TAKE-HOME MIDTERM ESSAY

Asian American Studies 325: Spring 2021

DUE DATE: Posted in Canvas by Fri, 3/19/20 @ 8:00PM PT

(Is 8:01PM PT late? Yes.)

One major theme of the first half of this course revolves around EXCLUSION.
Who is excluded? How are they excluded? What are the effects of exclusion? For
your midterm essay, please focus on TWO pieces of media content from the list
of eligible options below and discuss how they address the issue of exclusion.
Be sure to discuss the issues in society that the content discusses respectively,
the politics at play, the creative choices used as part of their artistic responses,
and the similarities and differences between the two works. Analyze these works.

ESSAY REQUIREMENTS
• Standard double-spaced, MLA-formatted research paper
o Please refer to the MLA Handbook regarding formatting, citations, headings
and title, page numbers, etc. (https://style.mla.org/formatting-papers/)
o Essay must have a heading and title
o Essay must include a Works Cited page
• Minimum of 3 fully-written pages, 4 pages maximum (Works Cited page is excluded
from page count total)
• Must quote at least THREE different readings from weeks 1-6 only
• Must reference at least one of the video lectures/conversations from weeks 1-6
only

LIST OF ELIGIBLE MEDIA CONTENT FOR THESIS

Who Killed Vincent Chin?
The Fall of the I-Hotel
KTOWN ‘92 Reporters
Two Lies
Chan Is Missing
Slaying the Dragon
Slaying the Dragon Reloaded
Picturing Oriental Girls: A [Re] Educational Videotape
The Slanted Screen

You can reference other content from weeks 1-6 as support, but it cannot be a main
focus of your essay. The eligible films only should be used as part of your thesis.

There can be some overlap from the content of Blog #1, but this essay must be different
in terms of scope, analysis, and detail.

When referencing a lecture, there is no need to write “Professor Ngo said” Instead, you
can write “In Week #1,” or “In the Searching for Identity lecture”, etc. The lectures don’t
need to be listed on the Works Cited page.

Late midterms will be reduced 10% each day after the assignment due date and
time.