From Netflix Show like Squid Game to celebrity athletes like Jeremy Lin and Naomi Osaka, Asians and Asian Americans in popular culture have offered a microcosm of American society where we can explore how a particular identity/ideology is constructed and explained in the cultural domain. This course invites students to introduce the field of cultural studies, particularly focusing on Asian American cultural studies, further examining complex, conjunctive, and multi-faceted Asian American in U.S. popular culture. This course will offer interdisciplinary approaches in order for a better understanding of intersectional meanings of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and nationalism in the context of U.S. popular culture.

The objective of the course is to familiarize students with (1) a history of Asian American representation in U.S. popular culture; (2) how to read and decode cultures as critical texts, which continuously racialize and otherize Asians and Asian Americans through cultural texts (e.g., film, music, and/or sport). This course consists of at least three parts: (1) lecture, (2) discussion, and (3) presentation. Students are expected to focus on synthesizing reading materials, critical thinking, cultural critique, and both oral and written expression of their ideas (or arguments) throughout the semester. It is also critical to actively engage in discussion and voice their ideas in class or during office hours.