intellectual

The Asian-Jewish connection: Is it really kosher to call Asians the "new Jews"?

Submitted by Edwin on Sun, 02/28/2010 - 22:02

By Jeff Yang, Special to SF Gate
Thursday, February 25, 2010

The notion that Asians and Jews are two shoots from the same cultural rootstock is an old but evergreen meme.

You see it in fringe theories about the Lost Tribes of Israel -- there's an entire body of cryptoarchaeological canon that uses similarities between customs, language and naming convention to "prove" that the ancient vanished Jewish clans ended up in China, India or Japan. (Japan's 50,000-member Makuya sect, which has as its central dogma that the Japanese are descendants of a lost Jewish tribe, keep kosher, speak Hebrew and use the seven-armed menorah as their symbol.)

Friendster on the verge of $100 million buyout?

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 12/04/2009 - 21:33

Friendster may be one of the Internet’s oldest social networks, but mammoth growth attributed to the likes of Facebook, MySpace and Bebo have kept the service in the shadows. Now, if whispers are to be believed, Friendster will soon be sold on in the face of insurmountable competition.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Reuters news agency reports that an unnamed Asian buyer is expected to acquire the network, which was founded in 2002, for around $100 million USD before the close of December.

Despite that valuation falling well short of the estimated $10 billion USD placed upon market leading social network Facebook, Friendster still carries with it a formidable user base of around 100 million – the vast majority of which is based in Asia.

According to the unnamed source, there is currently a shortlist of buyers angling for a potential purchase, the most notable of which is Chinese online giant Tencent Holdings, which holds a market valuation of some $35 billion USD.

Asian Intellectuals & knowledge production in Academia

Submitted by Edwin on Sun, 05/17/2009 - 20:04

Inter-Asian.org - AsianAsian academia(s) is an exploratory investigation into specific dilemma(s) faced by intellectuals in Asia not only in the advancement of social theory and critical knowledge but more importantly within the confines of institutional and political regimes that define modes of knowledge production, regulate social reproduction within the system and entangle knowledge itself into webs of societal relevance. No academia in the world is an ivory tower, yet we seem to think that such an ideal exists or is possible. Intellectual histories are written as though thought can be read and understood in its own terms.

Global Community Formations and Asian American Futures

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 04/24/2009 - 18:02

Some interesting news from UCLA Asian Americans studies center for an upcoming forum on the next edition of Amerasia Journal which has been the core literature of Asian American studies.
Amerasia Journal now invites contributions for an innovative forum on "Global Community Formations and Asian American Futures."

Vanishing Son By Amy Kashiwabara (paper)

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 20:04

Vanishing Son: The Appearance, Disappearance, and Assimilation of the Asian-American Man in American Mainstream Media
By Amy Kashiwabara.
University of California, Berkeley.

"He's handsome. He's tough. He's worth millions. He's Asian American. (Learn his secrets inside.)" Thus begins a mailer advertising Transpacific Magazine, directed at a young and supposedly very mobile new class of Asian-Americans. Next to these words, Russell Wong appears, elegantly dressed in a tuxedo. He is meant to represent the minority that made it big, who has arrived as a powerful force in American and global life. Yet the secrets that lie behind Russell Wong are not his alone. If he represents the success of Asian men in becoming mainstream in America, he also represents their failures and their history.

The history of Asian-American men in mainstream media is largely found in the visual medium of the motion picture. Asian-Americans can be found in the very first black and white silent shorts of the late nineteenth century and in films of every successive decade. Sometimes these characters were more popular, sometimes less. Sometimes they had large roles, sometimes the most minute. Sometimes they were played by actual Asians and sometimes by Whites in yellowface. But whatever the means, Hollywood has consistently produced some version of Asian and Asian-American men to present to the American public.

Deconstructing 'Asian fetish' - the appeal of physical appearance and/or cultural traits

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 13:38

The so-called 'Asian fetish' (which typically targets only East Asians/Southeast Asians) has long been a hot topic of debate in interracial dating forums. Some say Asian fetish' is just a harmless preference for specific physical characteristics, such as narrow eyes and flatter noses, as harmless as some people's preference for dating, say, fatter partners. Others say 'Asian fetish' is objectifying and demeaning. It invites a superficial kind of attention from people who base their judgment of individuals largely on appearance, and worse, it is part of the larger phenomenon of racial stereotyping.

I personally believe the 'pro-Asian fetish' and 'anti-Asian fetish' camps probably do not disagree as much as they think. The difference is in how they define 'Asian fetish'. After all, few, if any people in the anti-Asian fetish camp would begrudge a woman the right to prefer tall men or chubby men, or whatever preferred physical characteristic as the case may be. On the other hand, many people in the group that claims 'Asian fetish' is harmless are disgusted by non-Asian men who date Asian women because of alleged cultural characteristics like submissiveness and a willingness to do all the housework without asking men to share the load. The majority of people who say they have a special attraction to Asians probably would not approve of racial stereotyping, that is, making assumptions on someone's behavior and values based on their race.

Asian-American Identity Problems

Submitted by Edwin on Thu, 03/26/2009 - 22:06

for Dr. Ryang
Asian Civilization I 1996

Introduction/Overview

While Asian-Americans have a very rich culture, often they suffer from problems of identity crises, as do many in this country. Should one maintain a sense of family history? Or is it better to try to blend in and assimilate with the rest of America? This is a problems many minorities, in general, face, but Asian-Americans seem to have a particular presence in this problem.

There are countless reasons as to why this could be. This paper will explore specific problems among Asian-Americans trying to find an identity as well as possible reasons and solutions for this problem. The information from this paper comes from books containing oral histories, statistical books, and personal interviews, as well as a smattering of hypothesizing and author's contemplation on the subject.

History of Asian Dissension

The Invisibility of Asian-American Scholars

Submitted by visitors on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 20:38

By Frank H. Wu | For the Chronicle of Higher Education
http://yellowworld.org/academia/226.html

While we can probably all cite at least one or two respected Asian-American scholars, they are hardly household names. No Asian-American professors have intellectual influence that extends far beyond their campuses. No Asian-American television commentator regularly analyses the crises of the day. No Asian-American columnist's nationally syndicated views reach the heartland. No Asian-American activist of any prominence can be relied on to respond to anti-Asian-American bias -- or can count on being offered a forum for doing so. Nor are there periodicals dedicated to Asian-American conversations but possessing crossover appeal -- read by those who do not hold doctorates or who claim other forebears -- like Commentary and Tikkun, or the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Black Issues in Higher Education, and the defunct Emerge.

Public intellectuals have always been marked by notions of racial or ethnic identity, whether they sought to impose restrictions on others or escape from the limits set on them.

Hegemonic Harvard and omnipersent Oxford: Western Dominance in the Global Organization of Higher Education

Submitted by visitors on Mon, 02/16/2009 - 14:57

Hegemonic Harvard and omnipersent Oxford: Western Dominance in the Global Organization of Higher Education

JAMES JF FOREST , P H.D. Assistant Dean, Academic Assessment and Assistant Professor, Political Science United States Military Academy West Point, NY 10996 james.

A Paper For Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association Montreal, Canada March 17-20, 2004

The views expressed are those of the author and not of the Department of the Army, the U.S. Military Academy, or any other agency of the U.S. Government.

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Strategic Studies Institute in funding research for this paper Abstract Universities worldwide stem from a common model. Even in India and China, which have their own rich traditions of advanced learning, modern universities are Western in origin.