Disclaiming America

Understanding the way the category of “Asian” writing circulates transnationally offers us a new framework for the study of Asian American writing that decenters the nation. In contrast to the cultural nationalist project of “claiming America,” the work of poets Myung Mi Kim and Cathy Park Hong “disclaims America,” establishing “Asian” spaces that refuse identification with the US while remaining implicated in, and critical of, American history and global power. Although Kim’s work at times thematizes Korean immigration to the US, it is equally engaged with the colonial history of Korea and with a broader critique of capitalism and militarism. Hong’s poetry inhabits a dystopian realm that resembles, but diverges from, the American landscape. Both evoke of diasporic identity that emerges from an understanding of global structures of power.

Antipodal Connections

Argentines often use the term “antipodes” to describe East Asia as Argentina’s geographical and cultural opposite. Within this antipodal imaginary, Asia and its people often figure in stereotypical, mythical, or unfamiliar terms. Recently, however, there has been a surge of Argentine documentary films about Koreans and Korean immigration to Argentina. Why are so many Argentine documentaries turning to these subjects and why now? This essay focuses on two films—La chica del sur (José Luis García, 2012) and Una canción coreana (Yael Tujsanider and Gustavo Tarrío, 2014)—to understand this new interest. It analyzes the films within the layered contexts from which they emerge: a post-crisis Argentina after the economic meltdown of 2001, the surge of documentary filmmaking as a response to this crisis, and the subjective/reflexive turn of documentary films. The essay argues that the films’ initial approach to their Orientalized subjects enables an exercise of reflexivity which, ultimately, moves filmmakers and audiences beyond reflexivity toward affective, antipodal connections.

Migrant Buddhists and Korean “Multiculturalism”—A Brief Survey of the Issues Surrounding Support for South Korea’s Immigrant Buddhist Communities

The three largest Korean religious organizations have worked to provide material, educational, medical, and social support to the various growing migrant communities. Among them, the Catholic community has been the most organized, sustained, and effective in its support of migrants by systematically providing for the legal, material, educational, and medical needs of various immigrant communities while advocating for their rights. Although lacking the centralized authority and organization of the Catholics, since the 1990s, Korea’s Protestants have also been active in supporting their country’s growing immigrant communities, which Evangelical churches also view as fertile grounds for proselytizing. The Korean Buddhist community, in comparison, has been slower to engage with Korea’s immigrants and has provided considerably fewer support services. In 2008, the Jogye Order organized the Maha Association for Supporting Immigrants to coordinate individual and localized Buddhist migrant support services at a national level. This article examines the Buddhist reactions to the increase in South Korean immigration over recent decades, with a focus on immigrant-support efforts supported by the Jogye Order for migrant Buddhist communities.

Residency without citizenship: Korean immigration and settlement in Australia

This article focuses on the changing quality of citizenship in Australia, which is the idealized end-point of the process of immigration, by drawing on the experience of Korean immigrants. In the formal ( political) dimension of citizenship, the article shows that Koreans fare comparatively poorly. They are less likely to be citizens than most other groups of immigrants, due to factors such as the lateness of Korean immigration. The article also analyzes the social dimension of citizenship among Koreans in Australia, and their disappointing socio-economic outcomes. Korean immigrants, I argue, enjoy residency without citizenship, and their experience illustrates how the promise of Australian citizenship has eroded. This is a significant finding, given the prominent role that immigration has played in shaping all aspects of contemporary Australia.