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Oceanic Archives, Indigenous Epistemologies,
and Transpacifi c American Studies
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The field of transnational American studies
“This collection offers a well-
is going through a paradigm shift from the c OCEANICARC
organized and intellectually coherent e
transatlantic to the transpacific. This volume a
series of essays addressing issues of n
demonstrates a critical method of engaging the a
American imperialism in Oceania and n ic
Asia Pacific: the chapters present alternative the Pacific region. Covering history, d A
narratives that negotiate American dominance and
exceptionalism by analyzing the experiences of politics, and literary culture in equal Tr rc
Asians and Pacific Islanders from the vast region, measure, the essays are theoretically an h H I V E S ,I N D I
including those from the Philippines, Vietnam, well-informed, and their focus on s iv
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Indigenous cultures speaks to the
Indonesia, Hawaii, Guam, and other archipelagos. a s
Contributors make use of materials from current scholarly interest in the ways c ,
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“oceanic archives,” retrieving what has seemingly in which Indigenous communities fi c nd
been lost, forgotten, or downplayed inside can be understood within a global A ig
and outside state-bound archives, state legal context.” e G E N O U SE P I S
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preoccupations, and state prioritized projects. The —Paul Giles, University of Sydney n
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result is the recovery of indigenous epistemologies, r u
which enables scholars to go beyond US-based “This terrific volume offers the latest ic s
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sources and legitimates third-world knowledge mapping of that complex terrain n E
known as the ‘transpacific.’ Timely p
production and dissemination. S i
Surprising findings and unexpected and capacious, the essays here from tu st TEMOLOGIES,
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perspectives abound in this work. Minnan traders an all-star cast of international d m
from southern China are identified as the agents scholars offer the latest thinking on ie o 235
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who connected the Indian Ocean with the Pacific, the ‘oceanic’ dimensions of global lo m
making the Manila Galleon trade in the sixteenth modernity. Essential reading for g
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century the first completely global commercial anyone interested in the current e
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enterprise. The Chamorro poetry of Guam gives a ‘Asian’ turn in American Studies, , ANDTRANSPA
view of America from beyond its national borders Asian American Studies, and
and articulates the cultural pride of the Chamorro Transpacific Studies.”
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against US colonialism and imperialism. The —Steven Yao, Hamilton College u
a
continuing distortion of indigenous claims to n
the sovereignty of Hawaii is analyzed through a S
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reading of the most widely circulated English translation of the creation myth, Kumulipo. u C I F I CA M E R I
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There is also a critique of the Korean involvement in the American War in Vietnam, which O
was informed and shaped by Korean economy and politics in a global context. tt
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By investigating the transpacific as moments of military, cultural, and geopolitical
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contentions, this timely collection charts the reach and possibilities of the latest e E
developments in the most dynamic form of transnational American studies. im, dited C A NS T U D I E S
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Yuan Shu is an associate professor of English and director nd by
American Studies /
of the Asian studies program at Texas Tech University. Asia-Pacifi c Studies K
Otto Heim is an associate professor of English at the e
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University of Hong Kong. Kendall Johnson is a professor d
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of English at the University of Hong Kong. ll
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o Edited by
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so Yuan Shu, Otto Heim, and Kendall Johnson
Printed and bound in Hong Kong, China n
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Oceanic Archives, Indigenous Epistemologies, and
Transpacific American Studies
Oceanic Archives, Indigenous
Epistemologies, and Transpacific
American Studies
Edited by Yuan Shu, Otto Heim, and Kendall Johnson
Hong Kong University Press
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Road
Hong Kong
https://hkupress.hku.hk
© 2019 Hong Kong University Press
ISBN 978-988-8455-77-5 (Hardback)
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher.
“Memories of Murder: The Other Korean War (in Viet Nam)” was first published as part of
Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press), ©2016 by Viet Thanh Nguyen.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound by Paramount Printing Co. Ltd., Hong Kong, China
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction: Oceanic Archives, Indigenous Epistemologies, and
Transpacific American Studies 1
Yuan Shu
Part I: Reading Oceanic Archives in a Transnational Space:
Ocean History, Spanish Manila, and the World Geography of Faith
in the Early United States
1. American and International Whaling, c.1770–1820: Toward an
Ocean History 25
James R. Fichter
2. Spanish Manila: A Transpacific Maritime Enterprise and America’s
First Chinatown 49
Evelyn Hu-DeHart
3. Residing in “South-Eastern Asia” of the Antebellum United States:
Reverend David Abeel and the World Geography of American
Print Evangelism and Commerce 62
Kendall Johnson
Part II: Oceanic Archives and the Transterritorial Turn: Constituting
the “Public,” Genealogizing Colonial and Indigenous Translations
4. “Thank God for the Maladjusted”: The Transterritorial Turn towards
the Chamorro Poetry of Guåhan (Guam) 93
Craig Santos Perez
5. Land, History, and the Law: Constituting the “Public” through
Environmentalism and Annexation 108
Susan Y. Najita
vi Contents
6. Genealogizing Colonial and Indigenous Translations and Publications
of the Kumulipo 129
Brandy Nālani McDougall
Part III: Remapping Transpacific Studies: Oceanic Archives of
Imperialism/s, Transpacific Imagination, and Memories of Murder
7. The Open Ocean for Interimperial Collaboration: Scientists’
Networks across and in the Pacific Ocean in the 1920s 149
Tomoko Akami
8. Maxine Hong Kingston’s Transpacific Imagination: From the Talk Story
of the “No-Name Woman” to the Book of Peace 172
Yuan Shu
9. Memories of Murder: The Other Korean War (in Viet Nam) 188
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Part IV: Revisiting Oceanic Archives, Rethinking Transnational
American Studies: Next Steps, Oceanic Communities, and Transpacific
Ecopoetics
10. Transnational American Studies: Next Steps? 217
Shelley Fisher Fishkin
11. Recalling Oceanic Communities: The Transnational Theater of
John Kneubuhl and Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl 239
Otto Heim
12. Oceania as Peril and Promise: Towards Theorizing a Worlded Vision
of Transpacific Ecopoetics 261
Rob Wilson
List of Contributors 283
Index 286
Illustrations
Figure 3.1: The itinerary of David Abeel’s first voyage from 1829 to 1834 63
Figure 3.2: Jedidiah Morse, “Map of the World Exhibiting all the New
Discoveries,” 1794 69
Figure 3.3: Detail of area traversed by David Abeel, from Jedidiah Morse,
“Map of the World Exhibiting all the New Discoveries,” 1794 69
Figures 3.4 and 3.5: The Western Hemisphere in Xú Jìyú’s (徐繼畬)
Yíng huàn zhì lüè (瀛擐志略) or General Survey of the Maritime Circuit,
a Universal Geography (1849) and a detail of North America 85
Map 7.1: Ethnic boundaries in the Pacific 152
Map 7.2: The global cable network, 1914 155
Map 7.3: The Japanese advances in the Pacific, August 1942 165
Acknowledgments
This volume is the product of collaboration between Yuan Shu at Texas Tech
University and Otto Heim, former head of the School of English, and Kendall
Johnson, head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University
of Hong Kong.
In 2011, Yuan Shu first contacted Otto Heim about the possibility of bringing
to the University of Hong Kong twelve leading scholars in American studies for
cultural exchanges and critical conversations, and this became a catalytic moment
for academic collaboration. After meeting at the American Comparative Literature
Association’s annual convention in Vancouver in April, Shu and Heim discussed a
possible symposium that would bring together American studies scholars in North
America and East Asia to explore the paradigm shift in transnational American
studies from the transatlantic to the transpacific, particularly in light of what Walter
Mignolo calls “global decolonial thinking.”
With the support of Kendall Johnson, Otto came up with the symposium theme
on “Oceanic Archives and Transnational American Studies.” The objective of the
symposium was to bring in scholars in oceanic studies into a critical conversation
with scholars in transnational American studies and to speak from different loca-
tions in North America, East Asia, and Oceania. The symposium was held success-
fully in the summer of 2012, and generated a lot of synergy among these scholars.
In 2013, Yuan Shu organized a roundtable session at the MLA annual convention in
Boston and invited six US-based scholars to speak on their cutting-edge research on
transnational American studies. In 2014, Yuan Shu sponsored a seminar on transpa-
cific American studies and indigenous epistemology at the American Comparative
Literature Association’s annual convention in New York City, and brought in eight
leading scholars in the field based in North America, Oceania, and East Asia. All of
these exchanges and brainstorming have finally come together in this volume.
At this point, Yuan Shu wants to express his gratitude for a special initiative
grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, which made possible the symposium at
the University of Hong Kong in the summer of 2012. Texas Tech University has
offered him support of various kinds, including a travel grant and development
leave. Lawrence Schovanec, first as dean of College of Arts and Sciences and then
Acknowledgments ix
as provost and president of Texas Tech University, has greatly supported his work.
Associate Dean David Roach has always been generous and supportive of Shu’s
involvement in university interdisciplinary programs and activities. Texas Tech
University colleagues in the Department of English; former chairs, Sam Dragga
and Bruce Clarke; and current chair, Brian Still, have offered indispensable support
during the editing of this volume.
Otto Heim and Kendall Johnson also wish to express their thanks to the Louis
Cha Fund and the School of English and the School of Modern Languages and
Cultures at the University of Hong Kong. Finally, all three editors want to thank
acquisitions editor Eric Mok and the Hong Kong University Press staff for their
patience and support throughout these years.
