Asian Studies Explain the Meaning/Your

Asian Studies

Explain the meaning/your interpretation of the passage, and say why it is significant for the purpose of our class discussion.

"Sometimes a few writers walked by and were welcomed by our artists. These writers belonged to a radical group whose idealism consisted in their desire to stamp out poverty in this world. Our artists, who jealously treasured their Grandpa Stump and Grandma Cross-eyed, did not want the writers to come tampering with the poverty in this specific spot and didn't even want to discuss the couple with them."

This passage indicates the paradoxical nature of political liberation, as viewed in the eyes of intellectuals. The writers wish to raise the ideological consciousness of the dwellers of the village. However, those "artists" who embrace and find beauty in images and in the reality and traditions of a simpler life, see the writer's determination to locate the village's circumstances in an ideological, rather than a human context, as potentially violating. The reference to the odd names of a grandmother and grandfather show that the deformities of these individuals are embraced, rather than rejected, because of the represent ties to the past.

After the war, on my rare visits to Hanoi, I would always return to that same street. I would simply walk down it, not to find anything or go anywhere. The last time I got off at Hang Co station, I could no longer recognize my old street. Hanoi had abolished the trolleys. The streets were glamorous; the houses beautiful; life happy..."

This sentence seems paradoxical. When the speaker visits Hanoi again, on a rare visit, the street draws the author back; despite the fact the author has no real purpose going to the street. This suggests the profound nostalgic pull of the area, that the street represents the author's past and something beloved that has been lost. Note the fact that such visits to Hanoi are rare for the author, rather than regular. This calling such visits rare suggests a wish for greater frequency of returning to the highways and byways of the past. But the street has changed when the author is not present, and the author has evidently been gone a long time, because a great change has occurred. The change seems positive, as the author describes a shift is to greater beauty, glamour, and happiness. The current residents are happy for such a change, but this change, even a positive change, means that part of the author's past is lost. Hanoi has improved, but its improvement requires a letting-go of the past on the part of the speaker.

3. "Oh, you greedy, wretched monsters!' she would cry to herself. 'I will find a way to punish you. I will never be your rich puppet-wife. I will find a way to have my Mahoseth returned to me. I will find a way to teach you to respect and honor a woman's mind and heart.'" woman's heart cannot be bought with money. If a woman does not have her independence, she cannot be happy. This feminist folktale from Cambodia, of Princess Amaradevi, belies the Western stereotype that all Asian heroines as passive, waiting to be saved, or are submissive to their husbands. The princess fights for her beloved, and is strong-willed enough to vow revenge when she is taken advantage of by men. She is wise in the ways of government, as well as the traditional feminine arts, and outwits the men who would interfere with her life for their own purposes.

4. What is the relationship between World War II, the Cold War, and the formation/development of Southeast Asian Studies as a disciplinary field in the U.S.