DOCSLIB.ORG

•Œin the Future of Any Third Powerâ•Š

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
•Œin the Future of Any Third Powerâ•Š Bascara FINAL.docx (Do Not Delete) 9/25/2014 9:33 AM “In the future to any third power”: “Most favored nations,” Personhood, and an Emergent World Order in Yick Wo v. Hopkins Victor Bascara† Through a discourse analysis of the 1886 decision of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, this Essay critically examines the decision’s capacity to provide terms for reconciling a coming global order with the political protections of the Constitution, especially the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment. That reconciliation involves the protected rights of Chinese launderers in San Francisco. The key terms used in the decision are “person” and “most favored nation,” and the Supreme Court crucially applies these concepts to fit “aliens and subjects of the emperor of China” as well as “China,” respectively. The decision represents a successful test of the equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment; Yick Wo expanded the terms of civil rights protections to encompass not only codified discrimination but also practiced discrimination that occurred even in the absence of explicit racial laws. This Essay argues that the decision also makes visible a convergence between claims, on the one hand, for the equal protection of the minority groups who have suffered discrimination and, on the other hand, for an assertion of equality between nations who had signed a treaty to ensure that equal treatment. The Angell Treaty between China and the United States, dated November 17, 1880, granted each “most favored nation” status. The right of the petitioners to operate laundries was therefore protected by that compact, and the majority decision explicitly invoked that agreement as well as the Fourteenth Amendment. The equal protection of persons, as such, under the Fourteenth Amendment and of the terms of equality concomitant with “most favored nation” status, come to figure the rationale of the current world order of neoliberalism under globalization. Just as the concept of the equally protected person has been the championed entity of enlightenment liberalism, the concept of the most favored nation is the protected entity of neoliberalism and global trade. By rereading the Yick Wo decision within the genealogy of † Associate Professor, Department of Asian American Studies, University of California– Los Angeles. Thanks to David Hernandez, Randall Williams, and especially Keith Camacho for comments on a much earlier version of this Essay. And many thanks to the perceptive, thoughtful, and patient, editors of the Asian American Law Journal. 177 Bascara FINAL.docx (Do Not Delete) 9/25/2014 9:33 AM 178 ASIAN AMERICAN LAW JOURNAL [Volume 21:177 globalization, we see how a prominent exercise of “official anti-racism”1 for protecting persons under the Fourteenth Amendment aligns with a coming world order of the globally pervasive “normal trade relations”2 of our times. INTRODUCTION: REGRETTABLE ACTS ....................................................... 178 I. CONVERGENT ARGUMENTS OF YICK WO V. HOPKINS ........................ 181 II. EQUALITY AND THE IDEA OF THE “MOST FAVORED NATION” .......... 186 III. YICK WO AND THE AGE OF EMPIRE ................................................... 194 CONCLUSION: YICK WO AS AN EXERCISE OF OFFICIAL ANTI-RACISM ..... 202 CODA ........................................................................................................ 206 INTRODUCTION: REGRETTABLE ACTS Coming just four years after the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the Yick Wo v. Hopkins decision ruled in favor of the Chinese immigrant laundry workers and against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The decision had the potential of being the beginning of improved legal conditions for the Chinese in America. Or, it might have been a progressive anomaly in a long record of political and legislative acts that otherwise “adversely affected people of Chinese origin in the United States because of their ethnicity,” to borrow the phrasing of a June 18, 2012 U.S. House of Representatives resolution.3 As this House resolution demonstrates, history has provided abundant evidence to convince the House that Yick Wo was more likely an anomaly. That is, the House unanimously passed House Resolution 683, “[e]xpressing the regret of the House of Representatives for the passage of laws that adversely affected the Chinese in the United States, including the Chinese Exclusion Act,”4 a measure made possible through the determined work of Congresswoman Judy Chu, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was a high-water mark for exclusionary legislation that effectively closed off immigration by Chinese laborers to the United States. It was initially set for a renewable term of ten years and was renewed at the close of its first decade. The 1882 Act and its renewal in 1892 serve as compelling evidence of pervasive anti-Chinese sentiment in United States law and culture. Anti-Chinese sentiment was widespread in that era,5 and thanks to Representative Chu and CAPAC’s 1. This term comes from JODI MELAMED, REPRESENT AND DESTROY: RATIONALIZING VIOLENCE IN THE NEW RACIAL CAPITALISM, at xvii, xvi-xviii, 1–4 (2011). 2. “Normal trade relations” is the term that has come to replace the synonymous “most favored nation.” 3. H. Res. 683 (2012), available at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hres683/text. 4. H. Res. 683 (2012), available at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hres683/text. 5. The language of Yick Wo v. Hopkins indicates this anti-Chinese sentiment with its recognition of “notorious public and municipal history of the times, indicate a purpose to drive out the Chinese Bascara FINAL.docx (Do Not Delete) 9/25/2014 9:33 AM 2014] “IN THE FUTURE TO ANY THIRD POWER” 179 work, that part of history is now better known in our era.6 What then could explain how the rights of aliens, who were otherwise ineligible for citizenship and subjected to “adverse” legislation, were defended by the highest court in the land in Yick Wo? This Essay analyzes the argument, logic, and rhetoric of Yick Wo to consider the significance of a moment when the Supreme Court elaborated on the meaning of equality before the law, even when those before the law were aliens ineligible for citizenship. Despite their lack of citizenship, the petitioners were nevertheless considered “persons” under both the Fourteenth Amendment and the Angell Treaty between the United States and China. In basing its argument on both the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection provisions and the Angell Treaty’s invocation of the “most favored nation” clause, Yick Wo represents an early, explicit convergence between notions of geopolitical equality among nations and of the individual equality among persons, irrespective of national or imperial affiliation. In other words, the decision presents a compelling articulation of the symbiotic relationship between notions of national sovereignty in an international order (as articulated by the Angell Treaty) and notions of individual rights (as articulated by the Fourteenth Amendment). This symbiosis signals a prescient formulation of what we would now recognize as a commitment to tenets of the set of ideas, values, and practices that have come to be called neoliberalism, the set of principles that involve such developments as financial and market liberalization, deregulation, and the management of world order through multilateralism and free trade agreements.7 While this relationship between national and individual sovereignty may be symbiotic, it is not necessarily symmetrical. We could also assess whether the decision may be understood as primarily based in one argument over the other: we can consider the varying degrees to which national sovereignty served as the basis for claiming protected personhood or whether the concept of personhood provided the terms for respecting national sovereignty. Indeed, as I will analyze below, the argumentation of the decision itself provides abundant reason to reach the above conclusion of a symbiotic relationship; the bulk of the decision focuses on whether the San Francisco Board of Supervisors violated the civil rights of the defendants guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment rather than those Angell Treaty laundrymen, and not merely to regulate the business for the public safety.” And they even pose the rhetorical question, “Can a court be so blind to what must be necessarily known to every intelligent person in the state?” Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 363 (1886). 6. This critical insight is a foundational premise of the field of Asian American Studies. See Mike Murase, Ethnic Studies: Higher Education for Asian Americans, in EMMA GEE ET AL., COUNTERPOINT: PERSPECTIVES ON ASIAN AMERICA 202-223 (1976); see also RONALD TAKAKI, STRANGERS FROM A DIFFERENT SHORE: A HISTORY OF ASIAN AMERICANS 3–18 (1989). 7. This definition of neoliberalism is adapted from MELAMED, supra note 1. Bascara FINAL.docx (Do Not Delete) 9/25/2014 9:33 AM 180 ASIAN AMERICAN LAW JOURNAL [Volume 21:177 provisions that resonated with the protections of individual rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.8 This Essay suggests that the Yick Wo decision demonstrates how the convergence between claims for, on one hand, the equal protection of minority groups who have suffered discrimination and, on the other, an assertion of equality between nations who had signed a treaty to ensure that equal treatment, is an early example of the defense of neoliberal globalization. Making such a claim of geopolitical
Load more

Recommended publications
  • M6 Memorial Resolution Honoring Judy Yung
    2020-2021 ALA Memorial #6 2021 ALA Virtual Midwinter Meeting A Memorial Resolution Honoring Judy Yung Whereas the American Library Association (ALA), the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), and the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) lost a valued colleague on December 22, 2020, with the death of Judy Yung; Whereas Judy Yung worked as a librarian for the Chinatown branch of the San Francisco Public Library; and the Asian branch of the Oakland Public Library focusing on collection development in Asian American Studies early in her career; she was a scholar and historian; and established the Asian American Studies program at University of California, Santa Cruz; Whereas Yung received a Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies; and Master of Arts in Library Science from the University of California, Berkeley; and a Bachelor of arts in English Literature and Chinese from San Francisco State University; and Whereas Yung was a mentor and friend to many library workers, students, educators and historians over the years; Yung published over ten books focusing on the experiences of Chinese immigrants; Chinese American women; and Asian American history and studies; her publications and scholarship garnered many awards and accolades; Yung was a prolific scholar; a library advocate; and a true pioneer in librarianship and the field of history; now, there, be it Resolved, that the American Library Association (ALA), on behalf of its members: 1. recognizes the significant contributions and accomplishments of Judy Yung over the course of her career and mourns her death; and 2. extends its sincerest condolences to her friends and family.
    [Show full text]
  • The White Slave Trade and the Yellow Peril: Anti-Chinese Rhetoric and Women's Moral Authority a Thesis Submitted to the Depart
    The White Slave Trade and the Yellow Peril: Anti-Chinese Rhetoric and Women’s Moral Authority A thesis submitted to the Department of History, Miami University, in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for Honors in History by Hannah E. Zmuda May 2021 Oxford, Ohio Abstract Despite the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s cultural preoccupation with white women’s sexual vulnerability, another phenomenon managed to take hold of public consciousness: “yellow slavery.” Yellow slavery was the variation of white slavery (known today as sex trafficking) that described the practice when Asian women were the victims. This thesis attempts to determine several of the reasons why Chinese women were included as victims in an otherwise exclusively white victim pool. One of the central reasons was the actual existence of the practice, which this thesis attempts to verify through the critical examination of found contracts and testimony of Chinese women. However, beyond just the existence of the practice of yellow slavery, many individuals used the sexual exploitation of Chinese women for their own cultural, religious, and political ends. Anti-Chinese agitators leveraged the image of the Chinese slave girl to frame anti-Chinese efforts as anti-slavery efforts, as well as to depict Chinese immigrants as incapable of assimilating into American culture and adhering to American ideals of freedom. Additionally, white missionaries created mission homes to shelter and protect the Chinese women and girls escaping white slavery. However, within these homes, the missionaries were then able to push their perceived cultural and religious superiority by pushing the home’s inmates into their ideals of Protestant, middle-class, white womanhood.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Chapter (PDF)
    ACKNOWL EDGMENTS This book began many years ago when Lisa Yoneyama invited me to consider the issue of “comfort women” for a session that she or ga nized for the annual meeting of the American Studies Association. I had been very ambivalent and even a little skeptical about the passionate investment in the issue and the consequent will to represent this history on the part of Korean/American art- ists, writers, and scholars, myself included. That session pushed me to unpack and articulate the contours of my unease and, more consequentially, brought me together with Lisa and Kandice Chuh for what has turned out to be a most generative, sustaining friendship and intellectual exchange in the many years since. This book would not exist without their steadfast support and much- needed interventions. Their scholarly brilliance and critical grace continue to inspire me to try harder. From my first book to this book, Lisa Lowe has provided me with a singular model of broad intellectual engagement and deep thinking. I would like to thank the friends who have sustained me by sharing the joys of good food, wine, music, and laughter in SoCal: Brian Albert, Eve Oishi, Sheri Ozeki, Cindy Cheng, Rachel Park, Jenny Terry, Surina Khan, Catherine Sameh, Lucy Burns, Anjali Arondekar, Christine Balance, Patty Ahn, Arlene Keizer, Alex Juhasz, Rachel Lee, Gabe Spera, David Wong Louie, Jackie Louie, Juliet Williams, Ali Behdad, Kathleen McHugh, Yong Soon Min, David Lloyd, Sarita See, and Karen Tongson. Brian, Eve, Cindy, and Lucy took very good care of me when I needed it most.
    [Show full text]
  • American Book Awards 2004
    BEFORE COLUMBUS FOUNDATION PRESENTS THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS 2004 America was intended to be a place where freedom from discrimination was the means by which equality was achieved. Today, American culture THE is the most diverse ever on the face of this earth. Recognizing literary excel- lence demands a panoramic perspective. A narrow view strictly to the mainstream ignores all the tributaries that feed it. American literature is AMERICAN not one tradition but all traditions. From those who have been here for thousands of years to the most recent immigrants, we are all contributing to American culture. We are all being translated into a new language. BOOK Everyone should know by now that Columbus did not “discover” America. Rather, we are all still discovering America—and we must continue to do AWARDS so. The Before Columbus Foundation was founded in 1976 as a nonprofit educational and service organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature. The goals of BCF are to provide recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing. BCF has always employed the term “multicultural” not as a description of an aspect of American literature, but as a definition of all American litera- ture. BCF believes that the ingredients of America’s so-called “melting pot” are not only distinct, but integral to the unique constitution of American Culture—the whole comprises the parts. In 1978, the Board of Directors of BCF (authors, editors, and publishers representing the multicultural diversity of American Literature) decided that one of its programs should be a book award that would, for the first time, respect and honor excellence in American literature without restric- tion or bias with regard to race, sex, creed, cultural origin, size of press or ad budget, or even genre.
    [Show full text]
  • Images of America: San Francisco's Chinatown
    Bulletin CHINESE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA | JULY AUGUST 2006 | VOL. 42, NO. 4 July/ Images of America: August San Francisco’s Chinatown 2006 CALENDAR OF CHSA t last! Arcadia Publishing’s EVENTS & EXHIBITS Apopular Images of America CHSA Summer series has finally released a book Youth Programs for San Francisco’s Chinatown, Details on page 4. authored and edited by historian Judy Yung and the Chinese August 12 Images of Historical Society of America. America: San Francisco’s Drawing from private collections Chinatown Book Launch Party Celebrate the release of the new and public archives, the images pictorial publication by CHSA. and accompanying text and cap- CHSA Museum, 1-4 pm. tions tell the historical and cultural story of the oldest and most August 29 Chop Suey famous Chinatown in the world. on Wax: The Flower Drum Song “I wanted to show how this Album exhibition opens. place that visitors see as foreign September 9 Our and exotic is, in fact, a vibrant History Is Still Being Written: The Chinese American neighborhood Story of Three Chinese-Cuban with a complex history and rich cul- for survival against racial hostility, Generals in the Cuban Revolution tural legacy,” explains Yung, profes- Exclusion laws, two major earth- Panel discussion with Ling-Chi sor emeritus of American Studies quakes, and urban redevelopment.” Wang and Felicia Lowe. Co-spon- sored by Pathfinder Press and SF at the University of California, The book also features a street Eastwind Books. CHSA Learning Santa Cruz and a native of San map listing key sites that are men- Center, time TBA.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Profession (S): Historian, Librarian, Author, Professor Education: BA, English Literature, San Francisco State University; M
    Name in English: Judy Yung Name in Chinese: 楊碧芳 Name in Pinyin: Yang Bi-fang ?? Gender: Female Birth Year: 1946 Birth Place: San Francisco, CA Philanthropy: Yes Profession (s): Historian, Librarian, Author, Professor Education: BA, English Literature, San Francisco State University; Masters, Library Science University of California, Berkeley; Ph. D., Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley Award(s): In 1982, Judy Yung and her co-authors shared the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award for their book, 1910-1940 (Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, 1980). In 1996, the Association for Asian American studies (AAAS) gave Yung the History Award for her novel Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco. Contribution(s): Judy Yung worked for ten years as a librarian at the Chinatown Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, as well as the Asian Branch of the Oakland Public Library. Through her work as a librarian, Yung fostered the development of Asian language materials and Asian American interest publications. Yung also worked as associate editor of East West Chinese American Weekly where she honed her skills as a journalist and furthered her investigation of the Chinese-American community. Yung then moved on to author many well respected books about Chinese Americans, especially Chinese American women, and Chinese American history. Yung retired as a Professor Emerita of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she specialized in Asian American and Asian American women’s
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded At
    CROSSCURRENTS 2004-2005 Vol. 28, No. 1 (2004-2005) CrossCurrents Newsmagazine of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center Center Honors Community Leaders and Celebrates New Department at 36th Anniversary Dinner MARCH 5, 2005—At its 36th anniversary dinner, held in Covel Commons at UCLA, the Center honored commu- nity leaders and activists for their pursuit of peace and justice. Over 400 Center supporters attended the event, which was emceed by MIKE ENG, mayor of Monterey Park and UCLA School of Law alumnus. PATRICK AND LILY OKURA of Bethesda, Maryland, who both recently passed away, sponsored the event. The Okuras established the Patrick and Lily Okura En- dowment for Asian American Mental Health Research at UCLA and were long involved with the Center and other organizations, including the Japanese American Citizens League and the Asian American Psychologists Association. Honorees included: SOUTH ASIAN NETWORK, a community-based nonprofit or- ganization dedicated to promoting health and empow- erment of South Asians in Southern California. PRosY ABARQUEZ-DELACRUZ, a community activist and vol- unteer, and ENRIQUE DELA CRUZ, a professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Northridge, The late Patrick and Lily Okura. and UCLA alumnus. SUELLEN CHENG, curator at El Pueblo de Los Angeles standing Book Award. Historical Monument, executive director of the Chinese UCLA Law Professor JERRY KANG, a member of the Center’s American Museum, and UCLA alumna, and MUNSON A. Faculty Advisory Committee, delivered a stirring keynote WOK K , an active volunteer leader in Southern California address. TRITIA TOYOTA, former broadcast journalist and for more than thirty years.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese American Women, Identity and Education: a Qualitative Study
    Syracuse University SURFACE Cultural Foundations of Education - Dissertations & Theses School of Education 5-2012 Chinese American Women, Identity and Education: A Qualitative Study Qing Li Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/cfe_etd Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Li, Qing, "Chinese American Women, Identity and Education: A Qualitative Study" (2012). Cultural Foundations of Education - Dissertations & Theses. 53. https://surface.syr.edu/cfe_etd/53 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Education at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cultural Foundations of Education - Dissertations & Theses by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT This qualitative study explores how Chinese American women, as American- born children of new Chinese immigrants, have perceived and interpreted who they are, and how they become who they are while adapting to American society and negotiating with the interplay of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Drawing on in- depth interviews with twenty-seven Chinese American women from two universities located on the East Coast, I argue that their segmented assimilation processes involving ongoing negotiations between maintaining ties with their ethnic and cultural backgrounds and selective integration into the mainstream of the society, which, to some extent, are subject to and predetermined by their parents‘ pre- and post- migration conditions. At the same time, my participants also struggled with how their self-defined ethnic identity intertwined with a socially constructed racial identity. My data show multiple settlement patterns among new Chinese immigrants, including traditional ethnic enclaves, and suburban white areas as well as a diverse class composition of college-educated professionals, small business owners, and working-class laborers.
    [Show full text]
  • This Book Began Many Years Ago When Lisa Yoneyama Invited Me to Consider the Issue Of
    ACKNOWL EDGMENTS This book began many years ago when Lisa Yoneyama invited me to consider the issue of “comfort women” for a session that she or ga nized for the annual meeting of the American Studies Association. I had been very ambivalent and even a little skeptical about the passionate investment in the issue and the consequent will to represent this history on the part of Korean/American art- ists, writers, and scholars, myself included. That session pushed me to unpack and articulate the contours of my unease and, more consequentially, brought me together with Lisa and Kandice Chuh for what has turned out to be a most generative, sustaining friendship and intellectual exchange in the many years since. This book would not exist without their steadfast support and much- needed interventions. Their scholarly brilliance and critical grace continue to inspire me to try harder. From my first book to this book, Lisa Lowe has provided me with a singular model of broad intellectual engagement and deep thinking. I would like to thank the friends who have sustained me by sharing the joys of good food, wine, music, and laughter in SoCal: Brian Albert, Eve Oishi, Sheri Ozeki, Cindy Cheng, Rachel Park, Jenny Terry, Surina Khan, Catherine Sameh, Lucy Burns, Anjali Arondekar, Christine Balance, Patty Ahn, Arlene Keizer, Alex Juhasz, Rachel Lee, Gabe Spera, David Wong Louie, Jackie Louie, Juliet Williams, Ali Behdad, Kathleen McHugh, Yong Soon Min, David Lloyd, Sarita See, and Karen Tongson. Brian, Eve, Cindy, and Lucy took very good care of me when I needed it most.
    [Show full text]
  • ARCL WSS Corebks 1999.Pdf (1.111Mb)
    AGING by Nancy Seale Osborn, revised by Jacquelyn Marie ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES WOMEN’S STUDIES SECTION Collection Development & Bibliography Committee Core Lists General Editors: Megan Adams and Bernice Redfern Distributed by the University of Wisconsin System Women’s Studies Librarian’s Office, 430 Memorial Library, 728 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706; email: [email protected] January 1999 This list is limited to titles about women and aging in the United States and other countries. All titles are found in the 1998/1999 BOOKS IN PRINT. The most essential works are starred. Jo Alexander et al., eds. WOMEN AND AGING: AN ANTHOLOGY BY WOMEN. Corvallis, OR: Calyx Books, 1986. $28.95, pap. $15.95. Kathleen Dee Ahern, THE OLDER WOMAN: THE ABLE SELF. New York: Garland, 1996. $15.00. Jessie Allen and Alan Pifer, WOMEN ON THE FRONT LINES: MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF AN AGING AMERICA. Washington: Urban Institute Press, 1993. $22.95. Sara Arber, GENDER AND LATER LIFE: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF RESOURCES AND CONSTRAINTS. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991. $69.95, pap. $19.95. Amanda Smith Barusch, OLDER WOMEN IN POVERTY: PRIVATE LIVES AND PUBLIC POLICIES. New York: Springer, 1994. $38.95 Marilyn J. Bell, WOMEN AS ELDERS: THE FEMINIST POLITICS OF AGING. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1987. $24.95, pap. $9.95. Ruth Bonita, WOMEN, AGING & HEALTH; ACHIEVING HEALTH ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1996. $10.80. * Colette Browne, WOMEN, FEMINISM, AND AGING. New York: Springer, 1998. $49.95. Jennifer K. Coplon, SINGLE OLDER WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE: BY NECESSITY, OR CHOICE? New York: Garland, 1997.
    [Show full text]
  • Course Syllabus
    ASAMST 121 (CN 19043) Prof. Harvey Dong Spring Semester 2020 522 Barrows Office Hours: Tue., 11am-12pm & by appt. [email protected] ​ Asian American & Asian Diaspora Studies 121: History of the Chinese in the US Course Description. This course covers the entire history of the Chinese in the U.S., from the Gold Rush period in ​ mid-l9th century to the present. Since Chinese immigration and exclusion are two continuous processes throughout this history, both will be the focus of the course. The two processes and their interaction with each other also generated considerable political, economic, and cultural dynamism in the settlement and development of the Chinese American community throughout the U.S. Adding to the complexity of the two processes and the community dynamics has been the continuous impact of the volatile diplomatic relations between China and the U.S. and the ever-present tension and multi-level interactions between the Chinese American community and its homeland, including, the clan, village, county, province, and China, as a nation and a culture. Finally, since Chinese have settled in over 140 countries throughout the world, the continuous Chinese immigration has brought Chinese from Latin America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe to the U.S., contributing not only to the diversity and hybridity in the Chinese American population but also to a growing global networks, connections, interactions, and cross-fertilization for Chinese Americans. Globalization and global influence of the U.S. have had a tremendous impact on the Chinese diaspora at the grassroots level, at the center of which are the Chinese in the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • The Incorporation of Chinese Literature in Modern American Poetry
    INNOVATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS: THE INCORPORATION OF CHINESE LITERATURE IN MODERN AMERICAN POETRY By JAMES INNIS MCDOUGALL A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2007 1 © 2007 James Innis McDougall 2 To Liulu and Colin 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank Liulu for sustaining this project by pointing to dreams that shift and reform again and again like clouds on far horizons, turning the constant trudge on the everyday cracked concrete to a dance upon the grace notes of Fortuna’s strathspeys (a strathspey is a working song, such that as you labor the music coaxes you along). Wee Colin, xiao Benzheng, the early one, I want to thank for showing me the conspiracy of ocean currents in one caul- obscured wail. I am grateful always to my mother, father, brothers, sister, brother-in-law, nieces, and nephews for the endless lessons in poetics—Here’s tae us! Wha’s like us!?! Damn few and they’re a’ deid! I offer my deepest, most sincere thanks to my dissertation committee chair, Marsha Bryant, who led me to the gates of this word horde, piloting me through many a treacherous byway, and for giving me a true apprenticeship in the crafts of scholarship and writing. Finally, I would like to thank C.K. Shih, Malini Schueller, and Susan Hegeman; it is an honor and a privilege to work with them; their encouragement, questions, insights, and guidance helped me to mature as a scholar.
    [Show full text]