[KS] can Asian Americans have a voice in Asian Studies?

[Vladimir Tikhonov]

Dear Ann,

Frankly, the idiosyncratic interpretation of the minjung 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 minjung 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 (WOllam Mangguksa in Korean, by Liang 
Qichao and a Vietnamese anti-colonial activist) was the must-read among the 
"new intelligentsia". But I guess that this side of the minjung 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.

With best greetings,

Vladimir



At 11:35 28.09.2003 -0700, you wrote:
>   Dear Vladimir,
>
>I will give an example of the relevance of the politics of race in Asian 
>studies.
>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).
>
>Ann
>
>Citation:
>Sau-ling Cynthia Wong, Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity 
>to Extravagance (Princeton: Princeton Univerrsity Press, 1993).
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:vladimir.tikhonov at east.uio.no>Vladimir Tikhonov
>To: <mailto:Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>Korean Studies Discussion List
>Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 1:59 AM
>Subject: Re: [KS] can Asian Americans have a voice in Asian Studies?
>
>Dear colleagues,
>
>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...
>
>Vladimir Tikhonov
>
>
>
>
>
>At 15:28 25.09.2003 -0700, you wrote:
>>Dear list,
>>
>>I have failed in my bid to be a cultural comprador.
>>Collecting my unemployment checks, I have time to read what I want to read.
>>I can't help asking myself whether or not Asian Americans can have a 
>>voice in Asian Studies.
>>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.
>>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.
>>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.
>>
>>Ann Lee
>>
>>
>>
>Vladimir Tikhonov,
>Department of East European and Oriental Studies,
>Faculty of Arts,
>University of Oslo,
>P.b. 1030, Blindern, 0315, Oslo, Norway.
>Fax: 47-22854140; Tel: 47-22857118
>Personal web page: 
>http://www.geocities.com/volodyatikhonov/volodyatikhonov.html
>Electronic classrooms: East Asian/Korean Society and Politics:
>                        http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.html
>                        East Asian/Korean Religion and Philosophy:
> 
>http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html
>----------

Vladimir Tikhonov,
Department of East European and Oriental Studies,
Faculty of Arts,
University of Oslo,
P.b. 1030, Blindern, 0315, Oslo, Norway.
Fax: 47-22854140; Tel: 47-22857118
Personal web page: 
http://www.geocities.com/volodyatikhonov/volodyatikhonov.html
Electronic classrooms: East Asian/Korean Society and Politics:
                        http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2002/main.html
                        East Asian/Korean Religion and Philosophy:
                        http://www.geocities.com/uioeastasia2003/classroom.html

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