Introduction to Asian Pacific American Studies

Spring 2020
Midterm Examination
March 5, 2020
1-2:30 PM, Seaver 207
Prompt: Using World Systems Theory, write a well-organized essay in which you compare the
experiences of two of the six major Asian Pacific American groups (prior to 1965): Chinese Americans,
Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, South Asian Americans, Filipino Americans, and/or Native
Hawaiians. (NOTE: you may not compare Japanese Americans and Korean Americans.)
In the essay, you should (ONE) briefly define World Systems Theory and its significance; (TWO) briefly
compare the two groups in terms of their demographics (i.e., who were they predominantly in terms of
gender, class, occupational background, regional background, etc.); and (THREE) explain how
imperialism and capitalism provided the contexts for their migrations (or, per Native Hawaiians, contact
with Euro-American settlers) and affected their labor, reception, and exclusion from and within the U.S.
and Hawai’i. In the essay, you should integrate, explain, and relate at least ten of the following terms to
their experiences:
World Systems Theory
Capitalism
Colonialism
Imperialism
Manifest Destiny
Sojourners
Benevolent assimilation
The “Yellow Peril”/ “Dusky Peril”
Treaty of Nanking (1842)
Extraterritoriality
Opium Wars (1839-1842; 1856-1860)
Taiping Rebellion (ca. 1850-1864)
Punti-Hakka Clan Wars (ca. 1855-1867)
Chain migration
Immigration Act of 1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone Act)
“Coolie” labor
Credit-ticket system
Central Pacific Company
Working Men’s Party of California
The Page Act (1875)
The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Contract labor
East India Trade Company Rule
The Scott Act (1888)
Government of India Act (1858)
Ghadar Party
Colonialism
The Geary Act (1892)
Seclusion Era (Japan)
Perry Expedition (1853)
Convention of Kanagawa (1854)
Bellingham Riots (1907)
“Continuous Journey” Order (Canada, 1908)
Public charge
Meiji Restoration
Conscription
Picture Brides
Japan-Korea Treaty (1876)
Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
Asiatic Exclusion League
Gum Sam
Executive Order 589 (1907)
Ali’i nui
Gentlemen’s Agreement (1907-8)
Alien Land Law(s) (California, 1913)
Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act)
Issei
Nisei
Haole
Maka’ainana
The Great Mahele (1848)
Filipino Repatriation Act (1935)
The Committee of Thirteen (1887)
Settler colonialism
Militarism
Captain James Cook
Queen Lili’uokalani
White Man’s Burden
“Little brown brothers”
Sakados
Alaskeros
Watsonville Riots (1929)
Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934)
Homosocial community
Imperial Valley
Plantation hierarchy (Hawai’i)
‘Aina
Ahupua’a