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ISSN 1205-3597

Road to East

Asia</H1></center>

<center><h4>A journal on contemporary East Asian

literature in

English</h4>

Welcome to the World Wide Web Home page of Road

to East

Asia

Faculty of Arts, York University

Vol.3, no. 2, 1999-2000</center>

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<center><h3>Overseas East Asians at Turn of New

Century</h3></center>

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This issue reviews meritorious web sites and the latest print

publications about the Chinese, Japanese, and

Korean diasporas at the turn of the new millennium. Readers are

invited to assist in the compilation of a

Who's Who of notable (ethnic) East Asians in North America, Latin

America, the Caribbean, Europe, and

Australia. Please send us your nomination and the biographical

data of the person involved.

WEB SITES

<A HREF="http:/www.yorku.ca/academics/iwai/tiananmen.html">Writers in

Exile after Tiananmen</A>

Have these exiles contributed significantly to the literary scenes

of their host countries, and to what extent have they been

influenced by their Western peers? Do the Western audience/authors

welcome these "transplanted" writers as "exotic elements" or as

members of the Republic of Letters, which is not demarcated by any

borders? Pulitzer prizewinner Gary Snyder, for one, argues that

"we are all dancing in and out of each other's dark and light."

<A HREF="http:/www.yorku.ca/academics/iwai/cbc.html">Chinese-born Canadians

Straddle Two Cultures, by May Yuen</A>

While many CBCs do not speak their native dialect, many do. I am proud of the

fact that I speak Cantonese fluently. I also listen to Chinese music, watch

Chinese movies and had taken a Chinese history course.

<A HREF="http:/www.yorku.ca/academics/iwai/kevinn.html"> British Columbia

Revisited: A

Study of Overseas Chinese, 1858-1885, by Kevin Perkins</A>

Contemporary Canadian society and government have apparently out-grown the

naïve cultural and race-centered biases of their forefathers towards

immigrants. However, Chinese immigration may be an anomalous case. Issues

continue to flare that indicate conspicuous differences between Canadian

perceptions of the Chinese and other ethnic immigrants. Historical perceptions

of culture and

economics were at the root of these opinions, as they were over 100 years

earlier. The fact is that

cross-cultural disparities still exist in Canada, despite such "modern" notions

as "multiculturalism"

and "racial equality."

Kevin Perkins has recently earned his master’s degree in East Asian History from

York

University.

Chinese Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean</A>

This conference, held in Havana in December, 1999, was jointly sponsored by

Universidad de la Habana, University of California, Berkeley, Grupo Promotor del

Barrio Chino, and Casino Chung Wah, Havana.

After Spain had emancipated the slaves from Africa in the 19th century, some

200,000 Chinese laborers were imported to work in the Cuban plantations. "The

Chinese Cuban community remains visible, although most Chinese Cubans are now

blended into the Cuban population through intermarriages," according to the

sponsors of the Havana conference.

Among the participants were Ted Goossen (York University) and Frank F. Scherer

(York University). Apart from papers on overseas Chinese in the Caribbean and

Latin American countries, the conference included reports on other topics

pertaining to the Chinese diaspora worldwide, for example, "A Comparative Study

on Chinese Settlement Patterns between the U.S. and Australia"(Wei Li and Paul

Fernald, University of Connecticut) and "A Comparison between Overseas Chinese

and Overseas Koreans in America on Attitudes toward Homeland Reunification"

(George Totten, University of Southern California).

<A HREF="http://www2.gol.com/users/mkamiya/mihome/ipdjapane.html">Japan's

Investment in Latin America, by Marco A. Kamiya</A>

The author traces the causes of Japan's dwindling private investments in Peru

and other Latin American countries. This is a useful study of Japan's economic

activities in the region since 1945.

Peru is a special case, according to the author: "Its relation with Japan is

intertwined with the history of the Japanese immigration, thereby creating

strong emotional ties between the two nations," Kamiya writes. "With almost

120,000 Nikkei, Peru's population of Japanese descendants living abroad is

second only to Brazil, which has almost a million." He also notes that since the

1980s, "many Peruvians started to emigrate to Japan pursuing the Japanese dream.

This development could well have contributed to the victory of Alberto Fujimori

in 1990, a victory achieved along with great expectations of massive investments

from Japanese firms in Peru."

<A HREF="http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/pantheon/">Ha Jin, winner of the 1999

National Book Award for Fiction</A>

Set in contemporary China, Ha Jin’s award-winning novel, Waiting, depicts

the struggles of

a doctor against the burden of tradition. Having fallen in love with a modern,

educated woman, the

physician tries to divorce his wife, who was chosen for him in his home village.

Ha Jin teaches

English at Emory University in Atlanta.

<A HREF="http://hacienda.ifrance.com/hacienda/">A radio essay by Gregory Lee

</A>

This essay, transmitted by BBC, February 19, 1998, censures the ridiculous

misrepresentations of the

Chinese people by the British. Among the silly puns cited by Lee are "the

overweight Mrs. Wong, the woman

with more chins than the Peking phone book," and the crash of the Hong Kong

stock exchange, which was a

"disease," just as the chicken flu was. Lee ends his essay with a touching poem

about Hong Kong by one of

his students, whose memories and sentiments are "quite similar" to those of the

British who "should know the

reality well," for they "were here for long enough."

Now a professor at the Universite Jean Moulin Lyon III in France, Lee wrote this

essay while he was

teaching at the University of Hong Kong. (Witty and worthwhile)

<A HREF="http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/janm/whatsnew/pbride.html">Picture

Bride</A>

The film, which won the Audience Award for Best Dramatic Film at the Sundance

Film Festival, depicts the arranged marriages of Asian women to Japanese

plantation laborers in Hawaii between 1908 and 1924. During this period more

than 20,000 picture brides crossed the Pacific Ocean to join their husbands, who

made their selections based on the women's photographs. (Worthwhile)

<A HREF="http:/www.naatanet.org/index.html">The National Asian American

Telecommunications Association </A>

NAATA is supported by world-famous actors and directors, including Joan Chen,

David Henry Hwang, Ang Lee, and Tamlyn Tomita. "NAATA strives to bring quality

Asian American programming to public television," says Donald Young, NAATA's

director of broadcast programming. I Am Viet Hung and Picture

Bride are two of the productions in which the association has been involved.

(Interesting and very informative)

<A HREF="http:/www.dartmouth.edu/~hist32/Books/Topic.htm">Asian

American Resources</A>

The books listed on this site offer promising approaches to

education, health, women, and other issues that pertain to Korean,

Japanese, and Chinese Americans. (Useful)

<A HREF="http:/www.china-net.org/CCF93/ccf9328-1.html">An

Excerpt from the Economist</A>

The author calms fears that overseas Chinese entrepreneurs may

pose a challenge to Western investors, for stringent regulations

in the West have frustrated reliance on guanxi (personal

connections). (Interesting)

<A HREF="http:/www.abc.net.au/ra/special/diaspora.htm">Radio

Australia </A>

Four professors delivered talks on March 23, 1999, at the

Australian National University on the "business networks" that the

Chinese immigrants have established in Australia.

<A HREF="http:/www.phy.duke.edu/~myhan/B_KASTN.html"> Korean American Science

and

Technology News</A>

KASTN, a weekly newsletter, analyses materials that are of interest to the

Korean-American professional community. (Useful)

<A HREF="http:/coombs.anu.edu.au/Diaspora">Centre for the Study

of the Chinese Southern Diaspora</A>

Scholars from different universities presented their papers at

seminars sponsored by this center at the Australian National

University. (Very informative)

<A HREF="http:/fargo.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~chin/mca/where.html">The

Museum of Chinese in the Americas </A>

This site gives a brief history of the Chinese American experience

and features some visually interesting graphics.

<A HREF="http:/www.sherryart.com/newstory/lynnpan.html">An

Interview with Lynn Pan, by Vikram Khanna </A>

Lynn Pan, author of Songs of the Yellow Emperor and other

noteworthy books, talks about the connotations of the word

"Chinese." (Interesting)

<A HREF="http:/www.yorku.ca/academics/iwai/titles.html">BOOKS ON EAST ASIAN

DIASPORA</A>

<center><A

HREF="fourth.html">Road to

East Asia, Vol. II, no. 1</A></center>

<center><A

HREF="fifth.html">Road to

East Asia, Vol. II, no. 2</A></center>

<center><A HREF="sixth.html">Road to

East Asia, Vol. II, no. 3</A></center>

<center><A

HREF="third.htm

l">Road to

East Asia, Vol. 1, no. 3</A></center>

<center><A

HREF="three/isabella2.htm">Reader

responses to

Volume Two</A></center>

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Vol. 1 no. 1]</A>

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[Reader responses to Vol.

no.

1-3]</A>

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<center>Editors and Writers: May Yuen, Kevin Perkins

Benjamin Bacola, Jessica Martin, Julie Shim

Founding editor: Isabella Wai</center>

1999 by the authors.</center>

<center> References to the text of this journal

should be attributed to the

authors and fully documented.

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<center>Illustrations by Julie Shim and Megan

Donnelly</center>

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