Imagining Asia in the Americas

215 Pages·2016·2.246 MB·English

by  Zelideth Maraia Rivas

Imagining Asia in the Americas
Asian American Studies Today
This series publishes scholarship on cutting-e dge themes and issues, includ-
ing broadly based histories of both long- standing and more recent immigrant
populations; focused investigations of ethnic enclaves and understudied sub-
groups; and examinations of relationships among various cultural, regional, and
socioeconomic communities. Of particular interest are subject areas in need of
further critical inquiry, including transnationalism, globalization, homeland
polity, and other pertinent topics.
Series Editor: Huping Ling, Truman State University
Stephanie Hinnershitz, Race, Religion, and Civil Rights: Asian Students on the West
Coast, 1900– 1968
Jennifer Ann Ho, Racial Ambiguity in Asian American Culture
Haiming Liu, From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of Chinese Food in
the United States
Jun Okada, Making Asian American Film and Video: History, Institutions, Movements
Kim Park Nelson, Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Expe-
riences, and Racial Exceptionalism
Zelideth María Rivas and Debbie Lee-D iStefano, eds., Imagining Asia in the
Americas
David S. Roh, Betsy Huang, and Greta A. Niu, eds., Techno- Orientalism: Imagining
Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media
Imagining Asia in
the Americas
EDITED BY
ZELIDETH MARÍA RIVAS
AND DEBBIE LEE- DISTEFANO
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, AND LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Rivas, Zelideth María, 1979– | Lee- DiStefano, Debbie.
Title: Imagining Asia in the Americas /
edited by Zelideth María Rivas and Debbie Lee- DiStefano.
Description: New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, 2016. | Series: Asian
American studies today | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015047307| ISBN 9780813585215 (hardcover : alkaline paper) |
ISBN 9780813585208 (paperback : alkaline paper) | ISBN 9780813585222 (ePub) |
ISBN 9780813585239 (Web PDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Asia— Relations— America. | America— Relations— Asia. | Asia—
Foreign public opinion, American. | Asia—F oreign public opinion, Caribbean.
| Asia— Foreign public opinion, Latin American. | Public opinion—A merica. |
Asians— America— Social conditions. | Immigrants— America— Social conditions. |
Transnationalism— Social aspects— America. | Community life— America.
Classification: LCC DS33.4.A45 I47 2016 | DDC 303.48/25097—d c23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047307
A British Cataloging- in- Publication record for this book is
available from the British Library.
This collection copyright © 2016 by Rutgers, The State University
Individual chapters copyright © 2016 in the names of their authors
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106
Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition is
“fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our website: http:// rutgerspress .rutgers .edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
DEBBIE LEE- DISTEFANO
PART I
Encounters: Moving Past Encounters:
People of Asian Descent in the Americas
KATHLEEN LÓPEZ 9
1 Yellow Blindness in a Black- and- White
Ethnoscape: Chinese Influence and
Heritage in Afro- Cuban Religiosity 13
MARTIN A. TSANG
2 Disrupting the “White Myth”: Korean
Immigration to Buenos Aires and National Imaginaries 34
JUNYOUNG VERÓNICA KIM
3 Harnessing the Dragon: Overseas Chinese
Entrepreneurs in Mexico and Cuba 56
ADRIAN H. HEARN
PART II
Historicities: Interlude
KATHLEEN LÓPEZ 83
4 Caught between Crime and Disease:
Chinese Exclusion and Immigration Restrictions
in Early Twentieth- Century Cuba 85
JOSÉ AMADOR
v
vi CONTENTS
5 The Politics of the Pipe: Opium
Regulation and Protocolonial Governance in
Nineteenth- Century Hawai‘i 104
JULIA KATZ
PART III
Lives/Representations: Interlude
KATHLEEN LÓPEZ 133
6 Musings on Identity and
Transgenerational Experiences 135
ANN KANEKO
7 Intersecting Words: Haiku in Gujarati 146
ROSHNI RUSTOMJI- KERNS
8 Cultural Celebration, Historical Memory, and
Claim to Place in Júlio Miyazawa’s Yawara! A
Travessia Nihondin- Brasil and Uma Rosa para Yumi 158
IGNACIO LÓPEZ- CALVO
Bibliography 185
Notes on Contributors 197
Index 201
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
O
n November 4, 2011, we sat at a pho restaurant after a conference with
Roshni Rustomji-K erns and Alejandro Lee, lamenting the fact that our panels on
Asians in Latin America were sparsely attended. Instead of feeling discouraged,
we thought how wonderful it would be to host our own conference that high-
lighted the intersections of Asian, Latin American, and Asian American Studies.
In 2012, under Debbie’s guidance, Southeast Missouri State University hosted
the first symposium of Asians in the Americas with Karen Tei Yamashita as the
keynote speaker. The symposium continued the next year in 2013 at Pepperdine
University with David Simonowitz as the organizer and Ann Kaneko as the key-
note speaker. In 2014, the symposium grew larger, coming to Rutgers University
through Kathleen López featuring Curtis Chin, Konrad Aderer, Lisa Yun, and
Gaiutra Bahadur. Finally, in 2015, the symposium was held at La Salle University
through the organization of Luisa Ossa with a guest lecture by Melanie Herzog.
These symposia would not have been possible without the co-o rganizers Ale-
jandro Lee, Rick H. Lee, Mey-Y en Moriuchi, Hsiao-P ing Hu Biehl, and Tara Carr-
Lemke. This volume emerged from these four symposia.
The editors would like to thank all the participants in these four sympo-
sia for contributing to the volume through thoughtful questions and com-
ments after each presentation: Alejandro Lee, Junyoung Verónica Kim, Roshni
Rustomji- Kerns, Ann Kaneko, León Chang Shik, Saskia Hertlein, Philip Anthony
Ramirez, David Simonowitz, Juan Ishikawa, Chisu Teresa Ko, Jennifer Bengs-
ton, Martín Valadez, Anne-M arie Lee- Loy, Justina Hwang, Jungwon Park, Koichi
Hagimoto, Anjoli Roy, Colin Root, Danielle Seid, Hailing Guan, Guneeta Bhalla,
Kathleen López, Swati Rana, Sandra So Hee Chi Kim, James Ong, George Carlsen,
Alan Tollefson, Benjamín Narváez, Julia Katz, Tao Leigh Goffe, Yeon-S oo Kim,
Roanne Kantor, Anita Baksh, Kavitha Ramsamy, K. Kale Yu, Apoorva Jadhav,
Sayu Bhojwani, Ana Paulina Lee, Augusto Espiritu, Maria Tham, Eric Hung, Fredy
González, Elliott Young, Erika Lee, Allison E. White, Malathi M. Iyengar, Jessica M.
Falcone, Nicholas Birns, Ana Maria Candela, Rosanne Sia, Lisa Yun, Andre K.
Deckrow, Hsiao- Ping Hu Biehl, Jiahong Wang, Christina Lee, Mey- Yen Moriuchi,
Dennis Carr, Lesley Shipley, Luisa Ossa, and Elena Valdez.
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Lastly, this volume would not have been possible without the support and
contributions of many people. Dania Abreu- Torres, Michelle Nasser, Bridget
Christine Arce, and Kathleen López read proposal drafts. Zack Rakes tirelessly
worked on the volume’s bibliography. Charles DiStefano helped format figures.
Marshall University College of Liberal Arts Dean Robert Bookwalter and South-
east Missouri State University Dean Francisco Barrios and Chair of the Depart-
ment of Global Cultures and Languages Dr. Toni Alexander generously provided
funding for permissions. And, finally, we would like to thank our families who
supported us through symposia planning, hosting, and travel, all of which made
this edited volume possible.
Imagining Asia in the Americas