Department of Ethnic Studies & Asian American Studies Program

1. ETHN 14: Introduction to Asian American Studies Department of Ethnic Studies & Asian American Studies Program California State University, Sacramento Week 6 Session 2 American Military and Economic Expansion: Filipina/os and Pacific Islanders

2. Last Time • Explore the relationship between cultural representations and identity formation by comparing and contrasting Chinese and Japanese American experiences. • Begin to surface themes that describe the shared experience of APIs.

3. Today • Build from our cross-group analysis by including Filipinos and Pacific Islanders.

5. Gleanings from Our “Within Group” Analyses of Chinese Americans • Social structures such as institutions and organizations and power distribution are closely linked. Institutions function to reinforce existing power relations between ethnic groups. Differential power relations between ethnic groups shape how institutions function. • Early Chinese immigrant communities were structured around institutions and organizations that were brought from southern China and adapted in the Western United States with San Francisco as its capital. These organizations took on different functions with the second generation. Segregation discouraged assimilation. • The dominant culture values material wealth and uses its control over local, state, and federal government to limit labor competition and access to opportunity.

6. Gleanings from our “Cross Group” Analysis of Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans • Cultural representations of API groups promote or reinforce U.S. national interest and European American materialism. Stereotypes and depictions of Asian Americans are linked to a history of West-East dualism (Edward Said’s Orientalism) often linked to the enduring image of “the perpetual foreigner.” • Despite structural differences between Chinese and Japanese immigrants, both groups were relegated to similar forms of labor and housing, and both experienced forms of discrimination. • The relationship between Asian country’s governments varies greatly. Immigrants from China were unprotected by the Chinese government. The Japanese government endeavored to protect their countrymen.

7. Discussion Questions Set 1 • How does the arrival of Filipino Americans and Pacific Islander Americans result from U.S. national interest? What cultural representations accompany their arrival? • How is the Filipino American immigrant and settlement experience similar to and different from the Chinese Americans and Japanese American experiences? What systematic factors shape these similarities and differences? • How are Pacific Islander American immigrant and settlement experiences similar to and different from Chinese American and Japanese American experiences?

9. To Prepare for Next Session Next time: Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 • Prepare Reading Notes on Kitano & Daniels, Ch. 8 (South Asians) and 9 (Koreans) • OBD: Bulosan, Part II