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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Vladimir and Bill,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thank you for the kindness of your
reply.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think what I am trying to articulate is a
theoretical interrogation of my "position" as an Asian American scholar of
Korea. If I as an Asian American criticize U.S. imperialism, without
criticizing the U.S. on the matter of civil rights for Asian
immigrants, this leaves the mythologic Center unquestioned.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have noticed that Pak Chong-ae gave a paper
at the tenth conference of the Hanguk yeoseong munhakhoe, entitled "Han'guk
cheon kwa B'et'eunam cheon eseo yeoseong chakka eui tongweon yangsang kwa keu
euieui." (the mobilization of women writers in the Korean War and Vietnam
War, and its significance).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My grandfather, Yi Kwang-su, collaborated with the
Japanese. I find myself identified with my grandfather's politics.
Why try to have a voice at all? Not having an identity could be one way to
live. In spite of expectations that I identify with my grandfather, I
nevertheless want to know what I think.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Have I benefited from my grandfather's colonial
collaboration? My father says he remembers his father as always being in
prison. And that grandfather took him to see the governor of a province
once to buy my father shoes. Grandfather was imprisoned, and
collaborated. This is the complicated narrative that I see.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ann</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ann Sung-hi Lee, Visiting Scholar<BR>Asian
Languages and Literature Department<BR>University of Washington<BR><A
href="http://home.myuw.net/asl/">http://home.myuw.net/asl/</A></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=vladimir.tikhonov@east.uio.no
href="mailto:vladimir.tikhonov@east.uio.no">Vladimir Tikhonov</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws
href="mailto:Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, October 01, 2003 9:48
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: [KS] can Asian Americans
have a voice in Asian Studies?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR><BR><BR>Dear Will, and others following this
thread,<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=cite cite="" type="cite">Thanks for the correction. In
fact, I was not completely sure how the name of the Vietnamese author, which
reads "Pan P'aeju" in Korean, should be put in Vietnamese. Interestingly,
the book used to be included into some editions of Liang's collected works
printed posthumously. As far as I could understand, the only academic work
in South Korean historiography that analyses the influence of The Wollam
wang guksa in some details, is Ch'oe KiyOng's paper, entitled "KugyOk Wollam
wang guksa e kwanhan ilgoch'al", and printed in <Tonga YOn'gu>, Vol.
6, 1985 (reprinted in <Han'guk kUndae Kyemong Undong YOn'gu>,
Ilchogak, 1997). But, unfortunately, Ch'oe doesn't analyze this work in the
wider context of the development of ideas of "anti-hegemonic solidarity" in
Korea, although it seems to be only natural to remember, for example, wide
interest about Chang ChiyOn-translated A<I>egUp kUnsesa</I> (Recent History
of Egypt - printed by HwangsOng sinmun sa in 1905, with Pak Unsik's highly
impassioned foreword) in this context. Inspired partly by Liang Qichao's
philippics against the "new methods of ruining [others'] countries" devised
by the Europeans, and partly by some currents in Japanese Pan-Asianism, this
current of thought seems to leave a strong imprint in Korean intellectuals'
consciousness - and eventually, some of the earlier readers of Phan Boi Chau
and Liang Qichao became Communists and Anarchists in the 1920s, and
converted "Asianism" into "anti-imperialist
solidarity".<BR><BR>Yours,<BR>Vladimir <BR><BR><BR><BR>At 15:41 30.09.2003
-0400, you wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=cite cite="" type="cite">Vladimir,<BR><BR>One
correction: The Wollam wang guksa (Viet nam vong quoc su) was not written
<BR>by Liang Qichao. He did write the dedication to it. The work
(translated into <BR>Korean in about 1905) was by the Vietnamese
intellectual-activist Phan Boi <BR>Chau.<BR><BR>Will Pore<BR><BR>>=====
Original Message From Vladimir Tikhonov
<vladimir.tikhonov@east.uio.no> <BR>=====<BR>>Dear
Ann,<BR>><BR>>Frankly, the idiosyncratic interpretation of the
minjung literature as<BR>>"democratic" (in the current American sense
of the world) looks to me<BR>>biased not that much ethnically/racially
as ideologically. What is<BR>>omitted/sidelined is obvious
anti-imperialist/socialist/"third<BR>>world"-solidarist
self-identification of many minjung authors. By the way,<BR>>I sense
really strong "dominant" bias in terming all the plethora
of<BR>>anti-systemic movements in contemporary South Korea either
"nationalist" or<BR>>"anti-American". "MinjokjuUi" was, for many of the
proponents of the<BR>>movement, as much "nationalism" as
"third-worldism" - in the 1980s, they<BR>>clandestinely read on Ho Chi
Minh, and in the late 1990s, Che Gevara became<BR>>a new star. That
were exactly the heirs of the 1980s movement who started<BR>>in the
late 1990s the campaign of disclosure of the atrocities committed
by<BR>>Park Chong Hee army in South Vietnam - and this campaign was
moved exactly<BR>>by the passion for Asian/"third world" solidarity. In
fact, this all goes<BR>>back very deep, down to the times in the 1900s
when the anti-colonial<BR>>narrative on the demise of Vietnam (WOllam
Mangguksa in Korean, by Liang<BR>>Qichao and a Vietnamese anti-colonial
activist) was the must-read among the<BR>>"new intelligentsia". But I
guess that this side of the minjung movement -<BR>>the most dangerous
for the US hegemony in the long run - was largely<BR>>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>>> Dear
Vladimir,<BR>>><BR>>>I will give an example of the relevance
of the politics of race in Asian<BR>>>studies.<BR>>>When I, as
an Asian American not born in Korea, discuss Korean
minjung<BR>>>nationalist literature, am I not using Western dominant
narratives of<BR>>>democratic revolution, and thereby serving the
mythic, hegemonic American<BR>>>ideology of "melting pot"? As
Rey Chow notes, it is important to<BR>>>recognize Koreans' lived
experiences of the ideology of democracy, and<BR>>>Koreans'
perceptions and translations of that ideology. In the
U.S.,<BR>>>"certain ethnic groups, as a result of racism, will never
be able to enact<BR>>>in full "the script of "consent." (Wong,
1993:41): "With European<BR>>>ethnics, there is enough
cultural congruence with the Anglo mainstream,<BR>>>and enough
reality in the promised rewards of assimilation, to
validate<BR>>>the rhetoric of consensual nation-building and blunt
the damage of<BR>>>generational divisions. Asian Americans are
socialized into embracing the<BR>>>same expectations but are denied
their full realization on a collective<BR>>>basis." (Wong
1993:
43).<BR>>><BR>>>Ann<BR>>><BR>>>Citation:<BR>>>Sau-ling
Cynthia Wong, Reading Asian American Literature: From
Necessity<BR>>>to Extravagance (Princeton: Princeton Univerrsity
Press, 1993).<BR>>><BR>>>----- Original Message
-----<BR>>>From: <<A href="mailto:vladimir.tikhonov@east.uio.no"
eudora="autourl">mailto:vladimir.tikhonov@east.uio.no</A>>Vladimir
Tikhonov<BR>>>To: <<A href="mailto:Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws"
eudora="autourl">mailto:Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</A>>Korean Studies
Discussion List<BR>>>Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 1:59
AM<BR>>>Subject: Re: [KS] can Asian Americans have a voice in Asian
Studies?<BR>>><BR>>>Dear colleagues,<BR>>><BR>>>if
what Ann Lee writes about the atmosphere of the "WASP domination"
in<BR>>>our field in the USA is true (as I have never been over
there, it is hard<BR>>>for me to assess the situation on my own),
that I cannot help concluding<BR>>>that, perhaps, old Soviet Union
wasn't the worst of all possible worlds.<BR>>>Several prominent
ethnic Korean scholars won recognition in their<BR>>>respective
special fields (M.N.Pak - ancient history, G.F.Kim -
North<BR>>>Korean politics, Lim Su - folk sayings, etc.) as
"dominant authorities",<BR>>>so to say, and I really don't remember
any talks about "tribe wars" along<BR>>>ethnic lines among
their students, so ethnically mixed as they were. I<BR>>>don't
think anybody really questioned - or would ever question -
the<BR>>>loyalty of the ethnic Korean "patriarchs" of Soviet/Russian
Korean Studies<BR>>>to Soviet/Russian culture or research
traditions. Perhaps - I just guess -<BR>>>it was old intelligentsia
tradition of fighting against official<BR>>>antisemitism/"patriotic"
chauvinism in Tzarist Russia, in combination
with<BR>>>Tzarist/Soviet tradition of absorbing ethnically
heterogeneous local<BR>>>elites, that precluded any ethnic divisions
in the Korean Studies field?<BR>>>Anyway, I can only hope that the
immunity to racialist taxonomies will<BR>>>survive in Russia,
despite all the efforts to the contrary on the part of<BR>>>its
today's rulers...<BR>>><BR>>>Vladimir
Tikhonov<BR>>><BR>>><BR>>><BR>>><BR>>><BR>>>At
15:28 25.09.2003 -0700, you wrote:<BR>>>>Dear
list,<BR>>>><BR>>>>I have failed in my bid to be a
cultural comprador.<BR>>>>Collecting my unemployment checks, I
have time to read what I want to read.<BR>>>>I can't help asking
myself whether or not Asian Americans can have a<BR>>>>voice in
Asian Studies.<BR>>>>Orientalists remind us that only a native's
"access" to Asian culture<BR>>>>could possibly give an Asian any
use value in the field. This results in<BR>>>>pitting Asian
Americans (issei, nisei, 1.5 generations, and in
betweens)<BR>>>>against each other -- a divisive strategy that
succeeds because of the<BR>>>>economics of Necessity, in which
Asian Americans are only too willing to<BR>>>>sell each other out
in order to survive. It is a strategy that
pre-empts<BR>>>>any possible alliances that Asian Americans might
try to form, alliances<BR>>>>that dominant whites find
threatening.<BR>>>>I remember a male WASP professor at Harvard
(now at a different school)<BR>>>>asking department majors to
introduce ourselves and our reasons for<BR>>>>majoring in East
Asian Studies. One Asian student, recently
immigrated,<BR>>>>said he wanted to study his culture. I
said I had a somewhat academic<BR>>>>interest in Asia, rather
than studying it as "my culture," since I was<BR>>>>born in
N.Y.C. and grew up here.<BR>>>>The WASP male professor, perhaps
sensing a smugness in my attitude,<BR>>>>immediately said, "But
isn't that what it is? _Your_ culture?" It was
a<BR>>>>harsh rebuke of my confidence in my American
identity. My skin color<BR>>>>meant, to him, that I would
never be accepted as an American.<BR>>>><BR>>>>Ann
Lee<BR>>>><BR>>>><BR>>>><BR>>>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:<BR>>><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.html</A><BR>>>
East Asian/Korean Religion and Philosophy:<BR>>><BR>>><A
href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html"
eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html</A><BR>>>----------<BR>><BR>>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:<BR>><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.html</A><BR>>
East Asian/Korean Religion and
Philosophy:<BR>>
<BR><A href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html"
eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html</A><BR>><BR>>----------</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>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.html</A><BR>
East Asian/Korean Religion and
Philosophy:<BR>
<A href="http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html"
eudora="autourl">http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html</A><BR>
<HR>
</BLOCKQUOTE><X-SIGSEP>
<P></X-SIGSEP>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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