Professor Malini J. Schueller AML 6027; Section 0511 Office: 4113 ...

Professor Malini J. Schueller AML 6027;
Section 0511
Office: 4113 TUR Fall
‘12
Office Ph.: 392-6650 x 284 T 3-5
e-mail: malini@ufl.edu
Office Hours: R 12:15-3:30
and by appointment
Race, Empire and Asian American Studies
Course Description: “Asian-American” is a highly contested, yet necessary category, born of
racism, nationalism, and resistance. This course focuses on the ways in which different forms
of racialization as well as histories of U.S. imperialism have informed the construction of
Asian-American identities. We will examine Asian-American literary and cultural productions
in relation to specific immigration acts, restrictions, exclusions, and laws as well as to racialized
stereotypes such as model minorities. We will consider events such as the L. A. riots in relation
to Asian-American immigration and the politics of race and class. We will also study how U.S.
imperialism in Asia and the Asia Pacific–the Philippines, Vietnam, and Hawai’i--have produced
different Asian-American cultures. In keeping with the wide range covered by Asian American
studies, the course will engage with a variety of cultural materials: novels, autobiographies, short
stories, plays, graphic novels, documentaries, newspaper articles, as well as essays.
Texts: Jade Snow Wong Fifth Chinese Daughter
Amy Chua Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
David Henry Hwang M Butterfly
Frank Chin Chickencoop Chinaman and the Year of the Dragon
Mine Obuko Citizen 13660
Julie Otsuka When the Emperor Was Divine
Carlos Bulosan America is in the Heart
R. Zamora Linmark Leche
Lois Ann Yamanaka Blu’s Hanging
Le Ly Hayslip When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
Bharati Mukherjee Jasmine
Robert Gooding-Williams Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising
Coursepack: Orange and Blue Textbooks (this includes readings that exceeded
Copyright restrictions/that the library couldn’t upload. The
readings
are not in order)
Aug 28 Introduction
Screening Renee Tajima-Pena My America: Or Honk If You Love Buddha
Yen Le Espiritu “Ethnicity and Panethnicity” and “Coming Together: The Asian
American Movement” from Asian American Panethnicity pp. 1-52 on sakai and

Coursepack
Racial Paradigms
Sept 4 Henry Yu from Thinking Orientals, pp. 198-204 electronic reserve
Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States
Pp.48-76 (1994 edition) Coursepack
Suchen Chang “Hostility and Conflict” from Asian Americans: An Interpretive
History pp. 45-61 electronic resesrve
Frank Chin and Jeffrey Chan “Preface” to Aiieeeee vi-xvii electronic reserve
Frank Chin and Jeffrey Chan “Racist Love” From Seeing Through Shuck, pp.
65-72
in Packet electronic reserve
Lisa Lowe, “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Asian American
Differences.” from Immigrant Acts pp. 60-83. Diaspora 1i (1991) 24-44 electronic
reserve
http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/deseg/source1.html Letter from Mary Tape to
San
Francisco School Board 1885
Presentation: Omi and Winant Racial Formation in the United States
The New Politics of Race
Lisa Lowe Immigrant Acts
Model Minorities
Sept 11 Robert G. Lee “The Cold War Origins of the Model Minority Myth” from Orientals,
pp. 145-160 electronic reserve
Jade Snow Wong Fifth Chinese Daughter
Sau Ling Cynthia Wong from Reading Asian American Literature pp. 55- 71 in
Packet
Wenying Xu From Eating Identities, pp. 8-16 electronic reserve
Jinqui Ling “Hegemony: The Case of Jade Snow Wong” electronic reserve
Frank Chin “Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake”
from The Big Aiiieeeee!, pp. 1-52 coursepack
Frank Chin “Railroad Standard Time” electronic reserve
Presentation: Wong Reading Asian American Literature
Ling Narrating Nationalisms
Xu Eating Identities
Sept 18 Peterson “Success Story, Japanese-American Style.” New York Times Magazine,
January 9, 1966. electronic reserve
“Success Story of One Minority Group in the U.S” coursepack under Amy Tachiki
Robert G. Lee from Orientals, pp. 180-191 coursepack
Vijay Prashad from The Karma of Brown Folk vii-xi, 1-9 sakai
Leslie Bow “Racial Interstitiality and the Anxieties of the ‘Partly Colored’:
Representations of Asians under Jim Crow, ” Journal of Asian American Studies 10.1
(February 2007): 1_30. Electronic Journal

eserve
“The Rise of Asian Americans” Pew Research Center
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/06/19/the_rise_of_asian_americans/
Amy Chua Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Elsa Davidson, “Tiger Mother Anxiety” Anthropology Now 3 iii (2011) 115-121
Electronic
Presentation: Lee Orientals
Prashad Karma of Brown Folk
Orientalism
Sept 25 Edward Said “Imaginative Geography and Its Representations” Orientalism 49-73
Electronic reserve
David Henry Hwang M Butterfly
Jonathan Wisenthal “Inventing the Orient” From A Vision of the Orient, pp. 3-20
Electronic resesrve
Judith Butler “Imitation and Gender Insubordination” from Diana Fuss Inside/Out
Electronic reserve
Sheng Mei Ma from The Deathly Embrace pp. xi-xxiii Electronic reserve
Karen Kelsky, From Women on the Verge, pp. 17-26; 174-177 Coursepack
Presentation: Ma The Deathly Embrace
Said Orientalism
Blackness and Asian American Identity
Oct 2 Maeda, Daryl J. “Black Panthers, Red Guards, and Chinamen: Constructing Asian
American Identity through Performing Blackness, 1969_1972" American Quarterly _
Volume 57, Number 4, December 2005, pp. 1079_1103 Electronic Reserve
Frank Chin Chickencoop Chinaman
Diane Fujino essay about Aoki and Kochiyama from Afro Asia Coursepack
Thien-bao Thuc Phi “Yellow Lines: Asian Americans and Hip Hop” From Afro Asia
Ed. Fred Ho and Bill v. Mullen pp. 295-317 Coursepack
Jachinson Chan “American Inheritance: Chinese American Male Identities 2-25 From
Chinese American Masculinities Electronic reserve
Presentation: Chan Chinese American Masculinities
Exclusion and Identity: Internment
Oct 9 Haney Lopez from White By Law pp. 37-47, 217-225 Electronic reserve
Ronald Takaki “The Myth of ‘Military Necessity’for Japanese_American Internment”
From Strangers From a Different Shore, pp. 379-405. Electronic reserve

Don T. Nakanishi “Surviving Democracy’s ‘Mistake’:Japanese Americans & The
Enduring Legacy of Executive Order 9066" Amerasia Journal 19 i (1993), 7-35
Electronic reserve
From Richard Drinnon, Keeper of Concentration Camps, pp. 39-49 Electronic reserve
Mine Obuko Citizen 13660
James Scott From Weapons of the Weak, pp. 314-340 Electronic reserve
Presentation: Lopez White By Law
Scott Weapons of the Weak
Abstracts of Final Paper Due
Oct 16 Julie Otsuka When the Emperor Was Divine
Hisaye Yamamoto “The Legend of Miss Sasagawara”
King Kok Cheung from Articulate Silences, pp. 1-26 Electronic reserve
Tina Chen “Toward an Ethic of Knowledge” MELUS 2005 Summer; 30 (2): 157_73
ER
Rajini Srikanth From Constructing the Enemy, pp. 1-18. Electronic Book
Two interesting texts about Topaz and/Heart Mountain from densho.org for discussion
Presentation: Texts about a particular camp from densho.org
The L.A. Riots and Korean-America
Oct 23 Michael Omi and Howard Winant “The Los Angeles ‘Race Riot’ and Contemporary
U.S. Politics” from Reading Rodney King, 97-116
Elaine Kim “Home is Where the Han Is...” from Reading Rodney King, pp.
215-236
Screening Sa-I-Gu
Sumi K. Cho “Korean Americans vs. African Americans: Conflict and Construction”
from Reading Rodney King, pp. 196-207
K.W.Lee “Legacy of Sa-i-gu: Goodbye Hahn, Good Morning, Community
Conscience” Amerasia Journal 38 i (2012), 91-112 Electronic reserve
Ikemoto, Lisa C. "Traces of the Master Narrative in the Story of African
American/Korean American Conflict: How We Constructed 'Los Angeles.'" Southern
California Law Review 66 (1993): 1581_1598. Electronic reserve
Ty Pak “The Court Interpreter” from Moonbay, pp. 87-118 Coursepack
Screening Sa-I-Gu
Empire and Asian America
Oct 30 Oscar V. Campomanes “New Formations of Asian American Studies and the Question
of U.S. Imperialism” Positions 5 ii (Fall 1997), 523-550. Electronic reserve
Victor Bascara from Model-Minority Imperialism pp.49-52 Electronic reserve
The Philippines

Ronald Takaki from Strangers from a Different Shore 315-335 coursepack
From E. San Juan The Philippine Temptation. pp. 88-94 electronic reserve
George F. Becker “Are the Philippines Worth Having?” electronic reserve
Susan Koshy from Sexual Naturalization, 91-105 electronic reserve
Carlos Bulosan America is in the Heart
Presentation: Bascara Model-Minority Imperialism
Koshy Sexual Naturalization
Nov 6 Renato Constantino The Miseducation of the Filipino coursepack
“Re-placing Language: textual strategies in post-colonial writing” From Bill
Ashcroft et. als The Empire Writes Back, pp. 38-77. coursepack
Vicente Rafael “The Undead: Notes on Photography in the Philippines” From
White Love, pp. 76-102. Electronic reserve
R. Zamora Linmark Leche
Presentation: Ashcroft The Empire Writes Back
Rafael White Love
Hawai’i: Settler Colonialism and Asian America
Nov 13 Haunani Kay Trask from From A Native Daughter, pp. 1-21; 136-147 Electronic Book
Jane Desmond from Staging Tourism Electronic reserve
Lois Ann Yamanaka Blu’s Hanging
Candace Fujikane “Sweeping Racism Under the Rug of Censorship. . .” Electronic
reserve
Emily Russell “Locating Cure: Leprosy and Lois Ann Yamanaka’s Blu’s Hanging”
MELUS 31 i (Spring 2006), 53-80. Electronic reserve
Haunani Kay-Trask “Settlers of Color and ‘Immigrant’ Hegemony” Electronic
reserve
Hau‘ofa, “Our Sea of Islands” Electronic reserve
Presentation: Kay-Trask From a Native Daughter
Desmond Staging Tourism
Vietnam: The Politics of Representation and Reconciliation
Nov 20 Anne McClintock from Imperial Leather pp. 352-360. Electronic reserve
Le Ly Hayslip When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
Leslie Bow “Third World Testimony in the Era of Globalization: Le Ly Hayslip’s
Bad (Girl) Karma and the Art of Neutrality” From Betrayal and Other Acts of
Subversion, pp. 115-136 Electronic reserve
Viet Thanh Nguyen From Race and Resistance, pp. 3-31 Coursepack
Presentation: Bow Betrayal and Other Acts of Subversion
Nguyen Race and Resistance
Globalization, Immigration and Race

Nov 27 Pheng Cheah “Introduction Part II: The Cosmopolitcal--Today” From Cosmopolitics
Electronic reserve
Arjun Appadurai “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”
from
Modernity at Large, pp. 27-47, 201. Electronic reserve
Bharati Mukherjee Jasmine
Anthony C. Alessandrini “Reading Bharati Mukherjee, Reading Globalization”
from
World Bank Literature, pp. 265-279. Electronic reserve
Dec 4 Ten minute presentations on papers or work on papers
Dec 7: Final papers due in my mailbox by 4 pm
Course Requirements and Grade Distribution
Weekly position papers on the readings due during class (around 2 pages): 15%
These should be critical and evaluative rather than summations of the readings. Raise questions
here but be specific and try to link together some readings. You need to turn in a total of 10
response papers but you may turn in more if you wish. I’m happy to read more. Please do not
turn in these papers late because we’ll be discussing them in class.
Two Oral presentations: 20%
Presentations: The presentations in this class are intended to broaden your knowledge of critical
issues in Asian American literature and culture. You need to do two presentations, one on a
critical text and one on a literary/cultural text. For the presentation on a critical text, give
students a brief synopsis of the critical work and the thesis of the work. Then present your
critique of the work ie demonstrate its significance, the validity of its arguments, the strengths
and/weaknesses of its arguments. A one page handout with the thesis and synopsis is required.
For the presentation on a literary/cultural work, do a close reading of one or two passages and
show how these are central to the text as a whole. Please practice your presentation ahead of
time so that you use class time effectively.
If you have an idea for a presentation different from the above, please come and see me or bring
up the discussion in class. I’m open to all kinds of topics as long as they connect well with the
readings.
By all means, use material from the presentation for your final paper.
Final paper (20 pages): 65%
These should be analytical papers about 20 pages in length (excluding Notes and Bibliography).
They may be extensions of the work you’ve done for the presentation or entirely new papers.
Whatever option you choose, you need to do a complete MLA search on your subject and
incorporate the research into your paper. Be sure that your papers have a theoretical angle so that
the argument you make is significant not only because of the specific works you are considering

ut also to an interpretation of certain cultural issues. Connect your critical angle to current
scholarship on the subject.
By all means, use material from the presentation for your final paper.
As part of the requirements for the paper you need to :
1. Find conference with a Spring deadline for the CFP.
2. Write the required abstract for the conference, as well as the letter of submission.
If you are a Ph.D. student, I strongly urge you to think about your paper as a possible
publication. You will need to look at some journal issues in order to see how you need to frame
your argument.
Attendance
It is understood that graduate students do not skip class. Please remember that this is an
intensive discussion class and part of the work of the class is building up a series of discussions
which we continue to build upon in the course of the semester. Because your participation is
central to these discussions, you are expected to read all materials carefully and attend every
meeting. If you are presenting a paper at a conference and have a conflict with ONE weekly
meeting, please see me. There will be a grade penalty for missed classes.
Reading Materials
Your are required to read all assigned material and bring the readings to class. Many of your
readings are available via electronic reserve. If you are off campus, access the readings from
the UF VPN service for which there is a link on the library homepage Some are in the
coursepack and one is on sakai. I have marked them accordingly on the syllabus. Please give
yourself enough time to download them and, if possible, print them, and bring the printed
versions to class.

Reserve Book List
Victor Bascara Model Minority Imperialism Minnesota 2006
Leslie Bow Betrayal and Other Acts of Subversion. Princeton, 2001
Jachinson Chan Chinese American Masculinities: From Fu Manchu to Bruce Lee.Routledge 2001
Ed. Frank Chin et als. Aiiieeeee: An Anthology of Asian-American Writers. Howard UP, 1974
Frank Chin Chickencoop Chinaman and The Year of the Dragon 1982
Ed. Jeffrey Chan, et als The Big Aiiieeeee 1991
Jachinson Chan Chinese American Masculinities: From Fu Manchu to Bruce Lee. Routledge
2001
Pheng Cheah and Bruce Robbins Cosmopolitics: Thinking and Feeling Beyond the Nation 1998
Anne McClintock Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Context. 1995
Haunani Kay-Trask From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i. 1999
King Kok Cheung Articulate Silences 1993
Renato Constantino The Miseducation of the Filipino 1982
Patricia Chu Assimilating Asians: Gendered Strategies of Authorship in Asian America.
Duke 2000.
David. L. Eng Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America. Duke 2001
Diana Fuss Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories. Routledge 1991
Yen Le Espiritu Asian-American Panethnicity. Temple, 1992
Ed. Jessica Hagedorn Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American
Fiction. Penguin, 1993
Elaine Kim Asian American Literature: An Introduction to their Writings and Their Social
Context Temple UP, 1982
Susan Koshy Sexual Naturalization: Asian Americans and Miscegenation Stanford 2005
Rachel Lee The Americas of Asian American Literature: Gendered Fictions of Nation and
Transnation. Princeton, 1999
Ed. Rachel Lee Asian America.net: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cyberspace 2003
*Robert G. Lee Orientals; Asian Americans in Popular Culture Temple, 1999
Jinqui Ling Narrating Nationalims: Ideology and form in Asian American Literature, 1998
Ian Haney Lopez White By Law 1996
Lisa Lowe Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics. Duke 1996
Sheng Mei-Ma The Deathly Embrace: Orientalism and Asian American Identity 2000
Viet Thang Nguyen Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America 2002
Vijay Prashad The Karma of Brown Folk 2001
Michael Omi and Howard Winant Racial Formation in the United States 1994
Vicente Rafael White Love and Other Events in Filipino History 2000
Edward Said Orientalism. New York: Random House, 1978.
James Scott Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance 1987
Ronald Takaki Strangers From a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans 1998
Sheng Mei-Ma The Deathly Embrace: Orientalism and Asian American Identity. Minnesota 2000
Sau-Ling Cynthia Wong Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance
1993
Henry Yu Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact, and Exoticism in Modern America 2002
Wenying Xu Eating Identities: Reading Food in Asian American Literature. 2007