Week 9_Julie Guan_ASA114

Both the readings, “Queer 'N' Asian Virtual Sex” by Daniel Tsang and the chapter “Social Transformations from Virtual Communities” by Kieu-Linh Valverde places an emphasis on the role of the internet and its uses as a form of communication. To begin with, Tsang highlights that technology has the ability to allow for “instantaneous communication” (Tsang 188) with others. He also touches upon the use of the internet and the “Bulletin Board System” (BBS) as a means of exploring one’s sexual identity. For example, the online environment allows one to reinvent their identities to what they are they wish they were instead of what they are in reality. However, he also warns the audience about the dangers of the internet such as how the identities of individuals could be lies and that there is no line between private and public. In relation to Asian Americans, BBS provides an avenue for expression allowing for the proliferation of queer culture and the stereotypes (asexual, de-sexualized) that were placed upon Asian American men. Therefore, the internet provides the API community the ability to voice forbidden desires and to reconstruct their own sexual identities in which Asian culture negatively portrays. In her piece Valverde discusses the ability of virtual communities to connect the diaspora to those of the homeland, thus forming transnational ties. Furthermore, virtual communities, like the one discussed, has the power to address certain issues, like labor abuses in Vietnam, to others across the world. These two pieces relate to the theme of the week, digital age and cyberspace, by demonstrating its uses and significance to the Asian American diaspora. Modern-day examples of virtual communities and internet connections would be the Facebook group “Subtle Asian Traits” since it connects those that identify as Asian all around the world and allows them to bond over the similarities of their cultures. 

Subtle Asian Traits Fb group 

Question: These articles mention things as forums that we no longer use since platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have been introduced does this affect the research presented by these readings? 

Works Cited: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1343933772408499/about/ (picture)

Daniel Tsang. "Notes on Queer 'N' Asian Virtual Sex."

Kieu-Linh Valverde. "Social Transformations from Virtual Communities." Transnationalizing Viet Nam.