            In trying to comprehend homeland and new traditions, Sunaina Maira’s article describes the experiences of South Asian American youth who struggles to define notions of authenticity that work to position these youth in relation to hierarchies of race, class, gender, and nationalism that mark them as “local” in America. At the same time, they want to include a transnational imaginings of India or their homeland. They do this by incorporating popular culture music hip-hop into India’s music to evoke a sense of “place” in a social hierarchy. In conjunction with the production of remix music, the youth constructs a culturally hybrid style, such as wearing Indian-style nose rings and bindis with hip-hop fashion, and dancing in traditional folk dance gestures while gyrating to club mixes.

          According to Maira, popular culture is a critical site for understanding the ways the youth position themselves in the landscape of ethnic and racial politics, because we see ethnic authenticity, cultural hybridization, racialized gender ideologies, and class contradictions. The youth thinks that it is “cool,” which also implies that they have racialized and classified  themselves in the United States. Popular culture offers youth to re-appropriate or symbolically transgress existing racial, gendered, and class boundaries. The second-generation youth are able to socialize with ethnic peers while reinterpreting Indian musical and dance traditions using American popular culture. The hip-hop culture is mostly adopted by middle-class/white/suburban youth, as well as Asian American, Latino, and white youth from the urban.

           Since most Indians lived in urban or suburban (cities), this fits them in the same “local” category. Hip-hop also expresses sexuality for women and men, but for Indian women the female “hoochi” outfits for nightclubs are against their Indian cultural beliefs of Chastity, but expresses femininity in America. For the men, the male black hip-hop style is machismo in the U.S. This is why the South Asian youth flaunt hip-hop styles while incorporating some Indian accessories and details.The hip hop culture alienates them from their parents or as a symbol of rebellion from their parents’ expectations. This alienation from their parents help make them “cool” like the youth in America, because they do not want to be classified as full Indians. They want to also feel belonging to the American culture. She argued that the cultural forms that responses to diasporic or transnational experiences take cannot be understood only in terms of the nature of migration but also be 

understood in terms of relationships to local cultural and political economies.  

http://youtu.be/k83j04J8l1Q

Questions:
1. Do you believe that under-covering hidden histories is the solution to cultural identities? Why?

2. Why do you think the Vietnamese Americans that are anticommunist are so vocal? Do they really represent the voice of the Vietnamese Americans?

3. Does hip hop culture influence other Asian American minority group as well? What does this hybridization of the culture mean?

4. According to Hart, what are ways to see identity? How does cultural identity form overtime?

5. In the discussion of anti-communist sentiment towards Huynh's art, what do you suggest to be a way to open dialogue about the presence of communism in the Vietnamese diaspora's person's past? More specifically, what is a possible solution, if the dialogue about art, war, and politics is currently at a standstill for not being able to transcend such ideology wars? 

Blog 6 by: Gaukue Xiong, Shoun Thao, Fanny Wong, Susan Xiong, Iris Xie

Week 5: Politics of the Diaspora

Michael Peter Smith’s article “Transnational Migration and the Globalization of Grassroots Politics” discusses about the lived experience of transnational migrants, exiles and refugees in the time of globalization and how global grassroots movement are slowing affecting the culture and politics of the local communities. He introduces the term “borderless people”: people who live in one national state that is not their country of origin, but at the same time adopts a hybrid culture. Smith believes that the “borderless people” are the future of hybrid cultures. Note that  a majority of these “borderless people” travel to different countries for better job opportunities, and they send regular remittances to their family and/or relatives overseas.

In the chapter “Whose Community is it Anyway?” in Transnationalizing Viet Nam: Community Culture and Politics in the Diaspora, Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde highlights a momentous case study where the Vietnamese-American community becomes politically fragmented on the naming of a business district, where the conflict escalated to anticommunist red-baiting. Valverde reveals the politics of the diaspora by highlight the still deep-seated emotions towards Vietnamese communism and how it still informs the community’s politics to this very day. During the Madison Nguyen controversy, it seemed like the entire Vietnamese community turned their backs on Madison and a recall campaign was started by the protest organizers. Throughout the controversy and the recall campaign, the true nature of the protest organizers was revealed; they were jealous of Madison’s position of power. In the Vietnamese rendition of Confucianism, she is seen as the daughter of the community and, therefore, subject to their whims. Being a female politician creates the additional expectation that she must serve the Vietnamese community no matter what, Valverde reveals that this tension is ultimately what led to the “Little Saigon” controversy. In an extra twist, Valverde points out that the elder males of the Vietnamese community were jealous of her position and desired the power for themselves. “The older generation look at Madison and they ask themselves, ‘Why is it her and not me that had that position?’” The chapter pinpoints the motivations behind the controversy with Madison Nguyen and reveals the nuanced, multifaceted dimensions that make up the politics of the Vietnamese diaspora.

1. What concert did Madison organize to help Vietnamese people get involved in politics?

2. Why was Madison called a communist by her community in San Jose?

3. Why will major political decisions be made by Asian communities in the future and how will the Asian community ensure this?

4. What factors will lead to politics and culture being different in the future according to  Smith?

5. What are “borderless people” and what are they the leaders of?

by Edwin Leung and more.

Week 4: Economics

In “Asians on the Rim: Transnational Capital and Local Community in the Making of Contemporary Asian America,” Arif Dirlik “argue[s]… that… earlier conceptualizations of Asian America… may be more relevant than ever” (3). Although the United States did not become significantly involved in transnational trade or economics with countries in Asia in the past, the idea of an “Asian America” still needs to exist because changes have occurred to the economies of countries in Asia.

 One major point of the article is that when Asian Americans did not act together in the past, they became affected “by white capital” (Dirlik 4). Dirlik further emphasizes this by indicating that “Asian America” acts continuously and does not only apply to Asian Americans in former times (6). Although transnationalism connects the United States to countries in Asia, the United States can still affect Asian Americans.

The second main point of the article is that people move due to changes in the economy of the United States and those of the countries in Asia (Dirlik 12). Transnationalism includes people moving for financial reasons or purposes.

 The third main point of the article is that the transnationalism between the United States and countries in Asia can result in some people relating to those in Asian countries instead of relating to others in the United States (Dirlik 14). The transnationalism between the United States and countries in Asia affects the perspectives of Asian Americans.

Transnationalism can cause some Asian Americans to be influenced by the countries in Asia, which causes Asian Americans to be less focused on the people around them in the United States. Dirlik states, “Asian America is no longer just a location in the United States” (13). This suggests that Asian Americans do not necessarily need to live in the United States to be considered “Americans.” Transnationalism causes Asians who live in Asia to have knowledge about the United States. In addition, Dirlik states that the whole world became affected by “the economic and political emergence of Pacific Asian societies” (11). The changes in the economies of the countries in Asia influence the Asian Americans in the United States and the Asians in other parts of the world. However, the article focuses on the transnationalism between the United States and the countries in Asia, which suggests that the economies of the countries in Asia have greater effects on the Asian Americans in the United States than on Asians outside of Asia in other countries of the world. As a result, some Asian Americans focus their attention on the markets or economies of the countries in Asia.

In discussing that, we will be looking at Global Commodity Networks.  GCNs are the transnational chains of economic enterprises involved at different stages in the production and consumption of a single commodity. Through GCNs, we can understand the emergence of transnational economic organizaions in the contemporary global economy. Specifically in this article, Korwenewicz can analyze the changes in international capitalism in the leather-footwear industry industry through factors such as dynamics of national economies and the world economy and then considering political economy and the culture of Argentina, Brazil, and the US. Korwenewicz explains the changes in roles through national and international factors and then diving more deeper into politics and culture of the nation. 

The evidence is that data that shows the relationship between all the resources, production, and distribution segments of the leather-footwear industry, and observing changes in roles of being the dominant resource, producer, and distributor. Korzenewicz is aware that today Brazil is America’s top leather footwear import and Argentina’s top leather export.  In discussing the connection between Brazil, America, and Argentina, we can understand how the domestic, world and political economies and cultures result in a transnationalism that seeks to understand all of these combining factors. Without considering these factors, then the Global Commodity Network would lose its context of how certain goods are produced, imported, and then bought and sold. More specifically, how such goods are produced within the globalized economic context.

In “Legal Servitude and Free Illegality: Migrant “Guest” Workers in Taiwan” by Pei-Chia Lan, she provided an understanding of the process of international labor migration and the conditions of migrant contract workers.  The guest worker program is widely adopted in Asia, in which migrant workers are employed on temporary contracts that prohibited them from immigrating or becoming naturalized (Lan 255). Many migrant workers wanted to work in Taiwan because of the higher wages compared to other Asian countries; however, opportunities are scarce because of quota controls. In order to be able to seize the opportunity to work in Taiwan, migrant workers had to pay an unreasonably high price for the placement fees because of the kickbacks.

Through the guest worker program in Asia, it not only created a highly exploitative system of labor migration, but it also becomes an oppressive regime of labor control and social exclusion.  Documented migrant workers are exploited because of their foreigner status and lack of citizenship. Despite being exploited, they rarely do open confrontations because of the financial burden they have and also, they are bonded by the contract of employment. Some documented migrant workers can no longer handle the abuse, maltreatment and unreasonable workload so they chose to escape. Some of them escaped because of personal reasons or sexual harassment. One of the reasons for the great number of irregular migrants is because they wanted to stay in Taiwan longer than their contract permits. Undocumented labor workers benefit from higher wages because they are free to switch jobs and they also have more freedom compared to documented migrant workers. However, they are still being exploited by working in hazardous environments with no health insurance.

Lan points out that the migrant workers are situated in a bounded global market in which transnational labor recruitment exacerbates the commodification of migrant workers, who are treated as profitable objects of exchange by labor brokers and disposable labor power by receiving countries”(271).  A quote that Lan mentioned on page 262 stood out to me, “Migrant workers reduce costs for employers not only through their lower wages, but also through their powerlessness in the organization of labor process associated with their foreigner status and lack of citizenship” (Sassen 1988). This quote symbolizes the strategy of cheap labor that Americans used to exploit Asian immigrants in the old days. This shows that countries that are more superior with resources tend to abuse their power to dominant other groups who are less powerful. The author also goes to critique the host state government in their failure of dealing with the problem of irregular migration properly, but instead temporary bans on employment and punishment on unauthorized employers (272). It is important that if migrant workers are to be guest in a host country that they be treated with respect and equality in the community.

With the concern of undocumented migrant workers used as commodities in GCN, the monitoring of persons moving to other financial or economic reasons takes contextualizes transnationalism within the world of factory labor and production, along with distributors. This discussion of capitalism in a globalized context helps provide understanding of how products are made internationally, and that the problem of using labors and persons does not go away unseen, to another country. Instead, it provides a direct understanding of how Asian economies and Asian American consumption are linked, due to the this complex interplay of supply and chain networks.

Questions

1.     1)   How do these factors link the resource, the producer and the distributor? Why is the resource the resource, the producer the producer and the distributor the distributor? 

2.   2)     How can we apply an examine of the GCNs of the leather-footwear industry to the effects of the economic organizations and global economy? 

3.      3) Why can changes to the economies of countries in Asia cause the Asians in those countries to be seen as related to, or associated with, the Asian Americans in the United States?

4.    4)   Would it be beneficial for Asian Americans in the United States to distinguish themselves from those who participate in the economies of Asian countries? Why or why not? 

5.   5)    What changes can be done by the government to prevent the exploitation of migrant workers in host countries?

Source: Dirlik, Arif. “Asians on the Rim: Transnational Capital and Local Community in the Making of Contemporary Asian America.” Amerasia Journal 22.3 (1996): 1-24.

Source: Lan, Pei-Chia. “Legal Servitude and Free Illegality: Migrant “Guest” Workers in Taiwan.” Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions (2007): 253-277.  

Source: StephyChung8. "Part 1: Culture Shock - Chinese Americans in China." YouTube. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Llkj58ujY>. 

By Thanhthao Nguyen, Susan Xiong, Fanny Wong, and Iris Xie

Week 3: Situating Diasporas through the Lens of Transnationalism

In the article “From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transitional Migration”, the modern migrant is presented as having a solid foundation in the country they immigrated to, but also continues to has ties to his or her homeland. The article explores the concept of transnational migration in that migrants (trans migrants) depend on connections between numerous borders and are able to identify with more than one nation. The word “transnational” is also has an evolving meaning. For instance, in the 1960’s “transnational” meant the many political institutions and ideas that were spread among national borders. Today, “transnational” in cultural studies refers to the deterioration of national boundaries and with that the deterioration of objects, ideas, and people. The word “transmigrant” is used with “transnational” to differentiate between migrants and immigrants.

The article goes on to present reasons for transnational migration. The major points are presented for this which are: 1. A global restructuring of capital based on changing forms of capital accumulation has led to deteriorating social and economic conditions in labor sending and receiving countries, 2. Racism in both the U.S. and Europe contributes to the economic and political insecurity of newcomers and their descendants; and 3. The nation  building projects of both home and host society build political loyalties among immigrants to each nation-state in which they maintain social ties. Even though many immigrant “Asians”, “Blacks”, etc. have obtained a secure position within the U.S. capitalistic system, minorities still have to deal with daily discrimination. Even though transmigrants use the word “home” to refer to their country where they migrated from they also refer to the country they migrated to as home as well ( although the country they migrated to refers to them simply as a visitor).

In Jonathan Y. Okamura’s article “Asian American Studies in the Age of Transnationalism,” he is critical of the notion of ignoring the concept of transnationalism, which jeopardizes the Asian American Studies (AAS) field as a whole. He believes that AAS is very diverse and can be followed by a variety of theoretical perspectives, especially through transnationalism. Simply focusing on the domestic (United States) perspective forfeits the opportunities to view the Asian diaspora phenomenon in a detailed, complete way. He believes that viewing AAS from a transnational perspective can still maintain an emphasis on the Asian American community and its social, economic, political status and concerns, while viewing it from a localized perspective (within the United States) limits such ability. To him, a transnational approach does not erase race as an analytic category. Instead, it provides a viable conceptual framework for situating communities transnationally in the political, economic, and cultural contexts of global capitalism.

Okamura used his work on the Filipino American and global Filipino diasporas to show how economic globalization can affect certain Asian American groups, using the transnational perspective. He also voices concerns that all Asian Americans are subject to racialization in the American society. He introduces the idea of transnational racism. Transnational racism emphasizes one’s Asian background, including cultural and political ties with their respective Asian nation, while denies their American status and therefore their civil rights, privileges and loyalties. A couple of examples would be the Japanese Americans internment camps, and the Dr. Wen Ho Lee incident, where Dr. Lee, the nuclear scientist, was charged by the U.S. government with espionage. Global capitalism also links to transnational racism, as Evelyn Hy-Dehart noted that “The smugglers and employers of cheap, docile, often female Asian migrant labor are typically Asian and Asian Americans themselves.”

“Diaspora, Transnationalism, and Asian American Studies: Positions and Debates” by Christopher Lee talks about how Asian American studies has come to realize that its object of study is transnational.  The essay describes some of the important debates about diaspora and transnationalism and gives context for these discussions.  Lee says that diaspora studies has been critical in understanding community and identity in the world of postmodernism and globalization.  In addition, the word “diaspora” naturally sparks comparison between other communities that have experienced displacement.  Although the meaning of the terms “diaspora” and “transnational” are often disputed, it is clear that many communities are more transnational than ever before due to globalization.  Asian American studies cannot ignore transnational issues because they are still relevant to Asian Americans.  Lee says that “to exclude these issues is to fail to adequately describe and understand the communities being studied.”

In the age of globalization, transnational processes create the framework in order for us to better understand the Asian diaspora. Through transnationalism, we see the transmigrant create and sustain multiple and hybrid identities through the multiplicity of connections that transcend nation-state territoriality. In postmodernity, we observe that transnational processes are being exchanged even more than before and these transnational identities are even stronger as a result of this. The multiplicity of these identities bring interesting questions to light, which reveals that Asian American Studies must evolve to cope with stronger transnational identities that are being formed in the face of globalization. Okamura argues that Asian Americans are not isolated from the transnational processes that connect them to Asia and vice-versa. If anything, these transnational connections reveal interesting implications as to how events of the "homeland" are instrumental in the politics of the constituent diasporas. In a world that is shrinking in the face of postmodernity, it is important to note how diasporic identities, culture, politics and ideas are shaped by deterritorialized nation-states and the connections that transcend these borders.

1. Sau Ling Wong posits that Asian American Studies must not accept Asian or Area Studies if we are to maintain the integrity of ethnic studies, is transnationalism a problematic notion for Asian American Studies in light of Sau Ling Wong's assertions?

2. In light of Japanese Internment Camps and the Case of Dr. Wen Ho Lee, does transnationalism posit a challenge to Asian American identity formations by strengthening perceptions of the "perpetual foreigner"?

3. Why do Asian Americans create and sustain transnational identities when they are supposedly settled into their host country?

4. In the absence of European/American Imperialism and neoliberal policies, would there still be transnational migrations?

5. How has postmodernity changed the relation between diasporic subjects and transnational processes?

by Edwin Leung and more.