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This study examines Asian American identity construction in drama exercised by Asian American theatre companies on the mainland from the 1970s to the present. I use the term “wave” for the classification of the plays to illuminate artistic movements. The plays are classified into four waves: the first wave in the 1970s, the second wave in the 1980s, the third wave in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the fourth wave since the 2000s. The characters’ self-identification in these plays varies over time in response to historical, socio-political, economic, and cultural circumstances. Through chronological exploration, this dissertation articulates that Asian American self-identification and representation have developed from a rigid identity pursuing a single, coherent identity to a fluid identity beyond the binary frame by embracing other contingent and salient factors of identity. In addition, my dissertation illuminates that more dramatists use non-realist styles, especially in the third and the fourth waves, to reflect the American perception of anti-Asian racism and Asian American internalized racism. The illustration of Asian American dynamics that strive to form and evolve their identities challenges racial discourses and myths, opposing stereotypes.

In the United States, Chinese American students participate in public school string orchestras at a disproportionately high rate. With considerable changes in both mass media and social media landscape throughout their upbringing, as well as the rapid rise of anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic as they were becoming adults, the Chinese American music students in this study possessed unique sets of experiences that affect both their musical and cultural identities. The purpose of this narrative inquiry is to consider the influences of transnational contexts, the processes of Asianization, and Chinese parenting on musical identity and racial identity formation of seven Chinese American former middle school (grades 6 through grade 8) string orchestra students. My stories as an ethnically Chinese immigrant who studied and teach music in the United States are incorporated throughout, to provide perspectives and enrich my understanding of the seven participants’ narratives. I interwove the stories of seven young adult Chinese Americans and my own stories (warp threads) with the social and historical forces at play (weft threads) to create a narrative tapestry. All participants in this study reported being aware of the various Asian stereotypes since elementary school. This awareness had affected their decisions to start or stop playing their string instruments. Being in the string orchestra or playing string instruments and the self-perception of being Asian or Chinese are two factors that often influence one another. The Asianization stereotypes, transnational contexts, and Chinese parenting affected the participants’ sense of identity as Chinese Americans; in turn, the struggle to understand themselves racially affected their musical, social, and emotional lives. / 2024-06-22T00:00:00Z

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This thesis explores the intersections of war, motherhood, and language in the poetry of Aria Aber and Solmaz Sharif, focusing in particular on their debut poetry collections, Hard Damage and LOOK respectively, and the “America” poems by both poets, published online. Chapter One explores the differing portrayals of motherhood in Aber’s poems and Sharif’s poems, focusing particularly on Aber’s specificity in the image of the mother, focused on the speaker’s mother, and Sharif’s wider view of the mother. Chapter Two explores how each of them portray war through the similar formal structure—a list poem followed by a long documentary poem focused on the personal—in order to understand the lasting impacts of war. Chapter Three focuses on their “America” poems and how both poets understand belonging, and how they eventually find an impossible home in language.