The readings this
week underlines the theme of the intersectionality of identities through the
process of transnationalism K. Scott Wong emphasized these interconnections by
informing his readers about the importance of transnationalism and how that is creating
and forming new hybrid cultures, ideologies, traditions, beliefs, and practices.
Wong mentioned in his piece the significant impact of migrations and how that created
a large-scale network of people that became exposed to the different cultures
and ways of thinking. In these exchanges and processes, the economic flow was
heavily impacted and it developed an influx of demand in human resources, labor
forces, and mass migrations. All of these entailed more globalized and centralized
connections of all nations that are at play. Bernard Scott Lucious, on the other
hand, discussed “Black Pacific” by reiterating the impacts of transnationalism by
exploring personal narratives of Afro-Amerasians who dealt with racial discrimination
within their diasporic communities. Accounts that were focused on the story of otherness
and belongingness captures the main sentiments of a society that has been conditioned
to think in terms of whiteness and to be “one of them.” It uncovers a reality
that is far beyond the usual take on racial discourse. Individuals highlighted
in the readings are offspring of mixed parents, their mixed races label them as
impure and foreigner – this puts them in a situation where they are basically
disowned by their own family and their own respective communities.
From
the reading above, it ties in the main context of the course regarding Asian Diaspora.
These connections from the homeland through the facilitation of
transnationalism and globalization, it complicates our understanding about the new
communities, cultures, traditions, practices, and beliefs. It also deepens our
knowledge of different diaspora and their mobilization into various political
and social spaces. Wong and Lucious emphasize the entanglements of networks and
how that is formulating new pieces of knowledge on transnationalism. As a person
who migrated from the Philippines and witnessing firsthand the effects of being
alienated and at the same having the freedom to develop your own ideologies essentializes
transnationalism as a factor in negotiating personal and cultural identities. A
line of queries that would be interesting to unpack are instances where transnationalism
and making connections have failed to dissatisfy the nations and its people?
Are there even any instances where transnationalism was simply a ploy or an excuse
to mobilize people for exploitative labor?
References:
Bernard
Scott Lucious. “Into the Black Pacific: Testimonies of Vietnamese
Afro-Amerasian Displacements.” Displacements
K.
Scott Wong. “Diasporas, Displacements, and the Construction of Transnational
Identities.” Displacements.
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