   |
 
|
RACE AND ETHNICITY IN EAST ASIA AND BEYOND
Columbia University
Day/Time: Thurs 1:10pm-2:25pm
Instructor: Kazuko Suzuki
Course Description
In American society, we often talk in terms of race and ethnicity. But these terms are not as simple as they may sound. By examining relations between majority and minority groups within East Asian societies together with the experiences of East Asian diasporas, this course aims to gain a better understanding of what is meant by race and ethnicity and how individuals and groups negotiate their racial and ethnic identities.
The course is divided into three parts. Part I introduces the concepts of race and ethnicity. We will explore how race does not mean only apparent physical differences and how racial and ethnic identities change over time. Part II asks how majorities and minorities are made and marked across cultural, regional, and national boundaries. We will examine issues surrounding major minority groups in East Asia to identify the various ways in which racial, ethnic, and national identities are defined, institutionalized, and reproduced in East Asia. Part III will turn to the analysis of East Asians outside their home countries. We will look at how racial, ethnic and national identities – the sense of being Japanese, Korean, and Chinese – change in different social, political, and historical contexts.
Required Texts
All required readings are on reserve in the Starr East Asian Library. A course reading pack is available to purchase at Broadway Copy Center : 3062 Broadway (at 121 st Street), Tel. 212-864-6501. All the reading materials are also on reserve in the Starr East Asian Library. The following books available at Labyrinth Books : 536 W, 112 th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam), Tel. 212-865-1588.
Kibria, Nazli. 2002. Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tsuda, Takeyuki. 2003. Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Return Migration in Transnational Perspective. New York: Columbia University Press.
Fukuoka , Yasunori. 2000. Lives of Young Koreans in Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press.
Requirements
Attendance / Participation / Weekly Memo
You are expected to do the assigned readings before class and to actively participate in class discussions. Attendance is mandatory. Excessive absence will result in a reduction of your final grade.
You will be asked to make at least one web-memo posting per week to the course website. Web-memo postings will not be individually graded but will count in the final grade. Class discussion will be based upon questions and ideas circulated as web-memos. Postings are due each Monday or Wednesday by 6:00 pm.
Presentation
Each student is expected to make one class presentation (no longer than 10 minutes). In your presentation, you are expected to react to the main issues and arguments of the assigned readings. You should also raise questions for the in-class discussion.
Midterm Exam
Essay questions will be distributed in class. Your midterm is due by 10:00 pm of the examination day (March 10). Email your answer to me (ks2303@columbia.edu) as an attachment (Microsoft Word).
Final Research Paper
Each student is required to write a final research paper that addresses any aspect of race and ethnic relations in East Asia or East Asian migrants. Students must make an appointment with the instructor to discuss their research topic no later than Week 10. Prior to that meeting, students must submit by e-mail a one-page research proposal with bibliography. The paper should be about 10 pages long (single-spaced with 1.5” left and right, 1” top and bottom margins), excluding tables, figures and bibliographies. The final paper is due by 1:00 pm on May 6. Submit a hard copy.
Grading
Class Participation and Weekly Memo 20%
Presentation 15%
Midterm Exam 20%
One-page Research Proposal 10%
Final Research Paper 35%
Important Deadlines
Weekly Web Memo Monday or Wednesday by 6:00 pm
Appointment and 1-page Research Proposal By Week 10
Midterm Exam 10:00 pm on March 10
Final Research Paper 1:00 pm on May 6
Course Schedule
I. Introduction: Terms and Concepts
WEEK 1
January 20 Course Overview
Distribution of Syllabus. Introduction to course themes and requirements.
WEEK 2
January 25 What is Race? What is Ethnicity? –Terms and Concepts
Marks, Jonathan. 1994. “□Black □White ■Other: Racial Categories are Cultural Constructs Masquerading as Biology.” Natural History December: 32-35.
Guillaumin, Colette. 1994. “’I know it’s not nice, but…’: the changing face of ‘race,’” in Racism, Sexism, Power and Ideology. London: Routledge: 99-107.
Cornell, Stephen and Douglas Hartman. 1998. “Mapping the Terrain: Definition,” in Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press: Chapter 2 (pp. 15-38).
January 27 The Changing Meanings of Race
Graves Jr., Joseph L. 1955/2002. The Emperor’s New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press: Chapters 1 & 2 (pp. 15-36).
Bonnett, Alastair. 1998. “Who was White? The Disappearance of Non-European White Identities and the Formation of European Racial Whiteness.” Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 21, No. 6: 1029-1055.
WEEK 3
February 1 Race, Ethnicity, and Identity Construction (1)
Lee, Sharon N. 1993. “Racial Classification in the U.S. Census: 1890-1990.” Racial and Ethnic Studies 17: 75-94.
Hickman, Mary J. 1998. “Reconstructing Deconstructing ‘Race’: British Political Discourses about the Irish in Britain.” Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 21, No. 2: 288-307.
Recommended Reading:
Jenkins, Richard. 1994. “Rethinking Ethnicity: Identity, Categorization and Power.” Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 17, No. 2: 197-223.
February 3 Race, Ethnicity, and Identity Construction (2)
Min, Pyong Gap and Rose Kim. 2000. “Formation of Ethnic and Racial Identities: Narratives by Young Asian-American Professionals.” Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 23, Number 4 July: 735-760.
Cornell, Stephen and Douglas Hartman. 1998. “Fixed or Fluid? Alternative Views of Ethnicity and Race,” in Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press: Chapter 3 (pp. 39-71).
II. Racial/Ethnic Formation of East Asia
WEEK 4
February 8 Migration and the Formation of Ethnic Minorities--Video viewing in class
Otomo, Katsuhiro. 1991. “World Apartment Horror.”
Pollack, David. 2000. “Aliens, Gangsters and Myth in Kon Satoshi’s World Apartment Horror,” in Japan and Global Migration, edited by Mike Douglass and Glenda S. Roberts. London: Routledge: 153-175.
Castles, Stephen and Mark J. Miller. 2003. The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World. Third Edition. New York: The Gulford Press: Chapters 2 (pp. 21-49) and 7 (pp. 154-177).
February 10 Race, Ethnicity, and Colonialism
Chou, Wan-yao. 1996. “The Kominka Movement in Taiwan and Korea: Comparisons and Interpretations” in The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931-1945, edited by Peter Duus, Ramon H. Myers, and Mark R. Peattie. Princeton: Princeton University Press: 46-68.
Chee, Choung-Il. 1983. “ Japan’s Post-war Mass Denationalization of the Korean Minority in International Law.” Korea and World Affairs Vol. 7, No. 1: 81-113.
Recommended Reading:
Chung, Young-Soo and Elise K. Tipton. 1997. “Problems of Assimilation,” in Society and the State in Interwar Japan, edited by Elise K. Tipton. London: Routledge: 169-192.
WEEK 5
February 15 Defining Japaneseness
Weiner, Michael. 1995. “Discourses of Race, Nation and Empire in pre-1945 Japan.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3, July: 433-456.
Befu, Harumi. 1993. “Nationalism and Nihonjinron,” in Cultural Nationalism in East Asia: Representation and Identity. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies: 107-135.
Fukuoka , Yasunori. 2000. Lives of Young Koreans in Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press: xxvii-xxxviii.
February 17 Prejudice against Minorities (1)
Siddle, Richard. 1997. “The Ainu and the Discourse of ‘Race,’” in The Constriction of Racial Identity in China and Japan , edited by Frank Dikötter, Frank: pp. 136-157.
Tairo, Koji. 1997. “Troubled National Identity: the Ryukyuans /Okinawans,” in Japan’s Minorities edited by Michael Weiner: 140-177.
Howell, David L. 2004. “Making ‘Useful Citizens’ of Ainu Subjects in Early Twentieth-Century Japan.” Journal of Asian Studies 63, No.1: 5-29.
WEEK 6
February 22 Prejudice against Minorities (2)
Neary, Ian. 1997. “Burakumin in Contemporary Japan,” in Japan’s Minorities edited by Michael Weiner: 50-78.
Fukuoka , Yasunori. 2000. Lives of Young Koreans in Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press: Chapters 10-12 (pp. 155-178).
Herzog, Peter. 1995. “33. Minorities (from Chapter 4 – Japan’s Pseudo-Democracy).” In The Making of Modern Japan: A Reader, edited by Tim Megarry. Greenwich University Press: 552-572.
February 24 Adaptation of Old-comer Immigrants
Fukuoka , Yasunori. 2000. Lives of Young Koreans in Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press: Chapters 3 (pp. 42-60) & 6-7 (pp. 101-128).
WEEK 7
March 1 Adaptation of Newcomer Immigrants
Tsuda, Takeyuki. 2003. Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland: Chapters 1-2 (pp. 455-151) & 6 (pp. 323-354).
March 3 Migration and Deterritorialized Nationalism
Tsuda, Takeyuki. 2003. Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland: Chapters 3 & 4 (pp. 155-260).
WEEK 8
March 8 Defining Koreanness
Moon, Katherine H.S. 2000. “Strangers in the Midst of Globalization: Migrant Workers and Korean Nationalism.” In Korea’s Globalization, edited by Samuel S. Kim. New York: Cambridge University Press: 147-169.
Fukuoka , Yasunori. 2000. Lives of Young Koreans in Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press: Chapters 4-5 (pp. 61-100), 8 (pp.129-143) & 13 (pp.179-187).
Ryang, Sonia. 1993. “Poverty of Language and the Reproduction of Ideology: Korean Language for Chongryun.” Journal of Asian and African Studies XXVIII 3-4: 230-242.
March 10 Midterm Examination
DEADLINE: 10:00 pm, by email.
WEEK 9
Spring Break -- No class
DEADLINE: Appointment & 1-page Research Proposal
WEEK 10
March 22 Defining Chineseness
Sautman, Barry. 1997. “Myths of Descent, Racial Nationalism and Ethnic Minorities in the People’s Republic of China,” in The Construction of Racial Identity in China and Japan , edited by Frank Dikötter: 75-95.
Dikötter, Frank. 1990. “Group Definition and the Idea of ‘Race’ in Modern China (1793-1949).” Ethnic and Racial Studies 13(3): 420-432.
March 24 Minorities in China
Mackerras, Colin. 1996. China’s Minority Cultures: Identities and Integration Since 1912. New York: Longman-St.Martin’s Press: Chapters 6-7 (pp. 109-132, 133-157).
III. East Asian Diasporas
WEEK 11
March 29 The Chinese Diaspora
Tu, Wei-ming, ed. 1994. The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today. Stanford: Stanford University Press: Chapters 7 (pp. 148-166) and 9 (pp.185-212).
March 31 Ethnic Identity and Citizenship
Ong, Aihwa, “Flexible Citizenship Among Chinese Cosmopolitans” in Cosmopolitics ed. by Pheng Cheah and Bruce Robbins. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 134-162.
Portes, Alejandro and Ruben G. Rumbaut. 1996. “ From Immigrants to Ethnics,” in Immigrant America: A Portrait. Second Edition. Berkeley: University of California Press: Chapter 4 (pp. 93-140).
WEEK 12
April 5 The Korean Diaspora
Min, Pyong Gap. 1992. ”A Comparison of the Korean Minorities in China and Japan.” International Migration Review 26: 4-20.
Park, Kyeyoung. 1997. The Korean American Dream: Immigrants and Small Business in New York City. Ithaca: Cornell University Press: Chapters 3 (36-67) and 7 (pp. 139-154).
April 7 Asians in the United States: Model Minority
Kibria, Nazli. 2002. Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: Chapters 1 & 2 (pp. 1-66)
WEEK 13
April 12 & 14 Negotiating Racial, Ethnic Identity (1) – Video viewing in class and discussion
Wang, Wayne. 1993. “Joy Luck Club” (135 minutes)
Lowe, Lisa. 1991. “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Making Asian American Differences.” Diaspora Vol. 1, No. 1: 24-44.
Kibria, Nazli. 2002. Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: Chapter 6 (pp. 159-196)
WEEK 14
April 19 Negotiating Racial, Ethnic Identity (2)
Kibria, Nazli. 2002. Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: Chapters 3 & 4 (pp. 67-130)
April 21 Panethnicity
Chan, Kenyon S. and Shirley Hune. 1995. “Racialization and Panethnicity: From Asians in America to Asian Americans.” In Toward a Common Destiny: Improving Race and Ethnic Relations in America, edited by Willis D. Hawley, and Anthony W. Jackson. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers: 205-233.
Espiritu, Yen Le. 1992. Asian American Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions and Identities. Philadelphia: Temple University Press: Chapters 5-6 (pp. 112-160).
WEEK 15
April 26 Symbolic Ethnicity
Tsuda, Takeyuki. 2003. Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland: Chapter 5 (pp. 263-321).
Gans, Herbert. 1979. “Symbolic Ethnicity: The Future of Ethnic Groups and Cultures in America.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 2: 1-20.
Hobsbawm, Eric J. 1983. “Introduction,” in The Invention of Tradition, edited by E. Hobsbawm and T Ranger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1-14.
April 28 Wrap-up: Toward Critical Thinking of Racial/ Ethnic Formation
Nagel, Joane. 1994. “Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture.” Social Problems Vol.41, No.1, February: 152-176.
Cerulo, Karen A. 1997. “Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions.” Annual Review of Sociology 23: 385-409.
May 6 DEADLINE: Final Research Paper, 1:00 pm (submit a hard copy)