Unfastened: Globality and Asian North American Narratives

216 Pages·2010·0.878 MB·English

by  Eleanor Ty

Unfastened
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Unfastened
Globality and
Asian North American Narratives
Eleanor Ty
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges financial
assistance provided by Wilfrid Laurier University Research Office for the
publication of this book.
Chapter 1 was first published as “Abjection, Masculinity, and Violence in
Brian Roley’s American Sonand Han Ong’s Fixer Chao,” MELUS: Journal of the
Society for the Study of the MultiEthnic Literature of the United States29, no. 1
(Spring 2004): 119–3 6, and was subsequently reprinted in Transnational Asian
American Literature: Sites and Transits,ed. Shirley Geok - lin Lim, John Blair
Gamber, Stephen Hong Sohn, and Gina Valentino (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 2006), 142–5 8; reprinted with permission from MELUS.A
version of the Coda was published as “Rethinking the Hyphen: Asian North
American and European Ethnic Texts as Global Narratives,” Canadian Review
of American Studies32, no. 3 (2002): 239– 52, http:/ /w ww.utpjournals.com;
reprinted with permission of the Canadian Association for American Studies.
Copyright 2010 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520
http: // www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ty, Eleanor Rose, 1958–
Unfastened : globality and Asian North American narratives / Eleanor Ty.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-6507-5 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8166-6508-2
(pb : alk. paper)
1. American literature—Asian American authors—History and criticism.
2. Canadian literature—Asian authors—History and criticism. 3. Asian
Americans—Intellectual life. 4. Asians—Canada—Intellectual life.
5. Asian Americans in the motion picture industry. I. Title.
PS153.A84T9 2010
810.9'895—dc22 2009012627
Printed in the United States of America on acid - free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal - opportunity educator and employer.
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Reading Globality ix
I. Doing Global Dirty Work
1. The 1.5 Generation: Filipino Youth, Transmigrancy,
and Masculinity 3
2. Recuperating Wretched Lives: Asian Sex Workers and
the Underside of Nation Building 20
II. Performing and Negotiating Transcultural Identities
3. “All of Us Are the Same”: Negotiating Loss,
Witnessing Disability 43
4. Feminist Subversions: Comedy and the Carnivalesque 63
III. Future Perfect: Feminist Resistance to Global Homogeneity
5. Shape - shifters and Disciplined Bodies: Feminist Tactics,
Science Fiction, and Fantasy 89
6. Scripting Fertility: Desire and Regeneration in Japanese
North American Literature 108
Coda: Rethinking the Hyphen 129
Notes 143
Works Cited 151
Filmography 167
Index 169
Acknowledgments
I thank my colleagues in the Department of English and Film Studies
at Wilfrid Laurier University for providing a collegial and intellectually
stimulating teaching and working environment that enables me to pur-
sue my research interests. I am grateful to the dean of arts, the research
office, and the academic vice president for their encouragement of my
research by giving me a course release and financial support. The project
was initially funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Grant.
My very able graduate student assistant, Jenny Hei Jun Wills, helped
enormously with her careful reading and comments.
For lively and thought- provoking conversations about reading and
teaching Asian American and Asian Canadian literature, I thank Patricia
Chu, Rocío Davis, Monica Chiu, Glenn Deer, Roy Miki, and Shirley
Geok - lin Lim. I am fortunate to have the warmth, laughter, music, and
energy at home from my husband, David Hunter; my children, Jason,
Jeremy, and Miranda; and the abiding presence of my mother, Vicenta.
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Introduction
Reading Globality
For several years now, “globalization” has been the mantra for the
expansion of international trade and foreign investment and the
integration of markets. But we are now beginning to see a reality
beyond globalization—the world of “globality.” This is not so much
a process as a condition, a world economy in which traditional and
familiar boundaries are being surmounted or made irrelevant.
—Daniel Yergin, “The Age of ‘Globality’”
In an article in Newsweek ten years ago, Daniel Yergin made observa-
tions about globality based largely on the merger of big, big companies
from different countries, such as car manufacturers Daimler - Benz and
Chrysler,1pharmaceutical makers Hoechst (Germany) and Marion Mer-
rill Dow (United States), and consumer electronics king Sony (Japan)
and Columbia Pictures (United States). He noted that “the world is en-
tering into a new type of capitalism.” Governments are “retreating from
control of the commanding heights of their economies: they are privatiz-
ing and deregulating. Barriers to trade and investment are coming down
rapidly. Ever - cheaper communications and ever - faster computers, along
with the Internet, are facilitating the flow of goods and services, as well
as knowledge and information. Increasingly, companies are integ rating
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