‘FRESH OFF THE BOAT’ AND THE MODEL MINORITY STEREOTYPE: A FOUCAULDIAN

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Trương Minh Hằng* , Phùng Hà Thanh

This project studies how the American sitcom Fresh Off the Boat performs the model minority
discourse. The performance, in line with the Foucauldian tradition of discourse analysis, is
understood based on the networks of events and meanings that have rendered the model
minority stereotype intelligible. The study informs that the model minority stereotype entered
the discourse on Asian Americans through mainstream media’s rationalization of Asian
Americans’ economic success in 1960s, marking a significant change in social perceptions of
Asian Americans. It demonstrates that the discursive status of the stereotype has been
conditioned by three power networks namely the black-white paradigm, the Asian American
family, and the stereotype-based humor in American sitcoms. Fresh Off the Boat, the authors
argue, participates effectively in shaping contemporary model minority discourse as it employs
the three power networks in an approach more realistic and humane than mere
oversimplification of Asian American experience.

On the back of a motorbike: Middle-class mobility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Mobility" is a key concept in understanding processes of globalization and class formation. In
this article, I examine motorbike mobility in Ho Chi Min h City and its role in reordering social
stratification in urban Vietnam. In the years following trade liberalization, motorbikes emerged
as exemplary symbols of purchasing power, displaying both monetized and motorized power. In
response to the exponential increase in the number of motorbikes, Vietnamese state agencies
inscribed streets with divisions to separate different classes of vehicles and regulate the flow of
traffic. Motorbikes, I argue, elude attempts to regulate their movement precisely because they
embody the very mobility promised by economic reforms. [Vietnam, traffic, commodity,
circulation, public space and mobility

Chinese gay men

Culture/Community/Race" is an ethnographic account of the development of gay identities and
correlative collective practices among a group of Chinese men in Toronto in the 1980s. The
cultural and racial politics of these identities/ practices are explored through an examination of
the role of Chinese "culture" in their development and through a discus sion of the sexual
politics of race among gay men. This latter material addresses the sexual meanings of racial
difference and the politicization of these meanings among Chinese gay men.

Cultural Adaptation, Tradition, and Identity of Diasporic Vietnamese People A Case Study in
Silicon Valley, California, USA
This research note examines cultural identity, adaptation, and cultural preservation among
diasporic Vietnamese living in Silicon Valley, California. It emphasizes the fluid and changeable
nature of cultural identity and explores how attitudes toward the change and preservation of
traditional culture are shaped, in part, by variations in the experiences of U.S. Vietnamese. I
examine inter-generational differences in identity and adaptation and explore attempts, mainly
by elders within the community, to develop and maintain traditional culture. Finally, I present a
case study of the Hùng Kings temple to illustrate how and why U.S. Vietnamese are trying to
keep traditional culture alive while simultaneously changing and modifying to fit with the
culture of their host country.

STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES OF MASCULINITY AMONG U.S.-BORN AND IMMIGRANT ASIAN

AMERICAN MEN
Explaining how stereotypes and norms influence role-identities during reflected appraisal
processes, we develop a theory about diverse groups of minority men—the "minority mas
culinity stress theory "—and apply it to Asian American men. We conceptually integrate
hegemonic masculinity, stereotypes, and mental health to examine how Asian American men
experience masculinity and how their experiences are uniquely stressful. We analyze elicited
text from an open-ended questionnaire to explain two experiences of masculinity related
stress: trying to live up to the masculine ideal and enacting work-related role identities.
Regarding the former, we discuss four illustrations—toughness, body image, restrictive
emotionality, and heterosexuality—and two involving the latter—achiever and provider. We
found that Asian American men receive stereotypical reflected appraisals that contradict
potentially positive self-concepts and emphasize achievement beyond typical standards of
hegemonic masculinity. Moreover, Asian American men's role-identities con tradict hegemonic
masculinity, resulting in reflected appraisals that predispose them toward stress.

Asianizing K-pop: production, consumption and identification patterns among Thai youth
‘Asian Pop’ cultural products, which include a wide range of media artifacts such as film, music,
television drama, comic books, magazines, websites and fashion, have emerged as a popular
choice for youth in Asia in recent times. These cultural artifacts feature prominently in the lives
of urban youth in major metropolitan centers throughout Asia. This paper examines how Thai
youths have become consumers of Korean pop (K-pop), following the trend of neighboring
countries. The popularization of Japanese pop (J-pop), Taiwanese-pop and more recently, K-
pop, is welcomed by the Cultural Industry as a sign of expanding borders and as a major step
towards expanding its Asian market. On the one hand, growing consumption and
mainstreaming of Asian pop might become problematic due to the notion of cultural
‘McDonaldization’/standardization, in the future. On the other hand, perhaps nationalism and
national ties will manage to overrule this projected standardization. This paper explores the
Thai youth’s consumption of K-pop in the process of cultural appropriation vis-à-vis their
‘national’ cultural formation in changing socio-cultural contexts.

Global Imagination of K-Pop: Pop Music Fans’ Lived Experiences of Cultural Hybridity
Drawing on qualitative interviews with Canada-based K-pop (contemporary South Korean “idol
pop” music) fans, this study discusses how transnational fans experience and interpret K-pop as
a form of cultural hybridity that facilitates global imagination. In particular, the study explores
how fans consume and translate transnational pop music while engaging with different modes
of global imagination in their everyday lives. In so doing, the study contributes to a better
understanding of the text and context of K-pop through the lens of audiences’ negotiation with
globalization.

Men and Masculinities in the Vietnamese Transnational Family

LANANHHOANG University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia BRENDA S. Α. YEOH
National University of Singapore
This article explores an aspect of women's transnational labor migration that has been
understudied in many labor-sending countries: how men experience shifts in the house hold
labor division triggered by women s migration. In so doing, we shed light on the diverse ways
notions of masculinity and gender identities are being reworked and renegotiated in the
transnational family. Drawing on qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews with carers
of left-behind children in Northern Vietnam, we show how men are confronted with the need
to take on child care duties, which have traditionally been ascribed to women, while at the
same time being under considerable pressure to live up to locally accepted masculinity ideals.
We provide interesting insights into the changing family structures and dynamics in Vietnamese
society where patriarchal norms continue to exert significant influence on different facets of life

TAMING TIGER DADS: Hegemonic American Masculinity and South Korea's Father School
ALLEN KIM International Christian University ; Japan KAREN PYKE University of California
Riverside , USA How do non-Western men interact with and understand the form of Western
masculinity associated with global dominance? Is their experience of Western hegemonic
masculinity 's denigration of their national/ethnic masculinity similar to what occurs among
subordi- nated nonwhite and lower-class men in Western countries? We take up this subject in
our study of the South Korean Father School movement, which trains Korean men to become
more involved and loving family men. Our analysis of the discursive practices of Father School
organizational leadership and participants discovers the relational construction of a problematic
"Korean " masculinity and a remedial " New Man " masculinity associated with white American
men. We draw on Chen (1999) to suggest the Father School men's movement is an attempt to
elevate Korean masculinity on the world stage by "bargaining " with Western hegemonic
masculinity.