AMST 3180

I took this class as to fulfill one of my College disciplines, and I'm glad I did. Professor Chong is an incredible, funny, and whip-smart lecturer that clearly has a lot of knowledge on the topic, but is able to communicate it in an easily understandable way. I enjoyed the fact that it wasn't just reading textbooks, but also looking at different media forms like films, documentaries, comics, and academic papers. The workload is very manageable as long as you keep up with it: two 200 word response papers a week, one short pre-discussion response, one visual analysis essay, one historical briefing essay, and the final. I would recommend this class to anyone of any year—it's a very valuable introduction to Asian American history.

I took this my first semester at UVa and although it is doable, I initially felt kind of intimidated because the class was filled mostly with upperclassmen that were more knowledgeable and “woke” than me. But honestly, that’s fine because everyone starts somewhere.
Professor Chong is very insightful, and I learned a lot of different perspectives while taking this class. If you have even the slightest interest in Asian-American studies or history in general, I definitely recommend taking this class! Be warned though that there are a lot of films assigned to watch. For example, Chong will assign one 30 min film and one 60 min film on a Monday and then expect you to watch both by Wednesday and write a reflection on it. Honestly, I got by without even watching all the films; Chong grades the reflections not on how well it is written but essentially on completion. There were two papers and I don’t think she graded them that harshly.
Overall, Chong is a chill professor, usually, she is pretty lenient and allows extensions for papers and other make-up assignments and even holds a class party at the end of the semester!

The first mistake I made was taking this class thinking it would be about literature. It wasn't. It was very heavy on films, which was interesting but also made homework annoying since she expected you to go to Clemons each week to watch (very few films were available online). Three papers, progressively longer; take-home final, I don't remember a midterm. Reading response journals that are really easy to do the night before they're due (she collects them three times a semester). Very little reading. Easy to scrape by in this class if you just show up, participate a little. Try to watch at least some of the films before class so you have something to say.

Professor Chong was great at picking readings that really pertained to the lectures. The lectures were very thorough and I learned a lot. This is a great class to take if you want to learn about some Asian American history to tone your essay writing skills.

I felt moments of reverse racism because I was not asian how would I know what they felt. Your right I didn't but how can you get mad at me for the past

This class emphasizes film analysis a lot more than I anticipated. I took it just as another class to fill space and ended up really liking it. You have to watch a lot of films but most of them aren't terrible. Professor Chong has her goods and bads but overall I would definitely recommend it.

GREAT professor. Enthusiastic and passionate. Really cares about helping students understand the material & coming up with a successful paper. Highly recommend the class.