Charles Miin
ASA 114
November 22, 2015
Week 7 - Diaspora Politics,
Homeland Erotics, and the Materializing of Memory
Louisa Schein highlights one of the
largest issues that has affected the Asian continent and continues to do so through
the present day. As long as there has been external contact in the region,
there have been accounts and occurrences of the abuse of “women of the Homeland”
who are taken advantage of by foreign men who often promise extravagance and
adventure only to disappear at the first chance. For a long section of history,
these perpetrators all had the same breakdown, Western, White men who arrived
in the form of rich merchants to soldiers on a mission. However, with the
advent of transnational breakdowns of borders, that image has morphed to
include men of the diaspora “returning home” to what is familiar to them and
promising the same thing as men before them only to disappear as well. The
point of the matter does go beyond the feminized homeland being used by the
native foreigner. Especially in regards to the Hmong people as this article
focuses on where the homeland is less a geopolitical site that does not exist
and more what is made by the people who consider themselves members of the population.
Again, the plight of the Hmong being forced out of their proposed lands by
larger neighbors can be compared to the refugee crisis of the present who
similarly have no geographic land to call home and are persecuted by all sides
that they encounter. Is it possible for the communities who have longstanding
experiences with oppression and mistreatment in the U.S. to help educate and
change the wider perspective on modern communities fleeing strife?
Schein, Louisa, "Diaspora Politics, Homeland Erotics and the Materializing of Memory." 1999. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique7(3): 697-729.
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