1. Cultural Identity and Diaspora by Stuart Hall. Reader
In the article, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”, Stuart Hall discusses the Caribbeans and “Third Cinema” addressing questions about identity, cultural practices, and cultural production. Hall states that there are two ways of reflecting on “cultural identity”, identity understood as a collective shared history among individuals affiliated by race or ethnicity that is considered to be fixed or stable, and identity understood as unstable, metamorphic, and even contradictory. Hall believes that identity should be seen as a “production”, because identity is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within. There are two different ways of thinking about “cultural identity.” The first position defines “cultural identity” as a shared culture, which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common. The second position recognizes that there are also critical points of deep and significant difference which constitute “what we really are” or “what we have become.” Hall states that cultural identities are the points of identification, the unstable points of identification or suture, which are made within the discourses of history and culture.
According to Hall, he brings up that there is a conception of “difference,” to rethink the positioning and repositioning of Caribbean cultural identities in relation to three “presences”: Presence Africaine, Presence Europeenne, and Presence Americaine. Presence Africaine is the site of the repressed. Africa was silenced through the power of slavery. As a result of the experience, Africa remains the unspoken “presence” in Caribbean culture. Hall brings up an example about him growing up as a child in Kingston, and how everyone had an their own identity, but years later, people started to see themselves as “black” which also connected to their past of slavery. Presence Europeenne involves exclusion, imposition, and expropriation. Africa was unspoken, but Europe kept speaking and speaking about the Caribbean cultural identity. Europe introduced the idea of power which created a discourse of “difference” in the Caribbeans. Lastly, Presence Amercaine continues to have its silences. It is the presence of a “New World” where all these different cultures meet, a land where assimilations and creolization were negotiated. The “New World” also represents the beginning of diaspora, diversity, hybridity and difference.
2) Sunaina Maira. “Mixed Desires: Second-generation Indian Americans and the Politics of Youth Culture.” Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas
People who are part of the second-generation, especially youth, are stuck between a rock and a hard place because they are torn between identifying with their ethnic culture and the mainstream culture. In “Mixed Desires”, Sunaina Maira does a research on second-generation Indian-American youth and how they come to identify with themselves as an Indian American and a “local”. Maira goes into detail about how these youths created a subculture, a mixture of the Hindi music and dance with American music, as well as Indian-styled jewelry with the latest American clothing fashion. Youths use the desi subculture scene to network with others in their area. Places where the youths can listen and dance to this kind of music help them find their “place” in a social hierarchy. The desi parties are only a temporary escape from reality where once the party’s over, the youths have to go back to their everyday routines. Gender plays a role in subculture as well. When it comes to fashion and wearing hip-hop clothing, it’s a double edged sword for men and women. The men are allowed to wear baggy pants and get away with it. When women dress in body hugging outfits, they’re considered “loose” and not marriage material. Youths and their families had to chose between black or white for their race. Those who were fortunate to have money were considered whites and those of lower- and upper-middle class were considered black. It seems to be that the second-generation youth tend not to apply the term “diaspora” to anything anymore or as much as the older generations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9sMBbPGpyQ
3) Kieu-Linh Valverde. “Defying and Redefining Vietnamese Diasporic Art and Media as Seen through Chau Huynh’s Creations.” Transnationalizing Viet Nam
Kieu-Linh Valverde’s chapter called “Defying and Redefining Vietnamese Diasporic Art and Media as Seen through Chau Huynh’s Creations” discusses three issues involving art pieces that created backlash in the Vietnamese community. Valverde discusses how the smallest things can be taken out of context and blown out of proportion. Such as Chau Huynh’s Pedicure Basin exhibit, Nguoi Viet Daily news, and protests at art exhibits from anticommunists. Huynh’s first piece was her Marriage Quilt that she made by sewing pieces of both the Republic of Viet Nam (RVN) and SVN flags together, where both her and her husband are from. It wasn’t until 2008, in an article published by Nguoi Viet Daily news, when Huynh made headlines for her Pedicure Basin work that caused the most controversy. Huynh was accused of defacing and disrespecting Viet Nam and the Vietnamese community by putting the country’s flag in a foot basin. Just like Huynh, Nguoi Viet Daily news got off on a rocky start, filled with backlash and protest from the Vietnamese community. Their backlash began when they featured a picture of Ho Chi Minh’s tomb in 1989. Many art shows and exhibits and other newspapers also received negative viewpoints from the Vietnamese community for supporting communism. Protesters shut down multiple art exhibits over the ideology of anticommunism. The F.O.B. II: Art Speaks exhibit allowed over 50 artists from Viet Nam and the U.S. to participate in an event where they wouldn't be harassed by anticommunist protesters. Valverde states that “…art, and places that display art, can shape what is acceptable cultural production in society.” (Valverde, 92). Valverde shows that the anticommunists have the upper hand in most of these events because they weren’t afraid of speaking out and that they gained the most control over everyone.
Questions:
1) How is identity defined by Hall? Why does he bring up the three presences to position "cultural identities"?
2) Why is it that we don't see any Asian American artists in the mainstream music industry today?
3) What kind of influence does the hip-hop culture have on other Asian Americans?
4) Is it important for an artist or the media to have a solid understanding or background of their piece that they will be publishing?
5) Did Huynh and the Nguoi Viet Daily know what they were getting into when they created the project or article? Or do you think the community was overreacting?
Jessica and Adrian
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