Abjection, Masculinity, and Violence in Brian Roley's "American Son" and Han Ong's "Fixer Chao"

Abstract

Globalism is not an abstraction but a concrete activity whose mode of being has its effect on local body. --Dana Polan, Globalism's Localisms. Half a century after its independence from United States, Philippines is still very much in a neo-colonial stage. (1) Propelled by dire economic conditions in Philippines and fed by American dream of wealth and success, Filipinos migrate in large numbers and have become what Rhacel Parrenas calls servants of globalization. By globalization, I refer to movement of people, goods, culture in new global capitalism which entails, as Arif Dirlik writes, transnationalization of production, [...] decentering of capitalism nationally, increasing importance of transnational corporation, and fragmentation of production process into subnational regions and localities (30). Filipinos are a transnational subaltern, used in many countries as cheap and temporary labor: 'warm body export' of Filipino workers to Middle East; Filipinas as 'mail-order brides,' ubiquitous prostitutes around enclaves formerly occupied by U.S. military bases; and 'hospitality girls' in Tokyo, Bangkok, Okinawa, and Taipei (San Juan 79). Negative effects of this migration and globalization include separation of family members, perpetual states of exile and displacement, and self-hatred that results from neo-colonial mentality of seeing oneself as other. What faces Filipino immigrants in their adopted countries is often not a life of ease, but difficulties due to prejudice, racism, and alienation. Two recent novels by Filipino American writers, Brian Ascalon Roley's American Son (2001) and Han Ong's Fixer Chao (2001), document these problems and reveal ways in which global capitalism takes its toll on young. (2) Roley's and Ong's novels are told from perspective of children or young adults whose familial and social lives have been changed by transnational migration, and who see themselves as failures because their lives do not match high expectations of American dream. Fuelled by Hollywood ideals of glamour and power, various characters in these novels suffer, and, consequently, lash out against others when they fall short of capitalist notions of success. These novels show impact of global American culture on Filipino immigrants, problems in construction of Filipino American subjectivity, and violent effects of racial abjection on body. In general, these novels reveal a number of common negative effects of globalization on children. First is over-valorization and desire for wealth, First World products, and material goods. In these narratives, children compensate for their lack of familial bonds and/or dysfunctional family situation by coveting, buying, or stealing goods. Transnational production does not affect only people's work conditions, but also libidinal desire. The negative effect consists of overdetermined and unattainable ideals based on Hollywood models of masculinity and beauty since the global distribution of power still tends to make First World countries cultural 'transmitters' and to reduce most Third World countries to status of 'receivers' (Shohat and Stam 147). When Filipino American men find themselves unable to live up to seductive or forceful celebrity images they see in films and on television, they frequently resort to violence or aggression. The third negative effect of globalization on children is emotional and psychic transnationalism. Diane L. Wolf argues that second generation Filipino youth experience emotional transnationalism which situates them between different generational and locational points of reference--their parents,' sometime also their grandparents,' and their own--both real and imagined (459). Children of first-generation Filipino immigrants and Filipino American children belonging to 1. …