ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the flow of people, goods, and money in the transpacific, from East Asia to the US, through an analysis of the narratives and work of two immigrant artists, Yoko Inoue from Japan and Jean Shin from the Republic of Korea, by employing the concepts of both major- and minor-transnationalism. The concept of minor transnationalism highlights the horizontal relationship between transmigrants and/or between minoritized peoples. America is a space of encounter and negotiation among people with a long history of transatlantic migration on the one hand and people with a much shorter history of transpacific migration, including Koreans, on the other. It is undeniable that one source of friction between these groups is the relative lengths of time they have spent facing American racial discrimination and prejudice. Shin's artwork is created through the cooperative relationship between artist and collaborator that Howard Becker highlights as the social organization of art.
