Funie Hsu
Funie Hsu, PhD, works as an assistant professor of American Studies at San Jose State University.
Updated July 2018
Stories from This Author
Advice for Modern America, from When Buddhism Was Seen as a National Threat - Part 2
July 6, 2018 • Funie Hsu , Hondo Lobley
Read Part 1 >> Hondo Lobley: Your work reminds us that at one time in this country being Buddhist was synonymous with being a racial “other” and thus considered by many to be incompatible with being an American citizen and seen by the government as a potential terrorist threat. Why was Buddhism was seen as a threat? Duncan Williams: The best examples come from Hawaii, in the sense that it lies at the far western edge of American territories, that …
Advice for Modern America, from When Buddhism Was Seen as a National Threat - Part 1
July 5, 2018 • Funie Hsu , Hondo Lobley
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Buddhism was considered a threat to America. Hondo Lobley interviews scholar Duncan Williams about what we might want to remember from that time. Introduction by Funie Hsu. * * * * * The history of American Buddhism is a story of immigration. Our understanding of the historical relationship between American Buddhism and immigration is obscured by a history of exclusion, white supremacy, and anti-immigrant sentiment. Today, the aggressive dismantling of protections for …
