H.M.A. Leow

A doctor in the Philippines checks a patient’s blood pressure assisted by Filipina Nurse C.P. De Batan, 1963

Who’s Afraid of the Filipina Coed?

Cultural depictions of the "transpacific Filipina" reflected anxieties about the changing education and social roles of women in the Cold War Philippines.

Visitors at the Richmond night market near Vancouver

Education & Society

Traveling Through Time and Space in the Richmond Night Market

A night market in suburban Vancouver originated with Chinese immigrants, but its structure and management have raised questions over its supposed authenticity.

The covers of two books, Not Out of Hate by Ma Ma Lay and Irrawaddy Tango by Wendy Law-Yone.

Arts & Culture

Burmese Women Novelists Speak Out

The novels of Ma Ma Lay and Wendy Law-Yone challenge the limits placed on the voices of Burmese women in the twentieth century.

Malay-language film poster for the 1940 film Roekihati, produced by Tan's Film.

Arts & Culture

The Lost World of Pre-War Malay Cinema

Using the few surviving copies of the 1940s magazine Film Melayu, historian Timothy Barnard chronicles the discourse surrounding the Golden Age of Malay film.

Arts & Culture

Why #StarringJohnCho Is Not Enough for Asian American Cinema

Filling more movie roles with Asian American actors may be the wrong goal if such visibility promotes stereotypes or buys into Hollywood's fantasies of power.

Arts & Culture

The Changing Face of Chinese Filipinos

In addition to economic changes in the region, recent box office hits also reflect the impact of the mass naturalization of Chinese Filipino citizens in the 1970s.

The cover of "First They Killed My Father" by Loung Ung

Arts & Culture

Should Readers Trust “Inaccuracy” in Memoirs about Genocide?

To what extent do errors undermine life writing? The question is an urgent one when that writing is testimony to the genocidal actions of the Khmer Rouge.

Enchilada, Mexican food in a local market

Education & Society

Yelp and the Quest for Authentic Cuisines

How do affluent urban diners judge the “authenticity” of an eatery? By relying on certain stereotypes, if their Yelp reviews are anything to go by.

Politics & History

Thai American Life in Los Angeles

Or, what the Wat Thai temple tussle in the San Fernando Valley teaches us about public space in America.

Language & Literature

The Blu’s Hanging Controversy

Some have argued that the 1997 novel Blu's Hanging perpetuates East Asian racism against Filipinos while undermining criticism through violent sexuality.

Lee Kwong family photo, ca. 1907. Standing (l.-r.): Aurelia, Percy, Carmen, and Luisa. Seated (l.-r. ): Concepcion, Lai Ngan, Teresa, Frank, Lee Kwong, and Marian.

Politics & History

From Bond Maid to Pioneering Chinese Businesswoman

Raised as a servant girl, Lai Ngan grew up to become a cigar maker, own a boarding house, and run grocery stores in the American Southwest.

Japanese "picture brides" being processed after arriving at Angel Island, California, c. 1910

Politics & History

Japanese American Wives and the Sex Industry

Japanese American immigrant wives in the American West attempted to improve their living conditions through sex work.

A view of the Raffles Hotel, Singapore, between 1920 and 1939

Education & Society

“Microcosms of Empire” in the Colonial Grand Hotel

While Singapore's iconic Raffles Hotel may be marketed as a tranquil throwback to a bygone age, it also reveals the complicated truths of imperialism.

From the cover of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, 2006

Arts & Culture

The Caricature Who Couldn’t Appear on American Born Chinese

The television adaptation of Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel called for significant changes to the character of Chin-Kee.

A black and white newspaper advertisement titled The Abortion Handbook. Lana Clarke Phelan and Patricia Maginnis are names listed below the title.

Health

When San Francisco Feminists Rated Mexican Abortions

The California activists played the role of a health agency to ensure women received safe and competent health care in Mexican clinics.

Arts & Culture

The Tricky Sentimentality of Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge

The Vietnamese American literary classic undermines the readers’ expectations of a redemptive narrative of immigration and memory.

The food court in Lion Plaza, San Jose, CA

Politics & History

The Asian American History of Silicon Valley Shopping Malls

Shopping centers in East San Jose that originally served working-class immigrants have been transformed by the influx of transnational tech professionals.

The annual Barrio Fiesta (Pilipino American Cultural Night) is an event that showcases the talents of the Filipino student community at USF through skit, dance, and music.

Education & Society

Traditional Dance in the Limelight at Pilipino Culture Night

Traditional dance offers Filipino Americans a sense of pride and legitimacy while allowing them to cherish different aspects of this heritage practice.

Arts & Culture

Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt

Centered on the Stein-Toklas household and written from the point of view of their gay Vietnamese cook, Binh, this novel tells a story of converging queer diasporas.

The interior of St Anne's Church, Bukit Mertajam, Penang

Education & Society

A Colorful Mix of Cultures at One Malaysian Catholic Shrine

Different—and sometimes competing—uses of sacred space is par for the course at the Church of St Anne in Penang’s Bukit Mertajam.

The Japanese section of the Food Products Building at the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco

Education & Society

Sanitizing Foreign Food at the World’s Fair

At the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition, “food purity” was shorthand for food manufactured without the help of a racially diverse labor force.

U.S. History

Reading Between the Lines of an “Americanization” Campaign

Manuals used to teach “American” ways of homemaking in California c. 1915–1920 offer a rare opportunity to hear the voices of Mexican immigrant women.