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Academic Year 2004/2005

Diaspora and Asian American Experiences
EAST 251 FA

This year-long innovative course is part of a four-year project supported by the Freeman Initiative grant to further develop the study of Asia and the Asian diaspora at Wesleyan. Introducing recent theoretical approaches to topics in Asian American history and in understanding Asian American experiences, the course aims at learning about Asian diaspora through classroom study and guided research during the summer.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA EAST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

This section introduces Asian American history, which focuses on the experience of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, Filipino, and Southeast Asian ancestry in the United States. Asian Americans today are often portrayed by two extreme images: Either as 'model minority' who are as culturally assimilated and economically successful as, if not more than, the white majority, or as impoverished refugess and illegal immigrants who exploit the US social welfare system. The history of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans in the past 150 years, however, reveals diversity and compexity of Asian American experiences against the backdrop of the larger context of immigration policies and race relations within the US. By examining historical expe riences and contemporary issues surrounding Asian American in the past and present, the course seeks to gain better understanding of not only Asian immigration history and Asian American communities but also the modern US history, economy, and culture in general.

This course, which will survey Asian American history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, is divided into three parts. The first part of the course will focus on the experiences of the early Asian immigrants of the nineteenth century, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Indian immigrants from the mid-nineteenth century to WW II. The second part will move on to the dramatic transformations of Asian American communities in the postwar era. Asian immigrants in the 1950s, including the so-called war brides from Korea and Japan, as well as the post-1965 wave of Asian immigrants from China/Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea, and India, and refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (such as Hmong) will be explored. Lastly , we will examine contemporary issues facing Asian Americans today. Topics to be explored include: anti-Asian violence and political activism, media representations, gender relations and domestic problems, and Asian Americans in the post-9-11 era.

The course materials represent a variety of disciplines (history, anthropology, sociology, and literature) and sources (autobiography, internet article, and film) that illuminate complexity and diversity of Asian American experiences. You will be asked to contribute to the class by sharing your own insights and critiques through discussions, essays, and presentations. The course, in other words, is not merely an overview of Asian American history, but also an intellectual exercise to critically engage w ith our past by use of self-reflexive imagination and expression.

Major Readings

Wu, Jean, and Min Song, eds. 2000. ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES: A READER. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Simpson, Caroline Chung. 2001. AN ABSENT PRESENCE: JAPANESE AMERICANS IN POSTWAR AMERICAN CULTURE, 1945-1960. Durham, NC.: Duke University Press.
Murayama, Milton. 1988(1959). ALL I ASKING FOR IS MY BODY. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Maira, Sunaina. 2002. DESIS IN THE HOUSE: INDIAN AMERICAN YOUTH CULTURE IN NEW YORK. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Fadiman, Anne. 1997. THE SPIRIT CATCHES YOU AND YOU FALL DOWN: A HMONG CHILD, HER AMERICAN DOCTORS, AND THE COLLISION OF TWO CULTURES. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.
Espiritu, Yen Le. 2003. HOMEBOUND: FILIPINO AMERICAN LIVES ACROSS CUL TURES, COMMUNITIES, AND COUNTRIES. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Park, Kyeyoung. 1997. THE KOREAN AMERICAN DREAM: IMMIGRANTS AND SMALL BUSINESS IN NEW YORK CITY. Ithaca, NY.: Cornell University Press.

Examinations and Assignments

Several class projects and a final research paper.

Additional Requirements and/or Comments

First-year students are excluded from this course.

Instructor(s): Suzuki,Taku    

Times: ...W... 01:10PM-04:00PM;     Location: CAMS 3;

Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 15)

SR. major: 0   Jr. major: 0

SR. non-major: 5   Jr. non-major: 4   SO: 6   FR: X

Special Attributes:

SECTION 02

This section of the fall course examines how the term "diaspora" has been historically and theoretically constituted with specific reference to its usage within Asian and Asian American Studies. In this semester-long course devoted to situating the study of Asian America within a global perspective, we will take up the problem of examining what it means to think, and feel beyond "Asian America." Reading an array of wide-ranging materials, in relation to Asian diasporas (South Asian, East Asian), this course examines the place of the United States, and "America" in a larger global framework paying close attention to the ways in which Asia haunts the American imagination and conversely, how "Asian America" is imagined in "Asian" cultural production . The course will follow the basic format of pairing one critical work with one film, novel, play or cultural text in its exploration of how diaspora is an important analytic and critical tool for understanding recent trajectories within Asian American Studies--intellectual, political, and cultural.

Major Readings

MODERNITY AT LARGE: THE CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF GLOBALIZATION Arjun Appadurai
FLEXIBLE CITIZENSHIP: THE CULTURAL LOGICS OF TRANSNATIONALITY Aihwa Ong
THEORIZING DIASPORA Eds. Anita Mannur and Jane Evans Braziel
GLOBAL DIVAS: FILIPINO GAY MEN IN THE DIASPORA Martin F. Manalansan IV
DESIS IN THE HOUSE: INDIAN AMERICAN YOUTH CULTURE IN NEW YORK CITY Sunaina Maira
THE BOOK OF SALT Monique Truong
FUNNY BOY Shyam Selvadurai

Examinations and Assignments

Several class projects and a final research paper.

Instructor(s): Mannur,Anita    

Times: .M..... 01:10PM-04:00PM;     Location: FISK403;

Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 15)

SR. major: 0   Jr. major: 0

SR. non-major: 5   Jr. non-major: 4   SO: 6   FR: X

Special Attributes:

Curricular Renewal:    Reading Non-Verbal Texts, Writing

Last Updated on MAR-21-2005

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