Notes & Minutes from March 11

-We watched Lily Mariye's short film, Shangri-la Café, about a Japanese-American family running a Chinese restaurant in 1950s Las Vegas.

Plot synopsis from Mariye's website:
Las Vegas, Nevada, 1959, is a tumultuous time for everyone. Blacks are not allowed to eat in "White Only" restaurants. It's easier for Japanese-Americans to pretend to be Chinese-Americans in order to escape post-WWII racism. Emiko and Tad Takashi own the restaurant where the Reverend Charles Osteen would like to have his family dine with the white customers. The ultimate choice Emiko must make, and the effect it has on their daughter, Annie, will change their lives forever.

(I've got a copy of the film, let me know if you want to borrow it!)

-discussion on Iwabuchi's "Lost in TransNation: Tokyo and the urban imaginary in the era of globalization" (link) and Sophia Coppola's film, Lost in Translation
-topics that came up:
-loneliness in Asian society, and alienation
-roots- why do we feel the need to search for our roots? pilgrimage, tourist industry
-cultural hybridity since ancient times, as a natural process; hybridity of culture vs. hybridity of blood
-to do: filling out Student Union form for ASA to register as a student society
-new reading for future meeting, David Palumbo-Liu "Assumed Identities" from New Literary History, 2000, 31: 765:780 (link)

Notes & Minutes from Feb. 11

1. We discussed readings (Richard Johnson's "Post-hegemony? I Don't Think So" and John Hutnyk's "Culture")
2. We would like to invite Prof. John Hutynk (who has agreed to be ASA's academic advisor) to come to a future meeting as we had a few questions regarding his text, and to suggest another text of his to read
3. We would like to invite Prof. Scott Lash, regarding the reading from the previous week ("Power After Hegemony"). Questions: Why are things becoming ontological now? What is ontological? What are some examples?
4. Going to Student Union for forms to formalize ASA as a student association
   
5. Choosing two readings each week
6. Sung- to suggest readings on 'glocal'
7. John had emailed about Allen Chun's recent article in Positions
8. We want to read some material from the Frankfurt School (Adorno's Cultural Industry, Benjamin's The Age of Mechanical Reproduction) as well as Gramsci's Prison Notes
9. What is the definition of materialism/material?
10. Selecting texts from Inter-Asia Cultural Reader
11. Find articles by David Morley and Chris Berry (invite them to future meetings), and articles by Iwabuchi
12. We looked online at InterAsia Journal for articles of interest to us (we stopped at Vol. 9 Issue 1)