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This essay offers an alternative to the dominant thematic reading of David Henry Hwang's employment of racial stereotypes in FOB and Bondage, arguing that his creation of one imagined performance space laid on top of another within a single theater venue disrupts linear racial discourses by inducing the audience to inhabit multilayered spaces simultaneously. It uncovers how physical settings, including the theater, the back room of a Chinese restaurant, the S&M parlor, and performance spaces, work together to set up a color-blind communitas where the logic of inclusion/exclusion is disrupted and an alternate vision of subject formation is embraced. KEYWORDS: David Henry Hwang, FOB, Bondage, Asian American identity, performance of race, heterotopia, communitas, David Henry Hwang (1957-), one of the most prominent figures in Asian American theater, started his playwriting career with the successful premiere of FOB at the Public Theater in New […]

Part of the harm of the model-minority myth Asian Americans face in the United States is that they are often not understood as being interesting, says Dr. David Oh, an [...]

In her memoir, stand-up comedienne Margaret Cho writes that her parents had to deal with immigration difficulties in San Francisco of the 1960s, portraying them in that era of their [...]

Picture this: a white man, presumably American, in military uniform, presumably a soldier, is stranded behind enemy lines. He is aided by an Asian woman whose job, unbeknownst to him, [...]

The Asian is no stranger to science, or for that matter, science fiction. Jack London's 1906 short story 'The Unparalleled Invasion,' set in 1976, chronicles the emergence of China as [...]

The changing contours of Asian-American historiography are traced by dividing the literature into five periods beginning from the 1850s to the present. After identifying the salient characteristics of the first four periods, more than a hundred major books published since 1990s are discussed and categorized.

The 1997 documentary film 'Miss India Georgia' follows 4 of the contestants in a regional beauty contest in Atlanta, GA as they attempt to reach the Miss India USA and Miss India Worldwide contests. The nature of Indian citizenship portrayed in this film challenges images of ideal Indians and Americans.

Much has been written of the cultural alternatives of continuity, rapture, or invention in recent years. It has become a pervasive thread that runs not only throughout the cultural production [...]

The effect of popular media representations and Asian American depictions of Vietnam on the new generation of filmmakers and visual artists, such as Thi Thanh Nga (Tiana) and 'From Hollywood to Hanoi', is discussed. Tiana relates her growing up experiences as a Vietnamese American in her attempt to make a realistic view of pre-war Vietnam based on familial stories and stereotypic images based on various US film materials on the Vietnam war.

Victoria Jones' character in the film Bhowani Junction which was set in Punjab, India just before UK's withdrawal from India is related to the Asian American struggle for racial and cultural identity. Jones is a half-Indian and half-English woman who tries to discard her white heritage by embracing her ethnic Indian heritage. However, she changed her mind when she realized that she cannot escape from her multicultural identity. She represents Asian Americans in the US and their collective rejection of submitting to only one nation and their struggle to establish a multicultural identity in the US.

The American mass media has portrayed the Asian male immigrants as effeminate and devoid of the typical American maleness. The film 'The Ballad of Little Jo,' produced in 1993, shows the Chinese Tinman as a submissive man who does the housework. The low-waged Chinese workers were forbidden from working outdoors as they posed a threat to white workers. Miscegenation was not permitted between an Asian male and a white female. The American society and media continues with the feminized projection of the Asian male.

More than half of 24 fictional works for children between 11 and 17 years that depicted Asian-American characters portrayed them as minority models. Other biases against Asian-Americans included describing them as enigmatic orientals and referring to them in an insulting manner.

Asian Americans have evolved several cultural strategies to combat the dominant racial discourse and racial stereotypes promoted by the 'model minority' strategy. Depicting Asian-Americans as the model minority worthy of emulation by American society increases racial divisiveness and conflict, and is an attempt proclaim the racial superiority of the whites over the minorities. Sociological statistics, cultural attitudes and the history of the Asian Americans have been distorted to create and promote the model minority concept.

Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) 3/15 remarks that cong. Dems are 'all liquored up on sake' and 'making a suicide run' at health care 'didn't sit too well' with Rep. Mike [...]

When God tells Lot to flee Soddam and Gomorrah, he cautions him not to look back. Lot's wife cannot resist the temptation and, as they rush from the great fire [...]

Some versions of multicultural studies have fostered the assumption that Asian American fiction offers unmediated access to the ethnic experience and 'authentic' Asian American identity, without attention to the ways [...]

Frank Chin's Donald Duk is a spirited novel of education whose comic protagonist makes a welcome addition to the roster of American literary boy heroes. The novel entertains readers with [...]

According to the teachings of the Buddha, there is an eightfold path that leads to Enlightenment. This course--calling for the cultivation of right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, [...]

fra-cas ('fra-kes) n a noisy, disorderly fight or quarrel; a brawl THE WHITE GUY HAD NO IDEA HE WAS about to do filmmaker Justin Lin a huge favor. After watching […]

An assistant professor of history and American culture at the University of Michigan, proposes two main goals for analysis of patterned forms of anti-Asian violence.