HIST/AAS 3877
3 credits
Spring 2006
Tuesdays
4:40-7:10 pm
125 Nicholson

 

Professor Erika Lee
778 Social Sciences
Office Hours:
Mondays: 1-3pm
tel: 612-624-9569
erikalee@umn.edu

 

HIST/AAS 3877

Asian American History, 1850-Present

Syllabus | Schedule | Lectures | Internet Resources | Announcements

 
Lectures

TUES. 1/17
INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS ASIAN AMERICA?
THEORIES AND APPROACHES TO ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY
--Ongoing connection between the past and present
--Centrality to American history in general
--Diverse experiences according to ethnicity, class, gender, generation, sexuality
--Local and national/Global and transnational contexts

TERMS:
ORIENTALISM - "a structure of ideas and representations that has defined Asia as an exotic place that is antithetical in every way to the U.S."; Asian Americans as "perpetual foreigners;" at worst as foreign invaders and at best as exotic, different Americans. (Edward Said, Jack Tchen, Henry Yu)

RACIAL FORMATION - "the socio-historical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed," i.e. what it has meant to be "Asian American" and how that has been perceived, constructed, and reproduced, is not fixed or static, but instead has changed over time and according to context. (Michael Omi and Howard Winant)

TRANSNATIONALISM - the ongoing socio-economic, cultural, political networks of immigrants that extend across international borders; an emphasis on the ongoing connections and identification between immigrant homelands, and in our case, the United States. (Nina Glick Schiller)

FILM: "MY AMERICA, OR HONK, IF YOU LOVE BUDDHA"

Discussion questions:

  1. Tajima-Pena searches to answer the question, "What is Asian America?" What is her answer?
  2. Is the Asian America featured in "My America" the same as portrayed in American popular culture?
  3. Tajima-Pena often describes the actions of her subjects as "not being a typical Asian thing to do." Then she asks, "or is it?" How are the subjects in the film "typical" or "not typical"? Who do you identify with most?
  4. How is Asian America configured differently across group, time, gender, and generation?
  5. How were/are the experiences of Asian Americans directly related to the larger context of race in the U.S.? How do Asian Americans in the film connect themselves to larger issues of social justice?
  6. How do gender and sexuality intersect with racialized images of Asian Americans and how do the subjects in the film react and respond to these?
 

LINKS
Asian American History Timeline

TUES. 1/24
FRAMING ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY
CHINESE AND JAPANESE MIGRATION TO THE AMERICAS

MIGRATION TERMS AND NUMBERS
-Immigrant
-Sojourner
-Settler
-Refugee (1951 UN Resolution)
-Push/Pull Factors (economic logic)
-Culture of Migration
-Institutionalization of Migration

CHINESE MIGRATION
-Chinese Homelands in the 19th Century
-Socio-economic/Political Unrest and European/American Imperialism/Pearl River Delta
-Migration to the Americas
-Chinese Immigrant Communities/"Bachelor Communities"
-The Invention of Chinatowns and the Chinese Laundry

JAPANESE MIGRATION
-Japanese Homelands in the 19th Century
-Meiji Restoration (1868-1912)/Inheritance Patterns (Primogeniture)
-Migration to the Americas
-Issei Communities/"Picture Brides"

DEFINING ASIAN AMERICA - WHO COUNTS? (2000 CENSUS)
FILM EXCERPT: MY AMERICA

LINKS
Chinese Miners, 1860, SF Museum
Driving the Last Spike, 1869, SF Museum
"Bachelor's Alley," San Francisco Chinatown, 1898, Library of Congress
Chinese Girl with Bound Feet, SF Museum
A Short Chronology of Japanese American History

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why/how haveAsian Americans have been treated as outsiders in American society and how this has affected how Asian Americans have been included (or excluded) in U.S. History? (Daniels and Takaki essays)
  2. In his essay, historian Yong Chen argues that the common interpretation that Chinese immigrants left for the United States as part of a "desperate flight from impoverishment" is wrong. What factors does he use to explain why Chinese left for California? And how does his view relate to the idea of the "institutionalization of migration?"
  3. According to historian Akira Iriye, what is the relationship between growing Japanese imperialism and Japanese migration to the United States?
  4. What role do you think Helen Grey's acount of a Chinese brothel owner played in shaping Americans' perceptions of Chinese immigrants?
  5. How is "Asian American" defined and by whom? Bill Ong Hing asks, "are we referring to a new ethnicity with common traits, customs,a nd cultural characteristics; a political identity for mobilizaation purposes, or both?" What do you think? How does the U.S. census "count" Asian Americans?

TUES. 1/31
THE CHINESE MUST GO
ANGEL ISLAND

AMERICAN ORIENTALISM
ASIAN AMERICANS IN THE CONTEXT OF U.S. RACE RELATIONS
ANTI-CHINESE MOVEMENT – RACIAL, CLASS, GENDER-BASED ARGUMENTS
Report of the Governor of Washington Territory, 1886

EXCLUSION LAWS
-Page Law, 1875
-Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882
Interview with Hing Chinn, b. 1930
Interrogation of Fong Wong, 1909
Affadvit of Fong Wong, U.S. Citizen, 1905
Statement of Two Citizens, on behalf of Fong Wong, 1905
Oral Histories, Houston Chronicle
Angel Island Immigration Station Website
-Wong Kim Ark v. United States, 1898; 1894 Witness Statement; Photograph

SMALL GROUP ACTIVITY: INTERPRETING HISTORY

6:50 pm - visit from Polly Myers, History Writing Consultant

TUES. 2/7
GUEST SPEAKER: SHERRI GEBERT FULLER
CLASS DISCUSSION: The Chinese in Minnesota
KOREAN, FILIPINO, & ASIAN INDIAN MIGRATION
PAPER #1 DUE IN CLASS

KOREAN MIGRATION, 1902-1905
--Japanese Imperialism, 1905-1945
--Christian Missionaries and Emigration to Hawaii
--Immigrant Labor and Communities
--Anti-Imperialism

INDIAN MIGRATION, 1905-1917
--British Colonialism
--Emigration to the U.S. and Canada
--Struggle against British Colonialism
--Indian Exclusion

FILIPINO MIGRATION, 1903-1935
--Spanish American War
--America in the Philippines ("The White Man's Burden")
--Emigration
--Labor and Communities
--Filipino Independence and American Exclusion

LINKS
Spanish American War, Library of Congress
Emil Aguinaldo, Library of Congress
"White Man's Burden," Rudyard Kipling
"White Man's Burden" Cartoon, Detroit Journal, 1899
"Uncle Sam's Burden" Cartoon
Pears Soap Advertisement
"White? Man's Burden" Cartoon
"White Man's Burden," St. Paul Pioneer Press

DISCUSSION
-Theodore Roosevelt Justifies Philippine Colonization
-Filipinos Demand Independence, 1908
-Mohan Singh Recounts His Education, 1924
-Margaret Pai Joins the Korean Independence Movement, 1919

TUES. 2/14
SECOND GENERATION DILEMMA
"The Melting Pot": Israel Zangwill, 1908 promoted the idea of the "melting pot: in his play of the same name. The U.S. represented one big site in which the intermingling of diverse ethnicities and cultures would result into a single national "alloy" or type. Both immigrant and natives criticized this model of integration. In 1963, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan declared that "the point about the melting pot...is that it did not happen."

Americanization:Americanization campaigns beginning in the 1910s and 1920s represent the less optimistic view that incorporation of (European) immigrants would happen naturally. Proponents, such as Teddy Roosevelt and many others argued that the state should take proactive measures to ensure Americanization. The end goal was complete Americanization, with no or little recognition of ethnic heritage.

Bi-Culturalism: attempts by groups to negotiate between two (or more) cultures; recognition that loyalty to one country does not negate severing ties to homeland or heritage. (Yung and Kurshige essays in Kurashige/Murray)

Cultural Pluralism: Horace Kallen, 1916 argued that it was wrong to force immigrants to abandon cultural heritage as a means of being accepted into American society. Immigrants should not melt into a common type, but rather hold on to their cultural distinctiveness.

Multiculturalists also reject the melting pot notion of assimilation and instead support models in which immigrants and natives can live side by side harmoniously without giving up anything. Jesse Jackson: "rainbow coalition;" mosaic, salad bowl, kaleidescope. Critics worry about the "balkanization" of the U.S., whereby separateness prevents any national unity. Others question whether there has to be one uniform definition of what it means to be "American."

PLANTATION LABOR AND AMERICAN IMPERIALISM IN HAWAII
-King Sugar: sugar production turned islands into a virtual economic colony of the U.S. From 1850-1920, over 300,000 Asian laborers entered the islands to work on plantations. From ethnically diverse backgrounds, they entered into a racial hierarchy of labor. Segregation by race reflected the order of arrival of immigrants to Hawaii. It also gave the planters the advantage of dividing and controlling their work force.

-Hana Hana: plantation work was organized by ethnic specific gangs, often under contract. "Lunas," or overseers disciplined workers

-Labor Activism beginning in the early 1900s. Japanese Strike of 1909 was one of the most massive and sustained strikes in the history of Oahu and involved the plantations on the island of Oahu. The strike reflected new consciousness among Japanese workers; a transformation from sojourners to settlers. Although characterized by state sanctioned violence, strikers lasted 3 1/2 months, ending in increased wages

-Settler Colonialism (Prof. Candace Fujikane): focuses on the past and present roles of Asian settlers in the maintenance of Hawaii a U.S. settler colony (labor migration supported plantation economy which led to overthrow of Hawaiian monarchy and annexation by the U.S.) Perspective argues that Asians, who outnumber Hawaiians in Hawaii, have supported and engaged in the U.S. colonization of Hawaiians. Now the dominant political force in Hawaii, Asian Americans now direct state institutions and apparatuses to maintain U.S. hegemony vs. Native Hawaiian sovereignty.

FILM: Hawaii's Last Queen (PBS American Experience)

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT TOPIC DESCRIPTION DUE IN CLASS

TUES. 2/21
YELLOW PERIL-ORIENTALISM AND THE ANTI-ASIAN MOVEMENT
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT CLASS DISCUSSION

YELLOW PERIL

ALIEN LAND LAWS - 1913, 1920, 1923

IMMIGRATION LAWS - 1917, 1924, 1935

CITIZENSHIP CASES - Ozawa v. U.S., Thind v. U.S.

Discussion: The anti-Asian movement and the ways in which racism became institutionalized in law and culture demonstrate that this was a mainstream, not an extreme movement. How did racism and racist theories about Asians take on such mass appeal and become so widely accepted by the vast majority of Americans?


-Ngai, "The Immigration Act of 1924"
-Emory Bogardus and the Anti-Filipino Riot, 1930
-Writer Jack London Decries the New Yellow Peril, 1904
-Filipino Immigrant Condemns Representation of Group, c. 1924
-Asiatic Exclusion League Argues for Excluding Japanese and Korean Immigration, 1908
-Rydell, "The Filipino Village at the 1904 World's Fair"

"Asiatic Coolie Invasion," c. 1905
"Filipino Tragedy Continues," The Philippine Review, 1931
1924 Immigration Act"

Chinese Party," St. Paul, MN , 1915 (MN Historical Society)

TUES. 2/28
WORLD WAR TWO and EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066
CHINESE AMERICANS AND THE REPEAL OF EXCLUSION
FILIPINOS IN THE U.S. ARMED FORCES
KOREAN AMERICANS/INDIAN AMERICANS
"THE MYTH OF MILITARY NECESSITY"
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066
JAPANESE AMERICAN RESPONSE
--Japanese American Citizens' League (JACL)
--Court Cases (Yasui, 1942, Korematsu, 1943, Hirabayashi, 1943, Endo, 1944)
--"No-No Boys" and the Loyalty Questions
REDRESS MOVEMENT AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1988

FILM: FAMILY GATHERING

“Concentration Camps Called For,” San Francisco News, 3/2/42
“Gov. Olson (California) Wants All Japs Moved,” San Francisco News, 3/6/42
“Their Best Way to Show Loyalty,” San Francisco News, 3/6/42
“Goodbye, Write Soon!” San Francisco News, 4/7/42
                         

TUES. 3/7
JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT
CLASS DISCUSSION OF Adios to Tears
War Relocation Authority, “Japanese Relocation,” 1943
Evacuation of Japanese from Bainbridge (1942)
Questions and Answers for Evacuees (1942)
WRA Camps in Arizona
442nd Battalion
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Japanese American Incarceration - Road to Redress (American Bar Association)
Campaign for Justice (Redress Now for Japanese Latin American Internees)

SPRING BREAK

TUES. 3/21
PAPER #2 DUE IN CLASS

THE 1965 IMMIGRATION ACT; POST-1965 IMMIGRATION
THE 1965 IMMIGRATION ACT
--As part of the Civil Rights Movement
--Unintended Consequences
--Recomposition of the Asian American Population

"NEW" IMMIGRATION
--CHINA (economic and educational opportunities; "chain migration")
--PHILIPPINES (institutionalized migration to U.S.; political instability at home)
--KOREA (costs of rapid economic modernization; emigration encouraged)
--INDIA (economic and educational opportunities; institutionalized migration to U.S.)
--TRANSNATIONAL, TRANS-PACIFIC TIES (remittances, frequent trips, "simultaneous incorporation" in the U.S. and native country)

DISCUSSION:
--What does the example of Filipino nurse migration tell us about the institutionalization of migration between the Philippines and the U.S.? How and why did Filipino nurses change from being temporary visitors to being permanent residents? Why did the Philippine government go from urging Filipino nurses to stay in the Philippines to encouraging them to work abroad?

--What has caused the "brain drain" in India? Who is to blame? What are the consequences for India?

"NEW" ASIAN IMMIGRANTS
--Diversity (Ethnicity, Class, Gender)
--Labor (Bi-polor class structure, "brain drain," ethnic entrepreneurship)

GUEST SPEAKER: LISONG LIU

TUES. 3/28
KOREAN ADOPTEE MIGRATION AND EXPERIENCES
GUEST SPEAKER: KIM PARK NELSON
"Finding Home: Fifty Years of International Adoption" website, Parts 1-5 (American Radioworks)

"First Person Plural" documentary website (resources and general adoption history)
International Adoption Facts, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
Citation: Tobias Hubinette, "Comforting an orphaned nation: Representations of international adoption and adopted Koreans in Korean popular culture"
New Immigration Strategy: Koreans Send Children to America for Adoption, Pacific News Service, Jan. 25, 2006

THE WAR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

"IMMIGRANT" VS. "REFUGEE"
DIFFERENCES WITH OTHER ASIAN AMERICAN GROUPS
SOUTHEAST ASIAN HOMELANDS

VIETNAM
--French Colonialism in Vietnam (1867-1954)
--Vietminh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) led by Ho Chi Minh leads independence efforts against France
--U.S. backs French efforts in early 1950s; takes over anti-Communist struggle in Vietnam in 1954 after France is defeated
--1954 U.S. supported Republic of Vietnam (South, anti-Communist) with President Ngo Dinh Diem is established
--"Fall of Saigon," April, 1975

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
-- 1st Wave:  Vietnamese refugees following the “fall of Saigon,” 1975 (130,000)
--2nd Wave: Political Prisoners and “Boat People,” including ethni(c Chinese in Vietnam, 1978-early 90s (c. 5-600,000)

Malcolm Brown, on the Fall of Saigon, NY Times, 10/13/99
Fall of Saigon - Pictures from the NY Times
Refugees’ Family Life, NY Times, 5/27/75
Illegal Refugee Exodus Increasing, but Hanoi Denies Encouraging It, NY Times, 5/13/79

TUES. 4/4
HMONG REFUGEE MIGRATION/COMMUNITIES
LAOS AND THE VIETNAM WAR
--Pathet Lao (Communists)
--Royal Lao (Anti-Communists)
--ARMEE CLANDESTINE

POST WAR LAOS
RESETTLEMENT IN U.S.
ADAPTATION
--2000 Citizenship Bill

RATES OF ADMISSION
1975 – 1,000 – 3,000 admitted
1980 – 25,000 – admitted
1985 – 60,000 total in U.S.
1998 – 150,000 total in U.S.

HMONG IN MINNESOTA
60,000 - 75,000 in State
85-90% in Twin Cities
60-75% of those in St. Paul|
10,000-15,000 moved to Twin Cities in 1997-98 alone
MN was home to 5% of SE Asians coming to U.S. in 1996

TUES. 4/11
U.S. RESETTLEMENT POLICIES AND ADAPTATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN REFUGEES
GUEST SPEAKER: PROF. DAN DETZNER
CLASS DISCUSSION OF Elder Voices
CAMBODIAN HOMELANDS
--Norodom Sihanouk
-- General Lon Nol
--Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge
--“Killing Fields”
--Cambodian Refugees, 1979-1995 (147,000)
"Cambodian Refugees Depict Growing Fear and Hunger," NY Times, 5/13/78
Cambodian Genocide Program, Yale University

1980 Refugee Act
War-related trauma
WHERE IS HOME? FORCED EXILE
ADAPTATION AND SETTLEMENT

OTHER: Asian-American Reactions to Immigration Debate ("Day to Day," NPR, April 6, 2006)

TUES. 4/18
CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT
ORAL HISTORY WORKSHOP (Paper Outline)
PAPER #3 (Choice A) DUE IN CLASS
MOVEMENT ORIGINS
PAN-ASIAN AMERICAN IDENTITY
CONTEXT OF THE 1960S LIBERATION MOVEMENTS
ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
ACTIVISM IN COLLEGES AND COMMUNITIES
"THIRD WORLD LIBERATION FRONT" AND STRIKE

Chronology of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley
San Francisco State Strike, 1968

MODEL MINORITY
ORIGINS, USAGE, CRITIQUE

TUES. 4/25

CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICA IN MN: CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS, INCLUSION, AND EXCLUSION

 --The Twin Cities as a "New Ellis Island"
--St. Paul as the "Hmong Capitol"
“Hmong Population Rises Dramatically,” Minnesota Public Radio, 8/1/01
“Faces of Minnesota: The Asian Population,” Minnesota Public Radio, 3/29/01
“This is Home: the Hmong in Minnesota” Minnesota Public Radio, 3/8/98
"Mee Moua, From Refugee to Senator," Asian American Journalists Association
Angie L. Chang interview with Frank Wu, "Vang case shows race relations are not just black and white," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 7, 2005

"HAPAS" AND ASIAN AMERICAN MULTIRACIALITY
--Anti-Miscegenation Laws (CA 1880 - 1948)
--Loving vs. Virginia (1967)
--Multiracial Asian Americans (Hapa)
Hapa Issues Forum

ANTI-ASIAN VIOLENCE
Film Excerpt: "Who Killed Vincent Chin?"
"Remembering Vincent Chin" AsianWeek, June 5-13, 1997


ASIAN AMERICA AFTER 9/11
Jerry Kang (UCLA) "What 12-7 Has to Teach Us About 9-11" (9/25/2001)
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
"U.S. No Longer a Refuge for Poor, Huddled Masses," Tram Nguyen, SF Chronicle, June 20, 2005
Link to finding contemporary news sources from Wilson library

TUES. 5/2
CLASS PRESENTATIONS OF ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS
PAPER #3 (Choice B) DUE IN CLASS

MON. 5/8
ORAL HISTORY PAPER DUE IN PROF. LEE'S OFFICE

 

 


 



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