The video begins with a black and white wedding photograph from the mid 20th century of an Asian American wedding party with the women in cheongsams and the men in western suits. A male narrator states the importance of the bride. A stain (still in black and white) spreads from bottom of frame rising over the brides face. Color video now shows a tree with a clothesline and a woman hanging a sheet on the line. Asian instrumental music begins. The mother softly describes singing a song to her daughter that her mother sang to her, and then sings the song. A woman folds, tears, or knots a white sheet, intercut with brief flashes of a red stain, while a professional recording of the same children’s rabbit song plays as the lyrics appear in English. Finally the white sheet lies on the table and the red stain appears and spreads across the sheet.

This thesis' focus lies deep within the Filipino immigrant's "home" in the U.S. and offers an investigation of how different Filipino/Filipino-American homes in the texts examined challenge and confront the seeming viability and stability of U.S. boundaries that exclude them. Using postcolonial theory, critical scholarship on the "idea of home" and transnationalism, and guided by the metaphor of the local Philippine custom of the bayanihan, I argue that Filipino-American playwrights, rather than writing homes solely rooted either as a point of origin or relocation, activate the Filipino-American home by rendering the home as open, mobile, and unfixed and constantly enacting the process of home-making. Chapter One focuses on Chris B. Millado's PeregriNasyon, a historical drama that provides an elaboration of how Filipino domestic space was invaded and managed during the earliest stages of U.S. occupation. By looking at how Millado's dramaturgy urges for an oscillating investigation of the two foregrounded homes in his play, I focus on how the domestic space gets activated in order to evince the relationship of the Philippines and the U.S. Chapter Two of my discussion looks at how the central Filipina maternal figure in Ralph Peña's Flipzoids, opens up the Filipino-American home as a provocative site where constitutive racial dimensions of "belonging" in the U.S. for Filipino immigrants may be interrogated. I argue for the rethinking of the Filipino-American home to foreground how home-making for Filipino immigrants involves a constant process of building and rebuilding. In Chapter Two, I then examine Han Ong's play Middle Finger, a differential assessment to Flipzoids. I examine how the play entraps the Filipino-American family and de-activates the home despite its attempts to highlight the systems of social control that negatively affects its young, male Filipino-American characters. The plays discussed in my thesis re-present homes marked by their transit from the Philippines to the United States. These plays stage the challenges in rebuilding new homes caused by the immigrants' uprooting and their struggles encountered as minorities in the U.S. As I argue, not only do these plays paint a picture of home as one that is constantly harrowed by its colonial past, ultimately, they ask what lies ahead for the Filipino-American home. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2010. / March 29, 2010. / Filipino American Theatre, Home Philippines, Ralph Pena, Chris Millado, Han Ong, Filipino American Drama / Includes bibliographical references. / Irma Mayorga, Professor Directing Thesis; Natalya Baldyga, Committee Member; Kris Salata, Committee Member.

This study explores the potential differences in attitudes that Asian American ethnic groups, and men and women within those groups, have toward Affirmative Action policies in the United States. My research question was: How do ethnicity and gender effect Asian American attitudes toward Affirmative Action? Using the Pilot National Asian American Political Survey (PNAAPS), 2000-2001, as well as conducting semi-structured interviews, I found that there are differences in attitudes toward Affirmative Action between Asian ethnic groups. In comparison to Chinese respondents, Vietnamese respondents were consistently more favorable toward Affirmative Action policies than South Asian and Filipino respondents were. Gender was significant in a few regressions, particularly as a control variable — indicating the importance of considering gender when examining Asian American attitudes toward Affirmative Action. In conducting interviews, respondents suggested that Affirmative Action policies be amended to assist people of lower socioeconomic status as well as recent immigrants to the United States. An implication of this study is the importance of disaggregating Asian Americans by ethnic group. The consistent support for Affirmative Action policies by Vietnamese respondents, in comparison to Chinese respondents, supports this need. / Master of Science

Popular culture texts such as films have become increasingly prevalent and powerful in dictating what we believe and know to be true. Throughout history, Asians and Asian Americans have been represented through disempowering portrayals that have evolved into stereotypes perpetuated in films. However, Asians and Asian Americans have worked to reclaim their identities and transform how they are portrayed in movies. Thus, this thesis examines four American films including "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961), "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005), "Minari" (2020), and "Everything Everywhere All at Once" (2022). By conducting a modified critical discourse analysis of how these films portray Asian and Asian American identity, this thesis depicts how disempowerment in films is connected to negative stereotypes and representations, and how empowerment in films can provide prototypes that are more authentic representations of Asian and Asian Americans. / MACOM / This study uses a modified critical discourse analysis to examine the representation and portrayal of Asian and Asian American identity in four popular films, Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961), "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005), "Minari" (2020), and "Everything Everywhere All at Once" (2022). In the past, Asians and Asian Americans have been featured in stereotypical roles to disempower them. However, Asian and Asian American actors, actresses, writers, and filmmakers have joined Hollywood on and off-screen to rewrite their stories, reclaim their identities and portray themselves in holistic and empowering ways. A modified critical discourse analysis is used to look at these four films and how these films portray Asian and Asian American identity. The thesis shows that negative stereotypical roles lead to the disempowerment of Asians and Asian Americans, while authentic representation leads to the empowerment of Asians and Asian Americans further providing prototypes that are more strong, authentic portrayals.

This qualitative study sought to examine the experience of Asian Americans who provide housing and financial support for first-generation biological Asian parents aged 65 and older. Semi-structured interviews regarding how participants came to take care of their parents, the impact it had on close relationships and participants' plans, the impact of cultural background on taking care of their parents, and the positive aspects of caring for their parents were conducted with eight second-generation adult Asians in the U.S. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis and themes were organized around the areas of inquiry. Participants spoke about fulfilling caregiving responsibilities out of love and obligation; the positive and negative impact of caregiving on relationships with parents, siblings, and significant others; the challenges associated with their own decreased independence and the difficulty of seeing parents age; the benefits of the instrumental support that they received from parents and closer grandparent-grandchild relationships; impact on financial and housing plans; and the expectation of non-financial care from their children. Despite living in an individualistic society, participants appeared to endorse values of filial piety by taking care of their parents. Further, the participants' hopes that their children would continue taking care of elderly family members in non-financial ways in the future suggests that while they maintain the cultural value of filial piety, it is being adapted to the reality of living in an individualistic society. Limitations, clinical implications, and directions for future research are discussed. / Master of Science

The current study examined the interrelationships among womanist identity, cultural identity, acculturation, and self-esteem in 74 Asian American women who are currently enrolled in or who have graduated from a college or university in the United States. It was hypothesized that Internalization attitudes, cultural identity, and acculturation would predict self-esteem among Asian American women. It was also hypothesized that cultural identity (Ethnic Identification) and acculturation would be negatively correlated with each other. Results of the simultaneous multiple regression analysis indicated that Internalization attitudes and cultural identity were both significant predictors of self-esteem. Asian American women with higher levels of Internalization attitudes had higher levels of self-esteem, consistent with Ossana, Helms, and Leonard's (1992) study. Asian American women with higher levels of Marginal attitudes had lower levels of self-esteem. Results, however, yielded no significant relationship between acculturation and self-esteem. A correlational analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between cultural identity (Ethnic Identification) and acculturation, confirming Lee's (1988) assertion that acculturation decreases cultural identity. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The present study examined the psychological effects of racism-related stress on Asian Americans (N=866). The purpose of the current study was to investigate a stress and coping model for Asian Americans by considering culturally based coping options. As such, the study sought to understand collectivistic coping as mediating the relationship between racism-related stress and psychological distress for Asian Americans. The stress and coping model, which was tested through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), hypothesized that higher racism-related stress leads to increased use of collectivistic coping strategies, which then decreases psychological distress (depression, anxiety, hostility and defensive paranoia). It was hypothesized that higher racism-related stress would have a positive effect on more collectivistic coping strategies which would then have a negative effect (decrease) on psychological distress. Racial identity status attitudes were also included separately to understand one's experience with racism related stress to provide more information into the within group variability in racism-related stress reactions that exist among Asian Americans. Results from this study indicated that Asian Americans utilize a culturally based coping style to respond to racism-related stress. However, those coping strategies are significantly related to increased psychological distress, which is contrary to the proposed hypothesis. Although not all the hypotheses were supported, the results of the study showed an overall acceptable model fit. The results therefore provide strong evidence to support that psychological distress is experienced as a result of racism-related stress for Asian Americans, despite the use of collectivistic coping strategies.

Tex., Univ. of Texas, Diss.--Austin.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-84).