Asian Pacific American Studies Final Exam: Analyzing Identity and Community

The assignment content presents challenges faced by contemporary Asian Americans, including issues of identity, cultural adaptation, and heritage learning, as well as responses to these challenges. The course materials emphasize the importance of agency in the face of adversity, highlighting both the struggles and triumphs of immigrant and American-born Asian Pacific Americans. This essay will explore these challenges and responses, using class presentations, readings, lectures, and discussion notes to support arguments. The summary paragraph provides a brief overview of the assignment, emphasizing the need for declarative statements that address specific prompts.

Asian and Asian American Studies 1117: Section 1
Introduction to Asian Pacific American Studies
Take Home Final – Fall 2016
Instructions:
No OUTSIDE research is required however you must use the assigned course readings in developing your analytic
midterm essays. Each essay should be roughly 850 - 1000 words (3-4) type/word process double spaced pages in
length with 1-inch margins, 12 point font (Times Roman or equivalent) and page numbering. The pages should be stapled
together in the upper left hand corner (no folder covers, etc). Each essay is worth 30 points.
References & citations: Avoid using direct quotations from the texts, rather paraphrase and summarize using your own
words while giving parenthetical reference to the source using the author’s last name and the page where you found the
information. For example, if you use information from page 57 in Zia, reference (Zia, 57) placed at the end of the
appropriate phrase in a larger sentence or just before the period at the end of the appropriate sentence(s). Direct quotes
when appropriate (e.g. newspaper article title or dialogue/passage from a novel) should be cited in the same manner.
Reference or use of all course materials (books, articles, emails, handouts & notes) covered in the syllabus is
expected.
Separate Title Page for the Final (Not inclusive of the page requirement):
This page should include a) your name; b) the course number, section, day & time it meets;
Subsequent Page Formatting: Start each essay on a new page with a title: Essay #. Do not copy the question at the
top of the page.
Answer each of the following: Each question is worth 30 points.
1. Throughout course we have addressed the overarching questions of American “people-ness & equality” in relation to
Asian immigrants and Asian Americans. Discuss the ways in which the various discursive narratives (e.g. Sojourner
vs. Settler; yellow peril; forever foreign; invisibility; & model minority myth/image) about Asian Americans in the
national/regional discourse over time have impacted the lives and the livelihoods of Asian migrants to the U.S. and
their inclusion or exclusion as the “people.”[Hint: For this question you might want to define discourse and illustrate
using textual references the narratives & additional course concepts (e.g. structural racism) upon which you will focus in
making your argument. In addition to Zia you might look at Chan, Park, Roger Daniels, Pyong Gap Min, Stacey Lee, Claire
Kim, Jun Xu and JZ Park, et. al]
2. Earlier in the semester we explored the vital role played by immigrant women in the development of ethnic
communities among Asian immigrants to the U.S. In describing the development of both Asian American identity and
community (these two terms as defined by concepts used in this course) Helen Zia also alludes to the centrality of
women in APIA history and community. Building on Zia and using the course lectures and readings (e.g. Suchen
Chan’s Immigration and Livelihood; Takaki’s Strangers From a Different Shore: “Raising Cane” Chapter 4 & 6;
Kikumura’s Through Harsh Winters; Suchen Chan’s “Quiet Odyssey”) write a historical essay describing the role of
women in the shaping of Asian American communities. [Hint: This is not an opinion editorial. You must make a
declarative statement(s) that answers the question as your thesis and then use the course resources to support your
answer.]
3. You were asked to identify a particularly meaningful passage in the novels Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyen and
Southland by Nina Revoyr. In most cases the passages chosen by you and your classmates represented a personal
connection from your life story and that of the novel’s characters. For this essay, I want you to move beyond personal
connection to a discussion of how the passage you chose illustrates the dilemmas (e.g. cultural conflict & identity,
model minority, gender relations, sparse and one dimensional representations in media/film/TV, etc.) faced by
contemporary Asian Americans using additional course materials (readings, lectures, presentations, and discussion)
to support you argument. [Hint: Be sure to make a strong thesis statement and use specific illustrations and textual
references from the course to demonstrate the various connections you wish to make in support of your discussion.]

4. As you will recall the presentations not only laid out the various challenges which included, but is not limited to issues
of identity, cultural adaptation, cultural retention & heritage learning, and everyday living. Despite these challenges,
the presentations also highlighted acts of agency on the part of individuals and communities in meeting those
challenges. Using the class presentation discuss the challenges faced by both immigrant and American born Asian
Pacific Americans and their responses to those challenges in the post 1965 Immigration Act era [Hint: This is not an
opinion editorial. You must make a declarative statement(s) that addresses the prompt creating a descriptive scholarly
essay which illustrates the challenges and responses – that is this NOT simply a summary of various class presentations,
but you should use the presentations to illustrate the challenges and responses while using the course resources (e.g.,
Park, Zia, Lee, Min, Xu, Asian American Psychology, class lectures and class presentation notes) to support your
statement/argument. Also be sure to provide definitions for course concepts ( e.g. agency, ethnic and/or cultural
community, cultural tool kits, etc.).] For full credit you must reference at least four group presentations.
Answer ONE of the following. This essay is worth 30 points.
5. Early on in the class I suggested that when you reading, view or listen to materials for this class (indeed, any such
endeavor) that you ask the following three questions:
 What did this make me feel? That is, in what ways does this make me engage my emotions as it taps into
my own personal experience?
 What did this make me think? That is, how does this relate and compare to the “things” I already know, and
what other questions does it raise for me.
 What did I learn? No explanation needed (I think)
In this essay address these three questions in relationship to this course: Introduction to Asian Pacific American
Studies. In doing so, you must use examples from the course materials (articles, short stories, poetry, novels,
powerpoint, emails), presentations, videos, music, etc. to illustrate and support your reflections.
OR
6. Earlier in the semester you wrote an auto-biographical essay “asking you to look into your family album…to make this
course personal, to make this course yours.” In that first assignment I wanted you to write a biography of your family
as (im)migrants. For those of Asian Pacific American ancestry you were to muse how your family’s stories place
you (or not) within an Asian Pacific American community/communities, how your stories weave into broader Asian
Pacific American history/histories, and how your stories weave into a broader history of peoples in the U.S.” For who
are not of Asian Pacific American ancestry, you were to muse how your family’s stories place you (or not) within
your community of ancestry, how your stories weave into a broader ethnic ancestry history and how your stories
weave into the Asian Pacific American history.
This essay asks you to revisit your original biography and critically interrogate it as a text given the knowledge and
understandings you have gained throughout this course. Much like Jackie Ishida in Southland – who in discovering
her family history came to a new understanding about her grandfather, her extended family and parents, and
herself, particularly as it related to her relationship with others (i.e. the world around her) -- challenge your
previous essay and thinking using the concepts discussed throughout the semester, in particular agency, race and
ethnic identity & community, and societal discourse. Additionally, this challenge should also be grounded in the
course readings, including history (Zia, Chan, et.al.), contemporary issues (Zia, Park, Ho, Dhingra) and fiction
(Nguyen). In what way does your family album conform, illustrate and deviate from what you have learned? In
completing this portion of the exam you should have an auto-biographic essay filtered through the course lens.
IF YOU CHOOSE THIS OPTION, PLEASE ATTACH YOUR ORIGINAL GRADED BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY.