Posts

Being Asian American in "Diasporic Poetics: Asian Writing in the US, Canada and Australia"

In looking into the similarities between Asian Americans and Asian Australians, I came across this book “Diasporic Poetics: Asian Writing in the US, Canada and Australia” by Timothy Yu. I was curious to see what connections and differences he saw in culture generation in these countries. What does the term “Asian American” mean? When the term “Asian American” was first used, it was during the civil rights movement in the late 60s-70s to unite activists of Asian descent behind a common political banner. It became over time, however, quite a “unitary identity” that was homogenous, and essentialized. As Lisa Lowe wrote, Asian American cultural nationalism became a reproduction of US nationalism, and ignored the variation in the material realities of Asian Americans. After that Asian Americanists/studies people began to acknowledge that, for example, not everyone was from China or Japan but from all over Asia and South East Asia, and could not be assumed to have any intrinsic similarities

On “13 Unwelcome Truths: On Chinese International Students and Asian American Studies”

First of all, why is this article so aggressive HAH. The tone of this author. In an earlier rendition on Angry Asian Man she titled the piece “ON CHINESE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS (OR, SORRY IF THIS COMES OFF A LITTLE YELLOW PERIL”. Fair, it does come off that way. But it's not if you read more closely and with nuance…  The author erin Khue Ninh makes the case that American higher education institutions are failing Chinese international students — by treating them like easy money, not providing mental health support, by failing to be stringent on policies around cheating and academic responsibilities. Things that are uncomfy to talk about like cheating and lack of English abilities are real issues, but when administrators chose to ignore this, they are exploiting these students who may ˘— but not always — be paying full tuition. They are treating them as expendable and not worth caring for. What is also quite sad and tenuous is the fact that many Asian American college students tak