A History of Asian Americans (a web-based course)
Community College of Rhode Island
Spring Semester of 2011
Instructor: Dr. Jon Q. Lu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Asian immigrants began to arrive in the United States in large numbers around the mid-nineteenth
century, though Asian American history dates back to the colonial era, when the Filipinos arrived in
what is now Louisiana with Spanish explorers. Today, about half of the people immigrating to the
United States are from Asia. Along with other immigrants, Asian Americans are transforming the face
of America. 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 see 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the 1840s to the present through lectures, historical documents, first person accounts, scholarly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 international 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.
Lon Kurashige and Alice Yang Murray, eds., Major Problems in Asian American History: Documents
and Essays (Houghton Mifflin, 2003)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
a) WORK LOAD:
-active participation in the online discussions (weekly)
-approximately 40-50 pages of readings per week
b) ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADES BREAKDOWN:
-One book report (4pg) related to the course (15%)
-An oral history project on Asian-Americans in RI and southern NE (20%)
-Mid-term exam (15%)
-Final exam (20%)
-Class attendance and participation (15%)
-Bi-weekly homework (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 assignment of this course will
be an oral history project in which you will interview an Asian American person (either immigrant or
citizen of the US) and record the oral history of the person based on a questionnaire. Afterwards, the
taped interview would be transcribed into written English by the interviewer and hand it in.
Consent Form: since this may be the first time that you and the person you are talking to have been
involved in an oral history project, please note that you will also need to get a signed permission from
your interviewee allowing you to use the information gathered in your interview for classroom and
educational purposes. Consent forms will be made available online.
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 “Major Problems”: Chapter 1 => Discussion: how to define Asian
is Asian America?
Essays by Daniels, Takaki and Hing America … an overview of AA
history in the past 150 years
Week
2:
International “Major Problems”: Chapter 2 => Discussion: history of Chinese
Context and Asian migration Documents 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8; and and Japanese migration to
to the US
essays by Chen and Takaki
Hawaii and the US mainland
Week
3:
Anti-Asian “Major Problems”: Chapter 3 => Discussion: Growing hostility
movements in the 1800s
Documents: 1-4 and 8; and essays towards Chinese and Japanese
by Chan and Iriye
migrant workers
Week 4: Asians
different shores
from “Major Problems”: Chapter 5 => Discussion: The coming of other
Documents 1, 2, 5-9; and essays by Asians: Koreans, Asian Indians
Buenaventura, Jensen and Kim
and Filipinos around 1900
Week 5: Confronting Asian “Major Problems”: Chapter 4 => Discussion: Asian immigrants
immigration exclusion
Documents 1-10; and essays by fought for their place in the land
Gyory, Wong and Ngai; “At of immigrants
America’s Gates” by Erica Lee
Week 6:
America
Orientalism
in “Major Problems” Chapter 6 => Discussion: Alienation and
Essays by Rydell and Leong
Yellow Perils in the new land
Mid-term Exam
(15%)
Week 7: Inter-ethnic tension “Major Problems”: Chapter 7 => Discussion: Inter-ethnic tension
and alliances
Documents 1-5; and essays by and alliance among Asian
Azuma and Parrenas
immigrants
Week 8: Americanization and “Major
Problems”
by Discussion:
Growing
up
the shadow of exclusion on Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 8 => American, the second generation
Documents 1-4, 6-9; and essays by
the second generation
Yung and Jurashige
Week 9: War, race and the “Major
Problems”
by
meaning of citizenship
Kurashige/Murray: Chapter 9 =>
Documents 1-5, 7-9; and essays by
Gonzalves and Murray; “Adios to
Tears” by H. Gardiner and S.
Higashide
Book Report Due
experience and dilemma
Discussion: WWII and its
impact on Asian Americans;
Japanese-American internment
experiences
(15%)
Week 10: Asian Americans “Major Problems”: Chapter 10 => Discussion: The struggle for
and the Cold War
Documents 1, 3-5, 7-9; and essays acceptance continues …
by Spickard, de Vera and Zhao
Week 11: Asian America in “Major Problems”: Chapter 11 => Discussion:
From
“Yellow
the post-1965 period: The Documents 1-2, 4-5, 7-8; and Perils” to “Model Minority” in
myth of model minority
essays by Choy and Park
America
Week 12: Coming of SE “Major Problems”: Chapter 12 = > Discussion: Boat people of
Asian refugees
Documents 1-6; and essays by Vietnam, victims of Khmer
Kelly and Freeman/Welaratna
Rouge and Hmong/Mien tribes
from Laos
Oral History Project Due in Class
(20%)
Week 13: The Life of Asian Asian American Women: the Discussion: The development of
American Women in the US
frontier reader edited by Linda a new Asian American female
Trinh Vo etc. (pages 35 = Japanese identity and representation
American Women in WWII, 312 =
Remembering the Nation through
Pageantry: Vietnamese American
Womanhood)
Week 14: Formation of new
Asian American culture and
the new identity in the late
20th century
“Major Problems”: Chapter 14 =>
Documents 1-8; and essays by
Fujikane, Shukla and Feng; Chapter
15 => Essays by Kang and
Nakashima
Week 15:
In-class presentation: oral history
interview excerpts
Final Exam
Discussion: Fighting for a new
identity and the development of
a new culture by Asian
Americans in the late 20th
century
(20%)