中山大學離散論述研讀會
“Denationalization Reconsidered: Asian
American Cultural Criticism at a
Theoretical Crossroads” by
Sau-ling C. Wong
國立高雄師範大學 英語系 李翠玉
10-23-2009

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Asia, Asian, Asian American, Asian
America
亞美情境下的離散意涵 (Diaspora in the
Asian American Context)

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Appeared in 1995, a special issue entitled “Thinking Theory in Asian
American Studies,” Amerasia Journal
Influence: (from Wong’s intro to the 1999 reprinted version in
Postcolonial Theory 122-3)
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 cited by Arif Dirlik 1996 “Asians on the Rim” to affirm the significant role of Asian America
Criticized by Susan Koshy in 1996 as catachresis (misuse of terms) theoretical shift (domestic to transnational/diasporic)
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Diaspora as political positioning (Stuart Hall)
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Diaspora as a process of identity construction (Paul Gilroy)
Institutional shift (Asian Studies & Asian American Studies as a result of change of political climates)
Demographic, political and economic shift
 limitations and potentials of diaspora paradigm in Asian American
Cultural criticism
 contradictory position as an Asian Americanist

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1848 California Gold Rush
1860 Central Pacific Railroad
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
1943 Magnuson Act (Chinese
Exclusion Repeal Act)
1965 Immigration Reform Act
1990s skilled and educated immigrants

Denationalization of
Asian American Cultural Criticism
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A domestic Perspective
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Easing of Cultural Nationalist Concerns
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1970s Frank Chin 趙健秀 , Jeffery Paul Chan 陳耀光 ,
Shawn Hsu Wong 徐中雄 1974 Aiiieeeee!
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Permeability between “Asian” and “Asian American”
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Ascendance of Asia, the coalescence of the Pacific Rim as a geoeconomic entity, circulation of Asian transnational capital
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Elaine Kim, King-kok Cheung, Sau-ling Wong, Shirley
Lim & Amy Ling 1982 Asian American Literature
A global/diasporic perspective
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Lisa Lowe 1991 “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: ｍ
Making Asian American Differences”

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Two Risks of uncritical participation in denationalization(12)
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Unwitting subsumption into master narratives
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Depoliticization occluded by theoretical self-critique
Aspirations of denationalization: to dialogize & to demystify American National myth
To historicize the push to globalize Asian American
Cultural Criticism
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The self-critique echoes the trajectory of liberatory agenda of minorities in the U.S. (13)

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Problems of
Too celebratory a stance toward the loosening of societal constraints on Asian Americans (13)
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Lisa Lowe: “We might conceive of the making and practice of Asian American culture as nomadic unsettled, taking place in the travel between cultural sites and in the multivocality of heterogeneous and conflicting positions
(“Heterogeneity” 39).=>crucial alliance with other groups
– ethnicity/class/gender/sexuality based in the ongoing work of transforming hegemony.

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Decontexualization (e.g. no socioeconomic positioning, historical juncture of the film A Great Wall) (14)
Under exilic sensibility & identity, class element is made invisible (15).

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Claiming America
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Establishing Asian American presence in the context of the U.S. (16)
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Providing a viable discursive space for
Asian American population (16).
P. 16

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Asserting Asian presence in the U.S.
(ethnic-specific)
 pan-ethnic coalition based on shared experience of resistance and advocacy pitfalls:
Asian diaspora as too inclusive to be politically ungrounded and ungroundable
(17).
Asian American diaspora is simply quite meaningless.

Comparing Denationalization in Asian
American & African-American Contexts
 depoliticizing vs. politicizing p. 18

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Asia as an imagined construct; as an other
Diaspora
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Exclusionary practices: minoritized position, marginalized forces
Liberating aspect: A strategy of resistance and advocacy
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Homeward gaze: redefining belonging
Situated positioning and relation with elsewhere: always in hybridized cultural translation
Identification and affiliation: shared history and experience among geographically dispersed communities