The Asian Pacific American Heritage: A Companion to Literature and Arts (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities)

Meeting the challenge of teaching multiculturalism Students-and their teachers-encountering literature and arts from unfamiliar cultures will welcome the special help this book provides. Instructors who are unfamiliar with Asian Pacific cultures are now being asked to explain a reference to the Year of the Rat, Obon Season, or to interpret a haiku. When Amy Tan refers to the Moon Lady or the Kitchen God, what does she mean? Is Confucianism actually a religion? This book answers these and many other questions, for students, teachers, and the librarians to whom they turn for help. Provides sound information on in-demand topics The Companion presents lengthy articles-written specifically for this book-on the topics that unlock the work of a number of contemporary Asian Pacific American writers and artists, for example: Asian naming systems, the "model minority" discourse, Chinese diaspora, Filipino American values, the Confucian family and its tensions, Japanese internment, Mao's Great Cultural Revolution, the Korean alphabet, food and ethnic identity, religious traditions, Fengshui and Chinese medicine, Filipino folk religion, Hmong needlework, and reading Asian characters in English, just to name a few. Covers major contemporary writers The articles are coupled with in-depth studies of the authors most likely to be part of the multicultural curriculum during the next decade, among them Maxine Hong Kingston, Frank Chin, Amy Tan, Younghill Kang, Carlos Bulosan, Jessica Hagedorn, Lawson Fusao Inada, Garret Hongo, David Henry Hwang, Kim Ronyoung, and Cathy Song. Expert contributors This volume was created under the supervision of distinguished Advisory Editors from the Asian Pacific American community. The contributors, a Who's Who of Asian Pacific American humanistic scholarship, are frequently the founders of their disciplines, and most are from the ethnic group being written about. Helps students understand arts and literature Multicultural courses are generally taught by exposing students to literature or arts, with reference to their political, sociological, and historical contexts. This book is designed to help students reading novels, watching films, and confronting artworks with information needs quite different from those of social scientists and historians. The Asian Pacific American Heritage: A Companion To Literature And Arts Is Aimed At A New Audience - The New Multicultural Classroom - And Is The First Reference Work Of Its Kind Dedicated To Explaining In Detail The Diverse History Of Asian Pacific American Culture. This Collection Of 63 Original Articles, Written By Expert Contributors Renowned In Their Specialties, Has Been Designed To Support Those Students, Teachers, And Librarians Who May Be Unfamiliar With Asian Pacific American Culture But Need Accessible, In-depth Information On The Topics That Will Unlock The Work Of Contemporary Asian Pacific American Writers And Artists - Now, And For Years To Come. The Asian Pacific American Heritage Is A Valuable Source Of Information For Anyone Examining The Cultural, Intellectual, And Social Influence Of Asian Pacific Americans.--jacket. Part I Fundamentals. Reading Asian Characters In English ; Characters: The Asian Ideogram Systems ; The Model Minority Discourse -- Part Ii The Family And The Self. Confucius And The Asian American Family ; My Grandfather's Concubines ; Japanese American Life In The Twentieth Century ; The Nisei Go To War ; Being Nisei ; First-generation Memories ; Filipino American Values ; Korean American One-point-five ; The Lizard Hunter -- Part Iii Roots, Traditions, And Asian Pacific Life: The Old Country And Its Cultural Legacy. Food And Ethnic Identity ; Chinese Food ; Japanese Food ; Filipino Food ; Korean Food ; Vietnamese Food ; Southeast Asian Food ; Tea ; Fengshui, Chinese Medicine, And Correlative Thinking ; Lunar New Year, The Moon Lady, And The Moon Festival ; Obon Season In Little Tokyo ; Filipinos And Religion ; Maoism And Surviving The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution -- Part Iv Asian Pacific Culture: Diaspora. The Chinese Diaspora ; The Arrival Of The Asians In California ; The Early History Of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, And Filipinos In America ; Chinatown, 1899 -- Part V Literature. Dialect, Standard, And Slang ; Dialect Literature In America ; Roots ; Roots ; The Beginnings Of Chinese Literature In America ; D.t. Suzuki And The Creation Of Japanese American Zen ; Asian American Literary Pioneers ; Asian American Literature ; First-generation Writings ; Asian American Autobiographical Tradition ; Frank Chin ; Maxine Hong Kingston ; A Reader's Guide To Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club ; David Henry Hwang ; A Reader's Guide To Cebu And Dark Blue Suit Based On Interviews With Its Author, Peter Bacho ; Jessica Hagedorn ; Lawson Fusao Inada ; Garret Hongo ; The Literature Of Korean America ; The Korean American Novel ; Discovering Korean American Literature ; Clay Walls ; Cathy Song And The Korean American Experience In Poetry -- Part Vi The Arts. Chinese Opera ; Bernardo Bertolucci And The Westernization Of The Last Emperor ; A Viewer's Guide To Wayne Wang's Dim Sum ; Asian American Visual Arts ; Story Cloths ; Toi Hoang ; First-generation Painting. George J. Leonard, Editor. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Meeting the challenge of teaching multiculturalismStudents -- and their teachers -- encountering literature and arts from unfamiliar cultures will welcome the special help this book provides. Instructors who are unfamiliar with Asian Pacific cultures are now being asked to explain a reference to the Year of the Rat, Obon Season, or to interpret a haiku. When Amy Tan refers to the Moon Lady or the Kitchen God, what does she mean? Is Confucianism actually a religion? This book answers these and many other questions, for students, teachers, and the librarians to whom they turn for help.Provides sound information on in-demand topicsThe Companion presents lengthy articles -- written specifically for this book -- on the topics that unlock the work of a number of contemporary Asian Pacific American writers and artists, for example: Asian naming systems, the "model minority" discourse, Chinese diaspora, Filipino American values, the Confucian family and its tensions, Japanese internment, Mao's Great Cultural Revolution, the Korean alphabet, food and ethnic identity, religious traditions, Fengshui and Chinese medicine, Filipino folk religion, Hmong needlework, and reading Asian characters in English, just to name a few.Covers major contemporary writersThe articles are coupled with in-depth studies of the authors most likely to be part of the multicultural curriculum during the next decade, among them Maxine Hong Kingston, Frank Chin, Amy Tan, Younghill Kang, Carlos Bulosan, Jessica Hagedorn, Lawson Fusao Inada, Garret Hongo, David Henry Hwang, Kim Ronyoung, and Cathy Song.Expert contributorsThis volume was created under the supervision of distinguished Advisory Editors fromthe Asian Pacific American community. The contributors, a Who's Who of Asian Pacific American humanistic scholarship, are frequently the founders of their disciplines, and most are from the ethnic group being written about.Helps students understand arts and literatureMulticultural courses are generally taught by exposing students to literature or arts, with reference to their political, sociological, and historical contexts. This book is designed to help students reading novels, watching films, and confronting artworks with information needs quite different from those of social scientists and historians. One of the most respected English professors in the world once remarked confidently to an audience that he had become more multicultural, and had recently been reading Qing Dynasty poetry.