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Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 10:07:53 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Jack Tchen
Subject: Opening Statement
Greetings!
I am both an academic historian very interested in better ways of teaching
and engaging students and a public historian who believes that we should
collaborate with various publics in exploring the importance of historical
narratives in everyday life. So, I'm open to serving as something of a
resource for those of you out there researching and teaching materials
related to Asians in the Americas (yes, I think it's important to have a
hemispheric framing) and to public humanities dicussions about the linkages
we can form between schools, universities, community-based organizations,and
various publics. I must also note Asian American related
history is not usually covered in U.S. history survey courses and I hope this
month will provide a forum to address ways to think about Asian American
history within the context of the survey course.
First and foremost, I'd like to learn about who's out there and what you
are doing. I'd especially be interested in those of you who have or are
interested in students writing about their own experiences and/or doing
some of their own oral histories, research, documentation, fieldwork.
I thought some background about Asian American studies would be useful for
some of you.
The field of Asian American studies has been exploding of late with lots of
new research, faculty appointments, grants, exhibitions, videos, and new
published studies. Building on the field's origins in community-based
scholarship (for example, see the article about Mr. Him Mark Lai, Chronicle
of Higher Education), we are now at a key moment in which both the quality
and quantity of studies are reaching a critical mass. Issues of historical
content, such as who's being included in the term "Asian American," should
Pacific Islanders be included? (yes, I think they should if for no other
reason than the need to understand the shift from the Atlantic world to the
making of the Europeanized and Euro-U.S. Pacific world), periodization (I
believe we should go back to the Manila-Acapulco trade), intergroup social
relations, whiteness, etc. are being addressed, as are issues of the form
and infrastructure of historical knowledge production, such as problems of
the lack of archives at local historical societies.
A good portion of this growth has been in the field of Asian American
history. Lots of graduate students are emerging from history departments
all across the country and there have been a fair number of history hires
over the past few years. Indeed, the Association of Asian American Studies
(AAAS) just formed a History Caucus at its conference last year.
The field also has a dynamic public dimension of videomakers, writers,
curators, artists who have been working with established arts and
humanities institutions and community-based efforts. Much of the most
interesting research continues to be generated from these public and
community-based sites. (I'd be happy to share with you a quick list of
Asian American museums and video/film distributors, for example.)
Another growth area has been among teachers (on the high school and college
levels) who have worked with students in writing about their own lives or
documenting so aspect of their family and/or community stories. The book
by Susan Kuklin called _Speaking Out!_ Is an excellent example.
Many of us in Asian American studies believe we need to work in the broader
interdisciplinary area of historical studies. By historical studies I'm
referring to scholars such as those in English Literature (such as Lisa
Lowe at UC-San Diego who wrote _Immigrant Acts_) or journalism/oral testimony
(such as Anne Fadiman, freelance journalist, who wrote And the _Spirit
Catches You and You Fall Down_ about Hmong in Merced California and
conflicting cross cultural health care practices) who substantially deal
with what I consider a defining characteristic to historical studies-that
being a generative dialogue between critical understandings of the present
and the past.
Finally, the study of Asian/Pacific Americans is also the study of the
cultural formation of the U.S. identity. Just as the expropriation of
native American land and the enslavement of African Americans has been
fundamental to the political economy of the U.S., trade with the "orient"
has been fundamental. And, just as the U.S. self has been deeply shaped by
the otherness of various forms of racialized "primitivism," so too has this
self been formulated by "orientalism." So, to my mind, the inclusion of
Asian/Pacific American history not only pluralizes and improves our
understanding of the diversity of this nation's past, but it also helps us
better understand the shaping of U.S. regional and national
cultural-political identities.
So, do share with me what you are doing out there, points you want to make,
and questions you have. I look forward to this month of explorations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
New York University
269 Mercer Street #609
New York, New York 10003
Phone: 212/998-3695
Fax: 212/995-4705
www.apa.nyu.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 07:18:28 -0700
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Gayle Olson-Raymer
Subject: Re: Opening Statement
In-Reply-To:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I was really pleased to get your lengthy introduction and am looking
forward to this particular dialog. I am a lecturer at Humboldt State
University (HSU) in Northern California. While my doctorate is in American
History, I also have an MA from UC Santa Barbara in Public History - so
have been very interested in the various aspects that program emphasizes -
especially oral history and diversity issues.
I teach one of the US History survey courses at HSU - from pre-colonial to
the Civil War - and about five years ago, began to devote about four weeks
of the 15 week course to looking in Ronald Takagi's "Different Mirror."
When we discuss manifest destiny, we do it through the eyes of Asian and
Irish immigrants, Mexicans in California and Texas, American Indians, and
African slaves. This has been the students' favorite part of the course.
Recently, I decided to devote an entire lecture (1-1/2 hours) to the Asian
American experience and the students just couldn't get enough. They are
fascinated - and definitely uneducated on this topic. As yet, I do not
have any readings that could supplement this lecture - a book would be too
much, but a good 15-20 page article would be terrific.
I also teach an upper division course for students who are planning to get
their secondary education credential. In this class, we take four topics
and deal with just these issues for the entire 15 weeks. This year, I
picked the Asian experience in America as a topic and we read Lauren
Kessler's "Stubborn Twig" and saw the accompanying video. Again, students
knew nothing about the whole experience and absolutely soaked up the
material. We were taking it from two viewpoints - from university students
learning about the experience, as well as from potential teachers who would
incorporate such information into their 11th grade U.S. History courses.
Many students also read "Farewell to Manzanar" as that is a book that works
well in the secondary classroom. At any rate, this is where I am with
this topic - at the very beginning stages in my learning curve. I am most
eager to continue this dialog and find out what my colleagues are doing.
Sincerely,
Gayle Olson-Raymer
Humboldt State University
Dept. of History
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 10:59:59 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Tamsey_Andrews@FERRIS.EDU
Subject: Re: Opening Statement
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
To whomever is in charge of this listserv:
I have been subscribed to this listserv whithout being consulted and
without my permission. My attempts to unsubscribe by contacting LISTSERV
directly have been unsuccessful.
It is the height of rudeness to subscribe people to listservs without their
permission.
I request that whoever has subscribed me to this listserv should
unsubscribe me at once.
Dr. Tamsey K. Andrews
Director of Grants
Ferris State University
andrewst@ferris.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 23:51:52 EDT
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: MurphyMo@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Opening Statement
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Dear Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen,
I am a high school American History teacher in Des Moines, Iowa. Most people
think of Iowa as a pretty rural state but Des Moines is it's largest city
(300,000 with suburbs). The demographics of Hoover High School is not unlike
that of the United States. We lack Native Americans but have about 6%
American Asians , 8 - 10% Hispanic, &18 -- 20% African American. There are
probably two or three high schools that have diversity in Des Moines. We
have 1200 students and 100 of those are Bosnian.
We have many new immigrants. I asked my students to write a history of their
families and many Asian students had come here in the past 6 years. Most of
my Asian students are Vietnamese.
I guess I feel we need to show we have people of all races here. I am honest
about the prejudices of the past but show the progress we have made for races
and genders and from my students, I can tell you we have made so much
progress. Race isn't a big issue. There is interracial dating...although
Asian girls are not usually allowed to date and I don't think Bosnian girls
can either.
I suppose my daughter's best friend being an adopted Korean also made me
think but I love diversity and see the benefits in my children's lives at
school and now where I teach.
I need more information on different ethnic Asian groups here. I know
Chinese built the railroads and now we are going to discuss internment of the
Japanese in World War II. I even spoke of how the racial prejudices affect
the formal Japanese-American relations starting with the Gentlemen's
agreement in 1907. I could use more information on that. I would think few
people would want a good relationship with someone who does not respect their
culture and heritage.
There is so little in the texts. I am getting more from college texts and
our new textbook has more information (we get his next year) but compared to
the Holocaust, Japanese internment has received little space in the books.
So book sources as well as Internet sources would be great. I am afraid
being a first year teacher in American History I am only starting to acquire
these. More information on the Supreme Court cases during World War
II...more anything.
Also I want to know how to not offend my Vietnamese students during the
Vietnam War segment. Many of their families were probably in the army. I
need good sources. I am trying to present all points of view. I was someone
who was more dove than hawk but if I had been a man would have been in the
army as an American in a democracy. Being 50, I have sad memories of that
time period. But I am proud of my cousin who was a Marine and proud of
friends who followed their consciences and burned draft cards.
I am afraid this is a book not an e-mail. Sorry. Just got too carried away.
Any help you give to give direction to my quest to give students the truth is
appreciated.
Many thanks,
Maureen Murphy
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 12:16:01 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Marion Brown Evashevski
Subject: Re: Opening Statement
In-Reply-To:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Hi. I teach a class called Alternative Perspectives in U.S. History at a
public high school in Ann Arbor, MI. We use Howard Zinn's People's
History of the U.S. and Ronald Takaki's A Different Mirror as our primary
textbooks. Though the emphasis is primarily on history and contributions
of different ethnic groups, women, and labor, the reality is that my
students have to take a state social studies test which could win them a
$2500 scholarship. This test requires breadth as well as depth and
frankly I'm tired of trying to fit so much into so little time. And, I
have it a lot better than some history teachers who are expected to
"cover" 1492 to the present in one year. I only do 1865 to the present.
Last spring I was fortunate to take a class from Gail Nakamura and her
husband (sorry, his name isn't coming to me) on Rethinking History related
to Asian American history. I received a huge coursepack and many
suggestions for books and videos. I still want to learn more and need to
think about how to try to include more than I already do, like information
about Paper Sons and picture brides to current issues of race and
immigration.
I do have my students do a family history project with the emphasis being
on how families have been affected by historical events, eg: the
depression, World War II, etc. Two students once made a video, which I
still have, comparing their family's experiences during the 30s and 40s -
one white family and one Japanese-American family. It was great. I guess
I didn't quite follow, however, what you are proposing or suggesting about
oral histories, etc. Could I hear more about that?
As I don't have internet access at home, my responses may be shorter than
others as I'm trying to fit this into my already rather busy day. I'm
excited to be part of this forum and I look forward to more
"conversation."
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 12:29:15 EDT
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Jennie Fraser
Subject: Re: Opening Statement
Comments: To: mevashev@umich.edu
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Concerning how to use oral histories- Vietnam War
I am an English teacher in American Studies and we did a project last year
that you might find useful for both Vietnamese and American students. After
reading several chapters from Studs Terkel's The Good War, in which he
gathered oral interviews from those who had experienced WWII - everyone from
nurses to actual soldiers, each kid interviewed someone who had some direct
experience of the Viet Nam War. We posted it on a website. Its format is
easily copied. The premise of the unit was: war affects everyone, those at
home and those at war. Check out the website we created. You can read some of
the interviews on-line at
http://pages.prodigy.net/meng25/mchs/
This assignment for your kids would be even more instructive - to see that
all suffer; no one wins in a war.
Jennie Fraser
San Mateo Middle College
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 12:55:56 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: "rebecca j. kinney"
Subject: Re: Opening Statement
In-Reply-To:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Hello Everyone.
I thought that I would also take the opportunity to check in. I am
currently a third year undergraduate at the University of Michigan-Ann
Arbor double majoring in Sociology and American Culture (ethnic studies).
My focus in ethnic studies has been comparative and interdisciplinary
rather than focusing upon a specific racial category. Most of my
background however has an Asian American and African American impulse.
I am interested in eventually entering a Ph.D. program in Ethnic Studies,
and specifically looking into historical urban planning and spatial
segregation issues for Asian Americans.
I am excited to be part of the listserve. As I said before, I am
interested in issues of housing, historical and current for Asian
Americans. To put a specific socio-historical moment into question would
be where did the Japanese Americans who were interned return to (or
relocate to) following WWII. I have done a little research and have been
unable to find much concrete.
Marion- I think that you were thinking of Stephen Sumida and Gail Nomura?
They however have moved to the University of Washington (and we at U of M
are still mourning our loss).
Anyways, I look forward to our conversations.
take care,
Becky Kinney
************************
rebecca j. kinney
819 s. state st. apt #2
ann arbor, mi 48104
(734) 327-7669
rkinney@umich.edu
************************
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 13:03:36 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Guocun Yang
Organization: Manchester Community College
Subject: Re: Opening Statement
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"(H)eight of rudeness"?! Hardly so. I do not keep or run or have any connection
with this listserv. But I feel like making a comment about Dr. Andrews'
comment. As far as my limited knowledge indicates to me, a listserv is
generally controlled by computer. One has to subscribe to it in order to get on
the list. When the list is accessed, all members on the list will be reached.
It's understandable all people do not share similar interests and do not wish
to be bothered without permission. This listserv involves an academic
communities and those with an interest in what this listserv does. A grants
director, for example, may not to have or interest in such a group. I urged the
listserv to make adjustments to allow people to sign off conveniently so as to
make it less intrusive, which is becoming increasing a problem due to ever
greater networking.
I am an Americanist but feel excited to learn from members of this list over
the next few weeks. I received an announcement about the forum and chose to
take this learning opportunity. For me, it is working out fine. Otherwise I
would not have known this discussion is taking place.
Guocun Yang, Ph.D.
Tamsey_Andrews@FERRIS.EDU wrote:
> To whomever is in charge of this listserv:
> I have been subscribed to this listserv whithout being consulted and
> without my permission. My attempts to unsubscribe by contacting LISTSERV
> directly have been unsuccessful.
> It is the height of rudeness to subscribe people to listservs without their
> permission.
> I request that whoever has subscribed me to this listserv should
> unsubscribe me at once.
>
> Dr. Tamsey K. Andrews
> Director of Grants
> Ferris State University
> andrewst@ferris.edu
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Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 11:17:58 -0700
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: FLORIDIA CHEUNG
Subject: Re: Opening Statement
Comments: To: pbender@EMAIL.GC.CUNY.EDU
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Greetings,
My name is Floridia Cheung. I am a curatorial assistant at the Autry =
Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles. The Autry Museum explores the =
historic realities and the myths of the West. I am working on an exhibit =
on Chinese American history. =20
I am glad Professor Tchen is doing this project, because as a Chinese =
American trying to realize an identity, I think it is important for the =
Chinese American to learn about their history here in the States. My =
parents always told me to learn my history and heritage....but they meant =
my Chinese history as opposed to my Chinese American history. =20
When a Chinese American learns of how they historically contributed to the =
economic and social prosperity of their American homes, I feel they will =
have a sense of identity, pride, and responsibility here in the States.
My concern and job is how to interpret/represent a Chinese American =
visually. Some artifacts/images we selected for the exhibit may be =
criticized to be too orientalist, while others would fail to represent the =
uniqueness of the culture. I am striving to be sensitive to the Chinese =
American image, so I would appreciate your feedback.
Thank you,
Floridia Cheung
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 22:20:28 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Jean Chong
Subject: Asian-Canadian history/issues-Resources
Hi, I'm simply a professional librarian in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) who has
an extra-curricular interest in Asian-Canadian history and other matters.
I realize this forum is strongly focused on Asian-American history but there
are SOME similarities in historical experiences and events between
Asian-Canadians and Asian-Americans which may be of value for those
interested in broadening their work and educational outreach efforts.
1. There is a contact for the now-defunct magazine, Asianadian, a quarterly
magazine that was published in the 1980's and focused on Asian-Canadian
issues, history and the arts. It was published in Toronto.
Contact: Cheuk Kwan (ckwan@tissa.com)
2. Asian Canadians: a bibliography. compiled by Tariq Kidwai (in
collaboration with Jean Chong & Bobby Siu) 1985 (227 p.) Please ask Cheuk
Kwan if he has copies. See #1. Bibliography covers South Asian-Canadians
also.
3. Rice Paper- quarterly magazine on Asian-Canadian issues, history and
arts published in Vancouver. Recommended. Contact: jwongchu@axionet.com.
Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, 311 E. 41st Ave., Vancouver, B.C. Canada
V5W 1N9
4. Chinese-Canadian National Council's web site- national organization
focused on race relations and equity issues for Chinese-Canadians. Web site
has historical info. on the railways workers, head tax in Canada.
http://ccnc.ca/toronto/history/
5. Book: Jin Guo: Voices of Chinese Canadian Women. Published by the
Women's Book Committee of the Chinese-Canadian National Council. Toronto:
Women's Press, 1992. Based on transcripts of oral history from several
women.
I have more thoughts on resources. But I will stop here. Just a friendly
reminder that alot happened in Canada and continues to happen north of the
international border!
4. Chinese Canadian National Council's web site- national organization
since mid-1970's focused on equity issues for Chinese-Canadians. Their web
site has some historical information about the Chinese-Canadian railway
workers, head tax issue.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 11:28:48 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Guocun Yang
Organization: Manchester Community College
Subject: Short book
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A request for help. I am an Americanist, with strong interest in Far East (my
minor field). I am preparing a course on the Far East or modern China at my
college. My question is for recommendations of a textbook and short scholarly
books on special topics - under 200 or 250 pages. I particularly look forward to
hearing suggestions on China.
Your advise is highly appreciated.
Guocun Yang, Ph.D.
Manchester Community College
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=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 20:31:46 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: John Kuo Wei Tchen
Subject: Asian-Canadian history & the importance of an Americas framework
In-Reply-To:
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Thank you Jean Chong for your reminding us of Asian Canadian issues.
Certainly part of the reason for some of the affinities of the experiences
between Asians in the U.S. and Canada is the shared relation to British and
to a lesser degree French colonial cultures and politics. The ways in
which British and French forms of orientalism (Edward Said, plus many other
subsequent books), for example, were transplanted in North America via the
circulation of "exotic" trade objects before large numbers of people
migrated and reestablished certain foundational relationships of self and
otherness. If anyone out there would like to discuss this phenomenon
called "orientalism" further let me know.
Indeed, I believe that we need to open up Asian U.S. studies to look at the
Americas and its relationship to what historians and scholars have
increasingly called the Atlantic world (Paul Gilroy's book The Black
Atlantic is key in this regard) and to the formation of the European and
Euro-American Pacific world. The intermingled port cultures of the
Atlantic world, such as Salem, New Bedford, New York, Liverpool, Havana,
Cape Town, extended into the Pacific. Instead of beginning Asian U.S.
history when the first Chinese arrive in the Californios when gold is
discovered at Sutter's Mill, we should go back to the Manila Acapulco trade
in the mid-16th Century. This allows for a broader canvas to understand
globalization with competing colonial powers and different configurations
of power (as defined by race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, etc.).
This reframing also allows us to get away from the hierarchy within Asian
American studies which privileges Chinese and Japanese American history and
only later deals with the "recent" immigration of larger numbers of
Filipinos, South Asians, etc.
But, from my experience in places like New York City or Los Angeles, it
also allows us to understand the more complex migration experiences of
generations of Asians moving from places such as Lima or Guyana or Cuba to
cities in North America.
How can we begin with the stories of many of our students and then help to
contextualize what these genealogies and mappings are about.
Award winning independent film/video maker Loni Ding has done a wonderful
pioneering effort to capture this larger history in her three part series
called "Ancestors in America" which is slated to be aired on PBS. Part One
deals with this alternative Americas framing. I recommend looking at her
website for the Center for Educational Telecommunications. You can look
her up on google.com and find her organization site.
For those of you following these postings. I sent a posting last week
responding to some of the responese which for some reason did not get
through. I've got to keyboard it in again and will get it out soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
New York University
269 Mercer Street #609
New York, New York 10003
Phone: 212/998-3695
Fax: 212/995-4705
www.apa.nyu.edu
Please note email address change: Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 23:10:11 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: John Kuo Wei Tchen
Subject: oral history ideas for advanced high school and early college
curriculum
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
For some reason the following message never got through. I'm responding to
Maureen Murphy and Marion Brown Evashevski. Thank you both for your honest
and thoughtful comments.
The midwest seems to be changing dramatically. I recently went to my, dare
I say it, 30th high school reunion in Park Forest, IL (Rich East). It was
the subject of William H. Whyte's The Organization Man. It used to be the
place that many urban white ethnics migrated to and in effect became
"white" (If any of you are interested in the subfield of whiteness studies
Karen Sacks Brodkin's How Jews Became White and Matthew Jacobson's
Whiteness of a Different Color are well work reading). Now, demographic
shifts due to a great increase of African Americans and new immigrant
groups are reshuffling previous mixtures. There are few spaces within
these communities for public discussion, analysis of what has been going
on, and meaningful cross cultural exchanges. I strongly believe high
school teachers (with the strong support of principals), colleges, museums,
and other non-profits organizations such as theater groups can create
dialogues spaces which can make a huge difference for students and for
communities. Yet, at the same time it is an unfair burden for teachers to
take on and can easily lead to accerlerated burn out.
A basic and very readable history focusing on Asian and Pacific U.S. folks
is Ronald Takaki's Stranger from a Different Shore. He's pulled from many
local oral history projects and community studies and woven them into an
accessible and compelling narrative. The book that Marion has mentioned A
Different Mirror is a broader synthesis of the multicultural history of the
U.S. with a major focus on racialization processes. Both books are welcome
alternatives and supplements to many of the text books that have dominated
many state curricula.
I've found that good oral histories and short excerpts from fiction are
excellent ways to begin humanizing the experiences of marginalized and
stereotyped peoples. They are extremely useful ways to get students to
begin to express their own life experiences. I'm very interested in
hearing from efforts that people on this listserve have made. Let me share
a couple of references that might be useful. Joann Faung Lee's book Asian
Americans and Maria Hong's Growing Up Asian American (1993) are both worth
using and have a mix of voices representing a mix of different experiences
and Asian U.S. ethnic backgrounds. More specific oral/life stories of
particular groups can also be found. For example: UC-Berkeley literature
scholar Elaine Kim co-authored a book called East to America (1997) on
Koreans in the U.S. John Tateishi has edited a collection of Japanese
American redress interviews called And Justice for all (1999). Victor and
Bret de Bary Nee wrote a classic study of S.F.'s Chinese called Longtime
Californ (1986). Jessica Hagedorn's anthology Charlie Chan is Dead (1995)
is chock full of short stories, poems, and prose from a variety of
perspectives. There are also many new oral histories on Southeast Asians
which I'd appreciate someone to add their assessments of.
These oral history books can be used in various ways. I've assigned
students to pick out one of Tateishi's redress testimonies, for example,
and have students of various backgrounds present them as if they were at a
redress hearing. If contextualized with historical background, such as the
actually sequence leading up to Executive Order 9066 in combination perhaps
with the screening of a video (check out the National Asian American
Telecommunications Assn. or NAATA web site and catalogue) such a
performative assignment can be very powerful. You can then have students
discuss why they chose certain testimonies, how they felt presenting it to
the class, and even get them involved to contact local Japanese Americans
who may have had family members who were put in one of these camps to speak.
Such exercises can help spark them to go out and do oral interviews or to
write about their own experiences. Historian Thomas Dublin has regularly
assigned his college students to write about their ethnic identities and a
collection of these pieces is in Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic:
College Students Explore Their Roots (1996). As I mentioned in the opening
statement, I also find journalist Susan Kuklin's oral history/photo books
for you adults very effective, in particular the book Speaking Out:
Teenagers on Race, Sex and Idnetity (1993) quite provocative for both high
school and younger college students. I'd be interesting in hearing of more
teaching efforts in which the student's own personal and family experiences
are brought into the center of a course or students have been involved in
documentation and interviewing.
Let's hear from more of you about the mix of students you have and your
curricular experiments....
Best,
Jack Tchen
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 15:43:21 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: "Roy A. Rosenzweig"
Subject: Re: oral history
In-Reply-To:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Instructors thinking about oral history assignments might
want to take a look at the excellent assignment in oral and family
history that my colleague John Cheng has online for his
Asian-American history course (http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/h389/)
(Look under assignments.) I think John is in the midst of making some
changes in the site and so you might encounter a few broken links or
odd pages.
The assignments are being collected into an on-line archive
of family and oral histories at (http://chnm.gmu.edu/AsianAm/DAA).
best,
Roy Rosenzweig
Center for History and New Media
http://chnm.gmu.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 16:58:11 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Robert Shaffer
Subject: Re: oral history ideas
In-Reply-To:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
In response to John Tchen's post from April 12 on oral history resources
on Asian American history, let me suggest a memoir (not an oral history
per se) that I have just discussed with students in my college-level U.S.
Immigration and Ethnicity class (which includes, but does not focus on,
Asian Americans): Yoshiko Uchida's _Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a
Japanese-American Family_ (1982), available in paperback from University
of Washington Press. Uchida grew up in a middle-class, Christian Japanese
American home in Berkeley, and was attending the University of California
at Berkeley when World War II broke out. She describes in poignant terms
the experience at the Tanforan assembly center and at the Topaz (Utah)
concentration camp. What is most impressive to me as a teacher about
ethnicity is her careful attention to the mix of her family's
Japanese-ness and American-ness, to use less than grammatically correct
terminology. I have been exploring with my students all semester the need
for a more sophisticated understanding of the "Americanization" of
immigrant groups than the simplistic phrases "assimilation" and
"Americanization" afford, and Uchida's memoir helps students see this very
dramatically. (And in a class which has taken as its theme the tension
between Oscar Handlin's use of the phrase "the uprooted" to describe
immigrant life and John Bodnar's counter-phrase of "the transplanted,"
students can easily see that Uchida's use of that term in her subtitle is
very different from Handlin's, in that it is the U.S. government here that
is doing the uprooting, not the immigration experience itself. Students
can follow the idea that Japanese Americans created a "transplanted" and
somewhat transformed Japanese-American culture and community here by the
1930s.)
I use the whole book as the basis for a week's discussion in a
college class (along with a few supplementary articles on the internment),
but the book is easy enough for high school students to read as well.
Teachers can easily find excerpts for presentation to classes, or assign
different chapters to different students, or just use it as background
reading to provide anecdotes for a presentation on the human effects and
costs of the internment.
By the way, I find _Desert Exile_ far superior to _Farewell to
Manzanar_, mainly because the author of the latter book, Jeanne Wakatsuki
Houston, was still a young child while she was in the camp, and her
observations of camp life are less sophisticated. On the other hand, some
may prefer _Farewell to Manzanar_ because the family there is more typical
of Japanese Americans in terms of class position and educational
background than the Uchida family. For my students, I point out how the
Uchidas represent a minority (though a significant minority) of Japanese
americans in terms of class, religion, and educational background.
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 14:32:00 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: John Kuo Wei Tchen
Subject: Anyone using "Snow Falling on Cedars"??
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Robert Shaffer's comment on Uchida's Desert Exile is quite valuable. I was
curious if people have used the recent popularity of Snow Falling on Cedars
(both the novel and less popular film starring Ethan Hawke) as an entry
point into the camp experience?
Jack Tchen
Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
New York University
269 Mercer Street #609
New York, New York 10003
212.998.3700
212.995.4705 (fax)
www.apa.nyu.edu
Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 11:54:57 -0700
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Patricia Hart
Subject: Re: Anyone using "Snow Falling on Cedars"??
In-Reply-To:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
I am teaching a 300-level American Studies course with the theme
Migrations/Relocations this semester. Regarding Japanese relocation, I've
used Takaki's A History of Multicultural America as a core text,
supplementing with the documentary film by Lisa Yasui, A Family Gathering,
and John Okada's No-No Boy (U.Wash), all Northwest sources. I was lucky
that the University of Idaho, where I teach, is bringing in Snow Falling
on Cedars as a diversity film, and so it will be shown free to students on
campus. I have enough interest in the topic generally that a panel of
final presentations is forming around the topic, with one focusing on the
Minidoka camp in southern Idaho. The students and I have found the variety
of sources to be reinforcing with regard to content, and provide
sufficiently different perspectives to prompt new/additional
questions. Patricia Hart
On Tue, 18 Apr 2000, John Kuo Wei Tchen wrote:
> Robert Shaffer's comment on Uchida's Desert Exile is quite valuable. I was
> curious if people have used the recent popularity of Snow Falling on Cedars
> (both the novel and less popular film starring Ethan Hawke) as an entry
> point into the camp experience?
>
> Jack Tchen
>
> Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
> A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
> New York University
> 269 Mercer Street #609
> New York, New York 10003
> 212.998.3700
> 212.995.4705 (fax)
> www.apa.nyu.edu
>
> Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
>
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 17:22:31 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Robert Shaffer
Subject: Re: Anyone using "Snow Falling on Cedars"??
In-Reply-To:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Re _Snow Falling on Cedars_:
I haven't used the novel in my history classes, but one of my colleagues
in the English Department here has used _Snow Falling on Cedars_ in her
"Introduction to Fiction" class, geared to freshman and sophomore General
Education students. In the process, she has invited me to attend class as
a resource person for the history of the internment, to answer questions,
comment on student observations, and (where appropriate) present some
additional primary source documents. I certainly enjoyed the experience,
and I think it was helpful to students. It also helped bring "history"
and "literature" together in students' minds.
I think that novel would work better in an American Studies class
or an English class, rather than History, in my view. People who teach
specifically Asian-American Studies classes would have to comment on
whether they would to devote the necessary class time (it _is_ a long
book) to a novel whose protagonist is not Asian-American.
-- Robert Shaffer
History Department
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 17:19:27 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: John Kuo Wei Tchen
Subject: On Pacific Islander Experiences
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
There is an ongoing debate, in my estimation a very important and healthy
one, regarding the inclusion of Pacific Islanders within Asian/Pacific
American or Asian-Pacific Islander nomenclatures. This issue is especially
intense in Hawai'i where sovereignty issues are critical. For background,
one of the better basic political histories is by Noel Kent, Islands Under
the Influence. It is a readable history about the history of the islands,
U.S. trade and colonial interests, etc. A contemporary classic which
expresses the earlier days of the sovereignty movement is Haunani Kay
Trask's Notes from a Native Daughter.
In the spirit of fostering more grassroots documentation and creative work
on the Pacific Islander experience, I wanted to share with the history
forum network the availability of grants related to the Pacific Islander
experience.
SOVEREIGN STORIES
Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC) is calling for proposals for
national public television programs that examine and illuminate aspects of
Pacific Islanders culture and life. PIC is particularly interested in how
the struggle for sovereignty and native rights is impacting indigenous
communities within the Pacific and continental U.S.
All genres are welcome. Programs must not be less than one hour long, unless
they are part of a series. Awards up to $50,000 will be given for
production, post-production, or program-specific web development. $15,000
is available for research and development and scripting. Applications
available at www.piccom.org or contact Annie Moriyasu, PIC,
moriyasu@aloha.net, (808) 591-0059. Application deadline: May 31, 2000.
Annie Moriyasu
Programming Director
Pacific Islanders in Communications
1221 Kapiolani Blvd. 6A4
Honolulu, HI 96814 USA
808.591.0059
808.591.1114 Fax
moriyasu@aloha.net www.piccom.org
MEDIA FUND 2000 APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE AT WWW.PICCOM.ORG
DEADLINE IS MAY 31, 2000
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
New York University
269 Mercer Street #609
New York, New York 10003
Phone: 212/998-3695
Fax: 212/995-4705
www.apa.nyu.edu
Please note email address change: Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 17:43:53 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: John Kuo Wei Tchen
Subject: "Snow Falling on Cedars" & Hollywood
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Robert Shaffer finishes his recent note on "Snow" with a critical issue
that vexes Asian Americanists regarding popular representations of the
Asian American experience. Yes, it has to do with the politics of race and
gender and sexuality. Does the protagonist in a more popular film, as
Hollywood argues, have to be a white (usually male) lead? And isn't it
easier for most U.S. Americans to accept exotic/erotic Asian women when a
film is meant to be sympathetic to Asian Americans or Asians. Countless
films attest to such a position: "Big Trouble in Little China," "The Year
of the Dragon," "Red Corner" w/Richard Gere, or even "The Joy Luck Club"
directed by Asian American filmmaker Wayne Wang. Films, novels, and
history pulled apart and analyzed as constructed narrative strategies seems
to work well with media savvy students. Or, conversely, when films are
about the danger and threat of Asian Americans or Asians stern, inscrutable
Asian males are foregrounded, such as Crichton's novel turned Kaufman film,
"The Rising Sun."
I'm also always mindful of the sensitivities about talking about
racialization, especially in multi-ethnic/racial classrooms. Many students
are very aware of what is considered "p.c." (I hate this term!) and
hesitate to speak out. That can create a terribly lopsided dynamic in the
classroom. What have your experiences been? What have been your classroom
strategies to create an open exchange of experiences and ideas? Have you
been successful in rescuing confrontational situations? Making
distinctions between institutional racism/sexism, etc. and interpersonal
offenses?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
New York University
269 Mercer Street #609
New York, New York 10003
Phone: 212/998-3695
Fax: 212/995-4705
www.apa.nyu.edu
Please note email address change: Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 20:19:08 -0400
Reply-To: ronrico@attglobal.net
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: ronrico@ATTGLOBAL.NET
Subject: Re: Anyone using "Snow Falling on Cedars"??
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Yes,
Nor have they used the novels based on the rape of Nanking.
enrique
John Kuo Wei Tchen wrote:
> Robert Shaffer's comment on Uchida's Desert Exile is quite valuable. I was
> curious if people have used the recent popularity of Snow Falling on Cedars
> (both the novel and less popular film starring Ethan Hawke) as an entry
> point into the camp experience?
>
> Jack Tchen
>
> Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
> A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
> New York University
> 269 Mercer Street #609
> New York, New York 10003
> 212.998.3700
> 212.995.4705 (fax)
> www.apa.nyu.edu
>
> Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
--
-----------------------------------------------------
Click here for Free Video!!
http://www.gohip.com/freevideo/
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 20:21:14 -0400
Reply-To: ronrico@attglobal.net
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: ronrico@ATTGLOBAL.NET
Subject: Re: On Pacific Islander Experiences
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hawaii,
Puerto Rico is the Caribbean version. However, the American Congress will not
grant statehood because Puerto Ricans are not willing to become an English
speaking Puerto Rico.
enrique
John Kuo Wei Tchen wrote:
> There is an ongoing debate, in my estimation a very important and healthy
> one, regarding the inclusion of Pacific Islanders within Asian/Pacific
> American or Asian-Pacific Islander nomenclatures. This issue is especially
> intense in Hawai'i where sovereignty issues are critical. For background,
> one of the better basic political histories is by Noel Kent, Islands Under
> the Influence. It is a readable history about the history of the islands,
> U.S. trade and colonial interests, etc. A contemporary classic which
> expresses the earlier days of the sovereignty movement is Haunani Kay
> Trask's Notes from a Native Daughter.
>
> In the spirit of fostering more grassroots documentation and creative work
> on the Pacific Islander experience, I wanted to share with the history
> forum network the availability of grants related to the Pacific Islander
> experience.
>
> SOVEREIGN STORIES
>
> Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC) is calling for proposals for
> national public television programs that examine and illuminate aspects of
> Pacific Islanders culture and life. PIC is particularly interested in how
> the struggle for sovereignty and native rights is impacting indigenous
> communities within the Pacific and continental U.S.
>
> All genres are welcome. Programs must not be less than one hour long, unless
> they are part of a series. Awards up to $50,000 will be given for
> production, post-production, or program-specific web development. $15,000
> is available for research and development and scripting. Applications
> available at www.piccom.org or contact Annie Moriyasu, PIC,
> moriyasu@aloha.net, (808) 591-0059. Application deadline: May 31, 2000.
>
> Annie Moriyasu
> Programming Director
> Pacific Islanders in Communications
> 1221 Kapiolani Blvd. 6A4
> Honolulu, HI 96814 USA
> 808.591.0059
> 808.591.1114 Fax
> moriyasu@aloha.net www.piccom.org
>
> MEDIA FUND 2000 APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE AT WWW.PICCOM.ORG
> DEADLINE IS MAY 31, 2000
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
> A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
> New York University
> 269 Mercer Street #609
> New York, New York 10003
> Phone: 212/998-3695
> Fax: 212/995-4705
> www.apa.nyu.edu
>
> Please note email address change: Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
--
-----------------------------------------------------
Click here for Free Video!!
http://www.gohip.com/freevideo/
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 20:22:39 -0400
Reply-To: ronrico@attglobal.net
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: ronrico@ATTGLOBAL.NET
Subject: Re: "Snow Falling on Cedars" & Hollywood
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
View Jet Li movies. The history is well documented. The language of choice is
Cantonese.
enrique
John Kuo Wei Tchen wrote:
> Robert Shaffer finishes his recent note on "Snow" with a critical issue
> that vexes Asian Americanists regarding popular representations of the
> Asian American experience. Yes, it has to do with the politics of race and
> gender and sexuality. Does the protagonist in a more popular film, as
> Hollywood argues, have to be a white (usually male) lead? And isn't it
> easier for most U.S. Americans to accept exotic/erotic Asian women when a
> film is meant to be sympathetic to Asian Americans or Asians. Countless
> films attest to such a position: "Big Trouble in Little China," "The Year
> of the Dragon," "Red Corner" w/Richard Gere, or even "The Joy Luck Club"
> directed by Asian American filmmaker Wayne Wang. Films, novels, and
> history pulled apart and analyzed as constructed narrative strategies seems
> to work well with media savvy students. Or, conversely, when films are
> about the danger and threat of Asian Americans or Asians stern, inscrutable
> Asian males are foregrounded, such as Crichton's novel turned Kaufman film,
> "The Rising Sun."
>
> I'm also always mindful of the sensitivities about talking about
> racialization, especially in multi-ethnic/racial classrooms. Many students
> are very aware of what is considered "p.c." (I hate this term!) and
> hesitate to speak out. That can create a terribly lopsided dynamic in the
> classroom. What have your experiences been? What have been your classroom
> strategies to create an open exchange of experiences and ideas? Have you
> been successful in rescuing confrontational situations? Making
> distinctions between institutional racism/sexism, etc. and interpersonal
> offenses?
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
> A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
> New York University
> 269 Mercer Street #609
> New York, New York 10003
> Phone: 212/998-3695
> Fax: 212/995-4705
> www.apa.nyu.edu
>
> Please note email address change: Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
--
-----------------------------------------------------
Click here for Free Video!!
http://www.gohip.com/freevideo/
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 20:27:03 -0400
Reply-To: ronrico@attglobal.net
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: ronrico@ATTGLOBAL.NET
Subject: Re: Anyone using "Snow Falling on Cedars"??
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Man,
I have two MA. One is from NYU's School of Education. Although Mr. M. L.Gross in
his The Conspiracy of Ignorance does not think much of Schools of Education, I
think I received a good education. Any openings!
enrique
Patricia Hart wrote:
> I am teaching a 300-level American Studies course with the theme
> Migrations/Relocations this semester. Regarding Japanese relocation, I've
> used Takaki's A History of Multicultural America as a core text,
> supplementing with the documentary film by Lisa Yasui, A Family Gathering,
> and John Okada's No-No Boy (U.Wash), all Northwest sources. I was lucky
> that the University of Idaho, where I teach, is bringing in Snow Falling
> on Cedars as a diversity film, and so it will be shown free to students on
> campus. I have enough interest in the topic generally that a panel of
> final presentations is forming around the topic, with one focusing on the
> Minidoka camp in southern Idaho. The students and I have found the variety
> of sources to be reinforcing with regard to content, and provide
> sufficiently different perspectives to prompt new/additional
> questions. Patricia Hart
>
> On Tue, 18 Apr 2000, John Kuo Wei Tchen wrote:
>
> > Robert Shaffer's comment on Uchida's Desert Exile is quite valuable. I was
> > curious if people have used the recent popularity of Snow Falling on Cedars
> > (both the novel and less popular film starring Ethan Hawke) as an entry
> > point into the camp experience?
> >
> > Jack Tchen
> >
> > Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
> > A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
> > New York University
> > 269 Mercer Street #609
> > New York, New York 10003
> > 212.998.3700
> > 212.995.4705 (fax)
> > www.apa.nyu.edu
> >
> > Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
> >
--
-----------------------------------------------------
Click here for Free Video!!
http://www.gohip.com/freevideo/
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 20:29:00 -0400
Reply-To: ronrico@attglobal.net
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: ronrico@ATTGLOBAL.NET
Subject: Re: oral history ideas
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Second coming of American Apartheid. The first, reservations. Chinese the
second group to experience American slavery.
enrique
Robert Shaffer wrote:
> In response to John Tchen's post from April 12 on oral history resources
> on Asian American history, let me suggest a memoir (not an oral history
> per se) that I have just discussed with students in my college-level U.S.
> Immigration and Ethnicity class (which includes, but does not focus on,
> Asian Americans): Yoshiko Uchida's _Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a
> Japanese-American Family_ (1982), available in paperback from University
> of Washington Press. Uchida grew up in a middle-class, Christian Japanese
> American home in Berkeley, and was attending the University of California
> at Berkeley when World War II broke out. She describes in poignant terms
> the experience at the Tanforan assembly center and at the Topaz (Utah)
> concentration camp. What is most impressive to me as a teacher about
> ethnicity is her careful attention to the mix of her family's
> Japanese-ness and American-ness, to use less than grammatically correct
> terminology. I have been exploring with my students all semester the need
> for a more sophisticated understanding of the "Americanization" of
> immigrant groups than the simplistic phrases "assimilation" and
> "Americanization" afford, and Uchida's memoir helps students see this very
> dramatically. (And in a class which has taken as its theme the tension
> between Oscar Handlin's use of the phrase "the uprooted" to describe
> immigrant life and John Bodnar's counter-phrase of "the transplanted,"
> students can easily see that Uchida's use of that term in her subtitle is
> very different from Handlin's, in that it is the U.S. government here that
> is doing the uprooting, not the immigration experience itself. Students
> can follow the idea that Japanese Americans created a "transplanted" and
> somewhat transformed Japanese-American culture and community here by the
> 1930s.)
> I use the whole book as the basis for a week's discussion in a
> college class (along with a few supplementary articles on the internment),
> but the book is easy enough for high school students to read as well.
> Teachers can easily find excerpts for presentation to classes, or assign
> different chapters to different students, or just use it as background
> reading to provide anecdotes for a presentation on the human effects and
> costs of the internment.
> By the way, I find _Desert Exile_ far superior to _Farewell to
> Manzanar_, mainly because the author of the latter book, Jeanne Wakatsuki
> Houston, was still a young child while she was in the camp, and her
> observations of camp life are less sophisticated. On the other hand, some
> may prefer _Farewell to Manzanar_ because the family there is more typical
> of Japanese Americans in terms of class position and educational
> background than the Uchida family. For my students, I point out how the
> Uchidas represent a minority (though a significant minority) of Japanese
> americans in terms of class, religion, and educational background.
--
-----------------------------------------------------
Click here for Free Video!!
http://www.gohip.com/freevideo/
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 05:53:41 -0700
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Gayle Olson-Raymer
Subject: Re: Anyone using "Snow Falling on Cedars"??
In-Reply-To:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
In regard to Patricia Hart's response, I have not used "Snow Falling on
Cedars," but have used Lisa Yasui's excellent film, "A Family Gathering"
after my students have read "Stubborn Twig" by Lauren Kessler. Kessler's
book is the story of the Yasui family's experience in Oregon from the late
1800s to the 1970s. I use both these sources in my upper division,
University level history course entitled "Historical concepts in American
History." In this class, we take four weeks to discuss immigration during
which we highlight the Japanese American experience. Both the book and the
movie have been well received, and I have assigned "Snow" for extra credit.
So far, students have been lukewarm on the movie and book and feel that
"Subborn Twig" is far better. Gayle Olson-Raymer, Humboldt State University
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 09:38:25 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: "Margaret M. Manchester"
Subject: Snow Falling on Cedars
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I have used Guterson's novel several times in an AMS course on War and the
American Family. Students also read some oral histories, some secondary
sources such as Matsumoto's essay on Japanese American women and the camp
experience and Daniels' essay on the incarceration of Japanese Americans.I
also provided links to some wonderful websites (the Manzanar slide shows
are particularly compelling). Students were required to use all of these
sources to evaluate the historical accuracy of the novel. It has worked
really well--students have truly enjoyed the novel. From my point of view,
the novel has been a great teaching tool, generating great discussions and
thoughtful essays.
Margaret M. Manchester, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History/
Director, American Studies Program
Providence College
Phillips Memorial Library 316
Providence, RI 02918
email: mmanch@providence.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 12:40:48 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Randy Kaplan
Subject: Japanese American Internment Experience Resources
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Hello, Professor Tchen,
>
>I teach Asian and Asian American theatre and drama at SUNY-Geneseo. Since
>I am in a School of Performing Arts, I don't have much occasion to utilize
>films and novels (though I thought the silent scene in which the Japanese
>American population was marched out to the boats in SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS
>was stunning -- visually and aurally -- and a play would be hard pressed to
>reproduced those effects given the limitations of live theatre), I rely a
>lot upon Japanese American internent plays like Wakako Yamauchi's 12-1-A,
>and other works like Lane Nishikawa's GILA RIVER and Philip Kan Gotanda's
>SISTERS MATSUMOTO (both unpublished). Having students take the roles in
>class, whether they can act or not, has proven incredibly valuable. In the
>context of other Asian American historical issues, we have David Henry
>Hwang's THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD and Elizabeth Wong's LETTERS TO A
>STUDENT REVOLUTIONARY. Harder works,less comfortable, shall we say, works
>like Rob Shinn's THE ART OF WAITING and Elizabeth's KIM CHEE AND CHITLINS
>examine cross racial conflicts between Korean Americans and African
>Americans.
>
>Using Asian American drama is often not considered as an option, maybe
>because people lack theatre experience. But there are now five
>multi-author anthologies published with more on the way plus single
>scripts. The possibilities are endless!
>
>I also use internment plays and other plays by Asian American authors even
>for acting and directing classes in which I have no Asian American
>students. It forces students who would otherwise avoid Asian American
>history to confront it, both in terms of the research process and in terms
>of rendering it as live theatre.
>
>Randy Barbara Kaplan
>
>p.s. Just by way of an "FYI": We have started a new Asian American
>Playreading Series here at Geneseo this semester which the students have
>christened GENseng. Each semester we produce a staged reading of an Asian
>American script, cast race-specifically, as the authors intend. Last
>semester, we produced Ralph Pena's FLIPZOIDS; next week, the curtain goes
>up on Kitty Chen's EATING CHICKEN FEET and Diana Son's R.A.W., 'CAUSE I'M A
>WOMAN. My goal is to develop Asian American student directors and actors.
>All too often, students of color view performing arts departments as places
>in which they are not welcome, by virtue of their race or ethnicity. If
>all goes according to plan, our first Asian American student director, a
>young woman of South Asian Indian descent, will make her directing debut
>next year with an Indian American script still to be determined!
>Eventually I hope to see her direct all manner of plays in addition to
>those written by Asian American dramatists.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 12:54:32 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Randy Kaplan
Subject: Re: "Snow Falling on Cedars" & Hollywood
In-Reply-To:
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Dear Colleagues,
Regarding Professor Tchen's letter, I can use all the help I can get!
Geneseo is a predominantly Caucasian campus, although Asian American
constitute the largest non-white "minority" and of those, Chinese Americans
constitute the largest percentage.
I am currently teaching 12 Caucasian, Christian students in American
Theatre History. We are looking at the African American theatre experience
this week, though Asian American is coming up next.
No one wants to say anything. They believe that everybody is the same (and
when they look around, that's exactly what they see). We don't have
confrontational experiences, we have silent ones!
I'd love to hear what folks on this listserve are doing in this area with
this issue.
Racial and sexual stereotypes in film aside: There is another angle to
this issue, worth exchanging ideas about, I think, which has to do with
implications, intended or not, in non-traditional casting. Given the
history of film and theatre in our country, is it ever possible to cast an
Asian American woman as the love interest in a play opposite a Caucasian
man - and I'm not talking about a variation on MISS SAIGON, let's say, for
argument's sake, it's ROMEO AND JULIET. Can an Asian American man play an
evil character, say, Richard III, without the history of Fu Manchu and
RISING SUN intruding? Does our Asian American Juliet automatically become
the sexually objectified Asian woman by virtue of her race unless an Asian
American Romeo is cast opposite her? If she is cast as Lady Macbeth, will
audiences conditioned to seeing Rita Repulsa and evil Asian women
automatically lay that history on top our Asian American Lady Macbeth? I
hear arguments about this from students all the time, but I'd be interested
in hearing responses from educators, too.
Thanks,
Randy Barbara Kaplan
>Robert Shaffer finishes his recent note on "Snow" with a critical issue
>that vexes Asian Americanists regarding popular representations of the
>Asian American experience. Yes, it has to do with the politics of race and
>gender and sexuality. Does the protagonist in a more popular film, as
>Hollywood argues, have to be a white (usually male) lead? And isn't it
>easier for most U.S. Americans to accept exotic/erotic Asian women when a
>film is meant to be sympathetic to Asian Americans or Asians. Countless
>films attest to such a position: "Big Trouble in Little China," "The Year
>of the Dragon," "Red Corner" w/Richard Gere, or even "The Joy Luck Club"
>directed by Asian American filmmaker Wayne Wang. Films, novels, and
>history pulled apart and analyzed as constructed narrative strategies seems
>to work well with media savvy students. Or, conversely, when films are
>about the danger and threat of Asian Americans or Asians stern, inscrutable
>Asian males are foregrounded, such as Crichton's novel turned Kaufman film,
>"The Rising Sun."
>
>I'm also always mindful of the sensitivities about talking about
>racialization, especially in multi-ethnic/racial classrooms. Many students
>are very aware of what is considered "p.c." (I hate this term!) and
>hesitate to speak out. That can create a terribly lopsided dynamic in the
>classroom. What have your experiences been? What have been your classroom
>strategies to create an open exchange of experiences and ideas? Have you
>been successful in rescuing confrontational situations? Making
>distinctions between institutional racism/sexism, etc. and interpersonal
>offenses?
>
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
>A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
>New York University
>269 Mercer Street #609
>New York, New York 10003
>Phone: 212/998-3695
>Fax: 212/995-4705
>www.apa.nyu.edu
>
>Please note email address change: Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 08:34:34 -0600
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: April Schultz
Subject: Materials
In-Reply-To:
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Hi, I teach in the history department at Illinois Wesleyan University where
I teach both the survey and an immigration history course. In the survey,
I've used the documentary, "A Family Gathering", about a very successful
Northwest Japanese-American family whose father is arrested after Pearl
Harbor. The rest of the family is soon taken to internment camps. It is a
stunning documentary --actually a memoir of the documetarist (is that a
word?). My usually bored, Midwestern students, sit stunned at the end.
I'd recommend it. After reading the posts on the list, I think I'll order
"Desert Exile" for the fall as well.
In the immigration history class, I've shown the film, "Double Happiness",
and the documentary, "My America: Honk if You Love Buddha". Both
demonstrate very effectively, humorously, and movingly the contradictions
and ethnic and racial identity for second-generation Asian Americans. have
any of you used these films? How do you like them?
I'm thinking of ordering the book, "Of Orphans and Warriors". I don't have
it here with me and can't remember the author. But if anyone is familiar
with it, I'd appreciate any comments about its effectiveness for
undergraduates.
April Schultz
April Schultz
Associate Professor, History
Illinois Wesleyan University
Bloomington, IL 61702
309-556-3414
aschultz@titan.iwu.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 10:06:12 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Randy Kaplan
Subject: Video Resources
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Dear All,
Not all of these do not refer to the immigrant experience, but you might be
interested in them anyway.
Lane Nishikawa, who is a sansei actor, director, and performance poet, has
written a wonderful play called GATE OF HEAVEN, which is about a nisei
soldier who liberates Dachau concentration camp and meets a Jewish survivor
with whom he becomes close friends for all their lives. The play is
published in Brian Nelson, ed., ASIAN AMERICAN THEATRE: NINE PLAYS FROM
THE MULTICULTURAL LANDSCAPE, which also has Rob Shinn's THE ART OF WAITING,
a searing comedy about racism. Anyway, Lane is in the process of making
his play into a film which he has called WHEN WE WERE WARRIORS. It might
be available for purchase, at least Part I. I have seen it, it is lovely.
If you are interested in it, write to me. I am going to see Lane this
weekend when he performs at Cornell University (anybody reading this within
driving distance of Cornell, Lane will perform I'M ON A MISSION FROM
BUDDHA, his one-man show about stereotyping Asian American men, at 8 p.m.
in the Film Forum, Department of Theatre, Cornell, IT IS A MUST-SEE.) When
I talk to Lane, I'll ask him if I can distribute his phone number -- he
doesn't have e-mail. He is also available to come to universities and
talk, perform, workshop. We have hosted him twice at SUNY-Geneseo, both
times with incredible success.
Other videos you might be interested in are by Philip Kan Gotanda, who is
considered to be a major Asian American playwright. I will speak with Phil
and give him this listserve address, maybe he has something he can mail out
to all of you. Students love his work and respond well to it.
Randy Barbara Kaplan
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 11:59:49 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Tracey Weis
Subject: Comparative Diasporas
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
Hello,
I teach US History at Millersville University (MU) and also coordinate the
MU New Media Classroom Regional Center. The recent discussion on the list
about various media resources prompts me to alert you to another resource
for teaching Asian-American history and culture: an NEH-funded
faculty/curriculum development program aimed at helping educators
incorporate new media resources into their teaching and/or interpetation. I
have pasted in some more information about the workshop below and would
welcome applicants from forum subscribers.
If you have any questions about the workshop, please do not hesitate to
contact me. Thank you.
Tracey Weis
****************************************************************************
***********************************
2000 New Media Classroom
Summer Institute
"Comparative Diasporas"
at
Millersville University
June 25-30, 2000
The American Social History Project (CUNY) and the American Studies
Association's Crossroads Project announce that the Millersville University
(MU) will, for a third consecutive year, host one of the regional summer
seminars funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Located in
Lancaster County, PA, the New Media Classroom Regional Center at
Millersville University is dedicated to bringing educators together to
systematically investigate and implement the effective incorporation of
print and electronic media in various teaching and learning environments.
The 2000-2001 MU-NMC summer institute, organized around the theme of
"Comparative Diasporas," will build on the previous MU-NMC summer
institutes' thematic emphasis on the centrality of migration. It will expand
the existing MU-NMC network of educators from diverse sites (schools,
colleges and universities, community centers, museums, historic sites, and
other historical and cultural institutions) to include participants from the
2000-2001 institute program.
The program at Millersville includes a five-day summer institute (Sunday,
June 25 through Friday June 30, 2000), a yearlong on-line seminar, and
follow-up meetings focusing on the successful implementation of new media
based instruction and interpretation. Working to enhance investigation and
interpretation at their own sites, institute participants will explore
relevant print and electronic resources that will enable them to elaborate
connections between local histories, national histories, and world or global
histories. Drawing on digital archives and museum exhibits, educators from
diverse institutions will collaborate to develop instructional and
interpretive activities and programs geared to the particularities of their
own settings.
The summer seminar will enable participating educators to: a) promote the
ability of students and other learners to construct knowledge and make
connections in multi-media, text, images and sound; b) explore a range of
new humanities resources available on CD-ROM and the World Wide Web; c)
integrate technology into individual courses, school curricula, and public
interpretive programs; d) work with scholars and educators who have
pioneered in developing new media applications; and e) build an ever-
widening community of educators committed to exploring what it means to
learn, teach, and interpret in technology-enhanced sites. Returning to their
institutions for the 2000-2001 school year, participating faculty will test
the strategies they developed during the summer institute while continuing a
seminar dialogue on-line. By the end of the institute, we anticipate
participants leaving with tangible products:
* Web-based and CD-ROM activities that they have developed
* Approaches for using e-mail, listservs and/or educational software
to facilitate writing and inquiry across the curriculum
* Skills in web-authoring and searching as tools for the construction
of knowledge
* Lists of resources, electronic archives, Web sites, educational
software, etc
* Strategies for increasing access to computer hardware and software
* Plans for widening the circle and promoting the New Media Classroom
at their institution/site
* An ongoing network of new media practitioners who, meeting both
electronically and sometimes face-to-face, will (1) sum-up a growing body of
experience, (2) problem-solve, and (3) build support systems.
We invite applications from educators at high schools, colleges,
universities, community centers, historical sites and organizations.
Applications submitted by Friday, April 21, 2000 will receive first
priority, but applications submitted after that date will also be
considered. Applicants should have a background in one of the following: 1)
teaching US or World history courses, interdisciplinary humanities/social
sciences courses, or ESL courses; 2) developing curricula, programs and/or
exhibits for museums, historic sites or other historical and cultural
organizations. Applicants can apply as individuals or a team (two to four
persons) from their institution. Access to and some rudimentary facility
with the Internet is a minimal requirement for participation; application
forms are available on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.millersville.edu/~tweis/2000.html
However, high-level technological skills and extensive use of new media in
interpretation are NOT (repeat: not) requirements for application.
Instructional and interpretive goals will drive the use of technology in the
institute, not vice versa. Graduate credit (3.0) is available through
Millersville University.
For more information, contact Tracey Weis.
Tracey Weis
MU New Media Classroom Regional Center
Department of History
Millersville University
P.O. Box 1002
Millersville, PA 17551
717/871-2025 (phone)
717/871-2485 (fax)
Tracey.Weis@millersv.edu
Visit the Summer Program website at http://www.millersv.edu/~newmedia/
> ----------
> From: April Schultz
> Reply To: Forum on Asian American History
> Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 10:34 AM
> To: ASIANAMERICANFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: Materials
>
> Hi, I teach in the history department at Illinois Wesleyan University
> where
> I teach both the survey and an immigration history course. In the survey,
> I've used the documentary, "A Family Gathering", about a very successful
> Northwest Japanese-American family whose father is arrested after Pearl
> Harbor. The rest of the family is soon taken to internment camps. It is
> a
> stunning documentary --actually a memoir of the documetarist (is that a
> word?). My usually bored, Midwestern students, sit stunned at the end.
> I'd recommend it. After reading the posts on the list, I think I'll order
> "Desert Exile" for the fall as well.
>
> In the immigration history class, I've shown the film, "Double Happiness",
> and the documentary, "My America: Honk if You Love Buddha". Both
> demonstrate very effectively, humorously, and movingly the contradictions
> and ethnic and racial identity for second-generation Asian Americans.
> have
> any of you used these films? How do you like them?
>
> I'm thinking of ordering the book, "Of Orphans and Warriors". I don't
> have
> it here with me and can't remember the author. But if anyone is familiar
> with it, I'd appreciate any comments about its effectiveness for
> undergraduates.
>
> April Schultz
>
> April Schultz
> Associate Professor, History
> Illinois Wesleyan University
> Bloomington, IL 61702
> 309-556-3414
> aschultz@titan.iwu.edu
>
>
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 22:13:58 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Becky Berk
Subject: Re: Snow Falling on Cedars
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hi professor,
I teach in a high school not so far from your neck of the woods. I have a
student compiling a research paper on the Japanese experiences in the camps.
Would you please send a bit more detail on the Matsumoto essay so that he can
track it down. Are there some other sources you would recommend? Thank you.
Bruce Berk
Derryfield School
Manchester, NH
"Margaret M. Manchester" wrote:
> I have used Guterson's novel several times in an AMS course on War and the
> American Family. Students also read some oral histories, some secondary
> sources such as Matsumoto's essay on Japanese American women and the camp
> experience and Daniels' essay on the incarceration of Japanese Americans.I
> also provided links to some wonderful websites (the Manzanar slide shows
> are particularly compelling). Students were required to use all of these
> sources to evaluate the historical accuracy of the novel. It has worked
> really well--students have truly enjoyed the novel. From my point of view,
> the novel has been a great teaching tool, generating great discussions and
> thoughtful essays.
> Margaret M. Manchester, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of History/
> Director, American Studies Program
> Providence College
> Phillips Memorial Library 316
> Providence, RI 02918
> email: mmanch@providence.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 10:43:56 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Robert Shaffer
Subject: Re: Snow Falling on Cedars
In-Reply-To: <38FFB965.FAD7CEA7@mediaone.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
I am not the professor to whom Bruce Berk refers, but the Valerie
Matsumoto essay mentioned undoubtedly is "Japanese American Women during
World War II," which was originally published in the journal _Frontiers_
vol 8 (1984), but which is probably more conveniently found in _Unequal
Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History_, ed. by Ellen
Carol DuBois and Vicki Ruiz, published by Routledge. There are two
editions of the DuBois-Ruiz collection, the first published in 1990, and
the Matsumoto article is in both of these editions. It is a useful
article, but (in my opinion) no more so than any number of other books or
articles. Other recent works that may be useful to Bruce Berk's student
might be Gary Okihiro's _Whispered Silences_ (University of Washington
Press), which combines photographs, primary source excerpts, and
commentary, and Sandra Taylor's in-depth study of the Topaz camp in Utah,
entitled _Jewel of the Desert_. (The latter book has been criticized in
some reviews for some of its terminology and other things, but as an
in-depth study of one camp, I think it is useful.)
-- Robert Shaffer
History Department
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
On Thu, 20 Apr 2000, Becky Berk wrote:
> Hi professor,
>
> I teach in a high school not so far from your neck of the woods. I have a
> student compiling a research paper on the Japanese experiences in the camps.
> Would you please send a bit more detail on the Matsumoto essay so that he can
> track it down. Are there some other sources you would recommend? Thank you.
>
> Bruce Berk
> Derryfield School
> Manchester, NH
>
> "Margaret M. Manchester" wrote:
>
> > I have used Guterson's novel several times in an AMS course on War and the
> > American Family. Students also read some oral histories, some secondary
> > sources such as Matsumoto's essay on Japanese American women and the camp
> > experience and Daniels' essay on the incarceration of Japanese Americans.I
> > also provided links to some wonderful websites (the Manzanar slide shows
> > are particularly compelling). Students were required to use all of these
> > sources to evaluate the historical accuracy of the novel. It has worked
> > really well--students have truly enjoyed the novel. From my point of view,
> > the novel has been a great teaching tool, generating great discussions and
> > thoughtful essays.
> > Margaret M. Manchester, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor of History/
> > Director, American Studies Program
> > Providence College
> > Phillips Memorial Library 316
> > Providence, RI 02918
> > email: mmanch@providence.edu
>
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 08:50:22 -0700
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Patricia Hart
Subject: Re: Snow Falling on Cedars
In-Reply-To:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies is now published under the editorship
of Sue Armitage at Washington State University. Should you have any trouble
finding this article where you teach, please give us a call at 509-335-7268
or email at frontier@wsu.edu--we can give permission to copy for classroom
use over the phone and are happy to do so. Patricia Hart, Managing Editor
At 10:43 AM 4/21/00 -0400, you wrote:
>I am not the professor to whom Bruce Berk refers, but the Valerie
>Matsumoto essay mentioned undoubtedly is "Japanese American Women during
>World War II," which was originally published in the journal _Frontiers_
>vol 8 (1984), but which is probably more conveniently found in _Unequal
>Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History_, ed. by Ellen
>Carol DuBois and Vicki Ruiz, published by Routledge. There are two
>editions of the DuBois-Ruiz collection, the first published in 1990, and
>the Matsumoto article is in both of these editions. It is a useful
>article, but (in my opinion) no more so than any number of other books or
>articles. Other recent works that may be useful to Bruce Berk's student
>might be Gary Okihiro's _Whispered Silences_ (University of Washington
>Press), which combines photographs, primary source excerpts, and
>commentary, and Sandra Taylor's in-depth study of the Topaz camp in Utah,
>entitled _Jewel of the Desert_. (The latter book has been criticized in
>some reviews for some of its terminology and other things, but as an
>in-depth study of one camp, I think it is useful.)
>
>-- Robert Shaffer
>History Department
>Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
>
>On Thu, 20 Apr 2000, Becky Berk wrote:
>
>> Hi professor,
>>
>> I teach in a high school not so far from your neck of the woods. I have a
>> student compiling a research paper on the Japanese experiences in the
camps.
>> Would you please send a bit more detail on the Matsumoto essay so that
he can
>> track it down. Are there some other sources you would recommend? Thank
you.
>>
>> Bruce Berk
>> Derryfield School
>> Manchester, NH
>>
>> "Margaret M. Manchester" wrote:
>>
>> > I have used Guterson's novel several times in an AMS course on War and
the
>> > American Family. Students also read some oral histories, some secondary
>> > sources such as Matsumoto's essay on Japanese American women and the camp
>> > experience and Daniels' essay on the incarceration of Japanese
Americans.I
>> > also provided links to some wonderful websites (the Manzanar slide shows
>> > are particularly compelling). Students were required to use all of these
>> > sources to evaluate the historical accuracy of the novel. It has worked
>> > really well--students have truly enjoyed the novel. From my point of
view,
>> > the novel has been a great teaching tool, generating great discussions
and
>> > thoughtful essays.
>> > Margaret M. Manchester, Ph.D.
>> > Assistant Professor of History/
>> > Director, American Studies Program
>> > Providence College
>> > Phillips Memorial Library 316
>> > Providence, RI 02918
>> > email: mmanch@providence.edu
>>
>
>
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 01:22:21 -0700
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: "Jeffrey A. Ow"
Subject: Teaching Japanese American Internment
In-Reply-To:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
How I recently facilitated a discussion on Japanese Internment for an intro
to AAS at UC Berkeley was with the use of various collections of published
photographs, namely Ansel Adams, "Manzanar," Mieth and Hagel's photos, "The
Heart Mountain Story," and the Conrat's collection of Lange photos,
"Executive Order 9066."
Playing an outlandish "devil's advocate," I tried to convince the students
who had already read Takaki's _Strangers_ , watched documentaries about
Internment, listened to guest lectures on Japanese Peruvian redress, that
internment wasn't all that terrible by showing them all the artful b/w
photos of smiling people and spacious barracks. Tho one student critically
pointed out, "This is a cheap way to get us talking," this exercise enabled
the students to think about Japanese internment on various complex levels:
the subjectivity of photography, public relations and media manipulation,
the sanitization of Asian American.
The students noted that the first two photograph collections do not show
guard towers or military personnel with rifles, show patriotic 442nd
veterans, but no discussion of camp resistance and No-no boys. As some of
these photographs were used in Time/Life magazines, we then had a
discussion about hegemonic forces, how the military and the media started
pushing this other view of internment to convince the general public that
everything was just fine in the camps.
Although my class is EXCLUSIVELY Asian American (tho I wish there was more
diversity!), I think this way of presenting internment moves away from the
discourse of shocking photos of angry white folks with signs "Jap go home"
where white students may feel that they are to racially identify with these
people, to one that looks at how government and media "spin doctors" are
able to sway public opinion.
HOWEVER, I do have a question that keeps me up at night. After
acknowledging a lot of the "bad things" that have occurred in the US to
Asians, students will respond in journals, "But still, America is the best
country in the world because...[fill in the blank]," and I find myself at a
loss how to respond, especially when watching the daily news. How can one
get students to break out of this uncritical "American nationalism?"
Jeff
**************************************************************
Jeffrey A. Ow
Comparative Ethnic Studies
506 Barrows Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-2570
jeffow@ocf.berkeley.edu, jeffow@uclink4.berkeley.edu
**************************************************************
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 07:49:49 -0700
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Gayle Olson-Raymer
Subject: Re: New Resources???
In-Reply-To:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Dear Fellow Subscribers - I have introduced myself in previous
correspondence as a history professor at Humboldt State University in
Northern California. I will be teaching an upper division course next
semester in which I will spend four weeks discussing immigration issues and
I plan to focus primarily on Asian Americans. I currently plan to use
"Stubborn Twig" as my historical required reading - although I am reading
several of the books suggested in the course of this excellent dialog to
see if I should consider replacing Kessler's book. I am also looking for a
more contemporary book dealing with immigration issues among the Hmong in
America. Since this four-week unit will begin with the colonial era and
continue to the present, I would like my students to read something that
really grabs them in terms of current issues for groups about whom they
know very little. Any suggestions?
Also, I have a student who plans to graduate next year and is really
interested in going on to graduate school - probably first for an MA and
possibly for a Ph.D. He wants to focus on Asian History, or maybe even
Asian American history. Any suggestions for good graduate programs?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Gayle Olson-Raymer, Ph.D.
Dept. of History, Humboldt State University
(707) 826-4788
go1@axe.humboldt.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 13:31:10 -0500
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: "P.D. Swiney"
Subject: Re: Teaching Japanese American Internment
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Re Jeffrey Ow's last comment-how do we get students to quit writing (or
thinking) " but America is still the best country in the world because (fill in
the blank)
I think Professor Ow has touched upon something that has concerned me for a long
time. Despite their treatment, in WWII or otherwise, minorities will still
volunteer to fight, still claim the "American" identitiy that is often denied
them, still think America is the best country in the world.
Maybe they need to. Maybe we all need to. Despite thirty five years of
revisionist history, maybe we need to reconsider a human need to love one's
country. I am not advocating the presentation of a rosy view--I think it
imperative to view ourselves warts and all. But the study of warts might be
excluding a full view of the face, and the emphasis on acknowledging "the dark
side" doesn't recognize the appeal this country still holds for its citizens.
We need to think about how to present a clear picture, and a well rounded one,
but after a most fruitful period of re-examination, we might be returning to a
reconsideration that there is still a consensus among the many groups and
experiences of American history. pds
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Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 10:26:06 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: John Kuo Wei Tchen
Subject: "The Bloodhound Gang"
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Greetings all,
I wanted to share with the listserve the lyrics of a group that is making
the college circuit.
Jack Tchen
Colleagues and friends,
Below is info and lyrics about an up and coming band "The Bloodhound
Gang" who despite racist and homophobic lyrics, they are doing well on
MTV. We are concerned about their racist lyrics. Students at University
fo Maryland have been working to raise awareness following a performance
on their campus. At this point in the band's career, they are performing
at various university and college campuses- please bring this to the
attention of those doing campus programming.
Thank you!
>Yellow Fever
>
>Are those numchucks in your pants or are you just happy to see me?
>Let me take you back to the day that I met my China girl
>When I landed a 'Pam' like on the San Fran Real World
>I was sweating like a vegetable inside of a wok
>I'd never been to Asia Minor but I was gonna Bangkok
>Like Kristy Yamaguchi I had to break the ice
>Should I talk about Mothra M*A*S*H or shrimp-fried rice?
>I was sharp as a Chinese star but it's a line I threw
>Just thirty seconds over Tokyo and this Johnny would Woo
>I took a shot like Jeanette Lee put on my moves like Bruce Lee
>I told he every Soon Yi needs a little Woody
>She said for all the tea in China my vagina's not free
>But my love will linger longer than the Ming Dynasty
>I said I needed her to do and her to do my laundry
>I knew she needed a way to stay legally within the country
>She was made in Taiwan I said I'm O.K. with that
>Just promise me you'll never try to eat my cat
>Chinky chinky bang bang I love you
>Chinky chinky bang bang I know you love me too
>In Japan the hand is used as a knife
>In Japan a man's wife's hand job than can cost him his life
>But now this Captain Kirk has his own Sulu
>I'll shampoo her Foo Man Chu with Lo Hung Wang Goo
>Cause I ride my slant-eyed slope like a brand new Kawasaki
>Oh me chinky she's so kinky got me hot like Nagasaki
>Burnin' up like Napalm burstin' like an A-bomb
>I think I got that jungle fever but I caught it in 'Nam
>She's like an oriental rug cause I lay her where I please
>Then I blindfold her with dental floss and get down on her knees
>I'm a diving Kamikaze eating out Chinese
>First I'll have the poo-poo platter than some tuna sushi
>She'll be screaming like Godzilla and kickin' like Jackie Chan
>I'll get her redder than China wetter than the Sea of Japan
>Like the Chinese New Year she's gonna see fireworks
>Now be a good chinky and press Jimmy's shirts
>Chinky chinky bang bang I love you
>Chinky chinky bang bang I know you love me too
>Sing chinky sing
>One more time
>Chinky chinky bang bang I love you
>Chinky chinky bang bang I know you love me too
>Chinky chinky bang bang chinky bang
>Chinky chinky bang biddily biddily biddily bang
>
>
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
New York University
269 Mercer Street #609
New York, New York 10003
Phone: 212/998-3695
Fax: 212/995-4705
www.apa.nyu.edu
Please note email address change: Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
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Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 10:54:28 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: John Kuo Wei Tchen
Subject: cross cultural clashes///Southeast Asian books/videos
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One of the best books I've come across illustrating cross-cultural clashes
has been journalist Anne Fadiman's "When the Spirit Catches You and You
Fall Down." It chronicles the experiences of a Hmong family in Merced,
California and their daughter born of epilepsy. She is caught between two
cultures, the Hmong world in which she is viewed as having a special place
in the community and a potential future healer and, of course, U.S.-Western
centered medical practices which have a set of pre-established universal
protocols on how to diagnose and medicate people in such conditions.
Fadiman manages to represent all parties involved in a complex,
multifaceted, and conflicted way which is quite remarkable. I've used
chapters of the book in class and have found it very useful to spark
complex and insightful discussions, especially among immigrant students.
I must also mention the remarkable work of Bay area-based videomaker
Spencer Nakasato. He's work with Southeast Asian youth for the past decade
or so and given them camcorders for long periods of time in which they
basically document their own lives. Two have come out for general release,
"a.k.a. Don Bonus" and "Kelley Loves Tony." One gets very moving insights
into their worlds and dilemmas. Bonus is Cambodian and Kelley and Tony are
Lu Mien. Both have been aired on PBS and are available via the National
Asian American Telecommunications Assoc. (NAATA) in S.F. These films can be
teamed up with oral histories and essays contextualizing the wars in
Southeast Asia which established "refugee" status immigration policies.
I'm interested in anyone who has used these materials or have suggestions
of complementary materials to use with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
A/P/A Studies Program & Institute
New York University
269 Mercer Street #609
New York, New York 10003
Phone: 212/998-3695
Fax: 212/995-4705
www.apa.nyu.edu
Please note email address change: Jack.Tchen@nyu.edu
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Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 11:07:12 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Randy Kaplan
Subject: Re: CROSS CULTURAL CLASHES
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Colleagues,
See also Rob Shinn's play THE ART OF WAITING about
African-American/Korean/Asian American clashes in Brian Nelson, ed., ASIAN
AMERICAN THEATRE: NINE PLAYS FROM THE MULTICULTURAL LANDSCAPE,
and
Elizabeth Wong's play KIM CHEE AND CHITLINS, about the
African-American/Korean conflicts in NYC in Roberta Uno., ed., UNBROKEN
THREAD: PLAYS BY ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN.
Randy Kaplan
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Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 11:11:19 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Randy Kaplan
Subject: Re: Lane Nishikawa's WHEN WE WERE WARRIORS
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Colleagues,
I've spoken with Lane Nishikawa about marketing his videotaped version of
GATE OF HEAVEN. Since he doesn't have e-mail, he prefers not to give out
his private phone number on a listserve, understandably.
He is in the process of setting up a website for the film, about a nisei
soldier and the Jewish man he liberates from Dachau. It's not operational
yet, but when it comes workable, I'll let you know. It will be
www.goforbroke.com
No word yet from Mr. Gotanda about distributing his internment play SISTERS
MATSUMOTO. I will report back to this listserve when I find out any news.
Randy Barbara Kaplan
SUNY Geneseo
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Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 11:22:59 -0400
Reply-To: Forum on Asian American History
Sender: Forum on Asian American History
From: Scott Tang
Subject: Re: Materials
Dear Prof. Schultz,
I read Of Orphans and Warriors as a dissertation. I think your students will enjoy it. Another new book you might want to consider is David Yoo's Growing Up Nisei.
In addition, I would like to recommend the film Rabbit in the Moon for your unit on the Japanese American experience during the Second World War. I think the film is very good at capturing the different Nikkei responses to wartime internment.
Sincerely,
Scott Tang
Ph.D. candidate
Department of History
University of California, Berkeley
On Thu, 20 Apr 2000 08:34:34 -0600, April Schultz wrote:
>Hi, I teach in the history department at Illinois Wesleyan University where
>I teach both the survey and an immigration history course. In the survey,
>I've used the documentary, "A Family Gathering", about a very successful
>Northwest Japanese-American family whose father is arrested after Pearl
>Harbor. The rest of the family is soon taken to internment camps. It is a
>stunning documentary --actually a memoir of the documetarist (is that a
>word?). My usually bored, Midwestern students, sit stunned at the end.
>I'd recommend it. After reading the posts on the list, I think I'll order
>"Desert Exile" for the fall as well.
>
>In the immigration history class, I've shown the film, "Double Happiness",
>and the documentary, "My America: Honk if You Love Buddha". Both
>demonstrate very effectively, humorously, and movingly the contradictions
>and ethnic and racial identity for second-generation Asian Americans. have
>any of you used these films? How do you like them?
>
>I'm thinking of ordering the book, "Of Orphans and Warriors". I don't have
>it here with me and can't remember the author. But if anyone is familiar
>with it, I'd appreciate any comments about its effectiveness for
>undergraduates.
>
>April Schultz
>
>April Schultz
>Associate Professor, History
>Illinois Wesleyan University
>Bloomington, IL 61702
>309-556-3414
>aschultz@titan.iwu.edu