(Be)Longing: Asian Diasporic Crossings – Exhibition Review

A review of Himadri Lahiri’s Asia Travels: Pan-Asian Cultural Discourses and Diasporic Asian Literature/s in English

This chapter serves as a practicum for how Indigenous, African Diasporic, Asian Diasporic, and Latine rhetoric can be used to create legal discourse in opposition to that created by Western reasoning and analytic paradigms. Using examples from pleadings, memos, trial and appellate legal briefs, and judicial opinions in a variety of subject matter areas, it makes visible the operation of Western reasoning and analytic paradigms to illustrate the operation of inequalities. It then invites the reader to identify and practice using multicultural reasoning and analytic paradigms in a variety of ways.

The plot of return from America to Asia to search for origins is central to Asian diasporic literature of the past 120 years. By returning to Asia and writing about their ancestors, Asian North Americans (those born or raised in the United States or Canada) expand their cultural understanding and produce narratives that serve as “countermemory,” contributing to a communal memory that is “oppositional . . . the memory of the subordinated and the marginalized, memory from below versus memory from above,” in the words of Viet Thanh Nguyen. For immigrants and their offspring, Asian diasporic narratives of return typically reflect experiences of “racial melancholia,” described as unresolved mourning for the losses associated with migration, in the context of social discrimination, exclusion, or marginalization due to race. For Asians, racial melancholia is exacerbated by its incompatibility with ideals of America as equal, inclusive, and race-blind. Writers sometimes use narratives of return to comprehend and resolve their parents’ melancholia by remembering their stories and articulating their grievances; this process of countermemory typically requires a lengthy cultural apprenticeship. In addition to family histories, narratives of return encompass essays, memoirs, novels, poems, plays, and films. They may also be written by or about protagonists born and raised in Asia who return, perhaps to reform or improve their homeland, after living abroad.

This chapter challenges the normative historical narrative of the West as it manifests in the U.S. to support White cultural hegemony. It introduces the foundations for the creation of Indigenous, African Diasporic, Asian Diasporic, and Latine rhetoric through an exploration of the multiple interlocking systems of oppression that led to each group’s marginalization. The chapter then illustrates how White cultural hegemony informs the nomos and guides legal reasoning and analytic processes to produce unjust results. It concludes with an example of how the lived experiences of minoritized people might move these processes toward inclusion and equity.

Empire and Environment argues that histories of imperialism, colonialism, militarism, and global capitalism are integral to understanding environmental violence in the transpacific region. The collection draws its rationale from the imbrication of imperialism and global environmental crisis, but its inspiration from the ecological work of activists, artists, and intellectuals across the transpacific region. Taking a postcolonial, ecocritical approach to confronting ecological ruin in an age of ecological crises and environmental catastrophes on a global scale, the collection demonstrates how Asian North American, Asian diasporic, and Indigenous Pacific Island cultural expressions critique a de-historicized sense of place, attachment, and belonging. In addition to its thirteen chapters from scholars who span the Pacific, each part of this volume begins with a poem by Craig Santos Perez. The volume also features a foreword by Macarena Gómez-Barris and an afterword by Priscilla Wald.

To the community,As mass media showcased the increasing instances of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia towards the Asian diaspora, the chief editors saw that there was a lack of research literature on the Asian American experience, both before and during the onset of the pandemic. By providing a platform that empowers students to share their academic work, the AARJ continues the vision initiated by student activists in the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) strikes by de-centering academic gatekeeping against people of color and reinforcing the importance of Asian American and Asian Diasporic studies as a scholarly field. We are proud to announce the publication of this first issue of the Asian American Research Journal (AARJ) at UC Berkeley. We created this journal because we saw that UC Berkeley lacked a platform for undergraduate and graduate students to publish their research and scholarly work centered on Asian American and Asian Diasporic experiences, identities, and communities. For our initial publication, we chose the theme “Building Our Voices”. We envisioned a space to recognize and showcase student papers commenting, analyzing, and advising on the various contemporary issues facing the Asian American community, as well as how historical legacies of trauma, discrimination, and oppression continue to affect past, present, and future generations. In addressing the need for a platform for student work and voices, we encouraged a broad range of submissions to capture the multifaceted, non-monolithic stories of the Asian American and Asian diaspora. We are beyond thankful to the editors, designers, authors, faculty editors, and community members for bringing this inaugural journal to fruition and are excited for this publication to continue supporting future generations of scholars to come. We especially thank the tireless efforts of our journal-building community: Anya Fang, our logo designer; Jamie Noh, our chief designer; Rachel Lee and the eScholarship team, and of course, our relentlessly uplifting faculty sponsors, Dr. Khatharya Um, Dr. Lok Siu, and Dr. Michael Omi. Please enjoy the first issue of the Asian American Research Journal! In Solidarity,Anh-Tu Lu, Austin Le, Gabrielle Nguyen, Richie ChuChief Editors 2020-2021Asian American Research Journal Co-founders

This article considers the fraught relationship between memory, culture and politics in an analysis of Asian diasporic film. The privileging categories of race and nation as the key determinants of Asian diasporic identity are resisted. Instead, through analyses of specific filmic segments from such feature films as Wayne Wang's 'Chan is Missing' (1982), Srinivas Krishnan's Masala (1991) and Gragg Araki's Totally Fucked Up (1994); and such shorter films by diasporic women as Lise Yasui's Family Gathering (1988), Pam Tom's Two Lies (1989), Hellen Lee's Sally's Beauty Spot (1990), Janice Tanaka's Memories from the Department of Amnesia (1991), it is argued that the narrative of space, and specifically the space of racist, gender and homophobic violence, opens up the possibility of multiple forms of political excess. It enables, for instance, the contestation of dominant cinematic processes of suture through an elaboration of diasporic, feminist and queer space, and the displacement of Asian American identity beyond the master signifiers of race and nation through a consideration of diasporic history and the history of gender and sexuality. Yet, through this process of contesting, the very category of Asian diasporic film is brought to crisis. It is in the negotiation of these complex histories and the development of other languages that the effectiveness of Asian American film as counter-memory is situated.

This article examines the predominately Asian American “Anti-Phandom” community on GuruGossiper.com to explore how anti-fans of YouTube star Michelle Phan engage with ideologies of beauty cultures within Asian diasporic contexts. For many, Anti-Phandom provides an online space where personal concerns about female Asian beauty standards can be negotiated through Michelle Phan. Within these conversations, I argue Anti-Phans display forms of resistance to Phan's postfeminist forms of female empowerment on racial and ethnic terms. However, these counters to Phan's notions of beauty also produce a rubric of the beautiful Asian woman which renders difference as ugly, creating idealized definitions of racial beauty and Asian/American cultures based on essentialized categories that police diasporic women.

Fetishising Flesh

To date, there has been little sustained attention given to the historical cinema relations between Australia and Asia. This is a significant omission given Australia’s geo-political position and the place Asia has held in the national imaginary, oscillating between threat and opportunity. Many accounts of Australian cinema begin with the 1970s film revival, placing “Asian Australian cinema” within a post-revival schema of multicultural or diasporic cinema and ignoring Asian Australian connections prior to the revival. Transnational Australian Cinema charts a history of Asian Australian cinema, encompassing the work of diasporic Asian filmmakers, films featuring images of Asia and Asians, films produced by Australians working in Asia’s film industries or addressed at Asian audiences, and Asian films that use Australian resources, including locations and personnel. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, the book considers diasporic Asian histories, the impact of government immigration and film policies on representation, and the new aesthetic styles and production regimes created by filmmakers who have forged links, both through roots and routes, with Asia. This expanded history of Asian Australian cinema allows for a renewed discussion of so called dormant periods in the nation’s film history. In this respect, the mapping of an expanded history of cinema practices contributes to our broader aim to rethink the transnationalism of Australian cinema.

While mapping the history of migration in Asia, Sunil S. Amrith observes, "Migration has been a widespread experience in many regions of Asia", and "Asian history" can be studied "in more mobile terms" by focusing on the travelling of migrants across national borders and "the connections that migrants made between distant places" (Amrith 2011, 1).This idea of looking at Asia from the perspective of mobility renders a new dimension to Amrith's analysis of the history of the modern Asian diaspora.Using a similar ideological paradigm, Himadri Lahiri's book, Asia Travels: Pan-Asian Discourses and Diasporic Asian Literature/s in English (2021), seeks to foreground the notion of "travel", in both real and metaphorical senses, in the Asian socio-cultural milieu.Each country in the Asian continent has a history of migration and these migrations, according to Lahiri, were instrumental in uniting the Asians.By emphasising the idea of "travel", this book discusses the theoretical concept of "Pan-Asianism" in the context of Asian literary and cultural productions."Pan-Asianism" incorporates "a discourse born out of a spirit" of travelling away from one's own "nation and coming back 'home' (often in metaphorical sense)", "with the urge to form" a close association with "the people of other nations in the continent of Asia" (Lahiri 2021, ix).It is a "transnational ideology" (ibid., ix) which aims to strengthen the "anti-Western impulse" (ibid., xiii), providing a sort of alternative critical framework to analyse the idea of migration in the East.Indeed, Lahiri's book is shaped by the spirit of "Pan-Asianist" discourse, and the three sections of this volume amplify the interface between "Pan-Asianism" and diaspora."Pan-Asianism" is a historical phenomenon, and although its heydays are gone, its spirit can be found in present-day incarnations of the same phenomenon.It takes the word "travel" both in its material and figurative senses.

This essay examines domestic violence in Asian transnational communities in the United States. It engages in a brief overview of the Asian diaspora to the United States, analyses the nuances of domestic violence in diasporic Asian households, and examines how culture, immigration states and language access remain significant barriers for Asian immigrant victims of domestic violence in obtaining help and services. This essay then considers potential solutions for Asian diasporic victims of domestic violence, including legal remedies and support from transnational non-governmental organizations.

Sophia Cai brings together BTS and ARMY as a case study for applying fandom as an expanded curatorial methodology with a potential to activate more inclusive means of engagement with contemporary art audiences and practitioners. Focusing on two recent curatorial projects, “Sincerely Yours, ARMY: Exploring Fandom as Curatorial Methodology,” suggests that fandom and fan culture might offer a novel lens through which to rethink intersections of art and identity outside of traditional exhibition formats, art institutions, and circuits. In addition, this chapter will also consider fandom as a strategy for reaching more diverse audiences outside of traditional exhibition formats, art institutions, and circuits. Finally, a case is made for considering the relevance of fandom to curatorial methodologies as a political practice—particularly in challenging the long-dominant patriarchal Eurocentric discourses of art history from a diasporic Asian and feminist subjectivity.

Like my parents, many post-1965 professional Indian migrants to the United States brought with them live-in domestic workers who were formative in the raising of second-generation South Asian diasporics like myself, often referred to in the literature as ABCDs, or "American-Born Confused Desis." Yet, both in explorations of second-generation South Asian diasporic identity and in more recent work that implicates class in the formation of NRI (Non-Resident Indian) subjects, this population has received little to no attention. Weaving together autoethnography with scholarly literature on both diaspora and domestic work, this article explores the role of domestic work and affective labor in the social reproduction of the Indian American diaspora through the story of Laxmi Soni (via my recollections), who worked as a nanny in my family for over eighteen years. I suggest academic approaches to nannies and other care workers that complicate the class- and race-based analyses that currently exist within the literature on globalization, the feminization of labor, and the so-called "chain of care."

Annihilation of Masks: Undoing Hierarchy and Patriarchy in South Asian Diasporic Communities