Editorial introduction: between nations and across the ocean

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgement This special issue was originally conceptualized as the ‘International Workshop on Asian American Studies in Asia’ hosted by the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica, Taipei, on June 4–5, 2010. The Institute's director, Te-hsing Shan, and staff have offered generous support for this event, and the workshop participants—most especially Mie, Kun Jong, Kim Tong, Amie, Candace, Gayle, Wing Tek, Hyungji, Rika, and Lisa—have all contributed to this project with much labor, patience, and friendship. Of course, this issue would not appear without Kuan-Hsing's support and Chia-Hsuan's professional assistance. I thank you all cordially for making this possible. Notes On the debate on ‘denationalization’ in Asian American criticism and the responding criticisms, see Wong (1995) Wong, Sau-Ling. 1995. Denationalization reconsidered: Asian American cultural criticism at a theoretical crossroads. Amerasia Journal, 21(1&2): 1–27. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Koshy (1996) Koshy, Susan. 1996. The fiction of Asian American literature. The Yale Journal of Criticism, 9: 315–346. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Dirlik (1998) Dirlik, Arif. 1998. “The Asia-Pacific in Asian-American perspective”. In What is in a Rim?: Critical Perspectives on the Pacific Region Idea, Edited by: Dirlik, Arif. 283–308. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. [Google Scholar]; Chuh (2003) Chuh, Kandice. 2003. Imagine Otherwise: On Asian Americanist Critique, Durham: Duke University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; and most recently, Sohn et al. (2010) Sohn, Stephen, Lai, Paul and Goellnicht, Donald C. 2010. Special issue on ‘Theorizing Asian American Fiction. Modern Fiction Studies, 56(1) (eds)[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. For a theoretical historicization of American modernity and Asian immigration, see Palumbo-Liu (1999) Palumbo-Liu, David. 1999. Asian/American: Historical Crossings of a Racial Frontier, Stanford: Stanford University Press. [Google Scholar], especially Part 1. On the critique of settler colonialism, see Fujikane and Okamura (2008) Fujikane, Candace and Okamura, Jonathan Y. 2008. Asian Settler Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawai'i, Edited by: Fujikane, Candace and Okamura, Jonathan Y. Honololu: University of Hawai‘i Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. At the International Workshop on Asian American Studies in Asia, held at Academia Sinica, Taipei, in June 2010, Lum's recital of his Nanjing poems instigated a heated debate among the participants on Japan's war responsibility. Apparently, the scar of war and imperialism runs deep and is hard to heal in Asia and the Pacific. For the emergence and development of ethnic studies in Hawai‘i, see Aoude (1999) Aoude, Ibrahim. 1999. The Ethnic Studies Stories: Politics and Social Movements in Hawai'i: Essays in Honor of Marion Kelly, Edited by: Aoude, Ibrahim. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. [Google Scholar]; and Trask (1993) Trask, Haunani-Kay. 1993. From a Native Daughter, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. [Google Scholar], especially Part IV. Additional informationNotes on contributorsChih-ming WangContact address: Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, 128 Yanjiuyuan Rd., Section 2, Nankang, Taipei 115, Taiwan.