Increasingly, postcolonial scholars are recognising that the discipline must move beyond the mere critique of European imperialism, and that the future lies, in part, in seeking solutions to the conflicts and injustices that remain the persistent legacy of the colonial era. A concurrent trend in literature departments has been the push to incorporate and encourage comparative methodologies. This essay brings into conversation two works of Asian American fiction that address the problematics of transnational encounter in the age of globalisation. In both Ha Jin's "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town" and Lawrence Chua's Gold by the Inch the authors explore familiar postcolonial themes: Western economic and cultural hegemony, cultural imperialism, the legacy of the Euro-American colonial era - yet they do so from a very particular (and increasingly common) perspective that as yet has not been sufficiently addressed by postcolonial scholars. Reading these texts through the lens of Roger Célestin's theorisation of the limits of traditional literary exoticism in From Cannibals to Radicals, this essay calls for a re-evaluation, not merely of our understanding of literary exoticism, nor merely of our understanding of the transpacific as a political imaginary, but also of our long-held conceptions of national literature and comparative scholarship.

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Following the development of Asian American representation in the United States media in the 21st century, this thesis aims to explore the alternative narratives provided by the AsianBossGirl podcast which started in 2017 to fill the gap in the mainstream media. Intersectional framework has been operationalized to conduct an in-depth reading of their narratives, and complemented by the theory of uses and gratification to investigate the impacts that they have on their audiences. The results demonstrate that their narratives of Asian American experience deviate from both cultural and stereotypical traditions. They contest the norms through relatable, subversive and authentic content that resonate with their listeners. However, through the intersectional lens, this thesis is able to identify the danger of neglecting multidimensionality in the Asian American communities which encompass a diverse history of immigration in the United States.

INTRODUCTION: To address a lack of population-level studies that examine the association between ambulatory care utilization and cardiovascular outcomes among Asian Americans, this study examined 1) ambulatory care utilization among different racial/ethnic groups and 2) the association between ambulatory care utilization and cardiovascular outcomes. METHOD: This was a retrospective analysis of 2009–2012 Medicare fee-for-service data. Primary outcomes were 1) hospitalization for angina, an ambulatory care sensitive condition, and 2) inpatient AMI mortality. Intermediate outcomes of interest were ambulatory care utilization. First, a descriptive analysis of patients’ predisposing and enabling factors was performed, and then bivariate association between these predisposing and enabling factors and ambulatory care utilization was examined. Lastly, using multivariate logistic regression models I estimated the association between ambulatory care utilization and cardiovascular outcomes, adjusting for socio-demographic and geographical characteristics. RESULTS: There were 999,999 people in the analytic sample, drawn from 21.6 million Medicare fee-for-service enrollees. In 2009, there were significant differences in racial/ethnic ambulatory care utilization. Significantly lower percentage of Asians had frequent ambulatory care visits (>30 visits) and outpatient cardiology clinic visits (>30 visits) (both p-values<0.01), after adjusting for predisposing and enabling factors. Asians had the highest observed inpatient mortality (15.9%) and low ambulatory utilization was associated with increased odds (OR=1.85 [1.11–3.08]) of inpatient AMI mortality. CONCLUSION: Among Medicare fee-for-service enrollees, Asians had fewer ambulatory clinic visits. Low ambulatory care utilization was associated with increased odds of AMI mortality. Further research is needed to understand the causal relationship between ambulatory care utilization and cardiovascular outcomes. / 2018-11-08T00:00:00Z

With increased life expectancy, more individuals will need to rely on caregivers and/or caregiving services. Filipino Americans are reluctant to depend on outside help when it comes to caring for their family members. There was a gap in the literature concerning the specific impact of the caregiving role on Filipino Americans and how cultural values affect the care provided to their family members. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain understanding of how Filipino cultural values and life roles affected Filipino Americans' experiences of caregiving. The conceptual framework included the sociocultural stress and coping model. The central research question for the study was used to explore the personal impact of caregiving for Filipino Americans and the sociocultural factors affecting this role. A phenomenological research design guided the data collection and analysis process. Individual, semistructured interviews were conducted with 8 participants, recruited from several Catholic Church groups and Filipino community groups located in the Southwestern region of Houston, Texas. Data were analyzed using Moustakas' steps for phenomenological data analysis and 7 themes were identified: responsibility of caregiving, impact of caregiving on employment status, impact and importance of religion to caregivers, impact of Filipino heritage on caregivers, impact of care recipient's illness on the caregiver and recipient, resources for caregivers, and reflections on the caregiver experience. Filipino Americans are unique in their practices to provide care for their family members rather than relying on outside providers and institutions. This study may result in positive social change by understanding how societal supports can encourage a model of care based on cultural and familial values rather than outside institutional care.

Ethnic minorities often experience microaggressions that cause psychological distress and increase health risks. Bystander interventions are good ways to intervene when microaggressions take place and provide emotional support for ethnic minority targets. White interveners and interventions that pose low threats to White aggressors are perceived more positively than ethnic minority interveners and interventions that are more confrontational and direct. Furthermore, a support-based intervention that validates White aggressors’ good intention and effort without judgement may help White aggressors feel less defensive and more receptive to the intervention. Asian Americans face unique microaggressive themes and their racial experiences are influenced by the stereotype that they are model minorities. Asian Americans may prefer the supportive interventions because they are congruent with Asian cultural values such as relational harmony. The current set of studies assessed the effect of different intervention formats (high threat, low threat, support based) and race of interveners (Asian vs. White) on Asian American targets and White witnesses’ emotional change, perceptions of the intervention, and willingness for future interracial interactions. Among three intervention formats, Asian American targets perceived the intervener and aggressor least negatively in the support intervention. Asian American targets perceived the intervener least positively, whereas White witnesses perceived intervener most negatively in the high-threat intervention. White witnesses perceived the intervener more positively and had more interests in making friends with them when they are White than Asian in high-threat and supportive interventions. White witnesses’ favorable perceptions of aggressor were only influenced by a high degree of racial colorblindness. Overall, the support approach seems to be the most socially appropriate and accepting bystander intervention strategy to intervene in microaggressions targeted at Asian Americans. The high-threat approach is likely to damage interveners’ social image, especially when the intervener is Asian.

This is a collection of short stories that traces a chronological movement through one family's experience of the mother's illness. Each piece in the collection is meant to be an independent, free-standing short story. Each story is different, told from distinctive points-of-view, angles, and voices. However, every story covers a span of time within the nine months of the family's experience, in the presented order, as part of a collective movement toward the core. All together, the pieces hope to reflect a mosaic of sorts--one that tells a story that cannot otherwise be told.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Asian women have a lower risk than Caucasians, African Americans, and Latinas of developing breast cancer (BC). Yet, once Asians move to the U.S. their risk rates measurably increase. The Susan G. Komen® Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center (KTB), the only biobank of its kind in the world, collects healthy breast tissue from women of all racial groups to use as controls in BC research. The KTB represents a critical tool in efforts to treat and prevent BC; however, Asian American (AA) women display marked reticence towards donating tissue to the KTB. The purpose of this study is to use the basic components of Grounded Practical Theory to explore potential messaging that may result in AAs’ more positive outlook on breast tissue donation. This study recruited seventeen (N=17) AA women to share their perspectives on donating breast tissue for research purposes. Participants took part in an interactive focus group exploring potential messaging for successfully recruiting AA women to the KTB study. Findings revealed that: a) participants retained a culturally-embedded discomfort with donating, and a general distrust that their donation would be handled ethically and appropriately; b) the women possessed an extraordinary need for knowledge about all facets of the donation process; c) participants perceived that they lack a personal connection to BC, making it difficult for them to generate any truly altruistic tendencies to perform the desired behavior, or to understand a need to do so; and d) they possess a strong desire to learn why it seems important to the KTB to collect their tissue, and especially about the increased BC rates and risk for Asians who move to or are born in the U.S. The findings from this study have important implications for others who work in applied clinical settings and are interested in addressing racial disparities in medical research through more effective and targeted recruitment messaging.

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