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Teaching Asian America in Europe: Race, Pedagogy, and Inter-Cultural Engagement

As a white, British woman who teaches the work of Asian American women writers, I address the two separate but interconnected questions of ethnic and racial differences, and national and cultural differences, both of which intervene in my and my students’ contact with Asian American literary and cultural forms and formations, on a daily basis in the classroom. This article reflects upon the manner in which race enters pedagogy, in relation to the specific racial and geographical circumstances outlined above. Many explorations of American cultural forms by European teachers from across the Atlantic fail to explore the problematics of their own involvement and approach, and the consequence is often a lack of cultural specificity. In 1994, Asian American critic Sau-ling Wong claimed that “it certainly helps to be Asian American when one is interpreting Asian American literature,” but conceded “the theoretical possibility that non-Asians can manage to do excellent criticism on Asian American literature,” adding, however, that “I haven’t seen a whole lot of these scholars yet.” Since then, coinciding with the cultural moment that has seen a surge of interest in ethnic literatures beyond the geographical boundaries of the US, Asian American literature has been a focus of increasing interest for non-Asian, as well as nonAmerican, scholars and teachers, myself included. Concern has been voiced in certain ethnic quarters, though, about the appropriation of ethnic literatures by Anglo teachers and critics, as well as the perils of misreading such texts. An important difference in the positions of Asian American and Anglo/European critics and readers respectively vis-à-vis Asian American studies is that the Asian American critic/reader will always be in a position of noticeable advantage in the study of Asian America. S/he possesses an easy familiarity with particular linguistic and cultural nuances and idioms, and is likely to be able to draw upon a “fund” of comparable daily experience. Indeed, and as one would expect, the literary representations and traditions of Asian America are firmly rooted in the lived experience of Asian Americans. Ethnic and racial differences operate through highlighting divisions between some individuals and by stressing connections with others. Any attempt to read and reach across these differences entails a recognition and understanding of these dynamics. Within the field of African American studies, Houston A. Baker, Jr. and Patricia Redmond have offered an especially useful discussion of the politics of white participation in the study of African American texts. They posit the necessity of “earned participation” of white critics in what is still an “evolving work.” Such earned involvement would include the development of the disciplinary field through “laborious research, ample scholarly production and demonstrable commitment” in such a way as to “keep alive always both the community itself and questions of its definition at any given moment.” Elizabeth Abel puts this well: