Friday, January 8, 2010: 3:10 PM
Gregory A (Hyatt)
DUELING EXCEPTIONALISMS: HONG KONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND US HISTORY
Staci Ford
In this paper, I draw on fifteen years of Hong Kong University student responses
to their study of United States history and American studies. The paper engages how notions of "the national" and "national exceptionalisms" (American,
Chinese, and British) have circulated and continue to circulate in the
increasingly globalized space of Hong Kong (via historical experience, local
and national/global political rhetoric, civil society, and popular culture).
As students in Hong Kong study United States history, they engage in lively conversations with each other - and in their written reflections – and make connections between various national and transnational histories. Although we make a concerted effort to problematize generalizations about peoples, nations, and historical periods,
students continue to hold fast to their own imagined communities and their
deeply-rooted beliefs of nation and national identity. American concepts of race or individualism, for example, might provoke a Hong Kong student to “unpack” notions of Chinese exceptionalism.
In recent years, increasing numbers of Chinese Mainland and North American exchange students have diversified the Hong Kong University classroom and the conversations have become even more rich and complex. This paper seeks to highlight the ways students respond to the enterprise of considering the national, the
post-national, and the global in the United States history classroom.
Staci Ford
In this paper, I draw on fifteen years of Hong Kong University student responses
to their study of United States history and American studies. The paper engages how notions of "the national" and "national exceptionalisms" (American,
Chinese, and British) have circulated and continue to circulate in the
increasingly globalized space of Hong Kong (via historical experience, local
and national/global political rhetoric, civil society, and popular culture).
As students in Hong Kong study United States history, they engage in lively conversations with each other - and in their written reflections – and make connections between various national and transnational histories. Although we make a concerted effort to problematize generalizations about peoples, nations, and historical periods,
students continue to hold fast to their own imagined communities and their
deeply-rooted beliefs of nation and national identity. American concepts of race or individualism, for example, might provoke a Hong Kong student to “unpack” notions of Chinese exceptionalism.
In recent years, increasing numbers of Chinese Mainland and North American exchange students have diversified the Hong Kong University classroom and the conversations have become even more rich and complex. This paper seeks to highlight the ways students respond to the enterprise of considering the national, the
post-national, and the global in the United States history classroom.
See more of: American History through East Asian Lenses: Anti-Americanism, Exceptionalisms, and Abraham Lincoln
See more of: AHA Sessions
See more of: AHA Sessions
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