Racing Romance: Love, Power, and Desire Among Asian American White Couples

211 Pages·2009·1 MB·English

by  Kumiko Nemoto

Racing Romance

Racing Romance
Love, Power, and Desire among
Asian American / White Couples
kumiko nemoto
rutgers university press
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nemoto, Kumiko, 1970–
Racing romance : love, power, and desire among Asian American/white couples /
Kumiko Nemoto.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–8135–4532–5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978–0–8135–4533–2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Interracial marriage—United States. 2. Interracial dating—United States.
3. Asian Americans—Psychology. 4. Asian Americans—Race identity.
5. Race awareness. 6. Race relations. I. Title.
HQ1031.N45 2009
306.84'608995073—dc22
008038708
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Copyright © 2009 by Kumiko Nemoto
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press,
100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this
prohibition is “fair use” as defi ned by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
Composition: Jack Donner, BookType
For my mother

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Interracial Relationships: Discourses and Images 19
Part I Asian American Women with White Men
Chapter 2 The Good Wife 39
Chapter 3 A Woman Ascending 73
Part II Asian American Men with White Women
Chapter 4 A Man’s Place 107
Chapter 5 Playing the Man 125
Chapter 6 Men Alone 142
Conclusion: Matters of Race and Gender 155
Appendix 165
Notes 169
Bibliography 183
Index 191
vii

Acknowledgments
This book is a result of my long personal and intellectual journey. Many persons
have helped to make the work possible. I thank all the couples and individuals
who endured my questions and allowed me to explore their personal expe-
riences. Composing the stories about each individual required an enormous
amount of refl ection on my part, viewing each account from my perspectives as
a researcher, a feminist scholar, and a Japanese woman; accomplishing this task
would not have been possible without the genuine and kind assistance of the
people I interviewed. Parts of this book were previously published in the Journal
of Asian American Studies and in Gender Issues.
The book began while I was at the University of Texas at Austin. I am
especially indebted to Christine L. Williams for her long-term mentoring and
role-modeling as a scholar and a teacher. On a number of diffi cult occasions
during and after my graduate school career, Christine consistently offered me
encouragement and helpful suggestions. Her guidance as a feminist scholar was
invaluable in my completing this book. I thank Debra Umberson and Pauline
Strong for engaging with my project with positive affi rmations and suggestions.
I am indebted to Art Sakamoto and Sharmila Rudrappa for their generosity,
warm support, and continuous friendship. Several colleagues further helped me
with the volume. I am grateful for the insightful comments and warm friendship
of Karen D. Pyke of the University of California, Riverside. I am indebted to
Erica Chito Childs for providing generously of her time and for her helpful
comments. I thank these other colleagues who also provided helpful comments
and suggestions: Rebecca Klatch, Jyoti Puri, Sharon Bird, and Katrina Bell
McDonald. I am grateful to my editor at Rutgers University Press, Adi Hovav,
whose patience and thoughtful suggestions have also made this book possible.
I am grateful to friends who supported the process of writing, over the
years, and provided insights in innumerable ways—particularly Esther Alston
and Andrea Braendlin, who have taught me much and helped me with love and
ix