Cultural Citizenship as Subject-Making: Immigrants Negotiate Racial and Cultural Boundaries in the United States [and Comments and

Reply] Author(s): Aihwa Ong, Virginia R. Dominguez, Jonathan Friedman, Nina Glick Schiller, Verena Stolcke, David Y. H. Wu, Hu Ying Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 5 (Dec., 1996), pp. 737-762 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2744412 . Accessed: 25/03/2011 03:42
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CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume37, Number5, DecemberI996 ? I996 by The Wenner-GrenFoundation forAnthropologicalResearch. All rightsreservedooII-3204/96/3705-0002$3.oo

CulturalCitizenship as Subject-Making
Immigrants NegotiateRacial and CulturalBoundariesin the United States' by Aihwa Ong
This paperviews cultural citizenship a processofself-making as andbeing-made relation nation-states transnational in to and prosome scholarsclaimthatracismhas beenrecesses.Whereas placedby "cultural fundamentalism" defining belongsor in who does notbelongin Westemdemocracies, essayargues this that schemesofracialand cultural hierarchical difference intersect in a complex, of contingent to locateminorities colorfrom way difclass backgrounds. ferent of the Comparing experiences richand to I poorAsian immigrants theUnitedStates, discussinstitutionalpractices nonwhite in whereby World immigrants theFirst are simultaneously, though to unevenly, subjected twoprocesses ofnormalization: ideological an or thatrewhitening blackening flects dominant racialoppositions an assessment cultural and of competence based on imputed humancapitaland consumer Asia or poorer powerin theminority subject.Immigrants from countries mustdailynegotiate lines ofdifference the established in A by stateagenciesas well as groups civil society. subsidiary such of pointis that, increasingly, modalities citizen-making are influenced transnational by on capitalism. Depending their locationsin theglobaleconomy, some immigrants colorhave of access thanothers keyinstitutions stateand civil in greater to Global citizenship society. thusconfers in citizenship privileges Western democracies a degree to thatmayhelptheimmigrant to scale racialand cultural but heights not to circumvent statushierarchy based on racialdifference. is AssociateProfessor Anthropology theUniof at of versity Califomia, Calif.94720, U.S.A.). Berkeley (Berkeley, She has conducted ethnographic research Malaysia,South in China,and Califomiaand is currently working citizenship, on economicrestructuring, transnational and publics.She is theauthorofSpirits Resistanceand CapitalistDiscipline:Factory of in Women Malaysia (Albany: StateUniversity New York of withMichael G. Peletz,ofBePress,i987) and the coeditor, Pious Men: Genderand BodyPolitics Southin witching Women, east Asia (Berkeley: of University CalifomiaPress,I995) and, withDon Nonini,ofEdgesofEmpire:Culture in and Identity ModernChineseTransnationalism in (New York:Routledge, press).The present i2 paperwas submitted I 96 and accepted I8 I 96; thefinalversion reached Editor's the office III 96. 4
AIHWA ONG

In thefallofI970, I left Malaysiaandarrived a freshas manin New YorkCity.I was immediately swept in up theantiwar movement. President Nixonhadjustbegun his "secret"bombing Cambodia.Joining of of crowds angry students marching downBroadway,participated I in the "takeover" the East Asian Institute of building on the ColumbiaUniversity campus.As I stoodthere confronting policemen riot in gear, thought I aboutwhat Southeast Asia meant theUnited to States. Were Southeast Asians simplyan anonymous mass of peoplein blackpajamas? Southeast Asia was a far-off where place America conductingsavagewaragainst was a "communism." American lives were beinglost, and so were thoseof countless Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and others. This riteofpassageintoAmerican society was to shapemyattitude toward citizenship. a forAs eignstudent was at a disadvantage, I ineligible most for loans, fellowships, jobs. My sister, naturalized and a American, could have sponsored fora greencard, me but the bombing Cambodia, of symptomatic wider of disregard mypartoftheworld, for madeAmerican citia zenship difficult moralissuefor me. Muchwriting citizenship ignored on has suchsubjectiveand contradictory experiences, instead on focusing its broadlegal-political aspects.Forinstance, Thomas Marshall defines (I950) as of citizenship a question modernity, he identifies primarily terms the but it in of evolution civil societyand the working of the of out tensions between sovereign the and subject solidarity in a nation-state. Otherscholars havepointed theconto tradiction between democratic and citizenship capitalism-the opposition betweenabstract, universalistic rights theinequalities and engendered market by competition, race,and immigration (Hall and Held I989, Portes Rumbaut and I990). Butthese approaches seldom examinehow the universalistic criteria democratic of citizenship variously regulate different categories subof jectsorhow thesesubjects' location within nationthe stateandwithin global the economy conditions conthe struction theircitizenship. of Indeed,even studiesof thattake into accountthe effects it of citizenship on and capitalaccumulation consumption havebeenconcerned withpotential for strategies politicalchange to remake civilsociety (Yudicei995). Seldomis attention focused theeveryday on processes whereby people, especiallyimmigrants, madeintosubjects a particular are of nation-state.

as Citizenship Subjectification
Takingan ethnographic I approach, consider citizenof shipa cultural process "subject-ification," Fouin the caldiansenseof self-making being-made power and by relationsthat produceconsentthrough schemes of surveillance, discipline,control,and administration (Foucault I989, I99I). Thus formulated, concept of my cultural can to citizenship be applied various conglobal texts(see Ong I993, Ongand NoniniI996), butin this the of paperI will discu-ss making cultural citizens in
737

from Rockefeller the GenderRoles ProI. I received fellowship a and for on gram research Cambodian refugees cultural citizenship. I thankBrackette for Williamsand Katharyn Poethig theircomErwin prooffor mentson earlier drafts thepaperand Kathleen of the reading finalversion.

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of the like and Philip Cor- als in theinterests ensuring security prosperWestern democracies theUnited States. riganand Derek Sayer(I985), in theiranalysisof the ityofthenation-state. majorproblem A withCorrigan state as a culturalformation, speak of "governmen-andSayer's is (I985) approach itsrestriction thestate to of tality," whichthey by meanthestate's project moral sector, civil institutions social groups ignoring and as expres- disciplinary regulation aimedat giving "unitary unifying and forces the makingof cultural in citizens. Indeed,it is precisely liberaldemocracies in sionto whatarein reality multifaceted differential and like the This United experiences groups of within society" (I985:4-5). States thatthegovernmentality ofstateagencies roleofthestate universalizing in citizenship paradoxi- is often is discontinuous, fragmentary, thework even and cally attained througha process of individuation ofinstilling normative behavior identity and proper in must also be takenup by institutions whereby peopleareconstructed definitive specific newcomers in and in For consumers, and civil society. instance, hegemonic ideas aboutbeways as citizens-taxpayers, workers, and in longing not belonging racialand cultural welfare-dependents. terms in Thisnotion citizenship dialectically of as determined often converge stateand nonstate institutional pracwhichsubjects shaped waysthat in is are from are bythestateand its subjects quitedifferent that ticesthrough and These are theideological employed Renato by Rosaldo(I994), whoviewscultural at once specific diffused. within for fields whichdifferent criteria belonging the of citizenship thedemand disadvantaged as of subjects on in from basis of civilizedconduct categorically fullcitizenship spiteoftheir cultural difference by distinguishothers While I share Rosaldo's senti- able (dominant) becomeentangled mainstream society.2 withculture, ments, concept his attends onlyone side ofa set of race,and class (Williams to I99I:2-29). unequalrelationships.givestheerroneous It impression thatcultural citizenship be unilaterally can constructed and thatimmigrant minority or groups escapethe Race, Class, and EconomicLiberalism can forms of cultural inscription statepowerand other of of regulation define different that the modalities belong- My approach constitutes intervention theconan into ing. Formulated this manner, in Rosaldo'sconceptof ventional of theorizing American citizenship solelyin cultural citizenship indicates subscription the very termsof racial politicswithinthe framework the to of liberalprinciple universal of equality thathe seeks to nation-state (OmiandWinant I986, Gregory Sanjek and I994). Whatis urgently call intoquestion. neededis a broader conception In contrast,use "cultural I to of citizenship" refer the ofraceandcitizenship to shaped thehistory European by African cultural and slavery colonialempires and practices beliefs produced ofnegotiatingimperialism. out were to of and withthe central the making modern the often ambivalent contested relations Western Europeand Encounters stateanditshegemonic forms establish criteria the Americas. that the between colonizers the and colonized enslaved or ofbelonging within national a population territory. and gaveriseto theviewthatwhiteare withlevelsofcivilizaCultural is and blackhierarchies homologous citizenship a dualprocess self-making of a that all websofpower linked thenation- tion, racist hegemony pervades areasofWestwithin to being-made stateand civil society. a on ern consciousness Becoming citizendepends (MemmiI967, Fanon I967, Alatas how one is constituted a subjectwho exercises as or I977, Said I978, NandyI983, GilmanI985, Stoler I995). submits power to whatFou- Thesehistorically specific relations; mustdevelop one ideologies, Western European order humangroupings cault(cited Rabinow atti- in origin, by I984:49) calls"themodern distinguished real by fieldsof and allegedbiologicalfeatures tude,"an attitude self-making shifting of in into statushierarchies become basesofvarious the that include nation-state thewider the and world. that forms disciimination of power the to- and exclusion in Westerndemocracies in (Dominguez struggle Furthermore, analyzing pragmatic one I986; Miles I989; GilroyI987; WilliamsI989, I99I; of wards an understanding culturalcitizenship, and in to mustattend thevariousregulatory regimes state Hall i992; Gregory SanjekI994). scholars claimthat Recently, MichelFoucault however, there been has notes and agencies civilsociety. (i99i) shift dominant in Western excludemocracies control subjects a distinct of European Western thatin modern practices cultural whereby rather racialdifthan and in is manifested rituals rulesthatproduce consent; sionary is calls forbanning relations regulate ference used to justify that refers immigrants "governmentality" tothose and maintains thatif however, as of theconduct subjects a population as individu- (StolckeI995). Paul Gilroy, we takeraceas a political rather thana biological catenewerdiscourses marginalization Britain of in gory, fois citizenship "theright cus on the "distinctive 2. According Rosaldo(I994:57), cultural to culture" blackswithout of disor with of to be different terms race,ethnicity, nativelanguage) (in racism 987:I09, I49). He callsthediscourse (i of with- carding nationalcommunity, respect thenormsofthe dominant to cultural differencenew racismthatis morediffused a in one's right belong, thesenseofparticipatto out compromising statepolicies, informed by exclu- but stillracisteventhough The enduring democratic processes. ingin thenation-state's to denyfullcitizenship Latinosand sympathetic sions of the colorline often combat kindofcrude, the liberalism, neocom- fascist other peopleofcolor.Fromthepointofview ofsubordinate racismthatcharacterized earlier forms disof the of citizenship offers possibility legitimizing munities, cultural crimination Britain I48-50). WhatGilroy in failsto (pp. These themselves. to demandsmade in the struggle enfranchise from British his vantage point,is how U.S. legal,politicaland economicissues to mention, demandscan rangefrom and well-being, respect." matters humandignity, of racialdiscourses, withnotions cullonginterwoven of

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notionof inscription idealmasculine its tural difference in PatrickMoynihan's as of citizenship; legitimatto the the was than sufficient overcome ugly "blackpathology," haveinfluenced biological- ingpower more may or citi- stainofsexualharassment plagued judge's conshift discourses marginal ineligible in of that the cultural sideoftheAtlantic. on firmation. zenship theother while Attaining successthrough self-reliant struggle, Thus thisrace-versus-culture construction excluof is limited anycultural to group, a process sionarydiscoursesis, albeit unintentionally, red notinherently a bethat democracies herring. Nevertheless, leadingU.S. scholarssuch as of self-development in Western fromthe processof "whitening." Michael Omi and HowardWinant(I986) continue to comes inseparable of has effect class and social mobility study shifting the constructions racialpolitics of with- This racializing white circumstances whereby out reference normative to performance schemes or of evolvedout ofhistorical established of and qualities manliness civicultural assessment. Gilroycautionsthat"'race' is a masculinity itself against "Negro"andthe"Indian"(Bethe political that category can accommodate various mean- lization I993). Inspired W. E. B. Du Bois'sworkon by ingswhicharein turn determined struggle....racial derman by argues (i99i) has differentiation become a feature institutional race and class (I977), David R. Roediger of was the formative periodof of structures-legal subjectivity citizenship-aswellas that the igth century classes in a slaveindividual action"(I987:38). A fuller understanding "whiteness"among the working of was "Whiteness a wayin which workrepublic. racismand its embeddedness notions citizenship owning in of to of on requires examination racialconcepts their an of and uses ersresponded a fear dependency wagelaborand to the necessities of capitalist work discipline" in liberal ideologies cultural and practices. ideal of masculine indeThe Revolutionary Another lacunain theories racism of and citizenship (I99I:I3). and "hireling" foundin black slavery wage is the effect class attributes property of and rights on pendence was other.The black population status(see Harrison As we shallsee, labor a convenient citizenship i99I). careless "the erotic, theinterweaving ideologies racialdifference of of with viewedas embodying preindustrial, for" of hatedandlonged (pp. is liberalconceptions citizenship evident popular style lifethewhiteworker of in "The Negro" as a "contrast or conception" notions aboutwho deserves belong implicit to in terms I3-I4). under is of relations and of productivity consumption. instance, the "counter-race"a legacy white-black in For that and the UnitedStates, with postwar neoliberalism, its celebra- slavery Emancipation "'naturalizes' social (Copeland I939:I79).3 tion of freedom, and progress, individualism, be- order" has come a pervasive ideologythat influences a manydoone synAlthough neednotimagine contemporary mains of social life.It has becomesynonymous with chrony views on intrepid of the individualism, white and these valuesarewhat man,and deserving being American, more broadly the and citizenship, convergences theworld associates withWestern civilization. There is, overlaps of and between hegemonies race,civilization, a however, regulatory aspectto neoliberalism whereby market as behavior claimsto citizenship tooroutine are is economics extended coverall aspectsof human to be dismissed. to of racialcontribuHegemonies relative An behavior to pertaining citizenship. important princi- tionsoften in race conflated and class,as, forexample, liberaldemocracy ple underlying emphasizes balancing thepolarizing the contrast between "modelminority" of theprovision security the of against productivityciti- and the "underclass"(MyrdalI994), both economic zens. In other neoliberalism an expression terms is of words, for the standing racialones.As I willshow, differthebiopolitics theAmerican of stateas well as setting entinstitutional in contexts whichsubjects learnabout in of thenormative standards goodcitizenship practice. citizenship often assessnewcomers from different parts In the postwarera, such thinking givenrise to oftheworldwithin has of givenschemes racialdifference, a human-capital assessment citizens(Becker of I965), worth. and Becausehumancapicivilization, economic thosewho can pull themselves by their tal, self-discipline, consumer weighing up and powerare associated thosewho makeclaimson thewel- withwhiteness, bootstraps against are theseattributes important criteria is fare state. as Increasingly, citizenship defined thecivic ofnonwhite in democracies. Indeed, citizenship Western duty individuals reduce of to their burden society on and immigrant in practices earlier thecentury subjected also build up theirown humancapital-to be "entrepre- immigrants from racialand culEuropeto differential neurs"ofthemselves (Gordon I99I:43-45). Indeed, by tural judgments e.g.,Archdeacon (see, I983). The racialthe I96os liberal economics cometo evaluate had non- ization of class was particularly evidentin the conwhitegroups to claimson or indepen- struction Irish-American Southern according their of European) (and denceofthestate.Minorities who scaledthepinnacles immigrants whosewhiteness in dispute was (Roediger had ofsociety often to justify in themselves suchentre- I99I:I4). This racializing is logicofclass attributes apA terms. rather examplewas the I99OS preneurial apt flowsof immigrants fromthe plied even to current of nomination Clarence Thomasto theSupreme Court South Eastwhoseemobviously and discriminonwhite; oftheUnited a viewed thetoken natory as States, movewidely modes of perception, and reception, treatment of American the powerful order to appointment an African Asianimmigrants continuum. alonga white-black white-dominated In institution. his confirmation hearThomaspainted himself a deserving as ings, Judge citiout zen whostruggled ofa hardscrabble by"pulling 3. I thankBrackette past thesepointswithme Williamsfor discussing The the himself byhis bootstraps." can-do is attitude an and supplying references. up

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a comefrom variety class and bringing renewedinfluxof refugees of Although immigrants a fromLatin insti- America, in there Africa, Asia intometropolitan and national backgrounds, is a tendency, daily countries. ra- It was notunusualto see MayanIndians, interweavingperceived of stillwrapped towards tutional practices, with in their and criteria, with cial difference economic cultural colorful clothes, in or working English gardens are sarong-clad turban-wearing and in residents newcomers and theresultthatlong-term Laotians shopping the embodi- neighborhood constructed "thestereotypical as ideologically market. The withdrawal U.S. troops of from I989:437). mainland Southeast Asia andthelater of (Williams invasion citizenship ments"ofethnicized of racialand cul- Cambodia Vietnam causedwavesofrefugees flee, theseprocesses implicit to Of course, by the that do tural ranking notexhaust conditions go into bywayofrefugee to Western camps, Australia, Europe, keep- andtheUnitedStates. as It Other processes subjectificationcitizens. is worth of wavesofwarrefugees left con- SriLanka,Afghanistan, to ingin mindthatwhenwe attend thepragmatic and America Ethiopia, Central racialcatego- forthe same destinations. we of struction belonging, see thatofficial of Concurrent diasporas an of economicnatureintroduced American activities by riesare reproduced everyday poor workers well as as the separating civilizedfrom wealthy inclusionand exclusion, investors from Africa Asia intoEurope and and such NorthAmerica.These massivewaves of immigrants Perin 988) hasdescribed (i theprimitive. Constance in the Southradically liberal coherence theface from metaphoric symbolic challenged attempts maintaining at in of ambiguities and keepingfearsat bay as "drawing conceptions citizenship Western of Europeand the deviant. Racialoppositions UnitedStates. the lines"against culturally the laws The San Francisco areawas one ofthemajor of Bay arenotmerely work discriminatory andoutsites product people'smain- of resettlement refugees of but right racists theeveryday for fromall over the Third liberal World, majority whomwereSoutheast level" ofpermissible tenanceof their"comfort the of Asians.5 who newcomers dis- Mostarrived twowaves:in theaftermath thecomthe deviant norms against socially in of of munisttakeover Saigonin I975 and following Again,such encoding turbthat sense of comfort. of the in and discursive Vietnamese white-black invasion Cambodia I979. Ataboutthe of in oppositions behavioral life flowofimmigrants, everyday in otherliberal, same time,another strategies saturates also mainly profeswhite-dominated societies,such as Britainand New sionals and upper-middle-class people seekinginvestin and in markets theWest, arrived I987, Wetherell Potter Zealand(Gilroy from SouthI993). I will ments stable between eastAsia andIndia.The combined of accounts interactions present ethnographic of flows impact these of the and key institutions newcomers, drawing lines greatly exceededthatof earlier arrivals from Asia, inthe in over and against Asianothers, thestruggles representa-creasing Asian population Americaby 8o% to workof citizen- 6.88million theendofthedecade. tionsthatare partof the ideological Asiansare"far by and domainsof Americanlife.4 awaythemostrapidly in makingin the different growing minority thecountry" of WhileI will be dealing withthemaking immigrants(New YorkTimes,February I99I). Theyhavefanned 24, I of to that citizens, maintain theprocesses outacrossthecountry establish sizableAsianAmeriintoAmerican ranking pervad- can communities and racialandcultural outsidethe Chinatowns the east of explicit implicit practices buta special and west coasts,spreading the Southern are and inginstitutional everyday to statesand in in democracies theMidwest. case ofsimilar constructions Western Thereare Vietnamese in fishing villages Texas,Cambodian crabfarmers Alabama, Asian in and general. in suchas electronics, professionals fields and medicine, The mathematics. number Chineserestaurants of has in increased smaller towns over country. major all the In in New Asian Immigrants Metropolitan citiessuchas Queens, and investHouston, LosAngeles, Countries ments Koreans Chineseimmigrants raised and by have levels(see,e.g.,Wall in to Massachusetts California the realestatepricesto stratospheric WhenI movedfrom January 199I). I5, of therange peoplesfrom StreetJournal, by earlyi980s, I was struck The new Asiandemographics so striking toare that litregion a timewhenthescholarly at theAsia-Pacific of day Asians make up a third the population San of of as Asian Americans people largely erature defined and Francisco 30% ofthestudent at body theUniversity were and ancestry. (Filipinos Chinese, Japanese, Korean Berkeley. Overall,the Bay Area,witha Global con- of California, thenviewedsimplyas PacificIslanders.) of has as rea- population over6 million, "emerged theWestwere flictsand economicrestructuring important ernHemisphere's genuine first Pacific with metropolis," turbulent sons thatthe I980s were an especially era, one out of everyfiveresidents beingof Asian background (San Francisco Chronicle,December5, I988). of importance the economicboom in pro- The increasing i99i), Ethnicity (Lamphere 4. A recentvolume,Structuring of and Asia and the influx PacificRim capitalas well as betweennewcomers cases of encounters vides ethnographic
The U.S. urbaninstitutions. focusof thesecase studiesis on the Americansociety.My into dominant of integration immigrants for destination as of and viewssuchencounters practices relations power 5. In I988, theBayAreawas thethird-most-favored approach Nearly4I,000 and differen- legal immigrants, New Yorkand Los Angeles. processes foster after minoritization varied thatconstitute in arrived theBayAreathatyear,6o% ofthemAsian groups immigrants amongdifferent of citizenship tial understandings cultural 6, July i989). (San FranciscoChronicle, ofnewcomers.

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influx immigrants of boatpeopleintotheWestern democracies keepsethnic makeAsian continuing formation is merging diverging waysthatbreak and in a highly issuethat framed immigration differ-unstable, up charged (see identities from issueofimmigration other the from ently of racialcomponents Lowe I99I), butethnic parts are also inscribed elite discourses to whereand by theworld. as populations included or excluded are in The changingdemographics Californiahave how different in mainstream society. Indeed,since explicit changed terms debate immigration multi- from the of stateon and including AsianAmericans thedominant in culturalism justfor state for wholecoun- ments not the but the sechavebeenso rare, try.Whatwill the UnitedStatesas a Pacificcountry torofsociety very AsianAmerifew look like? Throughoutthe I98os, the risingwaves of cans protest the image of them as victimized in Asiannewcomers wereexceeded theinflux Central overachievers the antiaffirmative-action by discourses. of American the refugees and migrant workers (Portesand Despite this silentacquiescence, image of Asian is Rumbaut I990:44-46). Against the background fore- overachievers an ideological misrepresentation ofthe of casts thatwhiteswill becomejust one moreminority diversity amongAsian populations the country. in Inin California theyear2ooo, there beena backlash deed,theCalifornian mediahavedistinguished catby has two of the forces bypolitical controlled influenced white or Chiby vot- egories AsianAmericans: "modelminority" from ers.In I986 an initiative passeddeclaring Taiwan,China,and was English nese immigrants HongKong, and the state'sofficial represented Camboby in language; I994another initiative Vietnam thenewunderclass calledforthedenialofhealthand educational modelfollowsthe services dians and Laotians.The bifurcated of toillegalimmigrants who use na(mainly from LatinAmerica). Both formula academicsand policymakers origin thebasisofethnic as identity among immimeasures appeared set limitsto the increasing to cul- tional and I990:I4I-42). tural and economic If,as I have diversity thestate'spopulation. grants of (Portes Rumbaut we The measures reflect as nationwide formaconcerns aboutim- suggested, thinkof ethnicities dynamic out processes incluof migration fromsouth of the border well as from tionsconstructed oftheeveryday as how do we account thebifurcafor non-European countries. Nevertheless, there discrim- sionand exclusion, is into inationamongdifferent categories immigrants tion of Asian immigrants these two categories? of by modalities regulation gender of use nationalorigin and by class. In a stunning stemove,the How dodifferent in race, nation,and citizenship regents theUniversity California of of system recently reotypes configuring whereby differing groups accorded are bannedaffirmative-action cultural in and privileges programs admissions or to hiring, off setting a national debateon official sponsor- normativity deviancein relation whitemascushipofmultiethnic representation different of linity?7 in areas I will examine society. whatappear be attempts makeall imBut institutional to to thatdifferently practices migrants adhereto standardized, "color-blind" on norms receiveand socialize Asian immigrants depending arein factattempts discriminate to within racial gender, position and among them, sepa- their hierarchies, class rating the desirable out on I from undesirable the citizens and consumption. Drawing ethnographic research, to the according some racialand cultural calculus.Forin- will explore waysin whichCambodian on refugees, stance,politicians such as House SpeakerNewt Gin- the one hand,and affluent Chinesecosmopolitans, on grich have declared the explore meanings possibilities citiaffirmative actionunfair whites theother, to and of and Asians (San Francisco Chronicle, July3I, I995). zenship California. contrasting in Asiangroups By from California's Governor Pete Wilsonhas been quotedas different backgroundshopeto showhow despite class I thataffirmative saying actionpromotes racialization AsianAmericans, as a "tribalism," and becauseof their code wordforcoloredminorities socializedby and positioned mato thatpresumably ex- theyare variously cludesAsianAmericans state civil(San Francisco Chronicle,July nipulate institutions, religious organizations, 23, i995). In the debate, Asian Americans have been iangroups, market and forces them citizens as inscribing referred as "victimizedoverachievers"worth. to "victim- ofdifferential ized,"thatis, by other and immigrants minorities preas sumablynot certified "overachievers."6 Such discourses "whiten" AsianAmericans whileusing as Disciplining Refugeesin an Age of them a "racialwedge" between whites minority and "tribals." Compassion Fatigue Thefight affirmative over is action an excellent example of "whitening" and "blackening" processesat work, Themoral imperative offer to has shelter beena refugees whereracial difference skin color is variously or en- hallmark U.S. policy of sinceI945, breaking earlier from crusted withthe cultural valuesof a competitive soci- policiesthatprivileged and race,language, assimilation has ety.As ThomasArchdeacon observed, is "ethnicity above concerns about humansuffering and (Loescher a dynamic force thatkeepsAmerica's national, racial, Scanlani986:2io). Duringthe cold war,refugees from
and religiousgroups in constant flux" (i983:242). The
gender"to, describea parallel racializingprocess beingput "'ethnicizing have protested professionals 6. Some Asian American "whiteideology class between whereby assignsselected gender of characteristics to intotheposition a "racialbourgeoisie"-a buffer for August22, variousethnicothers," example, representations effemiin minorities of (San FranciscoChronicle, whitesand other nizedAsian men and ultrafeminized Asianwomen. I995).
7. Cynthia Wong Sau-ling (iqq2:iii-i2) employs the concept

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Refugees Training Program] ensurethat communist weretreated regimes withspecialkindness the [Overseas servethe samefunction African as Americans becauseoftheideological perception they un- refugees that had dergone great as suffering symbolic literal"freedom and Latinos"(p. 549). or fighters" xviii).This policycontinued moreor less Furthermore, immigrants once arrived the counin (p. even after UnitedStatesendedits intervention try, the to whatever theirnationalorigin race,theywere or prevent spread communism Indochina, the of in setting ideologically positioned withinthe hegemonic bipolar off wavesofboatpeoplefleeing Vietnam. I979, tens white-black In modelofAmerican society. The racializaofthousands Cambodians to theThaiborder of fled after tionofSoutheast Asianrefugees depended differenon theVietnamese invasion Kampuchea. of President Car- tialeconomic cultural and assessment their of potential ter,in the spirit his humanrights of campaign, signed as goodcitizens. Although reliedon refugee for all aid a refugee to increase act immigration quotasforthem. the first two yearsafter theirarrival, Cambodians (toBetween I975 and i 985, almost 125,000 Cambodians ar- gether and found withLaotians Hmongs) themselves, by rived theUnited in States. Anticommunist ideology and acquiring imageof"welfare-dependent" an immigrants, opportunities making for politicalcapitalin Congress quickly from who differentiated theVietnamese, hadardictateda systemof "calculatedkindness"whereby rivedin thiscountry ofthe same war.Cambodian out Southeast Asianand Cubanrefugees werefavored over and Laotianimmigrants as were ethnicized a kindof thosefrom Haiti,El Salvador, Chile (pp. 2I3-I5). and in that liminal AsianAmerican group hasmore common ButtheshadowoftheU.S. defeat theIndochina in con- withother likeAfghans Ethioand of poorrefugees color flict hungoverthereception thesewarrefugees. of Fur- piansthanwiththeVietnamese. Theywereoften comthermore, arrived a timewhenthecountry they at was pared their in African American to inner-city neighbors from suffering an economic and recession, many Ameri- terms low-wage of employment, ratesof teenage high cansbecameworried aboutscarce housing, jobs,welfare pregnancy, welfare-dependent and families. needs,and competition from immigrants. Rioting by As mentioned earlier, transfer racialotherness the of MarielCubanrefugees contributed theimageof"dif- from minority to in the one group another order draw to to ficult migrants" 2I7). Compassion set lines of social and economiccitizenship a historfatigue has quickly (p. in, and a climateofantagonism greeted increasing ical precedent the differentiation the in betweenwhites influx refugees colorfrom of of Asia,Latin America, and and blacksafter linkbeThe Emancipation. symbolic Africa. and "preindustrial license"was even tweenblackness From the beginning, politicalambiguity a dogged transferred Irishimmigrants, were considered to who Cambodian becauseoftheimmigration refugees author- by some to be partof "a separate casteor 'dark'race" ities' suspicionthatmanyKhmerRougecommunist- (Roediger99 I: I07, I 33-34). The ideological formation I sympathizers to managed slipthrough screening the ofwhiteness thesymbol ideallegalandmoral by citias of Immigration Naturalization and Service (INS) and gain zenshiptodaycontinues dependupon the "blackto to entry thecountry (GolubI986, NgorI987). Thismor- ening"of less desirable situimmigrants. Immigrants allytainted imagewas accompanied theperception atedcloser theblackpoleareseenas at thebottom by of to of Cambodian as refugees mainly unlikethe thecultural economic peasants, and A social ranking. Vietnamese boat people,who were by and largeunambiguouslyworker to me, said anticommunist Sino-Vietnamese middle-class, and deare educated. They spite significant numbers fishermen peasants- MostoftheKhmers nothighly of and were farmers and theirtendencyis to be lazy. . . . So amongthem.Cambodians refugee-processing in camps receive from welfare right werequicklyseparated as destined lower-class withtheincomethey out for themto be lazy.Theyarenotmonow it is easyfor status.At the Philippine Refugee Processing Center, to find somewayto get classestrained U.S.-bound Cambodians be dependent tivated go to work.... they to out of[thetraining language and program]....They on Americans, dealtwithrefugees from who only their as positions superiors, and teachers, bosses (Mortland do not want to improvetheirskills here .... Maybe theyoung peoplewill grow hereandbecomeeduup I987:39I). One teacher charged from very that, the becatedandwantto change. ginning, were "ideologically training programs motivatedto provide survival for English entry-level jobs" This manwas partly his over expressing frustration the in theUnitedStates(Tollefson I990:546). Khmers were difficulty getting Cambodian of the to refugees signup socializedto expectlimitedoccupational optionsand forjob training electronic in assembly work,car metaught subservient behavior, wellas a flexible as attitude chanics, workbutalso revealchildcare,and janitorial towardsfrequent changesof jobs which would help inghis ownethnic bias against Cambodians. themadapt to cyclesof employment unemploy- By I987, well overhalfof the 8oo,oooIndochinese and ment.Thus,the camptraining Cambodian of refugees refugees thecountry settled in had downin California, as dependent Americans as potential on and low-wage andthere widespread thatthere was fear wouldbe "perworkers initiated minoritization the evenbefore petual dependence the welfaresystemfor some process on theyset footin thecountry. This ideological construc- refugees" (New York Times, April27, I987). This positionofKhmers a dependent as minority channeled them tioning Cambodians blackAsiansis in sharp of as coninto the same economicsituations otherrefugees trast themodel-minority ofChinese, as to image Koreans, from poor countries: "Policyand ideology underlyingand Vietnamese who (including Sino-Vietnamese), are

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Cultural Citizenshipas Subject-Making| 743

celebrated their "Confucianvalues" and family and child-care for chores home.Cambodian at customs rebusinesses.Although rolesand gender therehave been racistattacks garding family norms have becomeif on Vietnamesefishermen Texas and California notirrelevant leastseverely at in undermined menfail as and exploitation Vietnamese their families wivesbecome and of moreassertworkers chicken- to support in processing plants theSouth, general in the perception ive in seekinghelp. Relationsbetweenhusbandand of them as possessed "can-do"attitudes is of and closerto the wife, have cometo be dictated parents children to white ideal standards American of It degree by Khmer not citizenship.8 is a significant culture theyreas therefore surprising Cambodians almost not that are al- member butbypressing it dailyconcerns gainaccess to to and waysreferred as "refugees" whereas to Vietnamese refu- to stateresources to submit therulesofthewelgeesareviewedas immigrants. state. Regardless theactual, fare of livedcultures theKhmers Male informants of complain "inAmerica, feel before theyarrived the in that men UnitedStates,dominant havelostvaluebecausethey no longer are ideologies clearly distinguish they masters A own families." krukhmer among various Asian nationalities, assigningthem in their (shaman) who is closerto thewhiteor theblackpole ofAmerican consulted unhappy by couplesnotedthat"money citi- often is the root cause of maritalproblems the United in zenship. has whichprovides As I will show,the disciplining thewelfare of state, States."Welfare becomea system and womenwith inwiththefeminist combined fervor many of socialwork- familieswith materialsupport powerand a bargaining position vis-a-vis their ers,actually works weakenorreconstitute Cam- creased to the and The explained: bodian family. on ad- husbands children. shaman My own research the welfare justments Khmers, of described below,may seem to Forinstance, mostofus whocameto theUnited reinforce hegemonic the picture theirdependency, Statesarerecipients welfare of of the assistance; majorbut mygoal is actually critique the effects the a of of ityofus aresupported thestate. is usuallythe It by welfare as now in an increasingly wifewho getsthewelfare system it operates checkbutnotthehuslow-waged, service-oriented Earliergenera- band.She is theone who takescareofthekids.But economy. tionsofpoorimmigrants managed establish have to bawhenshe receives check, husband the her wantsto sic security theirfamilies for blue-collar emthrough spendit. Whenshe refuses, wantsto keepthe and ployment(Komorovsky I967). The welfaresystem for that's money thechildren, whatleadsto wife continues operate withdrawing to from fami- abuse. by support lies witha singlewage-earner, whereas mostpoor for men lash out at their to immigrants the Cambodians, like and part-time un- Some Khmer wives,perhaps the and they are to steady low-wage employment needed supplement restore sense of male privilege authority welfare Like ghetto aid. blacksand poorPuerto theybeat Rican possessedin Cambodia.In manyinstances, wivesin struggles gaincontrol to overparticular are immigrants, Cambodians in a continual to struggle their and benefits. Besides in in over fights welsurvive a low-wage economy whichtheycannot material emotional may be intended compel to alone and,despitetheirorganiza- farechecks,the beatings dependon earnings deferential behavior detionalskills,everyday of and problems survival social wives to resumetheirformer role in supporting the interventions oftenadversely affect familyrelations spitetheirnewlyautonomous and dynamics Stack children.Many women try to maintainthe male(Harrington i962, Valentine I97I, dominated the and family system despite threats abuse. I974). Within refugee the there frequent A womanconfided: are repopulation, of often attributed thesuffering Therearemanycases ofwifeabuse.Yes, everyone to ports marital conflict, and dislocation engendered warand exile.However, getsbeaten, by included. sometimes But we myself I maintain thatmostofthetensions exacerbated are by haveto justkeepquietevenafter disagreement. a effort survive the innercity, Likein mycase,I don'twantto call thepoliceor to in the overwhelming wheremostof the Cambodian live. Manyof refugees As anything. theold saying goes,"It takestwo in themen, withtheir and background farming inability handsto clap.One handcannot I sounditself." just to speakEnglish, cannot maketheleapintojobtraining sheda fewtearsandlet it go. Ifit getsout of hand, in andemployment theUnited States. Their wivesoften thenyoucan call thepolice.Butthemenstillthink lose respect them for becauseoftheir to inability make moreofthemselves thanofwomen.Theynever a living their and refusal share to "women's" household lowerthemselves be ourequals. to in This acknowledgment a shift thebalanceofdoof linkedto dependency stateagencies, on mesticpower, 8. See Kelly(i980), Nicholson(i989), Welaratna (I993), and Ong do that Khmer women notthink themselves of in arrival theUnitedStates, indicates their of studies how,after (1995 a, b) for but are awareof theirown rolein socializedin a rangeof as passivevictims are SoutheastAsian refugees differently white marital of to contexts therequirements the dominant institutional The seemsto imply thatshe conflicts. speaker colonialism"to tolerates occasional culture.Gail Kelly's (i980) conceptof "internal adthe becausemencannot beating and the describe "schooling"ofblacks,NativeAmericans, immilaborforce too general just to theirchangein statusand she alwayshas the is colonized as communities a generic grant dif- optionof callingthe police. Like theircounterparts among discriminations to capture complexand contingent the of categories immigrants. ferent in amongEuropean immigrants the early-2oth-century

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a wereliving UnitedStates,Cambodian womenare often in they together giving falseaddress. by They caught their"doubleposition"as victimsof wifeabuse and hopedto have saved enoughmoney the timetheir by guardians theirchildren to a of (Gordoni988:26i); they GA stipends ended moveoutandrent homeoftheir stand to their up in husbands order ensure to their chil- own. Thus, although their parentstryto discourage dren's economic also tolerate survival. from daughters having premarital they sex, Somewomen whocanmanage their with on those who do becomepregnant. all Not own wel- and support fare abandon aid their A or their mothers' girls spouses. socialworker supreported pregnant getmarried receive thosewho do marry takenin to enare cases involving couplesover65 yearsold in whichthe port. However, wives kickedtheirhusbands and thenappliedfor ablethem saveon rent perhaps continue accuto to out and SSI (Supplementary benefits that theycan ultimately so Security told mulate welfare Income).Informants me that therewere Cambodianwomenwho, having becomean independent household. Social workers frustrated the mixedmotivaare in by fallen lovewithAmerican left husco-workers, their that, view,promote teenage bandsandeventheir this children; was something, they tionsandstrategies in their A aboutCambodicomplains claimed, thathappened Florida LongBeach,not pregnancy. socialworker in and the and "bein their young girls owncommunity. Speaking herformer of neigh- ans "working system" saysthat againand againand haveno timeto go a notedthat bors, woman women many Cambodian had comepregnant it thatpeerpressure and left their husbands becausethey "lookdown them on ... to school."However, appears culture primarily are for responsible thefewpregfor working, notbeingas clever other not for as men." street in than16 (wellbelowtheaverage younger They feltfreeto do so becauseAid to Familieswith nancies girls age the Dependent Children themand their marriage of I8 forwomenin Cambodiabefore (AFDC) supported In in children anycase. In an optimistic tone,she contin- upheavalsof war and diaspora). one case, a social and intervened adviseda Khmer mother let to ued,"That'swhyKhmer womenarevery happy living worker married use daughter contraceptives that so in America, becausethey nowhaveequalrights.... We herrecently to later can start businessmoreeasilyhere.If we wantto shecouldcontinue gotoschoolandhavea career up on. However, girl'shusband, the whowas employed as we work, can payfor care." day to refused practicefamily and planning One oftheindirect effects thewelfare of is system to a mechanic, They lived with her rather for promote complex and wantedher to get on welfare. strategies manipulating in for The payment. evadingrules,thus affecting householdcomposition. mother exchange a smallmonthly threatened expose mother's to the strategy Cambodian often of households, composed mother-childsocialworker welfare checks across thus households, exunits,routinely different pool incomesfrom sources, ofcombining the andmany powerofthestatethatthreathouseholds on of depend a combination differ-ercising disciplinary formation entwelfare among peopleat themercy the of checks received family members both ens family and by The market. systemand a chronic and low-wage the of welfare part- full-time employment. Through pooling at of support a pointin young peoincome from household headshopeto withdrawal welfare multiple sources, intothe labor accumulate to breaking savings buya homeoutsidetheviolent ple's lives whentheyare first to thuscompels in poorfamilies scheme prolong to neighborhoodswhich live.As hasbeenreported market many so for ecodependency thattheycan save towards suchstrategies coping with welfare among inner-city blacks, The of thewelfare increase networking system the amongfe- nomicindependence. dual structure supporting on to male kin and neighbors contribute the shifting poor mothers, the one hand, while disciplining but on chronic of contributes to underemployment,theother, membership households (StackI974:I2 2-.23). minoritization of seek to prolong timetheycan re- a particular refuprocess Cambodian ManyKhmers the different thatexperienced from ceivewelfare the support disguising age ofchildren geesthatis notso very by and by concealingtheirmaritalstatus and income- by otherpoor people of color (Valentine I97I, Stack the policypromotes "blackening" the In of activities. somecases,young whobe- I974). Welfare generating girls and by comepregnant allowedto keeptheir are cerbabiesso that underprivilegednurturing thenstigmatizing of the lattercan receivefinancial thathelps to sup- tainforms coping strategies. aid on industry refugee affairs, igportthe entirefamily. Many girlswho get pregnant An academiccottage the effects thewelfare of the of stateand babiesbutfailtoregister their noring disciplinary marry fathers their has economy, emerged provide to cultural to changeof statusin order avoidrevealing thattheir thelow-wage for differential are and economic and husbands working thusforfeiting chance explanations thepresumed their worth different of Asianimmigrant to getAFDC for babies.Forinstance, the MadamNeou9 moral Camgroups. with and livedwithtwo sons,sevendaughters, a son-in-law bodians and are (together Hmongs Laotians) identiinferior Vietnamese in herone-bedroom to and Chinese Her was fiedas culturally apartment. eldest daughter for attention state She had married boyfriend her I8 and pregnant. by ac- andthustobe targeted "civilizing" In to of to groups. a report the Office ceremonies hadnotregistered but her agentsand church cording Khmer social scientists elaborated "soa and she Settlement, marriage, therefore continued receiveher Refugee to of as portrait Khmers General Assistance(GA) check. Her husband,who ciocultural" (andLaotians) more in worked a fast-food the restaurant, disguised factthat "Indian" than "Chinese" among the "Indochinese" and the (Rumbaut Ima I988:73)-a termthatis itself privacy. creation French their to are 9. All thenamesofinformants fictive protect of imperialism. artifact This drew upon

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Cultural Citizenshipas Subject-Making1745

the anthropologicalmodel of the "loosely structured" ersarenotonlyeager interfere their to in affairs family

Another socialworker more individualistic,prone to place feelingsand emo- battles. notesthat"often, among of men have lost their tions above obligations,and likely to use Americansas refugees all nationalities, place role models than the Vietnamese(who were "more Chi- in society. Theydon'tliketo ask for help,andit seems lostcontrol nese) (p. 76)-in other words, Cambodians were more they've overtheir families. Women tendto deferential susceptibleto socializationbyU.S. insti- ask forhelp more."Sam addedthatboththe welfare and tutions than groups that possessed Confucian culture. system and affirmative actionfavored,women color of Cambodians were viewed as "affectivelyoriented"; overmen,so thatthe former easieraccess to rehad their "love of children" and "nonaggressive"behavior sources and jobs. seem in implicitcontrastto the "more pragmatic"VietSomeKhmer emboldened service women, workers by namese. This moral discrimination of amongAsian groups and the disciplining refugee men,routinely for call in becomes a diffused philosophythatinforms workof outsideintervention settling the domestic In disputes. agencies dealing with immigrants, Mae, a womanin herthirties, thus demonstrating one example, calledthe that in mechanisms of regulation, that claiming herhusband, alcoholic, an hierarchicalcultural policeafter had shecameto theself-help evaluations assign different populations places within hither.A fewdayslater group the white-blackpolaritiesof citizenship. andwanted in assistance getting released him from jail. The disciplinary thatthepoliceman misunderstood approachto Cambodians oftentakes She insisted had her the formof teachingthem theirrights and needs as nor- and thatshe had neverclaimedthatshe was abused. mativelower-classAmericans.In the Bay Area,therefu- Meanwhile, calledherhusband jail,boasting she in that gee and social service agencies are drivenby a feminist she would tryto "free"him if he promised, whenhe ethos that views immigrant and women and childrenas es- came out,to stopdrinking to attend the self-help regularly. Mae's husband, was reported, it pecially vulnerableto patriarchalcontrolat home. Im- group charged of plicit in social workers'trainingis the goal of fighting herwithdelusions power:"I think thatthejudgeis Asian patriarchy-"empowering" immigrantwomen the one who will decideto releaseme,but she thinksand "teachingthem theirrights this country," one she is the one who is controlling situation. the in as She thatbytelling policethatI didnotbeather the lawyer-activist explained. Perhapsinfluencedby essen- thinks tializingstatementsthatKhmersare "more proneto di- she is securing release."A coupleofmonths my later, the and vorce and separation" than the Vietnamese (Rumbaut Mae dropped charges, herhusband was setfree and Ima I988:75-76), serviceworkerstend to view the and prevailed upon by the groupto join Alcoholics Khmer familyas rifewith patriarchaldominationand Anonymous. the Although marriage remained rocky, had violence. At the same time,serviceagentsworking the with Mae apparently manipulated police,the selfand Cambodians frequently system discipline husto complainabout their"primitive helpgroup, thecourt her that reported Mae's daughter she culture,"especially as expressedin male controland a band.A neighbor said her tendency be swayedby emotionsrather to thanby ratio- wanted mumto be in jail andherdadhome.Public interventions such domestic in nalityand objectivity. battlesimplicitly deThis ideological construction oftenputs Sam Ngor,a valuemenofcolorwhileupholding whitemasculinity, by Cambodian social worker,in the uncomfortable as of posi- as presented policeandjudge, theembodiment correct for and tion ofbeingcaughtbetweenhis sympathy theplight culturally citizenship privilege. of Cambodian men and the social worker'simplicitunfavorablecomparison of them with white men. At a Cambodian self-help to Engendering Religious Modernity groupmeeting,Sam was trying acexplain why a married couple gave contradictory He countsoftheirconflict. notedthattherewas a differ- Beyondthe domainof the welfare state,institutions also construct ence between "oral and literatecultures"; in oral cul- suchas thechurch uncommonsensical of tures, "people always change their minds about what derstandings different waysand claimsofbelonging democracies. Church groups vitalagents are happened" (presumably,in a literate society they do in Western in immigrants acceptable into not).'0Furthermore, a literatesocietylike the United in converting citizens, since States, men can be jailed for abusing their wives and theyhave alwaysplayeda majorrole in sponsoring, and children.Covert smiles lit up the faces of the women, helping, socializing newcomers Western to culture, in while the men looked down. The man fighting with his whether thecolonies in themetropolitan or centers."I the wife crossed his arms and said, "I respecther,but it is In Northern California, Churchof the Latter-day Saints she who controlsme." (LDS,ortheMormon church) citishapes cultural Indeed. Cambodian men comnlainthat servicework- zenship promoting white by middle-class as masculinity
hisculture "oral"-despite a literate as io. The notionofKhmer and stretching back Hinduism, Buddhism) tory (basedon Sanskrit, that built Angkor Wat and Khmerkingdom to the gth-century (see Angkor Thom,amongothermonuments Chandleri983)-is are people. that partofthemisconception Khmers a "primitive"

society(EmbreeI950),

womenand children notingthat Cambodians overmen in domestic were but favor

the standard civilization of and class property disto placedThirdWorld In populations. thiscivilizing mis-

i i. Foran example churches of socializing colonized populations to foran exampleofchurches Westemvalues,see Schieffelin (i98i); socializing Asian immigrants, Hirata(I979). see

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has morethorough In theSan Francisco Areaas elsewhere, LDS sion,the LDS church beenperhaps Bay the thanother churches whichalso cameto church divided and successful is intoseparate wardsfordifferent ethand theaid ofrefugees poorimmigrants groups such as Chinese,Vietnamese, north nic/racial flowing Samoin theig80s. ans, Cambodians, blacks.This mapping ethnic and of Harold Bloomrefers theLDS church an "Ameri- and racialdifference in relation moralleadership to is to as can original" thatit is homegrown, in by post-Christian, whitemen,whoembody American goalsoffreedom, and ultimately religion the manlyself,one that self-reliance, individual a of and The responsibility. Mormon seeks salvation and freedom through individual strug- masculineideal is clean-cut, conservative in business than through community suitandtie andoften the armed gles rather witha briefcase. disadFor (I9gI:28-36).12 Although ignored feared liberals, is very or by it the mustrepresent ladnewcomers, church a much vantaged partof the religious but mainstream has pervasive and in- derto theAmerican haveto leam dream, first they fluence the throughout UnitedStatesand increasinglythestepsleading economic to success,moralsuperiorin Europe. basicgoal is to establish Kingdom ity, salvation overcoming stigma racialized Its and the of the by of God in the worldby the millennium. is one of the maleinferiority. Sunday On It little mornings, Cambodian in attend fastest-growing religions the worldand by the year boysandgirls schoolat theMormon temSunday 2020 maydominate western the wrote"I MUST OBEY" on theblackUnited and States large ple. One teacher areas of the Asia-Pacific nextto a poster a kneeling worldthrough mass recruit- board of right Christ's Jesus ments boththeliving (through of in and and postmortem bap- "Agony theGarden." Manychildren their parents tism) dead(Bloom the the i99I:I22; see alsoGordon a institution teaching for I994).13 find church moreeffective Mormonism a promotes modernity makesmid- Englishthanthe state-sponsored that Englishas a Second dle-class respectability accessibleto the displaced classes. Such instruction, and Language especially the for thepoorwho are sociallyambitious new metropoli- veryyoung, in the provides context wherein church the tancontexts. Originally church outsiders frontier canprizetheyoung a of in their awayfrom and parents culture conditions, LDS church becomeveryadeptat andintegrate the has them intothestructure white of authority. recruiting outsiders into the mainstream ordering The church by in regularly engages thesymbolic violence peoplesof colorinto specific racial,gender, class thatuses "primitive" and difference a way to approprias hierarchies thehopeofachieving with socialsuccessas ate the moralauthority parents of and realign young represented whitemasculinity. modusoperandi Cambodians by This withthe church WhiteAnglohierarchy. depends theruleofcolonialdifference, on whichrepre- American is in supremacy defined opposition thepato sents the otheras "inferior and radically different"thologized of sexuality subaltern as figures represented (Chatterjee I993:33) butwiththehopeofbeing social- by the patriarchal Asian familiesand unmasculine ized to dependency Anglo-Saxon on hegemony. Early Asianmen.Suchnativeembodiments deviant of sexual Mormon doctrines linkeddepravity sin withdark- norms make them ripe for salvationby the white and skinned of peoples;a history denying blackmenordina- church. The bishoptold me thathe had two specific tionto priesthood (crucial salvation) endedonly goalsregarding Cambodian to was his bothattempts converts, in thelate I970s, whenthechurch vigorously expanded to correct whathe considered their dysfunctional hetits missionizing activities overseas(Bringhurst I98I). One erosexuality. was to helpKhmer womenwho had The church's initial hesitation "African-like" over Mel- had their for marriages arranged themby their parents anesianssoon gaveway to a greater flexibility towards whenthey wereteenagers Cambodia. in obliviPerhaps peoplesof color in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region ous to the irony, claimedthat the church he was a whenit becameclearthattheir recruitment wouldbe critical agentin fighting patriarchy Cambodian the of themostimportant ofthedrive become world- culture teaching part to a and Asiansaboutmarriage a partneras wide,multiethnic religion I94). This new tolerance ship.His secondgoal was to promote ideal nuclear (p. an formultiracial mixed-race and recruits, however, oper- family headed a white by man.A white supremacist ideatesas an alibifor church's the insistent invocation and ologynot onlydefines Khmers racially the as inferior of mapping barbaric othersin relation whiteMor- andsexually to deviant also suggests but their redemption mons(Gordon I994). the through conjoining white(male)and nonwhite of a (female) bodies, particular of intertwiningraceandsex while seemingly that, promoting multiracial diversity, reproduces white-nonwhite in asymmetry theMormon him (see,e.g.,Whaleni964), before i2. HaroldBloom,like others in order. religion" "American a the considers LDS church post-Christian and formal creeds, has thatit is nonmonotheistic, no absolutely The LDS church appealsto young, displaced people and insteadin a material contingent believing creationism, rejects becauseit sometimes becomes keyvehicle their the for rootsare American Its withinthebeliever. indigenous God found to culture. and makingthe transition whitemiddle-class progress, freedom, questforoneself, in reflected theromantic II3-15). Mormon (I99I:40-42, evenimmortality missionaries onlyteachAmerican not English the rather thantheindividual butalso instruct I3. In the Mormonchurch, family in of youngsters theacquisition other of Saintsis social and The destiny theLatter-day is the "unitofexaltation." bodilyskills that will win respectfrom and Baptismforthe dead is a way to "save" ancestors, godhood. For immigrant women, path the couplesso thatthesefam- Americans. someyoung by are children produced Mormon spirit a Thereis something in descendants the"eter- is through whitemarriage. Mormon living enorcan ilymembers jointheir towards godness(BloomI99I:I2I-23). nal progression" to mously appealing refugee seeking girls acceptance in

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Cultural Citizenshipas Subject-Making1747

the clean-cut youngmen in businesssuits who visit reptheir homesandseekto convert them. Mormonism where outresents upward mobility a whiteworld into still siders will be spiritually accepted, though as racial report that others. YoungCambodian femaleconverts women's valthey theMormon like teachings "young of A chastity, modesty, self-discipline. and ues,"including womanI will call Vannaconfessed, young in BeingMormon helpsme to operate better the Khmer girls U.S. WhenI was in highschool, many married thetwelfth in grade, abouthalfofthemto olderKhmer guyswhosejobswerenotso good. Theygotpregnant simply or married getaway to from strict parents whowouldn't themout ofthe let thatit was worsein marhouse,butthey thenfound are riage. The husbands won'tlet themout; they jealousaboutother guys, worried and abouthaving no control.

thanstateagencies, rawhich, moreexplicitly employs in and cialized masculinity structuring gender, citclass, the izenship ideals.Evenas thechurch teaches recruits self-discipline entrepreneurshipAmerican and of sucare of the cess, theseattitudes cast within framework or whitepatronage domination. Immigrant subjectivities,especially thoseofyoung girls seeking acceptance, are influenced socializing by processesthat racialize definitions pathological of genderand class through and (Khmer) normalized (white) gender and sexuality. are in ThusMormon Khmers thelatest a historical prothe of cess whereby laborregimes immigrants produce a conflation raceandclasswiththeresult thatambiof tious members minorities of often marry of their out community thewhite into community e.g., (see, Yanagisako i985). Do affluent Chineseimmigrants Califorto nia, arriving with capital and credentials, experience other and waysof"whitening" its limits?

The strict Mormon not morality appealing onlybeis and female vir- ChineseCosmopolitans: Class Property causeit seemsto echoCambodian valuesfor girls attain Cultural to ginsbutalso becauseit helpsCambodian Taste female social mobility. maintaining By sexual purity, marriage In Northern to converts avoidteenage pregnancy early and the California, so-called HongKongmoney Khmer Mormon elite residesin an exclusivecommunity the flank men,mostofwhomareworking-class. on lessons in balancing self-control with an affectionateoftheSan Francisco All Peninsula mountain range. the personality socializetheyoung womento old-fashionedhomesin thissuburb The cost overa milliondollars. them for choicest set intothehillsides, American valuesofemotion-work prepare that are withmountains a as For their future rolesas lovingwivesand mothers. in- backdrop a viewofthebay.Mansions an Asianin and Vannasaid thatshe was busyattending college Mediterranean stance, stylestandamidstclearings wherefew to a andnotdating. wanted waitandmarry returned trees She remain unfelled. Thiswas a sorepoint withlocals, missionary youngMormonman who has finished alongwiththefactthatmanyofthehouseswerepaid (a serving two yearsas a missionary is consid- forin hardcash,sometimes his and before arrival their the of idea new occupants. eredready marriage). really for "I liketheMormon The driveways parkedwithMerare of being married eternity. for There is less divorce cedesBenzes, BMWs,and evena RollsRoyceortwo. Mormons. far sex is concerned, As as being Moramong The feng-shui of propitious placement) ("wind-water" mon and beingAsian are the same-not to have sex theplace is excellent. Fleeing impending the return of before You clean;it applies HongKongto China'sruleormerely marriage. havetobe morally to seeking tapinto to thementoo." The respectability, and U.S. markets, sexualallure, overseasChinesecrossedthe Pacificto attributed whitemasculinity to burnish make thisformer moralpurity whiteenclavetheir new home.Led social initiallyby real estate agentsand later by word of theimageofminority whohavecomparable men and cultural capital.SaysVanna, the of mouth, influx wealthy Chinesefrom HongKong, Asia has spread citiesandupTaiwan,and Southeast to a It is morethanlikelythatI'd marry Caucasian.I all smoke scale communities overthe stateand the country. doesn't who is well-educated, wantsomeone are Whilemany thenewcomers well-educated of profesme whoI am. I find and anddrink, who respects for sionalswho workin the SiliconValley,an increasing than Caucasianand Chinesemenmoreattractive are developers, financiers, indusand wholook number property the for Khmer, example, tall Chineseguys trialists who workon bothsidesofthePacific.'4 Their and who arelight-skinned moreinto Caucasian, has the of presence changed social landscape suburban Khmer like whereas traditions dating, American the malls California, increasing numberof shopping do likemybrothers-in-law. menhardly that, (called "PacificRenaissance"and "PacificRim") and also Thelatter hadworking-class suchas glassman- sophisticated jobs restaurants that serve a predominantly In and ufacturing packaging. Vanna'seyes,thepursuit from statusappearsto be inseparable of middle-class into relation- I4. Of course,theinflux theUnitedStatesofpoor,workinga whitemen.Onlythrough marital marrying Asia,manyin difand the can shipwithwhitemasculinity she crossovertheob- class Chinesefrom mainland Southeast perspective continues. a feminist For ficult and illegalconditions, citi- on Chineseemigration, Ong (I995c). of stacles to the privileges class and American influx Withthegrowing see zenship. Rim Chinese,theimageofthePacific ofaffluent professional and a The Mormon church, then, represents disciplinarymale executiveis eclipsingsomewhatthe image of the Chinese and worker illegalalien (see Ong I993). of an system providing alternative modality belonging laundry

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families notfully business Asian clientele do (see also FongI994). Thus,in addition emigrant escapethedisciof to beingthe destination ThirdWorldrefugees of and plining thehostcountry. the At the moment, migrant law U.S. immigration has changedto workers, citiesarefast becoming sites an allowfor "investor ofoverseas Asianinvestment settlement. category" imwhereby and would-be Whatkindsofprocesses making are can a suchcosmopoli- migrants obtain green cardin return a millionfor tansubjects intocitizens? Although affluent the that immi- dollar investment creates leasttenjobs.On Wall at grant Chineseappear be ableto evadedisciplining Street to there have beenseminars how to obtainU.S. on by the state,theyare not entirely of its citizenship citizenship free real through estateinvestment acquisiand requirements, the one hand,and local mediations tion. sponsor on A AsianAmericans "think your urges to of overwhatbeing of part theimagined in American invest$i million you,they in commu- relatives Asia. Ifthey nity(or the Northern Californian versionof it) is all geta green cardandyougeta newbusiness" (WallStreet about.Unlikethevastmajority Cambodian of refugees,journal,February I99I). The new citizenship law 2i, the Chineseinvestor-immigrants professionals thus constructs affluent and the are Chinesenewcomer a as "transnational cosmopolitans" who strategically an man- homoeconomicus, economic whois a "manipagent age meaning theynegotiate contest shifting ulable man, a man who is perpetually as and the to responsive discursive terrains theworld in in economy modifications his environment" (Hannerz I990, (GordonI99I:43). Ong I993, Ong and Noninii996). However, as theseself- Perceived economicagentsof choice,overseas Chistyled"astronauts"-so-called because theyspendso neseimmigrants nevertheless disciplined citiwill be by muchtimeshuttling back and forth acrossthePacific zenship criteria manipulated their and in of deployment (Ong I993)-are not alwaysas attuned the cultural capital.However, evensuperrich to would-be immigrants norms particular of Californian localesas they tothe refuse be subjected such controls their to to are on investtransnational opportunities opened byglobalization. ments, up becausetheyare ultimately perhaps moresusTwo examples will showthatthere cultural are to than limits ceptible capitalist instrumentality to statebioto thewaysin whichthey negotiate hegemonic politics. can the production Chineseness California the local of in and A morecommon strategy gaining for residence rights valuesaboutwhatconstitutes civilized conduct ap- is to sendchildren U.S. highschools colleges. and to and For propriate citizenship. Alex Leong,a middle-aged instance, a executive from Hong Kong-based finance company, confided thathis father alwaystoldhim,"Yourfuture really is going to FAMILY BIOPOLITICS AND PARACHUTE KIDS be outsideHongKong.So you shouldbe educated outThe key motivation predicament the transna- side,as longas youmaintain and of someChinese customs and tionalstrategies affluent of Chineseare their families. speakChinese."Sincetheig6os an entire generation of Although immigrant businessmen and investors are middle-class upper-middle-class and Chinesestudents to backandforth willing shuttle across national borders from HongKongand Taiwanhas embarked uponoverthemselves, their in locating children California a ma- seas education theUnited is in States, seeking educational jorpriority. Theseplansaretheoutgrowth what, of and bor- certifications residence thatwill eventually rights from rowing I Foucault, havecalled"family to biopolitics" enabletheirfamilies settlehere.Parents visittheir (Ong I993). The headsofwealthy Chinese families man- children buyhomes, up bankaccounts, assess to set and a ifest biopolitical in governing con- thelocalrealestate. instrumentality the the Upongraduation sonsmayopen ductoffamily members theinterest ensuring in of the up a U.S. branch their of family company. Thus,after and security prosperity thefamily a whole.Family graduating Berkeley theUniversity Wisconof as from and of biopolitics constitute members' senseofmoral worth in sinbusiness Alexjoinedhisfather's school, business by terms relations of within family. the Parents instillin setting a San Francisco up office. BecauseAlex is not theirchildren in self-discipline education, his work,and yeta citizen, parents plan to retire Vancouver, in consumption-habits foster steady that the residential accumula- where can rights be purchased witha smaller tionofeconomic symbolic and capital-thatcontributes investment C$300,ooo. He expectsthateventually of to thefamily's and prosperity honor. instance, For will joinhimin theBayArea. the they term"utilitarian familialism" beenappliedto the has The practice sending of young children schoolin to normative practical and tendencies has whereby HongKong California givenrise to another imageof affluent Chinesefamilies place family interest above all other Chineseimmigrants. Taiwaneseparents favor sending individual socialconcerns and (Lau i983:72). As partof children U.S. highschoolsbecausetheyhope that to such family the governmentality, middleand upper- they will givethema better chance(than Taiwan)of in middle classesin HongKongandTaiwandeploy to family gaining whileearning entry college, residence rights members abroadto obtainuniversally certified educa- in the United States. Furthermore, in children the tionaldegrees and eventually greencardsforthe en- United States a in and provide chancetoinvest property tirefamily. relocating By some members California establisha home base againstpoliticalinstability in in the family maximizes opportunities overseas for busi- Asia. However, sometimes attempts coordinate the to ness expansion whileattempting evadethegovern- family to withthedisciplining biopolitics of requirements of mentality the home country. However, the citizenship despite undermine constructed carefully plans of afforded themby transnational flexibility children's and capitalism, businesstravel, a education, managing

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trans-Pacific lifestyle. Some 40,000 Taiwanese teenagers wealthierSan Franciscanneighborhoods, residents pride have been leftto fendforthemselvesin California while themselves on their conservationconsciousness, and theirparentspursue business interests Asia. Many of theyjealously guardthe hybrid in Europeanambiance and these youngsterslive with their siblings in expensive characterof particularneighborhoods. their role as In homes, sometimesequippedwithAsian servants. These custodiansof appropriate culturaltaste governing buildso-called parachutekids have the run of the house and ings, architecture, parks,and otherpublic spaces, civic manage household financeslike adults. One I7-year-old groupsroutinely badgerCity Hall, scrutinize urbanzongirl,who first arrived when she was I 3, has been acting ing laws, and patrolthe boundariesbetweenwhat is aesas parentto her youngersisters.Their parentsdrop by theticallypermissibleand what is intolerablein their periodically from Taiwan. She is worried thathersisters districts.By linking race with habitus, taste, and culwill be quite lost when she goes to college. Other teen- tural capital (BourdieuI984), such civic groupsset limagers have developed a consumerist, laid-back attitude its to the whitening of Asians, who, metaphorically thatboth critiquesand reinforces homo economicus speaking,stillgive off whiff sweat despitearriving the the of image of their parents. Some youngsters freelyspend with starter symboliccapital. theirparents'largeallowances. Newspapersreport Taia Public battles over race/tastehave revolved around wanese brother-and-sister of pair, both high school stu- the transformation middle-class neighborhoodsby dents near Los Angeles, spendingtheirfreetime shop- rich Asian newcomers.At issue are boxy houses with ping in malls and frequenting restaurants and karaoke bland facades-"monster houses"-erected by Asian bars. The girl,who dons the latest Valley Girl fashions, buyers to accommodate extended families in lowcalls her father"the ATM machine" forissuing money density, single-family residential districtsknown for butnothing else. The boyexpresseshis resentment more theirVictorianor Mediterraneancharm. Protestshave "If directly: they're goingto dumpme here and not take oftentaken on a racialist tone, registering both dismay care of me, theyowe me something.That is my right" at the changing culturallandscape and efforts educate to (StraitsTimes, June I993). The effect a transna- the new arrivalsto white upper-class of normsappropriate 26, tional strategy economic and cultural consumption for the city. While the activists focus on the cultural of has been to split up the much-vaunted Chinese family elements-aesthetic norms, democratic process, and unit, with familybiopolitics dictated in large part by civic duty-that underpinthe urbanimaginedcommuaccumulation concernsthat oblige business couples to nity,they encode the strongclass resentment against and commerspend theirtime overseas while abandoningtheirchil- large-scale Asian investment residential in drento develop a sense ofindividualistic the and bra- cial properties throughout city (see Mitchell I996). rights vado. Some of the childrenhave shoplifted, joined local A conflictover one of these monsterhouses illustrates Chinese gangs,or createdproblemsin school, drawing the ways in which the state is caughtbetweensoothing the attentionof the social services.By and large,how- indignanturbanites seeking to impose theirnotion of ever, it is the discipliningof accumulation strategies cultural citizenshipon Asian nouveax riches while atthat produces a sense of global citizenshipand contin- tempting keep the door open forPacificRim capital. to In I989 a Hong Kong multimillionaire, Mrs. Chan, a gentbelongingforthe business-immigrant family. Marina district.Chan Affluent transnational Chinese in California are bought a house in the affluent caughtup in the dialectic of embeddingand disembed- lived in Hong Kong and rentedout herMarina property. ding(Giddens I990) in theinternational economy,a pro- A few years later,she obtainedthe approvalof the city her cess which enables them to escape to some extentthe to add a thirdstoryto her house but failedto notify of disciplining the state because oftheirflexibledeploy- neighbors.When they learned of her plans, they comment of capital but not within the localitywhere their plained that the thirdstorywould block views of the familiesare based. The flexibility Chinese profession- Palace of Fine Arts as well as cut offsunlightin an adof linkedup with a citywide als shifting back and forth acrossthe Pacificthus contra- joininggarden.The neighbors dicts local notions of belongingas normative American groupto pressureCity Hall. The mayorsteppedin and thusdelaying proposed the citizens. Even compared with the proverbialrestless called fora cityzoningstudy, the are Californians, new Chinese immigrants footloose renovation.At a neighborhoodmeeting,someone deincidentshows,the at- clared, "We don't want to see a second Chinatown cosmopolitans.As the following link to a particularsociety here." Indeed,thereis alreadya new "Chinatown" outtenuatedsense of a primary comes up againstan Americanclass ethosofmoralliber- side the old Chinatown,based in the middle-classRichmond district.This chargethus raised the specterof a alism. spreadingChinese urbanscape encroachingon the heterogeneous European flavor of the city. The remark, BAD TASTE OR THE HOMELESS IN AN AFFLUENT with its implied racism,compelled the mayorto apoloNEIGHBORHOOD? gize to Chan, and the planning commission subseWhereas poor Asians are primarily disciplinedby state quentlyapproveda smaller additionto her house. However,stungby the racism and the loss on her inChinese immigrants, home buyers as agencies,affluent and property have encountered developers, regulation by vestmentand bewilderedthat neighborscould infringe develrights,Chan, a transnational civic groups upset at the ways in which their city is upon her property as being changed by transnationalcapital and taste. In oper,used her wealth to mock the city's self-image a

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new of She center theBerkeley on bastion liberalism. pulledoutall herinvestmentsan imposing health campus. in theUnitedStatesanddecided donate million- Otheroverseas Chineseand Asianbusinesses to have doher of dollarhouse to the homeless. add insultto injury, natedlargesums to the construction buildings deTo she stipulated herhousewas notto be usedbyany votedto chemistry, sciences, life that computer and science, An of homeless Chinesedescent. of Her architect, Ameri- engineering. East Coast exampleis the gift $2o an can Chinese,told the press,"You can hardly to University Gordon by Wu,a Hong finda million Princeton whose moneycould perhaps homeless better have Chineseanyway" (Asia Week, May 6, i995). Kongtycoon Securein heroverseas long-neglected universities the Chinese on location, Chan fought Chi- benefited the nese stereotype stereotyping by American homeless as mainland. non-Chinese, whilechallenging civic-minded her neigh- Whereas earlier an of Chinesetygeneration overseas borstodemonstrate moral the liberalism professed. coonswenthometo builduniversities China,today they in Mutual class and racial discrimination thus broke Asianinvestors wishtobuysymbolic capital Western in through surface whatinitially the of appeared be a democracies a wayto ease racialand cultural to as accepnegotiation normative over cultural tastein theurban tanceacrosstheglobe.Likeearlier European immigrant milieu.A representative themajor's of office, appropri-eliteslooking symbolic estate, for Chinese real overseas that atelycontrite, remarked Chancouldstilldo what- donorsshow a preference "hardware" for (impressive evershewanted withherproperty; justwouldlike buildings "We their bearing names)over"software" (scholarforhernot to be so angry." The needto keepoverseas shipsand programs thatare less visibleto the public investments flowing into the cityhad to be balanced eye).15The difference thatsubjectsassociated is with against neighborhood for groups' demands cultural stan- Third World inferiority scaledthebastions white have of dards. power theinternational estate The of real market, power.'6Such showcasepieces have upgraded Asian as represented Mrs.Chan,thusdisciplined by bothCity masculinity, layered overthehardscrabble rootsofthe Hall andtheMarina neighbors, mayhavetorethink Asian homo economicus, proclaimed who and their arrival local notions whatbeingenlightened of urbanites may on theinternational scene.Nevertheless, there limare in entail the"eraofPacific Rimcapital" its to such strategies symbolic i996). of accumulation, and (Mitchell Other Chinese investor-immigrants, unlike Mrs. whitebacklashhas been expressed a risein random in the between local and attacks Asians.Byplacing Asianstamp prestian on Chan,tryto negotiate tensions on and globalforces to adoptthecultural of trappings the gious"white" publicspace,thenewimmigrants register whiteupper class so as to cushion long-term residents' whatforovera century-onethinks theplantation of shockat thestatuschange theracialother, of untilre- workers railroad and men,maidsandgarment workers, or cently likely be a laundry garment to worker. Chinese gardeners cooks,shopkeepers nurses, and and undocuwho live in San Francisco trying are developers harder mented workerslaboringin indentured servitude, toerasetheimageofthemselves "economic as animals" whether thecoloniesorin citieslikeNew Yorkand in whobuildmonster as that Los Angeles-has been a space ofAsia-Pacific houses, wellas theperception cultural lack a senseofcivicduty responsibility. they and They production within West.'7 the to try maintain their Victorian homesand English garcollect Stradivari dens, violins attend opera, and the play tennis formerly in whiteclubs,anddress bydressing AretheNew AsiansAsianAmericans? up down theirnouveauxrichesappearances. have elseI where talked aboutthelimits cultural to accumulation Through ethnographic an examination cultural citiof of Chinesegentrification Western in metropolitan cir- zenshipas subjectification cultural and I performance, cles(Ongi992). Perhaps the to realizing limits howthey Tan can be acceptedthrough these whitening practices, I 5. The MalaysianChinesephilanthropist Kah Kee is famous XiamenUniversity and some Chineseinvestors forthe first are timemaking forbuilding theland ofhis birth. manyotherpublicworksin Fujian,China, Todayhis U.S.-educated chilsignificant contributions philanthropic outsidethe old drenare organizing campaignto contribute the chemistry a to I Chinatown. interviewed surgeon a who was thefirst building theBerkeley on campus. Asian ChineseAmerican sit on theboardofthecitysym- i6. Of course,in makingdonationsto public buildings, to riches merely nouveaux are a replicatinglongimmigrant Whenhe complained aboutthelack ofChinese American phony. tradition cultivated Irish,Italian,and Jewish by who immigrants contributions the symphony,had to remind to I him madegood.The Chinesenewcomers theBayAreaarefollowing to thatthere werehardly musiclessonsin Chinatown or in thefootsteps theHearsts, Aliotos,and theHaases. Howof the ever, thefirst for timewe are seeingthenonwhite other arrivals poorurbanschools. scaling with economy But the effort funnel to Pacific Rimmoney upwards thesocialheights wealthgainedin theintemational and causing in minimal racial adjustments thedomestic continues.Hong Kong-basedcompaniesare making hierarchy.reluctant, Foran anthropological of study a major American family to donations major such generous publicinstitutions as dynasty thesymbolic of and boundaries wealth, Marcus(i992). see universities museums.Leslie Tang-Schilling and (her Foran accountofthe Chinesediasporawithinthecontext gloof see accumulation, Ong and Nonini(i996). Finally, for realname),the daughter a HongKongindustrialist,bal flexible of comparison with anotherhighlysuccessful an interesting nonmarried intoa prominent Franciscan San and family, a European immigrant Cubansin Florida, Portes community, see and in commercial leadsthemove Stepick(I993)1 developer herownright, to softenthe hard-edged image of Chineseinvestor- I7. I am paraphrasing titleofa volumeeditedby Rob Wilson the The immigrants. Tang family name is emblazoned on and ArikDirlik(I996).

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of in fields power. of Givenall these arguethat the ideologicalentanglements race and citizenship different im- factors, heterogeneity instability AsianAmerthe and of bothto locate and to marginalize operate culture (Lowei99i) suggest a dramatic that shift Southand East. This icanidentities the from metaphorical migrants maycut acrossraciallines-forexample, fundamen-in coalitions that thussuggests while"cultural approach of partnerships businessor linkagesbein in racism rhetorics exclu- Asian-Anglo talism"mayhavereplaced and refugees colorin dealing of and racialhierarchies po- tweenCambodian other I995), in practice sion(Stolcke state. of notions cultural withthewelfare Western to continue inform larities I end by returning the moralpredicament my to of the from culinseparable and difference are therefore I society. Twenty years later, groups. maintain ownpassageintoAmerican to attributed different turalfeatures the of child(whosefather out emerging ofthehis- and onlyafter birth myfirst polarities thatthewhite-black continueto is a fourth-generation Japanese- Spanish-speaking and imperialism toryof European-American at did directed immi- ChineseAmerican) I feelreadyto markmy long and shapeattitudes encodediscourses with apprenticeship culturalcitizenshipby becoming in are that associated of the from rest theworld grants of This inferiority. dynamic racial a legal citizen.I continueto view the term"Asian racial and cultural withambivalence, muchfor imposed as its thatvari- American" in othering emerges a rangeof mechanisms normativity for as whatit elidesaboutotheror to immigrants whitening racialized ously subjectnonwhite and whatitincludes well as of thatindicatethe degree their Asians/other-Americansfor processes blackening as excludes within American the schemeofbelonging. idealwhitestandards. from to closeness or distance expe- One learnsto be fast-footed, occasionally glancing over of dynamics thesubjectification The contrasting sig- one's shoulder avoid tripping to the over-while tripping demonstrate critical by rienced newimmigrants and bothdomestic in- up-those lines. forces, of nificance institutional lightness being nonwhite of a Amerikinds of minorities. The unbearable in temational, makingdifferent stability homogeneity and and refugees Chinesebusinesspeople did canmeansthatthepresumed Cambodian of in identity must, thiseraofpostthe Through different theAsianAmerican ethnics. as notarrive ready-made politics (Takagi I994)19 and globalization, be of primacy stateandchurch civil-rights modesofdisciplining-the particularized local reworkings of and open to the highly of in regulation one and theprimacy consumption In ref- globalforces. California theseforces have beendrain the instrumentality other-Cambodian capitalist playedout in domestic, racialterms well as posi- matically are ugees and Chineseimmigrants dialectically class ones, foreshadowing rethe spectrum. as in transnational, ends tionedat different of the black-white of othin of The racialization class,as wellas thedifferential configuration citizenship the West in the new as immigrants the ra- globalera. constitutes of ering immigrants, kinds of embodiments different ofsocialcapital. cialized mustacknowl"AsianAmerican" Thus,thecategory and class,ethnic, racialstratifications edgetheinternal of and Comments thatare boththe effect theproduct differential of on populations working different governmentalities and the It newcomers. mustconfront contradictions inand R. DOMINGUEZ the solidarity temporaryVIRGINIA within imposed stabilities calledan "Asian DepartmentofAnthropology, University Iowa, of of alliances whathas beenprematurely The two new Iowa City,Iowa 52242, U.S.A. 3 vi 96 i992). (Espiritu panethnicity" American of modalities precarious different represent Asiangroups ma- It is telling ironic thatan essayon "cultural citizenbut blackened as subjects belonging-one ideologically access ship" shouldconcentrate two populations still inon to in statestructures order gainbetter nipulating who are neither an manyindividuals legallynor and the otherexpressing ultramoderncluding to resources citizensof the statein question. Ong's concaughtbetween culturally that instrumentality is ambivalently that cernsare,I believe, withwhatthe experiences reand and power socialpractices theconsumer whitening enable recent "groups" in Theyarethus sponsesofthesetwo relatively spellscitizenship theglobaleconomy. of into of absorbed an over- us to see as characteristic theprocesses subjectifinew passively notmerely arrivals nor be unequalnamedspacesofbelonging AsianAmerican identity,18 can they eas- cationthatgenerate arching coalitionsthat to a nation-state. and Cambodian "refugees" "affluent ily subsumedwithinthe inter-Asian cases in appearhereas contrasting amongcollegestudents theI96os orunited Chineseimmigrants" emerged intovery "all from Asian countries beentreated alike"as ofpopulations moving on simply thebasisofhaving of socioeconomic niches in the contemporary a others (Chan different sharing history exclusion biogenetic of the Statesandits but of I99I:xiii). The entanglement ideologies race,cul- UnitedStates, it is clearly United of and shapesa range ethnicized nation, capitalism ture,
of i8. The construction which,as SylviaYanagisako(I993) has of by dominated the history male Chinese noted,is ideologically the or thusmarginalizing excluding experiences workers, railroad Asiangroups. ofwomenand ofother of politics"as the struggle ig. Takagi defines"post-civil-rights multiethnicgroups beyond the old black-whiteframework, to by for marked thetendency racialinterests be disguised social by to to and forsolutions racialproblems be and economiclanguage
sought in class terms (I994:237-39).

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othermaterials have encountered the of that and from I mechanisms subjectification coreinstitutional over past two decadesthatit is neverjust "the state"and aretherealsubject scrutiny commentary. of and I readthisessayas a sustained thatinstill critique Renato of Ro- itsagencies proper normative behavior. This societies referred byOngas liberal to saldo'sclaimsabout"cultural Whileother holdstruefor citizenship." dewithsinsofomission Marshall mocracies also for but worksare charged (e.g., nondemocratic, nonliberal societies. Hence,I wonder we shouldnot collectively a I950, Hall and Held I989, Portesand Rumbaut I990, if do and YudiceI995, Corrigan Sayer I985, Omi andWinant better ofarticulating job whatmayormaynotbe indeed is with different societies I986, Gregory SanjekI994), Rosaldo charged and about committed liberal to democracy a consequential ofcommission. herstrongest In sin for- and whether outlines an answer of appear Ong'sdein "to of mulation, criticizes Ong Rosaldo subscribing the tailed articulation current for processes the United in of that very liberal principle universal equality he seeks States. If,for example, takeeveryday finds in we to critique." Ong,I believe, Rosaldotrapped a processes "whereby culturalist that problematic are paradigm is bothtoo static people, especially immigrants, madeintosubjects of a particular and one-sided. nation-state" compare and themacrossa of are Citizenship defined thelawsofeachnation-state range societies, we notlikely see clear as by to instances as in is one thing;"culturalcitizenship," articulated of governmentality nonstate alongside mechanisms of in I994 byRosaldo, quiteanother. is The former embodies subjectificationeachandevery case?I wonder aside if the specifics the mechanisms of andindexes regulatory taxonomic and of the power gov- from themselves we to thatthegreatest as ernments, whereasthe latterimplies, Ong puts it, wouldnotbe likely find differences in "that immigrant minority or and groupscan escape the wouldbe differences theexpectations desires of internalizing those internalizing and cultural inscription statepowerand other of forms not of those a particuthatdefine different ideology economic the modalities be- lar Enlightenment of of regulations liberalism and uncomfortable theanalytic with limi- democratic individualism. longing." Clearly Perhapsthe point is that like tations both, of for of Ong argues a notion "citizenship somesocieties, theUnitedStates, erroneously proas subjectification" insistson viewing and that citizenship motetheimpression individual citizens' freedoms "as dialectically determined the stateand its sub- include freedom from by institutional forces, including the and disciplinary coercive forces statepower. of jects"(emphasis added). in Therearesomewonderfully points thisessay clear and somecompelling them. A examples accompanying is in dialectical evident Ong's dynamic, interplay indeed of explanation whatshe meansby cultural citizenship JONATHAN FRIEDMAN that"cultural and (namely, practices beliefs produced Departmentof Social Anthropology, University of out ofnegotiating often the and ambivalent, contested, Lund,Box II4, 2210O Lund,Sweden.2i VI 96 withthe stateand its hegemonic relations forms ... of to the of within national a define criteria belonging popula- The importance thisarticle mymindis its ethnoand tionand territory" in the description offers graphic she thatsorely of needsto be analysisof a situation and I to thechoices, had some difficulty in issues,changes, responses, experiences researched. confess having of Cambodian the menand womenand transnational Chi- grasping argument, however. The question I unas it nese investor-immigrants. explication whythe derstand relates therelation Her of to between racialorculconstruction exclusionary and "'race-versus-culture' of dis- turalracialclassification themaking citizens of of courses is . . . a red herring"is as clear as any I have particular in Part myproblem of States. types theUnited are of itself. seen,andits implications important. allowsus is thevery concept cultural While Ong citizenship in to see quitevividly how"thedifferent con- it is understandable a period ethnic institutional of fragmentation texts whichsubjects in wars"thatcitizenship learnaboutcitizenship often as- and "culture becomesethnified, sessnewcomers from I it different oftheworld within in fact think is precisely latter the that parts phenomenon and schemes racialdifference, of given civilization, eco- is therealissuehere.Butit is notmadeclearjustwhat nomicworth." Thatthemostdominant consequen- therelation and between culture citizenship all about. and is it tial schemeofracialdifference theUnitedStatesis Presumably is notaboutthedifference in ethnibetween that which naturalizes pitswhiteness and black- callydefined formally vs. defined against citizenship (e.g.,the ness is well illustrated the effective of by blackening Germanvs. the Frenchmodel). In more modernist and was Cambodian-Americans times, between individual institutionally dependent citizenship a relation any a of theeffective of and andthestate, relationship membership all that with whitening affluent jet-set HongKong it entails.Citizenship nothing do withrights had to TaiwaneseChinesein California. to it I to Moregenerally,am intrigued Ong'sclaimthatit employment, although doeshaveto do withrights by wheresuch rights exist. The deis "precisely liberaldemocracies in like the United non-discrimination in on States[that] governmentality the ofstateagencies of- mandfor"fullcitizenship" Rosaldo'sterms the is is ten discontinuous, even fragmentary, [that]the partofdisadvantaged and groups very vagueunlessit can to of If workofinstilling and normative behavior iden- be related breaches legalrights. suchis notthe proper linesarebeing drawn thewrong in in mustalso be taken byinstitutions case,thenthebattle tity newcomers up thatthepoorin general, in civil society." is clearto me bothfrom cases place.It implies It mostofwhom her

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Cultural Citizenshipas Subject-MakingI753

out via are "white"as I understand havethesamerights tionis well brought herein Chan'srevenge her to it, cultural citizenship.agree I withOngthatthequestion capital. heard a confrontationanother of in Californew of in ofdefining categories immigrants socialterms I recently institutionalizationa veryimportant nia cityin whichwealthy is Asianshad invested heavily and eventheir in thisis a field political and of poorretired maneuver where peopleliving mobilehomescomareaofstudy that thana mere rather demand plained aboutthenoisefrom Vietnamese a over andstruggle definitions discotheque HeretheAsianswerewealthy the At and as in Rosaldo'sargument. the same time,the Fou- acrossthestreet. and in poor, thesolution the"racist" to concern- "whites" confroncauldianassumptions (strongest Althusser) was to of out area I ing production subjectsoughtto be worked in tation tomovethewhites another oftown. thatthispro- mention totry castOng'sexamples a historical this sinceOngstresses to in moredetail, especially light,one in whichthe obvioushegemony whiteof is duction process a negotiation. The empirical argument applied Asianimmigra- male-successfuldeclining as to is withtherealpolitical along tion seems to be that economicstatusand mobility and economic of hegemony theWest.It is in thisconlargely determine whether peopleare classified good textthat the kind of ethnification as seems to become orbad,blackorwhiteAsiansandthat, theBrazilians mostsalient.Whites notjustwhites more; as are any there whitens." Most comparative studies have are also Anglosand "halfies"and all kinds of new say,"money and argued thattheBrazilian U.S. modelsofracerela- boundaries. Ifconfrontationon theriseandboundaries protions were very different, even opposed. Has this is are If changed? thisan Asianphenomenon Is only? "black" liferating, if certain themarebeingcrossed even of for it Asianscanbecome"white," then U.S. modelis very strategic the reasons, seemsto me thatterms like "racthan different it was,sinceits classiccharacteristic was ism" and "essentialism" not getto the coreof the do And I don'treallysee how the white/black was fixed. met- problem. The precisely racialidentity totally that less is one for aphorof the lazy,uneducated, intelligent not metaphor themostuseful (but the understanding other seemstobe part the proliferation ethnifications seems to have ocof of that apparently sexually potent) and classification largegroups peoplefrom of of very differ-curred. own research thatofmanyothers My (e.g., havedemonstrated degree whichselfentplaces. the to Wieviorka) "nationals" experience The first case dealswithCambodians welfare on and identified the breakdown of a forms in thatis rather provides picture common many for wel- taken-for-granted ofsociality periods increasof downward and fare-dependent minority groups welfare in statesin the inginsecurity, crisis. mobility, economic West.The strategies to exploit system a re- Baumannhas written on used the as of brilliantly the experience in sourcearesimilar ourownmaterial to from Hawaii,in theStranger suchsituations. Wieviorka, and Taguieff, whichit is primarily indigenous use "differential the that racism" refer exto to population is others theterm of ethnocentrism marginalized. Manyofthecharacteristicsthewayin tremeforms exclusionist of whichare known secure and whichtheCambodians classified strong are socialworlds, bear resem- aimedatpreserving not of blancetothemore institutionalized classification Ha- least since it is the vast majority workers of who are waiians.Hawaiianradicalsspeakof their by Theseissuesmustbe taken in affected suchprocesses. problems similar kindsofterms well. Now whether and very as this moreseriously notsimply as in tagged racism order is all a question essentialization thepowers of by that to do something useful abouttheprocess. be is notclearly but argued, itis often assumed. fact The thatpeopleclassify as goodto employ opposed X's as to Y's is a question simply ideology ofthereal NINA GLICK SCHILLER not of but often class-induced notproduced) (but strategies sur- DepartmentofAnthropology, of University New of vival amongdifferent segments thepopulation. of Ha- Hampshire,Durham, N.H. 03824, U.S.A. 4 VI 96 waiianswerenotlazy,buttheir forms strategies life and wereincompatible thedemand plantation with as citizenship emerges a "subjectificaby own- In Ong'sarticle, a ersfor particular oflaborer, they kind so and subjugation selfwerereplaced tion,"a processof simultaneous in Asians.Ideological both state itssubjects the and byimported categories exist, do but assertion which particithey notsimplemisrepresentations. are pate. She challengesthose who explain differences The secondcase dealswithrichChineseimmigrantsbetweenChinese and Cambodianpositioning the in and theirconflict withneighbors of who complain about UnitedStatesin terms cultural difference. illusShe thewaythey a story their add to the houses. Whensomeone trates waysin whichtheincorporation the Chiof thatthenewwealthy implied might turn placeinto nese has come to reflect the theirembodiment capital as a new Chinatown, provoked nervous it the mayor to whilethe Cambodians have come to signify unskilled apologizeto the womanin question. But is this "im- labor. It plied" racism? would be worth study its own, a on Leftperhapsforfuture analysisis any evidenceof notleastin suchnervous either placesas California, Germany, whether Cambodian Chinese or come immigrants or Scandinavia as whereany ethnocentric expression to see themselves part "theAmerican is of people." Ong us quicklypoliticizedas racism.It implies that Levi- provides with the notionof "governmentality" to Strauss also a racist, someUNESCO officials is as the of might speak aboutthe link between moralregulation and class aspectofthisconfronta-newimmigrants theproduction a unified have it. The interesting of people.

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Volume 37, Number S, December 1996 cal conjuncture, structures production the of and capital accumulation are global in ways thatno longernecessitate internally homogeneousnational laborforces.Consequently,in the United States a sectorof corporations, foundations,and universitiesnow promotesmulticulturalism as a nation-state-building project. It has set aside the task of acculturating immigrants a single to language,history, and culture.It persistsin hegemonic projects that obscure exploitation,the domination of capital, and vast inequalities in wealth and power by in instilling citizens a sense of sharedU.S. national destiny.At the same time,the various "multicultural" U.S. immigrant populations with theirtransnational ties to home societies become means of connectingand representingU.S.-based capital withinthe global economy. Ong herself thisphenome(I993:766) has documented non in interviewswith corporateexecutives who have seen Chinese-Americansand multiculturalism part as oftheircorporate These executivesconflate strategy. the interestsof theirtransnational corporations with those ofall "Americans" and construct personsofChinese descent as both Americans and racially/culturally different. Multicultural Americans become useful human capital in competitionwith Asian-based corporations. Ong's study leaves unaddressedbut on the agenda the ways in which past U.S. nation-statebuilding turned into nationalistsand the way in which U.S. immigrants nationalismis beingsustained,althoughtransformed, in this era of globallyrestructured capital accumulation.

The concept of "nation-statebuilding" (Glick Schiller, Basch, and Szanton Blanc i992) mightbe moreusefulin a discussion of culturalcitizenship,since it directsour attention to the cultural politics that are central in building a national identity.We see no evidence that the various agents of state and civil society that Ong identifies-social workers, Mormons,city officials, police, and courts-succeed in elicitingthe national loyalty or political allegiance of immigrants. Neitherpoor Cambodian women acceptingregulationof their lives nor Chinese transnational by local police officers capitalists obtainingcultural capital and social distinction by endowingoperas and elite universitiesspeak about identifying themselves as "Americans." It is not clear fromOng's description whetherthese new immigrants became subjectswithoutbecomingnationalsorwhether in has slightedthe nation. Ong, interested governance, Althoughshe specifiesthat she is interested the "evin eryday processeswhereby... immigrants made into are subjectsof a particular nation-state," does not theoshe rize the particularities Americanization. of The language of identity,when employed at all in is Ong's narrative, about whiteness and blackness. Implicit in her analysis but never developed is a central of particularity U.S. nation-state-building processes: racialization of identitiesin the United States is simultaneously a discourse about class positioningand a discourse about national identity.Ong links race only to class positioning and notes that being on welfare is equated with blackness,unsanctionedsexuality, illegality,and lack of culture.'But it is crucialforthe analysis of Americanizationthat those on welfareare also definedas outside of "the Americanpeople." Robert Park(I974[I925]:I57) putit thisway:"It is an fact that as a firststep in Americanization interesting the immigrant does not become in the least American. He simplyceases to be a provincialforeigner. Wurtemand Westphaliansbecome in Americafirst all of burgers Germans;Sicilians and Neapolitans become Italians and Jews become Zionists." In almost the same language newspagrants... became nationsin America.The first per in the Lithuanian's language was publishedin this not country, Lithuania.... and the nationof Czechoslovakia was launched at a meetingin Pittsburgh." While thereare significant continuitiesbetweenpast and presentU.S. nation-state-building processes, there that Ong signals in her are also importantdifferences connectionsof the overdiscussion of the transnational seas Chinese but does not develop. Capitalism has alnationways been global,but until the 1970S competing ally based capitals invested resources in building the infrastructure separate national economies. In the of past, Americanizationwas a process of buildinga labor historiforcefora nationalU.S. economy.In the current

VERENA

Departmentof Social Anthropology, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB23RF, U.K. 3 VI 96

STOLCKE

NathanGlazer(1954:I67)

"The newer immireported:

the to i. It is important note,so as not to perpetuate social conby that of struction "welfare," encompassed thissocialpositioning groupofpeopleon welfare as black are manywhites;the largest is white.

The aim of Ong's articleis twofold.She proposesto uncoverthe racial-cultural the meaningswhich inform hicommuerarchicalrankingof diverseAsian immigrant nities in the United States. From this specificcase she extrapolatesa "racist hegemonythat pervadesall areas of Westernconsciousness" in spite of oftenculturalist overtones. By virtue of this generalizationshe challenges my own recentanalysis (i995) ofpolitical rhetoin rics of exclusion in contemporary Franceand Britain, which I arguethatin these instanceswe are in the presdisence of a genuinelynew "cultural fundamentalist" course ratherthan racism-an interpretation disshe misses as a "red herring." Figuratively speaking, across the path" means diverting "drawinga redherring attentionfrom the main issue with some side issue. a Since Ong does not offer systematiccomparisonbetweentheNorthAmericanand theEuropeancase, I was, I confess,taken aback by this taxativejudgement on but second thought realized thatshe had unwittingly the hit nail of contentionon the head. What is, then,the main issue? Is it detectingthe familiarracist ghosts behind everyexclusionaryideology and practice,or is it carefullyexaminingparticularexclusionaryargumentative structures within their historical contexts? Behind

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even if"unintended"as Ong's critiquefordiversionism, the she concedes,I sense, in effect, well-knownassumption that to talk "culture" and, forthat matter,"ethnicity"is politicallyless objectionablethanto talk race. Historicalawarenessis ofthe essence ofsymbolicanalyof and sis. Contemporary productions difference politics ofmeaningand exclusion are farless "racially"clear-cut in the Westernworld than she seems to think. Little of anyform excluknowledgeis to be gainedbyreducing sionarydiscourse and practice to racism instead of exAs ploringand comparingconcretehistoricalsettings. I and have shown forFrance and Britain,right-wing conservative politicianshave adopteda respectable"culturalist" language preciselybecause the deadly racist horabout the second greatwar discredited rorsthatbrought racist discourses of exclusion in Europe. Yet, the conof creteconceptual structure this discursiveshiftneeds to be deconstructed within its "national" political context beforewe can pass judgementon its actual meaning.Althoughwe as scholarsno less thanpeople in general tend to orderrealityby means of familiarideas, to jump to conclusions about a new or clandestineracism at work is of no help in this respect.Only by properly it situatingthis new discoursecan we identify forwhat it is, namely,a genuinelynew thoughno less reactionaryideological twist based on a distinctthoughno less essentialist presuppositionthat humans are by nature xenophobic. European controversiesover the symbolic-political meaningsof new discoursesof exclusion since the seventies have been beset by largelynominalist disagreements ratherthan paying attentionto the substantive of recapitulation political questions and context.A brief in postwar approaches to racism may be enlightening this respect.Until the late seventiesliberaland leftacademics were persuadedthatracismwas an anachronism in modernliberal societies. If it persistedthis was beas cause ofthe particular society'spast in slavery, in the case of the Americas,a sort of historicalresidue.Little differentfrom the transatlantic diffusion of i gthcenturyscientificracism, alarm in Europe by the late seventies over growinghostilityand aggressiontoward coupled with so-calledextracommunitarian immigrants of the resurgence nationalismplaced racism once again on the researchagenda, this time as part and parcel of As (a (1993:4) putit recently point modernity. Goldberg I, incidentally,made some time ago [Stolcke i989]), "This is a centralparadox,the irony, perhaps,ofmodernity: The more explicitlyuniversal modernity'scommitments,the more open it is to and the more deterand racist mined it is by the like of racial specificity of exclusivity."Goldberg'sidentification the fundamental tension that characterizes modem liberalism between liberal universalismand essentialist"othering," his reduction of the demonstrablevariations on the themeofideological exclusion since the onset ofmodersimnitywith European conquests, is an unwarranted plification.As Spanish sources show only too clearly, beforethe early i8th-century trulyracistendeavoursto and exclusion, Europeans in the account fordifference

Americas sought to order perceived differencesby means of theological-moral analogies. Hence, different contexts of knowledge and meaning generatedifferent ideological rationalizationsof difference exclusion. and This leads me to the substanceofOng's article.I have one two main difficulties, ethnographic methodological and the othertheoretical. theparticular In NorthAmerican context and consideringthe country'shistory,it may well be that the "black-whitepolarities" provide the ideologicalframework ordering for newcomersarriving on its shores,in this case fromAsia. Of course, as Ong argues,identitiesas bundles of rightsand obligations are always producedby and withinwebs of sociopolitical relationships,be they interpersonalor with state agencies. Incidentally, seems to forget she this basic sociological rule when she defines"white middleclass masculinity" as the paradigmof respectablenormative North Americanness. Ideals of masculinity imply ideals of femininity. Her analysis of poor Asian immigrants' gendertroublesprovidesa nice illustration of this relatedness.Her comparisonof the distinctways in which Asian refugeesand migrant workersare ideologically construedby contrastwith wealthyAsian investorsprovidesan interesting example of what I have elsewheretermedmechanismsof "compensationofstatus" (Stolcke i989). Yet, the clash betweenmiddle-class citizens' ideals of neighbourhood and Ms. Chan's housing tastes that she describesis not entirely persuasive as to the underlying meaningof the former's objections. Conflictsassociated with really existingphenotypicaldo cultural differences not in themselvesallow one to extrapolateracism. is Let it be clear thatmyintention neither transport to contemporary European meaningsto the United States norto denyprevailing racism.Ong refers the "whitento ing" and "blackening"processesin Asian's diverseclassification,sometimes in invertedcommas but at other timeswithoutthem.Hence, it remainsunclearwhether she is using the "black-whitepolarities" in a literalor a metaphoricalsense. My point is that a properundersostandingof the ideological assumptionsthatinform cial action requiresa carefulethnographic examination ofwhat is in a face nowadays.Yet empiricaldata on the use and meaning of "racei"are scant. Ong's articlein a way reads like a self-fulfilling prophecy.Her implicit argument seems to go somewhatlike this: Since North American society appears to be basically orderedby a or race-classlogic,any formofdiscrimination exclusion of newcomersthat can be associated with phenotypical is differences necessarilyracist.Anotherexampleofthis is procedure the youngCambodian woman who declares a thatshe hopes to marry "Caucasian" or,alternatively, one of the "tall Chinese guyswho look Caucasian, who and more into American traditions are light-skinned like dating."She does not examine,however,the meanhave forthis woman. ing these phenotypicalreferences She could just well have resortedto phenotypeas a markerof social status as assume phenotypeto be an of indicator the "racial" rootsofCaucasians' social superiority. Only in the latter case would "racism" under-

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stood as the essentialistexplanationof socioeconomic was located in the most prestigiousresidentialarea of Kahala, at the footofDiamond Head mountain(a whiteinequalitybe at work. beforethe war). To this day we reMore generally,Ong suggeststhat the exclusionary only neighborhood logic of the specificinstance of "explicit and implicit member the shocking question the hostess, a firstracial and culturalranking"of Asian immigrants the generationU.S.-bornChinese and a college graduatein in asked Wei-lan: "Do you have running United States is applicable to Westerndemocracies at herthirties, water large.As I have pointedout above, in the absence ofany and electricityin your homes in Taiwan?" We were at systematic historically mindedcomparisonthisextrapo- dumbfounded herignoranceabout Taiwan but did not lation is more than problematic.The basic matrix of realize the meaning of her question in the context of and cultural citizenshipproposedby Ong liberal democracyis common to the West, yet thereis immigration abundant evidence of significant historicaldifferences in this paper. We have lived in Hawaii for30 yearsand became U.S. in the way in which the liberalethos offormalequality and libertyof citizens operatesin changingeconomic- citizens in the early I98os. Two years ago I left the political contexts.I have highlighted particular the pro- United States,where I had spent more than half of my cesses of nation building in France and Britain.Even life as a foreignstudent,an immigrant worker,and a for more pertinent the issue at hand is the notable his- citizen, to take up a teachingposition (as an overseas torical contrast between the United States, the first U.S. citizen workingon "expatriate" [white] appointmodernslaveholdingrepublic,and a Europebesetbypo- ment) in a Britishcolony thatis soon to become partof litical and ideological confrontations. Ratherthan con- China and in I966 was, by internationalrecognition, of historicalprocessesand experiences exclusion, under the sovereignty the governmentin Taiwan. of flating what we need, in effect, make sense ofthe new inter- From this complicated subjectiveperspectiveI wish to to national disorder is carefully designed transatlantic commenton Ong's paper.While I fullysupport simher Americanmodel ofculturalcitizenshipinvolving comparisons. But such comparisons require in-depth plified (i) a black-versus-white racial conception and (2) the "national" studies. To end, I offer recentexample ofthe peculiarities equation ofwealthwith culturalcompetenceamongimone of the Europeans. The BBC's recentchoice of the Ger- migrants,her subject-making process fails to account man composerBeethoven'sOde to Joy its themetune forthe notion of white supremacyheld by manyAsian as forthe upcomingEuropeansoccercompetition stagedin emigrantsprior to their leaving home in Asia, be it Britain provokeda patriotic outcry amongconservatives. China, Japan,or the Philippines.For more than a cenTo avoid such political pitfallsITV chose instead Sir turyin Asia, an adoptedwhite,racial ranking the naof Hubert Parry'sI9I6 settingof William Blake's Jerusa- tions placed Europe and the United States over all nalem, which was composed as a morale booster during tions and perceived their citizens as white, rich, the FirstWorldWar (Midgleyi996). It would be absurd superior,and advanced (xianjin, a term still used in to see in thesenationalistculturalist anxietiesracistun- China today).This concept is a legacy of the old world orderas well as of European and Americancolonialism dertones. in the Asia-Pacificregion.Thus, amongmanyAsian imthe whiteningof the American citizens does migrants, not beginin the host country. this day in Japan, To for Y. H. WU DAVID more instance,arguablyequal to if not technologically ChineseUniversity Department Anthropology, of of advanced than the United States,its citizens still hold HongKong, Shatin, N.T.,HongKong.3 vi 96 whiteAmericansand white Europeansup foremulation In I966 my wife, Wei-lan, and I arrivedin Honolulu or admiration. The American-born Chinese-Hawaiian hostess who of fromTaiwan to do graduatework at the University the Hawaii. Our firstculture shock was the contradictory had us fordinneryears ago was reflecting popular land" (wai-guo)where the views about China (herparents'homeland) as poor and realityof livingin a "foreign to but either inferior the extentof not having runningwater and majorityof the population was not foreign Chinese or Chinese-like (I was not aware of the term electricity.Her ignorance about Taiwan is beside the she, as a memberof a long de"Asian" then, and it still is not an ethnic categoryin point. More important, in "race" in the United Hawaii today).We also were shockedto discover, this spised and discriminated-against the United States, States,now a "whitened" Americancitizen,was telling most advanced and richestcountry, potential(Asian) immigrants: "How that therewere places thatwere still ruraland as back- us, the threatening, ward as parts of Taiwan. We were embarrassedabout lucky you are to be in the United States,you backward thisunex- Asians." this when writing home; we could not report Ong may have presentedan oversimplified model to pected reality of life experience on the U.S. soil of Hawaii, because we had reached the enviable status of explain the process of culturalcitizenshipin the United liu Mei students-a double pun meaning studyingin States that cannot accommodate all aspects and variations of the subject-making experiencesof Asian immiAmeirica and possiblystayingforever. but pointsdeserveattention and One day in I968, Wei-lanand I were invitedto dinner grants, herfundamental ti of by a "local" Chinese professor medicinewhose house elb onrn on

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I757 as Citizenship Subject-Making Cultural

of the limitsof our own "liberaltolerance" perhaps? Whatdoes it mean thatthe statedisciplining mechanismis invoked the child,the veritable by symbol of "family values"?Whatunderpins such a case of wife 13 VI 96 abusein minority communities precisely intersecis the and Whileit is clearthatthe in Every mostofthestudents myclassareVietnam- tionofgender ethnicity. day, of state emasculateimmigrant workings the welfare Japanese-, Chinese-Amerese-, Cambodian-, Korean-, of fervor" some welfare "boatpeople"orfrom refu- men and that the "feminist icans.Somewereoriginally in mayhaveits roots thenotorious "civilizing parachute kids dropped workers gee camps,some the so-called it who run bicontinentalmission," is not as clearhow we are to understand in OrangeCountyby parents woman"emboldened" theeconomics by are businesses. Indeed,wherethese students "origin- theCambodian It and feminists. seemspossible to is so thatthevery idea ofan ofwelfare "fervent" ally"from often tortuous as of is Whatis the"origin" a arguethatMae uses thesesocial mechanisms bar"origin" hardto articulate. to of chipsin herattempt gainsomedegree conof Chinese descentor a gaining Japanese-Peruvian-American but identified Afri- trolnotjustoverherhusband also overthewelfare as Korean-American is frequently who As being embedded from EastCoastto teachin stateandsocialservices. a gendered the can-American? Coming Mae one relations, is perhaps posing source I I found hadto adjust owncon- in multiple my southem California, againstanother (patriarchal, state,social, American collegestudent radically of authority ceptof a "typical" all American) consequently, and, rendering imageis conceived Cambodian, (notto mention thatthis"typical" and less from East ofthemcontested contestable, thanabsolute. the who byan immigrant is not"originally" is her tests tolerance in her Where strategy ourliberal Coast). of In criculture. thepaper's betrayal herowm of is welcome analysis a world apparent Ong'spaper thusa very to statethere appears be an implicit a for range tiqueofthewelfare reality us. Itsvery thatis increasinglyliving in of difference" specific gendered as shatters imageofthe"Asian-American" a homo- assumption "cultural any as variously rendered "Cambodiancustoms," the The difference between Cambodian terms, geneous group. It familymorality." a offers highly nuanced view "Khmerculture,"or "gendered and Chineseimmigrants to manner at ofparticularized forces workin thecon- wouldbe useful knowin a morehistoricized hegemonic and of structure gender relations in of at the struction belonging; thesame time, similarity thespecifics family For howmucheconomic did power of of theirstories pointsto the sharedexperience in- Cambodia. example, havebefore How conimmigration? were family and "border control" women creasing globalization increasing resolved before apparently the normative "Camboto deviant. Whatis mosthelpful flicts against culturally the was or weakened reconstituted is on me aboutOng'spaper herinsistence thedualpro- dianfamily" presumably of state"and"thefemiand the cess of culturalcitizenship: self-making the by"thedisciplining thewelfare of Whatare thespeside is to simplify dras- nistfervor manysocial workers"? To either being-made. neglect of and To of the conflicting (self-) configurationsciti- cificmarkers masculinity femininity? what tically often in withreference class, to extent thesemarkers flux are zenship. a rendering I will limit my comment one case analyzedin time,locale?Without morecontextualized to culture," "cultural difference" well be may Ong's paper,that of Mae, the Cambodianwifewho of"Khmer man propped ("remembered") interested up by thathighlights gen- a straw the "worked system"-a story the to such enterprising women of to iden- partiesprecisely prevent derissue in relation theconstruction ethnic famtoo After "gendered gaining muchcontrol. all, to framework.from and analytical tity in relation thepaper's is culunique to the Cambodian had In thestory an abusedwifewhofirst herhus- ily morality" hardly of knownas "family values,"it is often one ture.Otherwise and the band incarcerated then dropped charges, in America a regulatory, to as not that invoked normative detail standsout: "A neighbor reported striking deviceagainst aberrant women. disciplinary, said Mae's daughter she wantedhermumto be in jail mention of or In thegeneral analytical paradigm "whitening" of andherdadhome."The ambivalence thecase-is thus in what of words, as marked thedaughter's divided sharply by (dis)loyalty, "blackening" Asianimmigrants,other is of of herwordsin turnappearto markthe ambivalence maybe missing thewomenofcolor.The strength lies to the is the ethnographer incidentally, theparadigm in itsability illustrate racializa(whosepresentation, as masculinity" theideal on Mae's case is meantto tionofclass.Yet,with"white neutral thispoint). markedly this victim, paraof illustrate disciplining the state, and theman of coloras theprimary practice thewelfare for as in which"whitemasculinity" functions "thenorm digmmay be weak in accounting the agencyof toward disloyalty a of manliness and civilization," normthatunderlies womenof color,who may entertain "selfwhiteor otherwise-the masculinity, im- normative into battles[that] "publicinterventions domestic making"aspect of culturaland gendered citizenship. devaluemenofcolor." plicitly to the does theimmigrant womanfitin?How Furthermore,identify valuesofwomen'sagency Where, then, with the West and, moredamaging still, dowe account Mae's "working" thepolicesystem, exclusively of for claims of Westemfeminism Whendoes with the universalizing and the courtsystem? the self-help group, "culture difference" of become"manipulation"-atest mayruntheriskof essentializing "strategy" survival and Cultures, Department East Asian Languages of Irvine, Calif.926I2, U.S.A. University California, of
HU YING

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to or them. ple,Gilroy emotionally costly embrace reject (i987) andHall (i99i)-or point thework to and Friedman Stolcke bothunhappy I impute of S.O.S.-Racisme in France (now weakened because of are that whenideologies racializing processes maybe simply be its reliance on the socialists, who are mainly out of or aboutclass strategies cultural differences. Friedman power),but we clearlydisagreeabout whetherrace contalksabouttheBrazilian modelofwhitening claims tinues to be salient and involved in exclusionarypracbut thatin theUnitedStatestheclassicmodelofracerela- tices. I will mention that the vast majorityof Hong tions "was precisely that racial identity was totally Kongers, though "British Dependent TerritoryCitifixed." Besidesthereferences citedin myessayon the zens," are banned fromsettlingin England,and thereis of who blackening Irish immigrants, havesubsequently,a recent historyto such exclusions that is both classF. sinceJohn Kennedy president, was become and racially based. Here, I will draw on my essay on especially I Become flexible white, wouldpointto Sacks's"How Did Jews citizenship (Ong 1993:748-49):

ferencesis necessarilyracist." These differences, I as have tried to show, provide a racialist construction of cultural differences and hierarchy, and I thoughtthat the discussion about Mormon attemptsto encourage marriagebetween white members and Khmer women could not have been more explicit. Thus I interpret Vanna's remarksdifferently fromStolcke; her speaking of"tall Chinese men who look Caucasian, who are lightAIHWA ONG skinned," indicates Vanna's internalizationof the imBerkeley, Calif.94720, U.S.A. 2o VII 96 of plicit racial classification Chinese men as not as good I am grateful Dominguez's for of careful reading myes- as whites, though some may phenotypically resemble of combin- them,but certainlya notch or two above Khmermen. sayandhersuggestion a comparative project formation across And of course, these phenoptypicaldifferences ing the different logicsof citizenship have democracies toward which "detailed articula- somethingto do with social status,which is my point. liberal my tionofcurrent of normaliza- I would add what should be apparent-that these are processes" subjectification tionbystateandcivilorganizations be might a first step. snapshots of an ethnographicproject based on three She makestheprovocative that suggestion thegreatest years of field researchwhich groundsmy observations and Stolcke's commentabout "jump[ing] difference be "in the expectations desires of and interpretation. may and not a particu- to conclusions about a new or clandestine racism at those internalizing those internalizing lar Enlightenment of ideology economic liberalism and work" is offthe mark. democratic individualism." is certainlyrichvein This a Stolcke insists that rhetorics exclusion in contemof for further and Franceand Britainarenot raciallyinflected. ethnographic research, itwillbe interest- porary Since the of ing to see whether racial encrustations certain I have not undertakenresearch in Western Europe, I will or valuesandideologies makeit especially difficult have to draw on the work of otherscholars-for exam-

of for White Folks?" (1994). I am puzzled that someone who the and thuspreempting possibility accounting of women.At the workswith a colonized plantationpopulationcan sepathe ethicalautonomy non-Western of of and of intersection race(culture) sex(gender),is imper- rateattributions laziness, subversion authority, it and ativefor nottoprivilege overtheother rather so on, fromthe racialist discourses about that populaus one but to "racejustice"as wellas "engendering to power," bor- tion.In The Mythofthe Lazy Native (I977) Alatas notes row the termsof analysisof the AnitaHill/Clarence that colonial powers in Southeast Asia-Portuguese, and English-routinelyreferred Spanish,Dutch, French, Thomascase (see Morrison i992). How, then, wouldI teachthoselike Mae's daughter to indigenous populations as lazy because of theirrewere theyto show up in my California classroom? fusal to workon plantationsor underEuropeanauthoriGrowing as "one-and-a-half"-generation up werepartofa larger immigrants,ties. These definitions classification in to theseyoung womencometo myclass seeking learn ofnon-Europeans which Indiansand Chinese, though about theircultural traditions, theirfathers' legacies. lacking in other respects,were placed a notch higher in of often resonates thanthe natives.The processesofclass exploitationand Critique racism American society of readily, whilecritique "their own cultures" tends to racial othering were entangledfromthe verybeginning, I be met with discomfort.shouldthenintroduce the since,as Hall (i992) and Stoler(i995) have argued in of story Mae, messing the"father's up legacy," ways, the processofconstructing European messing different the for illustrates tac- bourgeoisieas a master class was dependenton the rathe up theAmerican dream, herstory and in to tics,strategies, rusesofliving relation multiple cial otheringof colonial labor. The Hawaiian islands of forces-forces race,class,andgender, hegemonic cul- were not exempt,as Asian-Americans(not to mention as native Hawaiians, who were practicallywiped out) can turally specific(Cambodian and NorthAmerican) (see well as partofa shared Her history. story barethe attest Takaki i98i). lays I share with Stolcke a deep concernforthe comparaof everyday processes citizenship making evenas these of shake up tive anthropology racism, but I am puzzled by her messyand contradictory everyday practices the verytheoretical frames that facilitate theirnar- contention that "any discriminationor exclusion of newcomersthatcan be associatedwithphenotypical ration. dif-

Reply

ONG

I759 Cultural as Citizenship Subject-Making

herlack ofcleardifferentiation between nation, nationalism,andthestate, though they often are conjoined, is a problem(see also Basch,Glick Schiller, and Blanc I994). "Nation-state building" seemstoimply many different levelsofpolitical activities, and operations, goals, constituting different ofsocialrelations: confields the struction a nation-state ofdecolonization the of out or destruction war(e.g.,see Anderson of i992), theestablishment expansion a governing or of regime Indo(e.g., nesia underSuharto's New Order), production the of meanings, practices, structures and a asserting national identity, often situations conflict in of (e.g.,in Bosnia) or exile (e.g.,amongthe KurdsoutsideTurkey), the building an alternative of political visionandapparatus the challenging one in power (overseas) (theperspective in developed Basch, GlickSchiller, BlancI994), and and the buildingof a nationalidentity and nationalism amongimmigrants sense thatGlick Schiller (the proposeshere). ential contribution racial tensions. .. clearlyreto Herrecommendation I use theframework naproduces class hierarchy a whereby is givenconrace that of tion-building crete institutional expression. suggests thenationalist that hegemony of has with effects on from holders British Americanism a singularity, uniform of muchprotest After HongKong a inducing stepped processof identifying full bill in passports, I990 a nationality granted citizen- immigrants, firstas displacednationalsand then presumably as of shipor "theright abode"to some 5o,oooeliteHong "Americans." Maybe this was the processforearlier and theirfamilies Kongers (out of a totalof almost6 of but of of million).These are the "whitened" category Hong generations immigrants, in theconditions late identification a nation with presumes sima in who have British connections government,capitalism Kongers ple, unambiguous processof subject-making, very the or business, someother organization 750): (p. issueI havedeconstructed She is correct saying here. in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, anxiousto quiet that "multiculturalism" the prevailing is national a restive publicovertheadmission morecoloreds theme, of but,as Mitchell(I994) has noted,thisis a reintothe"bless'disle," defended billin Parliaher sponseto "multiculturalism thelogicoflatecapitalas mentbywondering theChinesewouldtrade why ism" (see also Hall i992). My essayon flexible citizensunny HongKongforGreat Britain, coldand "a ship (Ong I993) maintains thatincreasing reliance on island."She reminded British thena- Pacific cloudy the that Rimcapital introduced notion transnahas of the bill tionality was intended an "insurance as policy" tionalsubjectivity,concept a thatwill affect ways the to keepthewould-be in Chinesecitizens HongKong in whichAsian-American is identity constituted the in up to and beyond it to I997 [when reverts Chinese nearfuture also Dirliki992, Ongn.d.). (see rule]. other In words, British full citizenship evenfor I agree withWu thatwhitening in begins thecolonies thoseChinesemeeting biopolitical the criteria citi- and that efforts emigrants accumulate is by to cultural the law zenship indefinitely deferred; nationality op- capitalbefore departure reflect attempt fitinto an to erates an insurance as against their everbecoming Western colorandclassschemes. havepreSpacelimits fullBritish citizens. was cleara coldwelcome It vented from me this adressing topichere, I suggest but awaitsthem. thathe refer myother to writings (e.g.,Ong n.d.)WilGlickSchiller AlongwithStolcke, in objects that, fo- liams's Stains on My Name, War in My Veins (I99I) on of I detailed cusing theeveryday of aspects citizenship making, is a richly analysis thelingering "ghost"of haveneglected issuesofnationalism, she proposes colonial racialhegemony and (andglobal) who among people thattheconcept "nation-state of afford leavehomebutwhosecultural to building" (GlickSchil- cannot struggles Blanci992) might moreuse- are influenced its criteria precepts. for be and ler,Basch,and Szanton by As Wu's fulin a discussion cultural of of sinceit directs criticism an "oversimplified citizenship model,"my goal has to ourattention thecultural thatarecentral been not to give a comprehensive in politics picture subjectof a I that formation building national among identity.havelongmaintained but immigrants tohighlight differthe there no singularity theprocesses wouldcall ent regimes regulation of is in she thatare engaged subjectin "nation-state withinand acrossthe borders nation-states of of building"-thatvariousregimes sur- making veillanceand control at workon different are popula- (see Ong andNoniniI996, Ongn.d.). tionsandtheir effects, conditioned gender, by class,eth- Itis myfocus subject-making self-making on and that are nic,andracializing processes, diverse understandings to in givesprimacy humanagency manipulating differin the makingof Americansubjects.Besides,Glick entcategories, and of I mechanisms, norms belonging. Schiller uses "nation-state building," "nation-building," Hu on appreciate Ying'sfocus thewoman colorusing of a and "building national and identity" sources authority of interchangeably, different one I against another. unPostwar immigration institutionalized diflaws racial ferences the of through progressive exclusion "colfrom ored"immigrants theCommonwealth (Miles publicpresI989:84-8S). In theearlyI96os, under suresto restrict "colored" immigrants to over(said and whelmhousing statebenefits), Conservative the the government withdrew right "colored" of United Kingdom passport holders reside Britain. few to in A the yearslater, samegovernment the granted right ofentry settlement several and to million"white" SouthAfrica. Suchactionwas defended peoplefrom whitepaperthatexpanded bya government Commonwealth immigration creates socialtensions; the immigrant crisishas to be resolved "theevilofraif cial strife" to be avoided(pp.85-86).Although is thelanguage immigration is notexplicitly of law racist,thedistinction between whites and coloreds from Commonwealth, their the and assumed differ-

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ties: Reflections theorigin derstand sympathy on her withMae, muchput-upon and spreadofnationalism. but London: Verso. extremely enterprising, many refugee as women are THOMAS J. I983. Becoming American: An ethcompelled be in order safeguard survival to to the of ARCHDEACON, New York:FreePress. nic history. their The contexualizing families. information the BASCH, LINDA, NINA GLICK SCHILLER, AND CRISTINA S. on was omitted Cambodian herebecauseof space family BLANC. I994. Nationsunbound:Transnational projects, postand nation-states. but constraints, myresearch indicated has thatservice colonialpredicaments, deterritorialized workers focus domestic on violence rather than"family Newark:Gordonand Breach. GARY of values"in disciplinary measures aimedat Cambodian BECKER, JournalC. I965. A theory theallocationoftime.Economic 75:493-5I7. families, focusthathas enabled a manywomento gain BEDERMAN, GAIL. I993. "Civilization, the decline of middlelinesofaccessto thesocialservices whilemenaremar- class manliness, Ida B. Wells'santi-lynching and campaign ginalized. Service workers themselves "saving" (i892-94)," in Gender in American historysince I890. Edited see as by Barbara Melosh, pp. 207-39. New York: Routledge. therefugee womanandchildren from "patriarchal" BLOOM, HAROLD. the i992. The American religion: The emergence refugee man.Forthesehighly marginalized immigrant ofthepost-Christian nation.New York:Simonand Schuster. women,special access to the social servicesand the BOURDIEU, PIERRE. I984. Distinction: A social critique of the of Harvard Press. University in Mormon church them their with judgement taste.Cambridge: empowers struggles NEWELL G. I98I. Saints, slaves, and blacks: men at home. Despite feminist desiresto see "the BRINGHURST, The changing place of blackpeople within Mormonism. Westof agency womenofcolor"as "disloyal toward ... nor- port,Conn.: Greenwood Press. mativemasculinity, whiteor otherwise," research CHAN, SUCHENG. I99I. Asian Americans: interpretive my An hisreveals thatfor manyCambodian tory. women, thegrip in Boston:Twayne. of and poverty withfewalternatives, everyday their strug- CHANDLER, DAVID P. I983. A historyof Cambodia. Boulder: Westview glesdepend thesestructures power, on of which also CHATTERJEE, Press. are PARTHA. I993. The nation and its fragments:Cothebasis forinterracial of systems patronage em- lonial and postcolonialhistories. that Princeton: Princeton Univerpowerthemvis-a-vis men in theirown community. sityPress. the Struggles against various hegemonies disciplin- COPELAND, LEWIS C. I939. "The Negro as a contrast concepand and therace problem: definition tion,"in Race relations A of arymechanisms patriarchy, and culture, thestatedo and an analysis.EditedbyEdgar Thompson, I52-79. T. pp. notnecessarily "an produce ethical whenall autonomy" Durham:Duke University Press. and strategies tacticsare shapedby theseverypower CORRIGAN, PHILIP, AND DEREK SAYER. I985. The great arch: in stateformation cultural relations, whichquestions race,gender, of English as class,and revolution. London:Basil Blackwell. nationality entangled. are in I993. "The perIndeed, among strategies empowerment Cali- DIRLIK, ARIF. Whatis in aAsia-Pacific Asian-American the of in in rim?Critical spective," on perspectives thePafornia rising are ratesofinterracial and marriage cross- cificRegionidea. EditedbyA. Dirlik,pp. 305-29. Boulder: racialclass alliance.The emergence whatI see as an of Westview Press. VIRGINIA. I986. White by definition:Social claselite Anglo-Asian withtransnational affiliations furtherDOMINGUEZ, in sification CreoleLouisiana.New Brunswick: UniRutgers for weakens, thepowerful, regulatory the mechanisms Press. ofthe state.Yet precisely multiracial this mixing may DUversity W. E. B. I977 (I935). Black Reconstructionin the BOIS, reinforce processesof whitening blackening. United States, I86o-I88o. New York. the and of to a Speaking a newmovement identify"multiracial" EMBREE, JOHN F. I950. Thailand-a loosely structuredsocial in category the U.S. census,a spokesman theLaw- system. American Anthropologist 52:i8I-93. for for is yers'Committee Civil Rights quotedas follows ESPIRITU, YEN LE. i992. Asian American panethnicity: Bridgand inginstitutions identities. Philadelphia: TempleUniver(New York Times, July i996): 6, sityPress. FANON, FRANTZ. I967. Black skin,whitemasks.Translated by "This multiracial hocus-pocus pleasesonlya relaC. L. Markman. New York:GrovePress. few tively individuals, for and everyone it's dan- FONG, TIMOTHY P. I994. The firstsuburban Chinatown: The else, to It gerous. contributes thepigmentocracy althat remaking Monterey of Park,California. Philadelphia: Temple Press. University existsin America, thatsaysit's better be ready to than light-skinned dark-skinned. it be better Will to FOUCAULT, MICHEL. I989. "The subject and power," in Michel Foucault:Beyondstructuralism hermeneutics. and Editedby be multiracial thanblack?" H. L. Dreyfus and P. Rainbow, pp. 208-28. Chicago: UniverMr.Flowers, who calls himself Africanan sityofChicagoPress. . I99I. "On govemmentality," The Foucaulteffect. in said that"behind EdAmerican, he also worries thisis itedby G. Burchell, Gordon, P. Miller, 87-IO4. ChiC. and pp. an attempt sayAmerica a melting and a to is pot of cago: University ChicagoPress. color-blind society." JAMES M. I989. Hearts of sorrow: VietnameseFREEMAN, "We appreciate he diversity," said,"butanyone American lives. Stanford: Stanford University Press. who sayswe've achieved color-blind a is society de- GIDDENS, ANTHONY. I990. Modernity and self-identity.Stanford: Stanford Press. University luded."
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USHA. I993. Beyondthekilling fields:Voicesof nine Cambodiansurvivors America.Stanford: in Stanford University Press. WHALEN, WILLIAM J. I964. The Latter-Day Saintsin themodernday world.New York:John Day. WELARATNA, WETHERELL,

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. I993. "TransformingOrientalism: Gender, nationality,

Call forPapers
amongothersconceptsof of for are Contributions invited a specialpublication the rangeof topics,including and in and cultures new illness, healing various Ethnomedizin (Societyfor Eth- health, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Subby disciplines. contributed different entitled perspectives based in Andechs,Germany, nomedicine), Str. AGEM,Von-der-Tann to cooperation ber3i, i996, to Doris Iding, as volumeis intended an effort increase Germany. intercul- 3-5, D-82346 Andechs, levelandencourage intemational on a broader to It turalcommunication. is expected covera broad
Women and Health: Ethnomedical Perspectives.The missions includingabstractsshould be sent by Decem-