Desi Land: Teen Culture, Class, and Success in Silicon ValleyDesi Land is Shalini Shankar’s lively ethnographic account of South Asian American teen culture during the Silicon Valley dot-com boom. Shankar focuses on how South Asian Americans, or “Desis,” define and manage what it means to be successful in a place brimming with the promise of technology. Between 1999 and 2001 Shankar spent many months “kickin’ it” with Desi teenagers at three Silicon Valley high schools, and she has since followed their lives and stories. The diverse high-school students who populate Desi Land are Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs, from South Asia and other locations; they include first- to fourth-generation immigrants whose parents’ careers vary from assembly-line workers to engineers and CEOs. By analyzing how Desi teens’ conceptions and realizations of success are influenced by community values, cultural practices, language use, and material culture, she offers a nuanced portrait of diasporic formations in a transforming urban region. Whether discussing instant messaging or arranged marriages, Desi bling or the pressures of the model minority myth, Shankar foregrounds the teens’ voices, perspectives, and stories. She investigates how Desi teens interact with dialogue and songs from Bollywood films as well as how they use their heritage language in ways that inform local meanings of ethnicity while they also connect to a broader South Asian diasporic consciousness. She analyzes how teens negotiate rules about dating and reconcile them with their longer-term desire to become adult members of their communities. In Desi Land Shankar not only shows how Desi teens of different socioeconomic backgrounds are differently able to succeed in Silicon Valley schools and economies but also how such variance affects meanings of race, class, and community for South Asian Americans. |
From inside the book
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... Appendix 3 : Parent and Relative Interview .. 220 Appendix 4 : Student Survey 223 Notes 225 Glossary of Hindi and Punjabi Terms 237 Bibliography 239 Index . 263 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In 1998 , when I first landed Contents.
... June E. Esserman Dean's Dissertation Fellowship , and a Binghamton University Dean's Semester . Thanks also to the American Institute of In- dian Studies for funding a Hindi Intensive Summer Program in viii Preface and Acknowledgments.
... Hindi Intensive Summer Program in Udaipur , India , and to SSRC for a Predissertation Workshop Fellowship . In its initial stages , this research was influenced by my work at Education De- velopment Center / Center for Children and ...
... Hindi and Punjabi terms in text as well as in a glossary . Pluralization in Hindi , Urdu , and other languages follows common teen usage rather than standard rules of Hindi / Urdu grammar . For example , the plural of " bindi " is noted ...
... Hindi word for " countryman , " is simply the newest in a long line of names used to refer to South Asians living outside the Indian Subcontinent . Upon closer examination , however , Desi marks the inception of a particular type of ...
Contents
1 | |
1 California Here We Come Right Back Where We Started From | 25 |
2 Defining Desi Teen Culture | 53 |
3 Living and Desiring the Desi Bling Life | 80 |
4 Desi Fashions of Speaking | 100 |
5 Being FOBulous on Multicultural Day | 119 |
6 Remodeling the Model Minority Stereotype | 142 |
7 Dating on the DL and Arranged Marriages | 167 |
Postscript | 211 |
Student Interview | 213 |
Faculty Interview | 218 |
Parent and Relative Interview | 220 |
Student Survey | 223 |
Notes | 225 |
Glossary of Hindi and Punjabi Terms | 237 |
Bibliography | 239 |
8 In the New Millennium | 193 |
Index | 263 |
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Desi Land: Teen Culture, Class, and Success in Silicon Valley Shalini Shankar No preview available - 2008 |