About the Culture Corner
The Culture Corner is an initiative of the University of Tennessee Libraries’ Belonging and Engagement Committee. The Corner is located on the second floor of Hodges Library in the Dixie Marie Wooten Commons West and displays books and e-book titles from the Libraries’ collection that address a chosen cultural theme.
Asian Art at the McClung Museum
Chinese Earthenware Jar
Chinese amber glazed earthenware ovoid jar, Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). The jar is glazed evenly over its surface, falling to an irregular line just above the foot. The vessel has a tapered neck and flared lip above a baluster-shaped body.
Chinese Earthenware Duck
Chinese Sancai glazed earthenware duck, Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). Predominantly ochre-glazed surface mottled with straw and green splashes, with closed wings on a circular base.
Chinese Ceremonial bowl
Chinese glazed earthenware tripod dish, Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). Circular dish with a concave lip resting upon three short feet. The surface is decorated with striped marbled designs within shaped panels.
Chinese Lidded box
Chinese parcel silver gilt apple form box and cover, Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). Lobed panels with raised gilt foliate and grape designs; the cover has a short stem.
Chinese Frog Water Dropper
Chinese Sancai glazed miniature earthenware frog water dropper, Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE).
Chinese Hand Mirror
Chinese silvered bronze mirror, Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). The mirror is decorated with a design of horses and other animals among grape-laden vines.
The AAPI Perspective
This guide includes resources that explore the cultures and traditions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and offer perspectives on a variety of AAPI topics and issues. "Asian Art at the McClung Museum" highlights various objects in the University of Tennessee's McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture. "AAPI Music" includes music resources from several cultures. Each tab under "Resources" lists books (print and e-books) and media (streaming audio, video, DVDs, CDs). In addition, selected lists of journals, databases, and websites are featured.
Books
The AAPI Perspective: Resources
- Bibliography of Asian StudiesA Western-language bibliography covering all subjects pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia with a focus on humanities and social science. Coverage from 1971 to present.
- Black Studies Center
Resources related to Black Studies, including scholarly journals, essays by top scholars, historic indexes, and historical black newspapers. Coverage from 1900 to current.
- Ethnic Newswatch
Full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press of the United States.
- Humanities International CompleteCitations and selected full-text for key Humanities journals. Excellent for cross-discipline searching.
- Mango Languages
An online language learning resource that covers over 70 languages. Courses are accessible from a web browser or app.
- PBS: Asian American SeriesAsian Americans is a five-hour film series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. As America becomes more diverse, and more divided while facing unimaginable challenges, how do we move forward together? Told through intimate personal stories, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played.
- PBS: Asian American Series -- Lesson PlansPBS presents over thirty lesson plans based on the Asian American series. You'll find this collection to include the stories behind the Chinese Exclusion Act, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, Southeast Asian refugees after the Vietnam War, Filipino American Farmworkers, the fight for civil rights and much more. Teachers may utilize these lesson plans which are drawn from the series to explore the ways that Asian Americans have shaped our nation's history.
- UTK Asian Studies Faculty PublicationsThis library research guide provides links to publications by UTK Asian Studies faculty.
- UTK Asian Studies Research GuideThis library research guide includes curated resources to support the Asian Studies program.
- UTK International Coffeehouses: Asian American Association Research GuideThis library research guide supports the International Coffee House event. The linked page includes library resources about and by Asian Americans.
- UTK International Music Research GuideThis library research guide provides resources focused on international resources. The guide is organized by country.
- Long Story Short Combining a poignant family story with the stigma of racism, this film gives insight into the Asian-American experience, including the trauma of internment. The latest film from Academy Award-nominated director Christine Choy (Who Killed Vincent Chin?) tells the fascinating story of Larry and Trudie Long, a popular husband-and-wife nightclub act of the '40s and '50s. Narrated by their daughter, actress Jodi Long, the film traces the couple's rise from the Chinatown nightclub circuit to a coveted appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Known as "The Leungs," (a more Chinese-sounding name), they performed a mix of tap dancing, witty repartee and "Chinaman" caricatures that both played to and undermined the racist attitudes of the day. Trudie Long, born Kimiye Tsunemitsu, was actually not Chinese but of Japanese descent, which made her the target of discrimination during the war. Because of the limited opportunities for Asian Americans in the Broadway theater, Larry mourned the fact that he lost his role in the original production of Flower Drum Song. Although he went on to perform in the show's traveling company, his career never fully recovered. Redemption of a sort came when daughter Jodi appears on Broadway in a revival of the same musical, re-written by Chinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang.
- More Than a Face in the Crowd: The Fifty-Year Career of Asian-American Actress Jane Chung A filmmaker explores the life of her great-aunt, Jane Chung, an actress who made a career for herself at a time when Asian-Americans faced widespread racism in Hollywood. Working mostly in small parts and as an extra, Jane's fifty-year career reflects many of the struggles and triumphs of the Asian-Americans working in the entertainment industry. Jane had parts in over fifty films and TV shows including Chinatown, When Harry Met Sally, M*A*S*H and I Love Lucy, but much of her work is uncredited. The filmmaker's journey to uncover Jane's many film and TV roles brings together voices from multiple generations of her family, as she seeks out those who remember Jane best. Through the story of Jane Chung's life and career, More Than a Face in the Crowd reveals a larger untold story of Asian-American actors and extras in Hollywood.
- You Don't Know Jack : The Jack Soo Story This film tells the fascinating story of a pioneering American entertainer Jack Soo, an Oakland native who became the first Asian American to be cast in the lead role in a regular television series Valentine's Day (1963), and later starred in the popular comedy show Barney Miller (1975-1978). Featuring rare footage and interviews with Soo's co-stars and friends, including actors George Takei, Nancy Kwan and Max Gail, comedians Steve Landesberg and Gary Austin, and producer Hal Kanter, the film traces Jack's early beginnings as a nightclub singer and comedian, to his breakthrough role as Sammy Fong in Rogers and Hammerstein's Broadway play and film version of The Flower Drum Song. The film also explores why Soo, a former internee who was actually born Goro Suzuki, was forced to change his name in the post WWII era, in order to perform in clubs in the mid-west. Because of his experiences, throughout his career in films and television, Soo refused to play roles that were demeaning to Asian Americans and often spoke out against negative ethnic portrayals. Directed by Jeff Adachi, whose award-winning film "The Slanted Screen" (# 41296) premiered at SFIAAFF in 2006, this film reveals how Jack Soo's work laid the groundwork for a new generation of Asian American actors and comedians.
- The Grace Lee Project Pursuing the moving target of Asian-American female identity, filmmaker Grace Lee, in a clever, highly unscientific investigation visits with Asian American women named "Grace Lee," from a fiery social activist to a rebel who tried to burn down her high school. With wit and charm, the film puts a hilarious spin on the eternal question "What's in a name?"
- Neverperfect How are ideals of beauty influenced by race, history, and geopolitics? With a rich selection of film clips and archival footage, Never Perfect examines the dramatic rise in popularity of cosmetic surgery among Asian-American women.
- Slaying the Dragon Describes racial and gender stereotyping of Asian women in U.S. motion pictures as well as other filmic media, with "Reloaded" updating the original documentary by noting the effects of globalization and a changing population within the past 25 years. Includes interviews with actresses and other Asian American women who describe their experiences of such stereotyping.
- Women In. Making the Leap Author Min Jin Lee is the ultimate career-changer, a corporate lawyer who quit to write full-time. Hear how she made the move, persisted amid rejection and became a best-selling novelist.
- Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest In this hilarious and whip-smart performance, Kristina takes a surprisingly raucous approach to addressing the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American Women -- she tries to single-handedly save them all with her show! She fails fantastically at the task, creating the hysterical laughter that descends into a sobering coda.
