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A Race So Different: Performance and Law in Asian America
Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson
A Race So Different
Performance and Law in Asian America
Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson
New York University Press
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
© 2013 by New York University. All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chambers-Letson, Joshua Takano.
A race so different : performance and law in Asian America / Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson.
pages cm. — (Postmillenial Pop Series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8147-3839-9 (cl : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8147-6996-6 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Asian Americans—Legal status, laws, etc.—History. 2. Asian Americans and mass media—History. I. Title.
KF4757.5.A75C43 2013
342.7308’73—dc23
2013017066
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
A book in the American Literatures Initiative (ALI), a collaborative publishing project of NYU Press, Fordham University Press, Rutgers University Press, Temple University Press, and the University of Virginia Press. The Initiative is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit www.americanliteratures.org.
This book is dedicated to my Obasan, Tatsuko (Takano) Chambers.
She carried us across the ocean and continues to carry us today.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Performance, Law, and the Race So Different
1. “That May Be Japanese Law, but Not in My Country”: Madame Butterfly and the Problem of Law
2. “Justice for My Son”: Staging Reparative Justice in Ping Chong’s Chinoiserie
3. Pledge of Allegiance: Performing Patriotism in the Japanese American Concentration Camps
4. The Nail That Stands Out: The Political Performativity of the Moriyuki Shimada Scrapbook
5. Illegal Immigrant Acts: Dengue Fever and the Racialization of Cambodian America
Conclusion: Virtually Legal
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
In the LCD Soundsystem song “All My Friends,” the song’s narrator travels through a landscape of late nights, shifting intimacies, professional growth, and personal loss. In spite of all the changes, he states that in the end he “can still come home to this.” This book was written in many houses and flats, in places that include Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Seoul, Tokyo, Kobe, Cincinnati, Connecticut, and Denver. But the comrades, friends, and family who gave me shelter these past years have been the home I come back to, and for this words cannot but fail to express my gratitude.
My colleagues in Northwestern University’s Department of Performance Studies have done nothing short of changing my life, and their impact is everywhere in these pages. E. Patrick Johnson and D. Soyini Madison are every bit as impressive as scholars and artists as they are mentors and friends. Ramón Rivera-Servera makes me laugh to the same degree that he pushes me to challenge myself and to rethink my assumptions. Paul Edwards, Carol Simpson Stern, and Mary Zimmerman welcomed me to the department and inspire me on a regular basis. Words simply cannot articulate the joy it is to have my longtime comrade Marcela Fuentes with me on this adventure. Dina Marie Walters reminds me daily that I love my job, and Freda Love Smith kept me alive these past two years. I am so thankful to the School of Communication and Dean Barbara O’Keefe, who made this project possible. Immense gratitude goes to Northwestern’s Asian American Studies Program, including Carolyn Chen, Cheryl Jue, Jinah Kim, Shalini Shankar, Nitasha Sharma, and Ji-Yeon Yuh; and the Theater Department, including Reeves Collins, Tracy Davis, Sandra Richards, Liz Son, and Harvey Young. Across Northwestern, I am most grateful to Tom Bradshaw, Nick Davis, John Haas, Susan Manning, Dean Dwight McBride, Jacqueline Stewart, Joel Valentin-Martinez, Michelle Wright, and Michelle Yamada.
This project received generous support from Wesleyan University’s Center for the Humanities during my Mellon postdoctoral fellowship. Jill Morawski was a fearless friend and leader, and Kathleen Roberts kept my head on straight while reminding me of the importance of standing up to the tyranny of squirrels. Beyond being one of the fiercest people