World Languages and Cultures Publications World Languages and Cultures

2001 Asian American Art and Literature Eugenio D. Matibag Iowa State University, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/language_pubs Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons, Asian American Studies Commons, and the Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons The ompc lete bibliographic information for this item can be found at http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ language_pubs/81. For information on how to cite this item, please visit http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ howtocite.html.

This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in World Languages and Cultures Publications by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Asian American Art and Literature

Abstract Asian American literature and art cannot be explained by one set of aesthetics or a single method or approach. The sheer diversity of the artists and their backgrounds and even the variety and change within the oeuvre of an individual artist simply defy neat categorization. Some artists emphasize personal experience and reflection; others reflect on historical occurrences and cultural phenomena; others tend toward sheer experimentation with forms of expression and types of media or discourse.

Keywords Asian American Studies

Disciplines American Art and Architecture | Asian American Studies | Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority

Comments This is an encyclopedia entry from Encyclopedia of American Studies 1 (2001): 189. Posted with permission.

This book chapter is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/language_pubs/81 ASIAN AMERICANS

Where do we draw the boundaries? Do films Wei, William, The Asian American Movement (Temple Univ. with a clear Asian American theme, but shot Press 1993). by a multiracial crew-such as Oliver Stone's Wong, Eugene F., On Visual Media Racism: Asians in the Heaven and Earth (1993) and David Cronen­ American Motion Pictures (Arno Press 1978). berg's M. Butterfly (1993)-qualify as Asian ROBERTA UNO American? A 1990 reader's poll in A Magazine underscored these questions as readers freely mixed Asian and Asian American Art and Literature Asian American screen stars and films in their Asian American literature and art cannot be ex­ choices. As the future of each discipline is consid­ plained by one set of aesthetics or a single method ered, these questions become increasingly relevant or approach. The sheer diversity of the artists and in terms of demographic shifts (both changes in the their backgrounds and even the variety and change composition of Asian communities and the increase within the oeuvre of an individual artist simply defy in racial and ethnic hybridity), the movement of neat categorization. Some artists emphasize personal Asians and Asian Americans transnationally, and experience and reflection; others reflect on historical the positive impact that the Asian American move­ occurrences and cultural phenomena; others tend ment has on social institutions, attitudes, and cul­ toward sheer experimentation with forms of expres­ tural expectations. sion and types of media or discourse.

Literature: Major Themes. Asian American BIBLIOGRAPHY authors have explored issues central to the Asian Berson, Misha, ed., Between Worlds: Contemporary Asian­ American experience: the legacy of the past; the en­ American Plays (Theatre Communications Group 1990). counter of diverse cultures; the challenges of rac­ Choy, Christine, "Images of Asian-Americans in Films ism, discrimination, and exclusion; and the dreams and Television," in Ethnic Images in American Film and achieved and dreams deferred of an immigrant na­ Television, ed. by Randall Miller (Balch Inst. 1978). tion. In the process of developing and defining it­ Feng, Peter, "In Search of Asian American Cinema," Cin­ self, then, Asian American literature speaks to the easte 21 (1995):1-2. very heart of what it means to be American. The Houston, Velina Hasu, ed., The Politics of Life: Four Plays authors of this literature above all concern them­ by Asian American Women (Temple Univ. Press 1993). selves with identity, with the question of becom­ Houston, Velina Hasu, ed., But Still, Like Air, I'll Rise: ing and being American, of being accepted, not "for­ New Asian American Plays (Temple Univ. Press 1997). Johnson, George Toshio, "'Hope Floats': Hollywood's eign." Elaine Kim characterizes Asian American Latest Fling with Asian America," A Magazine (Novem­ literature as mainly one of "protest and exile, a lit­ ber 30, 1990):52-54. erature about place and displacement, a literature Lee, Josephine, Performing Asian America: Race and Eth­ concerned with psychic and physical 'home'­ nicity on the Contemporary Stage (Temple Univ. Press searching for and claiming a 'home' or longing for 1997). a final'homecoming."' Leong, Russell, ed., Moving the Image: Independent Asian Distinguished Asian American authors and Pacific American Media Arts (Univ. of Calif. Press 1991). works include Korean American Younghill Kang's Perkins, Kathy, and Roberta Uno, eds., Contemporary The Grass Roof(1931) and his book about life in New Plays by Women of Color (Routledge 1996). York, East Goes West (1937); Chinese American Louis Tajima, Renee, "Lotus Blossoms Don't Bleed: Images of Asian Women," in Making Waves: An Anthology of Writ­ Chu's Eat a Bowl of Tea (1961), also about life in New ings by and about Asian American Women, ed. by Asian York; Filipino American Carlos Bulosan's experi­ Women United of California (Beacon Press 1989). ences as a migrant worker in Letters from America Uno, Roberta, ed., Unbroken Thread: An Anthology of Plays (1942) and America Is in the Heart (1946); and Ko­ by Asian American Women (Univ. of Mass. Press 1993). rean Canadian writer and video artist Theresa Hak

189

,., r ASIAN AMERICANS

Eminent anthologies of Asian American writing not only indicate the emergence and coalescence of a body of literature that could be called Asian American, but also signal the form by which that body of literature can be recognized by the read­ ing public and assigned as reading in academic set­ tings. Such anthologies include the aforementioned Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers (1974), edited by Jeffrey Paul Chan, Frank Chin, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn Wong. This an­ thology, devoted exclusively to Chinese American and Japanese American works, was followed by the more inclusive The Big Aiiieeeee!!! (1991), whereas Jessica T. Hagedorn's Charlie Chan Is Dead: An An­ thology of Asian American Fiction (1993) showcases imaginative prose representative of all the major 0 ROBERT FOOTHORAPIBL.ACK STAR immigrant groups, with the exception of Southeast Novelist Amy Tan in Guilin, China, where part of the movie version of The Joy Luck Club was filmed. Asia. Garrett Hongo edited The Open Boat, Poems from Asian America (1993). All of the erotic stories and poems of On a Bed of Rice (1995), an anthology Kyung Cha's acclaimed Dictee (1982). Chang-Rae edited by Geraldine Kudaka, contradict the racist Lee, of South Korea, won the PEN Hemingway notion that Asian Americans are asexual or pas­ Award for the Best First Novel in 1995 for Native sive in their sexuality. Speaker (1995). Other celebrated works are Maxine Hong King­ Artistic Genres. Art has many meanings and ston's groundbreaking and widely acclaimed mem­ diverse significance for those who create it or be­ oirs, The Woman Warrior (1976) and China Men hold it or in some way participate in it. It is diffi­ (1980); Frank Chin's coedited Chinese Japanese cult to define one universally Asian American aes­ American anthology, Aiiieeeee! (1974) and his novel thetic or artistic ideology, yet some generalizations Donald Duk (1991); Cynthia Kadohata's account of can be ventured. There exists a sense in this emer­ Japanese Americans in the post-internment years gent Asian American culture that "art" is not the in The Floating World (1988); Amy Tan's best-sell­ special province of the professional artist, not some­ ing family chronicles, The Joy Luck Club (1989, the thing merely to be seen and consumed. Art, some­ basis for the 1993 film) and The Kitchen God's Wife what like Asian-based religious practice and spiri­ (1991); Garrett Hongo's poetry collections Yellow tuality, forms a part of everyday life. Art belongs Light (1988) and The River of Heaven (1989); David to people and not to a special class of artists and Henry Hwang's drama, M. Butterfly (1988), the first artisans. Nor can the category of Asian American play by an Asian American to be produced on art be limited to that produced exclusively by Asian Broadway; Gish Jen's comic novel Typical Ameri­ Americans, for it must embrace as well those works can (1991); Laurence Yep's young adult fictions that originate in Asian countries but are imported Child of the Owl (1977) and Dragon of the Lost Sea and translated or otherwise adapted for American (1982); Hisaye Yamamoto's collection Seventeen Syl­ reception. lables and Other Stories (1988); Shawn Wong's nov­ Artistic contributions to American domestic cul­ els Homebase (1979) and American Knees (1995); and ture abound, as seen in the distinctly Japanese plant­ M. Evelina Galang's stories in Her Wild American ings of bonsai and ikebana; Chinese brush paint­ Self (1995). ing; the calligraphy of China, Korea, and Japan;

190 ASIAN AMERICANS

Chinese ceramics and Japanese porcelains; rugs from Turkey, the Caucasus, Persia, the Turkoman j of Central Asia, India, Tibet, and China and, of course, the celebrated Asian American culinary arts. Many Americans are familiar with the art of Japa­ nese paper folding called origami. In Japanese-in­ fluenced decor one might find the thick bedding consisting of mattress and cover called futon, shoji screens, and tatami mats. Mass and popular cul­ ture have been permeated by Anime and Pokeman cartoons, Manga comic books, the Sanrio "Hello I Kitty" merchandise, Nintendo video games, the Power Rangers television series, and martial-arts action movies featuring Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan, for example. Martial arts have gone main­ stream as well, with the proliferation of programs and classes in karate, aikido, judo, Korean tae kwon 0 B. BISSONICORBIS-SYGMA do, Japanese jujutsu, Thai muay thai (or kickbox­ Architect I. M. Pei outside the new entrance to the Louvre mu­ seum in Paris, France. ing), and Filipino kali (or arnis). Renowned among architects are Minoru Ya­ masaki, chief architect of the 110-story twin tow­ Musicians who have drawn both applause and ers of the World Trade Center in New York City; critical acclaim are Paris-born cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Ko­ Arata Isozaki, who designed the Museum of Con­ rean American violinist Kyung-Wha Chung; Japa­ temporary Art of Los Angeles; Maya Lin, whose nese and American violinist Midori; and conduc­ Vietnam Veterans Memorial provoked reflection and tors Zubin Mehta, born in Bombay, India, and Seiji controversy; and internationally known Tadao Ozawa, born in Shenyang, China. Other musicians Ando, whose minimalist style is characterized by include singer-songwriter-artist Yoko Ono, widow concrete surfaces and geometric figures. Chinese of John Lennon. The Japanese American rock group American architect I. M. Pei is best-known for de­ Shonen Knife and the Filipino American singing signing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Mu­ groups Kai and Pinay have drawn packed crowds seum in Cleveland, Ohio; the glass pyramid en­ of admirers. trance to the Louvre in Paris, France; the John F. Other collaborative artistic projects have pro­ Kennedy Library in Massachusetts; New York City's duced works and performances that challenge the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center; and the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washing­ mainstream views of race and culture. The art net­ ton, D.C. work Godzilla has created links of communication among Asian American artists. Based in New York Perhaps the best-known Japanese graphic and clothing designer today is Eiko Ishioka, who won and cofounded in 1990 by Ken Chu, Godzilla has the 1992 Academy Award for best costume design. sponsored discussions and debates on the notion She is one of numerous Asian American clothing of an "Asian American aesthetic." Group exhibi­ designers who have mixed cultural motifs and sen­ tions such as Yellow Peril: Reconsidered, which toured sibilities to create the kind of art that is worn. The Canada in 1990 and 1991, and the Godzilla-spon­ international fashion world came to appreciate Josie sored The Curio Shop in New York in 1993 displayed Natori's beaded and embroidered bustiers as well the images and artifacts by which Asian Americans as Vera Wang's wedding dresses and evening have been stereotyped. In both of these exhibitions, gowns. artists and installers performed a negative critique

191

~ ASIAN AMERICANS

ing-to-terms with an inherently plural selfhood. Asian Americans have attained a critical mass and achieved a self-consciousness of their agency in the making of history. Coming from specific countries of origin, from diverse religious, ethnic, and lin­ guistic groupings, they know the dangers of gener­ alization and self-ghettoization. Accordingly, most artists are wary of pinning themselves down to any­ thing that could be called an Asian American aes­ thetic. Many works aim to create a change in social consciousness. For example, Sung Ho Choi's 1993 installation of burnt-out wood, photographs, aw­ ning, and living plants titled Choi's Market vividly recalls the 1992 riots of south central Los Angeles, in which Korean storekeepers became the targets C OSAMU HONDA/AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS of racial enmity. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma (center), with violinist Isaac Stem (left) and The crossing of borders and the creation of hy­ conductor Zubin Mehta in 1991. brid spaces are obsessions of many Asian Ameri­ can artists. One of Rirkrit Tiravanija's installations of mainstream essentialism that has marginalized in New York's 303 Gallery in 1995 consisted of a and dehumanized the image of the Asian in Amer­ "meditation area" complete with a camping tent, ican culture. a couch, an audio tape of a Hmong radio program, Korean American artist Nam June Paik has and a video on Hmong appliques. This art of dis­ drawn wide attention for multimedia electronic in­ locations and thresholds brings together cultures stallations that incorporate videorecorders, televi­ and technologies and engages viewers in the exami­ sion circuitry, and avant-garde musical performance nation of their own social frameworks. In 1994 art­ in works that include the Electronic Superhighway ist Michael Joo videotaped himself swimming in and the Information Wall. Sculptor Isamu Noguchi's two thousand pounds (907 kg) of monosodium creations of interior and exterior works include glutamate, addressing with this, as with other per­ items of furniture, the Akari Japanese lanterns, the formances, stereotypes of Chinese culture and the design of the gardens for the United Nations Edu­ "economic" circulation of meanings and identifica­ cational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization tions. Xu Bing's A Book from the Sky offered a view (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris, the sunken gar­ of sheets and sheets of paper-some hanging from den of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Li­ the ceiling, some bound up in books, some hung brary at Yale, and the Philip A. Hart Plaza in De­ on the walls-inscribed in authentic-looking but in­ troit. Among performance artists, Hmong American vented "Chinese" characters. This 1995 installation rapper Tou Ger Xiong brings his family history to examined the crisis of meaning involving Chinese audiences with a blend of storytelling and slides. tradition and modernity, expression and silence. Art One of his performances, given at Iowa State Uni­ critic Alice Yang has called Bing Lee's 1994 show versity in 1999, was titled "Snoop Doggy Dogg "an imaginative foray into chance operation," by Meets Bruce Lee." which, beginning with a blank wall, the artist adds drawings to it each day, creating an array that Arts and Identities. Inasmuch as being Asian amounts to a "pictodiary" that stages a sort of sur­ American means to find one's own identity as mul­ realist automatism as it performs a Buddhist medi­ tiply originated and diversely situated, many pro­ tative notation marking the subject's emptying-out. ductions of Asian American art must seek a com- Cultures cross again in Chen Zhen's 1996 "Daily

192 ASIAN AMERICANS

Incantations," composed of 101 Chinese wooden alist, antiracist, and antiexploitation agendas that chamber pots arrayed and suspended in the fash­ bound together ethnonational groups whose ori­ ion of Bronze Age chime bells. By so merging the gins could be traced back to Asia. Even though Chi­ physical and the spiritual, Chen's installation indi­ nese Americans, Japanese Americans, Filipino cates the cycles of consumption, assimilation, and Americans, Korean Americans, and others previ­ expulsion that transcend the national dramas. ously regarded themselves (and were also regarded by society) as distinct and competing groups, po­ As this brief Aesthetics and Social Import. litical activists in the 1960s realized the advantages overview has indicated, Asian American writers and of intergroup mobilization to fight for common de­ artists in general have undertaken a twofold task: mands. that of creating art works while displaying true originality and combining elements of European Such a panethnic formation has had important American and Asian cultures; and that of transcend­ consequences for building political consciousness ing or subverting the ethnocentricism of the domi­ among very diverse populations. Not only were nant culture, offering in its place a transpacific aes­ Asian Americans able to appreciate their common thetic, a new racial and cultural synthesis, and a geographical origins but their political efforts also renewed vision of art's possibilities. have become more recognized as intimately con­ nected to common historical and contemporary ex­ BIBLIOGRAPHY periences of disenfranchisement and violence, Hagedorn, Jessica, ed., Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthol­ mainly because of perceptions that they are a ogy of Contemporary Asian American Fiction, with a pref­ "model minority," are threats to society, or are for­ ace by Elaine Kim (Penguin 1993). eigners. This panethnic label has also been used Kim, Elaine, Asian American Literature: An Introduction by the state primarily for census purposes andre­ to the Writings and Their Social Context (Temple Univ. Press 1982). source distribution. However, this way of lump­ Liu, Eric, The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker ing for convenience has, at times, perpetuated un­ (Random House 1998). fair treatment. Okihiro, Gary Y., Margins and Mainstreams: Asians in An important occasion that resulted in Asian American History and Culture (Univ. of Wash. Press American political mobilization occurred in the 1994). wake of the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982. Chin, Yang, Jeff, et al., eds., Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to a Chinese American, was targeted as an Asian for­ Asian Influence on American Culture from Astra Boy to eigner responsible for lost or diminishing job op­ Zen Buddhism (Houghton 1997). portunities in Detroit. His case is evidence of the EUGENIO MATIBAG power of coalition politics as a response to racism. Such politics have further called for a more com­ plex consideration of race relations beyond those Asian American Politics that include only African Americans and European Politics, for Asian Americans, covers a host of Americans, the ways in which Asian Americans concerns that hold in common a challenge to racial­ challenge dominant assimilationist demands im­ ization beyond a black-white paradigm, a critique posed on them, the advantages of forging ties with of the persistence of discrimination and exclusion, other minoritized groups, and the quest to be re­ a recognition of their group's increasing numbers garded as equal members of American society. and diversity, and a desire to empower their com­ Because the Asian American population has munities. The term Asian American was an inter­ grown exponentially and changed dramatically with nally defined political label that arose as a conse­ different immigrant groups since the 1960s, ques­ quence of the civil rights movement but was tions about the viability of panethnic grouping have elaborated as a specific expression of anti-imperi- arisen. Among the issues being debated are the in-

193