New Issue of Amerasia Journal on "AXISing Asian American Literature"

Beyond U.S. Borders:
UCLA Publishes New Work on Asian American Writers
For author interviews, contact Stephanie Santos, stephaniesantos@ucla.edu, (310) 825-3415

Los Angeles - The UCLA Asian American Studies Center announces the latest issue of Amerasia Journal 32:3, a special issue on contemporary Asian American writers and their work.  This issue includes contributions by Cambodian, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Chinese, Hakka, and Hapa multiracial writers.  For 35 years, Amerasia has been the leading journal in the field of Asian American Studies.

This issue of Amerasia Journal features works that extend the traditional boundaries of Asian American literature beyond the borders of the United States. Themes such as intergenerational conflict and cultural exoticness are already familiar to many readers of Asian American literature.  But what about stories of a floating ball narrating the lives of "educated Japanese Christians with socialist sentiments" in Sao Paulo, Brazil?  Or an alternate history, where the Aztec warriors defeat Spanish conquistadors and then conquer the rest of Europe?

This issue include writers whose works span Asian American communities located outside the United States, such as Karen Tei Yamashita, author of three novels that involve Japanese-Brazilian interaction.   In novels such as Through the Arc of the Rainforest and Brazil Maru, Yamashita explores the roles of Japan and East Asia in contributing to the
underdevelopment of parts of South America. Excerpts from her new novel, I Hotel, are published in this issue.

Asian American literature has often been viewed, writes Amerasia editor Russell Leong,"in relation to an Eastern ancestral homeland." Moreover, he notes that many writers are seen as Asian American "not necessarily by the place of their birth but by the color of their skin."  But what about the entire Asian experience in not only North America, but
also Central and South America?

Writer Sesshu Foster, author of Atomik Aztex, combines his multi-racial and multicultural background in his novel about the contemporary New World.  Foster's fast-driving lingo, a north American original, tells the story of a reconstituted Aztec warrior in a 21st century New World Order set in East Los Angeles.   Would his work, asks Leong, be considered Asian American, Chicano, or Hapa? Three poems from Foster's manuscript "World Ball Notebook" are published in this issue.

Pol Paul Pot's "The Movement of Seals in the Temple of Two Suns," further illustrates how younger Asian American writers draw from a myriad of cultural influences.  In this memoir of his father and family, Pat describes how a modern dance presentation adapted from a Native American fable helped him understand his own relationship with his Cambodian father.

The cover page features a photograph of a Pueblo/Meso-American building in New Mexico, by Arturo Ernesto Romo, a Chicano mixed media artist.

The other articles on this issue touch on how Asian American writing expands the role of literature.    Scholar Jinqi Ling examines the concept of the "global South" as seen in Karen Tei Yamashita's novels.  Christopher Lee examines the work of novelist Eileen Chang within the anti-Communist context of the Cold War era.  Poet Wing Tek Lum contributes six poems that present a human account of the pressures that drive soldiers to kill, maim, or torture.  James Kyung-Jin Lee writes about Asian American literature in relation to modern warfare.

"Through writing, we continue to understand ourselves in critical relation to others," writes Leong. This special issue shows how literature, at its best, continues to challenge tradition and our usual ways of thinking about the Asian American experience.

Single issues of Amerasia Journal costs $15.00 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling and 8.25% sales tax for California residents. Make checks payable to "Regents of U.C."  VISA, MASTERCARD, and DISCOVER are also accepted; include expiration date and phone number on correspondence.  The mailing address is:  UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546.  Phone:  310-825-2968.  Email: aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu

Annual subscriptions for Amerasia Journal are $35.00 for individuals and $295.00 for libraries and other institutions.  Amerasia Journal is published three times a year:  Winter, Spring, and Fall.  A free subscription to the Center's Crosscurrents Newsmagazine is included in a subscription to Amerasia Journal.