Where Were/Are Asian American Folklorists?

Abstract:The establishment of the American Folklore Society (AFS) and the Journal of American Folklore (JAF) in the 1880s was in the midst of a series of federal laws excluding Chinese people from entering the United States, along with a wave of scientific racism that was also pervasive in American society. While Asian Americans and their folklore were not included in the goals of AFS, there was a voice to consider the Chinese American customs as part of American folklore even in 1890. The fact, however, is that in the first 60 years of JAF, there was no publication by an Asian American folklorist in today’s sense. So, where were and are Asian American folklorists? How do we understand the invisibility, untellability, and absence of Asian American folklorists in American folklore studies? This essay addresses these questions by revisiting some publications in the first decade of JAF and engaging with some current discourse on folkloristic reconstruction.