ASIAN THREADED DISCUSSION
Paper details:
Identity is the cornerstone of who we are and who we may become. For the Asian immigrant, the difficult journey of maintaining a strong identity that encompasses both the East and West is the key challenge. This unique and tricky hurdle is compounded by the problem that no matter how well they overcome this obstacle (without fully assimilating and losing identity) because of the way they look, they will never be given full acceptance. This three-pronged problem is called “the triple bind” (de Manuel & Davis, 2006, pp.143-144).
“Asian American children are…caught in a triple bind: pressured to remain faithful to ancestral heritage, while at the same time admonished to assimilate and become fully American, but ultimately finding that because of their Asian genes, many Americans will never give the full acceptance” (de Manuel & Davis, 2006, pp. 143-144).
Fostering a new identity as an American citizen can come with a serious cost – losing one’s ancestral heritage, otherwise known as assimilation. More than any other culture we have studied thus far in this class, Asian’s are faced with a tug of war between two completely opposed value systems – The East versus The West. On the one hand, the Asian child (or adult) faces the almost impossible task of fusing both of these diametrically opposing viewpoints together – remaining faithful to the Eastern value of maintaining cooperation and harmony with others versus the pressure to become the’ good’ American who has assimilated to the Western value of rugged individualism and capitalism. Plainly put, the ways of the West are “I’ll get Mine and You get Yours!” This push and pull between the extremes ask the Asian child this question “Who am I?”
Let’s Begin:
WATCH ~ READ ~ LISTEN ~ REFLECT ~ UPON ALL of the ASIAN PowerPoint Slides in its Entirety – This forms a cohesive lecture content to launch our class discussion
Pause on each of the Individual Slides with Hyperlinks and Watch/ Listen/ Read/ Reflect/ Think/ Feel/Respond
NOW LET’S GET STARTED!!! 🙂
The Threaded Discussion Question: Post your PROMPT ANSWER in 200 Words or More / RESPOND to a PEER in 50 Words.
READINGS
Include one (1) practice APA citation inside your RESPONSE from the article “In Search of Mirrors An Asian Critical Race Theory Content Analysis of Asian American Picture Books” (Rodriquez & Kim, 2018)
BOOKS
Preliminary Prep: Read/ Watch/ Listen/ Pause/ Reflect ASIAN VOICE OVER POWERPOINT
1. Read the following books: (Books can be found inside the Asian American Module on Canvas.)
The Name Jar (Choi, 2001)
The Lotus Seed (Garland, 1997)
I Hate English (Levine, 1995)
Baseball Saved Us (Mochizuki, 1993)
My Name is Yoon (Recorvits, 2003)
Lizzy’s Friends (Lin, 2007)
PROMPT
2. Rate them according to their strength of purpose showcasing the issue of ‘identity’ within the Asian American Community. Focus the lens of your exploration of critical literacy from the perspective of analyzing the book for its storyline, spotlighting cultural pluralism versus cultural assimilation. (Remember The Rainbow Fish and Swimmy?) Rate each of the books in your opinion, based upon their success for telling the story of cultural pluralism (keep your unique identity, and ADD this to the community to benefit others).
3. List these books in order of their success showing preservation of cultural pluralism and maintenance of identity based upon this question : in your opinion, which book best shows cultural pluralism ?
#1 Book Name #2 Book Name #3 Book Name etc..
4. Discuss your process of evaluation within your ratings list. Talk briefly about why you rated EACH ONE OF THE BOOKS the way you did. Give a sentence or two explaining your thinking.
POEM
FINAL WORDS TO INCLUDE WITH RESPONSE
5. End your discussion about the books listed with a short evaluative discussion about the importance of reverence and respect for cultural identity. Connect your conversation with a direct quote found with the poem,”I Am Asian” (please find inside the Asian Module Voice Over PowerPoint located in Canvas). Connect your concluding discussion about the importance of preserving Asian cultural identity with a direct quote from this poem.
Discussion Ideas:
How does the poet connect with our exploration of the triple bind associated with the challenge of Asian identity?
How does the poet connect with the messages of the books you read inside this prompt, mirroring the rich and multifaceted faces of individual humanity and identity, withcgoin this most rich and diverse culture?
Thank you!
