From political representation to cultural hybridism: A paradigm shift of pan-Asian identity in the U.S.

摘要

This dissertation focuses on the emergence of pan-Asian consciousness and identity in the U.S. from the early twenty-first century to recent years by investigating its amalgamation strategies and character. While a political-driven pan-Asian consciousness has been a dominant motivating force among Asian Americans since its emergence in the 1960s, I argue that in recent years it has been more than a political label, which has adapted into a personally meaningful identity for many Asian Americans as it hinges on the shared feeling of a common culture.;Despite the constructed and fluid nature of pan-Asian identity which has shifted over the years, the recent pan-Asian consciousness is shared within a limited scope primarily among East Asian descendants - those of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean origin. Its organizational principle largely remains rooted in the similar phenotypes and their "common culture" while excluding and marginalizing various Asian subgroups.;For this limitation, discourse, the agent of construction, and critical discourse analysis provide a framework through which contemporary pan-Asian identity can be reconfigured beyond the confined networks of East Asian Americans into a multiple and dynamic category in order to overcome the narrowly defined conception of race and identity in America.;I characterize this new pan-Asian identity as cultural hybridism. In this post pan-Asian consciousness, subjective choices and alternative interpretations are recognized and respected for self-identification without placing one particular trait in primacy. Through the practice of articulation and ongoing negotiation, the future pan-Asian identity will likely reflect the cultural hybridism of an open-ended community.;Theoretical reflections on ethnic formation demonstrate the important role of discourse in homogenizing groups. This finding reveals that the "ethicized" pan-Asian boundary is defined through the discourse of "common culture" rather than through actual primordial ties as some scholars claim. The symbolic narrative claims that Asian Americans share the ancient heritages of Asia provokes a sense of primordial ties in that a number of Asian Americans come to believe in their common roots.