Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks Rachel Rubin University of Massachusetts Boston, [email protected]

Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks Rachel Rubin University of Massachusetts Boston, Rachel.Rubin@Umb.Edu

University of Massachusetts Boston ScholarWorks at UMass Boston

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications Institute for Asian American Studies

3-1-2003 Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks Rachel Rubin University of Massachusetts Boston, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Rubin, Rachel, "Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks" (2003). Institute for Asian American Studies Publications. Paper 20. http://scholarworks.umb.edu/iaas_pubs/20

This Occasional Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute for Asian American Studies at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Institute for Asian American Studies Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks

RACHEL RUBIN

An Occasional Paper

INSTITUTE FOR ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES

March 2003 ABOUT THE INSTITUTE FOR ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES

The Institute for Asian American Studies was established in 1993 with support from Asian American communities and direction from the state legislature. The Institute brings together resources and expertise within both the university and the community to conduct community-based research on Asian American issues; to provide resources to the Asian American communities, and to support Asian American students at UMass Boston.

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RECENT OCCASIONAL PAPERS PUBLISHED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES

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Rachel Rubin is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is author of Jewish Gangsters of Modern Literature and co-editor of American Popular Music: New Approaches to the Twentieth Century.

The views contained in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily of the Institute for Asian American Studies.

Cyberspace Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks1

RACHEL RUBIN

n the eve of the 21st century, a group The circumstances of Gidra’s moment of of young Asian American writers rebirth—from the idealism and bravado Obravely announced—tongue partially demonstrated by its writers, to its relatively in cheek, in keeping with the aesthetic of sin- low profile on an internet positively cluttered cere irony that characterizes the so-called with volunteer-produced websites—encapsu- Generation X—their recreation of “a mon- lates a number of important directions in ster.” This announcement, posted on the which popular culture (especially popular internet (at www.gidra.net), was drafted by the print culture) had developed since the original “editorial recollective” of Gidra, a samizdat Gidra ceased publication after five years. Non- (self-published) monthly newsletter launched commercial “amateur” publications like the thirty years earlier by a group of UCLA stu- new Gidra, known as “zines,” are the result of dents who wanted a forum where they could consequential international, national, and address the particular concerns and issues fac- local processes that have radically altered the ing Asian Pacific Americans in the Vietnam entertainment industry (as well as the rela- War era. Writers and editors of a new Gidra tionship of audiences to that industry). And declared in 1999 with a flourish their inten- Asian American young people (women in par- tion to create a publication that would provide ticular) have found in zines a remarkably con- a way to “get off our collective asses, look genial venue for self-expression and self-defin- ahead and define the world of tomorrow.” ition: scores of zines are devoted to the tal-

1The following essay has been written as a chapter for a forthcoming book, Immigrants and American Popular Culture [NYU Press]. The book, which is geared toward undergraduate classroom use, uses six case studies over the span of the twentieth century to show how immigrants have used popular culture, and how popular culture has used immigrants, to identify, define, and respond to both conflicts and alliances among different groups marked off by race/ethnicity, region, linguistic identity, and so forth. Each chapter will include glossary, maps, and illustrations. “Cyberspace, Y2K” is the book’s final chapter.

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ents, cultural needs, and political realities of activist organization or an elected official, and Asian Americans. An understanding of the so on. And when it comes to individuals import of these zines takes us from military choosing how to identify themselves, there is a history through the history of its offspring, similar range of usage: some consider them- technological innovation: the Internet has selves to be Asian American while others do traveled from its origins inside the war not, even though they or their parents have machine all the way to the sex lives (and other immigrated to the United States from a coun- personal spaces) of its users. try on the continent of Asia. Finally, the meaning of the term has changed over time to Who is Asian American on the suit the rhetorical needs of different times. Internet? Asian American zine publishing reflects this complexity. A majority of the zines do use Amy Ling defines “Asian America” in a poem the word “Asian” or “Asian American” as “Asian ancestry/American struggle” (Ling (instead of exclusively using narrower cate- 1). This couplet captures the duality of experi- gories such as “Korean American”). But when ence, the divided heart, that Ling feels charac- more specific identifiers are added, or when terizes the lived lives of Americans with Asian “guest books” (open forums some web cre- ancestry. She continues in this vein to describe ators place on their website, so that people a “tug in the gut” and “a dream in the who have “visited” the site can comment) are heart”—definitions that are wonderfully examined, it becomes plain that “Asian evocative, but elusively (and purposefully) American” has been embraced as a way to self- non-concrete. Indeed, the feeling of being identify by Americans of certain backgrounds, Asian American, the varied and internal while other Americans with Asian ancestry processes by which that name acquires partic- choose different ways to identify themselves. ular meaning, for all its ineffability, is actually On the pages (web and print) under consider- much easier to pin down than it is to formu- ation here, “Asian American” seems to include late an answer that refers to a map. Because backgrounds that are Japanese, Chinese, while Asia is the world’s largest continent, Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, accounting for more than a third of the Filipina/o, and sometimes South Asian world’s land mass and two-thirds of the (Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, Bangladeshi). In world’s population—including some 140 dif- contrast, writing by Arab Americans or ferent nationalities—the term “Asian Armenian Americans, for example, does not American” has been mostly used to refer only surface when Asian American search engines to American immigrants from certain Asian are used to navigate the Internet, and does not nations, but not others. Furthermore, the tend to use “Asian American” and related lan- term’s application has not been entirely con- guage as descriptors of its content or creators. sistent, so that “Asian American” can include In addition to being constituted by a large one list of ethnic groups in the federal census, number of nationalities, the term “Asian another list of ethnic groups in a college’s American” is further complicated by the fact Asian American Studies curriculum, yet that it can refer to immigrants, their children, another list in the political rhetoric of an their grandchildren, or even subsequent gen-

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erations. Since the mid-1800s, when Chinese Restrictions against Asian immigration workers came to build the cross-continental began to loosen somewhat following World railroad, multiple generations of Asian immi- War II. The Chinese Exclusion Act was grants have made their way to the United repealed, and the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, States; and from the very beginning, Asian while restrictionist in nature, nonetheless gave immigration was linked to restriction and token quotas to all Asian countries. A bit earli- racial anxiety. In fact, the notion of control- er, in 1945, the War Brides Act allowed wives ling immigration based on ethnic and national and children of members of the American factors was born in xenophobic fear of armed services to enter the United States, Chinese immigrants: welcomed at first as a without being subjected to evaluation by racial source of cheap labor, Asian immigrants were or national criteria. These moves are generally soon the subject of pressures to stop the influx considered to represent a progressive wedge in of workers. The Chinese Exclusion Act, anti-Asian exclusion; however, historian passed in 1882, denied admission to Chinese Rachel Buff has recently pointed out that such laborers, and subsequent laws in the next two measures actually opened up systematic decades further extended the act. The Chinese opportunities for a kind of sexual imperialism, Exclusion Act also made explicit a provision in which United States military men created that had been invoked vaguely since the first personal circles of influence, which they then American naturalization law of 1790 claimed as “American” and incorporated into announced that only “free whites” could natu- the United States (personal discussion with ralize: Chinese immigrants were “aliens ineli- author about ongoing research). Buff’s quite gible for citizenship.” ground-breaking analysis reveals a power The rhetoric surrounding this legislation dynamic within Asian immigration, acted out identified the Chinese and Japanese as forever on a sexual and domestic plane, that Asian alien, as “heathens,” as so immutably different American zine creators took up in force a half- from white Americans that they could never century later. assimilate into American society and adopt Asian mass immigration did not return “American” ways. It was here that the prece- until 1965, when the so-called “new Asian dent was set that immigration to the United immigration” followed the liberalization of States was something that could and should be the quota system under the Hart-Celler Act. regulated by the government based on group By 1970, Asians were the fastest growing definitions. This approach to controlling who group of immigrants to the United States. By entered the United States represented a sig- 1980, nearly half of all immigrants to the nificant departure from earlier notions of United States came from Asia. immigrant desirability based on individual The “new” immigration would complete- qualifications. The exclusion of Asian immi- ly change the nature of Asian American com- grants from American citizenship culminated munities, which previously had been made up in 1924 with the Quota Act that declared that largely of Chinese- and Japanese-Americans. “no alien ineligible for citizenship” could be Now, the variety of Asian groups expanded; admitted to the United States. soon, the fastest-growing Asian ethnic groups in the United States were those previously not

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represented. The “new” Asian immigrants Asian countries, such as the recognition of came from South Korea, the Philippines, China, the Vietnam War, the presence of Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, American military rule in South Korea, and so Bangladesh, Singapore and Malaysia. forth. (Indeed, the original Gidra also was The “new immigration” was marked by born out of anti-Vietnam war movement, and two visible groups of immigrants. First, in stressed the movement’s particular importance contrast to the earlier generations, came what for Asian Americans; articles such “GIs and historian Reed Ueda has called “a human cap- Asian Women” and “The Nature of GI ital migration” of highly educated profession- Racism,” for instance, addressed the implica- als and technical workers (65). These elites tions for race relations in the United States of from India, the Philippines, China and Korea the United States Army’s tactic of dehumaniz- worked in health care, technical industries, ing Asians—particularly Asian women—as a and managerial positions. way to create psychological conditions that The “new” immigration also brought would allow the killing of Vietnamese.) waves of low-skilled and poor immigrants The geopolitics of Asian immigration to from Asia. One million refugees from the United States is, therefore, responsible for Northeast and Southeast Asia came to the the very notion that there is such a thing as United States from the end of World War II “Asian American” identity. In the various to 1990. Chinese refugees fled to the United countries of origin, an “Asian” identity would States following World War II. The devasta- not be primary; people might identify as tion of the Vietnam War brought refugees “Korean” or “Chinese” or “Indian”—or, even from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos (including more likely, according to even more specific minority subgroups such as the ethnic categories of religion, caste, region, and so Chinese from Vietnam and the ethnic Hmong forth. While there are certainly cultural as from Laos and elsewhere). Unlike the Chinese well as environmental similarities among vari- railroad workers of a century earlier, these ous Asian nations, lumping together the “new” immigrants were planning to stay per- dozens of ethnicities of the huge continent can manently in the United States. They therefore obscure much more than it explains. But as naturalized in large numbers, brought over part of the compound “Asian American,” extended families, and formed new Asian “Asian” gains relevance and specificity as a communities as well as transforming and revi- social or cultural identifier. In large part, this talizing older ones. is because of the way that “mainstream” The history of Asian immigration gives American vision has categorized Asians from some sense of how complicated and fraught without, and speaks to the status of “other” the definition of “Asian American” can be. conferred upon them; after all, “Asian” still The idea of a pan-Asian identity, implied by has not fully replaced the word “Oriental,” the term “Asian American,” dates back to the formerly the general term and rejected during political activism of the 1960s; the term was the 1960s and 1970s as reflecting a colonialist first used as an organizing tool to facilitate mentality. (“Oriental” means “Eastern” or discussions around issues of racism in the having to do with the East. Since directions United States and issues of global politics in are relative, the word “Oriental” betrays

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Eurocentrism; in other words, Asia is east of marginalized as outsiders—allowed us to what?) In short, while there is a big differ- bridge ethnic lines and allowed a plat- ence—not to mention many miles—between, form and commonality engage and say, a Buddhist from Tibet and a Japanese understand other people and their strug- Hawaiian, or between someone from the gles... You ask whether there is an Indonesian islands and someone from “authentic” Asian American sensibility. Kazakhstan, that distance has tended to be Asian American identity was originally collapsed in the public imagination once these conceived to allow one to “identify” with immigrants arrive in the United States. (This the experiences and struggles of other conflation has at times occurred against the subordinated people—not just with one’s efforts of Asian immigrants themselves, as own background. (Ling 320-321) during World War II, when some Chinese and Koreans wore buttons claiming “I’m Iijima’s words emphasize that Asian American Chinese, not Japanese,” and still faced abuse identity is a deliberate and motivated thing: or ostracization.) experiential rather than biological, grounded But immigrants from the various Asian in the present as much as or more than in the countries also have had their own reasons for past. For Asian American cyberzine writers, embracing an Asian American identity. A whose numbers include immigrants, the chil- strategic essentialism can facilitate the cultural dren of immigrants, or the grandchildren of empowerment that permits Americans like the immigrants, the constructedness of “Asian editors of Gidra (in both incarnations) to American,” coupled with the definitively de- speak of an “Asian” experience in the first centered nature of virtual reality, creates a place—not to mention building the solidarity wide-open, compelling cultural opportunity. that could allow for Asian representation in elected bodies of government. Thus, while Where did cyberculture come individual Asian countries and cultures are from? often singled out in Asian American zine cul- The technological innovation upon which ture (Bamboo Girl targets the Filipina/o com- cyberculture is built was, as is often the case munity, for instance, while Half Korean speaks with new technologies, an outgrowth of mili- to Korean intermarriage), more often zine tary research. In other words, the wars and writers bolster the symbolic ethnicity of international conflicts that were responsible “Asian American”—symbolic, because of its for the mass migration of Asians to the United rhetorical and deliberate nature, but nonethe- States after 1965 also provided the impetus for less possessed of real-world implications. the research that led to the creation of the Singer/songwriter Chris Iijima explains this Internet. The germinal idea of the Internet dynamic: was first conceived some thirty years ago by the RAND Corporation. RAND, the United We were able to construct an APA [Asian States’s foremost Cold War think-tank, was Pacific American] identity precisely trying to answer a particular strategic ques- because our shared experience as Asians tion: How could United States authorities in America—always cast as foreigners and communicate with each other following a

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nuclear war? The problem was that any net- connect these computers to the growing network would be shattered by a nuclear bomb, work, turning them into new “nodes” in the and furthermore, the network’s central com- system that would come to be called the mand station would be an obvious target for Internet. The software belonged to the public attack. So RAND’s scientists came up with a domain (no one owned the rights and it was network that was assumed to be vulnerable at widely available), and the leadership was fully all times—but would work anyway, since there decentralized as originally planned by RAND. would be no central station, and no single Connecting cost little or nothing, since each path of communication. If part of the network station was independently maintained. should be inoperable, the information would Quickly, anarchically, and unevenly, the simply travel via an alternative route. Internet network mushroomed, and by the In 1968, the Pentagon’s Advance 1990s, Internet connection was a necessity for Research Projects Agency funded a large, many businesses, “computer literacy” became ambitious project to explore the concept of a a requirement for college education, and “per- decentralized network. High-speed computers sonal computers” found their way into more were to be the stations in this network (called and more homes, in the United States and “nodes”); the first station was installed at the elsewhere. University of California-Los Angeles in 1969. The decade of the 1990s saw the fastest In the next few years, more stations were growth of the Internet, which was expanding added. These stations were able to transfer at a rate of twenty percent per month. Moving large amounts of data very quickly, and could outward from its original base in military and be programmed remotely from the other sta- scientific arenas, the Internet established itself tions. Although this feature was a boon for in educational institutions of all levels (includ- researchers, it did not take long for it to ing preschool), libraries, businesses of all become clear that the most of the computer kinds, and, of course, personal residences. time on the network was being used not for Since any computer with enough memory research or collaboration among scientists, but needs only a modem and phone line to be for personal messages. added to the network, the Internet continues The computer mailing list was invented to spread more and more rapidly, on an early on, allowing the same message to be sent increasingly global scale. to large numbers of network subscribers. The chaotic nature of the Internet’s Thus, almost from its inception, creation of a spread has gifted it with a uniquely democratic mass audience was key to the Internet’s appeal nature. By comparing the Internet to the to huge numbers of users. This was an impor- English language, Internet historian Bruce tant step toward the proliferation of cyberzine Sterling stresses the very basic cultural signifi- writing, for it contains the seeds of the tech- cance of the Internet’s easy access: nology that provides e-zine writers with an almost unlimited readership. The Internet’s “anarchy” may seem Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, more strange or even unnatural, but it makes a and more social groups acquired powerful certain deep and basic sense. It’s rather computers. It became increasingly easy to like the “anarchy” of the English lan-

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guage. Nobody rents English, and nobody queer communities. In particular, I was owns English. As an English-speaking looking for Asian American publications, person, it’s up to you to learn how to and most of these only addressed upward- speak English properly, and make whatev- ly-mobile professionals. Which totally er use you please of it (though the govern- did not include me. (Margarita interview) ment previous certain subsidies to help you learn to read and write a bit). Because of her needs as a reader, Sabrina Otherwise, everybody just sort to pitches Margarita started handing out copies of her in, and somehow the thing evolves on its zine—which is paper, with an informational own, and somehow turns out workable. website that serves to publicize it—to her And interesting. Fascinating, even. friends, making up about a hundred photo- Though lots of people earn their living copies of each issue. A few years later, in 2001, from using and exploiting and teaching she has a circulation of 3,000, works with English, “English” as an institution is about five or six contributors in each issue, public property, a public good. Would and sells the journals by mail but also in some English be improved if “The English bookstores. As Sabrina Margarita’s experience Language, Inc.” had a board of directors with Bamboo Girl shows, in Internet publish- and a chief executive officer, or a ing, the lines become thoroughly blurred President and a Congress? There’d prob- between consumption (or audience), and pro- ably be a lot fewer new words in English, duction (or writer)—with the democratic and a lot fewer new ideas. (Sterling 4) access to the Net acting as conduit from one to the other. Another example can be drawn Indeed, it is not uncommon for zine writers to from Kristina Wong’s e-zine Big Bad Chinese claim that they began their zine because they Mama. The site features parodic biographies could not find publications that suited their and photos of fake mail order brides. At first, own cultural needs. According to Sabrina the 23-year-old Wong used her own photo- Margarita of Bamboo Girl, now 31, she graph and ones she collected from her friends. launched her zine several years ago for this Now, she says, she receives and posts pictures reason: mailed to her from women around the coun- try and beyond (Wong interview). It started in 1995, and I pretty much That the Internet is, as Sterling puts it, started launching it because I could not “headless, anarchic, million-limbed” (Sterling find anything reading material-wise that I 5) also has concrete and particular influence could relate to. Because most of the items on what webzines look like. There are mil- that dealt with feminism or queer identity lions of public files that can be accessed and weren’t really geared toward women of downloaded (transferred to the computer one color. So I had to search for items that is using) easily and in a matter of moments. In dealt with women of color. However, other words, zine writers can look around the when I did, I did not find anything that Internet and find a seemingly endless supply was very supportive of the feminist or of elements they can add to their zines: pho-

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tographs, artwork, language, music, and more est expressions of this cut-and-past is the art can be included with a simple cut-and-paste. of sampling in hip hop music, wherein musi- And zine writers with just a little more hard- cal, spoken or other sounds previously record- ware and a few more computer skills can easily ed are included within the rap song. The scan into the computer images or sounds of result is a wholly new frame of reference for their choosing (which other people, after visit- the sample—and also an affirmation of shared ing the site, can in turn download to their own cultural experience, because in order to under- computers). stand the new song fully, a listener must A result of this cut-and-paste smorgas- remember and recognize the sample. bord is that many cyberzines take their shape Because the artistic mandates of pastiche and their energy from the contrasts and juxta- inspire its practitioners to seek new elements positions of the collage. The vast world of the to borrow or include in all sorts of places, pas- Internet has encouraged zinesters to develop tiche also expresses and enacts the web of the style of pastiche, already important in processes that constitute globalization. The print zines. But using the Internet, the collage Internet has connected up different parts of can include many more forms (animation, the world in a powerful new way: images, music, etc.). Cyberzines can also make their words, etc. can flow across borders in more pastiche multi-layered through the use of directions and faster than ever before. (Among hypertexting, by which a highlighted word or other things, this makes policing speech that is image, “clicked” with a computer mouse, unprotected in the United States, such as child jumps the reader to another screen from with- pornography, much harder to do, as Internet in the first one. Readers can jump back and users can simply visit web sites generated in forth among hypertexted pages, potentially other countries.) The process of importing creating endless combinations of pages, and exporting cultural bits from all around the images, and sounds. In addition, highlighted globe can lead to a web zine which contains links can also take readers to other users’ sites, content that originated almost anywhere. which might be similar or relevant to the orig- The aesthetics of pastiche, in which origi- inal zine (as in Mimi Nguyen’s list of feminist nality and newness are not primary values, but and Asian American web sites, linked to her recirculation, reproduction and reinterpreta- zine Exoticize This), or might simply be a site tion are, is a hallmark of an economic and the original web writer likes (as in Kristina artistic system called postmodernism. Wong’s list of other sites that happen to tickle Economically speaking, “postmodern” refers her fancy, linked to her site Big Bad Chinese to a system that does not depend chiefly upon Mama). industry and production (as did the “modern” As an artistic strategy, pastiche finds its economy) but rather on information technolo- power in juxtaposition and constant re-con- gies and service-based jobs: work in offices textualization. Words, sounds, and images cir- rather than factories, marketing of experiences culate hypothetically endlessly, acquiring new rather than goods, and relying upon the rapid layers of meaning, as they carry the associa- transfer of information made possible by fax tions and meanings from previous usages with machines, cellular phones, photocopiers, them into their new contexts. One of the rich- overnight mail services, and above all, the

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Internet. When used in reference to culture, Zinester Mimi Nguyen, in her online zine “postmodern” generally refers to a constella- slander, meditates at some length about the tion of aesthetic concerns and practices, range of ways her Asian body can “mean” including a lack of certainty about meaning depending upon what sort of hairstyle she is (privileging the reader’s ability to decode wearing: meaning based on his or her interest and experience); an elevation of the popular; and a All through high school I had “natural” continuous re-contextualization of pre-exist- long black hair. A white man approached ing texts or fragments of texts. Thus, the me in the park one day, told me he must Internet—with its rapid processing of infor- have been an “Oriental” man in a former mation—is both product of, and medium for, life, because he loves the food, the cul- the postmodern sensibility—-which, in turn, ture, and the women. At the mall a black speaks for and to an increasingly global econ- Marine looked me up and down and omy. informed me he had just returned from Another hallmark of the postmodern sen- the Philippines, and could he have my sibility is a fascination with the body as phone number?... I cut off all my hair and changeable and socially constructed. This fas- damaged it with fucked-up chemicals cination has manifested itself in a variety of because I was sick of the orientalist gaze ways, including a ferocious surge in popularity being directed at/on me. of plastic surgery, body piercing, tattooing, (http://www.worsethanqueer.com/slander/ and the like, especially on the part of young hair.html) people who grew up in the postmodern era. (In the case of body piercing and tattooing, Nguyen continues to explore the complexities the popularity points not only to a notion of of hair in a racialized setting: can bleaching the body as shapeable, but also to the process black hair imply self-hatred? What does it of globalized culture, as these practices have mean to dye your hair green? Does hairstyle been widely practiced for a long time in other, have anything to do with politics? “developing” countries.) In this regard, the But despite the urgency of Nguyen’s Internet inserts a fascinating twist: what can descriptions of how her body has looked at we say about the idea of the body (as a place various times, and what physical changes she where cultural texts may be inscribed) in a cir- has made to her appearance, there is no real cumstance where it is essentially removed? corporality to the medium in which she regis- How do bodies function at all, and what do ters her complaint. One thing that makes the they mean, in cyberspace? Internet possible is that place has no literal In the world of the Internet, ethnic pub- meaning, and that neither users nor informa- lishing, such as Asian American e-zines, pre- tion need be located in a fixed position. sents a fascinating contradiction. In the first Furthermore, it is an Internet tradition of place, bodies are a major way in which ethnic- sorts to use that lack of physicality to create, ity or race get written and read, and therefore, and re-create, various identities according to a certain amount of exploration of what makes whim, so that “a central utopian discourse an Asian American body is unavoidable. around computer technology is the potential

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Illustration A

“Mail order brides” from Big Bad Chinese Mama.

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offered by computers for humans to escape with white straight men; Holly Tse, editor of the body” (Lupton 479). In chat rooms, for AsiaZine, points out that even a purportedly instance, men regularly log on as women or Asian-oriented web site, Click2Asia.com, reg- women as men, users invent entire personas isters under its umbrella literally hundreds of for themselves including made-up physical porn-swapping and sex-oriented clubs that descriptions, and people have “virtual sex”: advertise young Asian women (Margarita interview and Tse interview). To further com- Role-playing sites on the Internet…offer plicate matters, according to cultural critic their participants programming features Lisa Nakamura, when white people create such as the ability to physically ‘set’ one’s Internet personas that are non-white, Asian gender, race and physical appearance, personae are by far the most common—and through which they can, indeed are the way these personae are drawn tends to required to, project a version of the self reiterate and reinforce a handful of very rec- which is inherently theatrical. Since the ognizable racial and ethnic stereotypes, such ‘real’ identities of the interlocutors…are as the submissive woman or de-sexed man unverifiable…it can be said that everyone mentioned above (Nakamura 714). who participates is ‘passing,’ as it is In this light, the most daring and impossible to tell if a character’s descrip- oppositional aspect of Kristina Wong’s Big tion matches a player’s physical charac- Bad Chinese Mama might be the fact that she teristics. (Nakamura 712) publishes photographs of Asian women—all looking ugly on purpose (see illustration A). For some Asian American zinesters, bod- This completely flies in the face of what Asian ies are an obsession because sex and sexuality women are “supposed” to do with their have been so central in the process of margin- bodies—or what any women are supposed to alizing and commodifying Asian Americans. do with their bodies, as the multi-million On the Internet, pornographic images abound dollar cosmetics industry attests. The captions that hawk the stereotype of the physically accompanying the photos of young women small, submissive Asian woman, or the emas- making absurd faces, picking their noises, culated Asian man. Several zinesters expressed sitting on the toilet, or sticking out their to me a kind of annoyed weariness at still hav- tongues refer to the cultural expectations they ing to harp on the “I’m not a geisha” protest, are working to thwart: “Not quite a lotus while web sites like the one maintained by the blossom, but the next best thing,” one reads. Asian porn star Annabel Chong—who caused Another, cleverly, offers a haiku: “I know my a stir by filming “the biggest gang-bang in his- purpose/my life is but to serve ME/get your tory,” in which she had sex with 251 men in own damn beer (http://www.bigbadchinese ten hours—strive to emphasize agency and mama.com/meredith.html). humor in the sexualized Asian body. Nonetheless, the zinesters admit, these Where did zines come from? notions remain ubiquitous. Sabrina Margarita The world of zines is incredibly varied, so that has received drawings sent without apparent most definitions will tend to be inadequate. malice to Bamboo Girl of Asian men having sex Until fairly recently, zines were part of a cul-

Cyberspace Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks 12

tural underground; self-produced and haphaz- with the surge in popularity of the mimeo- ardly distributed, they were driven by passion graph machine, with the result that the 1930s, rather than profit, and, although their focuses 1940s and 1950s saw a boom in self-publish- could literally be on any subject, they general- ing of these fanzines, which began to contain ly shared a contempt for big-business publish- not only science fiction but also comics, fanta- ing, a celebration of the quirky and the con- sy stories, mysteries, and other popular forms fessional, and a respect for the open expres- of writing. These fanzines left an indelible sion of unpopular tastes and ideas. mark on the popular cultural landscape. For At the present, zines can be divided into instance, in the third issue of Science Fiction, two basic categories: print zines and published in 1932 by Jerome Siegel and Joe cyberzines (also called e-zines). By now, paper Schuster, a character named Superman was zines range from handwritten sheets, stapled, introduced. photocopied, and mailed to friends, to elabo- The tradition of self-publishing was fur- rately produced publications created by edi- ther developed during the 1960s, when tors with skills in desktop publishing and sold activists in a number of grass-roots organiza- in alternative bookstores and even some big tions began publishing their own newsletters chain stores (such as Tower Records). and alternative newspapers across the United Cyberzines run a similar gamut: some of the States. In addition to Gidra, some of the more designs are visually spectacular, and make use prominent alternative papers of this era of video clips, digital photographs, links to included the Berkeley Barb, the Los Angeles Free other sites, and so forth, while others are Press, and the Detroit’s Fifth Estate. The era of essentially text-only rants. While there are the 1960s also added underground comix still hundreds of paper zines being published, (most famously represented by cartoonist R. cyberzines are proliferating even faster, Crumb) and music fanzines to the mix.2 because they are even cheaper to produce, The late 1970s and 1980s saw the birth of there is no need to worry about distribution at punk subculture as a reaction against the all, and the potential audience is practically incorporation of rock and roll music into big limitless. business, at the expense of its rebellious nature The name “zine” is not directly descend- and musical frisson. As Greil Marcus put it, ed from the more common “magazine,” as with the introduction of punk, might be supposed. Instead, the antecedent for “zine” is “fanzine,” a term that originated Very quickly, pop music changed—and so in the 1930s to describe cheap periodicals that did public discourse. A NIGHT OF published science fiction stories. The growth TREASON, promised a poster for a con- of the popularity of science fiction coincided cert by the Clash in London in 1976, and

2 The word “comix” (as opposed to the more common “comics”) generally refers to a body of work associated with the 1960s counterculture and comprising the “scene” of underground/independent art, while “comics” refers mostly to newspaper strips and comic books produced by the major publishing companies such as Marvel and D.C. It must be noted, though, that these categories are extremely permeable and at this point the two spelling variants indicate a difference in emphasis, rather than discrete groupings.

Rachel Rubin 13

that might have summed it up: a new losophy of D.I.Y.: authors generally handed music, called “punk” for lack of anything them out, or mailed them out themselves after better, as treason against superstar music receiving a request and money to cover you were supposed to love but which you postage. Even more notably, zine writers often could view only from a distance; against offered a trade instead of a price tag: you send the future society had planned for you; me a copy of your zine, and I’ll send you a against your own impulse to say yes, to copy of mine. The result is a kind of cultural buy whatever others had put on the mar- swap-meet that undeniably has its utopian ket, never wondering why what you really qualities in its ability to create a community of wanted was not on sale at all. (Marcus 2) zine producers and consumers without being ruled by the marketplace. Hundreds of publications such as Punk took a Of course, producing a D.I.Y. zine philosophical and aesthetic stand against the requires a large amount to commitment on bland seamlessness of corporate popular cul- the part of the authors. Holly Tse, who is ture by developing a publishing style that fit thirty years old and works full-time, spends the punk credo of D.I.Y. (or Do It Yourself). from forty to sixty hours producing each issue In this light, it is important to emphasize that of AsiaZine, which comes out every three the unpolished, non-professional style of zines months (Tse interview). AsiaZine is an extra- is a positive statement, rather than simply a ordinarily attractive and elaborate zine, and condition of not being able to do a “better” sticks to its quarterly production schedule job. The style of D.I.Y. (and its successor, with unusual success, but Tse’s dedication is “indie” or independent) continues to repre- not unusual.3 Sabrina Margarita of Bamboo sent a multi-layered critique of the popular Girl, for instance, not only makes time to pub- culture industry: its motivations, its methods, lish her zine but also maintains an e-mail and its material. mailing list for “updates” that she sends out This outspokenly oppositional stance, in between issues. the words of R. Seth Friedman (the first com- piler and reviewer of zine writing), gave Why Asian Americans? Why zines? fanzines in the 1980s “the heart of a music “Zines have been very good for young fanzine but the character of an underground Asians,” declares a female college student who comic” (Friedman 12). The lessons of punk, helped to organize a zine conference at her coupled with the proliferation during that era Massachusetts college. Lorial Crowder of of cheap copy-shop chains such as Kinko’s and Bagong Pinay, an e-zine with the stated goal of the introduction of personal computers and producing a “positive representation for printers into a mass number of homes and Filipinas on the Internet,” agrees: “It [the zine workplaces, led thousands of people to create movement] been really important, a major their own idiosyncratic zines. And the distrib- voice for us” (conversations with the author, ution of the zines also dovetailed with the phi-

3 In 2002, AsiaZine’s production schedule was reduced to three issues per year.

Cyberspace Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks 14

25 July 2001 and October 17 2001). Given the (http://www.gidra.net/Spring_99/bring_it_ power and frequency of such personal testi- back.hmtl.) Similarly, the two young writers monials, it is worth considering concretely of “Hi-Yaa!”, June and Phung, refer to the what it is, exactly, about the form that has plethora of elaborate websites that exoticize proven to be such a congenial media of Asian culture as a motivation for starting their expression for Asian American youth. The own zine (http://www.hi-yaa.com/index2. aesthetic mandates of zine publishing have html). The relatively democratic nature of turned out to serve some particular needs of zine publishing (see above) has facilitated to young Asian Americans. an unprecedented degree for this kind of self- Asian American zines—paper and elec- expression. tronic—flowered at a time when Asian culture An important touchstone in Asian reached the American mainstream in a big American zine publishing reveals unusually way. At the turn of the twenty-first century, clearly this tension between commercial and Hong Kong action movie hero Jackie Chan D.I.Y., between mainstream and marginal. became an American star with his crossover This is the case of Giant Robot, launched in hit Rumble in the Bronx (1995), which grossed 1994 by Martin Wong and David Nakamura. $28 million during its first release. Americans GR, a quarterly zine of Asian American pop spent millions of dollars on products from culture that comes out of Los Angeles, began lunchboxes to trading cards to t-shirts touting as a photocopied affair with a run of 450 figures from Japanese animation (most notably copies. GR quickly came to exemplify what Pokemon). Karaoke became a popular pastime would be known as “GenerAsian X,” growing for white Americans across the United States so rapidly that the editors claimed a circula- and grew into a multi-billion dollar industry. tion of 12,000 by the ninth issue. Over the “Japanimation” on television and at the years of its production, GR has taken on a movies broke from its cult status and gained wide range of subjects, including Asian squat- widespread appeal. Girls of all ages began ters in New York City, Margaret Cho’s stand- sporting clothing and makeup emblazoned up comedy, the Asian American Power with the resoundingly cute cartoon portrait of Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Asian hair- the Japanese project trademark “Hello Kitty.” cuts, Asian junk food, and a skateboarding trip It is no coincidence that zine production, by the editors through an abandoned World with its anti-professional stance and its edgy War II internment camp. aesthetic, would snowball at precisely this cul- With Giant Robot firmly established as a tural moment of crossover and cooptation, or critical and commercial success, a fascinating that its writers and webmasters would voice a kind of self-backlash occurred. Issue 17 came nearly continuous appeal to “keep it real” by out on time in 1999. A photograph of comic resisting commercial polish and by defining Margaret Cho, the first Asian-American star and describing Asian culture from within. of a TV sitcom (All-American Girl), graces the Gidra, for instance, refers directly in its inau- cover, along with a bar code for scanning by gural issue to the plethora of “slick, full-color, large retailers. The perforated subscription high-fructose eye syrup publications” about blank offers a credit card payment option. Asian culture that fill the newsstands. Advertisers tout products ranging from books,

Rachel Rubin 15

Illustration B

Angry Little Asian Girl and friends.

videos and CDs to toys and skateboard gear. According to R. Seth Friedman of the In many important ways, the zine maintains Factsheet Five, the first popular review of zines, its in-your-face stance: headlines scream “milk the centrality of this dynamic has made the farts,” “sluts and bolts,” and “eat bugs.” Even singer Kurt Cobain an icon of zine publishing. so, this is a journal with high production val- Sub Pop, Cobain’s record label with Nirvana, ues, a big budget, and wide distribution. had started as a music fanzine called But Wong and Nakamura, it seems, Subterranean Pop. When Nirvana achieved missed something about the indie aesthetic to national success, zine culture also grew in which self-produced zines generally hew. prominence. And zine writers elevated Cobain They created a second zine, which they called as a figure from the underground music scene “Robot Power,” a raggedy spin-off of Giant who finally got recognition—but who contin- Robot billed as “Issue 17.5.” (This inaugural ued to critique the star system and the huge- issue was followed by subsequent releases, profit music industry into which he had which are released after each issue of Giant entered (Friedman 102). Robot). Robot Power looks very different from Zines, then, have proved to be an espe- its parent: no glossy paper, no color graphics, cially congenial forum for the cultural needs staples instead of glued binding, and much less of Asian American youth because of the way advertising (especially by bigger companies). they allow young people to “talk back” to a In short, the homemade quality of zines is cultural industry turning huge profits by sell- clearly part of the point, and Wong and ing things Asian. It has also been important Nakamura’s ambivalence about leaving it that zines, and the punk aesthetic generally, behind speaks to a central dynamic between tend to be organized in gleeful opposition to the commercial and the “authentic” in the decorum and propriety. In other words, zine electronic era. publishing has “worked” so well for Asian

Cyberspace Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks 16

Illustration C

The secret life of Hello Kitty.

American youth because it is uniquely success- being a silent “good girl.” Wong redraws the ful at providing a means of expression that Japanese cartoon character “Hello Kitty,” an flies directly in the face of the “polite Asian” extremely cute kitten drawn with no mouth stereotype. For young people chafing under who appears on a huge number of products, the label of “model minority,” the slaphappy with a caption reading “What Hello Kitty world of zine culture is a significant opportu- would say if she had a mouth.” Word balloons nity for opposition. An example is “Dead Fish show the dainty feline saying, “Who’s up for a Online Magazine: An Asian Online Zine.” In threesome?” or “Who are you calling a addition to the disgusting title (and the illus- pussy?” (see illustration C). tration that accompanies it), the zine has a As these young Asian Americans have it, banner across the bottom of its home page the notion of “model minority” is both limit- that declares, “Warning: we are not experts on ing and condescending in the way it seeks to anything, so complain to someone who cares” congratulate Asians for knowing their place (www.deadfish.com). and buying into the American dream. By Similarly, Lela Lee’s character Angry focusing on well-off young people who make Little Asian Girl (first presented online in it to Ivy League colleges, the “model minori- 1998) refuses in various comic strip adventures ty” myth leaves out or penalizes Asian immi- to be anyone’s nice girl—and found a surpris- grants who are struggling against great chal- ing large and loyal audience along the way lenges—language barriers, poverty, racism— (see illustration B). This intentional refusal to and whose future is not assured. A new stereo- be polite can be quite emphatic, as illustrated type emerges of a driven, studious, hyper- by the many, many references to shit, farts, competent and above all, conventionally suc- and comic sex that crop up in the zines. Much cessful Asian American, one that encourages artwork by Kristina Wong, of Big Bad Chinese anti-Asian backlash as well as misrepresenting Mama, for instance, pivots on the rejection of the diversity and complexity of Asian America.

Rachel Rubin 17

The “model minority” myth also praises The Asian-American youth “attitude” is (if backhandedly) Asian Americans at the transmitted across a variety of styles or forms expense of other so-called minority groups, of zine production. Gidra makes use of words most notably African Americans, thereby and expressions associated with hip hop cul- making Asian American social mobility com- ture, quoting rapper KRS-ONE and announc- plicit in racism—a bitter stance indeed for the ing, “Gidra’s back. Spread the word, yo” many zine writers who clearly identify them- (http://www.gidra.net/Spring_99/bring_it_back. selves with African American cultural prac- html). AsiaZine uses sly wordplay; its slogan tices, especially hip hop culture. This dynamic “Get oriented!” is at least a triple pun, which has led Mia Tuan, in her book on the Asian each meaning mocking an aspect of the ethnic experience, to frame the fate of Asians (nonetheless) urgent construction of Asian in the United States as stretched between two American identity, which is an organizing poles: “forever foreigners or honorary principle for the zine (see illustration D). The whites.”4 title of Hi-Yaa! also reminds us of the multi- Thus, although not all zines are explicitly plicity of identity: the authors expand “Hi- political (as are Gidra or Asian American Yaa” into “Hi, Young Asian Americans!” while Revolutionary Movement Ezine, among others), the name simultaneously reiterates the stereo- the zines overwhelmingly share an emphasis typical sound made in kung fu movies—or by on what I’ll call attitude, revealed through small children playing at kung fu (see illustra- direct and belligerent addresses to the reader, tion E). use of slang and sarcasm, pugilistic graphics Many zines by and about Asian American (frequently featuring a person punching or women use zine “attitude” to confront domi- kicking directly at the reader’s face), and so nant images in popular culture of Asian forth. This quality of “attitude” is hard to women: the submissive geisha-girl, the China- define or pin down, but it is nonetheless cen- doll, the Indian princess. Zinester Mimi tral to the rich world of Asian American zine Nguyen writes, “Now I will be what they least writing. “Attitude” is the means by which expect. I will be scary. I will be other than the Asian American zine writers give their publi- stereotype of the model minority, the passive cations what Michael Denning would call Asian female” (http://www.worsethanqueer. “accent”—a symbolic and rhetorical device by com/slander/hair.html). Nguyen sets out to which they mark themselves as immigrants, confront notions of what an Asian American children of immigrants, or grandchildren of woman should be, and makes clear in various immigrants struggling toward a nuanced mission statements that this is her intent. “Go understanding of American identity (Denning ahead,” dares a self-portrait on the website, in 3-5). “Attitude” includes a range of tactics by pugilistic pose. “Exoticize my fist” (see illus- which zine writers loosen themselves from tration F). Likewise, Lela Lee’s Angry Little inadequate categories such as conformist Asian Girl turns cuteness inside out—and in “American” or traditional “Asian.” the process, has attracted a lot of attention,

4 This binary, posed as a question, forms the title of Tuan’s book.

Cyberspace Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks 18

Politically Correct Angry Asian Asian in De nial Banana/Coco nut Asian FOB Asian

Very angry about Usually grew up in a Yellow/brown on the Fresh Off the Boat. Ge ne ral ly rais e d in a how Asians are predominantly White outside, white on Usu ally spent Western society and viewed by Western neighbourhood. the inside. Generally formative years in as such, is highly society. Has big chip Pre tends to be raised in a Western an Asia n societ y. influenced by on shoulder and White. Does not society, but has Hol ds onto Asia n Western ideals of goes on and on ackno wle dge tha t experienced the value s and political correctness. about "Asian pride" th e y are As ia n. quirks of being attitudes. Limited Quick to judge and "elevating our raised Asian. Does influence by others about judging race". not deny heritage. Western at titudes others bas ed on skin (except for co lour. sho ppin g).

Personal Mantra: Personal Mantra: Personal Mantra: Personal Mantra: Personal Mantra: "If you don't see "I am White. I am "I use d to wish I "Everything Asian is "I do not make things my way, you White. I am Whi te." was White, but I'm far superior to distinct ions are anti-Asian, you mature and grown everything regarding race. This f**king a**hole!" up now. I have the Western." is a bad thing to b e st of bo th wo rlds." do ."

Buzzwords/ Buz zwo rd s/ Buzzwords/ Buz zwo r ds/ Buz zwo rds / Phrases: "Asian Phrases : "I f they Phrases: "It 's o k Phrases : "A re y ou Phrases : " era cism", pride", "f** k you", live here, they when I make (insert (ins ert national ity "we all bleed the "you dumb sh*t", sho uld sp e ak th e nationality here) her e) ?" "How com e sa me c olour ", "let 's (any grammatically language." "My jokes because I'm you don't speak all get al ong", i ncorrect exple tives) friends think I'm (insert nationality (insert Asian "perpetuating more Whit e than here)." language here)?" stereotypes" they are."

Social Social Social Social Social Interactions: Interactions: Will Interactions: Has Interactions: Interactions: Hangs out only with only hang out with friends who are Friends are all Asian. Hangs o ut mo stly other Asians in a big White people. Asian and friends Has a "sti ck- with other Politically group. Has a Avoi ds other Asians who are not. to g et h er" m ent alit y . Correct Asians. Has confrontational like the plague. May However, is always Will hang out with a few token White attitude and looks talk to ot her Asians aware of the racial someone solely friends. Makes a fo r racism in every in Denial, but will dynamics of the be cause they 're poi nt to not no tice gesture. never be caught group. Asianevenif they race. de ad in a group of don't really like Asians. th em

Thoughts on Lucy Thoughts on Lucy Thoughts on Lucy Thoughts on Lucy Thoughts on Lucy Liu: "She's a sell- Liu: "I think she Liu: "I heard she's a Liu: "I secretly Liu: "She out." sucks. I prefer bitch." OR "Way to admire her, but pe rpe tuates the Calista Flockheart." go! Another Asian in pub licl y look do wn dragon la dy mainstream media." on her because she stereotype." is not truly Asian."

Thoughts on Thoughts on Thoughts on Thoughts on Thoughts on ASIA'ZINE: "Your ASIA'ZINE: N one, ASIA'ZINE: "I ASIA'ZINE: "This is ASIA'ZINE: "People 'zine sucks. You as an Asia n in De nial laughed my ass off." no t tru e." are ridiculed don't know anything would never read everyday because of about Asian pride." th is 'z ine . thei r skin color or ethi c back groun d. This is s hit, and y ou shouldn't publish it." (Actual quote, spelling errors and all)

Illustration D

Multiplicity of identity as parody.

Rachel Rubin 19

Illustration E

In your face (literally) attitude.

just try it. go ahead.

exoticize my fist.

Illustration F

“I will be what they fear most,” says zinester Mimi Nguyen.

Cyberspace Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks 20

inspiring Lee to create more defiant charac- short lives: it’s impossible to know even ters (other Angry Little Girls). And some- approximately how many are in existence at a times, when zine writers begin to take their given time, and a particular title might disap- thoughts to the public, the confrontation hap- pear altogether entirely without warning. pens automatically, as when Holly Tse of Finally, zines can change their names fre- AsiaZine’s found that her first choice of titles quently, at the whim of the author(s) or to for her zine, InvAsian, was taken already—by convey a new message; for instance, Sky Ryan a porn site. (Tellingly, if one performs an changed the name and focus of her zine with Internet search with the keywords “Asian + every issue.6 women,” the results will include zines like The challenges posed by zines extend Wong’s and Nguyen’s—and an enormous beyond the practical: they call into question number of pornography sites.)5 some fundamental tenets of the American cultural hierarchy while upending practices of the Conclusion: Where will zines go? popular culture industry. Perhaps the most fundamental challenge is to the system of cul- The many and varied print and cyber-zines tural value. There is still a dominant ideal that that have been produced and distributed in what’s valuable must be lasting, as indicated the last few decades provide a goldmine of by the word “classic.” (Although the market- valuable materials for cultural observers. In ing of the “instant classic” in our consumer the case of Asian American youth, web writing age could be seen as making the notion of represents a place where they are prominent “lasting culture” irrelevant.) In order to evalu- and visible as cultural producers. As noted ate zines, “disposability” must replace “last- above, scholars, editors, book publishers and ing” as a key concept. Disposable culture has the like have started to take note of the zines’ practical implications for scholars as well, as significance in American cultural history. most of the zines are not archived, particularly But zine publishing brings challenges as in ways that are accessible to the public. The well as opportunity to those who would study creator of Bamboo Girl, for instance, maintains them. Their guiding aesthetic, as well as the the zine’s entire run—in her apartment conditions of their production, make them (Margarita inteview). This means, simply put, hard to study. In the first place, there are so that it can be hard to get your hands on a par- many, both on-line and in print, that systemic ticular run. While there are now some collec- approach to the material is practically impos- tions that excerpt zine writing, these are, of sible. Furthermore, the zines often have irreg- course, partial and biased. And because of the ular production schedules (frequently tied to sheer volume of zines, it’s hard to make a case the amount of free time the producer has) and for the importance of any particular one;

5 Mark Kalesniko’s graphic novel Mail Order Bride (2001) works similar ground in its story of Kyung Seo, who turns out to be much stronger and more complex than her Canadian husband expects. This kinship points to the relationship between zine culture and the culture of underground comix. 6 Some of Ryan’s titles were Fuck Off and Die, Schmooze, 1985, Cryptic Crap, and How Perfectly Goddamn Delightful It All Is, To Be Sure. Factsheet Five Zine Reader, ed. R. Seth Friedman (1997), 90.

Rachel Rubin 21

rather, analysts must read a large enough logical marketplace? Will the Internet as a number of that to get a sense of general cur- (relatively) free and playful space for expres- rents in a manner not unlike scholars who sion give way to the Internet as ultimate write about romance novels, or television achievement and perpetuator of cyber-capital- shows. ism? Which will ultimately reveal itself as The grassroots nature of zine production what the Internet has facilitated most: peer- and distribution also resists the academic to-peer communication—or business to cus- frame. The “indie” aesthetic flies in the face of tomer? The number of creative and heartfelt the “great artist” vision of literature— zines on the Internet continues to grow every- although many of the zines themselves are day—but so does the number of pop-up ads, intensely personal. Distribution of the zines spam e-mail messages, and on-line megas- has also attempted to remain outside of the tores. In short, what opportunities the culture industries; early zine writers describe Internet offers to individuals and groups in handing out copies to strangers who caught search of a workable identity, it can also take their attention on the bus; while some zines away, with its ability to co-opt, to commodify, are carried by some bookstores, the majority to package and re-sell. of them change hands much more informally. And with cyberzines, individual sites can be linked to other sites at will, and do not require an apparatus of distribution beyond the technology to access the internet. Therefore, incorporation of this body of work into the story of American culture will necessitate a revised value system. Finally, since many zinesters use computers or copy machines at work to produce their zines, the inter-rela- tionships among culture, work and leisure must be reevaluated. To shed some light on the dramatic ways in which zine writing has transformed popular culture, this chapter has focused largely on a particular hallmark of cyber-publishing: what I have referred to variously as de-centered, anarchic, independent, outsider and democratic. The final, key question about the future of cyberzines will be whether this productive chaos continues to characterize Internet rela- tionships. Will the possibility of “empowerment through connectivity” (Weinstein and Weinstein 213) cede to the demands of an increasingly regulated and centralized techno-

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WORKS CITED/FURTHER READING Whites?: the Asian Ethnic Experience Today. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Bell, David and Barbara M. Kennedy, eds. The Press, 1998. Cybercultures Reader. New York: Ueda, Reed. Postwar Immigrant America: A Routledge, 2000. Social History. New York: Bedford/St. Denning, Michael. Mechanic Accents. New Martin’s, 1994. York: Verso, 1987. V. Vale, ed. Zines! San Francisco: Re/Search, Friedman, R. Seth. The Factsheet Five Zine 1996. Reader: The Best Writing from the Wei, William. The Asian American Movement. Underground World of Zines. New York: Philidelphia: Temple University Press, Three Rivers Press, 1999. 1993. Green, Karen and Tristan Taormino, eds. A Weinstein, Deena and Michael A. Weinstein. Girl’s Guide to Taking Over the World: “Net Game Cameo.” Cybercultures Reader Writings from the Girl Zine Revolution. 210-215. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997. Wong, Kristina. Interview with Rachel Rubin, Kalesniko, Mark. Mail Order Bride. Seattle, 18 July 2001. Fantagraphics Books, 2001. Ling, Amy, ed. Yellow Light: The Flowering of SELECTED ZINES Asian American Arts. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999. (Note: In the following list of particularly Liu, Jeff. Interview with Rachel Rubin, 12 interesting zines with an Asian American August 2001. focus, I have done my best to include the Lupton, Deborah. “The Embodied Computer zines’ Internet addresses. However, as I men- User.” Cybercultures Reader 477-488. tion above, the nature of both zine publishing Marcus, Greil. Ranters & Crowd Pleasers: Punk and Internet publishing is fairly ephermal. In in Pop Music, 1977-92. some cases, the address will have changed or New York: Doubleday, 1993. the zine may no longer exist.) Margarita, Sabrina. Interview with Rachel Rubin, 23 July 2001. Angry Little Asian Girl (e-zine; www.angrylit- Nakamura, Lisa. “Race in/for Cyberspace.” tleasiangirl.com) Cybercultures Reader 712-720. Asian American Revolutionary Movement E-Zine Okihiro, Gary Y. Margins and Mainstreams: (e-zine; www.aamovement.net) Asians in American History and Culture. AsiaZine (e-zine; www.asiazine.com) Seattle: University of Washington Press, Bagong Pinay(e-zine; www.newfilipina.com) 1994. Bamboo Girl (paper zine) Sterling, Bruce. “Short History of the Banana Café (e-zine, http://www.bananacafe. Internet.” Magazine of Fantasy and Science ca/0203/0203-16.htm) Fiction. February, 1993. Big Bad Chinese Mama (e-zine; http:// Tse, Holly. Interview with Rachel Rubin, 19 www.bigbadchinesemama.com) July 2001. [email protected] (e-zine; blast@explode. Tuan, Mia. Forever Foreigners or Honorary com) 23

Dead Fish (e-zine; www.deadfish.com) Exoticize This! (Also called Exoticize My Fist!) (e-zine; http://members.aol.com/ Critchicks/) Gas ‘n’ Go (paper zine) Geek the Girl (e-zine; www.nodeadtrees. com/ezines/geekgirl) Giant Robot (paper zine) Gidra (e-zine; www.gidra.net) Half-Korean (e-zine; www.halfkorean.net) Hi-Yaa! (e-zine; http://www.hi-yaa.com/ index2.html) Koe (paper zine) Moons in June (paper zine) Evolution of a Race Riot (paper zine) Riot Grrrl Review (paper zine) Robot Power (paper zine) Shoyu (e-zine; http://shoyuzine.tripod.com/ shoyu2010/) slander (e-zine; www.worsethanqueer.com) Slant (paper zine) Tennis and Violins (paper zine)