Asia in Arkansas

Reading List

This page is a place for collecting reading resources to learn more and explore the ideas of area and ethnic studies, definitions of Asia, Asian and Asian-American identity, and to look closer at these topics as they relate to Arkansas. Some of the articles are used as resources for the articles posted under the “Blog” page and some are extra and are just listed here on the Reading List.

Updated: August 10, 2024

Area Studies

Racializing Area Studies, Defetishizing China by Shu-mei Shih

  • In this article, Shih provides background for Area Studies and it’s origins from an orientalist outlook. Shih explains how efforts are made to separate race and area studies and how that creates hegemony and removes other races and ethnicities from the narratives of our studies. Shih argues that integrating Race Studies within area studies can allow for a more global, comparative, historical, and relational approach which is much needed for the future of Area Studies.

Ethnic Studies

The History, Development, and Future of Ethnic Studies by Evelyn Hu-DeHart

  • This article looks at the inception and background of Ethnic Studies programs in the United States. The article provides some similarities and differences between Area and Ethnic Studies programs as well as where they fall short. One of the issues Hu-DeHart presents is the importance of resisting “academization” or the retreat to being just an academic unit and being disconnected from the real-life and daily struggles of BIPOC in the US.

Defining Asia

Asia Is Not One by Amit Acharya 

  • In this article, Acharya explains that there is not only one singular concept of what Asia is today and throughout history. Acharya explains this through the concepts of “region, regionalization, and regionalism”. Acharya argues that the trajectory in which Asian regionalism and the diversity of it cannot be fully understood without the inclusion of a wide range of nations, ideas, and peoples.

Asian American Studies

A Part and Apart: Asian American and Immigration History by Erika Lee

  • In this article, Lee addresses the gap between Asian American Studies and Immigration History. Lee presents various sides of the argument such as the difference in studies of European immigrants versus people of color and moving beyond the constructs related to studies of European immigrants. This article looks across a period of time and the state of the disciplines and the improvements made to have connections and to move away from divided studies.

Asian American Identity

They’re Asian. They’re American. But, They Wonder, Are They Asian American? By Amy Qin

  • This article was published by the New York Times and it looks specifically at the experiences of Bhutanese Americans, some of the newest citizens of Asian descent. In the article, Qin discusses the label of “Asian-American” and its complexity for those who do or do not identify with it. Qin addresses the nuances of being both Asian and American and the bridge between both identities.

“I am Asian”: Kurdish Diasporas, Interconnected Racial Geographies, and Asian America by Stanley Thangaraj 

  • In this essay, Thangaraj shares data and lived experiences to give voice to the Kurdish experience across the US through poetry.  Thangaraj seeks to reinsert the Southwest Asian and North African heritage narrative within Asian American Studies and the connection to the labels and nuances of Asian and Asian-American identity and topics such as stateless communities, erasure, migration, and shared histories.

Standing Up Against Racial Discrimination: Progressive Americans and the Chinese Exclusion Act in the Late Nineteenth Century by Wenxian Zhang

  • In this article, Zhang examines the overwhelming racial discrimination and hate through “Yellow Peril” and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Zhang highlights the Chinese Americans and other progressive Americans who debated and opposed the discriminatory practices. The article looks at individuals such as Wong Ching Foo, a Chinese-American civil rights advocate, and a number of church leaders, lawyers, and writers.

Experiences in Arkansas

Yellow Peril in Arkansas: War, Christianity, and the Regional Racialization of Vietnamese Refugees by Perla M. Guerrero

  • This article takes a look at the experiences of the Vietnamese refugees in 1975 at Fort Chaffee, the refugee processing center near to Fort Smith , Arkansas. This article uses an interdisciplinary  lens, pulling from Asian-American studies, Southern studies, and racialization to examine the responses from the government, state, and community and the impacts on society and the economy. The article examined the social make up of Northwest Arkansas with respect to its history of racial violence and largely white community and its Christian background. This article also sets the stage to examine the experiences of other ethnic groups that come through Northwest Arkansas and the state in general.