Waiting for Asian Canada

2021 ◽  
pp. 46-69
Author(s):  
Timothy Yu
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
Canadian Identity ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
American Counterpart ◽  
Canadian Context

While the scholarly narrative of Asian Canadian identity is often one of belatedness with regard to its American counterpart, the poetry of Fred Wah reveals a dynamic, diasporic context for Asian Canadian expression. While Wah’s poetry has often been read through its American avant-garde influences, his work from the mid-1980s onward focuses increasingly on biography under the influence of Asian Canadian activism. Wah’s book Waiting For Saskatchewan stitches together the techniques of American avant-garde poetry with Japanese poetic forms and the theme of diasporic return to China, creating a pan-ethnic, transnational aesthetic that is in conversation with Asian American models but distinct from its Canadian context.

Asian American Experimental Theater and Solo Performance

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Bacalzo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Asian American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Experimental Theater ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Racial Perceptions ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
A Minor

Beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the present day, a wide range of performers and playwrights have contributed to Asian American experimental theater and performance. These works tend toward plot structures that break away from realist narratives or otherwise experiment with form and content. This includes avant-garde innovations, community-based initiatives that draw on the personal experiences of workshop participants, politicized performance art pieces, spoken word solos, multimedia works, and more. Many of these artistic categories overlap, even as the works produced may look extremely different from one another. There is likewise great ethnic and experiential diversity among the performing artists: some were born in the United States while others are immigrants, permanent residents, or Asian nationals who have produced substantial amounts of works in the United States. Several of these artists raise issues of race as a principal element in the creation of their performances, while for others it is a minor consideration, or perhaps not a consideration at all. Nevertheless, since all these artists are of Asian descent, racial perceptions still inform the production, reception, and interpretation of their work.

Buddha Bandit Poets

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Bloch
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Central Valley ◽  
State University ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
State Highway ◽  
Asian American Poetry ◽  
American Poets ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Buddha

In 1978, Asian American poets Garrett Hongo, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Alan Chong Lau published The Buddha Bandits Down Highway 99, a collaborative anthology of poems dedicated to meditations on the highway that runs north–south across California’s Central Valley. The "Buddha Bandits" helped inaugurate a wave of activist Asian American poetry after Modernism. Hongo, Inada, and Lau first collaborated as the Buddha Bandits in 1977 in a performance of music and poetry at California State University, Long Beach. Their 1978 anthology engages with the culturally and geographically heterogeneous landscape of the California state highway, particularly its history of Asian American migration and its significance as a site of Japanese internment during World War II. The Buddha Bandits shared the formal concerns and countercultural attitudes of their fellow avant-garde poets, particularly the Beats, but their collaboration also anticipated a rejection of American Orientalism in that same avant-garde. Activist Asian American poets of the 1970s later rejected the depiction of Asia as a distant source of enlightenment, instead asserting a historically specific identity for the Asian American avant-garde.

Not Your Mother's Diaspora: Voices of the Asian American Avant-Garde

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (10/11) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Summi Kaipa ◽  
Prageeta Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
Avant Garde

scholarly journals Without a Paddle: Schitt’s Creek, Canadian Television, and the Return to Community Values in Uncertain Times

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Patrick
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Community Life ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Economic Uncertainty ◽  
Canadian Identity ◽  
Community Values ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
Situation Économique

Background  The Canadian television landscape is a key site through which national identity is expressed and debated. This article examines one such site—the recent CBC hit comedy Schitt’s Creek(2015–)—that depicts economic uncertainty, family, and community.Analysis  A textual analysis of the show and a cultural analysis of its production highlight the parallels between precarious Canadian identity and precarious economic conditions in the neoliberal era.Conclusions and implications  Schitt’s Creekbuilds on other “retreatist” texts that portray small-community life and family as sites of stability in times of uncertainty. Yet it de-localizes this community from the Canadian context, using stars and the CBC platform, rather than content, to signify place. The author argues that these alternative signifiers of “Canadian-ness” along with a marked shift in tone potentially account for the show’s broad appeal.RÉSUMÉContexte  Le paysage télévisuel canadien est un site clé pour exprimer et débattre l’identité nationale. Cet article examine une composante particulière de ce site, à savoir la comédie à succès du CBC, Schitt’s Creek (2015–), télésérie portant sur communauté, famille et incertitude économique.Analyse  Une analyse textuelle de l’émission et une analyse culturelle de sa production font ressortir les parallèles entre une identité canadienne précaire et une situation économique précaire dans cette ère néolibérale.Conclusions et implications Schitt’s Creek se fonde sur d’autres récits d’évasion qui représentent la vie familiale dans une petite communauté comme oasis de stabilité dans une période incertaine. En même temps, cette émission retire la communauté du contexte canadien, recourant plutôt à des vedettes et à sa présence sur le CBC pour représenter le lieu de l’action. L’auteur soutient que ces signifiants alternatifs de la culture canadienne ainsi qu’un ton distinct expliquent potentiellement la popularité de cette émission.

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