Over the past few decades, Asian Americans have become increasingly visible both as the subjects and producers of popular culture in the United States. This course will explore how this new recognition of Asian Americans in popular literature, cinema, television, and entertainment is related both to longer histories of Asian immigration and racial exclusion and to post-1960s efforts to forward racial awareness, community activism, and social justice. Our first unit will look at how particular stereotypes such as the yellow peril or the wartime enemy encouraged anti-Asian feeling and violence and legal restrictions on immigration and naturalization. We will then examine how throughout history, Asian immigrants and their descendants used song, dance, theater, writing, and other forms of popular culture to express personal desires and foster collective ties. Our final unit concentrates on contemporary popular culture and its relationship to the changing identities of Asian Americans. How do Asian Americans influence the current essays, films, and videos that are consumed by millions today? How are increasingly pan-ethnic, interracial, multiracial, transnational, and global experiences reflected in popular culture?
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