read some papers then write a reflection paper, philosophy homework help

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There are 1-2 page journal reflections assigned for every reading assignment. Students are required to reflect upon the reading material. Each journal entry must include

quotes from the reading that was assigned that week. Reflections should include a very brief description of the main thesis in readings but MOST of the journal entry should focus on drawing out certain themes that incited their emotions, insights, thoughts, and/or curiosities.

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there are five files below you have to read all of them then write a samurai reflection paper 1-2 pages.

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Asian-Americans Pen Powerful Open Letter to Their Families About Why Black Lives Matter By Sarah Harvard, m.mic.com July 8th, 2016 The Minnesota Police Department identi!ed the o"cer who shot Philando Castile at a tra"c stop as Jeronimo Yanez on Thursday. O"cials have not disclosed Yanez's race, but many people on Twitter speculated that the o"cer was of Asian descent after watching Castile's girlfriend's livestreamed footage. Christina Xu, an ethnographer and writer, and other Asian-American activists created a crowdsourced letter to their families — particularly addressing their elders who immigrated to the United States — to explain why black lives matter. Xu and others were afraid that their community would end up rallying in support of the police o"cer like some did for Peter Liang, an NYPD o"cer who was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting Akai Gurley. The letter, organized and written in an open Google Doc on Wednesday, features contributions made by over 40 people from the Asian-American community. There are now nearly a dozen translations of the letter, including versions in Chinese, Bengali, Indonesian, Punjabi, Japanese and Urdu among others. "When someone is walking home and gets shot by a sworn protector of the peace — even if that o"cer's last name is Liang — that is an assault on all of us, and on all of our hopes for equality and fairness under the law," the letter said. You can read the letter in full below: Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie, Grandfather, Grandmother: We need to talk. You may not have grown up around people who are Black, but I have. Black people are a fundamental part of my life: they are my friends, my classmates and teammates, my roommates, my family. Today, I'm scared for them. This year, the American police have already killed more than 500 people. Of those, 25% have been Black, even though Black people make up only 13% of the population. Earlier this week in Louisiana, two White police o"cers killed a Black man named Alton Sterling while he sold CDs on the street. The very next day in Minnesota, a police o"cer shot and killed a Black man named Philando Castile in his car during a routine tra"c stop while his girlfriend and her four-year-old daughter looked on. Overwhelmingly, the police do not face any consequences for ending these lives. This is a terrifying reality that some of my closest friends live with every day. Even as we hear about the dangers Black Americans face, our instinct is sometimes to point at all the ways we are di#erent from them. To shield ourselves from their reality instead of empathizing. When a policeman shoots a Black person, you might think it's the victim's fault because you see so many images of them in the media as thugs and criminals. After all, you might say, we managed to come to America with nothing and build good lives for ourselves despite discrimination, so why can't they? I want to share with you how I see things. It's true that we face discrimination for being Asian in this country. Sometimes people are rude to us about our accents, or withhold promotions because they don't think of us as "leadership material." Some of us are told we're terrorists. But for the most part, nobody thinks "dangerous criminal" when we are walking down the street. The police do not gun down our children and parents for simply existing. This is not the case for our Black friends. Many Black people were brought to America as slaves against their will. For centuries, their communities, families and bodies were ripped apart for pro!t. Even after slavery, they had to build back their lives by themselves, with no institutional support — not allowed to vote or own homes, and constantly under threat of violence that continues to this day. In !ghting for their own rights, Black activists have led the movement for opportunities not just for themselves, but for us as well. Many of our friends and relatives are only able to be in this country because Black activists fought to open up immigration for Asians in the 1960s. Black people have been beaten, jailed, even killed !ghting for many of the rights that Asian Americans enjoy today. We owe them so much in return. We are all !ghting against the same unfair system that prefers we compete against each other. When someone is walking home and gets shot by a sworn protector of the peace — even if that o"cer's last name is Liang — that is an assault on all of us, and on all of our hopes for equality and fairness under the law. For all of these reasons, I support the Black Lives Matter movement. Part of that support means speaking up when I see people in my community — or even my own family — say or do things that diminish the humanity of Black Americans in this country. I am telling you this out of love, because I don't want this issue to divide us. I'm asking that you try to empathize with the anger and grief of the fathers, mothers and children who have lost their loved ones to police violence. To empathize with my anger and grief, and support me if I choose to be vocal, to protest. To share this letter with your friends, and encourage them to be empathetic, too. As your child, I am proud and eternally grateful that you made the long, hard journey to this country, that you've lived decades in a place that has not always been kind to you. You've never wished your struggles upon me. Instead, you've su#ered through a prejudiced America, to bring me closer to the American Dream. But I hope you can consider this: the American Dream cannot exist for only your children. We are all in this together, and we cannot feel safe until ALL our friends, loved ones and neighbors are safe. The American Dream that we seek is a place where all Americans can live without fear of police violence. This is the future that I want — and one that I hope you want, too. With love and hope, Your daughters, sons, nieces, nephews and grandchildren Read More: • President Obama Talks Alton Sterling, Philando Castile Killings in Facebook Post • CNN Asks Philando Castile's Mother to Respond to Thursday's Dallas Shooting • Akai Gurley's Death Forged an Unlikely Coalition That Called for Justice Amerasia Journal 35:1 (2009): 179-187 Practicing Pinayist Pedagogy Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales and Jocyl Sacramento In 1995, I1 wrote an article entitled “Pinayism” and my life was forever changed. In many ways, the article was a proposal to develop a theoretical framework addressing the social, political, and economic struggles of Pinays.2 Defining Pinayism has been challenging, organic, and collaborative because of the epistemological and political diversity of Pinays I have met. After fourteen years of workshops, talks, presentations, and lesson plans, Pinayism has become a praxis asserting a transformative and transgressive agency that combines theory, practice, and personal reflection. To further examine the growth of Pinayism, this essay focuses on Pinayist pedagogical praxis. In this article, I collaborate with Jocyl Sacramento, a recent graduate of San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Master’s program. Her work develops the notion of Pinayist pedagogy, which further expands on the “Pinayism proposal” and how it has become a transformative curricular praxis. From the onset, one of the main objectives was to create a Pinayism that would be useful in the everyday lives of Pinays. Our aim is to explore the ways in which Pinayist pedagogy fulfilled this objective in spaces both in and outside of the classroom. Defining Pinayism as Pedagogy Pinayist praxis is a process, place, and production that aims to connect the global and local to the personal issues and stories Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales is an associate professor of Asian American Studies and affiliated faculty in the Educational Leadership program at San Francisco State University. She is also the director of Pin@y Educational Partnerships and senior researcher with the Educational Equity Initiative at the Cesar Chavez Institute. She is also an ethnic studies curriculum consultant for the San Francisco Unified School District. Jocyl Sacramento is a second-generation Pinay. She serves as Program Coordinator for Pin@y Educational Partnerships and Oasis for Girls in San Francisco. She has an MA in Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University and is a Sally Casanova pre-doctoral scholar. 179 2009 Amerasia Journal 180 of Pinay struggle, survival, service, sisterhood, and strength. It is an individual and communal process of decolonization, humanization, self-determination, and relationship building, ultimately moving toward liberation. Through this process, Pinays create places where their epistemologies are at the center of the discourse/dialogue/conversation and organizing. Pinays also represent Pinayism through critical cultural production of art, performance, and engaged scholarship that expresses their perspectives and counternarratives.3 Building on these descriptions, Pinayism has expanded to include Pinayist pedagogy, a curricular and spatial intervention of transformative praxis that aims to teach the elements of process, place, and production. Building on Paulo Freire’s notion of praxis to “encourage students to become social agents, developing their capacity to confront real-world problems that face them and their community,”4 Pinayist pedagogy’s goals are two-fold: 1) teaching and learning critical Pinay studies with the central purpose to develop the capacity of Pinays to confront global, local, and personal problems that face them and their community; and 2) mentoring, reproducing, and creating a community of Pinayists. At the core is critical Pinay studies, the teaching and learning of Filipina women’s stories, including their history and their contemporary experiences. Pinayist pedagogy aims to uncover challenges that Pinays face, while creating plans of action that pursue social change for the betterment of their lives. Pinayist pedagogy resists oppression both in the content and the methods of the curriculum and calls for a commitment to social justice, making the classroom a space of “transformational resistance.”5 Freire argues that this transformation will occur if students and teachers engage in a reciprocal relationship where knowledge is shared through a circular exchange where both students and teacher participate in mutual humanization. Through Pinayism, this humanizing pedagogy becomes a practice of freedom. Freire suggests that this “liberation is thus a childbirth, and a painful one.”6 Pinayist pedagogy is more than childbirth, where the nurturing process of childrearing is what truly leads to the humanization and liberation of teachers, students, and Pinays. Central to Pinayist pedagogy is the creation of communities that humanize and liberate Filipina women. bell hooks asserts that a holistic approach to liberatory teaching “does not seek simply to empower students. Any classroom that employs a holistic model of learning will also be a place where teachers grow, and are em- In Search for a Humanizing Pedagogy: The Pinayist Workshop Practicing Pinayist Pedagogy powered by the process.”7 Similarly, spaces of Pinayist pedagogy become places of healing for both Pinayist teacher and student. It (the Pinayism workshop) challenged me to love myself and to see beyond my internalized perceptions of what the world thinks of me. It also made me think about how I treat other Pinays. —Pinay high school student Pinayism began in the community and has created community, where Pinays could come together, share their experiences, and possibly plan actions to improve their lives. For many, these workshops were the first time Pinays were the center of the dialogue. Although each workshop is different because of the participants and the facilitators, the constant elements are a discussion on Pinay needs, connecting global, local, and personal issues of Pinays, defining Pinayism, and a discussion amongst the participants on how to practice Pinayism in their daily lives.8 To ensure that the workshop implements Pinayist pedagogy, we introduce the five stages of the Paulo Freire’s cyclical process of praxis:9 Identifying the Problems: At a 2008 Pinayism workshop for high school students held at the University of California San Diego, participants read Pinays Screamed but No One Heard10, a poem dramatizing the history of Pinays in the United States from 1587 to the present. The participants then took part in a Pinay Issue Utak Baguio,11 brainstorming issues that Pinays deal with on global, local, and personal levels. Young women and men juxtaposed issues like sexism and sex-trafficking with suicide rates, domestic violence, high rates of breast cancer, teen pregnancy, eating disorders, mental health issues, intergenerational conflict, racism within feminism, media representation, lack of mentors, and pressures of conforming to standards of beauty. They clearly had a sense of the multitude of issues facing Pinays today. Analyzing the Problems: Workshop participants are provided with statistical and qualitative data on their identified issues. For instance, if the issues of overseas contract workers come up in the Utak Baguio, the facilitators cite how 75 percent of overseas contract workers from the Philippines are women.12 The workshop facilitators then engaged participants in detailed conversations, aimed at teasing out the connections between the lives of Pinays in the United States and how Pinays are 181 perceived on a global level. With a working definition of Pinayism, workshop participants can frame possible ways to address these issues facing their communities. Creating Plans of Action: Participants get into circles of about five to six people and each group is assigned one of the issues brought up during the Pinay Issue Utak Baguio. In these circles, participants collaborate to create posters with a plan of action to address the issues. These plans should have individual and communal actions with global, local, and personal outcomes. Since we often begin our workshops with poetry, we sometimes conclude by having participants write poems about how to address challenges in the lives of Pinays. These plans, whether in the form of posters or poetry provide participants with ways that they can take Pinayism into their daily lives. Freire’s stages 4 (Implement the plan of action) and 5 (Analyze and evaluate the actions) usually cannot be completed in the workshop format but we encourage participants to stay in contact with us to share their experiences and reflections. Reflections and Outcomes At the end of a Pinayism workshop, a young Pinay made her way through a crowded room. She was pale, and with watery eyes, she whispered, “My auntie is a mail-ordered bride. What should I do?” I was silent as I listened to her auntie’s story. I learned a great deal from her ability to be vulnerable and courageous in the same breath. I could only suggest she talk more to her family about it. I also gave her names of supportive organizations. Years later, I learned that this Pinay went to college and became an activist for women’s rights. I last saw her at a protest in front of the Philippine Consulate urging the Philippine government to stop the sex trafficking of women and children. She humanized Pinayism for me. She also gave me hope. Amerasia Journal 2009 A Space of Hope: The Pinayist Classroom 182 Hope is something shared between teachers and students. The hope that we can learn together, teach together, be curiously impatient together, produce something together, and resist together the obstacles that prevent the following of our joy. —Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom13 Central to Pinayist pedagogy is the pursuit of a humanizing education, a hope shared by teachers and students, regardless if they Practicing Pinayist Pedagogy are Pinay or not. In Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, I usually teach elements of Pinayism in each of my courses. Specifically in my Asian American Women’s course, where a majority of my students are Asian American, with an equal gender balance between women and men, I teach a unit that focuses on critical Pinay studies. This unit begins with a discussion about what Pinayism is in order to demystify students’ preconceived notions about what it means. Although Pinayism is centered on the teaching of critical Pinay studies, it is important to acknowledge that Pinayism is not about male-bashing nor is it meant to be divisive. Pinoys along with men and women who have relationships with Pinays are encouraged to participate in Pinayism.14 A Pinay college student pointed out: Putting Pinayism in a context of inclusion and a way of life allows for more widespread change. Pinayism then, is no longer alienating or separate from other movements, or from the support of Filipino men. Addressing Pinay issues in this way allows for the underlying foundations of family and community to play an important part, whereas in mainstream Feminism, it was overlooked and deemed unimportant to the movement. The unit emphasizes how Pinayism goes beyond mainstream feminism to engage the complexities and intersections—where race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, spirituality, religion, body image, educational status, age, place of birth, mental health, diasporic migration, citizenship, nationalism, globalization, transnationalism, and love cross—to understand how Pinay identities, perspectives, multiple subjectivities, negotiation of contradictions, and transformative resistance are birthed. The unit has several components that are spread across five to ten class sessions, depending on the course topic. It usually begins with a contextualizing of Pinayism in the history of feminism, womanism, and third world/women of color studies. One of the activities in the unit includes a global internet search where students are instructed to search terms that are associated with Pinays on the internet. This often results in some extremely negative portrayals, which are often oversexualized images. In a “boodoo” doll creation activity, students work in teams to create dolls that represent certain body alterations that are typically associated with Pinays or Asian women. Poetry workshops provide an outlet for students to write about Pinays or women in their lives.15 183 One of the major activities included in the unit is the Pinayism Scenarios. Drawing from Augusto Boal’s (1971) development of the Theatre of the Oppressed, students participate in interactive theatre that creates a dialogue between performers and audience members about problems in their communities. In this critical performance pedagogy, performance in the classroom to pursue a critical dialogue on how the curriculum and literature presented in the course is directly connected to the cultures, histories, experiences, and problems faced in the students’ communities with the aim of pursuing an education that is both humanizing and liberatory. In the Pinayism Scenarios, the students are instructed to do the following: 1. Show conflict: Do a one-minute skit of the scenario. 2. Describe the context: Discuss with the class how your group contextualizes the scenario in a larger framework (such as colonization, racism, sexism, beauty-queen syndrome, classism, ageism, homophobia, and so on). 3. Connect the global, local, and personal issues of Pinays: Explain how your scenario deals with global, local, and personal issues. 4. Create alternatives: Redo the one-minute skit with a Pinayist reaction. Following is an example of a scenario: Amerasia Journal 2009 Celia is twenty years old and comes to the U.S. to marry a man she met on the Internet. He seemed nice in the online chat rooms but is abusive when she arrives in the U.S. He treats Celia as his personal slave. He beats her, even putting a hot iron to her face so she would be ashamed to leave him. What can be done? 184 The Pinayism Scenarios often lead students to develop ways that they will make changes in their own lives to address issues that pertain to Pinays. It also leaves them wanting to do more. The in-class activities usually culminates in a midterm or final which encourages the students to create a presentation or project that follows Freire’s cyclical process of praxis. Students have created oral herstory projects, audio recordings, multimedia presentations, community service projects, political campaigns, and even political fashion shows. Through these projects students often have a transformative Pinayism experience.16 Reflection and Outcomes Pinayist educators challenge dominant ideologies by presenting different ways of utilizing reproductive labor. Pinayist educators Practicing Pinayist Pedagogy use their role as teachers to reproduce people who choose to participate in transformational resistance. They resist reproductive theory suggesting that education produces workers to help maintain the capitalist economy. Instead, Pinayist educators create communities of social justice in the classroom. Their pedagogy provides a counterhegemonic, student-centered, and culturally relevant teaching and learning experience that utilizes love, holistic health, and community to humanize the teacher, student, and Pinay. Pinayist educators also bring forth their Pinay perspective by sharing personal narratives. These stories illustrate the communal nature of teaching that they bring into the classroom, which provides a process of humanization for both the teacher and the student. They also provide a space for their students to “become conscious about their presence in the world” and how it affects Pinays.17 A Pinayist educator’s classroom is a space where students find hope and a place to call home. Where Pinays Call Home: Creating Pinayist Communities “I want my classes to be a catalyst for students to change their lives.” —Pinayist high school teacher Introducing the concept of Pinayism through workshops and in the classroom has created a space where Pinays feel we belong—a place to call home. We are challenged to reflect on how Pinayism can be applied in our own lives and how we can share Pinayism with others. Groups of students have initiated classes on Pinayism.18 Filipino student groups have held workshops to discuss gender issues and brought on local Pinayists and Pinayistas to share an overview of the possibilities of Pinayism. Pinay scholars insert Pinay narratives into their academic work to ensure that the contributions and voices of Pinays are recognized. These examples of Pinayism as a pedagogical praxis show that Pinayists are taking it upon themselves to introduce, practice, transform, and reproduce Pinayism. A growing number of Pinayist educators serve to centralize Pinay experiences and epistemologies by incorporating the Pinay narrative in the content of the curriculum at any level, from toddlers to our elders, and in any setting, both formal and informal, in a classroom and in the community. Pinayism in academia is not just about theory production. Its key components also include accessibility and mentorship. Pinay pedagogues create communities that critique oppression, seek social justice and (re)produce agents of social change.19 Ultimately, Pinayist pedagogy places Pinays at 185 the center of the curriculum, legitimizing our existence in the world. Pinayism is not only about teaching the content of Pinay studies, but also deliberately about the humanizing pedagogy we use to teach, and the overall purpose and problems that we, as Pinayists, aim to confront. Notes Amerasia Journal 2009 We would like to thank all who have contributed to the development of Pinayism, particularly our mothers and our families. We would like to especially thank Dawn Mabalon for assistance on this article and Mahalaya Tintiangco-Cubales for her patience and Pinayist hugs. 186 1. The singular voice refers to experiences of Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales. 2. Pinay and Pinoy are nicknames for Filipina/o in America, adopted by some of the earliest Filipina/o immigrants to Hawaii and the United States. Because of its almost exclusive use by working-class Filipina/o immigrants and their descendants in America from the turn of the century to the 1960s, some newly immigrated, elite Filipinas/os in the 1960s and 1970s shunned the term because of its roots in the working-class experience of early immigrants. Now, the term is widely used by Filipinas/os worldwide to refer to anyone of Filipina/o ancestry. 3. For an expanded definition of Pinayism, please refer to Allyson TintiangcoCubales, Pin@y Educational Partnerships: A Sourcebook of Filipina/o American Studies, Volume II (Santa Clara: Phoenix, forthcoming). 4. Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade and Ernest Morrell, The Art of Critical Pedagogy (New York: Peter Lang, 2008): 25. 5. Daniel Solórzano and Dolores Delgado-Bernal, “Examining Transformational Resistance through a Critical Race and LatCrit Theory Framework: Chicana and Chicano Students in an Urban Context,” Urban Education 36:3 (2001): 319. 6. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 2000): 49. 7. bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (New York and London: Routledge, 1994): 21. 8. After participating in the Conversing Pinay conference in 2000, I began to really think clearly about developing a Pinayism that aims to connect the global, local, and personal worlds of Pinays. 9. Duncan-Andrade and Morrell, Art of Critical Pedagogy. 10. This poem can be found in Tintiangco-Cubales, PEP Sourcebook, volume II. 11. In the 2006 PEP Tibak Training, Artnelson Concordia used the Tagalog translation Utak Baguio, for brainstorm. 12. Statistics were cited by Elsa Valmidriano as being from GABRIELA Network’s findings published in 2007, www.gabnet.org. 13. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998), 69. In his article responding to Pinayism, Frank Samson calls on men to join the Pinayist movement by exploring praxis on the individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels. He states that the first step in engaging in Pinayism is to develop an ownership predicated on a Pinayist consciousness. He describes this individual process as a direct opposition to a society that equates masculinity with heterosexist patriarchal norms. He asserts that Filipino men must implement Pinayism as “a way of being in the world.” Samson challenges men to reevaluate how they view their mothers and women in their family and urges men to refrain from participating or perpetuating verbal, physical, and sexual assault against Pinays and other women. See Frank L. Samson, “Filipino American Men: Comrades in the Filipina/o American Feminism Movement,” Melinda L. de Jesús, ed., Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory: Theorizing the Filipina/American Experience (New York and London: Routledge, 2005). 15. Tintiangco-Cubales, PEP Sourcebook, volume II. 16. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, “Final Project Runway: In the I’s of Asian American Women,” Geraldine B. Stahly, ed., Gender Identity, Equity, and Violence (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2007). 17. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Indignation (Boulder and London: Paradigm Publishers, 2004): xx. 18. A group of students initiated a directed group of students’ class at University of California, San Diego. This class was housed in the Department of Ethnic Studies in Spring 2005. 19. Jocyl Sacramento, Reproducing Resistance: A Study on Pinayist Pedagogical Praxis. San Francisco State University, San Francisco, 2009. Practicing Pinayist Pedagogy 14. 187 The Development of Feminist Consciousness among Asian American Women Author(s): Esther Ngan-Ling Chow Source: Gender and Society, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Sep., 1987), pp. 284-299 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/189565 . Accessed: 11/01/2015 17:04 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Gender and Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE DEVELOPMENT OF FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS AMONG ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN ESTHER NGAN-LING CHOW American University This article examines the social circumstances, both current and past, that have affected the development and transformation of feminist consciousness among Asian American women. Gender, race, class, and culture all influenced the relative lack of participation of Asian American women in the mainstream feminist movement in the United States. It concludes that Asian American women have to come to terms with their multiple identities and define feminist issues from multiple dimensions. By incorporating race, class, and cultural issues along with gender concerns, a transcendent feminist consciousness that goes beyond these boundaries may develop. Like other women of color, Asian American women as a group have neither been included in the predominantly white middle-class feminist movement, nor have they begun collectively to identify with it (Chia 1983; Chow forthcoming; Dill 1983; Loo and Ong 1982; Yamada 1981). Although some Asian American women have participated in social movements within their communities or in the larger society, building ties with white feminists and other women of color is a recent phenomenon for Asian American women. Since Asian American women are a relatively small group in the United States, their invisibility and contribution to the feminist movement in the larger society may seem insignificant. Furthermore, ethnic diversity among Asian American women serves as a barrier to organizing and makes it difficult for these women to identify themselves collectively AUTHOR'S NOTE: Special thanks are given to Rita Kirshstein, Sherry Gorelick, Margaret Andersen, and Brett Williams for their constructive comments and suggestions on the early versions of this article. GENDER&SOCIETY,Vol. 1 No. 3, September1987284-299 0 1987Sociologistsfor Womenin Society 284 This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Chow / ASIAN AMERICANFEMINISTCONSCIOUSNESS 285 as a group. Because approximately half of Asian American women are foreign-born, their lack of familiarity with the women's movement in the United States and their preoccupation with economic survival limit their feminist involvement. The use of demographic factors such as size, ethnic diversity, and nativity, without an examination of structural conditions, such as gender, race, class, and culture, will not permit an adequate understanding of the extent of feminist activism of Asian women in the United States. What are the social conditions that have hindered Asian American women from developing a feminist consciousness, a prerequisite for political activism in the feminist movement? From a historical and structural perspective, this article argues that the feminist consciousness of Asian American women has been limited by their location in society and social experiences. A broader perspective is needed to understand the development of feminist consciousness among Asian American women who are subject to cross-group pressures. The intent of this article is primarily conceptual, describing how gender, race, class, and culture intersect in the lives of Asian American women and how their experiences as women have affected the development of feminist consciousness. The ideas are a synthesis of legal documents, archival materials, and census statistics; participant observation in the civil rights movement, feminist movement, Asian American groups, and Asian American organizations since the mid1960s; interviews and conversations with Asian American feminists and leaders; and letters, oral histories, ethnic newspapers, organizational newsletters, films, and other creative writings by and about Asian American women. GENDER CONSCIOUSNESS: PRECURSOROF FEMINISTCONSCIOUSNESS Gender consciousness is an awareness of one's self as having certain gender characteristics and an identification with others who occupy a similar position in the sex-gender structure. In the case of women, an awareness of femaleness and an identification with other women can lead to an understanding of gender power relations and the institutional pressures and socialization processes that create and maintain these power relations (Weitz 1982). Ultimately, gender consciousness can bring about the development of feminist conscious- This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 286 GENDER gcSOCIETY / September 1987 ness and the formation of group solidarity necessary for collective action in the struggle for gender equality (Christiansen-Ruffman 1982; Green 1979; Houston 1982). Being female, awareness of gender roles, and identification with other women are the major ingredients in building gender consciousness. However, it is necessary to understand the social contexts in which the gender consciousness of Asian American women has developed. Domination by men is a commonly shared oppression for Asian American women. These women have been socialized to accept their devaluation, restricted roles for women, psychological reinforcement of gender stereotypes, and a subordinate position within Asian communities as well as in the society at large (Chow 1985). Within Asian communities, the Asian family (especially the immigrant one) is characterized by a hierarchy of authority based on sex, age, and generation, with young women at the lowest level, subordinate to father-husband-brother-son. The Asian family is also characterized by well-defined family roles, with father as a breadwinner and decision maker and mother as a compliant wife and homemaker. While they are well protected by the family because of their filial piety and obedience, women are socially alienated from their Asian sisters. Such alienation may limit the development of gender and feminist consciousness and render Asian women politically powerless in achieving effective communication and organization, and in building bonds with other women of color and white feminists. In studying the majority of women activists who participated in various movements for oppressed groups, Blumberg (1982) found that participation in these movements affected the development of gender consciousness among women, which later, because of sexism in the movements, was transformed into a related but distinctive state of awareness-a feminist consciousness. For Asian American women, cross-group allegiances can hinder the development of feminist consciousness or expand it into a more universal view. Women who consider racism and classism to be so pervasive that they cannot embrace feminism at the same level may subordinate women's rights to other social concerns, thus limiting the development of feminist consciousness. Women who are aware of multiple oppressions and who advocate taking collective action to supersede racial, gender, and class differences may develop a feminist consciousness that transcends gender, racial, class, and cultural boundaries. This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Chow / ASIANAMERICANFEMINISTCONSCIOUSNESS 287 AWAKENING FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS In the wake of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s and the feminist movement in the mid-1960s, Asian American women, following the leads of black and Hispanic women, began to organize (Chow forthcoming; Ling and Mazumdar 1983; Lott and Pian 1979; G. Wong 1980). Initially, some better educated Asian American women formed women's groups to meet personal and family needs and to provide services to their respective organizations and ethnic communities. These groups, few in number and with little institutionalized leadership, were traditional and informal in nature, and usually supported philanthropic concerns (G. Wong 1980). While there had been a few sporadic efforts to organize Asian American women around specific issues and concerns that did not pertain to women (e.g., the unavailability or high cost of basic food, Angel Island, the World War II interment of Japanese Americans), these attempts generally lacked continuity and support, and the organization of Asian American women was limited as a political force. Nevertheless, these activities, as stepping stones for future political activism, allowed Asian American women to cultivate their gender consciousness, to acquire leadership skills, and to increase their political visibility. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Asian American women activists preferred to join forces with Asian American men in the struggle against racism and classism (Fong 1978; G. Wong 1980; Woo 1971). Like black and Hispanic women (Cade 1970; Dill 1983; Fallis 1974; Hepburn etal. 1977; Hooks 1984; Terrelonge 1984), some Asian American women felt that the feminist movement was not attacking racial and class problems of central concern to them. They wanted to work with groups that advocated improved conditions for people of their own racial and ethnic background or people of color, rather than groups oriented toward women's issues (Fong 1978; G. Wong 1980; Woo 1971), even though they may have been aware of their roles and interests and even oppression as women. As Asian American women became active in their communities, they encountered sexism. Even though many Asian American women realized that they usually occupied subservient positions in the maledominated organizations within Asian communities, their ethnic pride and loyalty frequently kept them from public revolt (Woo This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 288 GENDER & SOCIETY / September 1987 1971). More recently, some Asian American women have recognized that these organizations have not been particularly responsive to their needs and concerns as women. They also protested that their intense involvement did not and will not result in equal participation as long as the traditional dominance by men and the gendered division of labor remain (G. Wong 1980). Their protests have sensitized some men and have resulted in changes of attitudes and treatment of women, but other Asians, both women and men, perceived them as moving toward separatism. Asian American women are criticized for the possible consequences of their protests: weakening of the male ego, dilution of effort and resources in Asian American communities, destruction of working relationships between Asian men and women, setbacks for the Asian American cause, cooptation into the larger society, and eventual loss of ethnic identity for Asian Americans as a whole. In short, affiliation with the feminist movement is perceived as a threat to solidarity within their own community. All these forces have restricted the development of feminist consciousness among Asian American women and their active participation in the feminist movement. (For the similar experience of black women, see Hooks 1984.) Other barriers to political activism are the sexist stereotypes and discriminatory treatment Asian American women encounter outside their own communities. The legacy of the Chinese prostitute and the slave girl from the late nineteenth century still lingers. American involvement in Asian wars continues to perpetuate the image of Asian women as cheap whores and exotic sexpots (e.g., images such as "Suzie Wong" for Chinese women, the "geisha girl" in the Japanese teahouse, the bar girls in Vietnam). The "picture bride" image of Asian women is still very much alive, as U.S. soldiers and business men brought back Asian wives from China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam with the expectation that they would make perfect wives and homemakers. In the last few years, a systematic importation through advertisements in newspapers and magazines of Asian "mail-order brides" has continued their exploitation as commodities and has been intensively protested by many Asian American communities. Mistreatment, desertion, divorce, and physical abuse of Asian wives or war brides have been major concerns for Asian American women (Kim 1977). The National Committee Concerned with Asian Wives of U.S. Servicemen was specifically organized to deal with these problems. The result of these cross-pressures is an internal dilemma of choice This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Chow / ASIAN AMERICAN FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS 289 between racial and sexual identity at the personal level and between liberation for Asian Americans (in the broader sense for all racial and ethnic minority groups) and for women at the societal level. Lee (1971, p. 119) reported interviews with two Asian American feminists who reflected the mixed feelings of many Asian American women. One woman, Sunni, said: We are Asian women. Our identity is Asian, and this country recognizes us as such. We cannot afford the luxury of fighting our Asian counterparts.Weought to struggleforAsian liberationfirst,and I'm afraid that the "feminist"virtues will not be effective weapons. There is no sensein having only women'sliberationwhile we continue to sufferoppressionas Asians. (Lee 1971,p. 119) Another women, Aurora, took the opposite view: History has told us that women's liberation does not automatically come with political revolutions;Asian liberation will not necessarily bring Asian women'sliberation.... Weought to devoteour energiesto feminismbecausea feministrevolutionmaywell be theonly revolution that can bring peace among people. (Lee 1971,p. 119) When Asian American women began to recognize injustice and became aware of their own strengths as women, some developed a feminist consciousness, giving top priority to the fight against sexism and for women's rights. Some sought to establish women's caucuses within existing Asian American organizations (e.g., the Organization of Chinese American Women), while others attempted to organize separately outside of the male-dominated Asian American organizations (e.g., the Organization of Pan American Women and the National Network of Asian and Pacific Women). Asian American women began to organize formally around women's issues in the early 1970s. Yet many of these groups were short-lived because of lack of funding, grass-roots support, membership, credible leadership, or strong networking. Those that endured included women's courses and study groups sponsored by Asian American studies programs on college and university campuses, multilingual and multicultural service programs in women's health or mental health centers (e.g., the Asian Pacific Health Project in Los Angeles and the Asian Pacific Outreach Center in Long Beach, the Pacific Asian Shelter for Battered Women in Los Angeles), and writers' groups (Pacific Asian American Women's Writers West). This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 290 GENDER&SOCIETY / September1987 A few regional feminist organizations have been formally established and are in the process of expanding their influence and building up their networks from the grass-roots level to the national one. These organizations include the National Organization of Pan Asian Women, the National Network of Asian and Pacific women, Asian American Women United, the Pilipino Women's League, the Filipino American Women Network, the Vietnamese Women Association, and the Cambodian Women for Progress, Inc.2 These feminist organizations aim to advance the causes of women and racial and ethnic minorities, to build a strong Asian sisterhood, to maximize the social participation of Asian American women in the larger society, and to effect changes through collective efforts in education, employment, legislation, and information. The active participants in these feminist organizations are mostly middle-class Asian women, college students, professionals, political activists, and a few working-class women (G. Wong 1980). RACIAL CROSS-PRESSURES Joining the white feminist movement is a double-edged sword, for Asian American women experience oppression not only as women in a society dominated by men but also as minorities facing a variety of forms of racism that are not well understood by white feminists (Chia 1983; Chow 1982; Fujitomi and Wong 1976; Kumagai 1978; Loo and Ong 1982). The structural racism of American institutions, which limit access to resources, opportunities, prestige, privileges, and power, affects all the racial and ethnic minority groups of which Asian American women are a part (Chow forthcoming; Dill 1983; Hepburn et al. 1977; LaRue 1976; Loo and Ong 1982; Palmer 1983; Wong et al. 1979). Legal restrictions, as one form of racism, were used to exploit cheap labor, to control demographic growth, and to discourage family formation by Asians. These restrictions also hindered the development of gender consciousness and political power among Asian American women. Since the mid-1850s, the legal and political receptivity to Asian Americans, men and women, has been low in the United States (Elway 1979; Pian 1980). The U.S. immigration policies generally emphasized imported cheap labor and discouraged the formation of family unity. Some laws specifically targeted Asian American women. As early as the 1850s, the first antiprostitution law This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Chow / ASIAN AMERICAN FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS 291 was passed in San Francisco, barring traffic of Chinese women and slave girls. The Naturalization Act of 1870 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 forbade the entry of wives of Chinese laborers. In 1921, a special act directed against Chinese women kept them from marrying American citizens. The Exclusion Act of 1924 did not allow alienborn wives to enter the United States, but their children could come; this act separated many families until the passage of the Magnuson Act in 1943. The Cable Act of 1932 stipulated that American-born Chinese women marrying foreign-born Asians would lose their U.S. citizenship, although they could regain it through naturalization later. The passage of antimiscegenation laws (e.g., the California Anti-miscegenation Law in 1906), ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, barred marriage between whites and "Mongolians" and laborers of Asian origins, making it impossible for Asians to find mates in this country. As a result, bachelor communities mainly consisting of single Asian men became characteristic of many Asian groups, especially the Chinese (Glenn 1983). In spite of political pressures, repressive immigration laws, and restrictive and discouraging economic hardships, a few Asian women did come to the United States. Chinese women came in the 1850s, followed by Japanese women, who came during the late 1890s, and Filipino and Korean women who migrated in the early part of the twentieth century. These women were "picture brides," merchant wives, domestics, laborers, and prostitutes. In the popular literature, they were generally portrayed as degraded creatures, cheap commodities, and sex objects who took jobs from whites, spread disease and vice, and corrupted the young. Descriptions of their sexist, racist, and economically deprived living conditions reveal a personal and private resistance marked by passive acceptance, suppression of feelings, silent protest, withdrawal, self-sacrifice, and hard work. (Aquino 1979; Gee 1971; Jung 1971; Louie 1971; J. Wong 1978; Yung 1986). The repressive immigration laws were repealed after World War II, and the number of Asian families immigrating to the United States increased. By 1980, the sex ratio was balanced for the first time in the history of this racial and ethnic group. Women now constitute half of the Asian American population (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1981). Although many of the repressive laws that conspired to bar the sociopolitical participation of Asian American men and women have changed, the long-term effect of cultural, socioeconomic, and political This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 292 GENDER & SOCIETY / September 1987 exploitation and oppression are still deeply felt, and there are new forms of discrimination and deprivation. The passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, setting restricted immigration quotas for family members of Asian American and Hispanic Americans, recalls earlier repressive legislation. As long as legal circumstances restrict the immigration of the mothers, daughters, and sisters of the Asian American women in the United States, the full development of their gender and feminist consciousness will be hampered. The long history of racism in the United States has left its mark on feminism. Some Asian American women feel repelled by the racial composition, insensitivity, and lack of receptivity of some white women in the feminist movement (Fong 1978; Yamada 1981). They argue that white feminists do not fully understand or include issues and problems that Asian American women confront. White feminists are not aware of or sympathetic to the differences in the concerns and priorities of Asian American women. Without understanding the history and culture of Asian American women, some white feminists have been impatient with the low level of consciousness among women of color and the slow progress toward feminism of Asian American women. Although some degree of acceptance of Asian American women and of women of color by certain segments of the white feminist movement has occurred, many problems remain (Bogg 1971; Dill 1983; Hepburn et al. 1977; Hooks 1984; Lee 1971). Ideological acceptance does not necessarily lead to full structural receptivity. Conscious and rigorous efforts have not been made by many of those active in white feminist organizations to recruit Asian American women and other women of color openly, to treat them as core groups in the movement, and to incorporate them in the organizational policy and decision-making levels. Palmer (1983) points out that ethnocentrism is a major reason that feminist organizations treat race and class as secondary and are not fully accepting women of color. Hooks (1984) is critical of a feminist movement based on the white women who live at the center and whose perspectives rarely include knowledge and awareness of the lives of women and men who live at the margin. Dill (1983, p. 131) states, "Political expediency drove white feminists to accept principles that were directly opposed to the survival and well-being of blacks in order to seek to achieve more limited advances for women." The same is true for Asian American women. This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Chow / ASIAN AMERICAN FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS 293 Inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior of white women are highly evident in the "token" membership of minority women in some feminist organizations, which indicates simply a superficial invitation to join. For women of color, these frustrations of not being included in the "white women's system" run parallel to those experiences of white women who try to break into the "old boy's network." Consequently, Asian American women feel more comfortable making allies with women of color (e.g., the National Institute for Women of Color) than with their white counterparts. While there are interethnic problems among Asian American women and between them and other women of color, social bonding and group allegiance are much more readily established, and common issues are more easily shared on the basis of race and ethnicity. A separate movement for women of color may be a viable alternative for the personal development of Asian American women and other women of color and for their struggle for liberation and social equality. ECONOMICCONDITIONS AND CLASSCLEAVAGES Economic exploitation and class cleavages also account for the limited development of feminist consciousness and political activism among Asian American women. American capitalism demands cheap labor and the economic subordination of certain groups, resulting in a dual or split labor market. Certain minorities, primarily blacks, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans, are treated as internal colonized groups exploited culturally, politically, and economically (Almquist 1984; Blauner 1972; Bonacich 1972). Asian American women have lived in racially segregated internal colonies such as Chinatown, Little Tokyo, and Little Saigon. They have experienced social isolation, ghettoization, poverty, and few opportunities for personal growth and emancipation. Limited resources and lack of access to information, transportation, and social services have made them rely on their families for support and protection. They must also work to maintain them financially. The labor force participation of Asian American women is much higher than that of white and black women (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1983), but many of them have worked in the secondary labor market sector, which is characterized by long working hours, low pay, and low prestige. Although their educational levels are relatively high, 70 percent are concentrated in clerical, service, and blue-collar work, and are facing tremendous underemployment (U.S. Bureau of the Census This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 294 GENDER & SOCIETY / September 1987 1983; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 1978). Cultural values that emphasize hard work and that place a stigma on idleness prevent Asian American women from not working and going on welfare. Asian American households generally have a greater number of multiple breadwinners per family than the general U.S. population. The financial burdens on many Asian American women pressure them to continue struggling for economic survival for the good of their families, sacrificing their own interests, and suppressing their feelings and frustrations even in the face of gender and racial discrimination. They have little time to examine the implications of their economic situations; they do not fully understand the dynamics of class position; and they are not likely to challenge the existing power structure. How economic and class conditions hinder feminist consciousness and political activism is evident for Chinese working-class women living in Chinatowns in many cities. Subject to the impact of internal colonization, their work world is an ethnic labor market, offering few good jobs, low pay, long hours, limited job advancement, and relative isolation from the larger society. The film Sewing Woman (Dong 1982) vividly describes the ways in which a working-class Chinese woman attempts to balance her family, work, and community responsibilities. Unionization of garment factory workers in Chinatown is only the beginning of a long process of political struggle for these women.3 In a study of Chinatown women, Loo and Ong (1982) identify the major reasons for the lack of integration of these working-class women into the feminist movement. First, Chinatown women do not relate comfortably to people outside their ethnic subgroup, which produces social distancing and alienation. Second, Chinatown women face varied problems, so no political movement that addresses only one of these will claim their allegiance. Third, although the women's movement aims to improve conditions for all women, the specific concerns of Chinatown's women are often not those of the women's movement. For instance, health, language, and cultural adjustment are major issues for low-income immigrant women. These are not the foci of the women's movement. Fourth, Loo and Ong demonstrate that the psychological profile of Chinatown women is not that of political activists. Chinatown women lack a sense of personal efficacy or control over outcomes in their lives, do not have a systematic understanding of the structural and cultural elements of a society that produces sexism, and tend to blame This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Chow / ASIAN AMERICAN FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS 295 themselves for social problems. And finally, Chinatown women perceive themselves as having more in common with Chinatown men than with white middle-class women. Although class cleavages exist among Asian American women, political allegiance is easily achieved because of racial bonding. Initially, the highly educated and professional, middle-class Asian American woman organized politically and involved themselves in the feminist movement, in some cases organizing Asian American women's groups (G. Wong 1980). Although some of these groups may tend to advance middle-class interests, such as career mobility, there have also been efforts to incorporate the needs of working-class Asian American women. Because race and ethnicity cut across classes and provide a base for political identification, economic barriers are much easier to overcome among Asian American women than between them and white women. Nevertheless, there is still a great need to address issues concerning working-class Asian American women and to mobilize them to join feminist efforts. CULTURAL FACTORS AND BARRIERS Asiatic and U.S. cultures alike tend to relegate women to subordinate status and to work in a gendered division of labor. Although Asiatic values emphasizing education, achievement, and diligence no doubt have accounted for the high aspirations and achievements of some Asian American woman, certain Asiatic values, especially when they are in conflict with American ideas, have discouraged Asian women from actively participating in the feminist movement (Chow 1982, 1985). Adherence to Asiatic values of obedience, familial interest, fatalism, and self-control may foster submissiveness, passivity, pessimism, timidness, inhibition, and adaptiveness, rather than rebelliousness or political activism. Acceptance of the American values of independence, individualism, mastery of one's environment through change, and self-expression may generate self-interest, aggressiveness, initiative, and expressive spontaneity that tend to encourage political activism; but these are, to a large extent, incompatible with the upbringing of Asian American women. Although the cultural barriers seem to pose a greater problem internally for Asian American women, a lack of knowledge and understanding of the cultural and language problems faced by Asian American women widens the gap between them and white women This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 296 GENDER&SOCIETY / September1987 (Moschkovich 1981). Further effort is needed to enhance cultural awareness and understanding in order for women of all kinds to develop a transcendent consciousness, a more inclusive experience of sisterhood. CONCLUSION Paradoxically, Asian American women (like other women of color) have much to gain from the white feminist movement; yet they have had a low level of participation in feminist organizations. Since feminist consciousness is a result as well as a source of feminist involvement, Asian American women have remained politically invisible and powerless. The development of feminist consciousness for Asian American women cannot be judged or understood through the experience of white women. Conversely, white women's understanding and definition of feminist consciousness needs to be more thoroughly rooted in the experiences of women of color. The same cross-pressures that hinder the political development of women of color could be a transcending political perspective that adds gender to their other consciousness and thus broadens political activism. NOTES 1. Accordingto the 1980Census, thereare 3.5 million Asian Americansin this country,constituting 1.5 percentof the total U.S. population. Womenconstitute51 percentof the total Asian Americanpopulation in the United States. 2. Pilipino and Filipino are acceptableterms used to describepeople from the Philippines andcan be usedinterchangeably.The U.S. Bureauof Censushas usedthe termFilipino since 1900.Now Filipino is a commonly used termfor the group and it also can be found in Webster'sDictionary. 3. Personaldiscussionwith theunion representativein Local23-25of theILGWU in New YorkChinatown. REFERENCES Almquist, ElizabethM. 1984."Raceand Ethnicityin the Livesof MinorityWomen." Pp. 423-453in Women:A FeministPerspective,editedby Jo Freeman.3rded. Palo Alto, CA:Mayfield. This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Chow / ASIAN AMERICAN FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS 297 Aquino, Belinda A. 1979. "The History of Philipino Women in Hawaii." Bridge 7:17-21. Blauner, Robert. 1972. Racial Oppression in America. New York: Harper and Row. Blumberg, Rhoda Lois. 1982. "Women as Allies of Other Oppressed Groups: Some Hypothesized Links Between Social Activism, Female Consciousness, and Feminism." Paper presented at the Tenth World Congress of the International Sociological Association, August 16-22, Mexico City. Bogg, Grace Lee. 1971. "The Future: Politics as End and as Means." Pp. 112-115 in Asian Women, edited by Editorial Staff. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Bonacich, Edna. 1972. "A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism: The Split Labor Market" American Sociological Review 37:547-559. Cade, Toni. 1970. The Black Woman. New York: Mentor. Chia, Alice Yun. 1983. "Toward a Holistic Paradigm for Asian American Women's Studies: A Synthesis of Feminist Scholarship and Women of Color's Feminist Politics." Paper presentedat the Fifth Annual Conference of the National Women's Studies Association, Columbus, OH. Chow, Esther Ngan-Ling. 1982. Acculturation of Asian American Professional Women. Washington, DC: National Institute of Mental Health, Department of Health and Human Services. ---1985. "Acculturation Experience of Asian American Women." Pp. 238-251 in Beyond Sex Roles, edited by Alice G. Sargent 2nd ed. St Paul, MN: West "The Women's Liberation Movement: Where Are All the Asian ---Forthcoming. American Women?" In Asian American Women, edited by Judy Yung and Diane Yen-Mei Wong. San Francisco, CA: Asian American Women United. Christiansen-Ruffman, Linda. 1982. "Women's Political Culture and Feminist Political Culture." Paper presented at the Tenth World Congress of the International Sociological Association, Mexico City. Dill, Bonnie Thorton. 1983. "Race, Class, and Gender: Prospects for an Inclusive Sisterhood." Feminist Studies 9:131-150. Dong, Arthur. 1982. Sewing Women. San Francisco: Deep Focus. Elway, Rita Fujiki. 1979. "Strategies for Political Participation of Asian/Pacific Women." Pp. 133-139 in Civil Rights Issues of Asian and Pacific Americans: Myths and Realities. Washington, DC: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Fallis, Guadalupe Valdes. 1974. "The Liberated Chicana-A Struggle Against Tradition." Women: A Journal of Liberation 3:20. Fong, Katheryn M. 1978. "Feminism Is Fine, But What's It Done for Asian America?" Bridge 6:21-22. Fujitomi, Irene and Dianne Wong. 1976. "The New Asian-American Women." Pp. 236-248 in Female Psychology: The Emerging Self, edited by Susan Cox. Chicago, IL: Science Research Association. Gee, Emma. 1971. "Issei: The First Women." Pp. 8-15 in Asian Women, edited by Editorial Staff. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Glenn, Evelyn. 1983. "Split Household, Small Producer and Dual Wage Earner: An Analysis of Chinese-American Family Strategies." Journal of Marriage and Family 45:35-46. Green, Pearl. 1979. "The Feminist Consciousness." Sociological Quarterly 20:359-374. Hepburn, Ruth Ann, Viola Gonzalez, and Cecilia Preciado de Burcaga. 1977. "The This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 298 GENDER & SOCIETY / September 1987 Chicana as Feminist." Pp. 266-273 in Beyond Sex Roles, edited by Alice Sargent. St. Paul, MN: West. Hooks, Bell. 1984. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Boston, MA: South End Press. Houston, L. N. 1982. "Black Consciousness Among Female Undergraduates at a Predominantly White College: 1973 and 1979." Journal of Social Psychology 118:289-290. Jung, Betty. 1971. "Chinese Immigrant Women." Pp. 18-20 in Asian Women, edited by Editorial Staff. Berkeley, CA.: University of California. Kim, Bok-Lim. 1977. "Asian Wives of U.S. Servicemen: Women in Shadows." Amerasia Journal 4:91-115. Kumagai, Gloria L. 1978. "The Asian Women in America." Bridge 6:16-20. LaRue, Linda. 1976. "The Black Movement and Women's Liberation." Pp. 216-225 in Female Psychology: The Emerging Self, edited by Susan Cox. Chicago, IL: Science Research Associates. Lee, G. M. 1971. "One in Sisterhood." Pp. 119-121in Asian Women, edited by Editorial Staff. Berkeley, CA.: University of California. Ling, Susie and Sucheta Mazumdar. 1983. "Editorial: Asian American Feminism." Cross-Currents 6:3-5. Loo, Chalsa and Paul Ong. 1982. "Slaying Demons With a Sewing Needle: Feminist Issues for Chinatown Women." Berkeley Journal of Sociology 27:77-88. Lott, Juanita and Canta Pian. 1979. Beyond Stereotypes and Statistics: Emergence of Asian and Pacific American Women. Washington, DC: Organization of Pan Asian American Women. Louie, Gayle. 1971. "Forgotten Women." Pp. 20-23 in Asian Women, edited by Editorial Staff. Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press. Moschkovich, J. 1981. "-But I Know You, American Women." Pp. 79-84 in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by C. Moraga and G. Anzaldua. Watertown, MA: Persephone. Palmer, Phyllis Marynick. 1983. "White Women/Black Women: The Dualism of Female Identity and Experience in the United States." Feminist Studies 9:152-170. Pian, Canta. 1980. "Immigration of Asian Women and the Status of Recent Asian Women Immigrants." Pp. 181-210 in The Conference on the Educational and Occupational Needs of Asian Pacific American Women. Washington, DC: National Institute of Education. Terrelonge, Pauline. 1984. "Feminist Consciousness and Black Women." Pp. 557-567 in Women: A Feminist Perspective, edited by Jo Freeman. 3rd ed. Palo Alto, CA.: Mayfield. U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1981. 1980 Census of Population: Supplementary Reports. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1983. 1980 Census of Population: Detailed Population Characteristics. Washington, DC: Department of Commerce. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 1978. Social Indicators of Equality for Minorities and Women. Washington, DC: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Weitz, Rose. 1982. "Feminist Consciousness Raising, Self-Concept, and Depression." Sex Roles 8:231-241. Wong, Germaine Q. 1980. "Impediments to Asian-Pacific-American Women Organizing." Pp. 89-103 in The Conference on the Educational and Occupational Needs This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Chow / ASIAN AMERICAN FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS 299 of Asian Pacific American Women. Washington, DC: National Institute of Education. Wong, Joyce Mende. 1978. "Prostitution: San Francisco Chinatown, Mid and Late Nineteenth Century." Bridge 6:23-28. Wong, Nellie, Merle Woo, and Mitsuye Yamada. 1979.3 Asian American WritersSpeak Out on Feminism. San Francisco, CA.: SF Radical Women. Woo, Margaret. 1971. "Women + Man = Political Unity." Pp. 115-116 in Asian Women, edited by Editorial Staff. Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press. Yamada, Mitsuye. 1981. "Asian Pacific American Women and Feminism." Pp. 71-75 in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by C. Moraga and G. Anzaldua. Watertown, MA: Persephone. Yung, Judy. 1986. Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial History. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. Esther Ngan-Ling Chow is Professor of Sociology at the American University, Washington, DC. A feminist scholar and community activist, she has written on Chinese women, Asian American women, and women of color. This content downloaded from 199.17.25.195 on Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:04:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Invisibility is an Unnatural 35 Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American Woman Mitsuye Yamada Last year for the Asian segment of the Ethnic American Literature course I was teaching, I selected a new anthology entitled Aiiieeeee! compiled by a group of outspoken Asian American writers. During the discussion of the long but thoughtprovoking introduction to this anthology, one of my students blurted out that she was offended by its militant tone and that as a white person she was tired of always being blamed for the oppression of all the minorities. I noticed several of her classmates' eyes nodding in tacit agreement. A discussion of the "militant" voices in some of the other writings we had read in the course ensued. Surely, I pointed out, some of these other writings have been just as, if not more, militant as the words in this introduction? Had they been offended by those also but failed to express their feelings about them? To my surprise, they said they were not offended by any of the Black American, Chicano or American Indian writings, but were hard-pressed to explain why when I asked for an explanation. A little further discussion revealed that they "understood" the anger expressed by the Black and Chicanos and they "empathized" with the frustrations and sorrow expressed by the American Indian. But the Asian Americans?? Then finally, one student said it for all of them: "It made me angry. Their anger made me angry, because I didn't even know the Asian Americans felt oppressed. I didn't expect their anger." At this time I was involved in an academic due process procedure begun as a result of a grievance I had filed the previous semester against the administrators at my college. I had filed a grievance for violation of my rights as a teacher who had worked in the district for almost eleven years. My student's remark "Their anger made me angry ... I didn't expect their anger," explained for me the reactions of some of my own colleagues as well as the reactions of the administrators during those previous months. The grievance procedure was a timeconsuming and emotionally draining process, but the basic principle was too important for me to ignore. That basic principle was that I, an individual teacher, do have certain rights which are given and my superiors cannot, should not, violate them with impunity. When this was pointed out to them, however, they responded with shocked sur prise that I, of all people, would take them to task for violation of what was clearly written policy in our college district. They all seemed to exclaim, "We don't understand this; this is so uncharacteristic of her; she seemed such a nice person, so polite, so obedient, so non-troublemaking." What was even more surprising was once they were forced to acknowledge that I was determined to start the due process action, they assumed I was not doing it on my own. One of the administrators suggested someone must have pushed me into this, undoubtedly some of "those feminists" on our campus, he said wryly. In this age when women are clearly making themselves visible on all fronts, I, an Asian American woman, am still functioning as a "front for those feminists" and therefore invisible. The realization of this sinks in slowly. Asian Americans as a whole are finally coming to claim their own, demanding that they be included in the multicultural history of our country. I like to think, in spite of my administrator's myopia, that the most stereotyped minority of them all, the Asian American woman, is just now emerging to become part of that group. It took forever. Perhaps it is important to ask ourselves why it took so long. We should ask ourselves this question just when we think we are emerging as a viable minority in the fabric of our society. I should add to my student's words, "because I didn't even know they felt oppressed," that it took this long because we Asian American women have not admitted to ourselves that we were oppressed. We, the visible minority that is invisible. I say this because until a few years ago I have been an Asian American woman working among non-Asians in an educational institution where most of the decision-makers were men*; an Asian American woman thriving under the smug illusion that I was not the stereotypic image of the Asian woman because I had a career teaching English in a community college. I did not think anything assertive was necessary to make my point. People who know me, I reasoned, the ones who count, know who I am and what I think. Thus, even when what I considered a veiled racist remark was made in a casual social setting, I would "let it go" because it was pointless to argue with people who didn't even know their remark was racist. I had supposed that I was practicing passive resistance while being stereotyped, but it was so passive no one noticed I was resisting; it was so much my expected role that it ultimately rendered me invisible. My experience leads me to believe that contrary to what I thought, I had actually been contributing to my own stereotyping. Like the hero *It is hoped this will change now that a black woman is Chancellor of our college district. In Ralph Ellison's novel The Invisible Man, I had become invisible to white Americans, and it clung to me like a bad habit. Like most bad habits, this one crept up on me because I took it in minute doses like Mithradates' poison and my mind and body adapted so well to it I hardly noticed it was there. For the past eleven years I have busied myself with the usual chores of an English teacher, a wife of a research chemist, and a mother of four rapidly growing children. I hadn't even done much to shatter this particular stereotype: the middle class woman happy to be bringing home the extra income and quietly fitting into the man's world of work. When the Asian American woman is lulled into believing that people perceive her as being different from other Asian women (the submissive, subservient, ready-to-please, easy-to-get-along-with Asian woman), she is kept comfortably content with the state of things. She becomes ineffectual in the milieu in which she moves. The seemingly apolitical middle class woman and the apolitical Asian woman constituted a double invisibility. I had created an underground culture of survival for myself and had become in the eyes of others the person I was trying not to be. Because I was permitted to go to college, permitted to take a stab at a career or two along the way, given "free choice" to marry and have a family, given a "choice" to eventually do both, I had assumed I was more or less free, not realizing that those who are free make and take choices; they do not choose from options proffered by "those out there." I, personally, had not "emerged" until I was almost fifty years old. Apparently through a long conditioning process, I had learned how not to be seen for what I am. A long history of ineffectual activities had been, I realize now, initiation rites toward my eventual invisibility. The training begins in childhood; and for women and minorities, whatever is started in childhood is continued throughout their adult lives. I first recognized just how invisible I was in my first real confrontation with my parents a few years after the outbreak of World War II. During the early years of the war, my older brother, Mike, and I left the concentration camp in Idaho to work and study at the University of Cincinnati. My parents came to Cincinnati soon after my father's release from Internment Camp (these were POW camps to which many of the Issei* men, leaders in their communities, were sent by the FBI), and worked as domestics in the suburbs. I did not see them too often because by this time I had met and was much influenced by a pacifist who was out on a "furlough" from a conscientious objectors' * Issei - Immigrant Japanese, living in the U.S. Camp in TVenton, North Dakota. When my parents learned about my "boy friend" they were appalled and frightened. After all, this was the period when everyone in the country was expected to be one-hundred percent behind the war effort, and the Nisei* boys who had volunteered for the Armed Forces were out there fighting and dying to prove how American we really were. However, during interminable arguments with my father and overheard arguments between my parents, I was devastated to learn they were not so much concerned about my having become a pacifist, but they were more concerned about the possibility of my marrying one. They were understandably frightened (my father's prison years of course were still fresh on his mind) about repercussions on the rest of the family. In an attempt to make my father understand me, I argued that even if I didn't marry him, I'd still be a pacifist; but my father reassured me that it was "all right" for me to be a pacifist because as a Japanese national and a "girl" it didn't make any difference to anyone. In frustration I remember shouting, "But can't you see, I'm philosophically committed to the pacifist cause," but he dismissed this with "In my college days we used to call philosophy, foolosophy," and that was the end of that. When they were finally convinced I was not going to marry "my pacifist," the subject was dropped and we never discussed it again. As if to confirm my father's assessment of the harmlessness of my opinions, my brother Mike, an American citizen, was suddenly expelled from the University of Cincinnati while I, "an enemy alien", was permitted to stay. We assumed that his stand as a pacifist, although he was classified a 4-F because of his health, contributed to his expulsion. We were told the Air Force was conducting sensitive wartime research on campus and requested his removal, but they apparently felt my presence on campus was not as threatening. I left Cincinnati in 1945, hoping to leave behind this and other unpleasant memories gathered there during the war years, and plunged right into the politically active atmosphere at New York University where students, many of them returning veterans, were continuously promoting one cause or other by making speeches in Washington Square, passing out petitions, or staging demonstrations. On one occasion, I tagged along with a group of students who took a train to Albany to demonstrate on the steps of the State Capitol. I think I was the only Asian in this group of predominantly Jewish students from NYU. People who passed us were amused and shouted "Go home and grow up." I suppose Governor Dewey, who refused to see us, assumed we were a group of adolescents without a cause as most college *Nisei - Second generation Japanese, born in the U.S. Students were considered to be during those days. It appears they weren't expecting any results from our demonstration. There were no newspersons, no security persons, no police. No one tried to stop us from doing what we were doing. We simply did "our thing" and went back to our studies until next time, and my father's words were again confirmed: it made no difference to anyone, being a young student demonstrator in peacetime, 1947. Not only the young, but those who feel powerless over their own lives know what it is like not to make a difference on anyone or anything. The poor know it only too well, and we women have known it since we were little girls. The most insidious part of this conditioning process, I realize now, was that we have been trained not to expect a response in ways that mattered. We may be listened to and responded to with placating words and gestures, but our psychological mind set has already told us time and again that we were born into a readymade world into which we must fit ourselves, and that many of us do it very well. This mind set is the result of not believing that the political and social forces affecting our lives are determined by some person, or a group of persons, probably sitting behind a desk or around a conference table. Just recently I read an article about "the remarkable track record of success" of the Nisei in the United States. One Nisei was quoted as saying he attributed our stamina and endurance to our ancestors whose characters had been shaped, he said, by their living in a country which has been contantly besieged by all manner of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes. He said the Nisei has inherited a steely will, a will to endure and hence, to survive. This evolutionary explanation disturbs me, because it equates the "act of God" (i.e. natural disasters) to the "act of man" (i.e., the war, the evacuation). The former is not within our power to alter, but the latter, I should think, is. By putting the "acts of God" on par with the acts of man, we shrug off personal responsibilities. I have, for too long a period of time accepted the opinion of others (even though they were directly affecting my life) as if they were objective events totally out of my control. Because I separated such opinions from the persons who were making them, I accepted them the way I accepted natural disasters; and I endured them as inevitable. I have tried to cope with people whose points of view alarmed me in the same way that I had adjusted to natural phenomena, such as hurricanes, which plowed into my life from time to time. I would readjust my dismantled feelings in the same way that we repaired the broken shutters after the storm. The Japanese have an all-purpose expression In their language for this attitude of resigned acceptance: "Shikataganai." "It can't be helped." "There's nothing I can do about it." It is said with the shrug of the shoulders and tone of finality, perhaps not unlike the "those-were-my-orders" tone that was used at the Nuremberg trials. With all the sociological studies that have been made about the causes of the evacuations of the Japanese Americans during World War II, we should know by now that "they" knew that the West Coast Japanese Americans would go without too much protest, and of course, "they" were right, for most of us (with the exception of those notable few), resigned to our fate, albeit bewildered and not willingly. We were not perceived by our government as responsive Americans; we were objects that happened to be standing in the path of the storm. Perhaps this kind of acceptance is a way of coping with the "real" world. One stands against the wind for a time, and then succumbs eventually because there is no point to being stubborn against all odds. The wind will not respond to entreaties anyway, one reasons; one should have sense enough to know that. I'm not ready to accept this evolutionary reasoning. It is too rigid for me; I would like to think that my new awareness is going to make me more visible than ever, and to allow me to make some changes in the "man made disaster" I live in at the present time. Part of being visible is refusing to separate the actors from their actions, and demanding that they be responsible for them. By now, riding along with the minorities' and women's movements, I think we are making a wedge into the main body of American life, but people are still looking right through and around us, assuming we are simply tagging along. Asian American women still remain in the background and we are heard but not really listened to. Like Musak, they think we are piped into the airwaves by someone else. We must remember that one of the most insidious ways of keeping women and minorities powerless is to let them only talk about harmless and inconsequential subjects, or let them speak freely and not listen to them with serious intent. We need to raise our voices a little more, even as they say to us "This is so uncharacteristic of you." To finally recognize our own invisibility is to finally be on the path toward visibility. Invisibility is not a natural state for anyone. Chapter 5 CHAPTER FIVE Cultural R masculine "One day I g in "Empty H our faces ont (Kim, 1993, otic aliens w never been a pression, Asi challenging standpoints. 1960s were t development movement a gen- American an articulating representatic for white women is part of a broader program of hegemonic recuperation, a program that has at its main focus the reconstruction of white "other," Asian women do not replace but merely substitute for white power" (p. 320). It is also important to note that as the racialized exotic women, and thus will be readily dismissed once the "real" mistress returns. The controlling images of Asian men and Asian women, exaggerated out of all proportion in Western representation, have created resentment and tension between Asian American women and men. Given this cul- tural milieu, many American-born Asians do not think of other Asians in sexual terms (Fung, 1994, p. 163). In particular, due to the persistent de sexualization of the Asian male, many Asian females do not perceive their ethnic counterparts as desirable marriage partners (Hamamoto, 1999, p. 42). In so doing, these women unwittingly enforce the Eurocentric der ideology that objectifies both sexes and racializes all Asians (see Collins, 1991, pp. 185-86). In a column to Asian Week, a weekly Asian American newspaper, Daniel Yoon (1993) reported that at a dinner dis- cussion hosted by the Asian American Students Association at his college, the Asian American women in the room proceeded, one after another, to describe how “Asian American men were too passive, too weak, too bor- ing, too traditional, too abusive, too domineering, too ugly, too greasy, too short, too ... Asian. Several described how they preferred white men, and how they never had and never would date an Asian man” (p. 16). Partly as a result of the racist constructions of Asian American womanhood and manhood and their acceptance by Asian Americans, intermarriage pat- terns are high, with Asian American women intermarrying at a much higher rate than Asian American men. Moreover, Asian women involved in intermarriage have usually married white partners (Agbayani-Siewert and Revilia, 1995, p. 156; Min, 1995, p. 22; Nishi, 1995, p. 128). In part , these intermarriage patterns reflect the sexualization of white racism that constructs white men as the most desirable sexual partners, frowns on Asian male-white women relations, and fetishizes Asian women as the embodiment of perfect womanhood. Viewed in this light, the high rate of interlocking system of sexism and racism" (Hamamoto, 1992, p. 42). projects proc portant task tures, constr forcibly excl Fightin ongoing wos however roc Asia or as b Frank Chin complained act "like Or ine Hong K praised the though The (quoted in American Asian one-dimen 110 CHAPTER FIVE aralar (for) பெண் passage, the narrator voices her mixed feelings toward the Chinese Amer- ican community: ex Chinand otha 20m, Lisa 24 I looked at their ink drawings of poor people snagging their neighbors' flotage with long flood hooks and pushing the girl babies on down the I anymore through our Chinatown, which tasks me with the old sayings and the stories. The swordswoman and I are not so dissimilar. May my people understand the resemblance so that I can return to them. (Kingston, 1977, p. 62) zbot and feminis sxana fired mas salonial figure போர் ternity, by casting Art cultural natio narimpositional di sie also engage independe of the best fem ir esample, Arthur sugh the practica a men have also ambiographical fo inmakers . Finally as just as Arthu Similarly, in a critique of Asian American sexual politics, Kayo Hatta's short video Otemba (1988) depicts a girl's-eye view of the final days of her mother's pregnancy as her father hopes and prays for the birth of a boy (see Tajima, 1991, p. 26). Stripped of the privileges of masculinity, some Asian American men have attempted to reassert male authority by subordinating feminism to nationalist concerns. Lisa Lowe (1991) argued that this identity politics displaces gender differences into a false opposition of “nationalism and "assimilation." From this limited perspective, Asian American feminists who expose Asian American sexism are cast as "assimilationist," as be- traying Asian American “nationalism." Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1977) and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club (1989) are the targets of such nationalist criticisms. Frank Chin, Ben Tong, and others have accused these and other women novelists of feminizing Asian American literature by exaggerating the community's patriarchal struc- ture, thus undermining the power of Asian American men to combat the racist stereotypes of the dominant white culture. For example, when Kingston's The Woman Warrior received favorable reviews, Chin accused her of attempting to “cash in on the feminist fad” (Chan, 1994, p. 528). Another Asian American male had this to say about the movie The Joy Luck Club: ling portrays her Conclusion Velogical reptes te and mainten Hian American moting forms: A and Asian wome Hlehough in ap ed justify whil manhood and v The movie was powerful. But it could have been powerful and inclusive , if at least one of the Asian male characters was portrayed as something other than monstrously evil or simply wimpy . We are used to this mese sage coming out of Hollywood, but it disturbed me deeply to hear the bet, and class. F parallel but in mong these ca rodintain their 120 RACISM AND CULTURAL RESISTANCE legacy possess ip-hop - of U.S. colonization of the Philippines: “The signifiers Filipinos' and Philippines' evoke colonialist meanings and cultural redactions which s inordinate power to shape the fates of the writers and of Filipino peoples everywhere” (p. 52). Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee (1982), a Korean American text, likewise challenges the myth of U.S. benevolence Asia by tracing the impact of colonial and imperial damage and dislo- cation on the Korean subject (Lowe, 1994, p. 61). Sa-I-Gu, an indepen- dent video about the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles rebellion, further illuminates the failure of immigration for first-generation Korean women. Consisting of taped interviews with six first-generation Korean women, all of whom had their businesses destroyed during the 1992 rebellion, the video details how immigration has brought them financial loss, not gain; how their businesses were funded with capital from the homeland, not re- sources amassed in the United States; and how their family life has dete- riorated as a result of immigration (James, 1999, p. 166). As Sau-Ling Cynthia Wong (1993) suggested, "To the extent that most typical cases of Asian immigration to the United States stem from an imbalance of resources writ large in the world economy, it holds in itself the seed of exploitation" (p. 53). type of the By exposinghe assion of the ormalized the narratiset Ezed Asia masculinize te tead, they are atly unequalis ese writer 11 women It womega er short cor 6) depisze Controlling Images, Gender, and Cultural Nationalism Cultural nationalism has been crucial in Asian Americans' struggles for self-determination. Emerging in the early 1970s, this unitary Asian American identity was primarily racial, male, and heterosexual. Asian American literature produced in those years highlighted Chinese and Japanese American male perspectives, obscuring gender and other inter- community differences (Kim, 1993). Asian American male writers, con- cerned with recuperating their identities as men and as Americans, objectified both white and Asian women in their writings (Kim, 1990, 1.70). In a controversial essay titled “Racist Love," Frank Chin and Jef- frey Paul Chan (1972) pointed to the stereotype of the emasculated Asian pruzzaman are lots American man: The white stereotype of Asian is unique in that it is the only racial stereotype completely devoid of manhood. Our nobility is that of an Todaamai 117 IDEOLOGICAL RACISM AND CULTURAL RESISTANCE lebasement les to the end wyen 2351 nd being a wonder heung (1983 moking gender ine, and try slasting in urage, and creating Wong (1989) An Anthology of his Wong operated by "non-Christian, when women's lives and binds them to Asian American men in what Collins (1991) called a "love and trouble" tradition (p. 184). Because the racial oppression of Asian Americans involves the "feminization" of Asian men (Said, 1979), Asian American women are caught between the need to expose the problems of male privilege and the desire to unite with men to contest the overarching racial ideology that confines them both. As Cheung (1990) suggested, Asian Ameri- can women may be simultaneously sympathetic and angry toward the men in their ethnic community: sensitive to the men's marginality but resentful of their sexism (p. 239). Maxine Hong Kingston's writings seem to reflect these conflicting emotions. As discussed above, in the opening legend of China Men, the male protagonist Tang Ao is cap- tured in the Land of Women (North America), where he is forced to become a woman-to have his feet bound, his ears pierced, his eye- brows plucked, his cheeks and lips painted. Cheung (1990) argued that this legend is double-edged, pointing not only to the racist debasement of Chinese Americans in their adopted country but also to the subju- gation of Chinese women both in China and in the United States (p.240). Although the effeminization suffered by Tang Ao is brutal, it is the same mutilation that many Chinese women were for centuries forced to bear. According to Goellnicht's (1992) reading of Kingston's work, this opening myth suggests that the author both deplores the emasculation of her forefathers by mainstream America and critiques the Confucian patriarchal practices of her ancestral homeland (p. 194). In China Men, Kingston also showed no acceptance of sexist practices by immigrant men. The father in this novel/autobiography is depicted as a broken man who attempts to reassert male authority by denigrat- ing those who are even more powerless-the women and children in his family (Cheung, 1990, p. 241; Goellnicht, 1992, p. 200). (1977) reveals the narrator's contradictory attitudes toward her childhood Along the same lines , Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior "home," which is simultaneously a site of "woman hatred” and an area of resistance against the racism of the dominant culture. The community that nourishes her imagination and suffuses her with warmth is the same mist cultural sabato use of its potention the following as American literate American female may posited in die ndered insbe of loving and see of Chinese Are community that relegates to the role of serving lled me women to an inferior position, limiting them men (Rabine, 1987, pp. 477–78). In the following 119 CHAPTER FIVE 290NDA ANIM ideological assaults on their gender identities, Asian American cultural work- ers have engaged in a wide range of oppositional projects to defend Asian American manhood and womanhood. In the process, some have embraced a masculinist cultural nationalism, a stance that marginalizes Asian American women and their needs. Though sensitive to the emasculation of Asian American men, Asian American feminists have pointed out that Asian American nationalism insists on a fixed masculinist identity, thus obscuring gender differences . Though divergent, both the nationalist and feminist po sitions advance the dichotomous stance of man or woman, gender or race or class, without recognizing the complex relationality of these categories of op- pression. It is only when Asian Americans recognize the intersections of race, gender , and class that we can transform the existing hierarchical structure. nocieties tend sive binaries: citizen or al ference of pri ni disempowerin Notes 1. In recent years, Asian Americans' rising consciousness, coupled with their phenomenal growth in certain regions of the United States, has led to a signifi- cant increase in inter-Asian marriages (e.g., Chinese Americans to Korean Amer- icans). In a comparative analysis of the 1980 and 1990 Decennial Census, Larry Hajimi Shinigawa and Gin Young Pang (1996) found a dramatic decrease of in- terracial marriages and a significant rise of inter-Asian marriages. In California (where 39 percent of all Asian Pacific Americans reside), inter-Asian marriages increased from 21.1 percent in 1980 to 64 percent in 1990 of all intermarriages for Asian American husbands, and from 10.8 percent to 45 for Asian American wives during the same time period. 2. The excerpt from Cao Tan's poem, "Tomorrow I Will Be Home," appeared in War and Exile: A Vietnamese Anthology, edited by N. N. Bich, 1989, Springfield, VA: Vietnam PEN Abroad. 3. I thank Takeo Wong for calling my attention to this film. aldass privileg Thus, white/male Jack/female/lab- White, male, bo pilot are subord percent mother kind of exclusive catego detomous thi tengons amor difference. Su the system of pression. By of their Experienc 122
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The first journal talks about controlling the images, gender and cultural nationalism of the Asian
American. The Asian American woman despises the Asian man to an extent they feel they
cannot be associated with them. They feel their men are not worthy of their attention and they are
not willing in any way to be associated with them sexually. The Asian Americans men even
though have their women despise them; most of them control their business with funding from
Asia. This has resulted in unfair distribution of resources as the resources are leaving Asia to
America and none is going to Asia.
In Asia the woman is subdued to the role ...


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