Week 3 - Charles Miin

It comes as no surprise at all that the border of Asian America are not aligned with that of the United States of America. Rather I personally see it as one of the Asian giants such as China depicted below, bleeding into the U.S. flag and majorly contributing to it without recognition. Disciplines such as Overseas Chinese Studies previously examined the Chinese individual in small pockets who were fascinating due to their radically different beliefs compared to the communities in which they lived. However, with the rise of interest in transnationalism and globalization and not necessarily the phenomena themselves, these individuals have shifted from static to fluid as citizenship becomes ever more mobile. This then contributes to the complex concept of diaspora as explained by Ien Ang who describes diasporas to be sociocultural formations of people with unfixed boundaries. These groups are transnational with no real attachment to a 'home' spatially or a time and truly are only bound by heritage, experience, and true or imagined ties with their 'homeland'. Given the thoughts spoken in class, I agree with this wholly as ethnic communities abroad, especially in the U.S., seem to exist in a stasis with no perception of a singular, comfortable home. Rather these communities have found each other through the new global world and have joined together to create a distinct culture on YouTube, social media, in universities, that is akin to the efforts of the 90's 'AzN' culture engendered in the U.S.. It is then further clarified by David Palumbo-Liu who isolates the distinction between globalization, the economic context, versus diaspora which falls into the mental realm of desire and identification. My question would be for these righteous thinkers, to determine what they predict for the future of diasporic communities with the relentless charge of globalization coupled with the millennial generation’s social awakening.

Work Cited
Lee, Christopher. "Diaspora, Transnationalism and Asian American Studies: Positions and Debates." Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas. Ed. Wanni W. Anderson and Robert G. Lee New Brunswick: 2005. 23-38.