Race, Beauty, and Politics in Chinese American Festivals
A History of National and Transnational Identity Construction
By Jinzhao Li
To Be Published December 15th 2013 by Routledge – 224 pages
Series: Studies in Asian Americans
Description
Through multi-site, multi-media, and multi-language ethnographic and historical research, the author demonstrates that during the twentieth century, as the mainstream definition of Americanness changed from "whiteness" to "assimilation" and to "ethnic diversity," the meaning of being Chinese evolved. Jinzhao Li demonstrates the shifts that occurred from non-assimilation in the 1910s and Americanization in the 1930s to exoticization in the 1950s–1960s, pan-ethnicization in the 1970s, and localization in the 1990s and 2000s. She focuses on the transformation and self-representation of the Chinese American community through its biggest annual events. Different from many contemporary studies of U.S. ethnic festivals and beauty contests that adopt a white/non-white analytical binary, this book proposes a colonial settler-indigenous triangular model in understanding U.S. racial relations and ethnic self-representation.
Contents
Introduction
A New Perspective for Chinese American Studies
Chapter 1
Modernity, Race, and the Female Body in pre-WWII Hawai‘i: A Chinese Encounter
Chapter 2
The Making of an Ethnic Spectacle: the Narcissus Festival and Queen Pageant in 1949
Chapter 3
“Exotic America”: The Narcissus Queen Displaying Hawai‘i to the World in the 1950s and 1960s
Chapter 4
Becoming “Pan-Chinese”: Identity Conflicts and Reformation in the 1970s
Chapter 5
Reclaiming “Local”: Meeting the Challenge of Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement in the
1990s and 2000s
Chapter 6
Showcasing America and Hawai‘i in Ancestors’ Land: the 2002 Narcissus Goodwill Tour to
China
Conclusion
A Colonial-Settler-Indigenous Triangular Model
Author Bio
Jinzhao Li is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Sociology at Beijing Foreign Studies University. She received her PhD at the University of Hawai‘i.
Related Subjects
Name: Race, Beauty, and Politics in Chinese American Festivals: A History of National and Transnational Identity Construction (Hardback) – Routledge
Description: By Jinzhao Li. Through multi-site, multi-media, and multi-language ethnographic and historical research, the author demonstrates that during the twentieth century, as the mainstream definition of Americanness changed from "whiteness" to...
Categories: Asian Studies - Race & Ethnics, Women's Studies, American Studies