1st Edition

Asian American Feminisms

Edited By Leslie Bow
    1440 Pages
    by Routledge

    Co-published by Routledge and Edition Synapse

    Especially since the postwar women’s and civil rights movements, there has been an explosion of interest in race and gender in the United States. Writing by and about Asian American women has kept pace with the emergence of serious scholarship concerned with the nuances of gender and culture, and as research in and around the area flourishes as never before, this new four-volume collection from Routledge and Edition Synapse meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of literature.

    Asian American Feminisms brings together the very best foundational and cutting-edge writing and scholarship on Asian women in the United States. The first volume collects historical and contemporary memoirs, essays, fiction, and stories that reveal the diversity of Asian American women’s experience. The creative and testimonial narratives gathered here engage with themes such as freedom, labour, domesticity, sexuality, self-actualization, liberalism, nationalism, family, language, and coalition. The following three volumes, meanwhile, place the very best research from history, literature, law, sociology, popular culture, psychology, new media, and visual culture into interdisciplinary dialogue.

    Asian American Feminisms counters the popular misconstruction of Asian women as pre-feminist subjects who lack critical gender and race consciousness. At the same time, understanding the ways in which women remain vulnerable to state institutions and to cultural representations becomes increasingly urgent in a globalized world; and this collection bridges the divide between women-of-colour feminism in the United States and the transnational analysis of women in Asia and the Asian diaspora.

    Edited by Leslie Bow, a leading scholar in the field, Asian American Feminisms is a vital resource for researchers and students seeking an introduction to Asian American feminist thought. It will also be welcomed by established scholars and activists invested in women’s issues and gender analysis in the United States, the Pacific Rim, and beyond.

    CONTENTS

    VOLUME I: DOCUMENTING ASIAN AMERICAN FEMINISMS

    Part 1: Testimony

    1. Irene Fujitomi and Diane Wong, ‘The New Asian-American Woman’, in Female Psychology: The Emerging Self, ed. Sue Cox (Chicago Science Research Associates, 1976), pp. 236–48.

    2. Katheryn M. Fong, ‘Feminism is Fine, But What’s it Done for Asia America?’, Bridge: An Asian American Perspective, Winter 1978, 21–2.

    3. Mitsuye Yamada, ‘Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American Woman’, in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, eds. Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua [1979] (Kitchen Table, 1981), pp. 35–40.

    4. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, ‘Beyond Manzanar: A Personal View of Asian American Womanhood’, in Asian Americans: Social and Psychological Perspectives, Vol. 2, eds. Russell Endo, Stanley Sue, and Nathanial Wagner (Science and Behavior Books, 1980), pp. 17–25.

    5. Susie Ling and Sucheta Mazumdar, ‘Editorial: Asian American Feminism’, Cross-Currents, 1983, 6, 3–5.

    6. Lucie Cheng, ‘Asian American Women and Feminism’, Sojourner Collective, 1984, 11–12.

    7. Renee E. Tajima, ‘Lotus Blossoms Don’t Bleed: Images of Asian Women’, in Making Waves: An Anthology of Writing by and About Asian American Women, ed. Asian Women United (Beacon, 1989), pp. 308–17.

    8. Sayantani Dasgupta and Shamita Das Dasgupta, ‘Journeys: Reclaiming South Asian Feminism’, in Our Feet Walk the Sky: Women of the South Asian Diaspora, ed. Women of South Asian Descent Collective (Aunt Lute, 1993), pp. 123–30.

    9. Sonia Shah, ‘Presenting the Blue Goddess: Toward a National Pan-Asian Feminist Agenda’, in State of Asian America: Activism and Resistance in the 1990s, ed. Karin Aguilar-San Juan (South End Press, 1994), pp. 147–58.

    10. Juliana Pegues, ‘Strategies from the Field: Organizing the Asian American Feminist Movement’, in Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire, ed. Sonia Shah (South End Press, 1997), pp. 3–16.

    Part 2: On Coming to Consciousness

    11. Esther Ngan-ling Chow, ‘The Development of Feminist Consciousness Among Asian American Woman’, Gender and Society, 1987, 1, 3, 284–99.

    12. Shirley Hune, ‘Doing Gender with a Feminist Gaze: Toward a Historical Reconstruction of Asian America’, in Contemporary Asian America, eds. M. Zhou and J. Gatewood (New York University Press, 2000), pp. 413–30.

    13. Karen D. Pyke and Denise L. Johnson, ‘Asian American Women and Racialized Femininities: "Doing" Gender Across Cultural Worlds’, Gender and Society, 2003, 17, 1, 33–53.

    Part 3: Inclusion, Exclusion, Difference

    14. Haunani-Kay Trask, ‘Pacific Island Women and White Feminism’, From A Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i (Common Courage Press, 1993), pp. 263–77.

    15. Maivân Clech Lâm, ‘Feeling Foreign in Feminism’, Signs, 1981, 19, 41, 865–93.

    16. Eliza Noh, ‘Problematics of Transnational Feminism for Asian American Women’, Journal of Asian American Studies, 2005, 8, 3, 293–307.

    17. Anita Jain, ‘Is Arranged Marriage Really Any Worse Than Craigslist?’, New York Magazine, 26 March 2005.

    Part 4: US Women-of-Colour Feminism

    18. Mari Matsuda, ‘Beside My Sister, Facing the Enemy: Legal Theory Out of Coalition’, Stanford Law Review, 1991, 43, 1183–92.

    19. Mallika Dutt, ‘Some Reflections on U.S. Women of Color and the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and NGO Forum in Beijing, China’, Feminist Studies, 1996, 22, 3, 519–28.

    20. Rachel Lee, ‘Notes from the (non)Field: Teaching and Theorizing Women of Color’, Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 2000, 1, 1, 85–109.

    21. Traise Yamamoto, ‘An Apology to Althea Connor: Private Memory, Public Racialization, and Making a Language’, Journal of Asian American Studies, 2002, 5, 1, 13–29.

    VOLUME II: SHIFTING FOUNDATIONS: ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S ISSUES ACROSS DISCIPLINES

    Part 5: Women’s Lives

    22. Lucie Cheng Hirata, ‘Free, Indentured, Enslaved: Chinese Prostitutes in Nineteenth-Century America’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1979, 5, 1, 3–29.

    23. Valerie Matsumoto: ‘Japanese American Women During World War II’, Frontiers, 1984, 8, 1, 6–14.

    24. Nazli Kibria, ‘Power, Patriarchy, and Gender Conflict in the Vietnamese Immigrant Community’, Gender & Society, 1990, 4, 9–24.

    25. Judy Yung, ‘The Social Awakening of Chinese American Women as Reported in Chung Sai Yat Po, 1900–1911’, in Unequal Sisters: A Multi-cultural Reader in U.S. Women’s History, eds. Ellen Carol DuBois and Vicki L. Ruiz (Routledge, 1990), pp. 195–205.

    26. Annette White-Parks, ‘Beyond the Stereotype: Chinese Pioneer Women in the American West’, in Writing the Range: Race, Class, and Culture in the Women’s West, eds. Elizabeth Jameson and Susan Armitage (University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), pp. 258–73.

    27. Stacey Lee, ‘The Road to College: Hmong Women’s Pursuit of Higher Education’, Harvard Educational Review, 1997, 67, 4, 803–27.

    28. In-Sook Lim, ‘Korean Immigrant Women’s Challenge to Gender Inequality at Home: The Interplay of Economic Resources, Gender, and Family’, Gender & Society, 1997, 11, 1, 31–51.

    29. Caroline Chung Simpson, ‘"Out of an Obscure Place": Japanese War Brides and Cultural Pluralism in the 1950s’, Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 1998, 10, 3, 47–81.

    30. Naheed Islam, ‘Naming Desire, Shaping Identity: Tracing the Experiences of Indian Lesbians in the United States’, in Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women, ed. Shamita Das Dasgupta (Rutgers University Press, 1998), pp. 72–93.

    31. Yen Le Espiritu, ‘ "We Don’t Sleep Around Like White Girls Do": Family, Culture, and Gender in Filipina American Life’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2001, 26, 415–40.

    Part 6: Women’s Labour

    32. Evelyn Nakano Glenn, ‘The Dialectics of Wage Work: Japanese-American Women and Domestic Service, 1905–1940’, Feminist Studies, 1980, 6, 3, 428–71.

    33. Min Zhou and Regina Nordquist, ‘Work and its Place in the Lives of Immigrant Women: Garment Workers in New York City’s Chinatown’, Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader (New York University Press, 2000), pp. 254–77.

    34. Miliann Kang, ‘The Managed Hand: The Commercialization of Bodies and Emotions in Korean Immigrant-Owned Nail Salons’, Gender and Society, 2003, 17, 6, 820–39.

    Part 7: Transnational Work

    35. Laura Kang, ‘Si(gh)ting Asian/American Women as Transnational Labor’, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 1997, 5, 2, 403–37.

    36. Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, ‘The Philippines and the Outflow of Labor’, Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work (Duke University Press, 2001), pp. 37–60.

    37. Catherine Cenzia Choy, ‘Your Cap is a Passport: Filipino Nurses and the U.S. Exchange Visitor Program’, Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (Duke University Press, 2003), pp. 61–93, 207–13.

    VOLUME III: DISCIPLINED SUBJECTS, PRODUCING CULTURE

    Part 8: Shared Vulnerabilities, Gendered Violence

    38. Eugenia Kaw, ‘Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian American Women and Cosmetic Surgery’, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 1993, 7, 1, 74–89.

    39. Sumi K. Cho, ‘Converging Stereotypes in Racialized Sexual Harassment: Where the Model Minority Meets Suzie Wong’, Journal of Gender, Race, & Justice, 1997–8, 1, 177–211.

    40. Sumie Okazaki, ‘Influences of Culture on Asian Americans’ Sexuality’, Journal of Sex Research, 2002, 39, 1, 34–41.

    41. Leti Volpp, ‘Divesting Citizenship: On Asian American History and the Loss of Citizenship Through Marriage’, UCLA Law Review, 2005–6, 53, 405–83.

    42. Eliza Noh, ‘Asian American Women and Suicide: Problems of Responsibility and Healing’, Women and Therapy, 2007, 30, 3–4, 87–107.

    Part 9: Reading Culture, Performing Race

    43. Elaine Kim, ‘"Such Opposite Creatures": Men and Women in Asian American Literature’, Michigan Quarterly Review, 1990, 29, 1, 68–93.

    44. Lisa Lowe, ‘Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Marking Asian American Differences’, Diaspora, 1991, 1, 24–44.

    45. Karen Shimakawa, ‘Swallowing the Tempest: Asian American Women on Stage’, Theatre Journal, 1995, 47, 3, 367–80.

    46. Celine Parreñas Shimizu, ‘Theory in/of Practice: Filipina American Feminist Filmmaking’, in Pinay Power/Peminist Critical Theory: Theorizing the Filipina/American Experience, ed. Melinda L. de Jesús (Routledge, 2005), pp. 309–25.

    47. Shirley Jennifer Lim, ‘Contested Beauty: Asian American Beauty Culture during the Cold War’, A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women’s Public Culture, 1930–1960 (New York University Press, 2006), pp. 121–53.

    48. Pamela Butler and Jigna Desai, ‘Manolos, Marriage, and Mantras: Chick-Lit Criticism and Transnational Feminism’, Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 2008, 8, 2, 1–31.

    Part 10: Consuming Women

    49. Madhavi Mallapragada, ‘Home, Homeland, Homepage: Belonging and the Indian-American Web’, New Media & Society, 2006, 8, 2, 207–27.

    50. Sunania Maira, ‘Indo-Chic: Late Capitalist Orientalism and Imperial Culture’, in Alien Encounters: Popular Culture in Asian America, eds. Mimi Thi Nguyen and Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu (Duke University Press, 2007), pp. 221–43.

    VOLUME IV: INTERSECTIONAL ANALYSIS: COMMONALITY AND RUPTURE

    Part 11: Between Systems

    51. Lisa Lowe, ‘Immigration, Citizenship, Racialization: Asian American Critique’, Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics (Duke University Press, 1996), pp. 1–36.

    52. Piya Chatterjee, ‘De/Colonizing the Exotic: Teaching ‘Asian Women’ in a U.S. Classroom’, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 2000, 21, 1, 2, 87–110.

    53. Anlin Cheng, ‘Wounded Beauty: An Exploratory Essay on Race, Feminism, and the Aesthetic Question’, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 2000, 19, 2, 191–217.

    54. Leti Volpp, ‘Feminism Versus Multiculturalism’, Columbia Law Review, 2001, 395, 1181–218.

    55. Leslie Bow, ‘Transracial/Transgender: Analogies of Difference in Mai’s America’, Signs, 2009, 35, 1, 75–103.

    Part 12: Global Feminisms: Asian Women and the State

    56. Lata Mani, ‘Multiple Mediations: Feminist Scholarship in the Age of Multinational Reception’, Feminist Review, 1990, 35, 24–41.

    57. Anannya Bhattacharjee, ‘The Habit of Ex-Nomination: Nation, Woman, and the Indian Immigrant Bourgeoisie’, Public Culture, 1992, 19, 5, 1, 19–44.

    58. Sharon Kinsella, ‘Cuties in Japan’, in Women, Media and Consumption in Japan, eds. Lise Skov and Brian Moeran (University of Hawaii Press, 1995), pp. 220–54.

    59. Geraldine Heng, ‘"A Great Way to Fly": Nationalism, the State, and the Varieties of Third-World Feminism’, in Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures, eds. M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty (Routledge, 1997), pp. 30–45.

    60. Shu-Mei Shih, ‘Towards an Ethics of Transnational Encounter, or "When" Does a "Chinese" Woman Become a "Feminist"’?, Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 2002, 13, 2, 90–126.

    61. Jigna Desai, ‘Homo on the Range: Mobile and Global Sexualities’, Social Text, 2002, 73, 20, 4, 65–89.

    62. Evelyn Hu-DeHart, ‘Globalization and its Discontents: Exposing the Underside’, Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, 2003, 24, 2, 3, 244–60.

    63. Katharine H. S. Moon, ‘Resurrecting Prostitutes and Overturning Treaties: Gender Politics in the "Anti-American" Movement in South Korea’, Journal of Asian Studies, 2007, 66, 1, 129–57.

    64. Eunjung Kim, ‘Minority Politics in Korea: Disability, Interraciality, and Gender’, in Intersectionality and Beyond: Law, Power, and the Politics of Location, eds. Emily Grabham, Davina Cooper, Jane Krishnadas, and Didi Herman (Routledge-Cavendish, 2008), pp. 230–50.