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Asian American Church
by Lydia Adi, Benjamin Cowan, Elliot Chung, Kevin Gruver, Christi Kang, Hannah Lee, Sabrina Lee, and Tai Nguyen
Introduction
Universalism
Binarisms
Representation and Resistance
Nationalism
Education
History of the Charismatic Movement and Nondenominational Church
Hybridity and Indigeneity
Race and Ethnicity
History and Place
Feminism
Production and Consumption
Globalization, Environment, and Religion
Diasporas and Place
Language, Body and Performance
Conclusion
Introduction
Racial Group: Asian American
Denomination: Non-denominational; Charismatic
Region of the World: United States
Many Asian American non-denominational churches are springing up across America, a diverse and rich source for many as-yet-untold stories. Asian immigrants and Asian Americans both are joining churches of many traditions, but more importantly, they are forming their own churches, associations, research centers and theological journals of their own. Examples include the Chinese American Christians Forum; Ministries for English-Speaking Asians; Pacific, Asian and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry; and the National Korean Presbyterian Council. Because of this growing population that has unique gifts and needs, numerous universities and seminaries have developed centers for Asian-American ministry, including the Pacific School of Religion’s Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion, the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity at the American Baptist Seminary of the West, the Center for Pacific and Asian-American Ministries at Claremont School of Theology, McCormick Theological Seminary’s Center for Asian American Ministries and the International Theological Seminary in Los Angeles.
Asian Americans also frequent Catholic, Pentecostal and evangelical churches, having sizeable representations in the Presbyterians, Baptists and United Methodists denominations among others. The resulting interaction of cultures, religious beliefs and values is a rich source of stories that often go untold in the larger story of American Christianity. Some denominations and parachurch organizations have aggressively reached out to Asian Americans, starting churches and gatherings just to appeal to them. “On campuses across America, student movements like IV (Intervarsity Christian Fellowship) and CCC (Campus Crusade for Christ) have deliberately split into ethnic fellowships. An Asian American group is almost always one of those groups. Most large universities also have Chinese or Korean fellowships rooted in ethnic churches.” [1]
[1] http://www.masecure.org/guide/asian.html
Universalism
Description According to Ashcroft's The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, universalism is defined as the one of particular interest to post-colonial writers because it is this notion of a unitary and homogeneous human nature which marginalizes and excludes the distinctive characteristics, the difference, of post-colonial societies" (Ashcroft, 267). In other words, universalism tend to ignore cultural differences.
Confucian Background
The universalism within this tradition derives from the Asian heritage, the influence of Confucianism. Confucian, a philosopher, had developed these principles governing life, relationships, morals and reality. For example, beginning in 108 B.C., Confucianism was introduced by the Han Dynasty of China to the Korean peninsula (Kim 1997, 9). From 1392-1910, Yi Dynasty of China ruled the country and Korea officially adopted Confucianism as the main ideology for governing Korean Society (ibid). For five hundred years, it was a major influence in the culture, emphasizing filial piety, heirarchy, and social ettiquete. Even in heirarchy, there is a certain way to treat people according to generation and according to gender. Refer to Globalism, Environment, Religion for further information about Confucianism.
Confucian Principles Affecting the Church
These principles manifest itself in the church in many ways, including:
We should release the potential of differences among us rather focuses differences as problems. Harmony of community can contribute to the redemption work for American culture, helping different cultures to look beyond themselves and really intently listen on how they can serve others. Individualism can be redeemed to help people find a creative voice and personal boundaries. They can help the people who are marginalized in the state: Make a voice of justice in the society for the marginalization and participate God’s reconciliation work between race and ethnicity. To dream these, we should first build bridges between 1st and 2nd generation for the reconciliation within the church.
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Antony W. Alumkal, Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity, and Assimilation in the Second Generation. (New York and London: Routledge, 2004),
Kim, Rebecca Y. 2006. God's new whiz kids?. NY and London : New York University Press. Binarisms
Dualisms, however, cannot account for other positions that complicate their apparently neat and clear-cut definitions and boundaries. Indeed, the ambivalences posed by Asians (and racial others who occupy ambiguous, “middling” positions, like Latinos, American Indians, and biracials) along the borders of race threaten a “category crisis,” as termed by Marjorie Garber in her Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing & Cultural Anxiety, in which definitional boundaries blur, borderlines become permeable, and the heretofore solid constructs of hierarchies and relations of power become destabilized, calling into question the “naturalisms” of dualisms and of the categories themselves. Asians are neither black nor white, despite attempts to analogize them as in “like black” or “like white,” or to negate them as in “nonwhite.” What I am suggesting is that the black-white binarism of race functions in the American experience to sustain white supremacy, or the power of white over black, and that the introduction of a third (or fourth or fifth) position can disrupt (as well as reinforce) the dominant discourse and alter the relations of power. I think, therefore, that the Asian racial subject is indispensable to both an understanding of race and an intervention in the politics of race. Those outcomes, if correct, are forthrightly fundamental and singularly significant.
Asians, the subject matter of this Magazine’s issue, are a diverse lot. Asians can be “racially” yellow, black, brown, and white, insofar as those colors constitute discrete phenotypes. Asians derive from West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, but also from Africa, South America, Europe, the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, and North America. Asians not only settled North America before the American Revolution, but they also came just yesterday. The political borders of the U.S. don’t contain the boundaries of Asian America because the Asian American identity and position within the American social relations are regional and national but also transnational in compass. Asian American families might be fractured by geo-political alignments, but their identities, constitutive of self, kin, and society, are not necessarily limited by the divide of the nation-state. The foregoing merely hint at the boggling diversity endemic to the group essentialized as “Asian American.”
*One such binarism is that of Asian Americans stuck between black and white, as in culture [3]. In her "Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism," philosopher Elizabeth Grosz argues that “dichotomous thinking necessarily hierarchizes and ranks the two polarized terms so that one becomes the privileged term and the other its suppressed, subordinated, negative counterpart" (Grosz, 3). Thus, for example, white/male/heterosexual constitutes the norm against which black/female/homosexual is defined. Further, notes Grosz, dualisms like mind and body are correlated with other oppositional pairs, such that mind is reason, reality, depth, active, transcendence—male, and the body, passion, appearance, surface, passive, immanence—female. Binarisms and their correlates, accordingly, structure and maintain privilege and power.
Chinese Americans living in today's "postcolonial" North America are often confronted by various forms of neocolonialism. It is no exception for those working within the field of biblical studies. In order to publish and be recognized within the guild, Chinese Americans are often asked to make the "nonchoice" between forsaking their own culture and engaging in the production of some exotic "biblical tourist literature" for others to visit and "sightsee" in times of leisure. This article attempts to expose the oppressive binarism of—in Cornel West's terms—"faceless universalism" and "ethnic chauvinism," and explore how Chinese American Bible scholars may negotiate this ideological dilemma by reading from a marginal site/sight [4].
Dreams
Asians, as the immerse in society, seek identity. Identity formation encompasses a strong desire to surround oneself with symbols of one’s racial identity, and a seeking out for opportunities to learn about one’s own history and culture with the support of same-race peers-Immersion. Positive images of Asian-Americans are growing. Examples from different sectors of the industry include government (Gary Locke, Daniel Inouye), Hollywood (Zhang Ziyi, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, Ang Lee, Margaret Cho), technology (Jerry Yang), sports (Chan Ho Park, Yao Ming), authors (Amy Tan), artists (The Asian Man, PhD Comics by Jorge Cham).
In addition, there is internalization & commitment, which is coming to terms with ourselves . Part of this process is internalization, which is a sense of security about one’s racial identity. There is also internalization-commitment, which is a personal sense of commitment to the concerns of ethnic group.
Asian Americans are a mix of cultures. Sometimes it seems like there is a binary pull to be either Asian or American. One sources discussed the complexity of being Asian American. That it isn't one binary or the other in terms of identity:
[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/binarism
[2] Ryan Bolger, Church in Mission lecture on October 8, 2008. Fuller Theological Seminary. Pasadena, CA.
[3] http://modelminority.com/article1110.html
[4] http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/bii/2001/00000009/00000003/art00004?crawler=true
[5] http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/asianamerican/okihiro.html
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Garber, Marjorie. Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing & Cultural Anxiety (New York: Routledge, 1992)
Grosz, Elizabeth. Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Crows Nest, NSW Australia 1994)
http://www.intervarsity.org/mx/item/3827/
Representation and Resistance
Description
Asian Americans have been represented as the "model minority" that other minority groups would do well to imitate. In A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, Ronald Takaki writes that when Asian Americans have been in the States for the majority of its history (150 years), but initially because of their physical, cultural, linguistic and other immediately perceivable differences, they were seen as "'strangers' coming from a 'different shore,'...as 'heathen,' exotic and unassimilable" (Takaki, 7).
But today, "Asian Americans represent the fastest-growing ethnic group. They have also become the focus of much mass media attention as 'the Model Minority' not only for blacks and Chicanos, but also for whites on welfare and even middle-class whites experiencing economic difficulties" (Takaki, 414). The Post-Colonial Studies Reader discusses the phenomenon of representation as causing people to internalize images of themselves as “authoritative pictures” of their own people (Ashcroft, 493).
In addition, Asian Americans today have inherited negative stereotypes from exaggerated portrayals of Asians in media, ranging from "Susie Wong" as the exotic and seductive East Asian woman to "Bruce Lee" as the taciturn but strong East Asian male or his opposite, "Long Duck Dong" from Sixteen Candles, that leave the larger American public with only a limited understanding of what Asians in America look, sound, act, feel, and think like. More recently, there has been a surge of interest in East Asian culture and there is a marked influence of mainly Chinese and Japanese culture on mainstream media, fashion, and culture - it is now "cool" to be Asian. Saturday morning cartoons are more often than not animated much like Japanese anime, leaving a young generation to consume an imported entertainment form, also a sign of globalization. However, it begs the question of where it leaves Asian Americans in terms of a sense of identity that comes from what we see depicted – they are forced to ask, "Are we really like that (“that” referring to the way we appear to Anglo-Americans and now, to Asians in Asia)?"
Stories
"Images could be very powerful. The first time I heard Chris and Joanne [one of the first Asian American folk groups] sing, something opened inside me. I had never thought of myself that way -- a grain of sand, in the belly of a monster, a yellow pearl -- descended from a line of courageous workers who built railroads, endured great hardships, faced exclusion acts, were not allowed to own property or to marry outside our race -- raised by women who slaved in sweatshops.
It's hard to explain why it affects me so deeply, but it is like "seeing" for the first time. Seeing that we didn't have to fit into someone else's world, into someone else's image. Learning about our own history, our own culture, one that had been hidden for a long time. It is -- like finding a piece of myself. I learn how to write my Chinese name. I begin looking for my own stories" (Parting the Wild Horse's Mane).
Thinking about resistance in the Asian American church in mind can be tricky if not completely confusing, and sometimes seems even irrelevant considering the cultural trends developing in the Asian American church. One article in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader discusses resistance as: “not necessarily an oppositional act of political intention, nor is it the simple negation or exclusion of the ‘content’ of an other culture, as a difference once perceived” (Emerson, 40). It is difficult to say which “other culture” Asian Americans might be opposing, if they were even doing that, because Asian Americans struggle to identify themselves as completely one or another (Asian or American). However, the “difference… perceived” comes into play in the very institution of the Asian American church, if critically observing that many Asian American churches (when differentiated from immigrant churches) are a single generation church made up of second-generation children of immigrants who have left the immigrant churches of their parents to gather together for worship, having felt out of place or less of a sense of belonging in white churches.
One issue with resistance is that there does not seem to be any; if there is any kind of resistance besides that the Asian American church is separate from the Asian immigrant churches, it is not apparent and probably not acknowledged even if pointed out. An interesting aspect of this is that Asian American Christians prefer to identify as Christian before Asian American, and are happy to imitate the majority, i.e. Willow Creek and Saddleback, without asking critical questions about culture. A problem that I see as someone who has studied Asian American history in the US and surveyed the cultural dynamics of immigrant communities is that Asian Americans, particularly those of East Asian descent, are only too happy to be as “white” as possible, but are unaware of it. Most Asian American adults who grew up and saw Long Duck Dong in Sixteen Candles as one of the few non-martial artist depictions of Asians in America wish they were Molly Ringwold or Ferris Bueller, and in thinking so, internalize that preference for white American and disdain of Asian American. One writer put it this way, “Within the complex relations of colonialism these representations were re-projected to the colonized – through formal education or general colonialist cultural relations – as authoritative pictures of themselves” (Ashcroft, 493).
Dreams
In The ‘Four Prisons’ and the Movements of Liberation: Asian American Activism from the 1960s to the 1990s Glenn Omatsu, a community activist, researcher, writer, and educator in Los Angeles, California uses the paradigm of the “four prisons” developed by Iranian philosopher Ali Shariati to examine the ways that the Asian American Movement, the main resistance movement of Asian Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, helped mold the consciousness of Asian Americans over the three decades between the 60s-90s. He writes, “The movements were struggles for liberation from many prisons,” which are: 1) historical and geographical confinement, 2) historical ignorance, 3) societal social and class structure, and finally 4) the self.
Asian American Activism helped in building and carrying influence and power in the Asian American community that we see continuing today. Because of the activism, network and community building, strategizing, and victorious won mainly in the 70s (when the larger Civil Rights movement began to wane and divide, according to Omatsu) Asian Americans have been able to prosper and flourish as a community that originally began as an immigrant community. Omatsu makes a point that the Asian American community began to change significantly after the 1965 Immigration Act, with numerous new immigrants flooding in from all over Asia especially in the late 70s and all throughout the 80s.
Asian Americans churches do not seem to be engaged in any kind of organized sociopolitical resistance perhaps because many Asian Americans today are first or second generation immigrants who are still struggling to survive and “make it,” fulfill the “American Dream.” Others say it is because some Asian groups, such as Koreans, have a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to politics because of the history of the abuse of power in the mother country. On the other hand, a few Asian Americans outside of the churches appear to be engaged in resistance in various forms, particularly in social forums dominated by college-aged students and in small pockets of artists, writers, scholars, and thinkers who carry on the legacy of Asian American activists from the 70s and 80s. 
Nonetheless, Asian American Christians, especially Charismatics, are beginning to see an awakening of consciousness on another level; justice is now on the bulletin as a top priority agenda item, specifically because it is increasingly known that Justice is God’s agenda today. This can be seen clearly in Asian American support of Proposition 4 (8 would be a whole other complicated issue because of the way the Asian American movement joined/embraced the activism of the LGBT community for the most part), as Asian Americans have come alongside and even helped lead the charge against abortion, the taking of lives of unborn children.
Aguilar-San Juan, Karin. The State of Asian America: activism and resistance in the 1990s. (South End Press Collective, 1994).
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, 2nd Ed. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Emerson, Michael. People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006).
Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. (New York: Back Bay Books, Little Brown, 1993).
Parting the Wild Horse's Mane: Asian American Images an the Asian Media Collective http://www.kqed.org/w/snapshots/01transforming/05lee_gordon.html
Nationalism
Description
Nationalism is defined by Franz Fanon as “the whole body of efforts made by a people in the sphere of thought to describe, justify, and praise the action through which that people has created itself and keeps itself in existence.” (Ashcroft, 120)The American Heritage Dictionary includes another definition of nationalism as “devotion to the interests or culture of one's nation.”
Stories
Antony W. Alumkal describes this nationalism being manifested in Asian American churches as places where “ethnic and racial identities are preserved, reformulated, and mobilized and where relationships to the larger society are negotiated” (Alumkal, 30). Culture affects much of the traditions that exist in the church today. Although Western missionaries brought Christianity to many countries in Asia, many “pre-existing religious traditions” such as Confucianism “reinforced principles of hierarchy and authority.” Shamanism also influenced the Christian practices with “subjective experience, emphasizing oneness, wholesome emotional involvement, euphoric feeling, psychological comfort, and the like.” (Alumkal, 30)
For example in the Pyongyang Revival of 1907, Alumkal quoted on William Newton Blair’s eyewitness account that “the whole audience began to pray out loud, all together. The effect was indescribable….The prayer sounded to me like the falling of many waters, an ocean of prayer beating against God’s throne.” (Alumkal, 31) Influenced by Shamanism, it was an emotional experience of oneness, bringing together people and oneself in emotional involvement by audibly speaking prayers together, each voice reinforcing the other.
Nationalism is often shown in churches through ethnic cuisine and use of ethnic language. After a church service, many Asian American churches have a time of fellowship around the table. They share many of their own ethnic dishes and enjoy other types of foods from their own culture. Asian Americans keep much of their nationality by dining together. Food is a commonality in many cultures. The familiar tastes can help people identify with their ethnicity. (Alumkal, 103)
The use of language by Asian Americans also helps them identify with their nationality. Asian American families will speak their mother tongue at home while using English in public life. The parents will try to teach their children the language before they even start school. Language is very important in any culture for people to identify themselves. Many cultures will use their language mixed with English in basic communications. Some examples are Koreans and Chinese Americans. Korean Americans will speak in English but add “oppa” at the end, when talking to an older male. Chinese Americans will speak English but say “Thank You” in Mandarin or Cantonese. Languages are very important for people to identify with their nationality. (Alumkal, 103)
Nationalism is not only supported because of devotion to one’s culture and mother country but because it is needed in order to help immigrants and their families “cope with the discomfort they experience as they attempt to adjust to their new society.” (Alumkal, 87) These ethnic churches are a “place that reproduces the society of origin on a small scale,” and is often “one of the few available institutions for gathering with co-ethnics.” (Alumkal, 97)
Much of this integration is found in more ways than one. The church also serves as not only a religious center, but also a social environment for immigrants. It also functions as “surrogates for (non-existent) Korean ethnic neighborhoods, acting as a broker between Korean immigrants and the larger society, and serving as a surrogate extended family for those whose family ties were severed by immigration.” (Alumkal, 37) A research on foreign-born Chinese youth shows that “rejection and discrimination by ‘Americans’ and close association with other foreign-born coethnic peers, in turn, increase the sense of ethnic pride and commitment to [Asian] culture.” (Lee and Zhou, 155)
Apart from needs related to immigrants, Asian Americans tended to stay in the English ministries and branches of their ethnic churches because of a sense of belonging and similarity. One Chinese-American described that fellow church members had similar backgrounds and upbringing. She believed that she could have a “greater impact,” becoming a “bridge since [she was] fluent into both English and Mandarin.” (Alumkal, 101)
The Difficulties Caused by Nationalism
Nationalism affects Asian-Americans in many different ways. There is a tension between nationalistic values and Christian values. The second generation often feel the effect of nationalism emotionally and academically. To add to the success-oriented American culture, Asian parents often push their children to do excel in school. Although being a good principle, when expectations are not met, many children have suffered with deep feelings of shame and failure as parents have associated achievement with Christian values. People in churches have adopted the value that success is everything. The pressure builds on people and it hurts the community. Christians are called to be humble and to do their best in life. They should encourage each other, especially the children. When people fail, the church should build them back up through encouragement. (Alumkal, 113)
There is also the issue of obeying and respecting authority. As a vital part of many Asian cultures, many times obedience becomes a blind trust and gives the authority figure too much power. In the Asian American church, the pastor has most of the control because of his position and there have been reports of abuse of power. While he has a big role in the church, sometimes a church will follow him blindly, even when his principles are unbiblical. The church must follow the pastor in view of biblical teachings. (Alumkal, 113)
High population of Chinese people keeps a church as an ethnic church—even if it has goals to becoming multicultural. Chinese Americans are one of the main Asian American groups. The population of Chinese Americans are so high that churches are growing. Many Asian churches want to become multiethnic but cannot draw other ethnicities. This keeps the church very centered on being a Asian American Church. The church is there to serve the community around them. Whoever comes to the church should be from that community around the church.
Dreams
As long as America continues to open up its doors to other countries, there will be ethnic churches, centers of community and networking for the immigrant. However, the most important thing is not whether a church is monocultural, Asian American or multiethnic. God cannot be placed in a box and be limited to doing church one way or another. Yet, the question is if the church places the Kingdom of God as the top priority. Pastor Brian Kim, the lead pastor of Newsong North Orange County, believes that "if the church is making impact and is about the Kingdom of God then I don’t know if it’s really significant whether it’s monoculture or multicultural or one language. I’m not sure that is the most important thing."
The question lies in finding God's vision for a particular church. Many second generation Asians have desired to leave behind the ethnic church out of frustration. Pastor Brian Kim shared that what tends to happen is that these churches are created out of "reaction, instead of vision." They plant churches according to what their former churches were not. He shared that these churches end up creating the same thing, the same church with the same problems, but only in English.
Even in creating an English Ministry (often called the "E.M."), services are done differently yet still try to take all the resources from the ethnic, first generation church. These ministries must have its own vision and calling. They must learn to walk by faith as an independent body, yet still honoring their parents. Pastor Kim shared that the second generation will grow and mature, becoming young professionals, even C.E.O.s yet their parents will still say to them "you are the future." They are forever the future, and do not believe that they can grow in faith, maturity, and independence today. God has gifted them with talents and amazing opportunities to make a difference, doing even greater things than their parent churches.
Many Asian Americans have been shaped and brought up in ethnic churches, yet the concern is not the ethnic church, but upon what God's vision is for the individual. We cannot serve just because of family obligations or because of duty to the ethnic church. God has uniquely designed and prepared people for a great calling in their lives. In heaven, there will be people from every tribe and tongue, a place full of uniqueness and color. Therefore, we can embrace and be thankful for our ethnicity because God created us into that ethnicity for a purporse. There are values and teachings that we can learn, traits and characteristics that will prepare us for His plan.
It is true that we need to remember where we came from. Our background plays a big part in who we are. However, there will be different ways to embrace our culture and learn about our ethnic background, not necessarily keeping us at the ethnic church to just learn about culture. Whether we grew up with bad or good experiences with the culture, God is able to redeem the different aspects and experiences for His glory.
Our dream is for a generation that does not blindly follow tradition or culture because of obligation and similarly, does not blindly run away from culture out of frustration, yet to be a generation that embraces God's calling. What is the destiny that God has in store for the individual, the Asian American? What can we learn from our past and our values? How has that shaped me, my worldview, my skills, my character and my appearance? How can I use those factors for God's Kingdom? How can we find our destiny? The discover begins by looking at our experiences and incredible background.
Alumkal, Anthony W. Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity, and Assimilation in the Second Generation. (New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2003.).
Ashcroft, Bill, The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, 2nd Edition. (London and New York: Routledge, 2006).
Lee, Jennifer, and Zhou, Min. (Ed.), Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity (New York, NY: Routledge, 2004).
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nationalism
Education
Description
History of Educational Rights
The Asian American struggle for educational rights began as immigrants began to settle in the United States. It was not until 1859 that a “small, but separate, school was opened” and “subsequently closed by the school superintendent with the claim that there were too few students.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 141) Chinese parents petitioned again the 1870s “pointing out the injustice of paying taxes to support public education while their children were denied access because of race.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 141)
In 1884, the court agreed that Chinese American students could have an education, but in separate facilities for “’Mongolians’ rather than have ‘race mixing’ and established the ‘Oriental School’ in San Francisco in 1885.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 141) Even Japan protested against having these 93 Japanese and Korean immigrant students attending a separate school.
1896’s court ruling, Plessy v. Ferguson “helped legitimate a system of institutionalized racism and legalized segregation in America that was extended to other racial groups.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) There were separate “facilities for blacks and whites,” and it was “permissible as long as they were equal, although in practice they never were.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142)
The struggle for equal and integrated education continued. In 1908 in San Francisco, only after Japan “restricted the emigration of its laboring class to the U.S., did the school board permit Japanese students to enroll in public schools set aside for whites.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) In 1927 the “Gong Lum v. Rice ruling concluded that as no public schools for ‘Mongolians’ existed in Mississippi and Chinese Americans could attend a ‘colored’ school,” Chinese American Martha Lum was not “being denied an education.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) This meant that some Asian Americans were able to enroll in schools with whites while others were forced into separate schools. These schools would be segrated in parts of California until the 1930s and in Mississippi until 1950.
However, there was also the case of schools being “ill equipped to academically prepare limited-English students,” and Chinese Americans fought for new programs in 1974’s Lau v. Nichols decision. (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) They won and new programs would include “bilingual programs, teachers and teacher assistants,” helping all immigrant groups. (Fong and Shinagawa, 142)
Asian American students petitioned and demonstrated on university campuses during the late 1960s and early 1970s to “demand increased access, minstory faculty, and curriculum reform, especially Asian American Studies and other ethnic studies programs.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) When the education board denied their petitions, students began new student actions such as “hunger strikes and sit-ins” across institutions across the nation in 1980s and 1900s. The students examined the unequal treatment in higher education instutions such as “Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCLA,” noting that their admission rate was “not commesurate with the growth in student applications and concluded that institutions were setting ‘quotas’ on [Asian American] enrollment.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142)
Investigations showed that some universities required Asian Americans to have “higher academic qualificiations for admissions than other students.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) Brown University “admitted bias” and “revised its practices.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 143) Harvard University defended itself and argued that it have “preferences to children of alumni and to recruited athletes, few of whom are [Asian Americans].” (Fong and Shinagawa, 143)
Stories
Many Asian American families have been shown to “tenaciously and uncritically grip onto the American Dream” that they could work hard and make it in America. (Lee and Zhou, 125) “Upwardly mobile Chinese Americans in the 1950s believed that education would move them ahead in society, a believe strongly supported by the Chinese American community.” (Lee and Zhou, 125) Parents pressured youth to pursue careers and studies in majors that brought much wealth—“mathematics and the natural sciences.” (Lee and Zhou, 125)
“The academic and professional success of some U.S.-born Chinese American youth impressed the American public who soon concluded that far from posing a threat to the American way of life, [Asian Americans] were the model minority,” students who were “hardworking, high-achieving, well-disciplined.” (Lee and Zhou, 125) In the mid-1980s major news magazines, “including U.S. News & World Report, Time and Newsweek, ran cover stories on Asian American success” and even President Ronald Reagan praised “Asian Americans for their hard work and family values.” (Alumkal, 126) It is believed that the children of Asian immigrants are able to succeed because many of their parents had previously obtained high degrees in their former country. These parents had not been “able to translate their educations into professional occupations in the United States due to language barriers, discrimination, and lack of American credentials.” (Alumkal, 127) Because of this hardship, these same parents pressure their children to succeed beyond their ability in the United States.
One Korean-American expressed the pressure that many Korean American youth feel, having parents that pressure them to “go to medical school or law school, and study, study, study. They think the best colleges are Harvard, Yale, Princeton.” (Lee and Zhou, 244) Another student shared that his mom even “wrote his college entrance essay and filled out an application for Harvard, even though she knew her son did not want to apply.” (Lee and Zhou, 245) Some have faced extreme situations of having to severe ties with parents because “they adamantly opposed his decision to be a cartoonist after graduating from Princeton.” (Lee and Zhou 245) There is a struggle to find identity yet also to honor parents.
Dreams
In pursuing a higher education and a career, there is great pressure choosing certain majors and professions depending on how our family has defined as ‘successful.’ Discernment is needed in observing our talents and passions and finding what God has created us to do in life. God must be integrated in every aspect of life, including career decisions.
One Asian American, Bill, describes this as having to “fight with [his] selfish desires for prominence in the community, for money, for security.” (Alumkal, 136) He shared that he felt as though God had called him to be a doctor “to work in a poor community helping the non-English-speaking Koreans, helping the African Americans, helping the Hispanics, people who don’t have money to pay for great medical service.” (Alumkal, 136) Another Asian-American girl, Cindy, felt that God wanted her to be an elementary teacher instead of a pharmicist because despite pharmacy as a “good occupation,” having “security,” she wanted to be a “moral supporter” to children. (Alumkal, 136)
There needs to be an understanding of how far Asian Americans have come throughout history and the hardships generations have faced in order to obtain an education. As Asian Americans, we need to be thankful for the education that ancestors and the first generations have given us to be able to get an education in the United States. Yet, at the same time, students must discern how to honor their parents, yet also find God’s calling over their lives. The dream is to honor our parents by doing our best in the talents that God has placed within our lives, succeeding in these gifts and then supporting those who have helped us succeed.
Alumkal, Anthony W. Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity, and Assimilation in the Second Generation. (New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2003.).
Fong, Timothy P. and Shinagawa, Larry H. Asian Americans: Experiences and Perspectives. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000).
Lee, Jennifer, Zhou, Min. (Ed.), Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity (New York, NY: Routledge, 2004).
Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. (New York: Back Bay Books, Little Brown, 1993).
History of the Charismatic Movement and Nondenominational Church
Dreams
Pentecostalism is a large umbrella term to incorporate all the various organizations, church denominations, missionary agencies, and people who believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit—healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy, etc. are to be practiced today. The destiny of Asian Americans to the Pentecostal Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, this section will first look at the two leading earlier figures within Pentecostalism: Charles Parham and Will Seymour. Then, the various missionary movements throughout Asia will briefly be highlighted and the rise of the Charismatic Movement.
Stories
Charles Parham
(Photo below: Charles Parham (Top), Agnes Ozman (Bottom))
Parham began his ministry within the Methodist church when he was 20 years old. He appeared to be a promising evangelist, with high potential within the ranks of the Methodist. However, Parham personally felt more connected with the Holiness and their views of the “second blessing”; during the 1890’s this view was becoming very unpopular with the Methodist. Parham eventually departed from the Methodist Church, joining the Holiness Movement. During this period, Parham developed a very strong dispensations imminent eschatology. In addition, Parham believed that healing was an act of the atonement, dependent upon the faith of the believer—doctors and medicines were signs of lack of faith Thirdly, Parham was exposed to Irwin’s idea that there was a baptism of fire; separate from the baptism of sanctification, and that this was the true baptism of the Holy Spirit. Parham became enraptured, not with Irvin’s thought, but the idea of another distinct work of God.
In 1900, Parham established Bethel Bible School and a healing home in Topeka Kansas. In December of that year, after lecturing on the Holy Spirit, Parham asked his students to define what the New Testament identifies as evidence of being filled with the Spirit was. This led his students to fast, study, and prayer concerning what the Bible defines as the one proof of a person having the Holy Spirit. When Parham returned from a preaching tour three days later, without any disagreement, Parham’s students declared that the scriptures identified tongues as the evidence of a person having been filled with the Holy Spirit. In agreement with their conclusion, Parham called for a New Year’s Eve prayer service on December 31, 1900 to seek the Holy Spirit. A female student, by the name Agnes Oman, asked Parham to pray that she would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and she spoke in the Chinese language. Parham would take this experience of Spirit-baptism, with the evidence of tongues, to the rest of the Holiness Movement. Agnes Oman experience of xenoglossa (gift of the Spirit that enables a person to speak a known language) provided the foreshadowing of Pentecostalism future impact on Asia and Asian Americans.
William Seymour
(Photo below: William Seymour)
Dreams
What does the future hold for Asian American Charismatics? With the growing numbers of converts within the Asian world and the increasing number of immigrants from Asia to the United States, the numbers can only go up. In addition, as many Asian Americans struggle to discovery what it means to be Asian American, the fluidity and diverse experiences of Charismatics provides a safe environment to explore spirituality, contemporary culture, and connections to the ancestors. Not surprisingly, all numbers indicate the number of American Asians who will be Charismatics will continue to grow.
Hybridity and Indigeneity
Description
"Twinkie" is defined as a devilishly delicious yet unmercifully fattening snack, which consists of a yellow cake-like substance on the outside and a white creamy filling in the inside. In the colloquial, ‘twinkie’ is a description of the struggle between an individual’s indigeneity and cultural hybridity: Asian on the outside, but American in the inside. Depending on whom you speak with being called a ‘twinkie’ is not always looked so favorably, or even as the comic suggested… downright confusing.
Hybridity and indigeneity are two interdependent themes overlapping in post-colonial discussions. Hybridity can be perceived as act submission to the dominant culture but most post-colonial writers would argue that it is rather a mutual merging of binary cultures. According to Ashcroft, “Hybridity is a phenomena in post-colonial societies as a result of conscious moments of cultural suppression, as when the colonial power invades to consolidate political and economic control, or when settler-invaders dispossess indigenous peoples and force them to ‘assimilate’ to new social patterns” (Ashcroft, 137).
Indigeneity in essence is the identification and categorization of a colonized group by imperial narratives. Ashcroft’s The Post-Colonial Studies Reader elaborates, “Imperial narratives such as that of anthropology in their project of naming and thus knowing indigenous groups have imported a notion of aboriginality, of cultural authenticity, which proves difficult displace. The result is the positioning of the indigenous people as the ultimately marginalized, concept that reinscribes the binarism of centre/margin, and prevents their engagement with the subtle processes of imperialism by locking them into a strategic but ultimately self-defeating essentialism" (Ashcroft, 163).
Stories
Visible examples of hybridity and indigeneity in recent history are found in the great islands Hawaii.
Hybridity
In addition to the history of being an American colony and as a more recent addition to the United States, Hawaii has always struggled to balance both American and its native culture. This struggle led to the evolution of a Hawaiian Creole commonly known as Pidgin, infusing the native Hawaiian language, English, Portuguese, and Cantonese. Even favorite American past-times and Hawaiian culture found a need for hybridity as The University of Hawaii’s NCAA Division I college football team, The Warriors, ritually performs the Hawaiian Ha'a war chant prior to kick-off. These cases display an act of hybridity as both Hawaiian and American cultures merge to form new tradition and practices.
Indigeneity
Hawaii also was home to the 100th Battalion also known as the Purple Heart Battalion, the most decorated unit during WWII, comprised of all Japanese American soldiers as mentioned in Takaki’s book, The Different Mirror. He writes, “many young Japanese Americans were determined to create a better future for themselves and as well as their parents, and they believed that one way to accomplish this was to serve in the American armed forces. By defending their country, they would be able to demonstrate the loyalty of Japanese Americans as well as claim their American birth-right" (Takaki, 383). Takaki shares of the emancipation of Jewish prisoners at Dachau by Japanese American soldiers as one Jewish prisoner describes his surprise and confusion to see an American liberator that didn’t look like an “American”. “When they first came in, we thought they were allies of the Germans… We believed they were there to torture us” (Takaki, 377). While these Japanese-American soldiers displayed an amazing patriotism, the prisoners misinterpreted their heroism due to the pre-established imperial narrative of the American and Japanese image.
Hybridity and indigeneity are in constant tension against each other as many Asian Americans embark a journey of identity between American culture and the culture of their respective heritage. One Asian American wrote, “There’s a very Western view in which somehow you need to resolve the tension between any two thing, to want thing to come to a kind of conclusion… whereas I’ve been wondering where this whole idea of fluidity comes from, and I think it’s because I grew up with an [Eastern] idea of yin/yang, sweet/sour. Opposites don’t fight each other, but belong together and can intensify each other, and are simply in the nature of the world" (Baek, 13).
Hybridity and Indigeneity in the Asian American Church
Sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund reported a study of second-generation Koreans in Korean congregations. She reported that “Korean in Korean talked about being Korean relatively little and preferred to se themselves as [white] Americans” (Emerson, 120). In General she found that Korean Americans desired to have similar views as with white Americans thus enabling Korean Americans to reconcile with white congregations without much resistance and discomfort. Ecklund also found that Koreans in multiethnic or hybrid churches has different views of their identities in comparison to Koreans in Korean or indigenous churches because they were able to be simultaneously be both Korean and American.
Dreams
As long as the motto of America is "out of many, one" and as long as the Statue of Liberty reads "Give me your tired, your poor..." hybridity and indigeneity will continue to juxtapose each other in constant contention. And as immigrants from Asia continue cross the shores of the Pacific, there will always be a need for indigenous congregations and because of the increase in second, third, forth, etc generations of Asian Americans, there will be a growing, and possibility overwhelming, need for more hybrid congregation in the United States. Just as the state of Hawaii were able to find their voice through Pidgin, and their dance through football, the hope is that Asian American churches will discover its own voice and dance and ultimately its identity. My personal hope is that as the demand and need for hybridity increases in the church, we would celebrate our respective indigeneity while striving for hybridity, thus truly reflecting the Kingdom of God here on this planet.
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, 2nd Ed. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Emerson, Michael. People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006).
Baek, N.J. Y. Yell-Oh girls! (New York, NY: HarperCollins Books, 2001).
Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. (New York: Back Bay Books, Little Brown, 1993).
Race and Ethnicity
Description
Race is a shifting and strategic social construction, an unstable complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by sociopolitical struggle. Notions of race change, and have changed over time. Carolus Linus Blumenbach was the first to take the idea of different races and put them into five distinctions by geography and color; he categorized Asians as "yellow" amongst red, white, brown, and black. Ethnicity, or ancestry, describes cultural heritage, often referring to a culture and history developed over time in a country. Nationality is a legal term that tells what nation a person belongs to. Asian Americans are known to be of the Asian race and ethnicity (or ancestry) and American nationality and citizenship.
It is important to understand that race as a social construct tries to encompass a large number of people that is a part of a general population for politically strategic purposes. In America, the term "Asian American" is used to Americans of Asian ancestry who trace their lineage and cultural roots back to people who lived on the Eastern or "Asian" region of the Eurasian continent. Socially, Asian American has implied mostly those of East Asian ancestry including Mongolian, Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Japanese, while leaving those of other Asian ancestries such as South Asian and Southeast Asian to their own category, "due to the historical and cultural influences of China and Japan on the U.S. up to the 1960s and in preference to the terms 'Oriental' and 'Asiatic.' In other words, because the first large groups of Asians to immigrate to America in the 1800s were mostly from the eastern regions of the Asia, the term "Asian American" came to refer mainly to East Asians.
However, the term today has been broadened to include those of South and Southeast Asian ancestry which means Asian American can be someone who identifies as: Bangladeshi or Pakistani American, Cambodian American, Chinese American, Filipino American, Hmong American, Indian American, Japanese American, Korean American, Laotian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander American, Taiwanese American, and Vietnamese American.
Stories
"As a Korean American pastor notes above, individuals want to worship and gather with those who are most like themselves. Sociologists refer to this as the homophily principle: the idea that "similarity breeds connection," that ties between similar individuals are more binding. [1] I find the same homophilic forces at work in the campus evangelical community; given the opportunity to participate in a variety of campus ministries, students choose a campus ministry where they can be with those who are most familiar and similar to them. For SGKAs, this means that they will associate with those who are most likely to share the experience of growing up and having intergenerational and intercultural conflicts with the first-generation in the United States.
When asked why they choose ethnic specific Korean American campus ministries over others, SGKA consistently answer that doing so is more or most "comfortable." When asked what exactly makes it more "comfortable" for them, SGKAs point to the shared experience of straddling two cultures--growing up in America and having intergenerational and intercultural conflicts with the first-generation. As a SGKA explains: "Most of us have first-generation parents. We know what goes on in a Korean house ... parents' pressure, study study study, marry a Korean, don't talk back. So it is easier to get closer with other Koreans. They know where you are coming from." [1]
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In People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States, Michael Emerson writes in his appendix about the history of metaphors used to discuss race and ethnic relations in the U.S. beginning with the sentence, “How to relate to one another within racial and ethnic diversity is an issue the United States has struggled to define, name, and negotiate for its entire history,” pointing out that diversity has existed in America since its founding (Emerson, Appendix A). Two things stood out to me as an Angeleno who was born and raised (mostly) in California: first, that the issue is not so much the diversity itself so much as the obstacles that it naturally poses when it comes to different people relating to one another, and second, that even though the city of Los Angeles has its roots in a small pueblo, or an American Indian village, begun 227 years ago by a ragtag band of people of Mexican, Spanish, African, Native American, and mixed descent, it is still known for its racial tensions and oppression of “the other,” whomever that may be. To me, these realizations beg the question, is race and ethnicity really the root of the problem, or could it be that the roots actually lie deeper within the brokenness of humanity, and that race and ethnicity are just some aspects (sometimes used as excuses) of the fear and distrust of the “other” that bind and separate people to and from one another?
Dreams
Emerson asks questions about what it means to be diverse but together, and how America’s official motto, “out of many, one,” plays out in real life, citing sociological terms and common metaphors such as the melting pot, the mosaic, and the salad bowl. In particular he asks, “Does the motto mean ‘Americanization,” wherein successive waves of immigrants are ‘Anglocized’”? (Emerson, 173) An interesting tidbit: when Koreans say “American,” they really mean “White.” But at the same time, we have another for a white person, “Baek-In,” which literally means, “White person.” There’s a fascinating tension revealed by a look at our use of language to describe American things and people – “America” is “Mi-guk,” or “Beautiful Country.” However, “White person,” is not the most respectful term to describe a person because it looks at nothing but one’s color, which is obviously superficial, prone to false and dangerous stereotyping, and overly general to accurately describe any one person or group of people. So then, how does one explain the language that Koreans, just one immigrant group in the United States, use to discuss Anglo Americans? And how does the unexplained tension play out in ethnic relations between Koreans and other racial and ethnic groups? It remains unclear for the most part, except that ambiguity has not always served to bring understanding, peace, and harmony to the process of building relationships between communities of different people.
In view of the Los Angeles Riots of April 1992 and the supposed Black-Korean conflict that was at the root of it (according to the media), I wonder how both African Americans and Koreans (and Latinos), known as very spiritual and religious people in the United States, are able to continue worshipping in their culturally and ethnically homogenous churches without addressing issues of race and ethnicity that are riddled with ambiguity, tensions, and often inappropriate and misused metaphors for understanding the other. My hope is that one day soon, minority groups that have become pitted against each other and trapped into seeing other through negative racial lenses will recognize that they need to work together to overcome the barriers placed upon them and reach out to one another as unique individuals, as communities and as peoples who understand they are more than their race or ethnicity, thus setting examples for relationship-based building of community for the rest of the world. Because their eyes are certainly on us.
[1] http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_1_65/ai_n6141809/pg_6?tag=artBody;col1Emerson, Michael. People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006).
History and Place
In the latter 20th century, spurred by the 1965 Immigration Act, Asians from many different groups immigrated in larger numbers, often arriving as college students, or skilled workers with degrees. Their image of success was portrayed with headlines of the "Model Minority".
When they first arrived in the United States, Asian immigrants were welcomed, or at least tolerated. After the California gold rush brought thousands of Chinese to California, however, Asian immigrants faced restrictive laws and occasional violence.
In the late 1800s Chinese, and eventually other Asians, were excluded from citizenship. These laws were repealed during World War II, followed by further immigration-law changes, making it easier for Asians to enter the United States.
Today, Asian immigrants have a high rate of assimilation and participation in the American mosaic.
Stories
Chinese Immigrants History: Gold Rush Boom
The Chinese were the first Asians to arrive in large numbers. By the 1830s Chinese were selling goods in New York City and toiling in Hawaiian sugarcane fields. Gold was discovered in California in 1848, eventually attracting thousands of Chinese miners and contract laborers. In 1850, just over 1,000 Asian immigrants entered the U.S., but ten years later, the figure had jumped to nearly 37,000, mostly Chinese.
In some quarters, Chinese workers were welcomed. The Central Pacific Railroad recruited Chinese to work on the transcontinental railroad in 1865. Three years later the Chinese and the U.S. ratified the Burlingame Treaty which facilitated Chinese immigration.
However, many people feared being "overwhelmed" by the influx, which had swelled to nearly 65,000 in 1870, and over 107,000 in 1880. Some cities passed laws against Chinese and other Asians, often referred to as "Mongolians." Anti-Chinese riots erupted in Chico, California, in 1877 and in Rock Springs, Wyoming, in 1885.
Japanese Immigrants History: Plantation/WWII
Japanese in Hawaii
Sugar is believed to have been first milled in Hawaii as early as 1802; however, it was not until the 1840s that it became a major crop. Native Hawaiians were hired first to do the growing, harvesting, and milling of sugar, but there eventually became an acute shortage of Hawaiian laborers. Recognizing the need for cheap labor for sugar plantations, the Hawaiian ambassador to Japan persuaded the government to allow 180 contract laborers to sign up for work.
The Japanese found conditions on the sugar plantation harsh. They worked from dawn to dusk, unaccustomed to the scorching hot Hawaiian sun. Because they did not understand orders given in English, workers were often bullwhipped. After the Japanese government learned of these conditions, Special Commissioner Katsunosuke Inouye was sent to Hawaii to investigate charges of cruelty to Japanese workers. Japan threatened to stop sending workers unless something was done to stop this abuse. Frightened by the possibility of termination of the labor source and hoping to satisfy Japan's concern for Japanese workers in Hawaii, the Hawaiian government entered into an agreement with Japan making Japanese immigrants wards of the Hawaiian government, and the planters its agents. Waiting to see if the agreement with Hawaii stopped Japanese worker abuse, Japan did not allow further emigration until 1886. Between 1886 and 1894, 26 sailings brought 29,069 Japanese immigrants. Another 30,000 Japanese immigrants were brought in during the two years after Hawaii's annexation in 1898.
After the Organic Act was passed in 1900, giving Japanese laborers more freedom, there were many small strikes for increased wages and better working conditions. Dissatisfied and unhappy, over 40,000 left Hawaii for employment in the United States. This, and an outbreak of bubonic plague among the immigrants of Honolulu, caused a critical labor shortage. Sugar planters then turned to the Filipinos as a source of cheap labor.
Japanese in the United States
In 1880, two years before the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, fewer than 200 Japanese lived in the United States. A decade later, Japanese immigrated at an annual rate of 1,000. From 1899 to 1903, another 60,000 entered the United States, largely because of the acute labor shortage in California. The exclusion of the Chinese had left many menial and unskilled jobs without takers. The Japanese population at this time was concentrated largely on the Pacific Coast, with the center at San Francisco. They were rural farmers from southern Honshu and Kyushu, and unlike the Chinese who migrated to urban living, the Japanese preferred rural farming. The early Japanese farmers and farm organizations laid the groundwork for future Japanese immigrants by providing capital and agriculture expertise.
As with the Chinese, the Japanese welcome began to fade as their numbers began to rise. Unlike the Chinese, however, the Japanese did not disperse. America began to stereotype Asians into two categories: the Chinese, humble and "inferior" who could be tolerated; and the Japanese who were cunning and aggressive and required domination to keep them in place.
In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated a "Gentlemen's Agreement" that called for Japan to issue passports to Japanese coming to the continental United States only if they were coming to join a parent, husband, child, or to return to a former home or farm. This agreement greatly diminished Japanese emigration to America. Between 1930 and 1940 the number returning to Japan exceeded new immigrants to the United States. This trend continued up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Many Japanese parents sent their children to Japan to be educated, and by 1942 it was estimated that more than 25,000 Asian-Americans had been educated in Japan.
Korean Immigrants History: Sugar Plantation
Korean-Americans have been able to thrive in the United States because of a strong emphasis on family, community support (often found through the church), education, and tradition. Korean immigration has contributed to businesses, churches, and academic communities in the United States.
A small number of Koreans immigrated to the United States in the early years of the twentieth century to work on Hawaiian sugar plantations. The difficult working conditions on the plantations motivated some Korean Americans to move to the mainland where many continued in agricultural work.
1882: The Treaty of Amity and Commerce (Article VI) freely permitted Koreans to enter the United States. Korea is the last nation in Northeast Asia to open her doors to the United States by signing this agreement.
1903-1905: The first wave of immigration began as 101 Korean immigrants (55 men, 21 women, and 25 children) arrived in Honolulu , Hawaii , on the U.S. merchant ship, the S.S. Gaelic. They came to the United States seeking escape from the political and economic turmoil brought on by a continuing power struggle with Japan . By 1905, a total of 7,226 Korean immigrants reached Hawaii. The majority of these early settlers, common unskilled laborers, settled and worked on the Hawaiian sugar plantations.
1907: President Roosevelt restricted Korean migration to the United States mainland.
1948: President Truman repealed Roosevelt ’s original proclamation.
1951-1964: The second wave of immigration occurred. This post-Korean War immigrant group was made up of mostly Korean wives of American servicemen, war orphans, and professional workers.
1952: The Immigration and Naturalization Act allowed for an annual quota of 100 Korean immigrants per year to the United States .
1965: The Immigration Reform Act repealed the national-origin quota system. Mass immigration from third world countries was not permitted.
1969-1987: The third wave of immigration occurred as a large number of Koreans settled in areas of California and New York. The majority of these new immigrants from Asia were young females. However, as the Korean economy began to stabilize and even prosper, more Koreans chose to stay in their native country.
Today, a little over one million Korean-Americans live throughout the United States, representing one of the largest Asian-American populations in the country. The largest concentration of Korean-Americans is found in the five-county area of Los Angeles, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties. About one quarter of all the Korean-Americans living in the United States reside in this region. The next largest area of concentration is the New York region, including New York City, northern New Jersey and the Connecticut-Long Island area. This area constitutes about 16% of the entire Korean-American population in the United States.
Vietnamese Immigrants History: Fall of Saigon/Boat People
The history of Vietnamese immigration to the United States is relatively recent. On April 30, 1975, “the fall of Saigon” ended the Vietnam War and prompted the first of two waves of emigration from Vietnam to the United States. Vietnamese who had worked closely with Americans during the Vietnam War feared reprisals by the Communist party. 125,000 Vietnamese citizens departed their native country during the Spring of 1975. They were airlifted or fled Vietnam on U.S. military cargo ships and transferred to United States government bases in Guam, Thailand, Wake Island, Hawaii and the Philippines, as part of “Operation New Life.” Subsequently, they were transferred to four refugee centers throughout the United States: Camp Pendleton in California, Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania. Initially, Vietnamese immigrants were unwelcomed by the general American populous.
In 1977, a second wave of Vietnamese refugees began fleeing Vietnam. This wave of emigration lasted until the mid 1980s. The second wave began as a result of the new Communist government’s implementation of economic, political and agricultural policies based on Communist ideology. These policies included “reeducation” and torture of former South Vietnamese military personnel and those presumed friendly to the South Vietnamese cause, the closing of businesses owned by ethnic Chinese Vietnamese, the seizing of farmland and redistributing it, and the mass forced relocation of citizens from urban to rural areas that were previously uncultivated or ruined during the war. During this time approximately two million Vietnamese fled Vietnam in small, overcrowded boats. This group of refugees would come to be known as the “boat people.” Most of the “boat people” fled to asylum camps in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines or Hong Kong and awaited acceptance by foreign countries.
Stories
Dat Tan Nguyen was born on September 25, 1975 in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas is the first Vietnamese American to play in the National Football League. He played for the Dallas Cowboys and is currently their assistant linebackers and defensive quality control coach. His family immigrated from Vietnam after the collapse of South Vietnam and he was born in one of the refugee centers shortly after the fall of Vietnam. He lived most of his childhood in the Gulf Coast town of Rockport, Texas. Dat Nguyen battled the perception that he was too small to play linebacker for as long as he was involved in the game, despite his muscular 5'11", 238 pound frame. As a college freshman, he was known as "Fat" Nguyen, but added muscle and became an NFL prospect. Proving critics wrong at an early stage, he proceeded to leave Texas A&M University as the Aggies' career record holder with 51 consecutive starts, 517 career tackles and a 10.7 tackles-per-game average. His 517 career tackles is currently an Aggie record.
Kristine Tsuya "Kristi" Yamaguchi- Hedican is an American figure skater and the 1992 Olympic Champion in women's singles. Yamaguchi also won two World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and 1992 and a U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1992. She won one junior world title in 1988 and two national titles in 1989 and 1990 as a pairs skater with Rudy Galindo. In December 2005, she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Yamaguchi was a local commentator on figure skating for San Francisco-area TV station KNTV (NBC 11) during the 2006 Winter Olympics. Kristi Yamaguchi was born on July 12, 1971 in Hayward, California, to Jim Yamaguchi, a dentist, and Carole Doi, a medical secretary, who is of Japanese and Filipino descent. Kristi is Yonsei. Her paternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Japan. Kristi's grandparents were sent to an internment camp during World War II, where her mother was born. Kristi and her siblings, Brett and Lori, grew up in Fremont, California, where Kristi attended Mission San Jose High School her freshman year and transferred to Willow Glen High School in San Jose, California, where she graduated. Yamaguchi began skating as a child, as physical therapy for her club feet.
Dreams
While growing up in the Twin Cities, Hmong-American activist Yia Yang heard mixed messages about his educational prospects. "My parents always emphasized that higher education was everything," said Yang, 23, who arrived in this country as a toddler. "But in high school no one ever talked about college to me. High school counselors for the most part don't know who you are, don't think you can do it." Yang became a U.S. citizen in grade school and now works to help those Mariano Espinoza calls "Generation 1 1/2," young people who were brought here by their parents as babies and never gained citizenship. Yang and Espinoza are part of the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network (MIFN), Espinoza as executive director and Yang as a former youth "coach." The nonprofit advocacy group's mission includes improving educational opportunities for immigrant youths, changing the language used in the news media to describe immigrants and lobbying for reform at the state Legislature. The Minnesota Dream Act, which would provide resident tuition rates at state colleges for all high school students regardless of their parents' immigration status, is among MIFN's biggest goals. The act has foundered in the Legislature under a veto threat by Gov. Pawlenty, although in 2007 he signed a similar bill that provided tuition breaks at technical and community colleges. "There are so many people who have lived here for 20 years and are not citizens," Espinoza said. "They're in the middle, not from here and not from there. A lot of them don't go to college because of the cost." [1]
[1] http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/style/26844264.html
Vietnamese Immigration
Japanese Immigration
Korean Immigration
Chinese Immigration
Feminism
Description
Stories
"When I was a little girl, everyone always told me that I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up. A doctor, a writer, a lawyer... but the only thing I wanted to be was white. Growing up, I never saw Asian people who had prestigious careers...This convinced me that, in order to become what I wanted, I had to be white" (Baek, 155)
"My mother tells my father that I've been diagnosed with depression. My father tells me this is okay. That maybe God in all His holiness let this happen so that I could help others....He tells me to pray. Pray, Alice. Pray. Ask him to help you and make you better. Pray.... And then he points to my waist and tells me it's too thick. He says that I should lose some weight....
...
Worthless. Undeserving. Don't try hard enough. What kind of man would want you? Your husband would fire you. Failure. Look at Paul Chen's daughter. Look at yourself. What are are you going to do with your life. Lazy. Expletive. Nothing. Take a good look at yourself, he [father] says, you're so unmotivated - why can't you just cheer up, I told you to cheer up. You're not "sad", you're just lazy...
....
No one know what goes on behind closed doors. They will say to me, you have such a great haircut, I want one just like yours, and they will say to me, where do you get your clothes, you're so stylish, and guys will stare at me and approach me and try to hit on me. But wherever I am, I am conscious of the fact that Asian girls are supposed to be thin and small-boned. And I am conscious of the ring of fat that encircles my waist. And Asian girls are supposed to wear only a size 1 or size 2....All the Asian girls with those padded push-up bras and their little flat butts complain loudly to each other, "I'm so fat," including my cousins, who are all skinny....
...
My body stings and I wonder how much I will be able to get out this time. When I am done, I will rinse the floor and wash my body with Dove-so-pure-it-floats, and there will be no evidence. Tomorrow I won't eat breakfast - just half a cup of coffee - and I'll eat half my lunch. Tomorrow I will go to school and I will sit in my jeans, so tight they hurt....Tomorrow I will pretend that nothing is wrong an that everything is fine and no one will suspect. No one. No, because I am not a walking skeleton, and I'm not white, and because I'm the president of our Asian American club, and I'm Asian American feminist, and because I am so strong" (Chung, 146-148)
Dreams
"Asian people in general I think were considered to be more quiet, less articulate, and not as prone to entering fields that require a lot of communication. We'd pick fields like medicine or science because they're analytical and require less personal interaction. Now though, I think you're finding that in terms of media, Asian women are becoming known for being assertive and outgoing. Many of us now choosing this field and so in a lot of ways I think that image is changing" (Park/Nam, 247).
"So my big thrust when I go on interviews with the Korean media is to say, "You must - when you see that your chilren are interested in the arts - push them toward that, encourage them, inspire them because it is through the arts that our voices will be heard" (Lee/Nam, 268).
"Good girls don't talk back, and they never yell. People tell me this all the time when I was growing up, but there were definitely some mixed messages, because I also heard the opposite. If you don't speak up for yourself, nobody will. In American, we have the freedom to shout. You have a mouth, so use it.
...
My parents said that the older generation felt like their voice didn't have credibility "outside," and what they had to say would never sound persuasive enough. It wasn't a lack of compassion or cultural understanding that compelled me to challenge my parents on this issue. i just wished that they could experience the powerful, liberating rush and the gratification that come along with speaking out and engaging in activism. It pained me that they always heard their words filtered through mine. They only felt the joy secondhand" (Nam, 237-239).
Baek, N. J. Y. (2001). Chalk marks. In V. Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 155-159). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.
Chung, A. (2001). Anorexic. In V. Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 146-148). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.
Fong, Timothy P. and Shinigawa, Larry. Asian Americans: Experiences and Perspectives (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000)
Fong, Timothy P., The Contemporary Asian American Experience (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2002).
Lee, H. (2001). In V. Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 268). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.
Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 237-239). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.Wei, William, The Asian American Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), 72.
Park, J. (2001). In V. Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 247). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.
Toyama, Nikki A. and Gee, Tracey (Ed). et al. More than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith. (Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2006),Nam, V. (2001). In V.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feminismhttp://www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au/cartoons/new/1995-09-02%20Great%20Wall%20of%20Feminism%203rd%20world%20750.JPG
Production and Consumption
Description
Production and consumption in the post-colonial context refers to the ability of an ethnic group to create representations of their culture in way that endures and perpetuates the control of the dominate, neo-colonial narrative. The dominant power exercises these narratives by “selecting, licensing, publishing and distributing the texts of the post-colonial world” (Ashcroft, 397). But even beyond the production of the post-colonial narratives, there are “the ways in which the ex-colonies are available both as suitable markets for cultural products and as the source for exotic products for sale on the home market” (Ashcroft, 398). In others words, not only are the neo-colonial narratives are in supply but such narratives are also in demand.
Stories The first work of Asian American literature is Lee Yan Phou's When I Was a Boy in China,1887, was a memoir reflecting upon Phou's childhood school days in China. Although Asian Americans produced numerous literary works many would remained obscured ( and did were unpublished. An example of these lost works includes Yokohama, California (1949) by Toshio Mori, which told the stories of Japanese Americans in the San Francisco Bay area prior to World War II. The work that brought this and other lost treasures of Asian American literature to the light of the general American public was Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers, (collective work of Frank Chin Jeff Chan, Lawson Inada and Shawn Wong) published in 1974. By going to used book stories the editors and contributes of this anthology were able to find books lost to the public and out of print and gain new material from older writers who were unable to publish their manuscripts. Although Aiiieeeee !has been criticized for the editors' contentious remarks and their narrow definition of Asian American literature; nevertheless, it is universally recognized that the anthology and its introductions were instrumental in sparking the Asian American literary movement. Frank Chin would become the leading authority on Asian American literature and inspiration to many Asian American writers. This brought to the attention of the academy, universities and literacy critics the depth and breadth of Asian American writings. In 1976, Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior won the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction. "The Modern Language Association reports that it is the most commonly taught text in modern university education, used in disciplines that include American literature, anthropology, Asian studies, composition, education, psychology, sociology, and women's studies." Asian Literature would not come to the attention of mainstream America until the publication of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. The book tells the story of "story of eight Chinese women. Four are mothers who each had different hardships, that forced them to leave China. Four are the daughters who each face their own struggles in their everyday living…" The book went on win many awards Ivy 1989 Awards: American Library Association Notable Books 1990 and the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults 1990. In 1993 it was made into a successful Hollywood film which put Asian American literature in the forefront of the public eye.Today, there have been an enormous amount of production of Asian literature with equal amount critically assessment by Asian American of the literature. The leading authors in this field includes: Maxine Hong Kingston,Frank Chin, Theresa Cha, David Henry Hwang, Amy Tan, Carlos Bulosan, Jade Snow Wong, Hisaye Yamamoto, and Joy Kogawa.
Recent Trend in Consumption
Beyond field of literature, Asian Americans have found a growing momentum in media and popular culture affecting both production and consumption. As of 2006, Asian American consumers were accountable for an excess of $40 billion in total buying power in the United States. In comparison to other minority groups, the median household income among Asian Americans were 15% higher than non-Hispanic Whites, 56% higher than Hispanics and nearly double that of Black households, making Asian Americans the most flourishing consumer group of any racial demographic. It was reported about half of Asian American consumption were families and children and the other half were young adults ages 18 to 29.
Dreams
The future and hope of production and consumption has been conceived by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. The founding purpose is to be "a national not-for-profit arts organization devoted to the creating, publishing, developing and disseminating of creative writing by Asian Americans." Juliana Chang essay on various Asian American literature articulates the dreams and hope of Asian American literature, to address a grave wrong in American culture:"… I believe, inpopular notions of the Asian American identity conflictThe culturalist notion of Asian Americans struggling with an identity that is split between Asian and American cultures masks the injustice that Asian Americans are racially marked as nonbelonging to America; because they are seen as Asian, they are not seen as fully American. It is up to Asian Americanist critics to interpret the trope of the Asian American identity conflict as a symptom of the contradictions and injustices of race and the US nation." The dream is to allow Asian Americans to be Americans with all the freedom, liberty and creativity that comes with belonging to America.
Asian American Writers' Workshop 2006. http://www.aaww.org
Chang, Juliana "Interpreting Asian American Identify and Subjectivity." Modern Fiction Studies 53 (Winter 2007)
Deconinck, Isabelle. "Celebrating Asian American Literature." World Literature Today (May/June 2007)
Partridge, Jeffrey F. L. "Aiiieeeee! and the Asian American Literary Movement: A Conversation with Shawn Wong." Melus 29 (Fall/Winter:2004)
Shu, Yuan. "Teaching and Theorizing Asian American Literature." College Literature 32.1 (Winter 2005)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_Warrior.
Globalization, Environment, and Religion
Description: Globalization
Globalization can be seen as progress for the whole world to gain knowledge with one another and to develop together. Globalization also has traces of post-colonialism as many marginal culture are dissolved into the global culture. Most of the control or globalization comes from the imperial western nations. Many local communities react to globalization as the colonized nations reacted to the colonizers. Globalization is a continuation of colonization of the third world by the first and second worlds. Global Capitalism has transformed the world into a tighter bubble, which has weaken boarders of nations and replicated societies in other cultures. Globalization process is making the cultures of the world more homogeneous. People have the freedom to choose their culture and through globalization people are choosing different identities from other cultures, mostly dominant cultures. People find this empowering to shape their cultures but people are choosing and forming a homogeneous culture. The globalization culture can either be thought of Americanization or global progress.
Variables that have changed as a result of globalization:
Globalization seems to have the answer to all the problems that the world faces. Yet it makes more problems by not being sensitive to cultures. Globalization is about making the world homogeneous but the world is full of variety. The creativity of the world could be lost to globalization. Everything is mechanically formed and all people are taught to think the same culturally. The world would miss a lot.
Globalization will make it easier for an Asian family to communicate and travel back to the original country. Family can stay connected across the ocean. The world is getting smaller through communication and travel. The economy is also globalized so business and money can travel around the world in minutes. A person working for a corporation in Asia can be transferred or find a job at the same business in America. Many people come to America looking for a better life or a better job. The American dream is for a better life and future for the family. Globalization allows this dream while staying connected to the original country.
Description: Environment
Many Asian Americans care very much for the environment. Asians have a heritage of feeling very connected to their environment. The Japanese have a feeling that everything is connected. “Matsumura contends that four attitudes characterize the Japanese orientation towards nature: The Japanese believe that nature should be understood sensationally; The Japanese identify themselves with nature; The Japanese believe that nature should be understood holistically; The Japanese are optimistic about nature” (Nishida). Asian heritage believes in a harmony with everything in nature, everything is connected. People are part of nature and are to care for the environment. If the environment is hurt than humans will hurt also. This ethic is probably carried over to the thoughts of many Asian Americans. Now the world is starting to care for the environment more with recycling and reusing. Nations are trying to decrease pollution. Asian Americans have had this ethic of nature for generations and now society of America is reinforcing it.
Asian Americans often create an environment that is similar to their original country. Some examples are China town and Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. These ethnic centers help to keep the community strong and allows people to identify themselves with their original culture. “These communities emerge for purposes of social economic support, as well as a sense of identity.” (Fong, 86). These centers were formed by the immigrants as they came to the United States. The immigrants were not fully accepted in the new land. They clustered together in parts of the city. They bought pieces of property in a city and then rentivated the area to feel like the original country. These areas of cities have ethnic foods, languages and general customs of the Asian American group.
Description: Religion
Confucianism is a morale way to live in a society. Confucianism comes from ancient Chinese traditions and spread throughout Asia. It is not a religion but a way of thinking that may form a person’s whole life. The teachings did not start with Confucian himself, but he was one that solidified and past on traditions. It has very high honor for the elders and those in position of power. Confucianism spread throughout Asia and became very common way of living.
Confucianism is an ethic about the way to live. It’s main principle is honor of those in power and seeking to live a moral life in front of others. The other aspect is still practiced and many Confucian cultures. It is when the eldest son conducts a ceremony to worship his ancestors. The missionary Le Comte “believed that the Chinese once had been in possession of ‘the original truths revealed by God to the first human being.” He saw parallels between the doctrines of Christianity and Confucianism. One man named Joseph- Henri de Premare wrote a book explaining the similarities of the two religions.
The first similarity would be the trinity as one. He saw traces of the trinity in Confucian doctrine. He did not want to say that they were worshiping the same god. Premare points out the similarities to use what the Chinese knew to explain Christianity. The next big similarity is in the waiting for a Messiah. Premare decides that in the Confucian beliefs they are waiting on a holy man. These are similarities that might be seen as Confucian influences on Christianity. These similarities also made it easier for the Chinese to accept Christ because missionaries could show Jesus as a fulfillment of Confucian prophecy.
Buddhism is one of the oldest eastern religions in the world. The Buddha was named Sakya, and was prince of a kingdom in India. He was very intelligent growing up and studied grammar, arts, logic, theology, and medicine by the age of seven. His father, King Chingfan, crowned him prince at the age of 15 and gave Sakya every riches he could desire. Yet Sayak had a very philosophical side and he wondered about life.
His life was lived in the castle but he wanted to travel and experience the world. The first lesson that he learned was that one cannot escape birth, age, sickness, and death. Sakya walked about the castle and saw “an old man at the east gate, a sick person at the south gate, and a funeral procession at the west gate.” He learned about life from these three events.
Finally after leaving the castle, Sakya traveled and learned from many ascetics the principles held about life at the time. He did not find the answers that satisfied his curiosity. He then went into the mountains where he spent six years until he reached a spiritual awakening that is called Nirvana. Sakya then became the Buddha and, “felt that the ecstasy he was experiencing after the achievement of the highest degree of enlightenment was too precious to be enjoyed by himself alone.”
He had no intention of forming a religion, but his following was so large at his death, that his disciples decided to pursue nirvana also. The Buddha taught, “spiritual awakening comes only from self devotion.” His followers spread his teachings throughout all of Asia. Buddhism arrived in Korea during the Kokuryo Dynasty, imported from China. The Korean king embraced the teachings of the monks sent from China and built many temples for the Buddhist religion. Buddhism has spread all over the Eastern hemisphere and has always, “adapted to the culture and existing religious practices of the people.
Shamanism has been another popular religion. Shamanism is led by the Shaman which is a spiritual guide for healing, telling stories of tradition, fortune telling, and contacting spirits. Shamanism is a different religious thought from Western culture and thought. It has become indigenous to Korea and has had influence on Japanese Shintoism.
Shamanism teaches that there is no god but that everything was created by one who just guides history. Humans are to be part of nature. “In the view of Korean shamanism, human beings come into the world as integral parts of the rhythm of nature.” Humans enter the world when they are born and do not leave the world after death, but become spirits who are part of this world. The purpose of man in the world is to find his place in nature. Man neither fears being destroyed by nature or seeks to rule it. People should try to find their place with in nature and be at peace with his environment. “Every form of life, including human life, will be sustained if it manages to adapt its lifestyle to the rhythm and balance of nature.”
Shamanism is a very peaceful religion and tries to avoid any conflicts. It will conform to any part of society. The idea of isolation or loneliness is a great fear of the shamanistic mind. They do not want there to be any division between the individual and the community. The Shamanist will avoid being alone in thought by conforming to the community.
While western thought says for one express himself and different ideas in a civilized manner, “Shamanistic ethics are designed to prevent or eliminate disagreements and conflicts.” The result of this is the need for an authoritative guide. If the shaman mind does not have a guide, there will be nothing to conform to. Shamanism has never been a religion among the elite of Korea as Confucianism and Buddhism.
Its has similar beliefs of Confucianism and Buddhism, and has become ingrained in Korean society. “In this way much of the shamanistic world view has influenced Korean culture out of all proportion to the political import of Shamanism.” As in Confucianism, shamanism stresses importance on family, loyalty, respect, caring for the environment, and pacifism. ”There can be little doubt that the strength of Confucianism in Korean social and cultural life owes much to its basic congruity with indigenous Korean shamanism.” There are more disagreements between Buddhism and Shamanism than similarities. The Buddhist is trying to reach enlightenment and transcend through nature. Shamanism is trying to live in rhythm with nature. The Buddhist is very individualistic, while the Shamanistic mind is very family oriented. “No decent shamanistic individual would think of attaining enlightenment if it meant that he would have to leave his relatives and enjoy it selfishly."
Stories
Globalization
Globalization has affected much of the Asian American culture. The second generation are caught between cultures because of globalization and a multi-cultural atmosphere. The praise music sung at Asian American Churches have been affected by globalization, for example: Hill Song. Hill Song produces great worship music and has been accepted by many different cultures. The music is globalized and sung in many different languages around the world. When the praise music is globalized, most churches sound the same and many cultural musical sounds are lost.
Environment
Established in 2004 by a group of Asian American environmentalists in Southern California, the Asian American Environmental Partnership is a non-profit organization dedicated to increase awareness and understanding of environmental issues in the Asian American community by building partnership and inspiring diversity in leadership. [1]
Vision
Develop relationships between the environmental community and the Asian American community. Assist governmental agencies to outreach to the Asian American community on environmental issues. Foster collaboration on environmental research and education among nonprofit organizations, academic institutions and the Asian American community. Provide support and training for Asian American leadership on environmental issues.
Religion
There are many different views of the Asian American Church. The first generation of Asian Americans find the church very familiar because of the original culture. Many second generation Asian Americans do not find the church very comfortable and will leave after high school. This is called the 'silent exodus.' "The children and youth from those churches will grow up with American culture and feel that their parents churches are irrelevant. Therefore most will have already rejected Christianity by the time they reach college, or soon after college depend on whether or not they were integrated into a college fellowship. The problem is that immigrant churches are not culturally sensitive enough to allow an “english ministry” to exist that has the resources, programs, and autonomy to be fully culturally relevant to the next generation." [2]
Dreams
Globalization
The future of Asian American in the world seems to becoming more complex with each generation. "Asian American parents fear for most of their children, common responses include: the loss of ethinic culture and language; poor self-concept and identity development." [3] As many other minorities in America, Asian culture becomes a hybrid culture and is absorbed into the main cultures. Globalization in the world will dilute the Asian culture as Asian Americans live within other cultures. The future is hopeful because the hard work ethic of Asian culture will help the Asian American succeed in a multicultural world.
Environment
The world has become aware of the environment and the affects that humans have had on it. Asian culture has always been aware of the connection of humans with the environment. As America tries to become better caretakers of the environment, Asian Americans can voice the ethics into the conversation. The neighborhoods in which Asian Americans live has often been very polluted. Asian Americans can work to clean up their community as the world works to become more environmentally friendly.
Religion
Asia has a history of many different religions. These religions have influenced the Asian American view of Christianity. Asian Americans have lived within a multi religious culture, that allows them to understand many religions. "Few theologians are better suited to help North American theologians ponder the theological future than Asian American theologians. As P. notes, Asian theologians have already lived for centuries in pluralistic settings and are now finding creative ways to balance philosophy and theology, ritual and social justice in novel ways based on the heritage of Asian philosophy and theology transformed into a North American key."
[1] Asian American Environmental Partnership. Asian Americans' Guide to Environmental Protection in Southern California. 2005. http://www.aaepus.org/about.htm
[2] The Random Platypus Blog. Silent Exodus. October 24, 2005. http://www.randplaty.com/2005/10/24/silent-exodus/
[3] http://family.jrank.org/pages/107/Asian-American-Families-Future-Asian-American-Families.html
Buswell, Robert E. Religions of Korea in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
Buswell, Robert E., and Timothy S. Lee. Christianity in Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2006.
Chung, David. Syncretism The Religious Context of Christian Beginnings in Korea. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.
Clark, Allen D. History of the Korean Church. New York: Friendship Press, 1961.
Fong, Timothy P. and Shinagawa, Larry H. Asian Americans: Experiences and Perspectives. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000).
Gudykunst, Communication in Personal Relationships in Japan. Thousand Oaks: Sage Communications, 1996.
Guisso, Richard, and Chai-shin Yu. Shamanism: The Spirit World of Korea. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1988.
Jang, Nam Hyuck. Shamanism in Korean Christianity. Seoul: Jimoondang International, 2004.
Kim, Duk-Whang, Ph.D. A History of Religions in Korea. Korea: Daeji Moonhwa, 1963.
Lee, Sang Taek. Religion and Social Formation in Korea. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996.
Lui, Shu-hsien. Understanding Confucian Philosophy Classical and Sung-Ming. London: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Ma, Wonsuk, and Julie C. Ma. Mission, Asian Churches & God's. Mandaluyong City: OMF Literature Inc., 2003.
Min, Pil Won. Shamanism as Religion and Culture: A study on the relationship between shamanism and revival movements in Korean church growth. 2004.
Shearer, Roy E. Wildfire: Church Growth in Korea. Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing, 1966.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6404/is_/ai_n29137021
Diaspora and Place
Description
The term Diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – "a scattering or sowing of seeds") refers any population sharing common ethnic identity who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their settled territory, and became residents in areas often far removed from the former. It is converse to the nomadic lifestyle. Diaspora cultural development often assumes a different course to the population in the original place of settlement, and tends to vary between remotely separated communities in culture, traditions and other factors. The last vestige of cultural affiliation in a Diaspora is usually found in community resistance to language change.
Stories
Korean Diaspora
About 1,520,703 Korean currently living in the U.S
The terms dongpo or gyopo, a term used to describe those of the Korean diaspora, in Korean refers to persons of Korean ethnic descent who have lived the majority of their lives outside Korea. It can also mean simply any Korean who lives outside Korea. Large-scale emigration from Korea began as early as the mid-1860s, mainly into the Russian Far East and Northeast China; these emigrants became the ancestors of the 2 million Koreans in China and several hundred thousand ethnic Koreans in Central Asia.
Japanese Diaspora
About 1,200,000 Japanese currently living in the U.S
The Japanese diaspora, and its individual members known as nikkei, are Japanese emigrants from Japan and their descendants to other parts of the world. Emigration from Japan first happened and was recorded as early as the 12th century to the Philippines, but did not become a mass phenomenon until the Meiji Era, when Japanese began to go to North America, and later Latin America. There was also significant emigration to the territories of the Empire of Japan during the colonial period; however, most such emigrants repatriated to Japan after the end of World War II in Asia.
According to the Association of Nikkei and Japanese Abroad, there are about 2.5 million nikkei living in their adopted countries. The largest of these foreign communities are in Brazil, the United States and the Philippines. Descendants of emigrants from the Meiji Era still hold recognizable communities in those countries, forming separate ethnic groups from Japanese peoples in Japan.
Chinese Diaspora
About 3,376,031 Chinese currently living in the U.S
Chinese emigration (also known as the Chinese Diaspora) first occurred thousands of years ago, but the mass emigration that occurred from the 19th century to 1949 was mainly caused by wars and starvation in mainland China as well as political corruption. Most immigrants were illiterate or poorly educated peasants and coolies (Chinese: translated: Hard Labour), who were sent to countries such as the Americas, Australia, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Malaya and other places.
According to Lynn Pan's book Sons of the Yellow Emperor, the Chinese coolie emigration began, after slavery had been abolished throughout the British possessions. Facing a desperate shortage of manpower, European merchants were looking to replace African slaves with indentured labourers from China and India. A British Guiana planter found what he was looking for in the Chinese labourers "...their strong physique, their eagerness to make money, their history of toil from infancy..."
Large numbers of unskilled Chinese were sold as labourers, in the coolie trade, to the colonies overseas in exchange for money to feed their families; this type of trading was known as maai jyu jai by the Chinese, and their lives were extremely miserable. Some tricky labor recruiters promised good pay and good working conditions to get them signed onto three year labor contracts. It was recorded on one pepper estate, 50 coolies hired, only 2 survived in half a year. Most coolies were treated badly and many died in route to South America and South Africa because of bad conditions. Usually, they were cheated out of their wages and were unable to return to China after their contracts expired.
Vietnamese Diaspora
About 1,599,394 Vietnamese living in the U.S.
Overseas Vietnamese can be generally divided into four distinct categories that rarely interact with each other. The first category consists of people who have been living in territories outside of Vietnam prior to 1975; they usually reside in neighboring countries, such as Cambodia, Laos, and China. These people are not usually considered "Việt Kiều" by people residing in Vietnam. During French colonialism, some also migrated to France and some French-speaking areas, such as Québec. The second category, consisting of the vast majority of overseas Vietnamese, are those who escaped Vietnam after 1975 as refugees and their descendants. They usually reside in industrialized countries in North America, Western Europe, and Australia. The third category consists of Vietnamese working and studying in the Soviet bloc who opted to stay there after the Soviet collapse. This group is found mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. The last category consists of recent economic migrants who work in regional Asian countries such as Taiwan and Japan. They also include women who married men from Taiwan and South Korea through marriage agencies. These brides usually follow their husbands to live in those countries.
Stories
Jerry Yang, a Taiwanese native raised in San Jose, Calif., co-created the Yahoo! Internet navigational guide in April 1994 with David Filo and co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in April 1995. He was appointed chief executive officer of the company in June 2007. Mr. Yang, a leading force in the Internet media industry, has been instrumental in building Yahoo! into the world's most highly trafficked Web site and one of the world's most recognized brands. Since the company's founding, Mr. Yang has been a key member of the executive management team. His focus at Yahoo! over the years has included corporate strategy, Yahoo!'s technology vision, strategic business partnerships and international joint ventures, and recruiting key talent. In addition to serving on the Yahoo! Board of Directors, Mr. Yang currently serves on the board of directors of Cisco Systems, Yahoo! Japan, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and is also on the Stanford University Board of Trustees. Mr. Yang holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University and is currently on a leave of absence from Stanford's electrical engineering Ph.D. program.
Eugene Huu-Chau "Gene" Trinh is the first Vietnamese-American to travel into outer space. Born September 14, 1950, in Saigon, Vietnam; was raised from the age of two in Paris, France and has lived in the United States since 1968. Currently a resident of Culver City, California. Married to the former Yvette Fabry. Recreational interests include house remodeling, music, theatre, tennis, swimming, volleyball, soccer, hiking, and photography. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Trinh, reside in Nice, France. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fabry, reside in Paris, France. Secondary education: graduated from Lycee Michelet, Paris, France with a Baccalaureate degree in 1968. Received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering-Applied Physics from Columbia University in 1972; Masters of Science and of Philosophy and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Applied Physics from Yale University in 1974, 1975, and 1977 respectively.
Dreams
Being an Asian American myself and having the opportunity to work with young people, one of the hope and dreams that the first generation wants for the second generation is to keep their roots and to know their heritage. Growing up, this is something that my parents have always emphasize on. They speak Vietnamese to us, cook us Vietnamese food and stress on the importance of keeping the tradition. Another important dream is to be educated. From a land where not everyone has the opportunity to go to school to now the land of opportunity, American, the first generation's dreams for the second generation is to take advantage of these opportunities.
An article expresses the current dilemma that Asian Americans are facing today:
"Vietnamese elders often lament the loss of culture, identity, and language among the younger generations. I have heard my father sardonically describe young Vietnamese Americans’ loss of their Vietnamese roots by giving the example that, “O Viet Nam, cha me dat dau con ngoi do. Con o My thi con dat dau cha me phai ngoi do thoi” (In Viet Nam, children do what their parents tell them to, but in America it is the reverse). If indeed Vietnamese Americans are losing their cultural values—that set of ideas and beliefs that makes us distinctly Vietnamese—then how does this bode for the future? What will a fourth- or fifth-generation Vietnamese American person be like? Will she be any different from other Asian Americans in the U.S.? We know the answer is not as simple as an easy yes or no, and we certainly know that being Vietnamese American and retaining Vietnamese values depends on many factors such as immigration flows, communication with Viet Nam, and the accessibility of Vietnamese culture and language in the American mainstream." [1]
[1] http://www.nhamagazine.com/back_issue/issue_0106/feature4_p1.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_diaspora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_diaspora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_diaspora
Language, Body and Performance
Description
Language
According to Ashcroft's The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, "language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place and our place in the world” (Ashcroft, 267). Many times, there has been a struggle for Asian Americans to keep their ethnic language, yet also try to succeed in the English language. In America, it was perceived that "any achievement in spoken or written English was highly rewarded; prizes, prestige, applause; the ticket to higher realms. English became of the measure of intelligence and ability in the arts, the sciences, and all the other branches of learning. English became the main determinant of a child’s progress up the ladder of formal education (Ashcroft, 265). In order to survive and to better their economic and academic place, Asian Americans needed to learn the English language. Yet in the process of being accepted in the American society through language, the abilitity to only speak English suggests a loss of culture. Many second generation Asians grow up losing the “life and vigor” that existed in their native culture (Ashcroft, 264).
However, there is a benefit for being bilingual in language proficiency. For example, foreign-born Chinese youth “can utilize various resources already available in the Chinese immigrant community,” like reading Chinese newspapers for community news and resources. They are able to “shop at Chinese music, book, and video stores, and eat at Asian cafes, places that enable them to keep up with Asian pop culture and provide them with access to Asian role models” (Lee, 155).
Some have expressed the ability to straddle on both ethnic worlds, also being able to bridge the cultures. One member from a Chinese church, Glenda, explained, “I felt like I could be a very big bridge since I am fluent in both English and Mandarin. I felt like I could be more involved in both congregations” (Alumkal, 101).
Body
Ashcroft elaborates on the body and voice “skin colour, eye shape, hair texture, body shape, language, dialect or accent) as read as indelible signs of the ‘natural’ inferiority of their possessors” (Ashcroft, 289). One of the struggles that immigrants, including Asians, have in adjusting and integrating into American society is appearing different. There are those families who have lived in the United States for many, many generations. They are disconnected from their original ethnic culture, not speaking any language but English, and yet they are still perceived as visitors or foreigners because of appearance. Sean, a young profressional, a Chinese American third generation expressed his frustration that if he were to have a child, even who spoke “only two words of Chinese, but it won’t matter. The way you look—they’re not going to accept him fully. He’s going to find racial prejudice wherever he goes” (Alumkal, 91).
Performance within Church
Within the Asian American community, performance takes many forms. These performances help give the Asian American a means of expressing himself or herself, whether through dance, acting or even through praise.
Stories
Body
Much of the reason why Asian Americans struggle in America is the inability to change the way they look. They are able to adapt to the American lifestyle in clothing, in hairstyle, in food, in hobbies and interests, yet one thing remains. They still look Asian. Because of this, many are mistaken as foreigners or tourists.
Another reason some Asian Americans struggle with being mistaken as a person of another culture. One Asian-Indian expressed her frustration that people thought she was Mexican. “I don’t like that; obviously I don’t want to be classified as something I’m not […] I just say I’m Indian. And the first thing people say is, ‘Oh you’re Indian? But you have such light hair and light skin?’ As if everyone from India is dark. They have a stereotypical idea of who’s Indian and don’t seem to recognize that I am” (Lee, 137). To many people, it is very difficult to differentiate between different Asian nationalities. Many people are often mistaken as being a part of different ethnicities.
Language
"I didn’t care to come to the church, tell you the truth. I mean, there was nothing for me to do here. I listen to sermons in Korean, which I don’t understand a thing and wait for my mom for a ride back to home. I rather wanted to stay home and do some homework or something…..But I actually look forward to coming to the church nowadays. Because Sunday is only time for us (her friends in the church) to get together. My friends and I became so close…..They understand how I feel and I understand what they are going through. Now my mom has to look for me when she is ready to leave (the church)" (Kim 2007, 60).
Performances
Praise. As noted earlier, many Asian American churches express themselves through worship, many times connected through a Western band, like the worship team from Australia’s Hillsongs Church or U.S.’s Vineyard church. It brings churches together because the music is very common to many different types of churches, since the music is also very well known.
Today, praising within the church has significance to Asian American that differs greatly from the significance it had when Asians immigrated into the United States. Interestingly, both of their structure of worship service can be seen as a performance within their cultural context. This is shown by the “praise team” within Asian American church that play a contemporary rock beat worship music and display song lyrics from Vineyard or Hillsong rather play old hymns on and on. Worship atmosphere becomes a product of praise team’s performance through ethereal sounds to serve as a backdrop for prayer and contemplation. Vice versa, in the conservative setting when the newer generation sees old generations’ worship service, they will consider the service as a performance. “I observed on a few occasions was the worship team opening the service by Bible through a series of fast-tempo songs, with the congregation breaking into applause at the conclusion of the set, seemingly blurring the line between “worship” and “performance” (Alumkal, 50).
Dance. Dance as a Cultural Expression and Identity Affirmation Since the 1970s, the need of belongings and acceptances of Filipino American youth in Los Angeles, 2nd generation Filipino developed the Filipino hip-hop culture. “They knew they didn’t fit into the white culture, so they rejected it and embraced hip-hop because hip-hop was already embraced by gang culture…..Filipino youth, not knowing anything about their own history or themselves, took to something they could identify with more. So they, embraced the whole Black, Chicano, underground hip-hop culture.” (Lee 2004, 196)
Filipino Dance - "We Filipinos show our Asian pride. This is the Filipino national dance. We mixed it up with hip hop, Bebot by Black Eyed Peas."
Performance
In the midst of these arguments about style or structure of liturgies within Asian American churches, young generations are attempting to find who they are in Christ through their cultural context. Here is an example of a Asian American Christian rap group that strongly appeals to the young generation, both Christians and Non-Christians, with their contemporary music. They are not just singing, but they really testify to their faith through the songs and testimonies during their performance.
Dreams
"Silent Exodus" is a name for the phenomenon of a generation of young people leaving the Christian community; it has been applied to the Asian American church as well. The statistics show that 70% of 2nd-generation Korean Americans will leave their Korean ethnic church after high school graduation and never come back, while 90% will leave after college graduation and about half will leave the church all together. "Asian churches in the United States are discovering that despite their spectacular growth they are simultaneously losing their children. At an alarming rate, many young believers who have grown up in these Asian congregations are now choosing to leave not only their home churches, but possibly their Christian faith as well." (Lee 1996, 40)
Regardless of language or race, inherently the second generation will want to assimilate into American culture and be taught English and encouraged to become Americans. Will this second generation want to stay in an ethnocentric church the rest of their lives? Their friends are diverse ethnically, their school is ethnically and culturally diverse. How can we engage with young people outside of the churches? How can church reach out to the young generation who are so lost culturally and socially? These kind of questions should continuously be asked within the churches rather pushes away the reality (culture, language, ethic, and race etc) that we must to face.
Here is a good example of engaging culture and churches: KAC (Korean American Christian Media).
"KAC Media is a nonprofit organization committed to spreading the message of God through online social networking and television media. As we strive to be the premiere network for 1.5, 2nd, and 3rd Generation Korean Americans, we aim to produce creative and throught-provoking content that is compelling, relevant and genuinely serves the needs of Korean Americans today. While promoting churches, organizations, businesses, and individuals, KAC Media also supports emerging Korean Americans in the arts, film, and media. It is our hope that with every story and with every effort, we bring people one step closer to God."
The hope is that organizations like KAC Media will act as bridge-makers and help people to find their true vocations and callings by developing their talent and potential in various areas of entertainment and communication such as media, art, and music.
Alumkal, Antony W. Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity, and Assimilation in the Second Generation. (New York and London: Routledge, 2004).
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Kim, Jung Ha. Bridge Makers and Cross Bears: Korean -American Women and the Church. (Atlanta:Scholars Press, 1997).
Pastor Brian Interview
Emerson, Michael. People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006).
Universalism
Binarisms
Representation and Resistance
Nationalism
Education
History of the Charismatic Movement and Nondenominational Church
Hybridity and Indigeneity
Race and Ethnicity
History and Place
Feminism
Production and Consumption
Globalization, Environment, and Religion
Diasporas and Place
Language, Body and Performance
Conclusion
Introduction
Racial Group: Asian American
Denomination: Non-denominational; Charismatic
Region of the World: United States
Many Asian American non-denominational churches are springing up across America, a diverse and rich source for many as-yet-untold stories. Asian immigrants and Asian Americans both are joining churches of many traditions, but more importantly, they are forming their own churches, associations, research centers and theological journals of their own. Examples include the Chinese American Christians Forum; Ministries for English-Speaking Asians; Pacific, Asian and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry; and the National Korean Presbyterian Council. Because of this growing population that has unique gifts and needs, numerous universities and seminaries have developed centers for Asian-American ministry, including the Pacific School of Religion’s Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion, the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity at the American Baptist Seminary of the West, the Center for Pacific and Asian-American Ministries at Claremont School of Theology, McCormick Theological Seminary’s Center for Asian American Ministries and the International Theological Seminary in Los Angeles.
Asian Americans also frequent Catholic, Pentecostal and evangelical churches, having sizeable representations in the Presbyterians, Baptists and United Methodists denominations among others. The resulting interaction of cultures, religious beliefs and values is a rich source of stories that often go untold in the larger story of American Christianity. Some denominations and parachurch organizations have aggressively reached out to Asian Americans, starting churches and gatherings just to appeal to them. “On campuses across America, student movements like IV (Intervarsity Christian Fellowship) and CCC (Campus Crusade for Christ) have deliberately split into ethnic fellowships. An Asian American group is almost always one of those groups. Most large universities also have Chinese or Korean fellowships rooted in ethnic churches.” [1]
[1] http://www.masecure.org/guide/asian.html
Universalism
Christi Kang
Description
"Asians are often viewed as embodying such values as love of silence and contemplation, closeness to nature, simplicity, detachment, frugality, harmony, nonviolence, love for learning, respect for the elders, filial piety, compassion, and attachment to the family. While these characteristics may be exaggerated and even caricatured, there is no doubt that there is a core of truth in this description of what has been called the Asian soul. The dilemma of these views is that these ideals are hard to practice in the United States, which prizes professional competition, material success, individual autonomy, democratic egalitarianism, and self- fulfillment. However, there is little doubt that these ideals can correct the excesses of the American way of life. On the other hand, challenged and enriched by American moral ideals" (Kim 2006, 247).Stories
Confucian Background
The universalism within this tradition derives from the Asian heritage, the influence of Confucianism. Confucian, a philosopher, had developed these principles governing life, relationships, morals and reality. For example, beginning in 108 B.C., Confucianism was introduced by the Han Dynasty of China to the Korean peninsula (Kim 1997, 9). From 1392-1910, Yi Dynasty of China ruled the country and Korea officially adopted Confucianism as the main ideology for governing Korean Society (ibid). For five hundred years, it was a major influence in the culture, emphasizing filial piety, heirarchy, and social ettiquete. Even in heirarchy, there is a certain way to treat people according to generation and according to gender. Refer to Globalism, Environment, Religion for further information about Confucianism.
Confucian Principles Affecting the Church
These principles manifest itself in the church in many ways, including:
- Conservative Christianity and Asian American culture like the idea of working hard for what you get. Conservative voice: “Work hard and you will succeed.” Progressive voice: “Work hard because you have been blessed.” A common conservative theological stance is that if you are faithful enough, God will reward you. This is called the Prosperity Gospel; oversimplified, it means your “blessings” equal how much God loves you.
- Emphasize the family unit before the individual. Conservative voice: “Do not do anything to upset the community.” Progressive voice: “Express your faith as a unique member of the family of faith.” Suppress your individual expression of faith for the good of the church, goes the thinking in conservative Christian communities. You must submit to the will of the community lest your inclusion, welcome and faithfulness be re-evaluated.
- Stress strict obedience to the authority given to elders. Conservative voice: “If Pastor [insert male name here] says it, it is true.” Progressive voice: “What do you think God is saying to us?” A common idea in the Christian Church is that authority is given to those in higher positions. This type of hierarchical structure often leads to the discouraging of questioning those in authority. There is one “head of the household,” and what he says goes."
Sometimes to have a pastor who is not biblical, who is clealy wrong, but the congregation is hesitant to say anything "because he's a pastor" or "because he's up there and I am down here." And that can be a problem .... I also don't like the fact that the elders are esteemed much that they have a higher say than what the Bible says. When an elder says something, that's just like God said something. I don't agree with that (Antony 2004). Several other people mentioned aspects of Confucian values that they believed were contrary to Christianity. For Andrew, the Confucian emphasis on obeying (human) authority was a serious problem in Korean church. Indeed, younger generation struggles because of feeling restricted by such rigid ethnic identity budaries that Asian thinks that is the most important and valuable.
- Women, some churched Korean-American women, see their husbands “working so hard to provide for the family” and “trying so hard to please God,” they can endure the costs of the gender-traditional notion of a wife’s role, and above all, it refers that Christian faith is proved by working rather than grace. “When I met C’s (her husband) for the first time, I had no intention of marrying him….My family has always been Christians from my parents’ generation on. And I made a promise to God that I’ll marry only a Christian man. But when I said to C’s father, he said that he will attend the church from that day on. And ever since then he has been a good Christian…..Sometimes I really want to complain about unrealistic business deals and neverending chores that I have to do both in our stores and in our home for almost twenty-four hours a day. But seeing C’s father trying so hard to be a good Christian, I just can’t say anything. I tell myself that it’s better to endure everything than saying anything since he’s trying so hard to please God as it is (12/09/90)” (Kim 1997, 118).
We should release the potential of differences among us rather focuses differences as problems. Harmony of community can contribute to the redemption work for American culture, helping different cultures to look beyond themselves and really intently listen on how they can serve others. Individualism can be redeemed to help people find a creative voice and personal boundaries. They can help the people who are marginalized in the state: Make a voice of justice in the society for the marginalization and participate God’s reconciliation work between race and ethnicity. To dream these, we should first build bridges between 1st and 2nd generation for the reconciliation within the church.
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Antony W. Alumkal, Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity, and Assimilation in the Second Generation. (New York and London: Routledge, 2004),
Kim, Rebecca Y. 2006. God's new whiz kids?. NY and London : New York University Press.
Kim, Jung Ha. 1997. Bridge Makers and Cross Bears: Korean -American Women and the Church. Atlanta : Scholars Press.
http://www.asianweek.com/2008/05/18/asian-american-christians-why-we-tend-to-be-conservative/
http://www.secretasianman.com
http://www.asianweek.com/2008/05/18/asian-american-christians-why-we-tend-to-be-conservative/
http://www.secretasianman.com
Binarisms
Sabrina Lee
Description
Binarisms are defined as a mode of thought predicated on stable oppositions (as good and evil or male and female) that is seen in post-structuralist analysis as an inadequate approach to areas of difference. It is also a specific dichotomy subscribed to or reinforced in such thought. [1] In the United States, Western thought thinks of things in terms of splits. Violence can be justified when you think in terms of those kinds of absolutes. In binarisms, there may be a dominant one, and/or defines, has control over the other binarism. Note that in binarisms, roles are very defined. If the roles get challenged it messes up the whole category. Definitions in the West are so strong, and when you have such a strong binary, people are willing to do lots of things to re-establish those boundaries. The church opposed that in terms of Just-Work Theory, you are not allowed to paint a people group evil. You need to give an honest assessment of a group. Thus, eradicating binaries is what motivates Westerners to be violent. Binaries for one culture to control the other, dominate or eradicate. Questions to ask are: What do we lose when we have these binaries? Who gets lost? Who gets alienated? Why is that going on? See exception? Deconstruction is about deconstruction those binaries, those dualisms don’t work. [2]
Stories
Binarisms and examples include the following:
Binarisms are defined as a mode of thought predicated on stable oppositions (as good and evil or male and female) that is seen in post-structuralist analysis as an inadequate approach to areas of difference. It is also a specific dichotomy subscribed to or reinforced in such thought. [1] In the United States, Western thought thinks of things in terms of splits. Violence can be justified when you think in terms of those kinds of absolutes. In binarisms, there may be a dominant one, and/or defines, has control over the other binarism. Note that in binarisms, roles are very defined. If the roles get challenged it messes up the whole category. Definitions in the West are so strong, and when you have such a strong binary, people are willing to do lots of things to re-establish those boundaries. The church opposed that in terms of Just-Work Theory, you are not allowed to paint a people group evil. You need to give an honest assessment of a group. Thus, eradicating binaries is what motivates Westerners to be violent. Binaries for one culture to control the other, dominate or eradicate. Questions to ask are: What do we lose when we have these binaries? Who gets lost? Who gets alienated? Why is that going on? See exception? Deconstruction is about deconstruction those binaries, those dualisms don’t work. [2]
Stories
Binarisms and examples include the following:
- Pastor versus Lay person. There is high prominence in having a title and status within the church. Because of heirarchy, pastors are respected and looked up to, whereas lay people are seen as regular members of the church.
- Charismatic and conservative. In a general sense there is a division between those who are considered "charistmatic Christians versus those who are more conservative. Rather than co-exist together, such practices often divide churches or congregations.
- Having visible spiritual gifts versus non-visible. Those in charismatic churches may value the demonstration and/or expression of spiritual gifts. Those who don't have it, may be less extolled or see as less "spiritual".
- Public ministry (like leading worship) versus ushering (on the sidelines). Those who are in public ministry may be more looked up to or admired versus those who are in the more quiet servant type of leadership roles.
- 1st and 2nd generation (no place for the 1.5 generation). There is a division due to culture, upbringing between the first and second generation. In addition those in the 1.5 generation may feel less of a belonging due to their being born in another country and coming to the United States at 'x' age. In addition, sometimes the generational gap, whether it be .5 generation or 1 generation difference results in a feeling of dislocation and not belonging fully to one culture or another for the 1.5 or 2nd generation offspring.
- Elderly versus youth. Elderly and youth may be divided in congregations. Especially for those who are 1.5 or 2nd generation, the elderly may speak in their native tongue with more rigid expectations on rules and filial piety that may or may not bring division with the youth who may not speak the native tongue of the elderly. Cultural barriers may exist.
- Believer vs. unbeliever. Those who believe may be divided from those who are not believers or even seekers. Seekers or unbelievers may be seen as less.
- *Asian American race is stuck between white and black, as in culture There are cultural expectations placed on this "model minority", which differs from those who are white or black. [3]
- Rich donors versus the poor. Rich donors may be esteemed more than those who are only able to donate little. Success, career, monetary, is esteemed for Asian immigrants.
- Language (English fluency). Sometimes language fluency is a great divide, which may indicate acculturation levels. Oftentimes the first generation depends on the 1.5 or 2nd generation for translation needs. Sometimes there is role reversal as well as a result. Please see the 'language, body and performance' section in this wiki.
- In America, it was perceived that "any achievement in spoken or written English was highly rewarded; prizes, prestige, applause; the ticket to higher realms. English became of the measure of intelligence and ability in the arts, the sciences, and all the other branches of learning. English became the main determinant of a child’s progress up the ladder of formal education (Ashcroft, 265). In order to survive and to better their economic and academic place, Asian Americans needed to learn the English language.
- Church member versus nonchurch member.Being a church member may be esteemed higher than those who don't belong to a church. Asian churches value faithfulness, especially the older generation.
- Baptized versus nonbaptize. Those who are baptized may be seen as more spiritual than those who are not.
- Citizenship versus noncitizenship. Those who have citizenship may be seen as having greater power, and they do in a way in terms or access to resources, than those who are not. They may also be esteemed more as well, and an indicator of success.
- Appearance / wealth (e.g. type of car) in rich versus poor. Since Asians value "face", those who "look" better may be esteemed more than those who are not. Symbols of wealth are seem as making it in America.
- Educated versus noneducated. (e.g. theologically trained versus those not or have not taken seminary classes). Those who are educated may be respected more than those who are not. Education is an emphasis for many Asian cultures.
Dualisms, however, cannot account for other positions that complicate their apparently neat and clear-cut definitions and boundaries. Indeed, the ambivalences posed by Asians (and racial others who occupy ambiguous, “middling” positions, like Latinos, American Indians, and biracials) along the borders of race threaten a “category crisis,” as termed by Marjorie Garber in her Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing & Cultural Anxiety, in which definitional boundaries blur, borderlines become permeable, and the heretofore solid constructs of hierarchies and relations of power become destabilized, calling into question the “naturalisms” of dualisms and of the categories themselves. Asians are neither black nor white, despite attempts to analogize them as in “like black” or “like white,” or to negate them as in “nonwhite.” What I am suggesting is that the black-white binarism of race functions in the American experience to sustain white supremacy, or the power of white over black, and that the introduction of a third (or fourth or fifth) position can disrupt (as well as reinforce) the dominant discourse and alter the relations of power. I think, therefore, that the Asian racial subject is indispensable to both an understanding of race and an intervention in the politics of race. Those outcomes, if correct, are forthrightly fundamental and singularly significant.
Asians, the subject matter of this Magazine’s issue, are a diverse lot. Asians can be “racially” yellow, black, brown, and white, insofar as those colors constitute discrete phenotypes. Asians derive from West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, but also from Africa, South America, Europe, the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, and North America. Asians not only settled North America before the American Revolution, but they also came just yesterday. The political borders of the U.S. don’t contain the boundaries of Asian America because the Asian American identity and position within the American social relations are regional and national but also transnational in compass. Asian American families might be fractured by geo-political alignments, but their identities, constitutive of self, kin, and society, are not necessarily limited by the divide of the nation-state. The foregoing merely hint at the boggling diversity endemic to the group essentialized as “Asian American.”
*One such binarism is that of Asian Americans stuck between black and white, as in culture [3]. In her "Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism," philosopher Elizabeth Grosz argues that “dichotomous thinking necessarily hierarchizes and ranks the two polarized terms so that one becomes the privileged term and the other its suppressed, subordinated, negative counterpart" (Grosz, 3). Thus, for example, white/male/heterosexual constitutes the norm against which black/female/homosexual is defined. Further, notes Grosz, dualisms like mind and body are correlated with other oppositional pairs, such that mind is reason, reality, depth, active, transcendence—male, and the body, passion, appearance, surface, passive, immanence—female. Binarisms and their correlates, accordingly, structure and maintain privilege and power.
Chinese Americans living in today's "postcolonial" North America are often confronted by various forms of neocolonialism. It is no exception for those working within the field of biblical studies. In order to publish and be recognized within the guild, Chinese Americans are often asked to make the "nonchoice" between forsaking their own culture and engaging in the production of some exotic "biblical tourist literature" for others to visit and "sightsee" in times of leisure. This article attempts to expose the oppressive binarism of—in Cornel West's terms—"faceless universalism" and "ethnic chauvinism," and explore how Chinese American Bible scholars may negotiate this ideological dilemma by reading from a marginal site/sight [4].
Dreams
Asians, as the immerse in society, seek identity. Identity formation encompasses a strong desire to surround oneself with symbols of one’s racial identity, and a seeking out for opportunities to learn about one’s own history and culture with the support of same-race peers-Immersion. Positive images of Asian-Americans are growing. Examples from different sectors of the industry include government (Gary Locke, Daniel Inouye), Hollywood (Zhang Ziyi, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, Ang Lee, Margaret Cho), technology (Jerry Yang), sports (Chan Ho Park, Yao Ming), authors (Amy Tan), artists (The Asian Man, PhD Comics by Jorge Cham).
In addition, there is internalization & commitment, which is coming to terms with ourselves . Part of this process is internalization, which is a sense of security about one’s racial identity. There is also internalization-commitment, which is a personal sense of commitment to the concerns of ethnic group.
Asian Americans are a mix of cultures. Sometimes it seems like there is a binary pull to be either Asian or American. One sources discussed the complexity of being Asian American. That it isn't one binary or the other in terms of identity:
"From the interviews, we identified three patterns about Asian American racial identity. First, Asian Americans do perceive a racial identity, but there are many dimensions to this identity. What could be considered very simple questions regarding group commonality or identity descriptor are not so simple in the minds of Asian Americans. In our in-depth interviews, Asian Americans view their identities through multiple sets of dichotomies: national origin vs. racial, immigrant vs. native born, Americanized vs. Asian. Thus, Asian American racial identity is complex and is perceived by Asian Americans as having multiple, interrelated layers. Second, Asian American racial identity is relevant to political behavior. Asian Americans understand that there are social and political consequences attached to their racial identity and are willing to take into account those consequences in their political decisions. Finally, Asian American racial identity must be activated through contextual frames. Although we believe Asian American racial identity to exist, we observed our Asian Americans respondents as hesitant to immediately evoke their racial identities. Asian American racial identity must first be primed and, more importantly, substantiated before Asian Americans are willing to assert their racial identities in their social and political choices. Therefore, unlike African Americans, whose politicized racial identities are more of a given, Asian American racial identities need to be activated before they can be used as a tool for political action." [3]
[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/binarism
[2] Ryan Bolger, Church in Mission lecture on October 8, 2008. Fuller Theological Seminary. Pasadena, CA.
[3] http://modelminority.com/article1110.html
[4] http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/bii/2001/00000009/00000003/art00004?crawler=true
[5] http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/asianamerican/okihiro.html
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Garber, Marjorie. Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing & Cultural Anxiety (New York: Routledge, 1992)
Grosz, Elizabeth. Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Crows Nest, NSW Australia 1994)
http://www.intervarsity.org/mx/item/3827/
Representation and Resistance
Hannah Lee
Description
Asian Americans have been represented as the "model minority" that other minority groups would do well to imitate. In A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, Ronald Takaki writes that when Asian Americans have been in the States for the majority of its history (150 years), but initially because of their physical, cultural, linguistic and other immediately perceivable differences, they were seen as "'strangers' coming from a 'different shore,'...as 'heathen,' exotic and unassimilable" (Takaki, 7).
But today, "Asian Americans represent the fastest-growing ethnic group. They have also become the focus of much mass media attention as 'the Model Minority' not only for blacks and Chicanos, but also for whites on welfare and even middle-class whites experiencing economic difficulties" (Takaki, 414). The Post-Colonial Studies Reader discusses the phenomenon of representation as causing people to internalize images of themselves as “authoritative pictures” of their own people (Ashcroft, 493).
In addition, Asian Americans today have inherited negative stereotypes from exaggerated portrayals of Asians in media, ranging from "Susie Wong" as the exotic and seductive East Asian woman to "Bruce Lee" as the taciturn but strong East Asian male or his opposite, "Long Duck Dong" from Sixteen Candles, that leave the larger American public with only a limited understanding of what Asians in America look, sound, act, feel, and think like. More recently, there has been a surge of interest in East Asian culture and there is a marked influence of mainly Chinese and Japanese culture on mainstream media, fashion, and culture - it is now "cool" to be Asian. Saturday morning cartoons are more often than not animated much like Japanese anime, leaving a young generation to consume an imported entertainment form, also a sign of globalization. However, it begs the question of where it leaves Asian Americans in terms of a sense of identity that comes from what we see depicted – they are forced to ask, "Are we really like that (“that” referring to the way we appear to Anglo-Americans and now, to Asians in Asia)?" Stories
"Images could be very powerful. The first time I heard Chris and Joanne [one of the first Asian American folk groups] sing, something opened inside me. I had never thought of myself that way -- a grain of sand, in the belly of a monster, a yellow pearl -- descended from a line of courageous workers who built railroads, endured great hardships, faced exclusion acts, were not allowed to own property or to marry outside our race -- raised by women who slaved in sweatshops.
It's hard to explain why it affects me so deeply, but it is like "seeing" for the first time. Seeing that we didn't have to fit into someone else's world, into someone else's image. Learning about our own history, our own culture, one that had been hidden for a long time. It is -- like finding a piece of myself. I learn how to write my Chinese name. I begin looking for my own stories" (Parting the Wild Horse's Mane).
One issue with resistance is that there does not seem to be any; if there is any kind of resistance besides that the Asian American church is separate from the Asian immigrant churches, it is not apparent and probably not acknowledged even if pointed out. An interesting aspect of this is that Asian American Christians prefer to identify as Christian before Asian American, and are happy to imitate the majority, i.e. Willow Creek and Saddleback, without asking critical questions about culture. A problem that I see as someone who has studied Asian American history in the US and surveyed the cultural dynamics of immigrant communities is that Asian Americans, particularly those of East Asian descent, are only too happy to be as “white” as possible, but are unaware of it. Most Asian American adults who grew up and saw Long Duck Dong in Sixteen Candles as one of the few non-martial artist depictions of Asians in America wish they were Molly Ringwold or Ferris Bueller, and in thinking so, internalize that preference for white American and disdain of Asian American. One writer put it this way, “Within the complex relations of colonialism these representations were re-projected to the colonized – through formal education or general colonialist cultural relations – as authoritative pictures of themselves” (Ashcroft, 493).
Dreams
In The ‘Four Prisons’ and the Movements of Liberation: Asian American Activism from the 1960s to the 1990s Glenn Omatsu, a community activist, researcher, writer, and educator in Los Angeles, California uses the paradigm of the “four prisons” developed by Iranian philosopher Ali Shariati to examine the ways that the Asian American Movement, the main resistance movement of Asian Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, helped mold the consciousness of Asian Americans over the three decades between the 60s-90s. He writes, “The movements were struggles for liberation from many prisons,” which are: 1) historical and geographical confinement, 2) historical ignorance, 3) societal social and class structure, and finally 4) the self.
Asian American Activism helped in building and carrying influence and power in the Asian American community that we see continuing today. Because of the activism, network and community building, strategizing, and victorious won mainly in the 70s (when the larger Civil Rights movement began to wane and divide, according to Omatsu) Asian Americans have been able to prosper and flourish as a community that originally began as an immigrant community. Omatsu makes a point that the Asian American community began to change significantly after the 1965 Immigration Act, with numerous new immigrants flooding in from all over Asia especially in the late 70s and all throughout the 80s.
New immigrants reaped benefits of the groundwork laid by activism during Civil Rights Movement and analyzes the neo-conservativism of young Asian American professionals from the 80s til now; Omatsu suggests that a partnership between the new professionals and older activists must be struck up in order to continue the work of transforming society and the fight against injustice and oppression.
Asian Americans churches do not seem to be engaged in any kind of organized sociopolitical resistance perhaps because many Asian Americans today are first or second generation immigrants who are still struggling to survive and “make it,” fulfill the “American Dream.” Others say it is because some Asian groups, such as Koreans, have a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to politics because of the history of the abuse of power in the mother country. On the other hand, a few Asian Americans outside of the churches appear to be engaged in resistance in various forms, particularly in social forums dominated by college-aged students and in small pockets of artists, writers, scholars, and thinkers who carry on the legacy of Asian American activists from the 70s and 80s.
Nonetheless, Asian American Christians, especially Charismatics, are beginning to see an awakening of consciousness on another level; justice is now on the bulletin as a top priority agenda item, specifically because it is increasingly known that Justice is God’s agenda today. This can be seen clearly in Asian American support of Proposition 4 (8 would be a whole other complicated issue because of the way the Asian American movement joined/embraced the activism of the LGBT community for the most part), as Asian Americans have come alongside and even helped lead the charge against abortion, the taking of lives of unborn children.
This has yet to take form in Asian American Christians lobbying or protesting in front of courts for social justice that addresses systemic socioeconomic injustice, racial injustice, lack of access to decent education, affordable healthcare, social services and programs that meet the needs of already broken families and communities…but there is always tomorrow, and things take time. Meanwhile, those Asian Americans who are both Christian and socially conscious can continue to stay connected, educate themselves and others, and diligently intercede and pray.
Aguilar-San Juan, Karin. The State of Asian America: activism and resistance in the 1990s. (South End Press Collective, 1994).
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, 2nd Ed. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Emerson, Michael. People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006).
Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. (New York: Back Bay Books, Little Brown, 1993).
Parting the Wild Horse's Mane: Asian American Images an the Asian Media Collective http://www.kqed.org/w/snapshots/01transforming/05lee_gordon.html
Nationalism
Lydia Adi, Kevin Gruver
Description
Nationalism is defined by Franz Fanon as “the whole body of efforts made by a people in the sphere of thought to describe, justify, and praise the action through which that people has created itself and keeps itself in existence.” (Ashcroft, 120)The American Heritage Dictionary includes another definition of nationalism as “devotion to the interests or culture of one's nation.”
Stories
Antony W. Alumkal describes this nationalism being manifested in Asian American churches as places where “ethnic and racial identities are preserved, reformulated, and mobilized and where relationships to the larger society are negotiated” (Alumkal, 30). Culture affects much of the traditions that exist in the church today. Although Western missionaries brought Christianity to many countries in Asia, many “pre-existing religious traditions” such as Confucianism “reinforced principles of hierarchy and authority.” Shamanism also influenced the Christian practices with “subjective experience, emphasizing oneness, wholesome emotional involvement, euphoric feeling, psychological comfort, and the like.” (Alumkal, 30)
For example in the Pyongyang Revival of 1907, Alumkal quoted on William Newton Blair’s eyewitness account that “the whole audience began to pray out loud, all together. The effect was indescribable….The prayer sounded to me like the falling of many waters, an ocean of prayer beating against God’s throne.” (Alumkal, 31) Influenced by Shamanism, it was an emotional experience of oneness, bringing together people and oneself in emotional involvement by audibly speaking prayers together, each voice reinforcing the other.
Nationalism is often shown in churches through ethnic cuisine and use of ethnic language. After a church service, many Asian American churches have a time of fellowship around the table. They share many of their own ethnic dishes and enjoy other types of foods from their own culture. Asian Americans keep much of their nationality by dining together. Food is a commonality in many cultures. The familiar tastes can help people identify with their ethnicity. (Alumkal, 103)
The use of language by Asian Americans also helps them identify with their nationality. Asian American families will speak their mother tongue at home while using English in public life. The parents will try to teach their children the language before they even start school. Language is very important in any culture for people to identify themselves. Many cultures will use their language mixed with English in basic communications. Some examples are Koreans and Chinese Americans. Korean Americans will speak in English but add “oppa” at the end, when talking to an older male. Chinese Americans will speak English but say “Thank You” in Mandarin or Cantonese. Languages are very important for people to identify with their nationality. (Alumkal, 103)
Nationalism is not only supported because of devotion to one’s culture and mother country but because it is needed in order to help immigrants and their families “cope with the discomfort they experience as they attempt to adjust to their new society.” (Alumkal, 87) These ethnic churches are a “place that reproduces the society of origin on a small scale,” and is often “one of the few available institutions for gathering with co-ethnics.” (Alumkal, 97)
Much of this integration is found in more ways than one. The church also serves as not only a religious center, but also a social environment for immigrants. It also functions as “surrogates for (non-existent) Korean ethnic neighborhoods, acting as a broker between Korean immigrants and the larger society, and serving as a surrogate extended family for those whose family ties were severed by immigration.” (Alumkal, 37) A research on foreign-born Chinese youth shows that “rejection and discrimination by ‘Americans’ and close association with other foreign-born coethnic peers, in turn, increase the sense of ethnic pride and commitment to [Asian] culture.” (Lee and Zhou, 155)
Apart from needs related to immigrants, Asian Americans tended to stay in the English ministries and branches of their ethnic churches because of a sense of belonging and similarity. One Chinese-American described that fellow church members had similar backgrounds and upbringing. She believed that she could have a “greater impact,” becoming a “bridge since [she was] fluent into both English and Mandarin.” (Alumkal, 101)
The Difficulties Caused by Nationalism
Nationalism affects Asian-Americans in many different ways. There is a tension between nationalistic values and Christian values. The second generation often feel the effect of nationalism emotionally and academically. To add to the success-oriented American culture, Asian parents often push their children to do excel in school. Although being a good principle, when expectations are not met, many children have suffered with deep feelings of shame and failure as parents have associated achievement with Christian values. People in churches have adopted the value that success is everything. The pressure builds on people and it hurts the community. Christians are called to be humble and to do their best in life. They should encourage each other, especially the children. When people fail, the church should build them back up through encouragement. (Alumkal, 113)
There is also the issue of obeying and respecting authority. As a vital part of many Asian cultures, many times obedience becomes a blind trust and gives the authority figure too much power. In the Asian American church, the pastor has most of the control because of his position and there have been reports of abuse of power. While he has a big role in the church, sometimes a church will follow him blindly, even when his principles are unbiblical. The church must follow the pastor in view of biblical teachings. (Alumkal, 113)
High population of Chinese people keeps a church as an ethnic church—even if it has goals to becoming multicultural. Chinese Americans are one of the main Asian American groups. The population of Chinese Americans are so high that churches are growing. Many Asian churches want to become multiethnic but cannot draw other ethnicities. This keeps the church very centered on being a Asian American Church. The church is there to serve the community around them. Whoever comes to the church should be from that community around the church.
Dreams
As long as America continues to open up its doors to other countries, there will be ethnic churches, centers of community and networking for the immigrant. However, the most important thing is not whether a church is monocultural, Asian American or multiethnic. God cannot be placed in a box and be limited to doing church one way or another. Yet, the question is if the church places the Kingdom of God as the top priority. Pastor Brian Kim, the lead pastor of Newsong North Orange County, believes that "if the church is making impact and is about the Kingdom of God then I don’t know if it’s really significant whether it’s monoculture or multicultural or one language. I’m not sure that is the most important thing."
The question lies in finding God's vision for a particular church. Many second generation Asians have desired to leave behind the ethnic church out of frustration. Pastor Brian Kim shared that what tends to happen is that these churches are created out of "reaction, instead of vision." They plant churches according to what their former churches were not. He shared that these churches end up creating the same thing, the same church with the same problems, but only in English.
Even in creating an English Ministry (often called the "E.M."), services are done differently yet still try to take all the resources from the ethnic, first generation church. These ministries must have its own vision and calling. They must learn to walk by faith as an independent body, yet still honoring their parents. Pastor Kim shared that the second generation will grow and mature, becoming young professionals, even C.E.O.s yet their parents will still say to them "you are the future." They are forever the future, and do not believe that they can grow in faith, maturity, and independence today. God has gifted them with talents and amazing opportunities to make a difference, doing even greater things than their parent churches.
Many Asian Americans have been shaped and brought up in ethnic churches, yet the concern is not the ethnic church, but upon what God's vision is for the individual. We cannot serve just because of family obligations or because of duty to the ethnic church. God has uniquely designed and prepared people for a great calling in their lives. In heaven, there will be people from every tribe and tongue, a place full of uniqueness and color. Therefore, we can embrace and be thankful for our ethnicity because God created us into that ethnicity for a purporse. There are values and teachings that we can learn, traits and characteristics that will prepare us for His plan.
It is true that we need to remember where we came from. Our background plays a big part in who we are. However, there will be different ways to embrace our culture and learn about our ethnic background, not necessarily keeping us at the ethnic church to just learn about culture. Whether we grew up with bad or good experiences with the culture, God is able to redeem the different aspects and experiences for His glory.
Our dream is for a generation that does not blindly follow tradition or culture because of obligation and similarly, does not blindly run away from culture out of frustration, yet to be a generation that embraces God's calling. What is the destiny that God has in store for the individual, the Asian American? What can we learn from our past and our values? How has that shaped me, my worldview, my skills, my character and my appearance? How can I use those factors for God's Kingdom? How can we find our destiny? The discover begins by looking at our experiences and incredible background.
Alumkal, Anthony W. Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity, and Assimilation in the Second Generation. (New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2003.).
Ashcroft, Bill, The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, 2nd Edition. (London and New York: Routledge, 2006).
Lee, Jennifer, and Zhou, Min. (Ed.), Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity (New York, NY: Routledge, 2004).
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nationalism
Education
Lydia Adi
Description
History of Educational Rights
The Asian American struggle for educational rights began as immigrants began to settle in the United States. It was not until 1859 that a “small, but separate, school was opened” and “subsequently closed by the school superintendent with the claim that there were too few students.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 141) Chinese parents petitioned again the 1870s “pointing out the injustice of paying taxes to support public education while their children were denied access because of race.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 141)
In 1884, the court agreed that Chinese American students could have an education, but in separate facilities for “’Mongolians’ rather than have ‘race mixing’ and established the ‘Oriental School’ in San Francisco in 1885.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 141) Even Japan protested against having these 93 Japanese and Korean immigrant students attending a separate school.
1896’s court ruling, Plessy v. Ferguson “helped legitimate a system of institutionalized racism and legalized segregation in America that was extended to other racial groups.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) There were separate “facilities for blacks and whites,” and it was “permissible as long as they were equal, although in practice they never were.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142)
The struggle for equal and integrated education continued. In 1908 in San Francisco, only after Japan “restricted the emigration of its laboring class to the U.S., did the school board permit Japanese students to enroll in public schools set aside for whites.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) In 1927 the “Gong Lum v. Rice ruling concluded that as no public schools for ‘Mongolians’ existed in Mississippi and Chinese Americans could attend a ‘colored’ school,” Chinese American Martha Lum was not “being denied an education.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) This meant that some Asian Americans were able to enroll in schools with whites while others were forced into separate schools. These schools would be segrated in parts of California until the 1930s and in Mississippi until 1950.
However, there was also the case of schools being “ill equipped to academically prepare limited-English students,” and Chinese Americans fought for new programs in 1974’s Lau v. Nichols decision. (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) They won and new programs would include “bilingual programs, teachers and teacher assistants,” helping all immigrant groups. (Fong and Shinagawa, 142)
Asian American students petitioned and demonstrated on university campuses during the late 1960s and early 1970s to “demand increased access, minstory faculty, and curriculum reform, especially Asian American Studies and other ethnic studies programs.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) When the education board denied their petitions, students began new student actions such as “hunger strikes and sit-ins” across institutions across the nation in 1980s and 1900s. The students examined the unequal treatment in higher education instutions such as “Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCLA,” noting that their admission rate was “not commesurate with the growth in student applications and concluded that institutions were setting ‘quotas’ on [Asian American] enrollment.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142)
Investigations showed that some universities required Asian Americans to have “higher academic qualificiations for admissions than other students.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 142) Brown University “admitted bias” and “revised its practices.” (Fong and Shinagawa, 143) Harvard University defended itself and argued that it have “preferences to children of alumni and to recruited athletes, few of whom are [Asian Americans].” (Fong and Shinagawa, 143)
Stories
Many Asian American families have been shown to “tenaciously and uncritically grip onto the American Dream” that they could work hard and make it in America. (Lee and Zhou, 125) “Upwardly mobile Chinese Americans in the 1950s believed that education would move them ahead in society, a believe strongly supported by the Chinese American community.” (Lee and Zhou, 125) Parents pressured youth to pursue careers and studies in majors that brought much wealth—“mathematics and the natural sciences.” (Lee and Zhou, 125)
“The academic and professional success of some U.S.-born Chinese American youth impressed the American public who soon concluded that far from posing a threat to the American way of life, [Asian Americans] were the model minority,” students who were “hardworking, high-achieving, well-disciplined.” (Lee and Zhou, 125) In the mid-1980s major news magazines, “including U.S. News & World Report, Time and Newsweek, ran cover stories on Asian American success” and even President Ronald Reagan praised “Asian Americans for their hard work and family values.” (Alumkal, 126) It is believed that the children of Asian immigrants are able to succeed because many of their parents had previously obtained high degrees in their former country. These parents had not been “able to translate their educations into professional occupations in the United States due to language barriers, discrimination, and lack of American credentials.” (Alumkal, 127) Because of this hardship, these same parents pressure their children to succeed beyond their ability in the United States.
One Korean-American expressed the pressure that many Korean American youth feel, having parents that pressure them to “go to medical school or law school, and study, study, study. They think the best colleges are Harvard, Yale, Princeton.” (Lee and Zhou, 244) Another student shared that his mom even “wrote his college entrance essay and filled out an application for Harvard, even though she knew her son did not want to apply.” (Lee and Zhou, 245) Some have faced extreme situations of having to severe ties with parents because “they adamantly opposed his decision to be a cartoonist after graduating from Princeton.” (Lee and Zhou 245) There is a struggle to find identity yet also to honor parents.
Dreams
In pursuing a higher education and a career, there is great pressure choosing certain majors and professions depending on how our family has defined as ‘successful.’ Discernment is needed in observing our talents and passions and finding what God has created us to do in life. God must be integrated in every aspect of life, including career decisions.
One Asian American, Bill, describes this as having to “fight with [his] selfish desires for prominence in the community, for money, for security.” (Alumkal, 136) He shared that he felt as though God had called him to be a doctor “to work in a poor community helping the non-English-speaking Koreans, helping the African Americans, helping the Hispanics, people who don’t have money to pay for great medical service.” (Alumkal, 136) Another Asian-American girl, Cindy, felt that God wanted her to be an elementary teacher instead of a pharmicist because despite pharmacy as a “good occupation,” having “security,” she wanted to be a “moral supporter” to children. (Alumkal, 136)
There needs to be an understanding of how far Asian Americans have come throughout history and the hardships generations have faced in order to obtain an education. As Asian Americans, we need to be thankful for the education that ancestors and the first generations have given us to be able to get an education in the United States. Yet, at the same time, students must discern how to honor their parents, yet also find God’s calling over their lives. The dream is to honor our parents by doing our best in the talents that God has placed within our lives, succeeding in these gifts and then supporting those who have helped us succeed.
Alumkal, Anthony W. Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity, and Assimilation in the Second Generation. (New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2003.).
Fong, Timothy P. and Shinagawa, Larry H. Asian Americans: Experiences and Perspectives. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000).
Lee, Jennifer, Zhou, Min. (Ed.), Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity (New York, NY: Routledge, 2004).
Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. (New York: Back Bay Books, Little Brown, 1993).
History of the Charismatic Movement and Nondenominational Church
Ben Cowan
Dreams
Pentecostalism is a large umbrella term to incorporate all the various organizations, church denominations, missionary agencies, and people who believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit—healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy, etc. are to be practiced today. The destiny of Asian Americans to the Pentecostal Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, this section will first look at the two leading earlier figures within Pentecostalism: Charles Parham and Will Seymour. Then, the various missionary movements throughout Asia will briefly be highlighted and the rise of the Charismatic Movement.
Stories
Charles Parham
(Photo below: Charles Parham (Top), Agnes Ozman (Bottom))
William Seymour
(Photo below: William Seymour)
Seymour had been raised Baptist, but found a home among the holiness people. From 1900 to 1902, Seymour attended Martin Well Knapp’s God’s Bible School to learn about holiness theology. Seymour was a powerful oratory and became an evangelist. Looking for relatives in Texas, he happened to attended Lucy Farrow’s holiness church and was ask to become its pastor. Farrow introduced Seymour to Parham, whom allowed him to set outside the door, segregation laws in Texas prevented intermixing of whites and blacks, to learn about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Seymour accepted this idea; when he was called to lead a holiness church in LA, he went with the intention of sharing the knowledge of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, in1906. However, the church he was invited to was not excited about this new baptism and locked him out. This resulted in Seymour preaching at house on Bonnie Brea Street, in Los Angeles. As news traveled about this new doctrine of Spirit-baptism, more people started to come, although no one, including Seymour, had experienced it. Seymour sent word to Parham about his of lack experiences in LA and Parham sent Farrow and J.A. Warren. When one of the members of his group, Edward Lee, asked Seymour to pray for healing, Farrow perceived he was ready for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When she, along with Seymour, laid hands on him, he received it. Word spread, and more people, including Seymour, received the baptism, causing the Azusa Street Revival.
The Azusa Street Revival
(Photo below: Azusa Street Revival)
(Photo below: Azusa Street Revival)
As word spread about what happened on Bonnie Brea Street, the crows grew larger to the point that street was being flooded. This lead to search the surrounding area to buy the old abandoned Stevens African Methodist Episcopal Church, which had been abandoned on Azusa Street. Renamed the Azusa Street Mission, meetings went from 10 am to midnight, with continuous 24 hour prayer for the first three years, and meetings would continue till 1915. Frank Bartleman, an eyewitness to the Pentecostal Azusa Street Revival, described the social- demographics of the meetings in the following way: “The place was packed out nightly…There was far more white people than color coming. The “color line’ was washed away by the blood…We had no ‘respect of persons.’ The rich educated were the same as the poor and ignorant…The Lord was liable to burst through anyone…It might be a child, a woman, or a man”. United by the work of the Spirit, people of various ethnic groups, gender, and social-economic statuses, gathered to worship God and seek the gift of the Holy Spirit. Anyone—child or old; male or female; Black, White, Latino, or Asian—were allowed to speak as the Spirit give utterance The first encounters of Asian Americans with Pentecostal/Charismatic thinking happened during this time. Some returned back to their home churches while others played would join to the various new Pentecostal denominations that would form, particularly the Assemblies of God.
Missionary Efforts
The second wave of Asian American association with Pentecostalism and Charismatics is a result of events taking place on the Asian continents and missionaries from the numerous church organizations and missionary organizations that would become a byproduct of the Azusa Street revival. Pentecostal like phenomena (dreams, visions, miracles, falling prostrate, and rare occasions of speaking in tongues) had been common throughout the Asian continent. Pentecostal like phenomena it became more frequent during the mid and towards the end of the 19th century in South India. At the turn of the 20th century, similar events were concurring throughout India, Korea, Japan, China, Manchuria, and Japan. In July 1906, in Bombay (now Mumbai), the missionary Minnie F. Abrams began to emphasis that tongues was a gift of the Holy Spirit. The belief that tongues was a gift of the Spirit in India happened independent of the events of Azusa Street and Charles Parham's efforts. When the first missionaries form Azusa Street arrived in Calcutta India, Alfred G. and Lillian Garr , they found people who had already experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The missionary effort would spread from India into Sir Lanka. In 907 the first Pentecostal missionaries reached China: T.J. MccIntosh and his wife to Hong Kong. The entry of Pentecostalism in to Korea came in 1908 by two women from California: Sisters Daniels and Brand. The result would be the establishment of many of the major Pentecostals Churches: Assemblies of God, Pentecostal Holiness, the International Church of Foursquare, etc. throughout Asia. Through the process of immigration many Asians who would become residents and citizens brought the Pentecostal experience with them, establishing their own churches, worked with Asian American churches, and joined mainline Pentecostal and various non-denominational Charismatics churches.
In the United States Pentecostalism was associated with the poor, ignorant, minorities and uneducated people. However, this would change in November of 1959 when Dennis Bennett, rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Van Nuys California, while praying with friends, was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Bennett proclaimed his experience to his church on April 1960, which resulted in him being kicked out. The news of Episcopal priest speaking in tongues, was picked up by Time and Newsweek, and began the Charismatic renewal. People within the Catholic, Orthodox, and the mainline Protestant denominations all experienced the baptisms of the Holy Spirit. The result of this being accepted by mainline denominations opened many Asian Americans to the experience of Pentecostalism, in addition to the rapid growth of Pentecostal experiences in many Asian countries, particularly Singapore and Korea. The effect of Pentecostalism gave rise to two new types of church movements. Churches which no longer wanted to be associated with mainline churches because of their stance on the Holy Spirits broke away from these churches and became independent. In addition, indigenous churches throughout Asia adapted forms of Pentecostalism due to the easiness of contextualization of Pentecostal theology
Charismatic Movement
Dreams
What does the future hold for Asian American Charismatics? With the growing numbers of converts within the Asian world and the increasing number of immigrants from Asia to the United States, the numbers can only go up. In addition, as many Asian Americans struggle to discovery what it means to be Asian American, the fluidity and diverse experiences of Charismatics provides a safe environment to explore spirituality, contemporary culture, and connections to the ancestors. Not surprisingly, all numbers indicate the number of American Asians who will be Charismatics will continue to grow.
Bartleman, Frank. Azusa Street: An Eyewitness Account. Gainsville: Bridge-Logos. 2006.
Goff Jr., James R. Fields White Unto Harvest: Charles F. Parham and the Missionary Origins of Pentecostalism. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas. 1988.
Robeck Jr., Ceil M. The Azusa Street Mission and Revival. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. 2006.
Seymour, William J. Azusa Street Sermons by William J. Seymour. The Complete Azusa Street Library. Vol. 5. Larry Martin ed. Joplin: Christian Life. 1999
Sunquist, Scott, John Hiang Chea Chew, and David Chusing Wu. A Dictionary of Asian Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans. 2001
Synan, Vinson. The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal 1901-2001. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. 2001.
__________. The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans. 1997
Hybridity and Indigeneity
Elliot Chung
Description
"Twinkie" is defined as a devilishly delicious yet unmercifully fattening snack, which consists of a yellow cake-like substance on the outside and a white creamy filling in the inside. In the colloquial, ‘twinkie’ is a description of the struggle between an individual’s indigeneity and cultural hybridity: Asian on the outside, but American in the inside. Depending on whom you speak with being called a ‘twinkie’ is not always looked so favorably, or even as the comic suggested… downright confusing.
Hybridity and indigeneity are two interdependent themes overlapping in post-colonial discussions. Hybridity can be perceived as act submission to the dominant culture but most post-colonial writers would argue that it is rather a mutual merging of binary cultures. According to Ashcroft, “Hybridity is a phenomena in post-colonial societies as a result of conscious moments of cultural suppression, as when the colonial power invades to consolidate political and economic control, or when settler-invaders dispossess indigenous peoples and force them to ‘assimilate’ to new social patterns” (Ashcroft, 137).
Indigeneity in essence is the identification and categorization of a colonized group by imperial narratives. Ashcroft’s The Post-Colonial Studies Reader elaborates, “Imperial narratives such as that of anthropology in their project of naming and thus knowing indigenous groups have imported a notion of aboriginality, of cultural authenticity, which proves difficult displace. The result is the positioning of the indigenous people as the ultimately marginalized, concept that reinscribes the binarism of centre/margin, and prevents their engagement with the subtle processes of imperialism by locking them into a strategic but ultimately self-defeating essentialism" (Ashcroft, 163).
Stories
Visible examples of hybridity and indigeneity in recent history are found in the great islands Hawaii.
Hybridity
In addition to the history of being an American colony and as a more recent addition to the United States, Hawaii has always struggled to balance both American and its native culture. This struggle led to the evolution of a Hawaiian Creole commonly known as Pidgin, infusing the native Hawaiian language, English, Portuguese, and Cantonese. Even favorite American past-times and Hawaiian culture found a need for hybridity as The University of Hawaii’s NCAA Division I college football team, The Warriors, ritually performs the Hawaiian Ha'a war chant prior to kick-off. These cases display an act of hybridity as both Hawaiian and American cultures merge to form new tradition and practices.
Indigeneity
Hawaii also was home to the 100th Battalion also known as the Purple Heart Battalion, the most decorated unit during WWII, comprised of all Japanese American soldiers as mentioned in Takaki’s book, The Different Mirror. He writes, “many young Japanese Americans were determined to create a better future for themselves and as well as their parents, and they believed that one way to accomplish this was to serve in the American armed forces. By defending their country, they would be able to demonstrate the loyalty of Japanese Americans as well as claim their American birth-right" (Takaki, 383). Takaki shares of the emancipation of Jewish prisoners at Dachau by Japanese American soldiers as one Jewish prisoner describes his surprise and confusion to see an American liberator that didn’t look like an “American”. “When they first came in, we thought they were allies of the Germans… We believed they were there to torture us” (Takaki, 377). While these Japanese-American soldiers displayed an amazing patriotism, the prisoners misinterpreted their heroism due to the pre-established imperial narrative of the American and Japanese image.
Hybridity and indigeneity are in constant tension against each other as many Asian Americans embark a journey of identity between American culture and the culture of their respective heritage. One Asian American wrote, “There’s a very Western view in which somehow you need to resolve the tension between any two thing, to want thing to come to a kind of conclusion… whereas I’ve been wondering where this whole idea of fluidity comes from, and I think it’s because I grew up with an [Eastern] idea of yin/yang, sweet/sour. Opposites don’t fight each other, but belong together and can intensify each other, and are simply in the nature of the world" (Baek, 13).
Hybridity and Indigeneity in the Asian American Church
Sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund reported a study of second-generation Koreans in Korean congregations. She reported that “Korean in Korean talked about being Korean relatively little and preferred to se themselves as [white] Americans” (Emerson, 120). In General she found that Korean Americans desired to have similar views as with white Americans thus enabling Korean Americans to reconcile with white congregations without much resistance and discomfort. Ecklund also found that Koreans in multiethnic or hybrid churches has different views of their identities in comparison to Koreans in Korean or indigenous churches because they were able to be simultaneously be both Korean and American.
Dreams
As long as the motto of America is "out of many, one" and as long as the Statue of Liberty reads "Give me your tired, your poor..." hybridity and indigeneity will continue to juxtapose each other in constant contention. And as immigrants from Asia continue cross the shores of the Pacific, there will always be a need for indigenous congregations and because of the increase in second, third, forth, etc generations of Asian Americans, there will be a growing, and possibility overwhelming, need for more hybrid congregation in the United States. Just as the state of Hawaii were able to find their voice through Pidgin, and their dance through football, the hope is that Asian American churches will discover its own voice and dance and ultimately its identity. My personal hope is that as the demand and need for hybridity increases in the church, we would celebrate our respective indigeneity while striving for hybridity, thus truly reflecting the Kingdom of God here on this planet.
(Image below: "Chinese Born American" by Lark Pien)
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, 2nd Ed. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Emerson, Michael. People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006).
Baek, N.J. Y. Yell-Oh girls! (New York, NY: HarperCollins Books, 2001).
Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. (New York: Back Bay Books, Little Brown, 1993).
Race and Ethnicity
Hannah Lee
Description
Race is a shifting and strategic social construction, an unstable complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by sociopolitical struggle. Notions of race change, and have changed over time. Carolus Linus Blumenbach was the first to take the idea of different races and put them into five distinctions by geography and color; he categorized Asians as "yellow" amongst red, white, brown, and black. Ethnicity, or ancestry, describes cultural heritage, often referring to a culture and history developed over time in a country. Nationality is a legal term that tells what nation a person belongs to. Asian Americans are known to be of the Asian race and ethnicity (or ancestry) and American nationality and citizenship.
It is important to understand that race as a social construct tries to encompass a large number of people that is a part of a general population for politically strategic purposes. In America, the term "Asian American" is used to Americans of Asian ancestry who trace their lineage and cultural roots back to people who lived on the Eastern or "Asian" region of the Eurasian continent. Socially, Asian American has implied mostly those of East Asian ancestry including Mongolian, Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Japanese, while leaving those of other Asian ancestries such as South Asian and Southeast Asian to their own category, "due to the historical and cultural influences of China and Japan on the U.S. up to the 1960s and in preference to the terms 'Oriental' and 'Asiatic.' In other words, because the first large groups of Asians to immigrate to America in the 1800s were mostly from the eastern regions of the Asia, the term "Asian American" came to refer mainly to East Asians.
However, the term today has been broadened to include those of South and Southeast Asian ancestry which means Asian American can be someone who identifies as: Bangladeshi or Pakistani American, Cambodian American, Chinese American, Filipino American, Hmong American, Indian American, Japanese American, Korean American, Laotian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander American, Taiwanese American, and Vietnamese American.
Stories
"As a Korean American pastor notes above, individuals want to worship and gather with those who are most like themselves. Sociologists refer to this as the homophily principle: the idea that "similarity breeds connection," that ties between similar individuals are more binding. [1] I find the same homophilic forces at work in the campus evangelical community; given the opportunity to participate in a variety of campus ministries, students choose a campus ministry where they can be with those who are most familiar and similar to them. For SGKAs, this means that they will associate with those who are most likely to share the experience of growing up and having intergenerational and intercultural conflicts with the first-generation in the United States.
When asked why they choose ethnic specific Korean American campus ministries over others, SGKA consistently answer that doing so is more or most "comfortable." When asked what exactly makes it more "comfortable" for them, SGKAs point to the shared experience of straddling two cultures--growing up in America and having intergenerational and intercultural conflicts with the first-generation. As a SGKA explains: "Most of us have first-generation parents. We know what goes on in a Korean house ... parents' pressure, study study study, marry a Korean, don't talk back. So it is easier to get closer with other Koreans. They know where you are coming from." [1]
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In People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States, Michael Emerson writes in his appendix about the history of metaphors used to discuss race and ethnic relations in the U.S. beginning with the sentence, “How to relate to one another within racial and ethnic diversity is an issue the United States has struggled to define, name, and negotiate for its entire history,” pointing out that diversity has existed in America since its founding (Emerson, Appendix A). Two things stood out to me as an Angeleno who was born and raised (mostly) in California: first, that the issue is not so much the diversity itself so much as the obstacles that it naturally poses when it comes to different people relating to one another, and second, that even though the city of Los Angeles has its roots in a small pueblo, or an American Indian village, begun 227 years ago by a ragtag band of people of Mexican, Spanish, African, Native American, and mixed descent, it is still known for its racial tensions and oppression of “the other,” whomever that may be. To me, these realizations beg the question, is race and ethnicity really the root of the problem, or could it be that the roots actually lie deeper within the brokenness of humanity, and that race and ethnicity are just some aspects (sometimes used as excuses) of the fear and distrust of the “other” that bind and separate people to and from one another?
Dreams
Emerson asks questions about what it means to be diverse but together, and how America’s official motto, “out of many, one,” plays out in real life, citing sociological terms and common metaphors such as the melting pot, the mosaic, and the salad bowl. In particular he asks, “Does the motto mean ‘Americanization,” wherein successive waves of immigrants are ‘Anglocized’”? (Emerson, 173) An interesting tidbit: when Koreans say “American,” they really mean “White.” But at the same time, we have another for a white person, “Baek-In,” which literally means, “White person.” There’s a fascinating tension revealed by a look at our use of language to describe American things and people – “America” is “Mi-guk,” or “Beautiful Country.” However, “White person,” is not the most respectful term to describe a person because it looks at nothing but one’s color, which is obviously superficial, prone to false and dangerous stereotyping, and overly general to accurately describe any one person or group of people. So then, how does one explain the language that Koreans, just one immigrant group in the United States, use to discuss Anglo Americans? And how does the unexplained tension play out in ethnic relations between Koreans and other racial and ethnic groups? It remains unclear for the most part, except that ambiguity has not always served to bring understanding, peace, and harmony to the process of building relationships between communities of different people.
In view of the Los Angeles Riots of April 1992 and the supposed Black-Korean conflict that was at the root of it (according to the media), I wonder how both African Americans and Koreans (and Latinos), known as very spiritual and religious people in the United States, are able to continue worshipping in their culturally and ethnically homogenous churches without addressing issues of race and ethnicity that are riddled with ambiguity, tensions, and often inappropriate and misused metaphors for understanding the other. My hope is that one day soon, minority groups that have become pitted against each other and trapped into seeing other through negative racial lenses will recognize that they need to work together to overcome the barriers placed upon them and reach out to one another as unique individuals, as communities and as peoples who understand they are more than their race or ethnicity, thus setting examples for relationship-based building of community for the rest of the world. Because their eyes are certainly on us.
[1] http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_1_65/ai_n6141809/pg_6?tag=artBody;col1
History and Place
Tai Nguyen
Description
Asian American history is the history of individual ethnic groups, and also the common history of groups often affected by the same laws and a culture that often saw them as one racial group. Since the late 1960s and 1970s, many activists and academics referred to an "Asian American movement" similar to the civil rights movement to refer to efforts across different Asian groups to promote their common welfare.
In the latter 20th century, spurred by the 1965 Immigration Act, Asians from many different groups immigrated in larger numbers, often arriving as college students, or skilled workers with degrees. Their image of success was portrayed with headlines of the "Model Minority".
When they first arrived in the United States, Asian immigrants were welcomed, or at least tolerated. After the California gold rush brought thousands of Chinese to California, however, Asian immigrants faced restrictive laws and occasional violence.
In the late 1800s Chinese, and eventually other Asians, were excluded from citizenship. These laws were repealed during World War II, followed by further immigration-law changes, making it easier for Asians to enter the United States.
Today, Asian immigrants have a high rate of assimilation and participation in the American mosaic.
Stories
Chinese Immigrants History: Gold Rush Boom
The Chinese were the first Asians to arrive in large numbers. By the 1830s Chinese were selling goods in New York City and toiling in Hawaiian sugarcane fields. Gold was discovered in California in 1848, eventually attracting thousands of Chinese miners and contract laborers. In 1850, just over 1,000 Asian immigrants entered the U.S., but ten years later, the figure had jumped to nearly 37,000, mostly Chinese.In some quarters, Chinese workers were welcomed. The Central Pacific Railroad recruited Chinese to work on the transcontinental railroad in 1865. Three years later the Chinese and the U.S. ratified the Burlingame Treaty which facilitated Chinese immigration.
However, many people feared being "overwhelmed" by the influx, which had swelled to nearly 65,000 in 1870, and over 107,000 in 1880. Some cities passed laws against Chinese and other Asians, often referred to as "Mongolians." Anti-Chinese riots erupted in Chico, California, in 1877 and in Rock Springs, Wyoming, in 1885.
Japanese Immigrants History: Plantation/WWII
Japanese in Hawaii
Sugar is believed to have been first milled in Hawaii as early as 1802; however, it was not until the 1840s that it became a major crop. Native Hawaiians were hired first to do the growing, harvesting, and milling of sugar, but there eventually became an acute shortage of Hawaiian laborers. Recognizing the need for cheap labor for sugar plantations, the Hawaiian ambassador to Japan persuaded the government to allow 180 contract laborers to sign up for work.The Japanese found conditions on the sugar plantation harsh. They worked from dawn to dusk, unaccustomed to the scorching hot Hawaiian sun. Because they did not understand orders given in English, workers were often bullwhipped. After the Japanese government learned of these conditions, Special Commissioner Katsunosuke Inouye was sent to Hawaii to investigate charges of cruelty to Japanese workers. Japan threatened to stop sending workers unless something was done to stop this abuse. Frightened by the possibility of termination of the labor source and hoping to satisfy Japan's concern for Japanese workers in Hawaii, the Hawaiian government entered into an agreement with Japan making Japanese immigrants wards of the Hawaiian government, and the planters its agents. Waiting to see if the agreement with Hawaii stopped Japanese worker abuse, Japan did not allow further emigration until 1886. Between 1886 and 1894, 26 sailings brought 29,069 Japanese immigrants. Another 30,000 Japanese immigrants were brought in during the two years after Hawaii's annexation in 1898.
After the Organic Act was passed in 1900, giving Japanese laborers more freedom, there were many small strikes for increased wages and better working conditions. Dissatisfied and unhappy, over 40,000 left Hawaii for employment in the United States. This, and an outbreak of bubonic plague among the immigrants of Honolulu, caused a critical labor shortage. Sugar planters then turned to the Filipinos as a source of cheap labor.
Japanese in the United States
In 1880, two years before the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, fewer than 200 Japanese lived in the United States. A decade later, Japanese immigrated at an annual rate of 1,000. From 1899 to 1903, another 60,000 entered the United States, largely because of the acute labor shortage in California. The exclusion of the Chinese had left many menial and unskilled jobs without takers. The Japanese population at this time was concentrated largely on the Pacific Coast, with the center at San Francisco. They were rural farmers from southern Honshu and Kyushu, and unlike the Chinese who migrated to urban living, the Japanese preferred rural farming. The early Japanese farmers and farm organizations laid the groundwork for future Japanese immigrants by providing capital and agriculture expertise.
As with the Chinese, the Japanese welcome began to fade as their numbers began to rise. Unlike the Chinese, however, the Japanese did not disperse. America began to stereotype Asians into two categories: the Chinese, humble and "inferior" who could be tolerated; and the Japanese who were cunning and aggressive and required domination to keep them in place.
In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated a "Gentlemen's Agreement" that called for Japan to issue passports to Japanese coming to the continental United States only if they were coming to join a parent, husband, child, or to return to a former home or farm. This agreement greatly diminished Japanese emigration to America. Between 1930 and 1940 the number returning to Japan exceeded new immigrants to the United States. This trend continued up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Many Japanese parents sent their children to Japan to be educated, and by 1942 it was estimated that more than 25,000 Asian-Americans had been educated in Japan.
Korean Immigrants History: Sugar Plantation
Korean-Americans have been able to thrive in the United States because of a strong emphasis on family, community support (often found through the church), education, and tradition. Korean immigration has contributed to businesses, churches, and academic communities in the United States.
A small number of Koreans immigrated to the United States in the early years of the twentieth century to work on Hawaiian sugar plantations. The difficult working conditions on the plantations motivated some Korean Americans to move to the mainland where many continued in agricultural work.
1882: The Treaty of Amity and Commerce (Article VI) freely permitted Koreans to enter the United States. Korea is the last nation in Northeast Asia to open her doors to the United States by signing this agreement.
1903-1905: The first wave of immigration began as 101 Korean immigrants (55 men, 21 women, and 25 children) arrived in Honolulu , Hawaii , on the U.S. merchant ship, the S.S. Gaelic. They came to the United States seeking escape from the political and economic turmoil brought on by a continuing power struggle with Japan . By 1905, a total of 7,226 Korean immigrants reached Hawaii. The majority of these early settlers, common unskilled laborers, settled and worked on the Hawaiian sugar plantations.
1907: President Roosevelt restricted Korean migration to the United States mainland.
1948: President Truman repealed Roosevelt ’s original proclamation.
1951-1964: The second wave of immigration occurred. This post-Korean War immigrant group was made up of mostly Korean wives of American servicemen, war orphans, and professional workers.
1952: The Immigration and Naturalization Act allowed for an annual quota of 100 Korean immigrants per year to the United States .
1965: The Immigration Reform Act repealed the national-origin quota system. Mass immigration from third world countries was not permitted.
1969-1987: The third wave of immigration occurred as a large number of Koreans settled in areas of California and New York. The majority of these new immigrants from Asia were young females. However, as the Korean economy began to stabilize and even prosper, more Koreans chose to stay in their native country.
Today, a little over one million Korean-Americans live throughout the United States, representing one of the largest Asian-American populations in the country. The largest concentration of Korean-Americans is found in the five-county area of Los Angeles, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties. About one quarter of all the Korean-Americans living in the United States reside in this region. The next largest area of concentration is the New York region, including New York City, northern New Jersey and the Connecticut-Long Island area. This area constitutes about 16% of the entire Korean-American population in the United States.
Vietnamese Immigrants History: Fall of Saigon/Boat People
The history of Vietnamese immigration to the United States is relatively recent. On April 30, 1975, “the fall of Saigon” ended the Vietnam War and prompted the first of two waves of emigration from Vietnam to the United States. Vietnamese who had worked closely with Americans during the Vietnam War feared reprisals by the Communist party. 125,000 Vietnamese citizens departed their native country during the Spring of 1975. They were airlifted or fled Vietnam on U.S. military cargo ships and transferred to United States government bases in Guam, Thailand, Wake Island, Hawaii and the Philippines, as part of “Operation New Life.” Subsequently, they were transferred to four refugee centers throughout the United States: Camp Pendleton in California, Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania. Initially, Vietnamese immigrants were unwelcomed by the general American populous. In 1977, a second wave of Vietnamese refugees began fleeing Vietnam. This wave of emigration lasted until the mid 1980s. The second wave began as a result of the new Communist government’s implementation of economic, political and agricultural policies based on Communist ideology. These policies included “reeducation” and torture of former South Vietnamese military personnel and those presumed friendly to the South Vietnamese cause, the closing of businesses owned by ethnic Chinese Vietnamese, the seizing of farmland and redistributing it, and the mass forced relocation of citizens from urban to rural areas that were previously uncultivated or ruined during the war. During this time approximately two million Vietnamese fled Vietnam in small, overcrowded boats. This group of refugees would come to be known as the “boat people.” Most of the “boat people” fled to asylum camps in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines or Hong Kong and awaited acceptance by foreign countries.
Stories
Dat Tan Nguyen was born on September 25, 1975 in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas is the first Vietnamese American to play in the National Football League. He played for the Dallas Cowboys and is currently their assistant linebackers and defensive quality control coach. His family immigrated from Vietnam after the collapse of South Vietnam and he was born in one of the refugee centers shortly after the fall of Vietnam. He lived most of his childhood in the Gulf Coast town of Rockport, Texas. Dat Nguyen battled the perception that he was too small to play linebacker for as long as he was involved in the game, despite his muscular 5'11", 238 pound frame. As a college freshman, he was known as "Fat" Nguyen, but added muscle and became an NFL prospect. Proving critics wrong at an early stage, he proceeded to leave Texas A&M University as the Aggies' career record holder with 51 consecutive starts, 517 career tackles and a 10.7 tackles-per-game average. His 517 career tackles is currently an Aggie record.Kristine Tsuya "Kristi" Yamaguchi- Hedican is an American figure skater and the 1992 Olympic Champion in women's singles. Yamaguchi also won two World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and 1992 and a U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1992. She won one junior world title in 1988 and two national titles in 1989 and 1990 as a pairs skater with Rudy Galindo. In December 2005, she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Yamaguchi was a local commentator on figure skating for San Francisco-area TV station KNTV (NBC 11) during the 2006 Winter Olympics. Kristi Yamaguchi was born on July 12, 1971 in Hayward, California, to Jim Yamaguchi, a dentist, and Carole Doi, a medical secretary, who is of Japanese and Filipino descent. Kristi is Yonsei. Her paternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Japan. Kristi's grandparents were sent to an internment camp during World War II, where her mother was born. Kristi and her siblings, Brett and Lori, grew up in Fremont, California, where Kristi attended Mission San Jose High School her freshman year and transferred to Willow Glen High School in San Jose, California, where she graduated. Yamaguchi began skating as a child, as physical therapy for her club feet. Dreams
While growing up in the Twin Cities, Hmong-American activist Yia Yang heard mixed messages about his educational prospects. "My parents always emphasized that higher education was everything," said Yang, 23, who arrived in this country as a toddler. "But in high school no one ever talked about college to me. High school counselors for the most part don't know who you are, don't think you can do it." Yang became a U.S. citizen in grade school and now works to help those Mariano Espinoza calls "Generation 1 1/2," young people who were brought here by their parents as babies and never gained citizenship. Yang and Espinoza are part of the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network (MIFN), Espinoza as executive director and Yang as a former youth "coach." The nonprofit advocacy group's mission includes improving educational opportunities for immigrant youths, changing the language used in the news media to describe immigrants and lobbying for reform at the state Legislature. The Minnesota Dream Act, which would provide resident tuition rates at state colleges for all high school students regardless of their parents' immigration status, is among MIFN's biggest goals. The act has foundered in the Legislature under a veto threat by Gov. Pawlenty, although in 2007 he signed a similar bill that provided tuition breaks at technical and community colleges. "There are so many people who have lived here for 20 years and are not citizens," Espinoza said. "They're in the middle, not from here and not from there. A lot of them don't go to college because of the cost." [1][1] http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/style/26844264.html
Vietnamese Immigration
Japanese Immigration
Korean Immigration
Chinese Immigration
Feminism
Lydia Adi, Sabrina Lee
Description
Feminism is defined as “the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” Asian American women from charismatic churches have had to struggle with discrimination due to both race and gender, a double blow.
Throughout history, the Asian American woman has often been portrayed as submissive, quiet and beautiful. Christine Heller de Leon described her as being “petite and subservient.” Following the War Brides Act of 1945, “thousands of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipina wives accompanied their [American] military husbands to the United States.” De Leon noted that the “Asian war bride was seen as nonaggressive, compliant and sexually available, easily domesticated for American life.”
Media supported and promoted this view. Jessica Hagedorn points out that the Asian woman’s “intelligence is underestimated, [her] humanity overlooked, and [her] diverse cultures treated as interchangeable.” For example, movies portraying a Vietnamese character may be played by a Thai or Chinese actor. She is either portrayed as “cruel and cunning or quiet and submissive.” The cunning would use their “charm and beauty to seduce unsuspecting men.” The submissive were like the war brides, eager to serve and please, often being called “China doll” or “Geisha.”
Nikki Toyama discussed that “misogyny runs deep in Asia,” even among the woman’s own people. In China, where there is a law enforced for families to have only one child, married couples desired male babies so that the family name would continue on. A daughter would be a disgrace. In Japan, “college-educated girls are openly discriminated against in the workplace–they are passed over for promotions because it is assumed they will leave the workplace once they marry.” Toyama also notes that “Taiwan has the highest per capita prostitution rate, while Japan syndicates kidnapping and trafficking women all over Asia,” as well as Thailand and Cambodia.
Both in Asia and in America, the Asian American woman still struggles with finding her success and worth. There are many families that put high expectations in “being married by a certain age or to marry into a certain ethnicity or social class.”
By the 1960s, predominately middle-class Asian American women began to respond “to oppression in both their ethnic and mainstream societies—as individuals, in small informal groups, or as members of large structured organizations.” These women worked on community projects, held seminars and created publications, sharing their ideas and experiences with others. The Los Angeles Asian Women’s Center provided a drug-abuse program. In 1984, the New York Asian Women’s Center began a hotline consisting of “multilingual hotline counseling for battered women, advocacy, and a network of safe homes.” Other organizations include “Asian Women United-San Francisco (AWU-SF), the Organization of Asian American Women (OAW), and the Organization of Pan Asian American Women, Inc, (Pan Asia),” each organization addressing different issues faced daily by the women they represent.
Even within the community of the church, the Asian American woman is also stereotyped, only being able to do “certain things—be quiet and support other people’s work behind the scenes.” These women are viewed as incapable of becoming “supervisors, leaders or people of significant influence.” One Korean woman described being in the Korean American church, that women like the pastor’s wife “are to be the quiet sidekicks of their husbands.”
Author Tracey Gee explains that one of the biggest “controversies in today’s evangelical church concerns women in leadership” and that there is a lot of tension and theological debate within this subject.
Throughout history, the Asian American woman has often been portrayed as submissive, quiet and beautiful. Christine Heller de Leon described her as being “petite and subservient.” Following the War Brides Act of 1945, “thousands of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipina wives accompanied their [American] military husbands to the United States.” De Leon noted that the “Asian war bride was seen as nonaggressive, compliant and sexually available, easily domesticated for American life.”
Media supported and promoted this view. Jessica Hagedorn points out that the Asian woman’s “intelligence is underestimated, [her] humanity overlooked, and [her] diverse cultures treated as interchangeable.” For example, movies portraying a Vietnamese character may be played by a Thai or Chinese actor. She is either portrayed as “cruel and cunning or quiet and submissive.” The cunning would use their “charm and beauty to seduce unsuspecting men.” The submissive were like the war brides, eager to serve and please, often being called “China doll” or “Geisha.”
Nikki Toyama discussed that “misogyny runs deep in Asia,” even among the woman’s own people. In China, where there is a law enforced for families to have only one child, married couples desired male babies so that the family name would continue on. A daughter would be a disgrace. In Japan, “college-educated girls are openly discriminated against in the workplace–they are passed over for promotions because it is assumed they will leave the workplace once they marry.” Toyama also notes that “Taiwan has the highest per capita prostitution rate, while Japan syndicates kidnapping and trafficking women all over Asia,” as well as Thailand and Cambodia.
Both in Asia and in America, the Asian American woman still struggles with finding her success and worth. There are many families that put high expectations in “being married by a certain age or to marry into a certain ethnicity or social class.”
By the 1960s, predominately middle-class Asian American women began to respond “to oppression in both their ethnic and mainstream societies—as individuals, in small informal groups, or as members of large structured organizations.” These women worked on community projects, held seminars and created publications, sharing their ideas and experiences with others. The Los Angeles Asian Women’s Center provided a drug-abuse program. In 1984, the New York Asian Women’s Center began a hotline consisting of “multilingual hotline counseling for battered women, advocacy, and a network of safe homes.” Other organizations include “Asian Women United-San Francisco (AWU-SF), the Organization of Asian American Women (OAW), and the Organization of Pan Asian American Women, Inc, (Pan Asia),” each organization addressing different issues faced daily by the women they represent.
Even within the community of the church, the Asian American woman is also stereotyped, only being able to do “certain things—be quiet and support other people’s work behind the scenes.” These women are viewed as incapable of becoming “supervisors, leaders or people of significant influence.” One Korean woman described being in the Korean American church, that women like the pastor’s wife “are to be the quiet sidekicks of their husbands.”
Author Tracey Gee explains that one of the biggest “controversies in today’s evangelical church concerns women in leadership” and that there is a lot of tension and theological debate within this subject.
Stories
"When I was a little girl, everyone always told me that I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up. A doctor, a writer, a lawyer... but the only thing I wanted to be was white. Growing up, I never saw Asian people who had prestigious careers...This convinced me that, in order to become what I wanted, I had to be white" (Baek, 155)
"My mother tells my father that I've been diagnosed with depression. My father tells me this is okay. That maybe God in all His holiness let this happen so that I could help others....He tells me to pray. Pray, Alice. Pray. Ask him to help you and make you better. Pray.... And then he points to my waist and tells me it's too thick. He says that I should lose some weight....
...
Worthless. Undeserving. Don't try hard enough. What kind of man would want you? Your husband would fire you. Failure. Look at Paul Chen's daughter. Look at yourself. What are are you going to do with your life. Lazy. Expletive. Nothing. Take a good look at yourself, he [father] says, you're so unmotivated - why can't you just cheer up, I told you to cheer up. You're not "sad", you're just lazy...
....
No one know what goes on behind closed doors. They will say to me, you have such a great haircut, I want one just like yours, and they will say to me, where do you get your clothes, you're so stylish, and guys will stare at me and approach me and try to hit on me. But wherever I am, I am conscious of the fact that Asian girls are supposed to be thin and small-boned. And I am conscious of the ring of fat that encircles my waist. And Asian girls are supposed to wear only a size 1 or size 2....All the Asian girls with those padded push-up bras and their little flat butts complain loudly to each other, "I'm so fat," including my cousins, who are all skinny....
...
My body stings and I wonder how much I will be able to get out this time. When I am done, I will rinse the floor and wash my body with Dove-so-pure-it-floats, and there will be no evidence. Tomorrow I won't eat breakfast - just half a cup of coffee - and I'll eat half my lunch. Tomorrow I will go to school and I will sit in my jeans, so tight they hurt....Tomorrow I will pretend that nothing is wrong an that everything is fine and no one will suspect. No one. No, because I am not a walking skeleton, and I'm not white, and because I'm the president of our Asian American club, and I'm Asian American feminist, and because I am so strong" (Chung, 146-148)
Dreams
"Asian people in general I think were considered to be more quiet, less articulate, and not as prone to entering fields that require a lot of communication. We'd pick fields like medicine or science because they're analytical and require less personal interaction. Now though, I think you're finding that in terms of media, Asian women are becoming known for being assertive and outgoing. Many of us now choosing this field and so in a lot of ways I think that image is changing" (Park/Nam, 247).
"So my big thrust when I go on interviews with the Korean media is to say, "You must - when you see that your chilren are interested in the arts - push them toward that, encourage them, inspire them because it is through the arts that our voices will be heard" (Lee/Nam, 268).
"Good girls don't talk back, and they never yell. People tell me this all the time when I was growing up, but there were definitely some mixed messages, because I also heard the opposite. If you don't speak up for yourself, nobody will. In American, we have the freedom to shout. You have a mouth, so use it.
...
My parents said that the older generation felt like their voice didn't have credibility "outside," and what they had to say would never sound persuasive enough. It wasn't a lack of compassion or cultural understanding that compelled me to challenge my parents on this issue. i just wished that they could experience the powerful, liberating rush and the gratification that come along with speaking out and engaging in activism. It pained me that they always heard their words filtered through mine. They only felt the joy secondhand" (Nam, 237-239).
Baek, N. J. Y. (2001). Chalk marks. In V. Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 155-159). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.
Chung, A. (2001). Anorexic. In V. Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 146-148). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.
Fong, Timothy P. and Shinigawa, Larry. Asian Americans: Experiences and Perspectives (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000)
Fong, Timothy P., The Contemporary Asian American Experience (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2002).
Lee, H. (2001). In V. Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 268). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.
Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 237-239). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.Wei, William, The Asian American Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), 72.
Park, J. (2001). In V. Nam (Ed.), Yell-Oh girls! (pp. 247). New York, NY: HarperCollins Books.
Toyama, Nikki A. and Gee, Tracey (Ed). et al. More than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith. (Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2006),Nam, V. (2001). In V.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feminismhttp://www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au/cartoons/new/1995-09-02%20Great%20Wall%20of%20Feminism%203rd%20world%20750.JPG
Production and Consumption
Elliot Chung, Ben Cowan
Description
Production and consumption in the post-colonial context refers to the ability of an ethnic group to create representations of their culture in way that endures and perpetuates the control of the dominate, neo-colonial narrative. The dominant power exercises these narratives by “selecting, licensing, publishing and distributing the texts of the post-colonial world” (Ashcroft, 397). But even beyond the production of the post-colonial narratives, there are “the ways in which the ex-colonies are available both as suitable markets for cultural products and as the source for exotic products for sale on the home market” (Ashcroft, 398). In others words, not only are the neo-colonial narratives are in supply but such narratives are also in demand. In the context of America this has been a difficult thing for Asian Americans, to the dominate forces of white culture and it is often portrayed anti-thesis black culture as to two main cultures in America. Lost because battle between white and black culture have been the stories, histories, and literature of other ethnic groups that have been asked to assimilate to either white or black culture. When dealing with Asian American production, Yuan Shu rightly describes what most Americans think of production of Asian American culture "… they have certainly consumed Asian products in one way or another, which may mean that they have tasted Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food in their local restaurants, watched Hollywood and Hong Kong Kung Fu movies, and played Nintendo and Sega video and computer games featuring Asian themes and characters. By the time they take an Asian American literature course, they not only expect to have more consumption of Asian products, but they are also interested in investigating some cultural concepts underlying the Asian products. Such a conception or misconception of Asian American culture might be easily dismissed on the ground that the students conflate Asian and Asian American cultures or simply fall victim to the commercialization of minority literature in American culture and society..."
Stories
History of Production
Recent Trend in Consumption
Beyond field of literature, Asian Americans have found a growing momentum in media and popular culture affecting both production and consumption. As of 2006, Asian American consumers were accountable for an excess of $40 billion in total buying power in the United States. In comparison to other minority groups, the median household income among Asian Americans were 15% higher than non-Hispanic Whites, 56% higher than Hispanics and nearly double that of Black households, making Asian Americans the most flourishing consumer group of any racial demographic. It was reported about half of Asian American consumption were families and children and the other half were young adults ages 18 to 29.
Dreams
The future and hope of production and consumption has been conceived by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. The founding purpose is to be "a national not-for-profit arts organization devoted to the creating, publishing, developing and disseminating of creative writing by Asian Americans." Juliana Chang essay on various Asian American literature articulates the dreams and hope of Asian American literature, to address a grave wrong in American culture:"… I believe, inpopular notions of the Asian American identity conflictThe culturalist notion of Asian Americans struggling with an identity that is split between Asian and American cultures masks the injustice that Asian Americans are racially marked as nonbelonging to America; because they are seen as Asian, they are not seen as fully American. It is up to Asian Americanist critics to interpret the trope of the Asian American identity conflict as a symptom of the contradictions and injustices of race and the US nation." The dream is to allow Asian Americans to be Americans with all the freedom, liberty and creativity that comes with belonging to America.
Asian American Writers' Workshop 2006. http://www.aaww.org
Chang, Juliana "Interpreting Asian American Identify and Subjectivity." Modern Fiction Studies 53 (Winter 2007)
Deconinck, Isabelle. "Celebrating Asian American Literature." World Literature Today (May/June 2007)
Partridge, Jeffrey F. L. "Aiiieeeee! and the Asian American Literary Movement: A Conversation with Shawn Wong." Melus 29 (Fall/Winter:2004)
Shu, Yuan. "Teaching and Theorizing Asian American Literature." College Literature 32.1 (Winter 2005)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_Warrior.
Globalization, Environment, and Religion
Kevin Gruver
Globalization can be seen as progress for the whole world to gain knowledge with one another and to develop together. Globalization also has traces of post-colonialism as many marginal culture are dissolved into the global culture. Most of the control or globalization comes from the imperial western nations. Many local communities react to globalization as the colonized nations reacted to the colonizers. Globalization is a continuation of colonization of the third world by the first and second worlds. Global Capitalism has transformed the world into a tighter bubble, which has weaken boarders of nations and replicated societies in other cultures. Globalization process is making the cultures of the world more homogeneous. People have the freedom to choose their culture and through globalization people are choosing different identities from other cultures, mostly dominant cultures. People find this empowering to shape their cultures but people are choosing and forming a homogeneous culture. The globalization culture can either be thought of Americanization or global progress.
Ethnoscape of the world is changing, which propels globalization. People are constantly moving for different reasons taking their cultures and combining with the new cultures. Cultures are constantly changing as people move and encounter different thoughts from new cultures. Globalization is constantly spreading as people move into different areas and learn new cultures.
Technoscape Technology has taken over so much of the world, which has affected most cultures. Information can be sent across the world in seconds and people can learn about other cultures at home. Different cultures work together to form technologies, but most technologies are built by the cheap third world and used by the first world.
Financscope which includes the global economy. The production of technology and business has made the economy more global. Today the world is connected so much by the economy that when one part is hurting the whole system hurts.
The three are interconnected and form a complex global political economy.
Mediascape The media can be found everywhere in the world. Companies mass produce the same advertisements all around the world. The media can invade your home electronically and physically by magazines or articles. Everyone knows the big celebrities because the media makes them famous. This is where ideology comes in.
Ideoscape The ideology is how the people are taught and told to react to the media invasion. The example that the author uses is democracy is an ideology that is shaping the world. The ideas that shaped the western mind of freedom from the Enlightenment period, can be found stretching across the world. Democracy has been found as a cure for the world’s problems. But what if the people have a different idea of freedom and democracy is not culturally sensitive.
Globalization seems to have the answer to all the problems that the world faces. Yet it makes more problems by not being sensitive to cultures. Globalization is about making the world homogeneous but the world is full of variety. The creativity of the world could be lost to globalization. Everything is mechanically formed and all people are taught to think the same culturally. The world would miss a lot.
Globalization will make it easier for an Asian family to communicate and travel back to the original country. Family can stay connected across the ocean. The world is getting smaller through communication and travel. The economy is also globalized so business and money can travel around the world in minutes. A person working for a corporation in Asia can be transferred or find a job at the same business in America. Many people come to America looking for a better life or a better job. The American dream is for a better life and future for the family. Globalization allows this dream while staying connected to the original country.
Description: Environment
Many Asian Americans care very much for the environment. Asians have a heritage of feeling very connected to their environment. The Japanese have a feeling that everything is connected. “Matsumura contends that four attitudes characterize the Japanese orientation towards nature: The Japanese believe that nature should be understood sensationally; The Japanese identify themselves with nature; The Japanese believe that nature should be understood holistically; The Japanese are optimistic about nature” (Nishida). Asian heritage believes in a harmony with everything in nature, everything is connected. People are part of nature and are to care for the environment. If the environment is hurt than humans will hurt also. This ethic is probably carried over to the thoughts of many Asian Americans. Now the world is starting to care for the environment more with recycling and reusing. Nations are trying to decrease pollution. Asian Americans have had this ethic of nature for generations and now society of America is reinforcing it.
Asian Americans often create an environment that is similar to their original country. Some examples are China town and Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. These ethnic centers help to keep the community strong and allows people to identify themselves with their original culture. “These communities emerge for purposes of social economic support, as well as a sense of identity.” (Fong, 86). These centers were formed by the immigrants as they came to the United States. The immigrants were not fully accepted in the new land. They clustered together in parts of the city. They bought pieces of property in a city and then rentivated the area to feel like the original country. These areas of cities have ethnic foods, languages and general customs of the Asian American group.
Description: Religion
Confucianism is a morale way to live in a society. Confucianism comes from ancient Chinese traditions and spread throughout Asia. It is not a religion but a way of thinking that may form a person’s whole life. The teachings did not start with Confucian himself, but he was one that solidified and past on traditions. It has very high honor for the elders and those in position of power. Confucianism spread throughout Asia and became very common way of living. Confucianism is an ethic about the way to live. It’s main principle is honor of those in power and seeking to live a moral life in front of others. The other aspect is still practiced and many Confucian cultures. It is when the eldest son conducts a ceremony to worship his ancestors. The missionary Le Comte “believed that the Chinese once had been in possession of ‘the original truths revealed by God to the first human being.” He saw parallels between the doctrines of Christianity and Confucianism. One man named Joseph- Henri de Premare wrote a book explaining the similarities of the two religions.
The first similarity would be the trinity as one. He saw traces of the trinity in Confucian doctrine. He did not want to say that they were worshiping the same god. Premare points out the similarities to use what the Chinese knew to explain Christianity. The next big similarity is in the waiting for a Messiah. Premare decides that in the Confucian beliefs they are waiting on a holy man. These are similarities that might be seen as Confucian influences on Christianity. These similarities also made it easier for the Chinese to accept Christ because missionaries could show Jesus as a fulfillment of Confucian prophecy.
Buddhism is one of the oldest eastern religions in the world. The Buddha was named Sakya, and was prince of a kingdom in India. He was very intelligent growing up and studied grammar, arts, logic, theology, and medicine by the age of seven. His father, King Chingfan, crowned him prince at the age of 15 and gave Sakya every riches he could desire. Yet Sayak had a very philosophical side and he wondered about life.
His life was lived in the castle but he wanted to travel and experience the world. The first lesson that he learned was that one cannot escape birth, age, sickness, and death. Sakya walked about the castle and saw “an old man at the east gate, a sick person at the south gate, and a funeral procession at the west gate.” He learned about life from these three events.
Finally after leaving the castle, Sakya traveled and learned from many ascetics the principles held about life at the time. He did not find the answers that satisfied his curiosity. He then went into the mountains where he spent six years until he reached a spiritual awakening that is called Nirvana. Sakya then became the Buddha and, “felt that the ecstasy he was experiencing after the achievement of the highest degree of enlightenment was too precious to be enjoyed by himself alone.”
He had no intention of forming a religion, but his following was so large at his death, that his disciples decided to pursue nirvana also. The Buddha taught, “spiritual awakening comes only from self devotion.” His followers spread his teachings throughout all of Asia. Buddhism arrived in Korea during the Kokuryo Dynasty, imported from China. The Korean king embraced the teachings of the monks sent from China and built many temples for the Buddhist religion. Buddhism has spread all over the Eastern hemisphere and has always, “adapted to the culture and existing religious practices of the people.
Shamanism has been another popular religion. Shamanism is led by the Shaman which is a spiritual guide for healing, telling stories of tradition, fortune telling, and contacting spirits. Shamanism is a different religious thought from Western culture and thought. It has become indigenous to Korea and has had influence on Japanese Shintoism.
Shamanism teaches that there is no god but that everything was created by one who just guides history. Humans are to be part of nature. “In the view of Korean shamanism, human beings come into the world as integral parts of the rhythm of nature.” Humans enter the world when they are born and do not leave the world after death, but become spirits who are part of this world. The purpose of man in the world is to find his place in nature. Man neither fears being destroyed by nature or seeks to rule it. People should try to find their place with in nature and be at peace with his environment. “Every form of life, including human life, will be sustained if it manages to adapt its lifestyle to the rhythm and balance of nature.”
Shamanism is a very peaceful religion and tries to avoid any conflicts. It will conform to any part of society. The idea of isolation or loneliness is a great fear of the shamanistic mind. They do not want there to be any division between the individual and the community. The Shamanist will avoid being alone in thought by conforming to the community.
While western thought says for one express himself and different ideas in a civilized manner, “Shamanistic ethics are designed to prevent or eliminate disagreements and conflicts.” The result of this is the need for an authoritative guide. If the shaman mind does not have a guide, there will be nothing to conform to. Shamanism has never been a religion among the elite of Korea as Confucianism and Buddhism.
Its has similar beliefs of Confucianism and Buddhism, and has become ingrained in Korean society. “In this way much of the shamanistic world view has influenced Korean culture out of all proportion to the political import of Shamanism.” As in Confucianism, shamanism stresses importance on family, loyalty, respect, caring for the environment, and pacifism. ”There can be little doubt that the strength of Confucianism in Korean social and cultural life owes much to its basic congruity with indigenous Korean shamanism.” There are more disagreements between Buddhism and Shamanism than similarities. The Buddhist is trying to reach enlightenment and transcend through nature. Shamanism is trying to live in rhythm with nature. The Buddhist is very individualistic, while the Shamanistic mind is very family oriented. “No decent shamanistic individual would think of attaining enlightenment if it meant that he would have to leave his relatives and enjoy it selfishly."
Stories
Globalization
Globalization has affected much of the Asian American culture. The second generation are caught between cultures because of globalization and a multi-cultural atmosphere. The praise music sung at Asian American Churches have been affected by globalization, for example: Hill Song. Hill Song produces great worship music and has been accepted by many different cultures. The music is globalized and sung in many different languages around the world. When the praise music is globalized, most churches sound the same and many cultural musical sounds are lost.
Environment
Established in 2004 by a group of Asian American environmentalists in Southern California, the Asian American Environmental Partnership is a non-profit organization dedicated to increase awareness and understanding of environmental issues in the Asian American community by building partnership and inspiring diversity in leadership. [1]
Vision
Develop relationships between the environmental community and the Asian American community. Assist governmental agencies to outreach to the Asian American community on environmental issues. Foster collaboration on environmental research and education among nonprofit organizations, academic institutions and the Asian American community. Provide support and training for Asian American leadership on environmental issues.
Religion
There are many different views of the Asian American Church. The first generation of Asian Americans find the church very familiar because of the original culture. Many second generation Asian Americans do not find the church very comfortable and will leave after high school. This is called the 'silent exodus.' "The children and youth from those churches will grow up with American culture and feel that their parents churches are irrelevant. Therefore most will have already rejected Christianity by the time they reach college, or soon after college depend on whether or not they were integrated into a college fellowship. The problem is that immigrant churches are not culturally sensitive enough to allow an “english ministry” to exist that has the resources, programs, and autonomy to be fully culturally relevant to the next generation." [2]
Dreams
Globalization
The future of Asian American in the world seems to becoming more complex with each generation. "Asian American parents fear for most of their children, common responses include: the loss of ethinic culture and language; poor self-concept and identity development." [3] As many other minorities in America, Asian culture becomes a hybrid culture and is absorbed into the main cultures. Globalization in the world will dilute the Asian culture as Asian Americans live within other cultures. The future is hopeful because the hard work ethic of Asian culture will help the Asian American succeed in a multicultural world.
Environment
The world has become aware of the environment and the affects that humans have had on it. Asian culture has always been aware of the connection of humans with the environment. As America tries to become better caretakers of the environment, Asian Americans can voice the ethics into the conversation. The neighborhoods in which Asian Americans live has often been very polluted. Asian Americans can work to clean up their community as the world works to become more environmentally friendly.
Religion
Asia has a history of many different religions. These religions have influenced the Asian American view of Christianity. Asian Americans have lived within a multi religious culture, that allows them to understand many religions. "Few theologians are better suited to help North American theologians ponder the theological future than Asian American theologians. As P. notes, Asian theologians have already lived for centuries in pluralistic settings and are now finding creative ways to balance philosophy and theology, ritual and social justice in novel ways based on the heritage of Asian philosophy and theology transformed into a North American key."
[1] Asian American Environmental Partnership. Asian Americans' Guide to Environmental Protection in Southern California. 2005. http://www.aaepus.org/about.htm
[2] The Random Platypus Blog. Silent Exodus. October 24, 2005. http://www.randplaty.com/2005/10/24/silent-exodus/
[3] http://family.jrank.org/pages/107/Asian-American-Families-Future-Asian-American-Families.html
Buswell, Robert E. Religions of Korea in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
Buswell, Robert E., and Timothy S. Lee. Christianity in Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2006.
Chung, David. Syncretism The Religious Context of Christian Beginnings in Korea. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.
Clark, Allen D. History of the Korean Church. New York: Friendship Press, 1961.
Fong, Timothy P. and Shinagawa, Larry H. Asian Americans: Experiences and Perspectives. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000).
Gudykunst, Communication in Personal Relationships in Japan. Thousand Oaks: Sage Communications, 1996.
Guisso, Richard, and Chai-shin Yu. Shamanism: The Spirit World of Korea. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1988.
Jang, Nam Hyuck. Shamanism in Korean Christianity. Seoul: Jimoondang International, 2004.
Kim, Duk-Whang, Ph.D. A History of Religions in Korea. Korea: Daeji Moonhwa, 1963.
Lee, Sang Taek. Religion and Social Formation in Korea. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996.
Lui, Shu-hsien. Understanding Confucian Philosophy Classical and Sung-Ming. London: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Ma, Wonsuk, and Julie C. Ma. Mission, Asian Churches & God's. Mandaluyong City: OMF Literature Inc., 2003.
Min, Pil Won. Shamanism as Religion and Culture: A study on the relationship between shamanism and revival movements in Korean church growth. 2004.
Shearer, Roy E. Wildfire: Church Growth in Korea. Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing, 1966.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6404/is_/ai_n29137021
Diaspora and Place
Tai Nguyen
Description
The term Diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – "a scattering or sowing of seeds") refers any population sharing common ethnic identity who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their settled territory, and became residents in areas often far removed from the former. It is converse to the nomadic lifestyle. Diaspora cultural development often assumes a different course to the population in the original place of settlement, and tends to vary between remotely separated communities in culture, traditions and other factors. The last vestige of cultural affiliation in a Diaspora is usually found in community resistance to language change.
Stories
Korean Diaspora
About 1,520,703 Korean currently living in the U.S
The terms dongpo or gyopo, a term used to describe those of the Korean diaspora, in Korean refers to persons of Korean ethnic descent who have lived the majority of their lives outside Korea. It can also mean simply any Korean who lives outside Korea. Large-scale emigration from Korea began as early as the mid-1860s, mainly into the Russian Far East and Northeast China; these emigrants became the ancestors of the 2 million Koreans in China and several hundred thousand ethnic Koreans in Central Asia.
Japanese Diaspora
About 1,200,000 Japanese currently living in the U.S
The Japanese diaspora, and its individual members known as nikkei, are Japanese emigrants from Japan and their descendants to other parts of the world. Emigration from Japan first happened and was recorded as early as the 12th century to the Philippines, but did not become a mass phenomenon until the Meiji Era, when Japanese began to go to North America, and later Latin America. There was also significant emigration to the territories of the Empire of Japan during the colonial period; however, most such emigrants repatriated to Japan after the end of World War II in Asia.
According to the Association of Nikkei and Japanese Abroad, there are about 2.5 million nikkei living in their adopted countries. The largest of these foreign communities are in Brazil, the United States and the Philippines. Descendants of emigrants from the Meiji Era still hold recognizable communities in those countries, forming separate ethnic groups from Japanese peoples in Japan.
Chinese Diaspora
About 3,376,031 Chinese currently living in the U.S
Chinese emigration (also known as the Chinese Diaspora) first occurred thousands of years ago, but the mass emigration that occurred from the 19th century to 1949 was mainly caused by wars and starvation in mainland China as well as political corruption. Most immigrants were illiterate or poorly educated peasants and coolies (Chinese: translated: Hard Labour), who were sent to countries such as the Americas, Australia, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Malaya and other places.
According to Lynn Pan's book Sons of the Yellow Emperor, the Chinese coolie emigration began, after slavery had been abolished throughout the British possessions. Facing a desperate shortage of manpower, European merchants were looking to replace African slaves with indentured labourers from China and India. A British Guiana planter found what he was looking for in the Chinese labourers "...their strong physique, their eagerness to make money, their history of toil from infancy..."
Large numbers of unskilled Chinese were sold as labourers, in the coolie trade, to the colonies overseas in exchange for money to feed their families; this type of trading was known as maai jyu jai by the Chinese, and their lives were extremely miserable. Some tricky labor recruiters promised good pay and good working conditions to get them signed onto three year labor contracts. It was recorded on one pepper estate, 50 coolies hired, only 2 survived in half a year. Most coolies were treated badly and many died in route to South America and South Africa because of bad conditions. Usually, they were cheated out of their wages and were unable to return to China after their contracts expired.
Vietnamese Diaspora
About 1,599,394 Vietnamese living in the U.S.
Overseas Vietnamese can be generally divided into four distinct categories that rarely interact with each other. The first category consists of people who have been living in territories outside of Vietnam prior to 1975; they usually reside in neighboring countries, such as Cambodia, Laos, and China. These people are not usually considered "Việt Kiều" by people residing in Vietnam. During French colonialism, some also migrated to France and some French-speaking areas, such as Québec. The second category, consisting of the vast majority of overseas Vietnamese, are those who escaped Vietnam after 1975 as refugees and their descendants. They usually reside in industrialized countries in North America, Western Europe, and Australia. The third category consists of Vietnamese working and studying in the Soviet bloc who opted to stay there after the Soviet collapse. This group is found mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. The last category consists of recent economic migrants who work in regional Asian countries such as Taiwan and Japan. They also include women who married men from Taiwan and South Korea through marriage agencies. These brides usually follow their husbands to live in those countries.Stories
Jerry Yang, a Taiwanese native raised in San Jose, Calif., co-created the Yahoo! Internet navigational guide in April 1994 with David Filo and co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in April 1995. He was appointed chief executive officer of the company in June 2007. Mr. Yang, a leading force in the Internet media industry, has been instrumental in building Yahoo! into the world's most highly trafficked Web site and one of the world's most recognized brands. Since the company's founding, Mr. Yang has been a key member of the executive management team. His focus at Yahoo! over the years has included corporate strategy, Yahoo!'s technology vision, strategic business partnerships and international joint ventures, and recruiting key talent. In addition to serving on the Yahoo! Board of Directors, Mr. Yang currently serves on the board of directors of Cisco Systems, Yahoo! Japan, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and is also on the Stanford University Board of Trustees. Mr. Yang holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University and is currently on a leave of absence from Stanford's electrical engineering Ph.D. program.Eugene Huu-Chau "Gene" Trinh is the first Vietnamese-American to travel into outer space. Born September 14, 1950, in Saigon, Vietnam; was raised from the age of two in Paris, France and has lived in the United States since 1968. Currently a resident of Culver City, California. Married to the former Yvette Fabry. Recreational interests include house remodeling, music, theatre, tennis, swimming, volleyball, soccer, hiking, and photography. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Trinh, reside in Nice, France. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fabry, reside in Paris, France. Secondary education: graduated from Lycee Michelet, Paris, France with a Baccalaureate degree in 1968. Received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering-Applied Physics from Columbia University in 1972; Masters of Science and of Philosophy and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Applied Physics from Yale University in 1974, 1975, and 1977 respectively.Dreams
Being an Asian American myself and having the opportunity to work with young people, one of the hope and dreams that the first generation wants for the second generation is to keep their roots and to know their heritage. Growing up, this is something that my parents have always emphasize on. They speak Vietnamese to us, cook us Vietnamese food and stress on the importance of keeping the tradition. Another important dream is to be educated. From a land where not everyone has the opportunity to go to school to now the land of opportunity, American, the first generation's dreams for the second generation is to take advantage of these opportunities.
An article expresses the current dilemma that Asian Americans are facing today:
"Vietnamese elders often lament the loss of culture, identity, and language among the younger generations. I have heard my father sardonically describe young Vietnamese Americans’ loss of their Vietnamese roots by giving the example that, “O Viet Nam, cha me dat dau con ngoi do. Con o My thi con dat dau cha me phai ngoi do thoi” (In Viet Nam, children do what their parents tell them to, but in America it is the reverse). If indeed Vietnamese Americans are losing their cultural values—that set of ideas and beliefs that makes us distinctly Vietnamese—then how does this bode for the future? What will a fourth- or fifth-generation Vietnamese American person be like? Will she be any different from other Asian Americans in the U.S.? We know the answer is not as simple as an easy yes or no, and we certainly know that being Vietnamese American and retaining Vietnamese values depends on many factors such as immigration flows, communication with Viet Nam, and the accessibility of Vietnamese culture and language in the American mainstream." [1]
[1] http://www.nhamagazine.com/back_issue/issue_0106/feature4_p1.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_diaspora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_diaspora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_diaspora
Language, Body and Performance
Christi Kang
Description Language
According to Ashcroft's The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, "language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place and our place in the world” (Ashcroft, 267). Many times, there has been a struggle for Asian Americans to keep their ethnic language, yet also try to succeed in the English language. In America, it was perceived that "any achievement in spoken or written English was highly rewarded; prizes, prestige, applause; the ticket to higher realms. English became of the measure of intelligence and ability in the arts, the sciences, and all the other branches of learning. English became the main determinant of a child’s progress up the ladder of formal education (Ashcroft, 265). In order to survive and to better their economic and academic place, Asian Americans needed to learn the English language. Yet in the process of being accepted in the American society through language, the abilitity to only speak English suggests a loss of culture. Many second generation Asians grow up losing the “life and vigor” that existed in their native culture (Ashcroft, 264).
However, there is a benefit for being bilingual in language proficiency. For example, foreign-born Chinese youth “can utilize various resources already available in the Chinese immigrant community,” like reading Chinese newspapers for community news and resources. They are able to “shop at Chinese music, book, and video stores, and eat at Asian cafes, places that enable them to keep up with Asian pop culture and provide them with access to Asian role models” (Lee, 155).
Some have expressed the ability to straddle on both ethnic worlds, also being able to bridge the cultures. One member from a Chinese church, Glenda, explained, “I felt like I could be a very big bridge since I am fluent in both English and Mandarin. I felt like I could be more involved in both congregations” (Alumkal, 101).
Body
Ashcroft elaborates on the body and voice “skin colour, eye shape, hair texture, body shape, language, dialect or accent) as read as indelible signs of the ‘natural’ inferiority of their possessors” (Ashcroft, 289). One of the struggles that immigrants, including Asians, have in adjusting and integrating into American society is appearing different. There are those families who have lived in the United States for many, many generations. They are disconnected from their original ethnic culture, not speaking any language but English, and yet they are still perceived as visitors or foreigners because of appearance. Sean, a young profressional, a Chinese American third generation expressed his frustration that if he were to have a child, even who spoke “only two words of Chinese, but it won’t matter. The way you look—they’re not going to accept him fully. He’s going to find racial prejudice wherever he goes” (Alumkal, 91).
Performance within Church
Within the Asian American community, performance takes many forms. These performances help give the Asian American a means of expressing himself or herself, whether through dance, acting or even through praise.
Stories
Body
Much of the reason why Asian Americans struggle in America is the inability to change the way they look. They are able to adapt to the American lifestyle in clothing, in hairstyle, in food, in hobbies and interests, yet one thing remains. They still look Asian. Because of this, many are mistaken as foreigners or tourists.
Another reason some Asian Americans struggle with being mistaken as a person of another culture. One Asian-Indian expressed her frustration that people thought she was Mexican. “I don’t like that; obviously I don’t want to be classified as something I’m not […] I just say I’m Indian. And the first thing people say is, ‘Oh you’re Indian? But you have such light hair and light skin?’ As if everyone from India is dark. They have a stereotypical idea of who’s Indian and don’t seem to recognize that I am” (Lee, 137). To many people, it is very difficult to differentiate between different Asian nationalities. Many people are often mistaken as being a part of different ethnicities.
Language
"I didn’t care to come to the church, tell you the truth. I mean, there was nothing for me to do here. I listen to sermons in Korean, which I don’t understand a thing and wait for my mom for a ride back to home. I rather wanted to stay home and do some homework or something…..But I actually look forward to coming to the church nowadays. Because Sunday is only time for us (her friends in the church) to get together. My friends and I became so close…..They understand how I feel and I understand what they are going through. Now my mom has to look for me when she is ready to leave (the church)" (Kim 2007, 60).
Performances
Praise. As noted earlier, many Asian American churches express themselves through worship, many times connected through a Western band, like the worship team from Australia’s Hillsongs Church or U.S.’s Vineyard church. It brings churches together because the music is very common to many different types of churches, since the music is also very well known.
Today, praising within the church has significance to Asian American that differs greatly from the significance it had when Asians immigrated into the United States. Interestingly, both of their structure of worship service can be seen as a performance within their cultural context. This is shown by the “praise team” within Asian American church that play a contemporary rock beat worship music and display song lyrics from Vineyard or Hillsong rather play old hymns on and on. Worship atmosphere becomes a product of praise team’s performance through ethereal sounds to serve as a backdrop for prayer and contemplation. Vice versa, in the conservative setting when the newer generation sees old generations’ worship service, they will consider the service as a performance. “I observed on a few occasions was the worship team opening the service by Bible through a series of fast-tempo songs, with the congregation breaking into applause at the conclusion of the set, seemingly blurring the line between “worship” and “performance” (Alumkal, 50).
Dance. Dance as a Cultural Expression and Identity Affirmation Since the 1970s, the need of belongings and acceptances of Filipino American youth in Los Angeles, 2nd generation Filipino developed the Filipino hip-hop culture. “They knew they didn’t fit into the white culture, so they rejected it and embraced hip-hop because hip-hop was already embraced by gang culture…..Filipino youth, not knowing anything about their own history or themselves, took to something they could identify with more. So they, embraced the whole Black, Chicano, underground hip-hop culture.” (Lee 2004, 196)
Filipino Dance - "We Filipinos show our Asian pride. This is the Filipino national dance. We mixed it up with hip hop, Bebot by Black Eyed Peas."
Performance
In the midst of these arguments about style or structure of liturgies within Asian American churches, young generations are attempting to find who they are in Christ through their cultural context. Here is an example of a Asian American Christian rap group that strongly appeals to the young generation, both Christians and Non-Christians, with their contemporary music. They are not just singing, but they really testify to their faith through the songs and testimonies during their performance.
Dreams
"Silent Exodus" is a name for the phenomenon of a generation of young people leaving the Christian community; it has been applied to the Asian American church as well. The statistics show that 70% of 2nd-generation Korean Americans will leave their Korean ethnic church after high school graduation and never come back, while 90% will leave after college graduation and about half will leave the church all together. "Asian churches in the United States are discovering that despite their spectacular growth they are simultaneously losing their children. At an alarming rate, many young believers who have grown up in these Asian congregations are now choosing to leave not only their home churches, but possibly their Christian faith as well." (Lee 1996, 40)
Regardless of language or race, inherently the second generation will want to assimilate into American culture and be taught English and encouraged to become Americans. Will this second generation want to stay in an ethnocentric church the rest of their lives? Their friends are diverse ethnically, their school is ethnically and culturally diverse. How can we engage with young people outside of the churches? How can church reach out to the young generation who are so lost culturally and socially? These kind of questions should continuously be asked within the churches rather pushes away the reality (culture, language, ethic, and race etc) that we must to face.
Here is a good example of engaging culture and churches: KAC (Korean American Christian Media).
"KAC Media is a nonprofit organization committed to spreading the message of God through online social networking and television media. As we strive to be the premiere network for 1.5, 2nd, and 3rd Generation Korean Americans, we aim to produce creative and throught-provoking content that is compelling, relevant and genuinely serves the needs of Korean Americans today. While promoting churches, organizations, businesses, and individuals, KAC Media also supports emerging Korean Americans in the arts, film, and media. It is our hope that with every story and with every effort, we bring people one step closer to God."
The hope is that organizations like KAC Media will act as bridge-makers and help people to find their true vocations and callings by developing their talent and potential in various areas of entertainment and communication such as media, art, and music.
Alumkal, Antony W. Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity, and Assimilation in the Second Generation. (New York and London: Routledge, 2004).
Ashcroft, Bill, et. al., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. (New York and London: Routledge, 1995).
Kim, Jung Ha. Bridge Makers and Cross Bears: Korean -American Women and the Church. (Atlanta:Scholars Press, 1997).
Lee, Helen. August 1996. Silent Exodus: Can the East Asian church in America reverse the flight of its next generation? Christianity Today 40(9)
Lee, Jennifer, and Zhou, Min. (Ed.), Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity (New York, NY:Routledge, 2004).
http://www.kacmedia.org/index.php/2008062363/info/About-Us
Conclusion
Pastor Jon Interview
Rapidly growing Asian American churches, whether they are primarily immigrant, second generation or multi-generational, single ethnicity or multiethnic and multicultural, are making significant contributions to the larger landscape of American Christianity, but the future of Asian American churches is unknown as of yet. Unanswered question include: will Asian Americans, many of whom are second-generation children of immigrants, continue to silently leave the churches or gather and create their own? Will anyone remain in the churches of their parents who are Asian immigrants? Or will they be absorbed into larger churches that are predominantly White Anglo-American, Pan-Asian, or multicultural?
When it comes to the topic of historical and contemporary churches among Asian American Christians, most young 2nd and 3rd generation Asian American Christians will readily agree that we need to experience liberation. On the other hand, the first generation might argue that their children need to go back to their ethnic roots and heritage. This is important, however, in order to understand our identity and who God created us to be. However the most important thing is the understanding of who we are, and the understanding of our identity leads people to influence to the world. Understanding how we are created and how we function helps us to realize our true vocation and potential. God created us in certain families, born into certain cultures, and understanding certain customs for a reason. We cannot simply ignore our past but we must embrace it, looking at our culture through God’s eyes. Rather than condemning each other, we ask God to redeem and develop these aspects into God’s Kingdom plan. Then what can church offer to the people?
As long as there are immigrants, there will be immigrant churches helping people to adjust to the American culture. Is the true mission of the immigrant church to just stay as a monocultural community? These ethnic churches may need to reexamine their mission. Maybe these same people see themselves as a minority within a dominant culture, yet God sees them as missionaries or “special weapons” with a rich diversity and an experience of marginalization, able to help others in need. As for the second generation Asian Americans, we need to understand where we come from, the values and talents built into our being. For example, Asian heritage has contributed family values and honor that often Western societies seem to lack. There are parts of our upbringing and ethnic values that can be redeemed and used by the Lord. The search for identity goes beyond just finding out ethnic roots or being influenced by the different communities we get involved in. God alone gives us our identity and fulfills our calling. When we understand our true identity in Christ, we are able to move beyond ourselves and understand others and the identity God has for them. “Race and identity should be used to fulfill others, and to see the fullness of God and of creation” (Emerson,120).
Lee, Jennifer, and Zhou, Min. (Ed.), Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity (New York, NY:Routledge, 2004).
http://www.kacmedia.org/index.php/2008062363/info/About-Us
Conclusion
Pastor Jon Interview
When it comes to the topic of historical and contemporary churches among Asian American Christians, most young 2nd and 3rd generation Asian American Christians will readily agree that we need to experience liberation. On the other hand, the first generation might argue that their children need to go back to their ethnic roots and heritage. This is important, however, in order to understand our identity and who God created us to be. However the most important thing is the understanding of who we are, and the understanding of our identity leads people to influence to the world. Understanding how we are created and how we function helps us to realize our true vocation and potential. God created us in certain families, born into certain cultures, and understanding certain customs for a reason. We cannot simply ignore our past but we must embrace it, looking at our culture through God’s eyes. Rather than condemning each other, we ask God to redeem and develop these aspects into God’s Kingdom plan. Then what can church offer to the people?
As long as there are immigrants, there will be immigrant churches helping people to adjust to the American culture. Is the true mission of the immigrant church to just stay as a monocultural community? These ethnic churches may need to reexamine their mission. Maybe these same people see themselves as a minority within a dominant culture, yet God sees them as missionaries or “special weapons” with a rich diversity and an experience of marginalization, able to help others in need. As for the second generation Asian Americans, we need to understand where we come from, the values and talents built into our being. For example, Asian heritage has contributed family values and honor that often Western societies seem to lack. There are parts of our upbringing and ethnic values that can be redeemed and used by the Lord. The search for identity goes beyond just finding out ethnic roots or being influenced by the different communities we get involved in. God alone gives us our identity and fulfills our calling. When we understand our true identity in Christ, we are able to move beyond ourselves and understand others and the identity God has for them. “Race and identity should be used to fulfill others, and to see the fullness of God and of creation” (Emerson,120).
Pastor Brian Interview
Emerson, Michael. People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006).
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