Asian American Studies Commons^™

Meeting The Lumpia Filipino: Self-Orientalism In Filipino America, Jamelah Jacob

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to the persisting legacies of U.S. colonization, the Filipino American identity is shaped not only by migration but forces of neocolonialism that is felt generationally. Asian American scholarship largely conceptualizes the Filipino American identity as merely reactive to historical factors, however the colonial project continues to influence and define the agency of Filipino Americans and affects the way they present their culture in transnational spaces. Therefore, I suggest that Filipino Americans engage in self-orientalization by presenting their cultures in a commodified manner. To analyze this, I turn to Filipino student organizations to look at the ways Filipino Americans have …