UN230H1S: ASIAN CANADIAN HISTORY
Spring 2014, Tuesday 10am-12pm, UC 314
Instructor: Lisa R. Mar, Associate Professor, Canadian Studies & History
Office Hours: Tuesday 2pm-4pm, or by appointment
Office: UC 150
Email: lisa.mar@utoronto.ca
Phone: 416-978-8087
Course Description
The course examines the history of Asians in Canada from the mid-1800s to the present by analyzing
their contributions to the socio-cultural, economic, and political development of Canada. It explores
how Asian Canadian history reconfigures prevailing understanding of race, migration, multiculturalism,
and national identity through intersectional, comparative, and transnational frameworks.
We will focus particularly on the personal voices of Asian Canadians as a means of understanding how
individuals made choices and interpreted their situations. Through these voices, we will explore debates
about how scholars have viewed diverse Asian Canadian experiences, and how they have positioned
these experiences as part of the making of Canada and of transnational events.
Because we will spend much time examining Asian Canadians’ stories, we will often have discussion in
class. The course has a lecture-discussion format so come prepared to read, think, write, and debate.
Objectives
Students will become able to identify diverse experiences of Asian Canadians and their connections to
the larger contexts.
Students will learn to apply concepts and approaches from history as well as a variety of social science
and humanities disciplines to interpret Asian Canadian experiences through discussion of ideas,
arguments, and evidence in class discussion, written assignments and exams.
Students will develop independent proficiency in researching and analyzing meanings of Asian Canadian
life stories, and be able to express their analysis through compelling written arguments.
Required Texts
All readings will be on Portal, the internet, and the University of Toronto Library website.
Course Lectures
This course is based around the Tuesday lectures. Lectures and in class discussions will complement and
expand upon the assigned readings, and they will be supplemented by multi-media content and
presentations by guest speakers. Assigned readings should be completed in advance of the Monday
lecture because lecture classes will include discussion and class participation activities. Materials from
the course lectures and the guest speakers will be included on the final exam.
Response Questions
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Students are expected to attend class regularly and participate in class discussions. The weekly response
questions posted on Portal are a way for you to consolidate your thinking about the readings and to
suggest directions for the essays. Be prepared to share your responses in class. Response questions will
help you prepare for In-Class Writings that may be assigned in any lecture.
Portal
This course uses Portal, which you can access at portal.utoronto.ca. All course materials, including
course syllabus, assignments, some readings and other supplementary materials will be made available
on Portal. The course instructor will frequently post materials on Portal, so students should check the
course site regularly. Emails will also be sent out through Portal; students must regularly check their
utoronto.ca email accounts.
MARKING SCHEME:
Assignment
First Essay (4 pages)
Proposal for Second Essay Topic
Class Participation and In Class
Writings (in Lecture)
Midterm Exam (take home)
Second Essay (8 pages)
Final Exam
Value
15%
10%
10%
Due Date
January 30, 2015
March 6, 2015
In lecture
15%
25%
25%
February 13, 2015
April 2, 2015
In December exam period
All written assignments except the final exam are due via on-line submission on Portal. Please note:
There is a late penalty of 5% per day (including weekend days) for late assignments and essays.
Assignments submitted on the due date, but not at the beginning of the lecture period, will be penalized
by 2%. Late assignments will not be accepted after one week without a medical
Certificate. Be sure to retain a copy of your paper and keep all your notes and drafts.
TURNITIN
Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of textual
similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will allow their essays to be
included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used solely for
the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University's use of the Turnitin.com
service are described on the Turnitin.com web site.
EMAIL POLICY
Communication with students will be through their utoronto.ca email address. Email
communications should be brief and courteous. Please do not expect an immediate reply to your email,
but every effort will be made to get back to you within 48 hours (weekends not included). In the case of
questions regarding lecture content, you are welcome to contact the course instructors directly, but
questions may be taken up in the following lecture—if you have a question, it is more than likely that
others do too. Individual attention is available during office hours or by appointment. ALL EMAIL
CORRESPONDENCE SHOULD HAVE UNI230 CLEARLY IDENTIFIED IN THE SUBJECT HEADING OR THE
EMAIL WILL NOT BE READ. Assignments will not be accepted by email or fax.
CONCERNS ABOUT GRADING
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Concerns about the grading of assignments should first be discussed the marker for your assignment in
her/his office hours. The marker may be your professor or your teaching assistant and his/her name or
initials should be on the grade you received. Questions about assignment marking and course grades
cannot be addressed effectively via email. The Faculty of Arts and Science only permits the re-marking of
assignments within ONE MONTH of the date of the assignment’s return to you.
A WARNING ABOUT PLAGIARISM
The code of academic conduct disallows the following: - ‘to represent as one’s own any idea or
expression of an idea or work of another in any academic examination or term test or in connection with
any other form of academic work, i.e. to commit plagiarism; to submit, without the knowledge and
approval of the instructor to whom it is submitted, any academic work for which credit has previously
been obtained or is being sought in another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere
The University of Toronto takes academic honesty very seriously. Suspected cases of plagiarism will be
investigated. For information on ‘How not to plagiarize’ see
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize.’
WRITING RESOURCES
University College has an excellent Writing Centre < http://www.utoronto.ca/ucwriting/> that is open to
all UC students and students enrolled in UNI courses. They provide individual instruction in intensive 50minute consultations. Appointments can be made online. The UC Writing Centre also provides a range of
other resources; see their website for more information.
ACCESSIBILITY NEEDS
Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. If you have a
disability/health consideration that may require course format accommodation, please feel free to
approach the course instructors to discuss your needs. If you require accommodations for a disability, or
have accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom or course materials, contact Accessibility
Services right away: disability.services@utoronto.ca or
http://studentlife.utoronto.ca/accessibility.
ILLNESS AND ABSENCES
Please obtain lecture notes from a classmate if you miss one or more classes and see your course
instructors if you have questions about the material that was covered during your absence. Notify your
course instructor as soon as possible if a serious illness or other concern is affecting your ability to keep
up with the course. It is also wise to contact your college registrar if you are experiencing academic and
personal difficulties.
FINAL DROP DATE
The last date to drop courses with a Y section code from your academic record without penalty is March
8, 2014.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Professor Siobhan O’Flynn graciously shared her course policy text, which has been adapted for use in
this syllabus.
SCHEDULE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
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All readings listed for a class day should be completed by the start of lecture for that day. Readings for
January 6 and January 13 should be completed by January 13. All journal articles listed on the syllabus
can be found on-line in the University of Toronto library electronic databases.
PART I: EARLY ASIAN MIGRATIONS
January 6: Introduction:
Historical Approaches to Asian Canada
Readings:
Henry Yu, “Global Migrants and the New Pacific Canada,” International Journal, Autumn 2009, vol. 64,
1011-1026. http://www.history.ubc.ca/documents/faculty/Yu_APF_essay.pdf
Erika Lee, “Orientalisms in the Americas: A Hemispheric Approach to Asian American History,” Journal of
Asian American Studies, Volume 8, Number 3, October 2005,
pp. 235-256.
January 13: Can or Should Asians Become Canadian? Imagining the “Oriental Problem” and Its
Solutions
Readings:
Henry Yu, Thinking Orientals, excerpt.
Lisa Mar, Brokering Belonging, excerpt.
Sample interviews with and about Asian Canadians in the Survey of Race Relations (1924-1927).
http://collections.stanford.edu/srr/bin/page?forward=home
Dock Yip, “Dock Yip,” in Evelyn Huang & Lawrence Jeffrey, Chinese Canadians: Voices from a Community,
1-11.
January 20: Constructing Yellow and Brown Perils of Asian Immigration, and Asian Canadians’ Reasons
for Standing their Ground
Readings:
Erika Lee, “Hemispheric Orientalism and the 1907 Pacific Coast Race Riots,” in Amerasia Journal. Vol.
33:2 (2007) 19-47 on Portal.
David Goutor, “Constructing the ‘Great Menace’ Canadian Labour’s Opposition to Asian Immigration,
1880-1914,” The Canadian Historical Review, Volume 88, Number 4, December
2007, pp. 549-576.
Sample interviews with Japanese Canadians at the Sedai Project. http://www.sedai.ca.
January 27: Making and Claiming Canada as Home, Locally and Transnationally
Readings:
Sadhu Singh Dhami, Maluka, excerpt. (an autobiographical novel)
Kamala Elizabeth Nayar, The Punjabis in British Columbia: location, labour, First Nations, and
multiculturalism, excerpt.
Peter Ward, White Canada Forever, excerpt.
PART II: TURNING POINTS: SECOND WORLD WAR & POSTWAR CREATION OF CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP
February 3: Questions of Loyalty: “Enemy” and “Allied” Asian Canadians During the Second World War
Readings:
Ken Adachi, The Enemy Who Never Was, excerpt.
Keibo Oiwa, Stone Voices, excerpt.
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Patricia E. Roy, “The Soldiers Canada Didn’t Want: Her Chinese and Japanese Citizens.” Canadian
Historical Review. Sept. 1978. 59:3. 341-358.
February 10: Cold War Model Minorities and Movements for Human Rights
Readings:
Stephanie Bangarth, “The Second World War and Canada’s Early Human Rights Movement: The Asian
Canadian Experience,” in Janet Miron, ed. A History of Human Rights: Essential Issues (Toronto:
Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2009) 61-77.
Patricia E. Roy, The Triumph of Citizenship, excerpt. Portal.
Laura Madokoro, “’Slotting’ Chinese Families and Refugees, 1947-1967,” Canadian Historical Review,
93:1, March 2012, 25-56.
**NO CLASS ON FEB. 17 DUE TO READING WEEK.**
PART III: REMAKING THE CANADIAN MOSAIC: 1960s to PRESENT
February 24 Constructing Identities in Urban Canada: The Many Faces of Chinese Canadian Experience
Readings:
Audrey Kobayashi and Valerie Preston, “Being CBC: The Ambivalent Identities and Belonging of
Canadian-Born Children of Immigrants,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 104(2)
2014, 234-242.
Vivian Poy, Passage to Promise Land: Voices of Chinese Immigrant Women to Canada, excerpt.
Lien Chao and Jim Wong-Chu, Strike the Wok: A New Chinese Canadian Anthology, excerpt.
March 3 Creating Cultural Belonging: Diaspora, Transnationalism and Cultural Choices among South
Asian Canadians
Hirji Faiza, Dreaming in Canadian: South Asian Youth, Bollywood, and Belonging, excerpt.
Purnima Sundar, “To ‘Brown It Up’ or to ‘Bring Down the Brown’: Identity and Strategy in SecondGeneration, South Asian-Canadian Youth. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work. Auguest
2008. 17:3. 251-258.
Evelyn Nodwell, “How Do You Integrate Indian Culture into Your Life?”: Second Generation Indo
Canadians and the Construction of ‘Indian Culture’ in Vancouver, Canada.” Ph.D. Dissertation. University
of British Columbia, 1993, excerpt.
March 10 Filipino Canadians: Global and Canadian Contexts of Immigrant Incorporation
Roland Sintos Coloma, Bonnie McElhinny, Ethel Tungohan, and John Paul C. Catungal, and Lisa M.
Davidson, Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility, excerpt.
Glenda Tibe Bonifacio, Pinay on the Prairies: Filipino Women and Transnational Identities, excerpt.
Habiba Zaman and Gina Tubajon, “’Globalization from Below’: Feminization of Migration, Resistance,
and Empowerment-A Case Study” Canadian Journal of Development Studies. 2001. 22. 1109-1129.
March 17 Canada as Exile, Refuge and Home: Vietnamese Canadians and Other Refugees
Louis-Jacques Dobrais, Religion and Refugee Adaptation: The Vietnamese in Montreal. Canadian Ethnic
Studies. 1989. 21:1. 19-29.
Yuen-Fong Woon, “Ethnic identity and ethnic boundaries: the Sino-Vietnamese in Victoria, British
Columbia.” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology. Nov. 1985. 22:4.
Kim Thuy, Ru. Translated by Sheila Fischman, excerpt. Portal.
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March 24 The Rise of “Asian Canadian” Activism as a Canadian and Transnational Event
The Asianadian, excerpts, Portal.
Xiaoping Li, Voices Rising: Asian Canadian Cultural Activism, excerpts, Portal.
Alexandra L. Wood, “Rebuild or Reconcile: American and Canadian Approaches to Redress for World
War II Confinement,” American Review of Canadian Studies 44:3, 347-365.
March 31 Reconfiguring Meanings of “Asian Canadian”
Nicholas Hune-Brown, “Mixie Me: A new mixed race generation is transforming the city: Will Toronto be
the world’s first post-racial metropolis?” Toronto Life. February 12, 2013.
http://www.torontolife.com/informer/features/2013/02/12/mixie-me/
Sheema Khan, Of Hockey and Hijab
: Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman, excerpt.
The Macleans “Too Asian?” Debate: read http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/too-asian/
And a response http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/11/15/jeet-heer-macleans-article-onasians-familiar-to-anti-semites-of-old/
A FINAL EXAM WILL BE HELD DURING THE SPRING EXAM PERIOD.
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