Alien Encounters

Alien Encounters showcases innovative directions in Asian American cultural studies. In thirteen essays exploring topics ranging from pulp fiction to video art to import-car subcultures, contributors analyze Asian Americans' interactions with popular culture as both creators and consumers. By a new generation of cultural critics, these essays reflect post-1965 Asian America; nuanced attention to issues of gender, sexuality, transnationality, and citizenship; and an unabashed appreciation for the pleasures of pop culture. This interdisciplinary collection brings together contributors based in Asian American studies, English, anthropology, sociology, and art history. They consider issues of cultural authenticity raised by Asian American participation in hip-hop and jazz, the emergence of an orientalist "Indo-chic" among U.S. youth culture, and the circulation of Vietnamese music variety shows. They examine the relationship between Chinese restaurants and American culture, issues of sexuality and race brought to the fore in the video performance art of a Bruce Lee-channeling drag queen, and immigrant television viewers' dismayed reactions to a "not Chinese enough" Chinese American chef. Taken together, the essays in Alien Encounters link scholarly engagement with popular culture to progressive political projects: any conception of a more democratic future must grapple with how people participate in political and cultural life, with how they imagine and express their affective relationships to such abstract notions as history, identity, and belonging.