Week1_KellyWang_ASA114

Wanni W. Anderson and Robert G. Lee's reading, "Asian American Displacements", touches upon the effect displacement has on the Asian Diaspora. In the excerpt, the term displacement was defined as "the separation of people from their native culture, through physical dislocation (as refugees, immigrants, migrants, exiles, or expatriates) or the colonizing imposition of a foreign culture” (p. 10). Displacement and diaspora go hand in hand since without displacement, there would not be a diaspora. The reading also highlights how "Many have fled threats to their lives from war and revolution, others have been displaced by economic and social upheaval, and still others have been recruited to meet the demands of new labor markets or seek opportunities to invest their human or financial capital" (p.5). We might all be a part of the same diaspora group, but it is interesting how every subgroup within the asian diaspora all have different origins and reasons as to why our ancestors immigrated in the first place. The amount of different varying factors that play into the initial migration including war, economics, business opportunities, etc., is just not what a second or third generation Asian American would initially think of when thinking of the homeland. Each subgroup has their own origin and the dominant narrative being told may not always be representative of the Asian Diaspora as a whole. Valverde's piece on "Transnationalizing Viet Nam" talks about how the term "diaspora" may not always be referring to good relations from the diaspora group, to the homeland, to the host land: "Sometimes precarious relationships and negative attitudes exist between the diasporic groups and the host country, and such divisions may also form within the diasporic community itself" (p.2). The theory of structural dual domination seems to be a recurring pattern within the majority of the asian diaspora sub groups.The diaspora has so many layers as well as so many different factors and aspects that build and make up the diasporaic group. Valverde also touches upon how "Many developed self-esteem and identity issues commonly experienced by people of color in the predominantly white, Eurocentric U.S. society" (p.11) which stood out to me because I had experienced the same growing up moving from a predominantly asian community to a predominantly white community. I had felt that I was not "white" enough in America, but yet somehow also not "Asian" enough for Asia.