Undercover Asian
Multiracial Asian Americans in Visual Culture
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Illinois Press
Published:20th Dec '13
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£91.00(9780252038075)
In this first book-length study of media images of multiracial Asian Americans, Leilani Nishime traces the codes that alternatively enable and prevent audiences from recognizing the multiracial status of Asian Americans. Nishime's perceptive readings of popular media--movies, television shows, magazine articles, and artwork--indicate how and why the viewing public often fails to identify multiracial Asian Americans. Using actor Keanu Reeves and the Matrix trilogy, golfer Tiger Woods as examples, Nishime suggests that this failure is tied to gender, sexuality, and post-racial politics. Also considering alternative images such as reality TV star Kimora Lee Simmons, the television show Battlestar Galactica, and the artwork of Kip Fulbeck, this incisive study offers nuanced interpretations that open the door to a new and productive understanding of race in America.
"In the case of Undercover Asian, Nishime's critical intervention cannot be overstated. Her book compels readers to see multiracial Asian Americans, to understand their function in discourses of popular culture, to contextualize the place of multiracial Asian Americans in contemporary society, and to challenge our ideas of race and racialization."--Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas
"Nishime makes a compelling argument for productive possibilities in the way that we understand multiracial bodies and narratives. This fascinating, elegant book provides a model for doing this kind of analysis and creating new narratives so that these possibilities may one day be realized."--Feminist Media Studies
"Nishime's persuasive, well-grounded analysis yields genuinely brilliant insights regarding the pitfalls and possibilities of multiracial visibility in contemporary media culture. Lucidly written with appealing attention to popular texts, this is the sort of book that moves multiracial and Asian American studies in interesting and engaging new directions."--Glen Mimura, author of Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video
ISBN: 9780252079566
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 25mm
Weight: 426g
264 pages