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AAS 100 Midterm Study Guide
Week 1
1. What was the main port of entry for the Chinese entering the United States from 1910 to 1940? Angel Island Why did this place serve as a detention center for many Chinese? Because it was isolated 2. Who was mainly targeted in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act? Specifically Chinese workers. People in the US were scared that they would take all jobs Act excluded Chinese “skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining” Act made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens, excluded them from US citizenship 3. Who were the first “illegal aliens” in the United States? The Chinese were the first illegal aliens African Americans in servitude weren’t aliens 4. When was the first Naturalization Act passed in the United States, and who qualified for citizenship under that law? Passed in 1790 Act provided first rules to be followed by US in granting citizenship. Limited naturalization to immigrants who were “free white persons” of “good moral character” o This leaves out indentured servants, slaves, free blacks, and ASAINS!!!! When did this law change? Changed in 1870 to include African Americans Changed again in 1943 to include Chinese nationals Change again in 1952 free everyone 5. Who two court cases in the 1920s challenged the first Naturalization Act? Ozawa 1922 Japanese man wanted US citizenship. Had to choose if he was black or white. He chose white. Supreme court denied him because not scientifically white and lifestyle doesn’t count. SCIENCE MATTERS Thind 1923 Indian man that was of Aryan descent so he was scientifically white. He was denied citizenship because the common perception is that an Indian man is not white. NOT ALL SCIENCE, COMMON KNOWLEDGE MATTERS 6. What is Edward Said’s definition of Orientalism? Orientalism is a process that separates the east from the west East=barbaric and uncivilized, west=the opposite Justified imperialism Construction of binary 7. According to Okihiro, how should we think about Asian American history? Westward expansion of the 19th century United States was related to the U.S.’s exploration and expansion to Asia What’s the “when and where I enter” for Asian American history according to him? Okihiro’s book What does this rethinking have to do with the notion that the United States is a land of immigrants and that Asian Americans are model immigrants? before Asians came, America was a nation of immigrants, native people and African Americans were here first. Then Asians realized that US was not a place that welcomed immigrants with open arms. They were not welcome. Created exclusion act and coolies. Weeks 2 1. How was Asian migration to the United States related to European colonialism? East meeting the west When European colonial powers moved to asia, it opened up for Asians to move to other places Opened up communication and travel to colonial metropole
2. According to Ancestors in the Americas , what or who was a “coolie”? When was the coolie trade? What’s the connection between the coolie trade and slavery? Coolie Chinese/Indian and Porteguese decent -bonded/endentured workers Someone who was both sought after and despised Replacement for black slaves. Trade was a lot cheaper Tricked into becoming coolies through gambling and forced to work off their debt. Trade was in 1859 3. What did the Opium Wars make possible for Western countries in relation to their trade with China? One thing they could sell in China Opium War Chinese were defeated and forced to have more open trade (5 ports) with other European countries europeans were exempt from Chinese rule 4. In “Outlawing ‘Coolies,’” how does Jung define the word “coolie”? What does it mean that the “coolie” was a racialized and raializing figure? Racialized and racializing figure Denotes asian labor formerly done by black slaves Asian labor was replacing slavery, entrance of coolie prevented opportunity for equality. Racial hierarchy 5. What are some of the significant things to remember about Reconstruction that was covered during lecture? Reconstruction=racism made even stronger 1870-Naturalization law changed to include African Americans Being white free and American used to mean the same thing, now you can be black and free too 6. What was the reason that American citizenship wasn’t made race-free during Reconstruction? Because even though they freed blacks, they focused on coolies Coolie gave meaning to the word “black” and justified white supremacy racialization of Chinese as coolies was crucial in defining “who was free” because they wanted to exclude the coolies! 7. According to Jung, what concretized the racial hierarchy that was in flux during Reconstruction? After the civil war=abolition of slavery Put racial hierarchy in flux because African Americans no longer slaves Citizenship is no longer based on slaves Asian Americans below African Americans Ever since Asians came, they needed to exclude them so to stop focusing on black people 8. What were the white lawmakers and white former plantation owners able to achieve through their manipulation of the word, “coolie”? Plantation owners used coolie to say its not slavery Lawmakers said opposite=coolie is slavery, just by a different name 9. What does Jung say is the inherent contradiction in cooliesm? Slavery just ended and had been outlawed, but it was created in another form Are they slaves or are they not slaves? If Chinese come here, its against everything that America stands for because they will just be treated as laborers. So they wanted to ban Chinese immigration. o Ones who wanted to ban slave labor, ban Chinese immigration
8. What does San Juan mean by, “disconnect and recontextualize”? What is this a step toward? I’m not sure what this means, but I would guess that he wants us to disconnect what we think about the immigrant experience and multiculturalism and recontextualize it using the framework of their struggle and imperialism Then this would be a step toward understanding the Filipino experience 9. In Bulosan’s “Story of a Letter,” what ultimately happens to the letter? What do you think the letter symbolizes? How would San Juan read/interpret the story? Story of letter is based on Carlos Bulosan’s life About finding translation of the letter his brother, Berto, sent to his father He traveled tons of places looking for his brothers, found his brother berto In the end, the translation of the letter was returned to him, addressed to him at a hotel he had never head of before —he read it and laughed. o Not sure what the letter symbolizes and how San Juan would interpret story but if we put it in context of question 6 we should be fine????? 10. According to Dollar a Day Ten Cents a Dance , how many how many Filipino workers migrated to the United States in the 1920s and 1930s? 100,000 Filipino workers 11. What was going on the United States in the 1930s when the Filipino workers arrived? Great Depression in the USA 12. What do you think are examples of resistance on the part of the Filipino workers in Dollar a Day****? Had cock fights and called them picnics Everyone was an aunt of uncle Go to dance halls and gamble 13. What was their point in showing a clip of Bad to the Bone , which was a remake of Andrew Suh’s story? Story was made into a made for tv movie Instead of casting Koreans, they cast Americans Shows that story was a sensation in part bc asian Americans, because we don’t think they would do that To make movie acceptable for American audience, actors needed to be american WEEK 4 1. What happened in December, 1941, and what happened in the Spring of 1942 to over 100,000 people on the West Coast of the United States? December 1941-perl harbor o Because of this, US considered those of Japanese descent to be enemies Spring of 1942:The Japanese were put into internment camps-over 100,000 of them living on the west coast The FBI began detaining immigrant leaders, initiating a process that prematurely elevated Nisei of the Japanese American Citizens League to fill the leadership vacuum. Who were they? All people of Japanese decent were enemies to USA 2. What is the Executive Order #9066? United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones. Eventually, EO 9066 cleared the way for the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps. This permitted for the government to legally put Japanese into internment camps 3. Were any Japanese Americans convicted of espionage during the war? Japanese put into camps for fear of committing espionage and sabotage No Japanese Americans convicted!!!!
4. Who are Issei, Nisei , and Sansei****? (THESE ARE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER-those who came first at beginning) Issei - 1st^ generation, first to immigrate. They were not citizens. They came from japan. Nisei - 2nd^ generation, first born in USA. they were the kids of the Issei. They were most of the people in the internment camps Sansei- 3 rd^ generation, second born in USA. They were the grandchildren of the Issei. The kids of the Neisi. They were the lawyers. 5. Who were most of the people in the internment camps? Nisei (2nd^ generation, first born in USA, kids of Issei, their kids are sansei) 6. Who was responsible for starting a movement for redress? Nisei and Sanei (second and third gen.) were responsible for starting movement for redress in late 1970’s 7. Who are Min Yasui, Gordon Hirabashi, and Fred Korematsu? 3 men who resisted the interment camp 3 earliest resistors to the military draft orders Brought their cases challenging constitutionality of the curfew, mass removal, and internment before the Supreme Court 8. What were some of the explanations for the internment immediately after the war? How have historians challenged this view? How do they propose thinking about the internment? ?????????????????? 9. According to Kurashige’s article, what was one of the most crucial roles of the LA mayor Fletcher Brown during the war? Bowron played a pivotal role in formulating and propagating the assumption of racial guilt o yet students of Japanese American history will recognize that his arguments were not unique. Most shamelessly Bowron advanced the Catch-22 argument that an absence of evidence of sabotage by Japanese Americans signaled that a sneak attack was imminent. Japanese in America were too smart. Bowron was one of the people who thought the Japanese should be incarcerated. He did this by including all Japanese as people who were Asian Americans The Nisei, were American citizens, and were in the internment camp. But he was homogenizing all of them. Even though these people are American citizens, they still have ties to Japan, thus they are Japanese, so they should be incarcerated and interned In order to justify it and put them all in the camps, they had to see ALL THE JAPANESE people as a threat (not just the first generation who came from Japan) 10. How do some of the cartoons shown during lecture depict anti-Japanese racism? If you look specifically at the power points, you will see that there is one about Hitler and the Japanese emperor. It compared the Japanese emperor with Hitler. It was promoting Japanese American to PROVE their loyalty and patriotism. So if you’re against this Japanese faith that means you’re FOR America. 11. Who were the No-No Boys? The title refers to Japanese Americans who answered 'no' to the following two questions, when asked by the United States government on a 1943 Leave Clearance Application Form administered to Interned Japanese Americans. o "Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty wherever ordered?" o "Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government, power or organization?" 12. According to a clip from angryasianman.com, what date in 2011 was commemorated as a Day of Remembrance by the Japanese American community in Los Angeles? February 19th^ –anniversary of the EO 9066 13. What were the two significant factors about this date?
Week 6: American Vestiges of Wars in Asia – Film: The Daughter from Danang ; Readings: background reading on The Daughter & Chan
1. According to Chan, how did the 1965 Immigration Act affect the Asian American population in the United States? There was so many more Asian Americans POST 65 because they got rid of restrictive legislation. They were more heterogeneous. The Asians who had already been there for so many generations all came during the first generation wave. The 2nd^ wave was very heterogeneous (refugees, students, wealthy Asians, people trying to reunite with their families). They were coming from all different parts of Asia. And POST 65, the Asians in America became mostly immigrants. The immigrants coming in soon outnumbered the ones who were already there. This had to do with immigration laws. This has to do with the 1965 immigration laws, which repealed exclusion act of the 20s. 2. Chan chronicles the various influences that US imperialism, or what she calls “American connection” (149) had on Asian countries. Specifically, what was the influence in the **Philippines? In South Korea? Taiwan? How is Japan different? ????????
- How are the recent immigrants from Asia different from the first wave of migrants (in the** late 19th^ & early 20th^ centuries) and the second wave of immigrants (from the mid-20th century)? 1 st^ wave=laborers Post 65=reuniting with families, refugees, more wealthy, more types—conservative and individualistic 4. How did the US “containment” policy during the cold war factor into the role of the United States in the Viet Nam war? Please read pp. 152-5 in Chan. The US containment policy was the policy that the US should stop the spread of communism. They tried to “contain” it by not letting it spread any further. This containment policy plays into the role of the US in the Vietnam war because the US, once again, tried to control communism. They favored the refugees who fled the communist countries. Thus, they rewarded people for going against communism. 5. Who are the refugees that the US government favors? What do you think are some of the ramifications of this preference? The Filipino refugees that were favored were those coming from communist countries. Many of these people turned to communism. The US saved the people who were fleeing these communist countries. 6. According to the PBS website on The Daughter from Danang , how many babies were taken from Viet Nam during the Operation Babylift? Took 200 babies to America 7. How does Heidi’s story in The Daughter from Danang complicate our understanding of a supposedly singular, monolithic “Asian American” identity? How does her story complicate our understanding of the US involvement in the Viet Nam war and the Vietnamese **American population in the United States?
- How do stories and people affected by transracial and transnational adoption complicate our** understanding of race?
WEEK 7
1. Who was Vincent Chin? When and how did he die? He was a Chinese American man in his 20s who was beaten to death with a baseball bat by two white men. He died in 1982. 2. Who are Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz? The white men who beat Vincent Chin to death. Stepfather and stepson. 3. What is the “double tragedy” that the supporters of Vincent Chin’s family speak of? The death itself & the fact that both Ebens and Nitz were only given a 3-yr probation and a $3000 fine 4. How does Ebens talk about Chin’s death? What did he do on the night that Chin died? “It just happened.. It’s something that can happen to anyone.” (The latter is referring to his role in the death.) He played baseball.
