Undercover Asian: Multiracial Asian Americans in Visual Culture (Asian American Experience) - Softcover

Nishime, Leilani

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252079566 ISBN 13: 9780252079566

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2013

Synopsis

In this first book-length study of media images of multiracial Asian Americans, Leilani Nishime traces the codes that alternatively enable and prevent audiences from recognizing the multiracial status of Asian Americans. Nishime's perceptive readings of popular media--movies, television shows, magazine articles, and artwork--indicate how and why the viewing public often fails to identify multiracial Asian Americans. Using actor Keanu Reeves and the Matrix trilogy, golfer Tiger Woods as examples, Nishime suggests that this failure is tied to gender, sexuality, and post-racial politics. Also considering alternative images such as reality TV star Kimora Lee Simmons, the television show Battlestar Galactica, and the artwork of Kip Fulbeck, this incisive study offers nuanced interpretations that open the door to a new and productive understanding of race in America.

About this title

About the Author

Leilani Nishime is an assistant professor of communications at the University of Washington and the coeditor of East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252079566
• ISBN 13: 9780252079566
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264