Research
The China Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong Chiang and the Transformation of American Orientalism
The China Mystique explores the gendering of American orientalism
as experienced and ultimately embodied by Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, and Mayling Soong Chiang, during the
1930s and 40s. As celebrities, each of whom was popularly and publicly
associated with China, each woman negotiated what it meant to be Chinese
American as defined by gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, against the
backdrop of the United
States' shifting
international relations with China and the world, changing expectations for women, and
the continued development of a consumer culture. Each woman identified with both China and the United States, and each woman encountered the possibilities as well
as limitations of transnational status in attempting to shape her own
opportunities. The specific
circumstances of Buck, Wong, and Chiang provide insight into the ways in which
the United States, engaging notions of whiteness, orientalism,
and democracy, articulated its national identity through diplomacy and popular
culture. The interdisciplinary approach of this book will be of interest to
scholars of Asian American studies, Women's Studies, U.S. social and cultural history, international relations,
and whiteness studies, and Asian Studies.
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Press web page.
Asian/Pacific American Masculinities and Film
This
book project addresses the ways in which Asian/Pacific American masculinities
have been articulated, shaped, and contested within the context of geopolitical
relations between the United States and Asian and race
relations within the United States. This book project will
contribute significantly to existing scholarship about filmic representations
of racial/ethnic difference and Asian/Pacific American masculinities by
focusing not only on the political economy and geopolitical context of racial
representations but on the actual economic factors of cultural production in
relation to the socioeconomic mobility and civic inclusion of the racialized Asian/Pacific American male throughout 20th
century United States History.
Collaborative
Projects
Japanese
Americans in Arizona Oral History Project
Asian American History Collective