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I'll be frank - I had no idea what I was going to post about when I opened up the blog today. I don't feel like I've been getting into many of the articles and chapters we read lately, so I decided I should read the other posts and see if anything you guys had posted seemed like something I could explore as well. So, I think this post isn't really a response to Teresa's post, but maybe a bit inspired by the topics she brought up.

I grew up in a city that had a large population of Asian-Americans, and I think many non-Asian residents there at least had a basic familiarity with the Asian-American community that was thriving in the city. Types of food, acknowledgment that there were different ethnicities of "Asian", familiarity with hearing Asian languages spoken out-and-about, among other things, come to mind. However, after coming to college, apart from the much smaller population of Asian-Americans on campus that I'm used to, my non-Asian friends seem to have a lack of understanding and, at least in my mind, respect for Asian-American culture on campus. (Culture seems like the wrong word, but I can't figure out a good way to put it otherwise.) Conversations in which I mention that I'm studying Japanese at Pomona inevitably lead to someone talking about sushi; International Festival is exciting for my friends because they get to eat lots of tasty food, none of which they've heard of before; it's super cool that I'm in the taiko club here, but it's not super cool that any of my friends are doing it because they're Asian or Asian-American and it's more "normal" for them to be in a club like that. (Gosh this is such a disjointed train of thought, my bad. It's kind of like I'm just spewing words.)

So I guess I'm wondering, in conjunction with Teresa's thoughts about the Asian-American community itself at Scripps... what can I or others to do increase the dialogue and understanding between Asian-American and non-Asian-American students on campus? Is it something that others see as a problem?

"Strange Foods”

In the essay “Critical Visions: The Representations and Resistance of Asian Women” by Lynn Lu in our Dragon Ladies book, food from different ethnicities is related to the cultural and sexual differences of Asian women. Lynn uses bell hook’s essay to state that Asian cultures, or that of other ethnicities, are like spices; they act as “seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture”. I thought that Lynn’s comment about how using food for attention can backfire where, instead of challenging stereotypes and providing new perspectives, different cultures and thus people are seen as “objects to be consumed” was simple, yet insightful. Even though this idea seems quite obvious, I found myself beginning to remember and further understand some conversations I have had in high school and with friends today.

I grew up mainly in Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas, which was an area largely made up of Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. My middle school and high school had roughly the same racial demographics, and as a result, whenever my classmates and I discussed foods we liked, I received many looks of disgust and/or surprise whenever I mentioned foods such as fish. Before my junior and senior year in high school, I knew very few people who ate fish; it was as if it was some sort of foreign food that only the brave or insane ate. Chinese food meant Panda Express, Indian food was invisible, and quite obviously, if no one ate cooked fish, the thought of raw fish in some types of sushi was disbelief. Most people hadn’t even heard of sushi, either with or without the raw fish.

Once junior/senior year in high school rolled around though, almost everyone in my classes could attest to having tried or liking Japanese food, by which I, and they, mean sushi. Going out to eat sushi had become the new, “in” thing to do on those Friday’s after school was out or weekend hang outs. Although I was quite slow on the uptake, I eventually realized that those I had spoken to years prior about foods I liked were finally eating some of said foods, but only because it had become socially acceptable to do so.

As I began to become aware of what was going on around me, I also began to observe a larger quantity of high-end restaurants at the Las Vegas Strip as places serving “Asian” foods. But, because these were supposed to be high-end, pricy restaurants, fusion foods became more and more popular with the simultaneous rise in Asian dishes. Waitresses and waiters increasingly could be assumed to be of an Asian background and the décor began taking on a more “Asian” feel, with pillowed seats, bamboo, waterfalls/wells, and red colored things. Granted, Las Vegas caters to many tourists, especially those from China, so perhaps the casinos and hotels were trying to draw in more customers in that regard, but I believe that these restaurants exemplify the quote above regarding cultures becoming a “seasoning”. Las Vegas is literally a place where people go to consume entertainment and different experiences that they would not otherwise be able to take part in. Yes, because some of the now offered foods are “new” and “exotic”, a larger group of people are drawn to and given the chance to understand that Asian food is indeed delicious. But because of the vacation and food fusion setting, the people, culture, and meals are twisted into objects that merely add excitement, and not thought, to the average mundane daily life.

Asian American Women and the Hukou System in China

Close to the end of the semester, I am sad to say goodbye to my Asian American Women's class. As an Economics and Math student, who has not taken any core courses before (I am a transfer student), this class has inspired me a lot.

The Angel Island story made me think about the migration process in relation to the inequality and discrimination that seemed to be normal behavior at that time. I am sure that the authorities of that time could cite many examples to support their policy decisions. I started to ask myself the question: We see our society today as relatively advanced but is it really advanced in view of the fact that discrimination still exists? We are all immigrants, so why therefore are European immigrants, Asian immigrants, and Mexican immigrants treated differently? The debate on immigration in American society appears never to terminate.

Stereotype has been one of the keywords of our class: The idea that an Asian girl is seen as a prostitute came as a big surprise to me. Human beings are the only species in the world who know how to organize, but they also love to categorize themselves. Initially a common ground is found between things but then this categorization starts to promote extension. There may be historical reasons for Asian women being seen in the role of a prostitute, but why should this stereotype continue? In today's American society, Asian women have achieved success in education. But still influential politicians on various occasions seem to compare Asian woman with races that lack of influence.

In the course of the class, I found an interesting phenomenon: the Chinese Hukou System is very similar to the immigration system in America. The Chinese Hukou System refers to a household registration record which officially identifies a person as a resident of an area and includes identifying information such as name, parents, spouse, and date of birth. However, within this system there are a number of inequalities:
1. The role of women is seen to be that of reproduction.
2. Cultural differences, and differing rights attached to those cultural differences, highlight the inequality in the Chinese Hukou System.
3. Social benefits, education and employment opportunities are directly linked to household registration and are designed to keep people in rural areas. Citizens must make numerous applications to obtain urban household registration and also pay a high price for non-agricultural household registration. If someone lives where they are not registered, he will be treated as a foreigner and will not be able to enjoy a variety of benefits, including adequate schooling and employment opportunities.
4. Even the process of marriage registration is controlled, and weddings cannot be conducted if the Ministry of Civil Affairs denies the request for marriage registration.

The status of women in China has always been inferior, but the problem is related to the environment: Here is America we have courses for women, but in China the oppression of women occurs without their realizing it. They continue to function according to the traditional culture, and in many areas interpret the inequality as a manifestation of virtue.
This class is not about human nature, but I want to record some of these insights into humanity, because I know that to overcome the evil in society, we must dare to recognize what is happening and longer be fooled into accepting injustice.

Domestic violence and the burden of proof

Watching the domestic violence presentation raised the question for me of the burden of proof. Shengwei's section on VAWA pointed out that to self-petition for a green card or visa, survivors must provide documentation of the abuse, and that Asian immigrant patients often cannot communicate to their doctors that they need such documentation. But shouldn't doctors record suspicions of abuse anyway? Why wouldn't this be a standard? Social justice circles got significantly exercised over the Wasilla buy-your-own-rape-kit initiative, but this is a similar concern. Emergency rooms, which provide a huge amount of medical care to immigrant and low-income women, receive public funding. They are a public institution, like the police who provide the assault kits; they're held to government standards. If I'm not grossly misunderstanding the situation, this is a case of low standards. The trouble is that we don't think it's the responsibility of service providers to anticipate the needs of the communities they serve, even in such reasonably predictable cases as this.

Similarly, it should not be surprising to any government institution with access to statistical records that a survivor of domestic abuse would not always want to press charges against her abuser. This is exacerbated, not lessened, in situations such as those covered by VAWA. The survivor's abuser may hold their documents; the abuser might have power over the people who could provide the survivor with testimonials. The abuser might even still have custody of their children. It could be very much in the survivor's best interest not to press charges, so why is the burden of proof on them?

AA youtubers

While we were discussing about Asian Americans on Youtube and whether they should be entitled to certain responsibilities in representing the Asian Americans in general, I felt very conflicted in my views. On one side, I feel that they should be able to create videos however they feel like Caucasian people can without the burden of being a good representative of a certain group. For example, a popular youtuber, sxephil, is a Caucasian man who is widely viewed on Youtube and has a segment on his videos called "WTF White People" where he tells weird stories he comes across that involve white people. This segment has received many views and positive reviews for its humorous and creative aspect. However, whenever I try imagining an Asian American trying to do the same thing, I can only think of the criticism and 'thumbs down' for it. I believe that too much pressure is placed upon Asian Americans to use youtube as an outlet to portray a positive image of Asian Americans. At the same time, I understand how being of a minority group, we should all feel compelled to present an image that goes beyond the stereotypical asian and start a culture where race is just a characteristic of a person rather than a defining factor. Nevertheless, through writing this article I guess I lean more toward not expecting everyone to be a good representative for their respective racial group and hope for people to just simply accept peoples' videos for what it is because I never look at videos of Asian American youtubers and expect it to be a representative of Asian Americans. Overall, youtube has been a great outlet for Asian Americans to enter media culture unlike they've been able to do before, especially with nigahiga (an Asian American) being the number one most subscribed youtube channel, and that in itself should be a commendable feat.

I found Vivian Loyola Dames' article, "Chamorro Women, Self-Determination, and the Politics of Abortion in Guam" to be very interesting, particularly because I had never heard about the abortion debate in Guam until reading this article. In high school, I knew a Guamanian girl who expressed her frustrations that so many students had no idea what Guam was, despite it being a U.S. territory. It seems crazy to me that the U.S. prides itself on being the land of the free, bringing democracy around the world when people haven't even heard of the countries we're supposedly saving. It wasn't until U.S. rule that matrilineage was outlawed in Guam and "patriarchical marriage laws were imposed," which is also interesting in the sense that most Americans think women have the most freedom here in the states. It seems to me that Western feminists look at child-bearing as being a source of female subordination because of this, yet they fail to understand that child-bearing was once a source of power and authority in Chamorro culture. But back to the abortion issue...honestly I've always been confused as to why abortion is such a hot debate when there are so many other pressing issues in the world. Why do people seem to get more wrapped up in saving fetuses, which aren't even real people yet, when no one seems to make much of a fuss when our grown men and women are sent to war? I don't mean to say that I think abortion shouldn't be taken seriously, but I just don't understand why it is one of the most controversial issues of our time. And on that note, without hoping to offend anyone, I don't think men should have a say in the issue at all. How could a man say that abortion should be illegal in all cases when he doesn't have the capability to know what it would be like to be raped by someone and be forced to give birth to and take care of that child for the rest of his life? And since it is a womens' issue, it is even more interesting to me that there is such a variety of opinions amongst those who share the same culture/other beliefs, as exemplified by the debate between mother and daughter on the issue in Guam. I'm starting to doubt that there will ever be consensus on the issue.

The Big Bad Representation Wolf

I have been reflecting more on whether it was important to have Asian-American representation within a variety of media. Specifically, I wanted to explore the issue of whether any visibility is better than no visibility. I think there is a general consensus that positive, rounded, complex depictions of Asian-Americans in the media are, if not desirable, than at least not overly detrimental. However, I would like to explore the ways in which even negative and/or stereotypical depictions of Asian-Americans (while not ideal, and obviously very harmful in a variety of ways) have positive value.

From our discussions in class on representations, there seems to be two criteria that are usually listed when evaluating the various roles Asian-Americans play in the media: whether the depiction was positive or negative in the sense that the role portrayed a "good" or "bad" character and whether the depiction was stereotypical or not. Moreover, these two criteria seem to be operate independently but are not exclusive. For instance, in class we were talking about Sandra Oh's character in Grey's Anatomy and how she was depicted positively but stereotypically. We also talked briefly in another class about KTown and one of the criticisms I repeatedly hear about KTown is that it may not be a stereotypical depiction of Asian-Americans, but it is not a positive depiction either. Finally, there are those roles like those that Anna May Wong often portrayed that were stereotypical as well as negative.

I would like to posit that all of these depictions, while not being "ideal" whatever that word means, have benefits in the long run despite their failings. At the very least, having any Asian-American actors at all means that there are Asian-Americans working in the film industries. Even when those depictions are questionable, such as in the case of Anna May Wong, having access to the film industry means gaining experience in those industries. With this experience, Anna May Wong, later in life, made her own films with what she believed were positive depictions of Chinese-identified individuals. As such, participation in the film industry allowed Anna May Wong to gain the skills and the connections to allow her to self-represent.

Nonetheless, my argument hinges on the belief that self-representation is ultimately good or at least better. Instinctively, I believe that the presence of self-representation, while not the ultimate good, benefits the overall collection of representations of Asian-Americans. As with any other group comprised of such a large variety of individuals and experiences, I think that adding more voices, covering a wider range of the representation possibilities will ultimately make the overall picture created by the media truer and do actual experiences more justice.

Psychological consequences resulting from acculturation on Asian American Women

Throughout the course of the semester, we had discussions on the problems Asian American Immigrants face when they immigrate to the United States from Asia, but never really about how these problems affect them psychologically or emotionally. This is something I have found rather interesting as we work on our group projects. My group decided to bring up the issue of Asians and Asian American Women and eating disorders. This somehow led to me reading about mental diseases Asian American Immigrants experience from acculturation issues after a discussion with a psychology professor.

On a larger level, it is easy to identify that one problem these immigrants may face are language barriers which we talked about with regard to the videos and readings on Cambodian/ Vietnamese Immigrants trying to retain their welfare. We also had quite a few readings with regard to the desire that many immigrants have to remain within their communities to preserve cultures from their homelands.

What we did not really talk about are mental disorders among Asian American Women. A collaborative research report on the Age of First Onset Major Depression in Chinese Americans mentioned that one of their most consistent findings in depression research is that women are more likely to become depressed, and this happens to do with acculturation issues. This is because as immigrants acculturate, culturally protective factors may be lost which leads to increased risk for depression.

In some discussion somewhere, we must have talked about how Asian/ Asian American parents try to keep their children in rather sheltered environments and seem to be over protective. But after reading this paper, it seemed to be that the reason for the actions of the older generation could be associated to the relationship between acculturation and depression which may be salient for those who migrate when they were older. This could have resulted from the stress of relocation, the loss of one’s support network and the need to adapt to a new environment. To deal with this, the older generations capitalize on family support and hence find it hard to give up their traditional ideals. It seems to be that this would have been an interesting topic to look further into as, at least for me, it really brought together some of the things we talked about in class and I guess made me sympathize with the fact that not only did these Asian American women that we have been talking about all semester have to deal with the stresses of moving to a new country, they were likely to suffer from depression and other psychological problems.

Asian American Community at Scripps College

I wasn't sure if I should post about this here, but I decided to just because I think its a really relevant issue at Scripps, and not just for Asian American women but all minority groups on campus.

Last semester, Scripps students started a blog called whosespaceisthisanyway.blogspot.com, which was a student effort to start a conversation about the lack of diversity and community at Scripps College. In my freshman year, I don't think I would have agreed with the posts and comments that have been made, but at a junior now, I definitely feel that there are many issues that need to be addressed at Scripps.

I came to Scripps expecting to learn more about myself. I joined various organizations and clubs, and met new people. As a first year, I also expected to find a really welcoming Asian American community to enhance and nurture my Scripps experience, and although I feel that I have grown, those communities have really disappointed me. I won't name them specifically, but I feel that some organizations, which developed to facilitate and support the development of Asian American identities and communities instead alienate and exclude the people they were supposed to help. I understand that there a rules and limits on resources which put a lot of pressure on the leaders to pick and choose people to be members of the group, but I think a lot of the time their biases and personal issues get in the way of their judgement, despite their insistence that it doesn't happen. I've been part of these groups for a long time and they talk a lot about acceptance and safe space - but when it comes down to it, they don't really live up to their claims. In fact, I think their exclusivity serves to breakdown the Asian American communities they want to build. I attribute this to the fact that the organization doesn't have a staff member responsible for supervising and advising the group. Although I respect the students who work hard to run these organizations, I think that the way they run and organize the group is exclusive and sketchy sometimes, for lack of a better word.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this....I guess I just wanted to express my disappointment in the Asian American community at Scripps and in Scripps for not better supporting these organizations so that people aren't excluded and prevented from participating. Because I feel that the point of these communities is for Asian American women to find support - despite the resources available, and I think ANYONE who wants to participate should be able to. But sadly, this isn't the case.

Asian American Women and Sex Education

One of the side effects of having a Facebook account in college is that I am routinely sent invitations to take surveys for various classes. Today I received one for an Asian American Psychology class focusing on how much education I've received from my parents regarding sex. Upon taking the survey and thinking about the topic some more, I've come to a conclusion: "not much."

The survey focused on whether people agreed or disagreed with statements such as these:
- "I don’t know if this goes for anyone else, but I don’t think Asian parents talk about sex at all."
- "After I got to a certain age, my mom liked to talk about it very briefly, just to give us “the talk” in short bursts I think. I don’t know. When I went home this past break, she asked me if I were a virgin and things, and I was just like, 'Mom, don’t worry about it'".
- "All my friends’ parents that are White—they’re so cool and relaxed and like, talking about sex and condoms and stuff"

I started thinking about it and I can't speak for anyone else because I'm sure different parents have different parenting styles, but from what I have heard and experienced, fairly conservative Asian immigrant parents don't like to have "the talk" with their children. They instead rely on public education and biology classes, choosing to skip the awkwardness of sex education. Thinking about the project topic my group is covering for our presentation, eating disorders in Asians and Asian American women, and how I have learned that many Asian American women do not feel comfortable speaking with their parents about their problems, I am wondering if Asian immigrant parents culturally do not feel comfortable discussing personal issues with their children at all and vice versa. I also wonder if things will change when more generations of Asians raised in America grow up and have their own children. Sex education is certainly a touchy topic in many different cultures, but perhaps the generation gap between Asian immigrant parents and their children makes it more of an issue.

Asians in the Library Song

I also reflected further on the YouTube videos shown in class, specifically the response video to the UCLA student’s racist rant. I approve of his use of humor and music, but the content of the song was sexist and did not address the root of her racist comments, it simply made fun of her racism and her gender. This does not provide the viewer with an effective way to combat racism, other than to demean and laugh at the person making racist comments, which is usually ineffective. I believe his methods would have been more beneficial to UCLA students, and other viewers, if he had given a historical context of the racist beliefs heard in her video and demonstrated ways in which UCLA’s Asian American students are effected today, as well as how to fight them. This type of video could inform and empower many people, instead of demeaning the single person responsible for this specific act of racism through hyper-sexualization. While I do commend him for his creative action, this could have been much more effective in combating racism if he had presented more information instead of relying solely on humor that relied heavily on another form of oppression. This could have also demonstrated a positive way in which activists can use YouTube’s easily accessibility and popularity among university students.

Sticky Subject.

As an initial disclaimer, I know nothing about politics. I KNOW i dont understand everything involved and that is why I usually avoid talking about it in the hopes of avoiding making a fool out of myself or pointless confrontation. AS another disclaimer if I say anything to offend anyone i'm sorry, but I'm just going to write what comes to mind. Reading Vivan Dames "Chamorro Women, Self-Determination, and the Politics of Abortion in Guam" left me very confused regarding my opinion. I've always been a bit uncomfortable with the fact that the government has control over so much of our lives, even down to our very bodies. For a woman, I think the body means so much more than just the physical definition. A woman's body is a source of life, and I suppose what the Chamorro women were trying to do was protect the life that comes from a woman, but I still feel that a woman should be able to choose when and what life comes from their body. The ramifications of a ban on abortion are terrifying. Imagin a world in which abortion is completely illegal... If a woman is abducted and raped, and becomes pregnant with her rapist's child, she must, BY LAW, bear that child. Child birth is a physically and emotionally demanding event, but adding the psychological hardship of bearing a child that belongs to someone who has abused a woman and violated her body would be like punishment. I'm sure i'm not the only person in this class who knows someone who has been raped, and if you do know a victim, you know the effect that event had on them... and if you try to imagine what would have happened if they had been FORCED to bear the child of their attacker... Well I cringe at the thought. Now this is all very dark and gloomy, but what left my confused from the reading is that I could kind of understand the Chamorro women's perspective. Which left me with an internal dilemma on my opinion.

Another interesting thing that occurred to me was that I had never heard of this before. I have heard of Roe v Wade, I've heard about other movements/fights/attempted appeals/and whatnot against and for abortion laws but never have the groups or races of the groups involved been specified... let alone the gender. I think its interesting that its truly an assumption that all women who identify as feminists would be against abortion, when clearly there are diverse opinions and the Chamorros are a great example of that.

Youtube

After watching the several Youtube videos and having a discussion on them, I left class still unsure of how I felt. I agree with the multiple students who found Youtube to be a good source for Asian Americans to showcase their work. It is definitely a place for them to jumpstart their careers, as most would probably not have the opportunity to present their work to film and music producers. To those who choose to do so, I absolutely commend them for being brave enough to put everything out there for the public to see--there are some rude people out there who are not shy about sharing their opinions. However, I have finally come to my own conclusion that it is the subject material that still makes me question whether these Youtube videos are a good thing. Though I am not an expert when it comes to Youtube, I've watched my fair share of videos. Some have caused me to fall on the floor laughing, while others just weren't so good. I have developed a lot of respect for the artists who post things that everyone can relate to. On the other hand, when watching videos like the ones we saw in class, I don't know whether laughing is always appropriate. Many of these videos portray Asian American women using everyday stereotypes. Being an Asian American women myself, I actually get slightly offended and feel uncomfortable when watching videos that put us in a negative light. True it will get many views and laughs, but while doing that, it is making it okay for non Asian American viewers to do so. As Prof. Suh said, perhaps there intentions are just to make people laugh, but I think there are better ways to do so, rather than just reinforcing stereotypes.

South Asian Women and Domestic Violence Shelters

In Monisha Das Gupta’s Unruly Immigrants, she spends quite a bit of time in Chapter 4 separating the goals of Manavi, Sakhi, and SAWA from those of traditional domestic violence groups, women’s groups, LGBT groups, and Asian American groups. Women’s groups and LGBT groups tend to exclude people of color, while Asian American groups tend not to deal with South Asian issues. While all of these South Asian women’s organizations had more or less the same stated goals as all of the other types of groups, none of the other groups has the ability to serve the needs of working-class South Asian immigrant women experiencing domestic violence. Manavi, Sakhi, and SAWA were each founded to deal with specific shortcomings of other organizations in working with domestic violence survivors.

Traditional domestic violence organizations tend to provide services temporarily to affected women, but cannot or will not serve those whose immigration status is uncertain or dependant on that of the abusive partner. Likewise some will not serve the needs of women who are experiencing violence at the hands of a female partner. Many organizations are not equipped to deal with the issues specific to South Asians, even in simple matters such as clothing and food, as the story of the young woman who did not eat or change her clothes for three days due to a misunderstanding on the part of the shelter made very clear. Manavi, Sakhi, and SAWA each try to help South Asian women who have experienced domestic violence, in different ways. All have redefined domestic violence to include other forms of family- or work-related violence. Manavi tried to create an alternative to the solutions proposed by traditional domestic violence shelters, which do not work for undocumented immigrants or those who are not fluent in English. Sakhi tries to change the individual empowerment focus of those groups. SAWA tries to educate those groups about South Asian women’s issues so that they can better help these women.

I found it interesting that domestic violence shelters, which one would think to be largely beyond criticism since they simply provide a service and help people get past traumatizing situations, have so many criticisms against them. In fact, there are enough critiques that Manavi, Sakhi, and SAWA each used different tactics to attempt to change how that service is provided with regard to specific shortcomings.

Silence in Asian American Communities

What always interests me is reading personal experiences of someone's in literatures. In the reading Maiden Voyage: Excursion into Sexuality and Identity Politics in Asian America by Dana Takagi under The Coming Out Incident, she depicts the moment of when one of her students came out in class. "In the silence that followed I quickly surveyed the room. A dozen or so Asian American students whom I had forced into a semicircular seating arrangement started glumly at their shoes" (29). Reading this I remembered the Japanese community I was brought up in, because it is part of our custom to choose silence over speaking up, especially in situations where it is out of the "norm". In Japan, LGBQT in the society is very rare and rather there seems to be a notion that it's against the society rule if an individual is LGBQT. I'm sure there are some who identify as gay, lesbian, or bi, but many do not come out because there are strictly structured gender roles that Japanese people are expected to follow. There's a well-known saying in the Asian culture: "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down," which states that people dislike attracting attention to themselves so they'd choose to be similar with other.

I'm sure the idea of silence is not just common within Japan but in fact in many of the Asian countries. Immigrants who live in a close-knit community will probably be less likely to come out from the fear that they could get isolated from their already-small community (and family). Their community/family is the only constant factor in their lives post-immigration, for language, culture, and friends may change.

Silence has now become part of the stereotypes of the Asian community and put a positive imagery of the "good" minorities (26). It's a concept that must be proven wrong, but it has become a well-known stereotype so will it even be possible to break it?

Asian American Women in TV

I also started thinking about Asian Americans in television after reading Lynn Lu’s “Critical Visions: The Representation and Resistance of Asian Women.” Lu states that the representation of Asian women in contemporary television plays a major role in the way in which they are seen in society. Thus, Lu claims that as Asian women “struggle for visibility and recognition of [their] diversity, [they] not only face blatantly offensive depictions of [themselves] but continually come up against the power of racist, heterosexist, classist, and imperialist ideologies… [and create] new versions of old stereotypes” (18). If Lu is right, it seems that Asian women cannot escape the stereotypes given to Asians because of how they are represented on television.

As I read this article, I tried to think of prominent Asian American women figures in the shows that I watch, but I couldn’t think of many. When I realized this, I was surprised because I could think of shows that have prominent African American characters, Hispanic characters, or white characters. Although this could be because of the shows that I watch, it seems that Asian American women really are marginalized. One character I could think of is Cristina Yang in Grey’s Anatomy, played by Sandra Oh. Her role as a surgeon in the show depicts stereotypes of Asians being an over-achiever, intelligent, self-disciplined, and independent. In my opinion, Yang is a “new version of [an] old stereotype” of Asians being smart, nerdy, and good at math. Thus, if these Asian American women are the only ones being represented, I feel that it would be hard for any Asian American woman that doesn’t explicitly fit this stereotype to fit into American culture.

I agree with Lu in that “the realm of cultural production holds the potential to provide mass education, political analysis, and popular entertainment as alternatives to the same old stereotypes” (25). I think it would be extremely beneficial if media producers and directors didn’t use classic stereotypes and casted minority ethnicities in roles that they usually wouldn’t. If so, I believe the minority groups in America would also be able to assimilate into the culture more and the stereotypes may start to fade away.

Asian Americans in Television: Julie from Friends

After reading “Critical Visions: The Representation and Resistance of Asian Women” by Lynn Lu, I began thinking about Asian Americans in television shows. Lu briefly talks about the TV show starring Margaret Cho that portrays Asian Americans as an all-American family. Lu argues that this show merely “validate[s] a vision of assimilated, integrated, Asians happy to have their unequal share of the pie” (20). I am now wondering if this is a fair analysis. If portrayals of happily assimilated Asian Americans are negative visions, then are Asian Americans only supposed to play roles where they are angry that they have an “unequal share of the pie”?

In the television show Friends, they introduce a character in season two named Julie, played by Lauren Tom. Julie is a well-assimilated Asian American woman who lives in New York. Perhaps Julie’s character is different from the characters on Margaret Cho’s show because Friends addresses the issue of being mistaken as a foreigner in the United States. When Julie first appears on Friends in “The One with Ross’ New Girlfriend,” Rachel believes she is an immigrant from China. Rachel says in a very slow and loud voice, “Welcome to our country.” Julie replies with “Thank you. I’m from New York.” Although this scene can be seen as insulting to many Asian Americans who would call the United States their “home,” it can also be seen as empowering because Julie stands up for herself. She makes the situation comical and as a result Rachel feels embarrassed. However, from our discussion on Monday, it seems as if comedy may not be the proper way to address these situations. Does comedy perpetuate stereotypes and make it acceptable to laugh at someone’s racial differences? I’m still not decided on this question because I believe every audience member will view the situation differently. Some members will realize the absurdity of the assumption that every Asian seen in the United States is an immigrant which may deter stereotypes. On the other hand, others will laugh at this scenario and continue to make racist assumptions.

From watching the commentary of this episode that aired in 1995, I learned that Julie was one of the first likable and assimilated characters portrayed on a popular sitcom. Although Lu may argue that this is not desirable because it does not show the struggles Asian Americans face, I think it is important to also show Asian Americans as just Americans. It is not always necessary to focus on differences because sometimes similarities are just as important. Julie was relatively similar to the other women Ross has dated. Through the episodes with Julie, Friends was able to portray an interracial relationship that was completely normal. Perhaps it is just as effective to have an interracial relationship be successful as it is to note the obstacles of this kind of relationship. Also, Julie is not a stereotypical Asian. She is not hypersexualized, she does not speak with an accent, and she is a successful paleontologist. The writers of Friends could have easily cast Julie with a woman of another race, but instead they chose Lauren Tom because she was qualified.

Asian American Feminism

Without a doubt, we live in a society that is Euro-centric. The struggle, is constantly based around pushed back against the hegemonic power of those who wield control. Ironically, within the American context, this control is often an invisible lining, insulating those who carry it. Thus, the white-dominated society is less than privy to the struggle of minorities, women and other disenfranchised groups.

If we focus particularly on the experience of the Asian American female, we witness a certain duality and conflict of identity that is rarely seen in such prominence. The Asian American female is often raised in a familial context encompassing "eastern" values; that is collectivism, emphasis on family, obligation and mutual respect. At the same time westernization, focused on individuality, importance of self-esteem and the belief in unlimited potential, championed by the American media pulls identity in a different direction.

So where does Asian American Feminism lie on this continuum between assimilated and rejection? As Karin Aguilar-San Juan notes in the foreword to Dragon Ladies, the Asian American Women's movement has often been criticized for being "two movements in one," with race coming first and gender always coming second. I will argue that, just as Asian Americans cannot be placed on a continuum between hegemonic, white values and traditional East Asian values, the intersectionality of race and gender cannot be extricated and must be viewed in context. Gender does not exist without the social structures of race and class, and the Asian American female should be with this lens. Asian American feminist activist should transcend these constructs. As Aguilar-San Juan puts it, "...as these women show, activism involves an opening up of possibilities, an acknowledgment of fragile bonds, and most important, an articulation of a commitment to justice."

The Survivors

To start, I was really moved by the article "Scared, yet Undefeated: Hmong and Cambodian Women and Girls in the United States" by Sucheng Chan. I can't even begin to imagine the horrible atrocities these women witnessed, endured, and then finally survived. And the fact that many of these women end up living in the most impoverished communities in America, struggling for welfare in a society that deems them "lazy" and "unworthy" of such public assistance seems vastly unfair seeing as the majority of these women would not have come to the U.S. had the Vietnam War never occurred. I really liked how this article included all of this history, as it is not something they typically teach us about it school. It also seems unfair that because they are labeled as refugees they must go through "layers of bureaucracy, each there simultaneously to aid and control them" (263), as opposed to immigrants. It must be even harder to have to deal with this on top of being separated from your country and many loved ones. Probably the hardest part of this article for me to read concerned the "blindness" that many women had after such traumatic events. I can't think of anything sadder than going blind because the world had been so grotesque that you just couldn't bare to look at it anymore. Lastly, I highly recommend the book "Stay Alive, My Son" by Pin Yathay to anyone interested in learning more about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It's a very moving personal story by a man whose family was affected by this horrible regime.

For me, the material regarding the Hmong women and their struggles to integrate Hmong culture into American society, as well as other Asian American women’s experiences discussed in this class, have been very encouraging in that they represent minority women using their own agency to find and create solutions to the specific problems they encounter. I think it a very important aspect of the material, because it demonstrates the capabilities of Asian American women. I agree that it would be more efficient if individuals from less oppressed groups of society took charge of these endeavors, but I think it defeats the purpose and only addresses the specific problem and not the entire system of oppression. By providing opportunities for themselves, Asian American women are demonstrating their capacity to lead, accomplish their goals and make a difference. To me that is a direct challenge to the global power structure since it demonstrates the power of these women who fight through a system that labels them as powerless. I don’t propose that this approach will provide immediate success, but I think by increasing the amount of similar efforts and the level of recognition for such efforts will amplify their efficiency.

Asian American Women

Everyone in this world has viewed United States of America as the “Promise land” as it upholds life, liberty and justice for all. With the hope clinging to the American Dream, almost everybody in the world, especially those who are in Asia, those who have lost these sense of worth from the aftermath of war, political tribulation, economic unrest and plainly poverty seemed to force themselves to be accepted in this scheme of the United State's Dream.

The point in discussion is Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) which was made to assert a communal interest of attaining political alliances. Unfortunately, numerous political sector found it a questionable Act as it cut off some civil rights of the black working class and the Third World migrants who were refugees of war .Almost all the community groups in the United States direct the interest in a very distinct spectrum of Asian American Poverty. The PRWORA is a potential act of eliminating the subsidence of millions of working and jobless poor who will be removed from all federal assistance programs that they were enjoying under the Social Security Act of 2002.

The question on would it actually stop Asian American Poverty considering that most of the Asians residing in America are now green-card holders and are licensed naturalized citizen of the State. Thus they are entitled with all the amenities of the Government as equal to that of the real Americans who had their ancestry rooted in the State. And what is the impact of such PRWORA to the black community, who have been receiving the bitter end of the subtle racist act?

Such demeanor may ruin the so-called American Dream as what former President Bill Clinton has promised of providing equal opportunities for the enhancement of the livelihood of every American. U.S. political leaders should now be educated with the perception that United States of America is truly a United State of Being as the Country is made of different people of different lineage and yet focused on one vision, which is to live as an American!

Victim and Agency

The class readings and film-screening throughout this semester have introduced me to the ways in which different groups of Asian American women immigrants were exploited and victimized by the intersectional oppressions of racism, classism and sexism. While at the same time, what's empowering about Asian American women's experiences is women's ability to mobilize their own agencies in resisting the status quo and make change for the community - through forming women's clubs, waging campaigns for Daycare Centers, participating in or refusing to participate in beauty contests, among many other expressions of women's agencies. However, recently after reading some articles on the global sex trade and after watching the documentary "Eating Welfare", I came to a revision of my previous optimism and start to recognize the limitation to women's agency, especially women of the unprivileged groups. To be clear, I neither deny women's capability in transforming the fates of their own and the outlook of their communities, nor am I blind to the real progress achieved by women's organizing. When we situate female cheap labor and women of color within the global economic system, where increasingly larger numbers of people are being pushed into marginality and informal sector work, both due to the lack of economic alternatives in their home countries and to the corporations' demand for cheap labor in the United States, it seems that the problem lies in the structural global inequalities of wealth and power, and to address that problem, there has to be an organized pressure on the government and transnational corporations to recognize the need of the majority of the population. Then my question would be, to what extent can the feminist project mobilize women's agencies in challenging the global power structure? How can we combine the daily struggles of individuals and the organizing efforts of different oppressed groups into a collective challenge?

Hmong Women in the US

I'm having a little trouble formulating thoughts for my post today, so I thought I would just focus on a small portion of the Hmong Women in the US (AAW) article that we read.

"Not knowing that they can instruct the welfare office otherwise, Hmong women let the welfare office issue the check in their names. Hmong men resent this because of the appearance that they are not the breadwinners and because their wives now have control of the finances, power women did not have in Laos" (151).

Now that I'm typing it up again, it doesn't seem as glaring, but on my first read through the article this portion really jumped out at me - because I remember being so irked by it that I remembered it even after I had finished the rest of the sections. I think it was mostly the way this short section was written more than the actual content, but I felt that there was almost the feeling that the women should be changing the names on the checks because that was a solution to one of the problems. I, however, disagree, because of course there are much deeper rooted problems in the male/female power relationship in these communities than just whose name is on the welfare checks. In addition, that men resent that they "appear" to not be the breadwinners doesn't seem to be what's causing the resentment - I think it's a combination of them not being the breadwinners, because the wife brings in the welfare checks, and also perhaps some shame that the family needs the welfare and that the women receive it for the family when the man is most likely working as well.

I feel like I'm just being nitpicky about the language used in the article, but it's something that I think shows the attitude of the author to the readers, and in this case, I think I found myself disagreeing with their assessment of the situation shown here. Am I over-analyzing such a short part of this article? Do other people find that when they read pieces they find the style of writing affecting their ability too view the work objectively?

Language and Education

What struck me the most through the readings and the videos we have touched upon in class was the importance of language. In the video First Person Plural Deann could not communicate with her own mother, and it was seen in Eating Welfare that many mothers had to bring their children because they could not speak English. However, those who were able to speak the language were given somewhat of a privilege as Linda Vo states, "Overall, the educational and class backgrounds and their linguistic and cultural skills (of the Vietnamese) have given them privileges in the States" (238). I'm bringing this issue up right now because I recently read a news article about schools in New York being successful at reducing racial gaps in educational performance. They note that 40 % of black students and 46% of Hispanic students met state standards in math, compared with 75 % of white students and 82% of Asian students. I know this slightly goes off tangents with the Asian American issue, but it's heartwarming to know that someone is actually trying to make a difference for the minority.

Now that I think about it, I think it was especially hard for Asian American women to learn English post-migration because they still had to fulfill the expectations as a wife (or a woman in general). They could have easily picked up a little of the foreign language through socializing with people, like repetition, or listening to conversations. However, the roles of women in society (regardless of the country) were usually those of reproductive labor--raising kids, house chores, cooking, etc. I guess we shouldn't or cannot blame them because most of them were simply trying to live up to the expectations of what a good wife/woman should be doing.

Different reactions to Asians in America

The article Caring across Borders: Motherhood, Marriage, and Filipina Domestic Workers in California by Charlene Tung really struck me as I was reading it. Having grown up with a Filipino domestic helper, somehow I managed to understand their struggles. It was heartening to read about how these women left their home and families to venture to foreign lands to make a living.

Compared to the Cambodian/Vietnamese women we saw in the film Eating Welfare on Monday, these Filipino women were in better circumstances as many of them could speak English.

It might be selfish of me to say this, but I empathize with the Filipinos, but not so much with the Cambodians. This is because these Filipino women put in the effort to learn the language and travel all the way to the United States on their own to work. The jobs they take up are physically and emotionally taxing, but yet they continue to work to make money. On the other hand, it seemed in the film that the Cambodians/Vietnamese who came to the United States started out on welfare and I guess took that for granted. They remained in their communities and did not learn the language unlike the Filipinos who integrated themselves into the American lifestyle because of who they lived with. I thought it was unfair that the children had to skip school and act as translators for their parents who were trying to reclaim their welfare after it was taken away. I do not see why the parents thought that they would be able to come to America for a better life without learning the language and relying on welfare, after all is it not tax money that is going towards their welfare? It might seem heartless for me to say this, but then why do people protest when their tax payments increase?

Young Activists and Managing Survival

Upon reading the past few essays such as “Managing Survival” by Linda Trinh Vo and “Scarred, yet Undefeated” by Sucheng Chan, and seeing the documentary “Eating Welfare”, I have found myself continually questioning the psychological state of the children of these refugees and activists. My thoughts regarding the children is not to ignore their parents’, or more specifically their mother’s, mental and physical hardships, but to look deeper into the hardships children faced that may have been similar or different to the adult experience. In “Scarred, yet Undefeated”, there was a brief story of a girl who escaped with her siblings to Thailand that related some difficulties that arouse during their escape. Assuming they, and others, made it to Thailand safely, did they all settle down into centers or camps? Or, because they were without parents, were they possibly adopted? And if they did go to a camp, and assuming they survived the cruel treatment from the guards, sickness, and hunger, how did the children grow mentally throughout the rest of their lives? Did they suffer from their traumas like many Cambodian women did and was it possibly worse because their minds were younger? In “Managing Survival”, women’s contributions to the household income, along with their work at home such as child-caring is brought to light. I wondered about what their children were doing either at home, or at school, and what they thought about their parents. Also, if a family was struggling to make ends meet, and thus, for example, unable to give their children food for lunch at school, would the children receive food from other students, or resort to trying to find their own food through other methods?

Watching “Eating Welfare”, reminded me of my Asian American Mentor Program (AAMP) training at Pomona from the past summer when we went into Los Angeles, and toured the old Chinatown with some young activists as our tour guides. My co-mentors and I were all extremely impressed with the students, but like the documentary said, who else is going to be doing the work? Although the students were working with adults and other supporters, it was amazing to see how much the students cared about their community. “Eating Welfare” prompted me to question how much of a choice those activists in L.A. had a choice in creating change in their community if they wanted to see it. It also reminded me of a conversation between the AAMP mentors and the L.A. activists where we asked them what their parents thought about their children’s work. We were told that their parents didn’t really understand what they were doing, or why they were doing it. After a brief pause, several of the students said, with strong and amused, yet sad looks, that their parents thought they were doing drugs or getting into mischief after school. When asked about how they found the organization they were currently a part of, they said that they had heard about the organization through their schools, and joined from their own desires to create a better place for their families and themselves.

Asians in the Library and Alexandra Wallace

I feel like this video has gone around a million times already, so most of you have probably seen it, but for those of you who haven't here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoLLEZlpUxk

In the video, Alexandra Wallace, a UCLA student, complains about the Asian students at UCLA. I feel that this video is worth discussing because of all the issues that have arisen because of it.

There have been various responses to this racist rant; because of death threats and racist rants, Alexandra has withdrawn from UCLA. I understand that people are offended, hurt, or angry by her words, but I feel that this isn't the correct response to what she did. Many people have created response videos on YouTube making fun of her and bullying her, but many others have expressed disappointment, and highlight the fact that instead of insulting her, people should find time to educate her.

There are so many people in the world who have the same beliefs as Alexandra, but she was the one UCLA student who decided to put her thoughts online. It just goes to show how many ignorant people are in the world, who don't understand other cultures - she talks about how the parents of Asian families fill the hallways at UCLA, bringing their kids home cooked meals and preventing them from learning to fend for themselves. But in reality, many Asian families do this because of our culture - when we graduate, many Asian/Asian American adults live at home with their extended families because that's a part of the culture Asian or Asian Americans have grown up with.

I think this misunderstanding of the Asian culture which many Asian American families are built upon plays a major role in the discrimination we have faced: the Eating Welfare film emphasized that the welfare system didn't understand that Asian American women needed to stay home to take care of their families, and instead forced many to take part in workfare. The Union which initially opposed childcare services for working Chinese immigrants failed to understand that these women needed childcare services so that they could make money to support their families. I know that in these cases, misunderstanding isn't the only issue which causes people to discriminate against other races, but I think it's a major factor that people should be fighting to fix. UCLA decided not to take action against this student, but I've heard suggestions from others that instead of punishing one person, why not change the system so that these incidences do not happen again? She mentioned that perhaps UCLA should have an ethnic studies requirement so that in the future, students could be educated about other races. Although this wouldn't completely solve the problem, I feel that this might one small step that we take towards fighting discrimination.

Has anyone else seen this video? Are there any other issues that come along with this video that you feel need to be addressed?

I also just wanted to note that I found it interesting that although the ideas were similar, Eating Welfare contrasted with the Chinese immigrant women's fight for childcare. In Eating Welfare, some women were fighting for welfare rights in order to stay at home to support their families. However the Chinese immigrant women who fought for childcare seemed to fight for the opposite - the Chinese immigrant women fought for childcare so that they themselves could be better providers for their families.

Highest Suicide Rates Among AA Women

Recently, the study of Asian American women having the highest rates of suicide has caught my attention. Also, it is stated that Asian American girls also have the highest rate of depression symptoms. The main explanation behind this was the constant pressure of being the model minority which is the expectation for them to become the perfect mother, daughter, and wife. Also, girls in general are more affected by family pressures than boys are. I am not that surprised myself at the results, especially after all the readings in class and from personal experience. In most of the readings, families expect such a high ideals from women. The women are expected to be beautiful, pure, obedient, soft-spoken, hardworking, and faithful. However, with such high expectations, their worth is still below that of a male. So much pressure is placed upon the girl to succeed in all aspects in their life while males are only expected to make money.

Another issue is that I feel that depression is more prevalent because Asian families are more sensitive toward the topic and choose to avoid it altogether. They find it a shame to be depressed and do not understand the severity of it. Growing up in a city with a large number of Asians, I knew a lot of girls that were clearly depressed but would never tell their families about it so they could never get the proper treatment because they too were ashamed of their depression or only referred to it as a phase. In my family, the word suicide was like taboo. One time as a joke I just exclaimed ,"I might as well just go kill myself." My dad lectured me for about an hour how that he never wants to hear me say things like that again and that I am very blessed and options like suicide are foolish. My mom on the other hand talked it out with me closely, but I think it is because she was more sympathetic toward my position being a Asian woman living in America herself.

Overall, I am not sure how a change would be made in order to lessen these high suicide rates among Asian American women without completely altering the culture and traditions of their ethnic backgrounds. However, I hope that these problems are more abundantly discussed as these statistics show a clear problem among Asian American women that need to be addressed.

Eating the Welfare State

While I was fascinated by the issues brought forward by the documentary Eating Welfare, I was confused as to what exactly the main focus of the actions taken by the student organization was. It was refreshing to see such an oft-ignored but incredibly pressing issue being addressed so directly. However, the actually progression of the documentary and the lack of a lot of context within the film itself left me confused. I do not have much background in the specifics of welfare laws, and I was having difficulty following how the Personal Responsibility Act and other new laws affected those who were on welfare. Since I did not know how the welfare system functioned before these new laws, I did not really understand the magnitude or even the kind of change that occurred as a result. Therefore, because I did not understand what changes occurred, I could not fully comprehend the impetus for organizing around this one issue.

Moreover, this documentary in conjunction with a variety of other readings we have recently done often discuss welfare. For the most part, welfare is portrayed as a liberating force, especially for women operating within patriarchal cultures, and grants women a certain level of power within their families. However, I do not remember if any of these articles critically examined the welfare system or even acknowledged the pitfalls in the broken U.S. welfare system. Even though, again, I am not very well-versed in the specifics of welfare law, I am acutely aware that welfare is incredibly inadequate in addressing poverty.

For instance, in Lora Jo Foo's overview of that status of Hmong women in America, she notes how women often use welfare as a means to self-sufficiency (151). Nonetheless, despite explicitly noting how this success is based on the welfare system, Foo does not even acknowledge that the welfare system is often capable of failing. If so many women become self-sufficient as a result of welfare, I think it is important to at least acknowledge that this avenue is unavailable for some women for whatever reasons.

Nonetheless, I greatly appreciated the point made towards the end outlining the importance of continuing welfare programs. I forget who made the point, but essentially, the speaker stated that welfare allowed women who would otherwise have to spend their time working for income for their families' subsistences to be physically present and to take care of their families. She also compared the difference afforded to tax breaks to middle class married women with children and to welfare. This point really illustrated the reason why welfare was a valuable resource for families, and I feel like if this point had been made earlier in the film, I would have been more engaged during the rest of the film.

Not Just the Big Three: What I Have Learned about Being “Asian” in America

The first of our readings that really explored what it meant to be defined as “Asian” was one all the way back in February: Debbie Hippolite Wright and Paul Spickard's “Pacific Islander Americans and Asian American Identity.” Never before that reading had I given much thought to the idea that Pacific Islanders would want to seek their own label independent from “Asian” since I had always thought of “Asians” as people who live in or have ancestral roots in the continent of Asia. However, I began to realize more and more that many share the view that the “true” Asians are only those who are of Chinese, Korean, or Japanese descent. One of my suitemates, who is Indian, sometimes jokingly refers to herself as a “fake Asian” because she looks different from the so-called traditional appearance of a “true” Asian.

The film from Monday, CAAAV's “Eating Welfare”, as well as today's “Collateral Damage” by Eric Tang also explored other aspects of what people commonly consider Asian. Though Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong women fit the phenotypic stereotypical Asian, their economic status in America excludes them from common consideration. Many believe that since many Chinese, Korean, and Japanese immigrants have achieved success and have become a “model minority”, the rest of the Asian-Americans are well-off as well. However, this prevents recognition of the living situations of many Southeast Asian immigrants who are heavily dependent on welfare programs that are slowly being stripped away. Perhaps due to media attention given to other Asian communities, people believe that welfare given to Asians is unnecessary, but to look at the deplorable conditions in which many Southeast Asians live it is obvious that the stereotype that all Asians have “made it” in America is false.

The reading and film challenged my own perceptions of Asian success in America. Coming from a fairly upper-middle class area that was 57% Asian in 2010, I have mostly seen what can be perceived as the success of Asian immigrants. Many of my high school peers drove BMW's as their first cars; the student parking lot was populated with more luxury vehicles than the faculty lot. However, to read about the horrid conditions that Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong women even in America face made me realize that my Asian community is only a blip on the greater map of the United States. Mind you, I wasn't unaware that not all Asian-Americans are blessed with the living conditions I had but I believe I needed a reminder that no matter how much the media would like to portray Asians as completely successful immigrants, there are groups that still struggle daily to survive.

Filipina Domestic Workers

Charlene Tung’s “Caring across Borders: Motherhood, Marriage, and Filipina Domestic Workers in California,” and the class discussion on how we were raised made an impression on me because I was raised by my mother and my Filipina housekeeper. Tung explains the role of Filipina caregivers in the United States, and the difficult decisions they were forced to make between physically care giving for their child in the Philippines, or coming to America to find better work with higher wages.

The class discussion made me realize that even among us in the same environment today, the ways in which we were raised are vastly different. In addition, it made me think of the few Filipina housekeepers that helped raise me, and the obstacles they must have gone through to become a domestic worker in Japan while raising children at the same time. Yet, what always amazed me was the tight knit community of housekeepers and care givers; Tung mentions, “Filipina women usually obtained jobs through a network of other Filipina caregivers” (303), and in my situation, it was exactly that. Although my experience was in Japan, it seems to be the same way for Filipina women caregivers in America also.

I felt a lot of compassion for the Filipina women because they showed strength and independence, and although they moved from stereotypical women’s care giving in Philippines to the same female sphere in America, they were able to overcome the challenges of migration and being separated from their families. They were able to gain financial independence while working in rough conditions, and bearing emotional and physical responsibilities. Tung claims that along with the “emotional and physical labor inherent in caring for the elderly, Filipina women must contend too with the emotional costs of mothering from afar” (305). College is the first time I have been away from my parents, and I can feel the stress on my parents because of the distance from my sister and I. However, these women were emotionally and physically strained while being away from their young children, who may not have been able to care for themselves. Thus, I feel that the Filipina domestic workers have helped inspire other Asian American women to strive for financial independence and strength.

First Thoughts on "Scarred, yet Undefeated"

When I read the essay by Sucheng Chan I was not shocked that once again, like most other groups, the Hmong's kinship system was patrilineal, patrilocal, and patriarchal. Reading further, it made me somewhat angry that even though the men were in charge, the women were responsible for a much longer list of chores. And on top of that, all of them were tedious and very physical. The men are listed as having to make decisions and control their families. So what exactly does that entail? I feel like cultivating and harvesting crops, gathering firewoood and water, and making clothes (and whatever else the women had to do) is just as important, and if not more conducive to the families' well-being. Anyone else agree with that? On the other hand, the part about the Khmer's kinship system took away a small part of the anger. It was nice to finally read that the gender roles were complementary; though the women were required to perform tasks that are typically done by females (cooking, raising children, etc.), they were also allowed to assist in the decision making. Like some of the other essays we have read regarding the Hawaiian women and the Japanese Nisei, it seems as if women are able to make strides in breaking down gender roles, but are also being more oppressed at the same time. The Khmer women are another example we can add to the list. They are given the opportunity to advise their husbands, yet they are still judged on how beautiful they are and how well they carry themselves. I guess I am a bit torn on how I should be feeling about all this. It is unfortunate that this happens, but still encouraging to see that some of the women mentioned in this essay were courageous and strong, and managed to break free.

Motherhood and Independence

In Charlene Tung’s “Caring Across Borders: Motherhood, Marriage, and Filipina Domestic Workers in California,” women are faced with a tough decision. Many Filipina women must choose between staying with their children and providing for their family financially by becoming a live-in caregiver in the United States. After discussing our childhood daycare arrangements in class, I realized how different this concept is to me because my mother stayed at home while my father worked. This made life much more simple and my parents were not forced with the decisions many of these women were required to make. However, even today women have limited options for childcare. Many single mothers or families where both parents work must find daycare for their children. For families that cannot afford to hire a nanny or do not have friends or relatives available to watch their children, they must select work based on available childcare. This severely limits the availability of work for parents, and perhaps the solution is to have more daycare centers.

On another note, it is interesting that Filipina women went to the United States for better working conditions even though they were not paid well in comparison to other workers. This reinforces the idea that they had even fewer options in the Philippines and there was not an alternative to leaving their children. These live-in caregivers were often looked down upon because of their separated marriages and their traditional “women’s” work. Some women were considered failures because they created a broken home by leaving. However, if a man separated from his wife, he would experience little to no discrimination. Women on the other hand were treated as if they were living “in sin” and were not accepted by society. There is no justification for these attitudes towards women and not men, but it makes me support Filipina live-in caregivers more because they were overcoming more obstacles than leaving their children. If the community found out these women were separated and having marital troubles, they lost respect from society. Additionally, it was difficult for a woman to remarry while men often started new relationships after a failed marriage. Filipina women faced a lot of discrimination during this time period, but they successfully created a life for themselves despite the difficult conditions.

Although it may seem like these women were not breaking any gender barriers, they definitely showed strength and independence. The Filipina women left their homes and lives behind and started working in the United States to become financially independent. Some even started lives with new men in the Unites States even though they knew they would not be accepted back home. These women may not have obviously changed the idea of women in society, but they made it one step closer to equality by becoming independent. This was one of the first steps towards acceptance of Asian American women divorcing, remarrying, and being independent.

Internal Problems with Asian Lesbian Organizations

Sorry this is a little late.

In Trinity A. Ordona's "Asian Lesbians in San Francisco: Struggles to Create a Safe Space, 1790s-1780s, she explores the difficulties in creating an atmosphere for LGBTQ Asian women, especially due to turmoil within the groups themselves. Although there were many collective struggles of different groups to achieve civil rights, I was struck by how many of their issues seemed to be complicated by organizational difficulties. Ordona recounted various groups dissolved by conflicts from within from the AWG to Unbound Feet. Although her article achieves its purpose of demonstrating how difficult it was to create a safe atmosphere for Asian lesbians, it was certainly frustrating that many of their efforts seemed to be dissolved by internal issues. An interesting aspect to consider is how organizing into groups presented problems that would perhaps not be so prevalent in heterosexual organizations. Though not all of the issues were specified, one of them that was particularly interesting was how organizing led to dating and relationships that presented various problems. While creating organizations themselves was part of making safe havens for Asian Americans who were persecuted by others for their sexual orientation, it also dissolved them as it led to relationships that eventually had negative effects on the groups' initial goals.

Politicizing Motherhood

I found this reading to be very refreshing. Among all the other readings, this was the first that showed the empowerment of women through real jobs that did not stem from the usually assumed role as a housewife. For example, the Chinese women were able to raise up to an equal position as their husbands as they proved their worth as solid bread earners for their family. In addition, for once, the jobs the women gained were outside the realms of promoting their sexuality as women through mainstream ideals such as beauty or entertainment like dancing. It was also interesting to see how women balanced their two main duties as mothers and workers. They had to adjust the entire arrangement of the family by having less children who are of closer age to one another. Also, they had to start to diverge from the role of a sole caretaker as they were forced to leave their children in daycare, if possible. It is rare to see an incident of when Asian women united to fight for a right that they rightly deserved because in the other readings, the women never vocalized their opinions in public, but rather hid behind the shadows of their husband or bonded with other women as they kept it within the world of the Asian mothers. However, in this scenario, the mothers are able to take their case to public and win. It was very empowering as an Asian American to read this as it revealed a whole other side to the Asian American women in history other than a silenced individual who had no other way to redeem herself as an individual outside the publicized images of an exotic beauty.

Politicizing Motherhood

The history of female Chinese garment workers in New York and their agency in establishing adequate child-care programs, as described in Xiaolan Bao’s article, Politicizing Motherhood, resulted in a new type of mother. This mother is a woman who financially provides for her family, while still completing the domestic labor that, throughout history, has been assigned to the mother. Not only were they working mothers, but they also dedicated any free time to campaigning for day cares. It amazes me how much labor these women performed, as garment factory workers, mothers and as political activists. Although these women worked on more of a part-time basis than their husbands, I cannot help but wonder what the male role in their movement was, and if one existed. When their husbands were unable to provide for their families financially, these women took on work so ensure their families survival, in addition to the full-time job of caring for children and homes. I cannot help but question whether their husbands could have spared time to help their cause. And since I understand child care was seen as female labor, it angers me that mothers took on additional responsibilities, and when it proved impossible to effectively handle the immense workload, it was their job to find a solution, seemingly without help from their husbands. I wonder if it would have been constructive to encourage male support and engagement in the issue as to begin dissolving the gendered views of domestic and economic labor.

In "Asian Lesbians in San Francisco", Ordona seems to outline some interesting blurring of boundaries between political movements in the seventies and eighties. Though some of her attention is on the community formation of the AAF, Unbound Feet, and the Asian Women's Group, which are unambiguously Asian lesbian activist groups, an equal amount of space is dedicated to groups that were not specifically formed along Asian-American lesbian identity lines. Zee Wong's co-foundation of Gente is an act of Asian lesbian protest, but in the context of a broader movement of lesbians of color. This Bridge Called My Back's inclusion of Asian lesbian writers is a similar situation.

Even more puzzling to me is Ordona's evidence that, concurrently with the movements she discusses in the text -- i. e., during the early eighties -- broader social movements were beginning to integrate Asian queer members. Bridge's official notice of Asian American protesters, the performance of Aw Shucks by a mainstream Asian American theater company, and Unbound Feet's success a feminist (not an explicitly lesbian) performance group as early as 1979 all indicate integrative or at the very least extremely intersectional efforts. I may be overly cynical, but I'd be extremely surprised to hear that this happened organically, that the Asian American left went from being as homophobic and sexist as Kitty Tsui describes it to being a movement willing to recognize and laud Asian lesbians in San Francisco. Surely lesbian activists were working hard to accomplish that in more ways than forming internal networks of support; surely it's not as simple as saying that as visibility increased, and as lesbians of color united, other movements began to recognize them more and more?

I'm just very confused by the proposed chronology here*, and more confused by the size of the community that she represents. There is no return, for example, to the Oakland KPD, or anything as overtly political. Most of the names here are Chinese, and many of them are Zee Wong! San Francisco alone has about a hundred thousand Asian American women living in it, and using the general population rate of 10%, that's ten thousand Asian American lesbians within the boundaries of the city. The largest organization discussed is 112 people. While I don't doubt the importance of Lisa Chun and Zee Wong's efforts, the references to the familial nature of the community, the romantic and sexual relationships formed and reformed, and the repetition of so many names makes me cautious of Ordona's article as a representative sampling. Can you really say that a group has formed a community network when you're not even discussing one percent of that group's population? Or is my skepticism misplaced?

*Even moreso when I see that Lisa Chun discovered her lesbianism in 1979 and yet founded the Asian Women's Group mailing list in 1977. Perhaps that's a typo?

Politicizing Motherhood

In Xiaolan Bao’s essay, “Politicizing Motherhood”, Bao occasionally, and consciously, makes an effort to compare Chinese women to women of European descent in order to first show how these Chinese women had the same merits as those of white women and then to show the additional difficulties Chinese women faced because of their double responsibilities of working and parenthood. By doing so, Bao skips over stereotypes of Chinese women that readers may have had, while emphasizing the root problems of Chinese women to be a lack of child care facilities. This in turn, created their dilemma between choosing to take care of their kids in a healthy fashion or to work so that they could fulfill their family’s economic needs. Similarly, the Chinese women tried to emphasize their childcare problems by using arguments explaining the problems working-class families faced from a lack of childcare facilities in the community instead of dwelling on the difficulties they faced from being both mothers and workers.

Something I found interesting about this essay was that even though these women were low-paid, unskilled, garment industry workers, their arguments for childcare facilities were very well thought out. In addition, they knew that they could pressure union leaders by publicizing their purpose for meetings in the news and to their communities. What was most impressive was their ability to, throughout the years, and through their limited free time, build up organizational skills, as well as a greater knowledge about the U.S. political system and labor laws. And I agree with Skyler when she says that there was a lack of focus on the political activism of the women. They knew exactly what they needed in order to help relieve some stress from multiple responsibilities, and from what I gathered about Bao’s writing was that these Chinese women knew the best, or at least better, ways to go about building support for their cause.

Politicizing Motherhood

For today's reading, I thought Politicizing Motherhood by Xiaolan Bao was interesting because it illustrated the change in economic structure of the Chinese community by the Chinese women. In some of the readings we have read in class, women were portrayed as rather powerless and lower-class compared to men, staying indoors taking care of the family and the house. However, this article depicts the changes the Chinese women have made economically, culturally, and the image of themselves. Although many Chinese men were employed, the women were looked at as an important role in the families because of the employment benefits they could provide (health insurance) from the garment industry. The increased responsibilities won them growing respect from their parents, children, and other family members.
Not only that they supported their families, the women got together to campaign for Daycare centers. These women established numerous meetings and gave reports of the difficulties working-class families face due to the lack of childcare facilities in the community, which showed the rest of the world their strong sense of family obligations. It is surprising how much work and effort they put into this while working and providing for their family.
How the women were portrayed in this article was very similar to Stillman's article, because they both tell their stories with women in the foreground. Stillman illustrated the importance of women in the Hawaiian hula culture, because they preserved, maintained, and passed on the tradition and knowledge from generation to generation. Similarly, Chinese women in the garment industry were important, for they changed the economic structure of their community and the gender roles in many Chinese immigrant working-class families. Without their strength, the daycare activists wouldn't have been able to gain much additional credibility to challenge the authority of their community and the union. It seems like not much story is told on the positive contributions women have made in the past, and this article made me want to know more about women's roles and other examples of impacts they have made.

Bao's "Politicizing Motherhood"

I found Xiaolan Bao’s “Politicizing Motherhood: Chinese Garment Workers’ Campaign for Daycare Centers in New York City, 1977 – 1982,” especially interesting because of the unity that the garment worker’s had even through all their struggles. Bao outlines the ways in which Chinese women were excluded from the work force, and the fact that they had to resort to the garment industry. I agree with Katrina in that Asians tend to have high motivation but avoid confrontation. However, this essay was inspiring because instead of conforming to American society, these women were able to keep their cultural values. This essay reminded me of another essay in which Korean women united and were able to conserve their culture and connect on a different level.

I felt that these women should gain more credit because in addition to providing for their families, they were fighting for a cause. It reminded me of Evelyn Nakano Glenn’s article, where she mentions Asian Americans tended to care for children as well as working. However, it inspires me that these women were able to create a change for the rest of Chinese immigrants even to present day.

Challenges of Working, Politicizing Motherhood

I thought the article Politicizing Motherhood was interesting going off the previous reading on Asian Immigrant Women and Global Restructuring. This article identified how hard it was for women to work and keep up with roles classified to be female-roles such as housework and looking after children.

This made it seem like working was a double-edged sword for these women. While it was a good thing that these jobs provided these women with their own source of income and taught them new skills, not only were these women playing dual roles in the family, it was not always guaranteed that they would be respected by their families. In some cases, family tensions were aggravated and “some women had to endure additional stress from strained relationships with their husbands and other family members” (289). Adding to this, the lack of affordable childcare centers made it difficult for women to focus on their jobs because both the home and work places were seen to be present danger to their children.

Already these women are working so hard, I feel like it should be unsaid that simply providing more childcare centers would reduce their worries significantly. These women work so hard to provide for their families, as well as to fight for a stand, it is only fair for them to be heard.

Irony of Discrimination

I found it ironic that Chinese women were considered to be so far underneath men in status, when they facilitated the economic boom and reevaluated the gender roles in the Chinese community. In Xiaolan Bao’s article “Politicizing Motherhood”, Bao talks about the influx of Asian immigrants after the Second World War. At that time, women were still considered lesser than men and especially in the Chinese society and culture, so they were pushed into the background. Quite literally Chinese women worked in the back of restaurants and small stores that their husbands ran. There were limited job opportunities for Chinese women, and the garment industry was the best option. Bao lays out all of statistics in how the gender ratio of Asian men to women grew enormously after WWII, and consequently how the number of Chinese women involved in the garment industry in New York grew just as quickly.

What I found interesting was that this industry exploded because of the prejudice against women within the Chinese society, but ended up being one of the most lucrative jobs and created a new family dynamic. Children looked to women for food and care, men began to become threatened by women’s financial abilities/security, and the family dynamic adapted to these new lifestyles. It’s truly amazing that the initial gender inequalities and disequilibrium was eventually eradicated by the work that women had been forced to do by those gender norms. I suppose being forced into those gender norms provoked a necessity for change by the women. Its empowering to think that women who were so historically lesser than their male counterparts could break through that stereotype and create a new male to female dynamic. Even though they were discriminated against for being Chinese and for being Women, they managed cause a cultural change that has lasted (and continued to evolve) to the present day.