This course offers an examination of Chinese immigrant literature and film--the literature written in English and Chinese (in English translation) and films (in English or Chinese with English subtitles) about Chinese immigrant experience. We will begin with Angel Island poems and Gold Mountain poems of early Chinese immigrants to reflections on issues of history, culture, gender, and race in diaspora in the increasingly globalized era of the 1990s. Larger issues to be discussed will include the following: What are the changing meanings of such tropes as "China," "Chinese-ness," "Chinese culture," "America," and "Chinese America" for the Chinese in diaspora? How are these categories imagined differently by different individuals and how are they reconfigured through time? What are the processes by which the immigrant Chinese reconstitute or imagine his/her identity and community in diaspora?
Course Requirements:
This course emphasizes discussion and writing. You need to participate in classroom discussions.
(1) One-page weekly reports responding to the readings of the week due every Thursday. You can use the study questions given in the syllabus as guides to your weekly reports, or formulate your own questions and issues. These must be typed. Handwritten reports not accepted. Together with classroom discussion, these constitute 30% of the overall grade.
(2) One-page film note, which again must be typed, for each of the films viewed in the media library. Each film note should locate and explicate a central theme or issue of the film; it should not be plot summary or generalization about what you felt about the film. 20% of the overall grade. Look at the schedule for due dates.
(3) Final paper: a paper of 7-10 pages on topics given out in the class. Due Thursday of week 9 (early papers are accepted but absolutely no extensions). 50% of the overall grade.
Films reserved in the Media Lab, 270 Powell:
(screening hours and dates are given in the course schedule below. If you can't make it to the screening dates, view the film by yourself at your own time. It is best, however, to watch the films at the designated dates as the tape may not be always available when you want to watch it. The films are reserved under "AAS M132B").
Key Reference Texts:
Introduction and Angel Island Poems
Readings and Screenings:
Assignments:
Weekly report #1 due.
Study Questions:
First get down the historical facts about Angel Island and then consider
such issues as the methods/technologies of detention/interrogation/imprisonment/domination
on the island, the ways in which Chinese immigrants detained there negotiated
with their past (particularly with China that they had left behind) under
the circumstances, and how coping strategies were imagined through writing
poetry. Think about tropes used, allusions made, and metaphors frequently
employed. Ultimately, think about how this chapter of Chinese immigrant
history might have conditioned/defined Chinese American experience in general.
The Making of the Immigrant Subject
Readings and Screenings:
6-8pm: Screening of Wayne Wang, "Eat a Bowl of Tea" at Room 1, Media Lab, Powell 270.
Assignments:
Weekly report #2 due 1/22.
Study questions:
With Island, consider the issues of identity-formation and the constitution
of a Chinese immigrant subject: what kind of Chinese immigrant subject did
the detention experience produce? What are the implications of such detention?
Pay special attention to the last poem in the collection (p.138-141) which
sums up some of the major issues. Also consider the issues of class (what
kind of class-origin do these poems indicate of the immigrants?), gender
(does one's gender affect the experience?), and sexuality (what kind of
Chinese American sexuality does the detention center proscribe?).
With the songs from the gold mountain: Continue considering the question
of gender (in light of men speaking in women's voices in some of these poems,
of men working in the laundry and restaurant businesses, what traditionally
deemed "feminine" or "domestic" chores, and the question
of prostitution).
Also consider what may be the causes for the generational gap between first
generation and second generation Chinese Americans as depicted in these
poems and as you consider what possible cultural, racial reasons there might
have been. Think about the way "Westernization" is viewed in light
of what we today call "assimilation."
Writing Chinatown
Readings and Screenings:
Assignments:
Weekly Report #3 due, 1/29.
Study questions:
Set in the late 1940s, Louis Chu's novel raises difficult questions of a
Chinatown in transition from a bachelor society gradually to a family-oriented
one. What are the issues at stake for this transition to be possible, what
are the obstacles to the transition? Thematically, consider the question
of manhood (How is manhood constructed in Chinatown's "bachelor society"
where there were very few women? What is the cultural significance of Ben
Loy's impotence?), Chinatown patriarchy in relation to father-son relationship
and the Tongs (Why does this patriarchy go unchallenged?), and race. How
do these three issues--manhood, patriarchy, and race--intersect? In regards
to the film, do you think Wayne Wang has captured the sentiments of the
novel? What did he add or delete from the novel that made the film work
better (or worse)? How does the film medium affect the representation of
Chinese American experience?
History, Silence, Writing
Readings and Screenings:
Assignments:
Weekly report #4 due 2/5.
Study questions:
How is Chinese American history differently imagined in this novel?
Consider the reference to native Americans, for instance. Within all the
complex trajectory of family histories and intrigues, what stands up as
major issues to you? Think about the relationship between gender, silence,
and writing: How does Kae lean to shake off silence and begin to articulate
her family history as well as herself? And also continue to think about
questions relating to Chinatown bachelor society, sexuality, and race. In
each of the novels you read, you should be able to figure out a specific
interrelationship among these what may be considered categories of analysis;
gender, race, class, and sexuality.
Gender and Immigration in "Liuxuesheng" Literature
Readings and Screenings:
Assignments:
Film note for "Farewell China" due 2/12.
Weekly report #5 due 2/12.
Study questions:
What are the aspects of change or transformation confronting the immigrant
subject after immigration? Consider the specific changes and adjustments
the immigrants have to make in order to fit into the American scene. Begin
to think about psychological effects of immigration in connection to the
specific historical conditions in which these immigrants came to the United
States. The crucial question here is the shifting of paradigms of life:
from that of relatively self-sufficient national subjects of Taiwan to alienated
immigrants. Why do you think immigration is predominantly troped as capitulation
and alienation by these so-called "liuxuesheng" (overseas Chinese
student) writers? What do you make of the fact that these stories were originally
written in Chinese unlike our other readings so far?
Territorial and Psychological Fragmentation (1)
Readings and Screenings:
Assignments:
Weekly report #6 due 2/19.
Film note for "Pushing Hands" due 2/19.
Study questions:
More than any other text we are reading for this course, this novel takes
us to the psychological depth of the lead character with dual personality
(Mulberry/Peach). What are the differences between these two personalities
of the same person? What do you think may be the causes for such a split?
Think about how the protagonist's personal history is intertwined with various
histories (war-time China, white-terror-era Taiwan, the Vietnam War), and
how her personal history is evocative of the stories of other characters
around her in America. Think also about the question of a woman's sexuality
(Peach Woman, stories of female ghosts, Peach's excessive sexuality, etc.),
national identity (what is the national identity of the protagonist?), and
exile. Note that when border-crossing is explicitly defined as exile rather
than immigration per se, there may be a host of important distinctions to
be made. Finally, what do you think the profuse images of dismemberment
in the novel suggest?
The Formation of a Minority Subject
Readings and Screenings:
Assignments:
Film note for "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman" due 3/5.
Weekly report #7 due 3/5.
Study questions:
Compare and Contrast how Nieh and Min relate the immigration experience
of their protagonists differently. What about the differences foreground
where each writer stands as the point of articulation? What similar issues
do they both deal with? What different kinds of minority subjects do they
represent? With Nieh, continue to think about the questions from the previous
week. With Min, think about how the book explicitly targets the mainstream
American readership and what kind of minority subject position that formulates.
What aspects of Chinese history are emphasized? Why?
The Formation of a Nationalist Subject
Readings and Screenings:
Assignments:
Weekly report #8 due 2/26
Film note for "The Wedding Banquet" due 2/26
Study questions:
Glen Cao originally wrote this novel in Chinese and it became an instant
best-seller in China and was made into a TV series. Why do you think the
novel became so successful? What in the novel might have been appealing
to the Chinese audience? To ask the question differently: if Cao wrote this
novel explicitly for the Chinese audience, in what ways did he try to speak
directly to their concerns? Can you identify them? Then also consider thematic
issues such as the gendered nature of immigration experience (how men and
women go through it differently), the Americanization of the younger generation
(including gang activities), and the role of the Taiwanese American entrepreneur/seductress
Ah Chun in the overall scheme of the narrative, etc.
Flexible Subjectivity
Readings and Screenings:
Assignments:
Final paper due 3/12 (absolutely no extensions).
Food for thought:
There is no reading to do this week , but you need to seriously consider
questions of flexible subjectivity, minoritization, and globalization in
Ang Lee's films, while writing the final papers. Think about how all three
of Ang Lee's films tackle with gender representation: what may be the prevailing
gender dynamics or politics in his films? How does such gender politics
implicate Ang Lee's position as a Taiwanese and/or Taiwanese American in
the increasingly globalized era? Also think about the role of patriarchy:
why do you think these three films are called the "Father Knows Best"
trilogy? What about all the great food in two of the three movies? We will
end with a light-hearted comedy, "Kangaroo Man," which challenges
the gendered division of labor in traditional family situations with a comical
touch, and deals with the question of minoritization in an indirect way.