Chinese Diaspora Archaeology in North America

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Asian American Studies ◽  
Mining Communities ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
Future Work

Chinese diaspora archaeology in North America is at a tipping point. On one hand, archaeologists have collected tremendous amounts of data and made significant contributions to our understanding of Chinese immigrant life; on the other, the field remains slow to move past outdated approaches that rely on dichotomies of continuity and change that essentialize Chinese immigrants. This volume will challenge tired approaches and provide models for future work by bringing together chapters from scholars working on new and more nuanced approaches for interpreting Chinese diaspora archaeological sites in North America. Chapters will address the conceptualization of the field (as diaspora, in relation to Asian American studies, etc.), highlight the diversity of Chinese contexts in North America (urban and rural Chinatowns, mining communities, railroad camps, etc.), foregrounding the understudied aspects of Chinese migrant life (entrepreneurialism, cross–cultural interaction, creativity, etc.). Rather than being a report on the state of the field, our goal is that this volume will instead actualize change and shape the future direction of the sub–discipline, as well as bring Chinese diaspora archaeology into broader discussions about topics such as race and migration.

The Minor Intimacies of Race

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Kim
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Asian American ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Asian Woman ◽  
Asian American Studies ◽  
Artistic Works ◽  
Social Intimacy ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Affective Dimensions

An attempt to put an Asian woman on Canada's $100 bill in 2012 unleashed enormous controversy. The racism and xenophobia that answered this symbolic move toward inclusiveness revealed the nation's trumpeted commitment to multiculturalism as a lie. It also showed how multiple minor publics as well as the dominant public responded to the ongoing issue of race in Canada. This book delves into the ways cultural conversations minimize race's relevance even as violent expressions and structural forms of racism continue to occur. The book turns to literary texts, artistic works, and media debates to highlight the struggles of minor publics with social intimacy. Its insightful engagement with everyday conversations as well as artistic expressions that invoke the figure of the Asian enables the book to reveal the affective dimensions of racialized publics. It also extends ongoing critical conversations within Asian Canadian and Asian American studies about Orientalism, diasporic memory, racialized citizenship, and migration and human rights.

Reorienting Asian American Studies in Asia and the Pacific

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rika Nakamura
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Asian American ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Asian American Studies ◽  
Mutual Learning ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
The Pacific

This chapter explores the possibilities of an Asian American studies which is more transpacific and inter-Asia oriented, with a specific focus on Japan and East Asia. Inviting U.S.- and Canada-based Asian Americanists to interrogate the discipline’s embedded North America-centrism in their perceptions towards Asia, this reoriented Asian American studies asks Asia-based Asian practitioners to reflect upon ethnoracial violences in our own lands, including those related to intra-Asian imperialisms and militarized violence. In this way, Asian American studies can become a place for mutual learning. The chapter underscores the usefulness of our disparate positions (however arbitrary) to look at ourselves from the perspectives of others and examine our complicities with the dominant groups rather than simply viewing ourselves in alignment with the oppressed. It is my hope that the reoriented transpacific, and inter-Asia, Asian American studies will help us expand our horizon and engage in conversations across Asia and across the Pacific.

Charting a New Course for Chinese Diaspora Archaeology in North America

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
J. Ryan Kennedy ◽  
Chelsea Rose
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Pacific World ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Chinese Migrants ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter provides a brief history of the field of Chinese diaspora archaeology in North America, from its beginning in the 1960s to its present state, and it places this work within the context of 19th-century Chinese migration throughout the Pacific world. Although the body of work produced by archaeologists of the Chinese diaspora has provided tremendous insights into the daily lives of 19th-century Chinese migrants, it has been hampered by a continued reliance on models of continuity and change that frequently ignore the transnational lives of Chinese migrants. This has made Chinese diaspora archaeology slow to impact broader archaeological and anthropological discussions, and this chapter argues that embracing transnational and diasporic models will allow archaeologists of the Chinese diaspora to make important contributions outside of the field.

Lessons from Ethnic Studies

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Fong ◽  
Clement Lai
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Historical Archaeology ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Chinese Americans ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Asian American Studies ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

This chapter argues for interdisciplinary collaboration between historical archaeology and Asian American Studies/Ethnic Studies, and it articulates a Chinese American historical archaeology. Both fields stand to benefit from collaboration, with the potential for contributions to archaeological work in the Chinese diaspora more broadly. Ethnic Studies brings to historical archaeology a more nuanced understanding about race, specifically with regard to theories of racialization and racial triangulation, as well as decades of experience doing politically conscious, community-engaged, anti-racist work. Historical archaeology provides Ethnic Studies with a framework for studying material culture, something that Ethnic Studies scholars have yet to study in depth, in conjunction with oral histories and the documentary record. Furthermore, interdisciplinary collaboration has the potential for reorienting Ethnic Studies towards researching community social histories. The chapter argues for continued interdisciplinary collaboration to promote historical archaeologies of Chinese Americans and of Asian Americans more broadly.

Asian American Studies Now

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Wu ◽  
Robert G Lee ◽  
Gary Okhiro ◽  
Helen Zia ◽  
David Eng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Asian American Studies

Reflections on the Formation and Future of Asian American Studies

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-128
Author(s):  
Linda Vo
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
American Studies ◽  
American Population ◽  
Asian American Studies ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Academic Trajectory ◽  
Demographic Growth

The ongoing demographic growth of the Asian American population enhances foundational support for Asian American studies; however, it also poses complex challenges for the formulation and direction of the field. Asian American studies has been shaped by transnational and regional economic and political conditions, as well as by the receptiveness and limitations of the academy, which has led to uneven disciplinary and institutional manifestations. This essay specifically analyzes what impact the transforming Asian American population has had on the formation of the field of Asian American studies and how the projected demographic growth will shape its future academic trajectory.

Theorizing a Sustainable-Holistic-Interconnected-Partnership Development Model with Feminist, Activist Lenses: Best Practices from a Community-University Service-Learning Partnership in Asian American Studies

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 64-84
Author(s):  
Jennifer Yee ◽  
Ashley Cheri
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Asian American ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Development Model ◽  
Asian American Studies ◽  
University Partnerships ◽  
Partnership Development ◽  
Asian And Pacific Islander ◽  
Trust And Reciprocity

Mindfully engaging with one another on collaborative projects and relationship building is critical for sustaining partnerships of trust and reciprocity between community-based organizations (CBOs) and institutions of higher education. This resource paper presents the Sustainable-Holistic-Interconnected-Partnership (SHIP) Development Model based on a study theorizing the organizational evolution of the ten- year community-university service-learning partnership between the Youth Education Program of the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance and the Asian American Studies Program at California State University, Fullerton. The authors conducted a self- study intersecting their lenses as feminist activists of color and their use of qualitative methods. They found that they sustained their partnership by intentionally grounding their norms and practice in the values of democracy, equity, social justice, and liberation. The SHIP model has diverse implications for community-university partnerships and the fields of Asian American studies (AAS) and service learning.

Pedagogy of Care in Asian American Studies during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-365
Author(s):  
Aggie J. Yellow Horse ◽  
Kathryn Nakagawa
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Asian American Studies

Identification of domestic chicken bones in archaeological sites

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-200
Author(s):  
Hui Deng ◽  
Jun Li
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Chicken ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Morphological Identification ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Bone Morphology ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Advance Research ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
Future Work

AbstractIn recent years, with the participation of genetics and other disciplines, the controversy on the origins of the domestic chicken has returned. As the resource of primary data, archaeology plays an extremely important role in this dispute. Taking an archaeological standpoint, this paper aims to establish a set of bone morphological identification standards for domestic chicken bones unearthed at archaeological remains, beginning with the bone morphology as the most basic but also the least studied aspect. By this set of standards, we reanalyze available chicken bone materials and relevant pictorial and textual materials for domestic chicken candidate samples as mentioned by previous scholars. The results show that no confirmed domestic chicken bones have been found in China’s early to mid-Holocene remains to date; meanwhile, there is no substantial archaeological evidence to support China as the earliest place of origin of domestic chicken. Future work seeking to advance research on the origin of the domestic chicken should first pay proper attention to the archaeological background; only continuing scientific analyses and exploration on the origin of domestic chicken based on scientific morphological identification will prove the most convincing methodology.

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