The stranger that is welcomed: female foreign students from Asia, the English language industry, and the ambivalence of ‘Asia rising’ in British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

In 2002, attacks on six Asian women and girls temporarily living in the Greater Vancouver Area, Canada to study the English language garnered significant attention. Beginning with the attempted murder of Korean national Ji-Won Park, and ending with the murder of Chinese national Wei Amanda Zhao, the attacks on Asian females sparked a national debate about the vulnerability of foreign language students of Asian origin, and Canada's responsibility to protect them. Drawing on mainstream media accounts, this article examines how the intersection of race, gender and class produced the event as a story of national interest and as one of the province of British Columbia's most significant events of 2002. Highlighting the shifting positioning of Asian difference in contemporary western space, this research contributes to recent theorizing on how Asianness in the west no longer primarily signifies backward, underdeveloped nations and peoples best kept in their place, in another space. I argue that western discourse on Asian difference is defined by ambivalence. While the economics of the English language industry and the geopolitics of ‘Asia rising’ led to a heightened interest in these acts of violence, gender and processes of feminization simultaneously reduced concern over what is arguably an anxiety producing event in the west: Asia's economic ascendancy and the west's positioning in the ‘Asia Pacific century’.

En 2002, los ataques contra seis mujeres y chicas asiáticas viviendo temporalmente en el Gran Vancouver, Canadá, para estudiar el idioma inglés recibieron una atención considerable. Comenzando con el intento de asesinato de una nacional de Corea, Ji-Won Park, y finalizando con el asesinato de una nacional de China, Wei Amanda Zhao, los ataques sobre mujeres asiáticas dispararon un debate nacional sobre la vulnerabilidad de los y las estudiantes de origen asiático que vienen a aprender idiomas, y la responsabilidad de Canadá de protegerlos/as. Basándose en los relatos de los medios masivos de comunicación, este artículo analiza cómo la intersección de raza, género y clase produjo al evento como una historia de interés nacional y uno de los hechos más significativos del año 2002 para la provincia de British Columbia. Remarcando el cambiante posicionamiento de la diferencia asiática en el espacio occidental contemporáneo, esta investigación contribuye a la teorización reciente sobre cómo la ‘Asiedad’ en el oeste ya no significa principalmente naciones atrasadas y subdesarrolladas y gente que es mejor mantener en su lugar, en otro espacio. Sostengo que el discurso occidental sobre la diferencia asiática está definido por la ambivalencia. Mientras la economía de la industria del idioma inglés y la geopolítica del ‘amanecer asiático’ aumentaron el interés en estos actos de violencia, simultáneamente el género y los procesos de feminización redujeron la preocupación sobre lo que podría verse como un evento que genera ansiedad en el oeste: el ascenso económico de Asia y el posicionamiento del oeste en el ‘siglo del Asia del Pacífico’.

Keywords:

• gendered Orientalism
• violence against women
• globalization and migration
• English language industry
• Asian women

Keywords:

• Orientalismo generizado
• violencia contra las mujeres
• discurso de amanecer de Asia
• industria del idioma inglés
• mujeres asiáticas

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank June Larkin, Troy Wallace, Sandra Song, Yolande Mennie, Alissa Trotz, Kiran Mirchandani and Ping Chun-Hsiung for their comments on previous versions of this article. In particular I am grateful to Brenda Yeoh and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful critiques. This research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship.

Notes

1. In Canada this includes three separate cases in Toronto (Oberman 2000; Alcoba 2001; Lin 2004), and one in Calgary (City of Calgary 2001). In the United States, this includes cases in San Jose (Stannard 2002), Chicago (Coen 2004), New York City (New York Times 2001), Spokane, Washington (Wiley 2001), Princeton University (Sethi 2005), and Seattle (Gutierrez 2008).

2. Prior to the 1980s, international students in Canada primarily came from the United States and Britain. Gradually Asian students began to predominate. In 2002, the top five source countries for international students to Canada were South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and France. This increase of students from Asia is consistent with the trend in other western countries such as Australia, Britain and New Zealand (Holroyd 2006, 2).

3. This statement is made upon surveying police service websites at the time of writing for Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal and Halifax.