Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Our best stories about the vast histories and cultures of Americans with ancestry in Asia and the Pacific.
Sui Sin Far, the Chinese Canadian-American Sentimentalist
The short story collection Mrs. Spring Fragrance should be read in the context of nineteenth-century sentimentalism, which was shaped by Christian morality.
Performing Memory in Refugee Rap
Hip-hop and other performative arts offer Southeast Asian American immigrants a way to construct richer narratives about the refugee experience.
I Hear America Singing
Japanese American poet Garrett Hongo is a guiding spirit to a glorious cacophony, an exuberant collective thrum made of different tongues and peoples.
Americanism, Exoticism, and the “Chop Suey” Circuit
Asian American artists who performed for primarily white audiences in the 1930s and ’40s both challenged and solidified racial boundaries in the United States.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.