Performing Asian American: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage (Asian American History and Culture)

At a time when Asian American theater is enjoying a measure of growth and success, Josephine Lee tells us about the complex social and political issues depicted by Asian American playwrights. By looking at performances and dramatic texts, Lee argues that playwrights produce a different conception of "Asian America" in accordance with their unique set of sensibilities. For instance, some Asian American playwrights critique the separation of issues of race and ethnicity from those of economics and class, or they see ethnic identity as a voluntary choice of lifestyle rather than an impetus for concerted political action. Others deal with the problem of cultural stereotypes and how to reappropriate their power. Lee is attuned to the complexities and contradictions of such performances, and her trenchant thinking about the criticisms lobbed at Asian American playwrights — for their choices in form, perpetuation of stereotype, or apparent sexism or homophobia — leads her to question how the presentation of Asian American identity in the theater parallels problems and possibilities of identity offstage as well. Discussed are better-known plays such as Frank Chin's The Chickencoop Chinaman , David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly , and Velina Hasu Houston's Tea , and new works like Jeannie Barroga's Walls and Wakako Yamauchi's 12-1-a . Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page vii) 1 Critical Strategies for Reading Asian American Drama (page 1) 2 The Asian American Spectator and the Politics of Realism (page 34) 3 The Chinaman's Unmanly Grief (page 61) 4 The Seduction of the Stereotype (page 89) 5 Acts of Exclusion: Asian American History Plays (page 136) 6 Asian American Doubles and the Soul under Capitalism (page 163) 7 Staging "Passing" on the Borders of the Body (page 189) Epilogue (page 217) Notes (page 221) Works Cited (page 231) Index (page 239) In her groundbreaking book, Performing Asian America, Josephine Lee meets a formidable challenge. How does one go about describing and analyzing the cultural production of Asian Americans, a group just beginning to make their complex political and social positions more visible? Lee approaches her specific subject, how Asian American playwrights depict race and ethnicity onstage, from the perspective that theatrical performances and dramatic texts can tell us much about these contemporary dynamics. Tells us about the complex social and political issues depicted by Asian-American playwrights. In this title, the author argues that playwrights produce a different conception of "Asian-America" in accordance with their unique set of sensibilities.