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Mixed Race Asian Subjectivities and Genres of the Self University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2019-04-29 Mixed Race Asian Subjectivities and Genres of the Self Mah-Vierling, Jade Aliya Mah-Vierling, J. A. (2019). Mixed Race Asian Subjectivities and Genres of the Self (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110297 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Mixed Race Asian Subjectivities and Genres of the Self by Jade Aliya Mah-Vierling A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA APRIL, 2019 © Jade Aliya Mah-Vierling 2019 Abstract Through the work of life writing, this thesis examines representations of mixed race Asian subjectivity. Although the idea of “race” is a social construct with no biological essence, race continues to be enacted through racism and racialization, making it “real” through embodied experiences and systemic inequalities. Through my exploration of genres such as memoir, biotext and documentary, this thesis sheds light on the disruptive potentials of multiracial discourse when it comes to ideas of race, identity and nation. The mixed race subjects depicted in these texts create ruptures in these settled categories of belonging by transgressing their boundaries and in doing so, pointing out their constructedness. However, in other moments, these constructs remain intact, holding the mixed race subject inside a particular category that may not align with her or his self- identity. In All Our Father’s Relations, for example, the Musqueam-Chinese Grant siblings are forced out of the racial category of “Indigenous” and into that of “Chinese” due to the gendered, patriarchal language of the Indian Act. Differently, for Diamond Grill’s narrator, he is able to let moments of racial misrecognition “ride” by choosing to slip beneath normative configurations of race and nation while he attempts to understand his racialized experiences. Finally, in Hapa Girl: A Memoir, May-lee and Jeff Chai slip in and out of particular racial and cultural spaces as they internalize the labeling of their bodies. Ultimately, these racialized experiences inform how the mixed race subject sees and produces her or his “self” through the work of life writing. !ii This thesis is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Jade Mah-Vierling. !iii Acknowledgements Firstly, I wish to thank my parents, Zeva and Curtis, who have supported me endlessly in every way possible. Thank you for always believing in me. I thank my brother, Kale, for his support which came in various forms. I will always think back fondly on our carpools to campus. I wish to honour my grandparents, Norman, Janet, and Judy; my great- grandmothers, Allie and Mei Ching; and my great-grandfathers, Nick and Kim Yew, whom I never met but who have had a great influence on my life nonetheless. I am indebted to all of you for your perseverance, hard work and thriftiness in the face of adversity. I am proud to call you family. I give profound thanks to my supervisor, Larissa Lai. Thank you for your time, patience, guidance and support. I feel incredibly honoured to have learned from such a brilliant mind and human being. I thank Aruna Srivastava for support early on in my graduate degree and for providing me with opportunities to expand my knowledge. I give thanks to my wonderful Master’s Committee: Aruna Srivastava, Larissa Lai, Nancy Janovicek and Rain Prud’homme-Cranford. I express my sincere gratitude for the financial support I received in the form of awards and scholarships throughout my graduate studies. Finally, I give thanks to all the friends, family members and colleagues who helped me along the way. I am incredibly grateful to be surrounded by such intelligent, inspirational and supportive people. I can’t thank you enough. !iv Table of Contents Title Page…………………………………………………………………………………..i Abstract………………………………………………………………………………..…..ii Preface……………………………………………………………..…………….……….iii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….…iv Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………….……v List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………..vi Epigraph…..….…………………………………………………………………………..vii INTRODUCTION…….……………………………………………………………….….1 Trajectory of this Thesis………………………………………………………….14 CHAPTER 1: Multiraciality and Racialized Bodies: Identity as a Process of Being and Becoming…..……………………………….……………………………………………19 Pheneticization and Racial Feelings…………………………………………..…26 Racial Fantasy……………………………………………………………………32 The Problem of Appropriation……………………………………….……..……37 Fear of the Racial “Other”……………………………………………………….39 CHAPTER 2: The Politics of ‘Faking It’: Making Space for Mixed Race Identity in the Biotext……………………………………………………………………………………46 “Passing”…………………………………………………………………………60 The Idea of Nation……………………………………………………………….65 The Hyphen………………………………………………………………………67 CHAPTER 3: Patriarchal Racism and the Indian Act: Holding onto Indigeneity through Multiraciality……………………………………………………………………………..73 Documentary and Orality…………………………………….…………………..84 Animation and Directed Memory………………………………………………..91 CONCLUSION……….……………………………………………………………….…98 Works Cited………………………………………………………………….…………104 !v List of Illustrations Fig. 1 ………………………………………………………………………………….…56 Fig. 2……………………………………………………………………………………..83 Fig. 3……………………………………………………………………………………..94 !vi “Who are you?” said the caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation: Alice replied rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since that.” “What do you mean by that?” said the caterpillar, “explain yourself!” “I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir,” said Alice, “because I’m not myself, you see.” - Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures Underground !vii INTRODUCTION: This thesis examines mixed race subjectivity through May-lee Chai’s narrative, Hapa Girl: A Memoir, Fred Wah’s biotext, Diamond Grill, and Alejandro Yoshizawa and Sarah Ling’s documentary film, All Our Father’s Relations. Through these modes of life writing, the mixed race subjects are able to represent their racialized identities and experiences. Not only this, but in seeking to represent the “self” through writing, they also participate in the act of creating the self, calling it into being. However, for the mixed race subject, identity formation is oftentimes complicated by acts of racialization and misrecognition when these labels do not align with how the subject sees him/herself. This project explores these fraught, racialized moments and their disruptive potential when it comes to subverting rigid, hegemonic modes of categorization. In recent scholarship on race and alliance building between diverse groups, acknowledging one’s self location has become increasingly important. As Linda Alcoff writes, “where one speaks from affects the meaning and truth of what one says, and thus … one cannot assume an ability to transcend one’s location” (6-7). It is therefore essential that we “interrogate the bearing of our location” on our discursive practices (Alcoff 25). Thus, I will begin this project by locating myself. As a mixed race person with Chinese, German and Ukrainian heritage, I am often racialized due to my phenotypical ambiguity, but never as “white.” In Canada, my white half remains uninteresting as whiteness is seen as monolithic and “either normal or invisible” (Mahtani 143). Like many other multiracials, I am often subjected to the cliché, objectifying “What !1 are you?” question that may appear innocent, but actually works to deny Canadianness and my ability to belong in certain spaces. My undertaking of this project has very much to do with my desire to understand my own experiences as a mixed race person as well as the larger, systemic inequalities that continue to privilege certain modes of being. At the same time, I must acknowledge my own complicity in this on-going colonial project through the privileges that I amass as a Canadian citizen. As an inhabitant of Calgary, I live on and attend university on Treaty 7 land appropriated from the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations) (UofC n.p.). Moreover, as Enakshi Dua states, in order to locate herself at the beginning of her article with Bonita Lawrence (Mi’kmaw), “I have rights and privileges that are not only denied to Aboriginal peoples collectively, but have been deployed to deny Aboriginal rights to self government” (238). What Dua is referring to above are the “generations of policies specifically formulated with the goal of destroying [Indigenous] communities and fragmenting … identities” (Lawrence and Dua 236). Keeping my privileges in mind, it is not my intention to speak for or about the Indigenous characters (or any characters for that matter) represented in my literary texts or in Alejandro Yoshizawa and Sarah Ling’s documentary,
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