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and changes in the lives of different groups of Asian Americans from the 1840s to the present through lectures, historical documents, first person accounts, scholarly articles and books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