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Undercover Asian: Multiracial Asian Americans in Visual Culture

Online ISBN:
9780252095344
Print ISBN:
9780252038075
Publisher:
University of Illinois Press
Book

Undercover Asian: Multiracial Asian Americans in Visual Culture

Leilani Nishime
Leilani Nishime
University of Washington
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Published:
15 January 2014
Online ISBN:
9780252095344
Print ISBN:
9780252038075
Publisher:
University of Illinois Press

Abstract

This first book-length study of media images of multiracial Asian Americans, tracing the codes that alternatively enable and prevent audiences from recognizing the multiracial status of Asian Americans. The book'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, the Matrix trilogy, and golfer Tiger Woods as examples, the book 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.

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