In all these articles, they interconnect through the theme of how immigrating to the United States have affected the diasporic communities perspectives on traditions, taboos, economics and politics and the effect of how they see Asia as homeland.
In Daniel Tsang’s article “Notes on Queer ‘N’ Asian Virtual Sex”, he focuses on the relationship between sexuality and technology. “The advent of the information superhighway, more and more folks are discovering the sexual underground within the virtual community in cyberspace” (Tsang, 432). Through internet and Asian American queers, gays, lesbians, etc are able to express their sexuality openly with other queers, thus creating a virtual queer community. The Bulletin Board System (BBS) is an example of a cyberspace has a large sum of Asian gay members who seek for romance, love, friendship, sex, etc. “One reason BBSing is so fascinating is that the on-line environment truly allows one to continually reinvent one’s identity, including sexual” (Tsang, 433). The members who use BBS are able reconstruct their own race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. Also, with the simple stroke of a key, members are able to change their identity and sexuality constantly. BBS serves as a virtual haven for Asians because homosexuality is a taboo in Asian cultures. Due to these virtual communities, Asians and Pacific Islanders are able to explore their sexualities thus breaking the silence of the taboo and empowering their voices to reinforce their sexual identities.
In Massey et al, “Theory and Reality in Asia and the Pacific”, discusses about the past two decades of geographic mobility within the Asia Pacific region and how international migration emerged. “The Asia Pacific migration system emerged in the 1970s and 1980s due to four transformations of shift in national origins of immigrants, termination of net-migration, onset of labor migration growing in industrialized nations, and emergence of South-East Asia a source of political refugees” (Massey, 160). International migration link to social capital theory and the cumulative causation of migration uncover the power of these forces to be perpetuating international movement. Asia Pacific migration system is impactful due to the importance and prevalence of institutions, association with “immigration industry”, it shapes flows within systems, several nations in their systems are importers and exporters of labor and it has an outstanding size of its principal in sending nations.
“Diaspora Politics, Homeland Erotics, and the Materializing of Memory”, written by Louisa Schein focuses on the Hmong and the concept of homeland. “Homeland desire fragments, as nostalgic imaginings span out over Asia, giving rise to diverse practices of recovery” (Schein, 698). This yearning for happiness in their homeland leads Hmong American men to tour their homeland in search of women, not for transnational marriages but rather for a sexual encounter with a homeland girl and then move on. Schein introduce the idea of “erotics of homeland”, where “sex also figures in homeland practices and hence must figure in more nuanced ways in considerations of diasporic dynamics” (Schein, 699). Homelands are not imagined, left behind, static but are the sites for capital accumulation and erotic entanglements. For Hmong Americans, homeland has become more of a geographic site. Schein did an ethnographic study on the Fresno Hmong New Year in 1996, which she focused on the how homeland traditions and customs are applied in Hmong Americans. This event of celebration is also highly structured by gender, which a ritual is done by offering young women to high-prestige men as a form of gender disparity to portray political subjection. However, the influence of western culture has impacted Hmong womanhood in regards to familial and gender propriety. Young females are starting to realize that they are worth more and voice their opinion and confront their source of bitterness. “Sexual conquest epitomizes the recovery of masculine power that travel to the homeland offers the pleasures of phallic dominance that have been stripped from Hmong refugee men in their newcomer status in the U.S.” (Schein, 719). Due to the progression of liberation of Hmong American women, the Hmong men’s patriarchal positioning are threatened and are emasculated, which leads them to flee and recuperate their masculinity with sexual encounters with homeland women.
Ashely Carruthers, “The Accumulation of National Belonging in Transnational Fields: Ways of Being at Home in Vietnam”, discusses the notion of transnational citizenship and how it affects mobility and flexibility of transmigrants. Transmigrants must legitimatize their claim to national membership by practicing national belonging. Though transmigrants are able to have some freedom their liberty potential has been over exaggerated. However, national membership allows them to reap their benefits of mobility and allows them to secure higher rates of conversion for their transnational cultural capital. A transnational citizen may not have to perform citizenship to practice national belonging but can enhance profit through their transnationality. For instance, Carruthers gives an example of the Viet Kieu who wants to have their foreign passport as a symbol of their citizenship which under this condition of keeping it they pay less than non-Vietnamese foreigners. The purpose of accumulating national capital is to turn it into national belonging which is symbolic capital which is recognized as the dominant national group. Carruther introduce the term “potlatch” which is the social distance that separates Vietnamese migrants from immigrants. The purpose of potlatch is to return to homeland and show instant and visible form of social mobility that was achieved through migration. Thus this causes an international hierarchy in wealth which is associated by western influence and the idea of “whiteness”. Due to this transnational corporate power which sets racial hierarchies found in host nation, it constitutes a kind of symbolic capital in the disaporic Vietnamese. The fact that transmigrants are able to move between different nation states, they are able to exploit the disciplinary truth and power on those who are nonmobile, they struggle with the difficulty of presenting themselves as legitimate national subjects.
Jeffrey Lesser, “From Japanese to Nikkei and Back”, talks about Japanese immigrants being originally dated back to be from Brazil is based on foundational fictions. These foundational fictions characterized Japanese immigrants to be the “original” and “authentic” Brazilians. The Nikkei ethnic identity constructed in Brazil began to widely be contested. To define national identity the Brazilian state were able to set boundaries of certain groups by ethnicity, class, color gender, etc. The Nikkei marked a period of massive economic growth, authoritarian rule, demographic change and, etc. Due to Nikkei success politically, economically, socially they challenged the Brazialian identity. One group was the educated professionals and the other was the immigrants and minority elites. “Instead, the elite was sharply divided between those who saw the “whiteness” of Brazil as a goal that would be achieved through the physical transformation of the skin color of the masses and others who saw “whiteness” as related the economic growth and domestic production (Lesser, 114)”. The immigrant and minority elite group promoted the idea of Brazil improving by becoming more Japanese. Nikkei were invested in the promotion of their whiteness in Brazil. Japanese men married white Brazilian women, showed their genetic patriotism. In 1942, Brazil joined the Allies and then formed a “Brazilianization” campaign which banned foreign language schools, newspapers which led to anti- Japanese propaganda. The immigrants and Nikkei started forming secret societies in which to support Japanese-Brazilian ethnicity. Their goals were to maintain a Japanized space by preserving their language, culture, and religion led by Shindo Renmei in the late 1945. There were then tensions and a war which led to many killings. Japanese succeeded in spreading Japans victory and ordered all false propaganda to be stopped. The killings stopped and a quarter of a million Nikkei settled in Japan and search for identity as motivations for migration.
By: Karina Lathrop
By: Karina Lathrop
Questions:
1. Explain BBS and how have virtual communities have affected/impact one’s identity? (Tsang)
2. Explain the Segmented Labour Market Theory, World Systems Theory, and Social Capital Theory. What is the significance of each? (Massey)
3. What are three ways Schein describe as disasporic sex? How has diasporic sex transgressed and affect Hmong Americans?
4. According to Carruther’s “The Accumulation of National Belonging in Transnational Fields: Ways of Being at Home in Vietnam”, what is “potlatch” and the purpose of it? How does this apply and affect to Vietnamese in Vietnam?
5. In Lesser’s article “From Japanese to Nikkei and Back”, how does Brazilians see “whiteness” and how does that affect them economically?
I enjoyed the readings for this particular week, however I was most interested with “Diaspora Politics, Homeland Erotics, and the Materializing of Memory”, written by Louisa Schein. This caught my attention the most because she focuses on the concept of homeland for the Hmong. It was interesting to see how homeland for the diasporic Hmong American men was more of an “erotics of homeland”. Also, Schein focuses on how Hmong American women are becoming more of value due to their education. I have four older female cousins who have obtain their phD and as for the male in the family they either work or at the most enrolled in college at some point but dropped out. It is interesting to relate to this article and see it for myself that Hmong American women are rising up and breaking those patriarchal roles of being the bread winner in the household. ~Karina Lathrop
ReplyDeleteThe article by Daniel Tsang was very interesting. I never thought of using the internet in a sense to reconstruct ones gender, sexuality, ethnic background, etc. his article revealed the idea of people opening up to people that were unable to see their faces. Asian Americans that are in feel to reveal their sexual identity to their family is able to on the internet. This can be seen as their way of opening up and finding their belonging in a virtual sense.
ReplyDeleteAnother article that was very interesting to me was the one by Jeffrey Lesser about the Japanese-Brazilians. I feel a connection to what Japanese-Brazilians feel. While in America, I am only seen as a Chinese person rather than a Chinese-American. With the stereotypes and notions of norm in America, it’s not hard to understand why people may judge another only by the way they look rather than all claiming to a one united identity of being Americans. In American the ones that really are able to claim a full American identity by the public’s view, media’s view, and government’s view points are White people. Since white people are a representation of America. It forces all minorities into being seen only for their ethnic background, no matter what status of profession or levels of English knowledge and education. Anyways getting back to the main point, while in America I am seen by the color of my skin rather than the place I grow up in. While, when I went back to Hong Kong a few years back I was labeled “ABC”, even if I was born in Hong Kong. Since I grew up in America, I was labeled being the American child. I didn’t grow up in Hong Kong so I couldn’t claim the identity even if I wanted to. This is similar to the Japanese-Brazilians in Japan. They were not seen as fully Japanese since they lack the cultural understanding.
-Wingsze Lam
After reading the articlafter reading the article about Japanese Brazilian, and how it would affect them economically made me thought about myself as Chinese American, i was born in the states, but i lived in Hong Kong when i was younger and i know how to speak Cantonese fluently, now that i speak English and Cantonese and became bilingual, i do see how it would benefit me economically because i know that i will be able to do business deals with foreigners . It would open up a new market too , however being hired by the color tone of skin is very discriminating. It must have a been very hard for someone who have a natural dark skin tone. As far as authenticity of culture, i think it really depends how far you relate yourself to your parents generation and think about what kind of life style you have now compare to them. Or what kind of choices would you have made if you were in their shoes at that current time.
ReplyDeleteAllen Fan
The thing I found most intriguing about Daniel Tsang's article about “Queer and Asian Virtual Sex” was the early 2000’s timeframe that he first wrote this article. As an individual who grew up on the internet, I recall the advent of these forms of communication and their profound impact amongst various groups of individuals all throughout the net. This is why when I read Tsang’s article, I thought to myself that Tsang and the various other gay members of the BBS system must be very excited to have found a new form of discreet and anonymous communication – a necessity for gay men worried for their own safety. At a time where these gay men were exploring their identities sexually online, I recall my own excitement in being able to trade Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards over the net at an online BBS forum. At the time, I was clearly a minor and passed any age-restriction hurdles by lying about my birth year when prompted to “register” for the website.
ReplyDeleteNow that over ten years have passed since this article was written, I am curious as to how technology has increasingly made it easier for these gay men to collaborate. I also wonder if Tsang still believes the BBS system is as great as he makes it out to seem.
-Ricky Lai
In this weekly blog, I learned that Asian queers used the internet in order to create a safe space for them to speak about their personal lifestyles with out the fear of someone discriminating on them. I feel forums are quite entertaining to many Americans and Asian Americans. I browse through certain forums of interest on a daily basis. It is similar to joining a club but a cyber club where you don’t get a chance to meet everyone in person. But it is certainly nice to meet someone far away. The usage of forums can help people exchange ideas and opinions so easily for many to read. It is extremely helpful for the queers because they need this space to talk about their touchy subject that people discriminate upon. Online forums could even be used to connect with the mother land as well, which makes the internet that more fascinating.
ReplyDelete~ Michael Nguyen