Week 1 Kristina Nguyen

In Sau-Ling C. Wong's article "Denationalization Reconsidered: Asian American Cultural Criticism at a Theoretical Crossroads," defines the recent trends reflected upon the Asian American studies. One being the easing of cultural nationalist, two, the growing permeability between "Asian" and "Asian American" and three the shifting from a domestic to a diasporic perspective. I found the second component of denationalization to be the most compelling. The author explored the various classification under this umbrella term where there was an increase in categorizing Asian Americans as Asians or Asian American. I classify myself as "Asian" although I am Vietnamese mixed American (White). Usually, when I mark my ethnicity on applications, I mark myself Asian... and think really hard if I should mark "White," due to the fact that I do not actually have any "white" culture but ethnically I am "white." How important and relevant is it to define these terms in asian-american studies?  Is this a phenomena that is also increasing in other countries such as Europe, Australia etc?