In this engaging and accessible book, Ono and Pham summarize key scholarship on Asian American media, as well as lay theoretical groundwork to help students, scholars and other interested readers understand historical and contemporary media representations of Asian Americans in traditional media, including print, film, music, radio, and television, as well as in newer media, primarily internet-situated. Since Asian Americans had little control over their representation in early U.S. media, historically dominant white society largely constructed Asian American media representations. In this context, the book draws attention to recurring patterns in media representation, as well as responses by Asian America. Today, Asian Americans are creating complex, sophisticated, and imaginative self-portraits within U.S. media, often equipped with powerful information and education about Asian Americans. Throughout, the book suggests media representations are best understood within historical, cultural, political, and social contexts, and envisions an even more active role in media for Asian Americans in the future.
Asian Americans and the Media will be an ideal text for all students taking courses on Asian American Studies, Minorities and the Media and Race and Ethic Studies.
* Exam copies only available to lecturers for whom the book may be suitable as a course text.
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"Ono and Pham present a fascinating read on the representational politics of Asian Americans. Using history as a guide to read these images, Ono and Pham underscore the necessity of understanding the cultural politics and social construction of the category `Asian American' itself. By exploring contemporary images, they offer insightful readings and constructive directions for future work in media and communication studies. This is a very important work at the contemporary moment that does not ignore the past."
Thomas K. Nakayama, Northeastern University
"Asian Americans and the Media offers us the much needed critical tools, terminology, and historical framework for reading, deconstructing, and intervening in the politics of ambivalent representation of Asian Americans across a wide range of old and new media, from silent films to YouTube."
Elena Tajima Creef, Wellesley College
Section 1: Historical and Mainstream Media Representations.
2. The Persistence of Yellow Peril Discourse.
3. Media Yellowface "Logics".
4. Problematic Representations of Asian American Gender and Sexuality.
5. Threatening Model Minorities: The Asian American Horatio Alger Story.
Section 2: Striving for Media Independence.
6. Asian American Public Criticisms and Community Protests.
7. Asian American Media Independence.
8. The Interface of Asian American Independent Media and the Mainstream.
9. Asian American New Media Practices.
10. Mobilizing Organizations.
11. Conclusion: Many Languages, One Voice.
Glossary.
References
Vincent N. Pham is a Doctoral Student at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
