Asian-American History Syllabus - Community College of Rhode

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A History of Asian Americans

Community College of Rhode Island

Summer/Fall Semester

Instructor: Dr. Jon Q. Lu

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Asian immigrants began to arrive in the United States in large numbers around the mid-nineteenth century, but Asian American history dates back to the colonial era, when the Filipinos arrived in what is now Louisiana with Spanish explorers. This course will survey Asian American history from the 1840s to the present. We will explore the changing experiences of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans within the larger context of immigration and race relations in American history. The first half of the course will focus on the experiences of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants in the U.S. from the

Gold Rush (late 1840s) to World War II. The second half of the course will move on to the great changes within the Asian American community since the 1960s: new immigration 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and changes in the lives of different groups of Asian Americans from the 1840s to the present through lectures, historical documents, first person accounts, scholarly articles and books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%)

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