Identification Terms

Instructions: On the midterm exam, you will be asked to define FIVE of eight terms, all of them chosen from the list below. For each term, identify where it comes from (the reading, author, and/or lecture topic), explain what it means, and discuss its significance. Each term will be worth five points, for a total of 25 points.

Orientalism
Edward Said
census
map
museum
Darjeeling
Geographical Indication
Fair Trade
Gorkhaland
tripartite moral economy
garden versus plantation
industri versus bisnis
internal orientalism
Miao
Upper Jidao
Ping'an
politics of appearance
studio photography
amateur photography
Uyghur
Rohingya
lawfare
spacio-cide
Foreign Domestic Worker
partial citizenship
"modern-day hero"
imagined (global) community
right of abode
tactics
malu
Batam
"desperate-turned-successful"
recombinant history
Zippo lighters
Cu Chi tunnels
ao dai
triangular system of labor relations
enclave export sector

Study-Guide Essay Questions for the Midterm

The following are study-guide essay questions to guide you in your preparation for the midterm. One of these questions may very well appear on the exam exactly as it is phrased here or in slightly revised form. The essay question will require you to address two authors chosen from two different units of the course. The essay will be worth 75 points.

Note: In the questions below, you need to choose authors from two different units of the course, as indicated below:
Unit 1: Said, Anderson, Strassler (book intro), Besky
Unit 2: Chio, Schein, Strassler (article), MacLean, Thum
Unit 3: Parrenas, Constable, Tizon, Lindquist
Unit 4: Espiritu, Trinh, Schwenkel, Lieu, Hoang
You may discuss additional authors to supplement your substantive discussions of the two main authors.

In thinking through possible answers for these questions in preparation for the midterm, pay particular attention to formulating a clear, interesting, and arguable thesis statement. For more information about thesis statements, see the guidelines for response papers.

1. How has gender been connected to definitions of identity, citizenship, or modernity in different contexts in Asia or outside of Asia? With what consequences for men and women's lives?

2. How are morality and economic activity connected? Why is the notion of moral economy attractive, and how are different visions of moral economy in competition with each other? With what consequences?

3. How has ethnicity been connected to definitions of identity or citizenship in different contexts in Asia or outside of Asia? With what consequences for ethnic relations and personal experiences?

4. Work in so-called modern forms of economic activity, whether in agricultural, industrial, or service sectors, is sometimes described as a path toward individual or national upward mobility. Based on two sources we have read so far, does that seem in fact to be the case? Why or why not, and with what significance?

5. Much of our discussion thus far has focused on the relationship between forms of representation or understandings of the world, individuals' experiences of that world, and broader political, economic, social, or cultural structures. Why and how do representations matter? How can we understand and analyze their effects?