Week 2 - Evelyn Hu-Dehart

Week 2 Readings: Blog Post 2
Gilbert Gammad

Evlelyn Hu-Dehart's introduction, "Asian American Formations in the Age of Globalisation," attempts to describe the state of Asian American identity with the advent of the notion of Asian Americans as the bridge-builders between their homelands in Asia and the United States (in terms of economics). Specifically the article deals with the new transmigrants and their differential role as a result of the class privileges that afford them the ability to move between their home-countries and the US. Possibly the most interesting portion of the article to me was the discussion of the model minority and the need to manage the images and explanations of Asian American success, which here seems to be figured mostly in terms of the success of East Asian Americans. The management of the model minority myth, or rather the need to destroy this idea because of the ways that it is utilised to undermine the socioeconomic stresses experienced by other racially marginalised communities (re: non-white).  The model minority myth, as explained in the article is the result of mainstream media's need for stories about successful minorities to explain the lack of success in other minority groups without calling to question the status quo (8). Utilising a transnational perspective to talk about the generation of this myth due to the higher economic status of the new Asian immigrants, it is interesting to see the linkage between this and the idea of Asian Americans as trans-Pacific bridge builders. This makes me think of the shifts in understanding of the success of Asian Americans as "proof" of the American Dream but also as a threat to the prosperity of the US economy (think of the xenophobic jokes we often see regarding Japan and China and how this relates to the figuring of the Asian American subject as perpetual foreigner)

Question:

Thinking of the model minority myth / bridge builder role and the Other Asian America (17) that Hu-Dehart discusses, how might the erasure of Other Asian America inhibit the generation of Asian solidarity against the systems of racial and economic inequality that exist within the United States? To what extent is image management a means to debunk the universalisation of Asian America as economically well-off and well-educated?


Works Cited:

Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. 1999. Introduction: Asian American Formations in the Age of Globalisatoin. Edited by Evelyn Hu-Dehart. Across the Pacific: Asian Americans and Globalisation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Image: http://reappropriate.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/aamodelminority-flyer-1024x816.jpg