Post with 1)Potential Times/Places 2) Potential movies 3) snack and food ideas!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Self-Evaluations
SENIORS: THOMAS, REBECCA, CANDACE, LAURA
Please self-evaluate your class performance. Refer to the following questions:
1. Attendance (10%): Have you been present in class (you are permitted 2 tardies and can miss 1 class)? Have you attended at least 1 field trip?
2. Participation (20%): Have you been a participant in class discussions, either as an active listener and/or contributor?
3. Facilitation (20%): Did the questions you post on the blog spark conversation? Did you engage in the material/encourage discussion?
4. Blog (10%): Did you complete your blog post every week? Did you engage with the questions?
5. Creative Project (20%): How did you connect your experience in class with the greater Queer/API community? What did you think was valuable inside and outside our class. Expand on your thoughts about the class and overall learning experience.
6. Syllabus/Reader (20%): Did you find/read materials for next year's syllabus?
Please self-evaluate your class performance. Refer to the following questions:
1. Attendance (10%): Have you been present in class (you are permitted 2 tardies and can miss 1 class)? Have you attended at least 1 field trip?
2. Participation (20%): Have you been a participant in class discussions, either as an active listener and/or contributor?
3. Facilitation (20%): Did the questions you post on the blog spark conversation? Did you engage in the material/encourage discussion?
4. Blog (10%): Did you complete your blog post every week? Did you engage with the questions?
5. Creative Project (20%): How did you connect your experience in class with the greater Queer/API community? What did you think was valuable inside and outside our class. Expand on your thoughts about the class and overall learning experience.
6. Syllabus/Reader (20%): Did you find/read materials for next year's syllabus?
Sunday, April 17, 2011
4/20 (lol) Questions
1.) "If there is a color hierarchy among the races, it seems to get darker at the bottom." To what extent do you think that skin color determines where one stands within this racial hierarchy? Do you think there are other important factors that determine one's placement?
2.) "In Search of the Right Spouse" establishes interracial relationships as an aversion to family dynamics or characteristics one has associated with their ethnic group. Do you think that in an interracial relationship things can just be as simple as "a natural preference" for a certain race or are said preferences always socially constructed? Can there be interracial relationships without power politics built on solid love? Is this piece still relevant, considering it was published in 1995?
3.) In previous readings, we came upon the argument that the struggle of being a racial minority is equivalent to that of being a sexual one. How do the viewpoints in the Convergence of Passing zones support or refute this idea? Do you agree?
Also feel free to respond to any other part of the readings you would like to address. :)
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Timeline of Final Tasks
- April 13th: Finalize readings
- April 20th: Hard copies of readings due + Finalize course/syllabus requirements*
- April 29th: Self evaluations due
- May 4th: Peer evaluations due (email to Prof. Suh)
- *Hanna and Johnny will work on drafting a course description
Monday, April 4, 2011
Asian American Adolescents
Please respond to any of the following questions, or respond to another part of the readings that you wish to address:
Powershowgirl: Unaccessorized
1. . "Powershowgirl: unaccessorized" was originally written for a solo stage act. How do you envision this being performed? How does the motif of performativity pervade and interact with the content of the piece--in particular, how Rich alternately claims, rebels against, and reconstructs his various identities?
Curry Potatoes and Rainbow Banners
2. Respond to the following Reginald Shepherd quotation that Chisty cites:
"My feelings about men are too entangled with my feelings about white men, and my feelings about white men too entangled with my feelings about white people and about black people, especially black men... How to determine how much is racial and how much is sexual when the two are so entwined that they are, in practice, identical?"
Why does Chisty identify so strongly with this statement?
Undressing the Normal
3. How do the personal accounts in this selection validate and/or challenge the results and assumptions of the two studies on API adolescent sexual behavior?
Monday, March 28, 2011
Asian American Females in Prostitution & Globalization of Human Trafficking and Prostitution
Please respond to one or more of the following (or provide a response to a prompt of your own making):
2. Respond to the following excerpt from a May 1891 petition by the Greater Japanese Association to bar the exportation of sex workers from Japan (Ichioka, 16):
"These women are a blot on our national image and national morality...The reasons for the ban on Chinese immigration and the call for the expulsion of the Chinese were many and varied, but the main one was that Chinese women were prostitutes...It is evident that, if this notorious vice spreads, America will adopt measures against us in the same manner as she did formerly against the Chinese."3. How might one consider these readings in the context of previous readings and topics--or broadly speaking, in the context of "queering Asian America"?
Finally, we will be discussing the role of the facilitator as well as the instructor in class on Wednesday, so it would be a good idea to start reflecting on how you might define these roles for next year's syllabus.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Week 8: Asian American Pornography
1. Both pieces treat pornography as a site of political and cultural struggle and treat sexuality not only as orientation but also as the explicit acts engaged in. How does this broader idea of sexuality activism fit into the larger API/LGBTQ movement?
2. Both Hamamoto and Fung emphasize the need for API producers and actors in pornography. Does this seem like a valid strategy for broader API and queer representation, or is this merely trying to reform an already corrupt system? Do we need to think about pornography outside of its current corporatist model?
3. Fung connects current representations of submissive/passive queer API men in pornography to historically racist stereotypes of passive API folks, and emphasizes a need for a greater range of representations that include active/top API folks. Do you think Fung is perpetrating a too simplistic dichotomy of active/good and passive/bad? Where might the desires of submissive or masochistic API men be represented?
2. Both Hamamoto and Fung emphasize the need for API producers and actors in pornography. Does this seem like a valid strategy for broader API and queer representation, or is this merely trying to reform an already corrupt system? Do we need to think about pornography outside of its current corporatist model?
3. Fung connects current representations of submissive/passive queer API men in pornography to historically racist stereotypes of passive API folks, and emphasizes a need for a greater range of representations that include active/top API folks. Do you think Fung is perpetrating a too simplistic dichotomy of active/good and passive/bad? Where might the desires of submissive or masochistic API men be represented?
4. If you were in charge of creating a pornographic movie featuring Asian Americans in interracial sexual encounters, how would you film/write/edit it to ensure equality on set and freedom of stereotypes and power politics in the film?
You can respond to these or with whatever else you are thinking about. Also, be thinking about anything you might want to ask Brandon Lee at dinner.
You can respond to these or with whatever else you are thinking about. Also, be thinking about anything you might want to ask Brandon Lee at dinner.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Asian Pride Porn!
This is too great not to share (don't worry, it's not actual porn.)
http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/asian_pride_porn/
Monday, March 7, 2011
Week 7: Asian American Literature
Hey everyone, please answer one of the three questions:
Rolling the R's
Describe your reaction to the selections from Rolling the R's. What story is Linmark telling, and where does the author position the reader in his construction of queer Asian American subjects?
Chickencoop Chinamen
What kind of distinctions does Chin draw between being "made" through language and biological birth? How does Chin "gender" certain language and do you feel that Chin's language could be described as masculine? Is it appropriate to speak of Asian American subjectivity as being a product of language and not birth? Does it make sense to even "speak" of it at all?
Chickencoop Chinamen
What kind of distinctions does Chin draw between being "made" through language and biological birth? How does Chin "gender" certain language and do you feel that Chin's language could be described as masculine? Is it appropriate to speak of Asian American subjectivity as being a product of language and not birth? Does it make sense to even "speak" of it at all?
On language
Neither grammar nor style are politically neutral. Learning the rules that govern intelligible speech is an inculcation into normalized language, where the price of not conforming is the loss of intelligibility itself...It would be a mistake to think that received grammar is the best vehicle for expressing radical views, given the constraints that grammar imposes upon thought, indeed, upon the thinkable itself. (Judith Butler, Gender Trouble, xix)
What sort of political work does language perform in Linmark and Chin's texts? How do their words relate to "intelligible speech" and "normalized language," and how do the authors frame what is "thinkable"?
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Week 6: Exoticism of Asian American Females in Mainstream Media
Respond to one of the following quotes/clips:
1) "The subtle ingenuity of the multicultural advertisement campaign is the way it is able to profit off a multi-racial consumer base through greater inclusion while maintaining White male supremacy through the visual consumption of Asian/American women’s bodies. By highlighting the ascribed “foreign” nature of Asian/American women, the cultural schemata of corporate advertisements aim to profit off the sense of identity and place they provide for White males in the U.S. through their products, while simultaneously targeting an increasingly diverse global audience" (Kim and Chung, 88).
2) "Asian American adolescents in homes where English is the primary language spoken were more likely than other Asian Americans to be nonvirgins and to have engaged in heterosexual genital sexual activities" (Okazaki, 35).
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETegyBzAQnc
1) "The subtle ingenuity of the multicultural advertisement campaign is the way it is able to profit off a multi-racial consumer base through greater inclusion while maintaining White male supremacy through the visual consumption of Asian/American women’s bodies. By highlighting the ascribed “foreign” nature of Asian/American women, the cultural schemata of corporate advertisements aim to profit off the sense of identity and place they provide for White males in the U.S. through their products, while simultaneously targeting an increasingly diverse global audience" (Kim and Chung, 88).
2) "Asian American adolescents in homes where English is the primary language spoken were more likely than other Asian Americans to be nonvirgins and to have engaged in heterosexual genital sexual activities" (Okazaki, 35).
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETegyBzAQnc
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sexuality in Asian American Familes
Hello Everyone,
Here are some questions think about. Answer one:
1. Do you find that the two sets of dual identity factors (Liu, 97 and Chan, 379) are a good basis for understanding dual-identity formation? What categories might be superfluous? What may be missing?
2. "At the same time, we must be careful to assume that the sexual identities of LGBAAs follow Western prototypes" (Liu, 97). How are cultural prototypes formed? What is their effect in society?
3. Respond to the following quote: "I identify as being both. I cannot separate the two parts of who I am" (Chan, 383). Consider the earlier reading by Siobhan Somerville on queerness--how might this challenge how we understand the apparent distinction between gay/lesbian and Asian American communities.
4. Explain a situation you experienced in which to concept of "face" was a factor?
-Brendan and Laura
Here are some questions think about. Answer one:
1. Do you find that the two sets of dual identity factors (Liu, 97 and Chan, 379) are a good basis for understanding dual-identity formation? What categories might be superfluous? What may be missing?
2. "At the same time, we must be careful to assume that the sexual identities of LGBAAs follow Western prototypes" (Liu, 97). How are cultural prototypes formed? What is their effect in society?
3. Respond to the following quote: "I identify as being both. I cannot separate the two parts of who I am" (Chan, 383). Consider the earlier reading by Siobhan Somerville on queerness--how might this challenge how we understand the apparent distinction between gay/lesbian and Asian American communities.
4. Explain a situation you experienced in which to concept of "face" was a factor?
-Brendan and Laura
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Ideas for syllabus for next AsAm197 class
Name:
(combine the following… somehow)
Asian Americans in pop culture and new media
Transnationalism
Cultural exchange
Representation
Appropriation
Visual culture
“Asia MEDIAting America”
4. comics, manga (American Born Chinese), webcomics
6. anime
5. TV shows (Power Rangers, Pokemon, Avatar)
1. critical pedagogy
1. visual culture and representation (Ming Ma)
--music (K-pop, J-pop)
--youtube stars (Wong Fu, KevJumba, Ryan Hikka)
3./end also? cultural hybridity
2./3. orientalism
--blogs
2. history of representations of Asians and Asian Americans in media
--theater and film (martial arts films)
--science fiction
--comedy (Margaret Cho?)
--videogames
--Bollywood (Slumdog Millionaire)
--independent media
--media industry
--spoken word & hip-hop
--dance/breakdance
--political/activist media
--music videos
themes:
cultural exchange
transnationalism – influence, tension between representations,
cultural appropriation
Asian American cultural production
ideas:
speaker suggestions in the syllabus (Kip Fulbeck, Ming Ma, Prof. Tran, Stan Sakai, Skim)
field trip ideas (Tuesday Night Cafe)
incorporation of watching films, clips, reading comics, etc.
inclusivity of a wide variety of Asian and Asian American identities
weekly film screening?
transnational influences from both directions
music video of the week
do we still want to do a blog? some sort of media project?
blog could serve as a space to post links and analyze them – look at current media
focus on Asian American cultural production (make sure it's not all about representations *of* Asian Americans)
Sunday, February 13, 2011
The Asian American LGBT Movement
We have a lot of business to attend to during our next class period (finalizing the topic for next year's class and planning out what to do with our budget), but we also have 7 readings to discuss. To make this all a bit more feasible, let's only do the readings in Asian American Sexualities and the Sharmeen Islam reading on Sakai. This means we will not be doing the Ordona or Aguilar-San Juan readings, or the Ratti reading connected to the Islam pdf, so the total number of readings for this week is 5.
Please respond to 2 of the following quotes:
1) "To our closeted Asian American lesbians and gay men, I would like you to consider how we become accomplices to our own sexual and racial oppression when we fail to claim our true identities" (Cornell 84).
2) "Is [coming out] a Western concept? Do you really have to come out? Is it something that is understood by your family without having to say, 'Mom, I'm a dyke?' " (Chung, Kim, Nguyen, Ordona, and Stein 95).
3) "[The fact that I avoided contact with Filipino gay and lesbian activists] was particularly true during the days of the Kalayaan when the identifiable gay activist men from the Philippines... exhibited mannerisms that were effeminate. Perhaps this was due to the fact that in the Philippines their families were part of the elite upper-class strata, which enabled them to live any lifestyle they chose" (Mangaoang 107).
4) "The gay culture in the West marginalizes our experience and lumps all nonwhite women under the umbrella term "lesbians of color," thus denying our diversity" (Islam 42).
Please respond to 2 of the following quotes:
1) "To our closeted Asian American lesbians and gay men, I would like you to consider how we become accomplices to our own sexual and racial oppression when we fail to claim our true identities" (Cornell 84).
2) "Is [coming out] a Western concept? Do you really have to come out? Is it something that is understood by your family without having to say, 'Mom, I'm a dyke?' " (Chung, Kim, Nguyen, Ordona, and Stein 95).
3) "[The fact that I avoided contact with Filipino gay and lesbian activists] was particularly true during the days of the Kalayaan when the identifiable gay activist men from the Philippines... exhibited mannerisms that were effeminate. Perhaps this was due to the fact that in the Philippines their families were part of the elite upper-class strata, which enabled them to live any lifestyle they chose" (Mangaoang 107).
4) "The gay culture in the West marginalizes our experience and lumps all nonwhite women under the umbrella term "lesbians of color," thus denying our diversity" (Islam 42).
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Gay and Lesbian Experience in Asian America
In addition to our discussion this week we will also be brainstorming topics for next year's syllabus. Please come prepared with ideas, suggestions, etc.
Questions
1.) Respond to this statement "Theoretically speaking, homosexual identity does not enjoy the same privileged stability as racial identity" (Takagi 6)
2.) In the Poon and Ho article, the authors include this quote:
"There are tiny micro-movements of resistance, barely perceptible, even invisible or covert--quiet stealthy masquerades resistant to categorisation and definition" (252). Do you think these acts are effective forms of resistance?
3.) Does this academic setting frame how we talk about personal experience?
Questions
1.) Respond to this statement "Theoretically speaking, homosexual identity does not enjoy the same privileged stability as racial identity" (Takagi 6)
2.) In the Poon and Ho article, the authors include this quote:
"There are tiny micro-movements of resistance, barely perceptible, even invisible or covert--quiet stealthy masquerades resistant to categorisation and definition" (252). Do you think these acts are effective forms of resistance?
3.) Does this academic setting frame how we talk about personal experience?
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Week 2: Asian American Masculinity and Femininity
Respond to one or more of the following questions:
Negotiating New Asian-American Masculinities
“[US-born Asian men] rely on economic power...and embrace caring as part of their masculinity. In contrast to U.S.-born Asians, immigrant Asian men...simply see their masculinity in terms of attractiveness.”
What is your definition of masculinity? Of the all characteristics that the study uses, which, in your opinion, best embraces that definition of masculinity?
The Most Outrageous Masquerade: Queering Asian-American Masculinity
“What are we to make, then, of this alliance between Asian-American and homosexual men? If heterosexual romantic failures are deemed to be unspeakable...what does this reveal to us, not only about the formation of these marginalized subjectivities, but also about the constitution of the normative male subject? And what are the subversive political implications of these queer identifications?”
Describe the alliance between Asian-American and homosexual men that Parikh identifies. Does the alliance hold true today, nine years after this was written?
Breaking through the Chrysalis: Hanh Thi Pham
“I used to wear very feminine shoes that young women are supposed to wear, and had very long hair, and was married for twelve and a half years. So in that time I served the role of a formal wife, the genteel woman.”
Lee identifies various symbols (e.g. shoes and Buddha) and their meanings to Pham. What is a symbol to which you relate and what is its meaning to you?
Details Magazine Gay or Asian Spread
Satire is often utilized to illuminate a societal issue, eliciting an emotional reaction. What is the purpose/issue, if any, that this spread attempts to demonstrate. Is it effective? Does it perpetuate Asian-American stereotypes, and if so, what stereotypes?
Negotiating New Asian-American Masculinities
“[US-born Asian men] rely on economic power...and embrace caring as part of their masculinity. In contrast to U.S.-born Asians, immigrant Asian men...simply see their masculinity in terms of attractiveness.”
What is your definition of masculinity? Of the all characteristics that the study uses, which, in your opinion, best embraces that definition of masculinity?
The Most Outrageous Masquerade: Queering Asian-American Masculinity
“What are we to make, then, of this alliance between Asian-American and homosexual men? If heterosexual romantic failures are deemed to be unspeakable...what does this reveal to us, not only about the formation of these marginalized subjectivities, but also about the constitution of the normative male subject? And what are the subversive political implications of these queer identifications?”
Describe the alliance between Asian-American and homosexual men that Parikh identifies. Does the alliance hold true today, nine years after this was written?
Breaking through the Chrysalis: Hanh Thi Pham
“I used to wear very feminine shoes that young women are supposed to wear, and had very long hair, and was married for twelve and a half years. So in that time I served the role of a formal wife, the genteel woman.”
Lee identifies various symbols (e.g. shoes and Buddha) and their meanings to Pham. What is a symbol to which you relate and what is its meaning to you?
Details Magazine Gay or Asian Spread
Satire is often utilized to illuminate a societal issue, eliciting an emotional reaction. What is the purpose/issue, if any, that this spread attempts to demonstrate. Is it effective? Does it perpetuate Asian-American stereotypes, and if so, what stereotypes?
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Possible field trip to the QPOC Conference at UC Riverside
"Decolonize Your Mind" is the title of the 6th annual Queer People of Color Conference, which will be held at UC Riverside from April 8 to 10 (Friday to Sunday). Kenyon Farrow and Ryka Aoki are the confirmed speakers.
It could be a cool project to submit a workshop proposal as a class; you can all check out this website for more information about this and other scheduling details. Best of all, it's only $25 per campus--not per student--and it's quite nearby, so we can even book the Sagecoach for transportation.
Alice Hom: Monday, January 31st, 12PM! Lunch provided!
The AARC's Q&A presents:
A conversation about
Queer Asian American
Communities and ACTIVISM
with Alice Y. Hom
Who: You! Everyone is welcome!
What: This interactive presentation will highlight the activism of queer Asian Americans from the late 1970's to current day. Particular attention will be paid to the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality as well as ally building.
Where: Asian American Resource Center at Pomona (SCC 240)
When: Monday, January 31st, 12PM
*Lunch will be provided
Why: Because it will be a fabulous presentation by Alice Y. Hom. Alice is the co-editor of Q & A: Queer in Asian America. She currently serves as the director of the Queer Justice Fund at AAPIP (Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy) and is a board member of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. Come see what she's all about!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Critical Ethnic Studies Conference
This was the conference I was talking about if anyone is interested in going, or we can organize the whole class to go. The speaker list is on the site as well: http://cesa.ucr.edu/
Friday, January 21, 2011
Week 1: General Overview and Pedagogy
Please respond to one or more of the following questions. Have fun!!
1. Freire emphasizes the role of prescription in helping the oppressor to maintain their position of power over the oppressed (see pg 47). Discuss a prescribed behavioral pattern that you have observed - one amongst members of an oppressed group that is designed to maintain the interests of the oppressor. How does this prescribed behavior serve to keep the oppressor-oppressed relationship in place? How can one identify and combat this pattern of prescribed behavior in oneself or others?
Omatsu -
2. Do you consider yourself to be a "conscious element" as defined by Omatsu (page 6 of "Listening to the Small Voice Speaking the Truth")? Why or why not? What role does mass organizing play in the evolution of the "conscious element" identity?
3. Omatsu names keywords to describe the Asian American Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and contrasts them with those of the 1980s and 1990s (page 7 of the pdf, pg 30 of original text in "The Four Prisons"). What do you think the keywords are for the Asian American social justice movement of the 2000s? What will they be in the coming decade? What does this say about the focus of current social justice movements in the United States?
Quon -
4. How does coalition building between social justice groups function to help these groups achieve their goals? What are some of the structural obstacles to coalition building?"
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