Displacements And Diasporas

by Anderson, Wanni W.; Lee, Robert G.

• ISBN13: 9780813536118
• ISBN10: 0813536111
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-06-13
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

Asians have settled in every country in the Western Hemisphere; some are recent arrivals, other descendents of immigrants who arrived centuries ago. Bringing together essays by thirteen scholars from the humanities and social sciences, Displacements and Diasporas explores this genuinely transnational Asian American experience-one that crosses the Pacific and traverses the Americas from Canada to Brazil, from New York to the Caribbean. With an emphasis on anthropological and historical contexts, the essays show how the experiences of Asians across the Americas have been shaped by the social dynamics and politics of settlement locations as much as by transnational connections and the economic forces of globalization. Contributors bring new insights to the unique situations of Asian communities previously overlooked by scholars, such as Vietnamese Canadians and the Lao living in Rhode Island. Other topics include Chinese laborers and merchants in Latin America and the Caribbean, Japanese immigrants and their descendants in Brazil, Afro-Amerasians in America, and the politics of second-generation Indian American youth culture. Together the essays provide a valuable comparative portrait of Asians across the Americas. Engaging issues of diaspora, transnational social practice and community building, gender, identity, institutionalized racism, and deterritoriality, this volume presents fresh perspectives on displacement, opening the topic up to a wider, more interdisciplinary terrain of inquiry and teaching.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
PART ONE Frameworks
1 Asian American Displacements	3	(20)
WANNI W. ANDERSON AND ROBERT G. LEE
2 Diaspora, Transnationalism, and Asian American Studies: Positions and Debates	23	(18)
CHRISTOPHER LEE
PART TWO Displacements and Diasporas: Historical and Cultural Studies Perspectives
3 Diasporas, Displacements, and the Construction of Transnational Identities	41	(13)
K. SCOTT WONG
4 Images of the Chinese in West Indian History	54	(24)
WALTON LOOK LAI
5 On Coolies and Shopkeepers: The Chinese as Huagong (Laborers) and Huashang (Merchants) in Latin America/Caribbean	78	(34)
EVELYN HU-DEHART
6 From Japanese to Nikkei and Back: Integration Strategies of Japanese Immigrants and Their Descendants in Brazil	112	(10)
JEFFREY LESSER
7 In the Black Pacific: Testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian Displacements	122	(37)
BERNARD SCOTT LUCIOUS
PART THREE Displacements and Diasporas: Anthropological Perspectives
8 Lived Simultaneity and Discourses of Diasporic Difference	159	(11)
NINA GLICK SCHILLER
9 From Refugees to Transmigrants: The Vietnamese in Canada	170	(24)
LOUIS-JACQUES DORAIS
10 Between Necessity and Choice: Rhode Island Lao American Women	194	(33)
WAN NI W. ANDERSON
11 Mixed Desires: Second-Generation Indian Americans and the Politics of Youth Culture	227	(24)
SUNAINA MAIRA
PART FOUR Opening the Dialogue
12 Crossing Borders of Disciplines and Departments	251	(5)
ROBERT G. LEE
13 Anthropology, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies: Open Systems, Closed Minds	256	(14)
NANCY ABELMANN
14 The Ordeal of Ethnic Studies in the Age of Globalization	270	(21)
E. SAN JUAN JR.
Contributors	291	(4)
Index	295