A History of Asian Americans
Community College of Rhode Island
Summer/Fall Semester
Instructor: Dr. Jon Q. Lu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Asian immigrants began to arrive in the United States in large numbers around the mid-nineteenth century, but Asian American history dates back to the colonial era, when the Filipinos arrived in what is now Louisiana with Spanish explorers. This course will survey Asian American history from the 1840s to the present. We will explore the changing experiences of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans within the larger context of immigration and race relations in American history. The first half of the course will focus on the experiences of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants in the U.S. from the Gold Rush (late 1840s) to World War II. The second half of the course will move on to the great changes within the Asian American community since the 1960s: new immigration fromKorea, South Asia and the refugee communities of Vietnamese-, Cambodian-, and Laotian/Hmong-Americans. Lastly, we will focus on contemporary issues facing Asian Americans and how the image of Asian Americans has been changing. Throughout the semester, we will seek comparisons across group and time, asking how historical patterns shape the present. In the meantime, we will also consider how our contemporary surroundings affect the way in which we view and interpret the past.
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY (ideas, theories and approaches)
- to analyze the continuities and changes in the lives of different groups of Asian Americans from the 1840s to the present through lectures, historical documents, first person accounts, scholarly articles and books
- to relate the experiences of Asian Americans to the histories of migration, race relations, and international relations of the United States
- to compare and contrast the experiences of different groups of Asian Americans according to such factors as ethnicity, class, gender, generation, and immigration status
- to understand the contemporary state of Asian Americans through their historical roots
- Throughout the course, you shall aim to acquire the basic skills used by historians to understand, analyze, research, and write history. This includes: critically analyzing primary source documents and writings within the historical context; asking questions of the sources; critically reading secondary sources and be able to identify an author’s thesis, main points and perspectives; "doing" history by engaging in historical analysis; writing logical and coherent papers with an argument of your own.
REQUIRED READINGS
Reading assignments include chapters/excerpts from novels, autobiographies, historical documents, scholarly essays and books. We will also view films and use the internet to compliment lectures and class discussions.
A. Required reading materials:
1. Lon Kurashige and Alice Yang Murray, eds., Major Problems in Asian American History: Documents and Essays (Houghton Mifflin, 2003)
2. M. Elaine Mar Paper Daughter: A Memoir (1999)
B. Supplementary reading materials:
1. Readings on Chinese-Americans:
Erika Lee, At America’s Gates (University of North Carolina, 2003)
2. Readings on Japanese-Americans:
C. Harvey Gardiner, (Foreword), Seiichi Higashide, Adios to Tears: The Memoirs of a Japanese-Peruvian Internee in U.S. Concentration Camps (University of Washington Press; 2000)
3. Readings on Filipino-Americans:
Espiritu, Yen Le. Home Bound: Filipino American Lives across Cultures, Communities, and Countries. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003)
4. Readings on Korean-Americans:
Elaine H. Kim, Eui-Young Yu (eds.), East to America: Korean American life stories, New York : New Press (1996)
5. Readings on Southeast Asian-Americans:
Daniel F. Detzner, Elder Voices: Southeast Asian Families in the United States (Walnut Creek: CA, Alta Mira Press, 2004)
6. Readings on Asian Indian-Americans:
Tram Nguyen, We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant America after 9/11 (Beacon Press, 2005)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
a) WORK LOAD:
-active participation in classroom discussions (weekly)
-approximately 40-50 pages of readingsper week
b) ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADES BREAKDOWN:
-One book report (4pg) related to the course (15%)
-Oral history project on Asian-Americans in RI and southern NE (20%)
-Mid-term exam (15%)
-Final exam (20%)
-Bi-weekly homework (15%)
-Class attendance and participation (15%)
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
In this course, we will study both personal, national, and sometimes transnational stories of AsianAmericans, and their lives in the U.S. As part of this endeavor, the major project of this course will be an oral history project in which you will interview an Asian American person (either immigrant or citizen) and record the oral history of the person based on a questionnaire. Afterwards, the taped interview would be transcribed into English by the interviewer.
1) Cover Page: identify and describe your interviewee (Length – 1 page): Who did you interview? Why did you choose this person? What do you hope to learn from the project? How does this individual's life connect to the themes, patterns, events, and/or groups that we are reading and discussing in class?
2) Consent Form:since this may be the first time that you and the person you are talking to have been involved in an oral history project, please note that you will also need to get a signed permission from your interviewee allowing you to use the information gathered in your interview for classroom and educational purposes. Consent forms will be passed out in class.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Office phone#: 333-7357; Email: ; Office hours: M-Th 12-1pm or by special appointment
ATTENDANCE POLICY
Excusable absences: illness with a doctor’s note; family emergency with a parental note and college-related activity with a note from the proper authority will be excused. All other absences without prior notice or proper justification will not be excused.
WEEKLY READING SCHEDULE
DATE/WEEK / READINGS / ACTIVITIESWeek 1: Introduction: What is Asian America? / “Major Problems” by Kurashige and Murray: Chapter 1 => Essays by Daniels, Takaki and Hing / Classroom discussion: how to define Asian America … an overview of AA history in the past 150 years
Week 2: International Context and Asian migration to the US / “Major Problems” by Kurashige and Murray: Chapter 2 => Documents 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8; and essays by Chen and Takaki / Classroom discussion: history of Chinese and Japanese migration to Hawaii and the US mainland
Week 3: Anti-Asian movements in the 1800s / “Major Problems” by Kurashige and Murray: Chapter 3 => Documents: 1-4 and 8; and essays by Chan and Iriye / Classroom discussion: Growing hostility towards Chinese and Japanese migrant workers
Week 4: Asians from different shores / “Major Problems” by Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 5 = Documents 1, 2, 5-9; and essays by Buenaventura, Jensen and Kim / Classroom discussion: The coming of other Asians: Koreans, Asian Indians and Filipinos around 1900
Week 5: Confronting Asian immigration exclusion / “Major Problems” by Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 4 => Documents 1-10; and essays by Gyory, Wong and Ngai; “At America’s Gates” by Erica Lee / Classroom discussion: Asian immigrants fought for their place in the land of immigrants
Week 6: Orientalism in America / “Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture” by Robert Lee: Introduction; “Major Problems” Chapter 6 => Essays by Rydell and Leong / Classroom discussion: Alienation and Yellow Perils in the new land
Week 7: Inter-ethnic tension and alliances / “Major Problems” by Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 7 => Documents 1-5; and essays by Azuma and Parrenas / Classroom discussion: Inter-ethnic tension and alliance among Asian immigrants
Mid-term Exam / (15%)
Week 8: Americanization and the shadow of exclusion on the second generation / “Major Problems” by Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 8 => Documents 1-4, 6-9; and essays by Yung and Jurashige / Classroom discussion: Growing up American, the second generation experience and dilemma
Week 9: War, race and the meaning of citizenship / “Major Problems” by Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 9 => Documents 1-5, 7-9; and essays by Gonzalves and Murray; “Adios to Tears” by H. Gardiner and S. Higashide / Classroom discussion: WWII and its impact on Asian Americans; Japanese-American internment experiences
Week 10: Asian Americans and the Cold War / “Major Problems” by Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 10 => Documents 1, 3-5, 7-9; and essays by Spickard, de Vera and Zhao / Classroom discussion: The struggle for acceptance continues …
Book Report Due in Class / (15%)
Week 11: Asian America in the post-1965 period: The myth of model minority / “Major Problems” by Kurashige/Murray: Chapter11 => Documents 1-2, 4-5, 7-8; and essays by Choy and Park / Classroom discussion: From “Yellow Perils” to “Model Minority” in America
Week 12: Coming of SE Asian refugees / “Major Problems” by Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 12 = > Documents 1-6; and essays by Kelly and Freeman/Welaratna / Classroom discussion: Boat people of Vietnam, victims of Khmer Rouge and Hmong/Mien tribes from Laos
Week 13: The Life of Asian American Women in the US / Asian American Women: the frontier reader edited by Linda Trinh Vo etc. (pages 35 = Japanese American Women in WWII, 312 = Remembering the Nation through Pageantry: Vietnamese American Womanhood) / Classroom discussion: The development of a new Asian American female identity and representation
Oral History Project Due in Class / (20%)
Week 14: Formation of new Asian American culture and the new identity in the late 20th century / “Major Problems” by Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 14 => Documents 1-8; and essays by Fujikane, Shukla and Feng; Chapter 15 => Essays by Kang and Nakashima / Classroom discussion: Fighting for a new identity and the development of a new culture by Asian Americans in the late 20th century
Week 15: (if necessary) / Oral History Presentations (in class)
Final Exam / (20%)