Before I started writing the research paper, I had first decided to come
up with the significant themes in the class. My list included: -The way
each novel segments time and space -What is Asian-American-ness to each
of us? -idea of choice -when does race not matter? -historical perspective/context
-how humans interact with historical processes and is it truly accidental?
-does historical framework affect our actions? -race and ethnicity
The reasons why I chose my topic of Hong Kong emigration were quite obvious. I was born in Hong Kong, and so the immigrant experience is no stranger to me. The topic itself lends itself very well to the whole "historical circumstance" theme brought up again and again in this class. Eric Liu grew up the way he did because he grew up in a place where there were few Asian children and where American society had become essentially color-blind. Carlos Bulosan's often bitter attitude towards America attributes directly from the many injustices that he and his friends and brothers have suffered in the United States due to attitudes in white America at the time. Andrew X. Pham saw his America painted through the rough neighborhoods of South San Jose, where he learned never to back down. And Maxine Hong Kingston: why did her mother's stories inspire such vivid imagination for her? Perhaps it is because Kingston grew up in a neighborhood without too many Chinese people, where she had no contact with China, and hence the only way she could visualize her ancestors' homeland was through her imagination.
As for myself, I see America much the same way as Eric Liu does, because societal conditions of today dictated that no kid ever picked on me because of my race or ethnicity. I see China only through the biased eyes of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is not like China. Just walk across the border from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and you'll see. For sure, Shenzhen isn't China either. China is so vast and diverse, yet Hong Kong represents only seven million people out of over a billion. Hongkongers are undoubtedly more Westernized, more urbane, more affluent than most Chinese people. And yet, I get my "Chinese-ness" not from the mainland, but through the modern metropolis that is Hong Kong. But of course, Hong Kong is an artificial construct created through a quirk in history. The British didn't even want Hong Kong; "too small," protested Queen Victoria and her Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. But that fateful decision in 1842 for the British to accept the island changed historical circumstances forever. And in 1898, instead of ceding the New Territories to Britain, the Chinese managed to wrangle with the British overlords and obtain a more favorable deal: merely a ninety-nine year lease. Who knew then that this number, "ninety-nine", would become so important when 1997 rolled along:?
As the research paper tries to illustrate, the reasons for Hongkongers to immigrate to the United States were indeed a strong statement of the importance of historical circumstance. Consider the main events that have fueled Hong Hong immigration: the Caifornia Gold Rush, the tumultuous events of the Cultural Revolution, the unsettling resolution of the 1997 question and the Tiananmen Square incident. Maybe not in the 1800's, but certainly in modern times, most Hong Kong residents were perfectly happy going about their lives, and all of a sudden, the 1997 question rolls around. It is true that Hongkongers who immigrated made a choice to immigrate, but they were strongly influenced in that decision by the sword of Damocles which seemed to hang over Hong Kong like a dark shadow. And so, these Hong Kong Chinese decided to exile themselves to a foreign land.