AAS 1100
Introduction to Asian American Studies:
Contemporary Asian America
Spring 2015
TR: 1:25-2:40pm
Course Instructor: Chrissy Lau
Email: cyl58@cornell.edu
Teaching Assistant: Mee-Ju Ro
Email: mr846@cornell.edu
Office: 427 Rockefeller Hall
Office Hours: MW 1-2pm, TR 3-4pm
Office: 427 Rockefeller Hall
Office Hours: TBA
Course Description: This course examines the historical and contemporary issues of Asian
Americans from the 1960s Civil Rights Era to the current moment of what has been deemed the
Post-Racial Era of the 21st Century. We will examine major themes such as race and class
relations, gender and family, immigration and globalization, religion and community activism. In
the first half of this course, we will learn fundamental concepts and ideas by examining major
events, including the Asian American Movement, Vincent Chin, and LA Uprisings. In the
second half of this course, we will examine contemporary moments of globalization and the
economy through a variety of topics including refugees and welfare, filial piety, and cultural
appropriation.
Learning Outcomes:
• Demonstrate knowledge of fundamental concepts and ideas in Asian American Studies.
• Use a comparative, intersectional, or relational framework to examine the experiences,
cultures, or histories of social groups within the U.S. society across historical time.
• Explicate the processes that create or fail to create just, productive, egalitarian, and
collaborative societies.
Course Breakdown:
10% Attendance and Participation
15% In-Class Pop Quizzes (Best 5 out of 6)
15% Primary Document Analysis
20% Midterm
20% Cultural Site Analysis
20% Final
Attendance and Participation (10%)
Each student is required to attend class regularly. You may miss class only if it qualifies as an
excused absence, which is a written note from your doctor concerning an illness or from
counseling/social services about a grievance. Please clear your absences with me beforehand.
Moreover, each student must show up to class on time and if you are tardy, it will count against
your attendance. Attendance is the first step to achieving a good letter grade. The next step is
participation: you are required to do the readings prior to class and actively participate in class
activities and discussion. Please take down notes, jot down some questions, and bring your voice
to class. Please silence your phones and absolutely no texting in class.
1 Films:
Activist State (26 mins)
Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1 h 27 mins)
SA-I-GU (41 mins)
Eating Welfare (58 mins)
Chain of Love (50 mins)
A Dream Apart (9 mins)
Why We Rise (13 mins)
Lost and Found (5 mins)
Yellow Apparel (33 mins)
Pop Quizzes (15%)
There will be six pop quizzes given during the semester in order to ensure that you are keeping
up with the readings for class. Each quiz is worth three percentage points and will require you to
write your name (one point automatic) and answer two questions. A total of six quizzes will be
given throughout the semester and the lowest quiz score will be dropped, scoring only five
quizzes. You will be quizzed on the readings due that day.
Primary Document Analysis (15%)
In the first half of the semester, we will be reading primary documents of the first public
narratives of the model minority. You must use the readings of this course to support your
arguments. This assignment will be evaluated on the following criteria: clarity of expression and
presentation; ability to provide a close, thoughtful, and critical reading of the document’s
contents; success in locating the document in its proper historical context; and effective linking
of document and issues to broader themes and questions in Asian American history.
Midterm Exam (20%)
An in-class midterm will take place on March 12th, 2015. The format will include ten multiple
choice (30%), five key terms (30%), and one essay (40%). You will be responsible for the
readings up until that date.
Cultural Studies Document (20%)
Analyze an element of the model minority within your family. For instance, what did playing the
piano or the violin mean to you and your family? Is your mother a tiger mother – what kind of
pressures might you feel at home? You will prepare to submit this to Ask A Model Minority
Suicide at Hyphen Magazine.
Now that you’ve learned what oriental monk and cultural appropriation is, have you noticed a
recent pop culture event or icon that resembles cultural appropriation or oriental monk? Choose
one event/icon from a film, a television show, a music video or performance. In your paper,
make the case for why this event or icon is an example of cultural appropriation or oriental
monk. You will prepare to submit this to Colorlines Magazine.
Final Exam (20%)
The in-class final exam will cover the readings from the second half of the course. Date and time
TBA. The format will include multiple choice (30%), key terms (30%), and an essay (40%).
2 A Precaution Against Plagiarism
MLA defines plagiarism as “the act of using another person’s ideas or expressions in your
writing without acknowledging the source…to plagiarize is to give the impression you have
written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from someone else.” This means
absolutely no referencing of websites or outside sources as well as paraphrasing without full
citations. If you are caught plagiarizing or party to plagiarizing, you will receive a FAIL in the
course.
Course Schedule
*Schedule and readings are subject to change
Week 1: Introductions
1/22 Introductions
Week 2: The Asian American Movement
1/27 Legacies of Race
Read: Umemoto, “On Strike!”
Tenorio, “Save the I-Hotel”
Optional watch film at home: Activist State
1/29
Gender and Sexuality
Read: Ling, “Mountain Movers”
Ordona, “Asian Lesbians”
Week 3: Model Minority
2/3
Minority Report: Japanese Americans
Read: Primary Document - “Success Story: Japanese American Style”
Lee, “Cold War Origins of Model Minority Myth
Suggested:
Kurashige, “Model Minority”
Wu, “Success Story, Japanese American Style” 2/5
Minority Report: Chinese Americans
Read: Primary Document - “Success of One Minority Group”
Wu, “Chinatown Offers Us a Lesson”
Suggested:
Cheng, “Out of Chinatown and into the Suburbs”
Week 4: Immigration and Capitalist Restructuring
2/10 1965 Immigration Act
Read: Lee, “Chinese Exclusion Example”
Luibheid, “The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act”
2/12
Globalization and Capitalist Restructuring
Read: Bonacich and Ong, “The New Asian Immigration in Los Angeles and Global
Restructuring”
3 Week 5: Vincent Chin
2/17 Detroit’s Auto Industry
In-Class Film Screening: Who Killed Vincent Chin?
Read: Zia, “Because of You Motherfuckers”
Due: Primary Document Analysis
2/19
Vincent Chin Mock Trial
Read: Darden and Thomas, “The Declining Auto Industry”
Wu, “Why Vincent Chin Matters”
Week 6: Redress Movement
2/24 February Break – No Class
2/26
Redress Movement
Read: Yamamoto, “Racial Reparations”
Week 7: LA Uprisings
3/3
Black-Korean Conflict
Read: Park, “The Use and Abuse of Race and Culture”
Zia, “Lost and Found in LA”
3/5
Cross-Racial Alliances
Read: Kim, “Racial Triangulation”
Park, “The Los Angeles Civil Unrest”
Film: SA-I-GU
Week 8: Midterm
3/10 Midterm Review
3/12
Midterm
Week 9: Post-65 Immigrants
3/17 Welfare
In-Class Film: Eating Welfare
Read: Eric Tang, “Collateral Damage”
3/19
Domestic Violence
Read: Venkataramani-Kothari, “Understanding South Asian Immigrant Women's
Experiences of Violence.”
Bhuyani, “Navigating Gender, Immigration, Domestic Violence.”
Week 10: New Immigrants
3/24 Care Chain
In-Class Film: Chain of Love
Read: Parrenas, “Asian Immigrant Women and Global Restructuring”
Interview with Katie Joaquin
4 3/26
The Undocumented
Read: Undocumented and Unafraid
In-Class Films: A Dream Apart, Why We Rise, Lost and Found
Spring Break 3/28-4/05
Week 11: Filial Piety
4/07 Race and Parental Love
Read: Vivian Louie, “Parents’ Aspirations and Investment”
Yoshihara, “Class Notes”
4/09
Race and Parental Love
Read: Amy Chua, Tiger Mother Excerpt
Hyphen’s Ask a Model Minority Suicide “We’ll See”
Espiritu, “We Don’t Sleep Around Like White Girls Do”
Suggested Readings: Not That Kind of Asian Doctor “To Love In This Way”
Ellen Wu, “The Backstory”
Week 12: Cultural Exchange
4/14 Oriental Monk
Read: Iwamura, “Oriental Monk”
4/15
Extra Credit Lisa Cacho Talk
4/16
Yellow Apparel
Read: What’s the Difference Between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Exchange?
In-Class Film: Yellow Apparel
Week 13: Colorism
4/21 Race, Class, and Beauty
Read: Spickard and Rondilla, “Colorism in Asian America”
Due: Paper Proposal
4/23
No Class – focus on your papers
Week 14: Rage and Death
4/28 Madness
Read: Ameeriar, “Investing in Whiteness: The UCSB Tragedy and Asian America”
Lisa Park, “Letter to My Sister”
Due: Cultural Site Analysis
4/30
Ferguson
Read: Chu, “Men Without a Country”
Jung, “Why Ferguson Matters to Asian Americans.”
5 Week 15: Final Lecture
5/3
Final Lecture and Review
Finals Week
In-class Final Exam TBA
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