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Identities on Trial in the United States radically shifts the asylum seeker narrative by focusing on rarely heard stories of persecution and escape from China and southeast Asia. ChorSwang Ngin, with contributions from immigration attorney, Joann Yeh, explores asylum seeker cases through an anthropological and legal lens.
List of contents
Part I: Persecution on Account of Race and Nationality
Chapter 1: I Don't Need your Bones to Know your Race
Chapter 2: How Much Chinese Should a Chinese be?
Chapter 3: Racialization and Persecution
Chapter 4: A Student Protester from a Myanmar Prison
Part II: Persecution on Account of Religion
Chapter 5: A Buddhist Monk, a Catholic Woman, a Christian Pastor
Chapter 6: Did Jesus Walk Through a Field of Wheat or A Field of Grass? (Co-authored with Joann Yeh)
Chapter 7: An Apostate from Indonesia: A Convert from Islam to Catholicism
Part III: Persecution on Account of Membership of a Particular Group
Chapter 8: Ethnographic Details as Evidence on Rape and Pregnancy
Chapter 9: Without Evidence and Without Witness
Chapter 10: Dowry Dispute: A Case for the Law Firm of Seyfarth Shaw
Part IV: Persecution on Account of Political Opinion
Chapter 11: A Filial Daughter's Love of Falun Gong Exercises
Chapter 12: Her Forced Abortion was a Frivolous Claim
Chapter 13: Double Tragedy: Mr. Song's Humiliation or Embarrassment?
Part V: Law and Anthropology
Chapter 14: Article I Courts in a World of Uncertainties (Co-authored with Joann Yeh)
Chapter 15: An Anthropologist in the Courtroom (Co-authored with Joann Yeh)
About the author
ChorSwang Ngin is professor of anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles.
