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Dear Ann,<br>
<br>
Frankly, the idiosyncratic interpretation of the <i>minjung</i>
literature as "democratic" (in the current American sense of
the world) looks to me biased not that much ethnically/racially as
ideologically. What is omitted/sidelined is obvious
anti-imperialist/socialist/"third world"-solidarist
self-identification of many <i>minjung</i> authors. By the way, I sense
really strong "dominant" bias in terming all the plethora of
anti-systemic movements in contemporary South Korea either
"nationalist" or "anti-American".
"MinjokjuUi" was, for many of the proponents of the movement,
as much "nationalism" as "third-worldism" - in the
1980s, they clandestinely read on Ho Chi Minh, and in the late 1990s, Che
Gevara became a new star. That were exactly the heirs of the 1980s
movement who started in the late 1990s the campaign of disclosure of the
atrocities committed by Park Chong Hee army in South Vietnam - and this
campaign was moved exactly by the passion for Asian/"third
world" solidarity. In fact, this all goes back very deep, down to
the times in the 1900s when the anti-colonial narrative on the demise of
Vietnam (<i>WOllam Mangguksa</i> in Korean, by Liang Qichao and a
Vietnamese anti-colonial activist) was the must-read among the "new
intelligentsia". But I guess that <i>this</i> side of the
<i>minjung</i> movement - the most dangerous for the US hegemony in the
long run - was largely sidelined by some of the "mainstream"
American narratives on the subject.<br>
<br>
With best greetings,<br>
<br>
Vladimir <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
At 11:35 28.09.2003 -0700, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><font face="arial" size=2>
Dear Vladimir,</font><br>
<br>
<font face="arial" size=2>I will give an example of the relevance of the
politics of race in Asian studies.</font><br>
<font face="arial" size=2>When I, as an Asian American not born in Korea,
discuss Korean minjung nationalist literature, am I not using Western
dominant narratives of democratic revolution, and thereby serving the
mythic, hegemonic American ideology of "melting pot"? As
Rey Chow notes, it is important to recognize Koreans' lived experiences
of the ideology of democracy, and Koreans' perceptions and translations
of that ideology. In the U.S., "certain ethnic groups, as a
result of racism, will never be able to enact in full "the script of
"consent." (Wong, 1993:41): "With European
ethnics, there is enough cultural congruence with the Anglo mainstream,
and enough reality in the promised rewards of assimilation, to validate
the rhetoric of consensual nation-building and blunt the damage of
generational divisions. Asian Americans are socialized into
embracing the same expectations but are denied their full realization on
a collective basis." (Wong 1993: 43).</font><br>
<br>
<font face="arial" size=2>Ann</font><br>
<br>
<font face="arial" size=2>Citation:</font><br>
<font face="arial" size=2>Sau-ling Cynthia Wong, Reading Asian American
Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance (Princeton: Princeton
Univerrsity Press, 1993).</font><br>
<dl>
<dd>----- Original Message -----
<dd>From:</b> <a href="mailto:vladimir.tikhonov@east.uio.no">Vladimir
Tikhonov</a>
<dd>To:</b> <a href="mailto:Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">Korean Studies
Discussion List</a>
<dd>Sent:</b> Friday, September 26, 2003 1:59 AM
<dd>Subject:</b> Re: [KS] can Asian Americans have a voice in Asian
Studies?<br>
<br>
<dd>Dear colleagues,<br>
<br>
<dd>if what Ann Lee writes about the atmosphere of the "WASP
domination" in our field in the USA is true (as I have never been
over there, it is hard for me to assess the situation on my own), that I
cannot help concluding that, perhaps, old Soviet Union wasn't the worst
of all possible worlds. Several prominent ethnic Korean scholars won
recognition in their respective special fields (M.N.Pak - ancient
history, G.F.Kim - North Korean politics, Lim Su - folk sayings, etc.) as
"dominant authorities", so to say, and I really don't remember
any talks about "tribe wars" along ethnic lines among
their students, so ethnically mixed as they were. I don't think
anybody really questioned - or would ever question - the loyalty of the
ethnic Korean "patriarchs" of Soviet/Russian Korean Studies to
Soviet/Russian culture or research traditions. Perhaps - I just guess -
it was old intelligentsia tradition of fighting against official
antisemitism/"patriotic" chauvinism in Tzarist Russia, in
combination with Tzarist/Soviet tradition of absorbing ethnically
heterogeneous local elites, that precluded any ethnic divisions in the
Korean Studies field? Anyway, I can only hope that the immunity to
racialist taxonomies will survive in Russia, despite all the efforts to
the contrary on the part of its today's rulers...<br>
<br>
<dd>Vladimir Tikhonov <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<dd>At 15:28 25.09.2003 -0700, you
wrote:<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>Dear list,</font>
<dd> <font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>I have failed in my bid to be a cultural
comprador.</font><font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>Collecting my unemployment checks, I have time to read what I want to
read.</font><font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>I can't help asking myself whether or not Asian Americans can have a
voice in Asian Studies.</font><font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>Orientalists remind us that only a native's "access" to
Asian culture could possibly give an Asian any use value in the
field. This results in pitting Asian Americans (issei, nisei, 1.5
generations, and in betweens) against each other -- a divisive strategy
that succeeds because of the economics of Necessity, in which Asian
Americans are only too willing to sell each other out in order to
survive. It is a strategy that pre-empts any possible alliances
that Asian Americans might try to form, alliances that dominant whites
find threatening.</font><font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>I remember a male WASP professor at Harvard (now at a different
school) asking department majors to introduce ourselves and our reasons
for majoring in East Asian Studies. One Asian student, recently
immigrated, said he wanted to study his culture. I said I had a
somewhat academic interest in Asia, rather than studying it as "my
culture," since I was born in N.Y.C. and grew up
here.</font><font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>The WASP male professor, perhaps sensing a smugness in my attitude,
immediately said, "But isn't that what it is? _Your_
culture?" It was a harsh rebuke of my confidence in my
American identity. My skin color meant, to him, that I would never
be accepted as an American.</font>
<dd> <font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>Ann Lee</font>
<dd>
<dd>
<dd> </blockquote>
<dd>Vladimir Tikhonov,
<dd>Department of East European and Oriental Studies,
<dd>Faculty of Arts,
<dd>University of Oslo,
<dd>P.b. 1030, Blindern, 0315, Oslo, Norway.
<dd>Fax: 47-22854140; Tel: 47-22857118
<dd>Personal web page:
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/volodyatikhonov/volodyatikhonov.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/volodyatikhonov/volodyatikhonov.html</a>
<dd>Electronic classrooms: East Asian/Korean Society and Politics:
<dd>
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.html</a>
<dd>
East Asian/Korean Religion and Philosophy:
<dd>
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html</a><hr>
</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
</dl>Vladimir Tikhonov,<br>
Department of East European and Oriental Studies,<br>
Faculty of Arts,<br>
University of Oslo,<br>
P.b. 1030, Blindern, 0315, Oslo, Norway.<br>
Fax: 47-22854140; Tel: 47-22857118<br>
Personal web page:
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/volodyatikhonov/volodyatikhonov.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/volodyatikhonov/volodyatikhonov.html</a><br>
Electronic classrooms: East Asian/Korean Society and Politics:<br>
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.</a><a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.html" eudora="autourl">html<br>
</a>
East Asian/Korean Religion and Philosophy:<br>
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html" eudora="autourl">http://</a>www.geocities.com<a href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html" eudora="autourl">/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html</a><br>
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