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Book Cover for: Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability, Vivian L. Huang

Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability

Vivian L. Huang

Paperback
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Finalist:Lambda Literary Award -LGTBQ+ Studies (2023)
In Surface Relations Vivian L. Huang traces how Asian and Asian American artists have strategically reworked the pernicious stereotype of inscrutability as a dynamic antiracist, feminist, and queer form of resistance. Following inscrutability in literature, visual culture, and performance art since 1965, Huang articulates how Asian American artists take up the aesthetics of Asian inscrutability--such as invisibility, silence, unreliability, flatness, and withholding--to express Asian American life. Through analyses of diverse works by performance artists (Tehching Hsieh, Baseera Khan, Emma Sulkowicz, Tseng Kwong Chi), writers (Kim Fu, Kai Cheng Thom, Monique Truong), and video, multimedia, and conceptual artists (Laurel Nakadate, Yoko Ono, Mika Tajima), Huang challenges neoliberal narratives of assimilation that erase Asianness. By using sound, touch, and affect, these artists and writers create new frameworks for affirming Asianness as a source of political and social critique and innovative forms of life and creativity.

Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient

Book Details

  • Publisher: Duke University Press
  • Publish Date: Nov 18th, 2022
  • Pages: 240
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.51in - 0.72lb
  • EAN: 9781478018995
  • Categories: • Cultural & Ethnic Studies - American - Asian American & Paci• LGBTQ+ Studies - General• General

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About the Author

Vivian L. Huang is Assistant Professor in Communication Studies at San Francisco State University.

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Duke University Press
Duke University Press
@DukePress
2 years

Disseminating knowledge—through the publication of printed books, periodicals, and electronic files—beyond the confines of the University's campus.

Our editor @courtney_berger snapped a photo with Vivan L. Huang and new book *Surface Relations*! We have only one copy left in our booth - pick it up now for $20! If you miss it, you can still order on our website for 40% off with code ASA22. https://t.co/IZNwnquLFj

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Summer Kim Lee
Summer Kim Lee
@summerkimlee
2 years

assistant professor of english at ucla

don’t miss this tomorrow! rsvp for a discussion/celebration of vivian huang’s book, surface relations, w karen shimakawa, david eng, and susette min 🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/II8zmOxdf2

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Dr. Xine Yao (she/they) #longCOVID #ucuRISING
Dr. Xine Yao (she/they) #longCOVID #ucuRISING
@XineYaoPhD
2 years

DISAFFECTED: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF UNFEELING @DukePress | @phdivaspodcast | #litPOC creator | BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker | co-director @qUCL_research

If you liked my work on racial & sexual politics of unfeeling, FYI I look forward to learning from Vivian L Huang’s Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability @DukePress Tina Post’s Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression @NYUpress #litpoc https://t.co/JfRCGGeiTt https://t.co/RzA4Bm471G

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Praise for this book

"This book provides an overflowing fountain of information on Asian American inscrutability. The artworks that are analyzed are provocative and eye-opening, and the depth of understanding that Huang has for the subject matter is unsurpassable. Overall, Surface Relations is the ideal text for anybody who wants to further their specific research on queer and feminist Asian American artistic expression."--Shandy Frey "ARLIS/NA Reviews" (7/1/2023 12:00:00 AM)

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