Asian American Sexualities

Asian American Sexualitiesis the first collection of works by and about gay and lesbian and bisexual Asian and Pacific Americans that includes empirical research, critical scholarly essays, personal accounts, interviews, and creative writing by Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, South Asian, Pacific Islander, Filipino and biracial persons. Popular conceptions of Asian American homosexuality have been confounded with orientalist notions of Asian sexuality or by media accounts of the prostitution and pornography industries in the U.S. and Asia. Some Asian Americans themselves view same-sex sexuality as a sign of decadence.Asian American Sexualitiesworks to dispel the stereotype of oriental sexual decadence, as well as the "model minority" heterosexual Asian sterotype in the US. Writing from an impressive array of interdisciplinary perspectives, the contributors discuss a variety of topics, including sexuality and identity politics;community activism and gay activism; transnational aspects of love between women in Thailand; queer South Asian culture in the US; gay and lesbian filmmakers; same-sex sexuality in Pacific literature; and Asian American male homosexuality and AIDS. The relationship of the gay and lesbian experience to Asian American studies and Ethnic Studies is also explored.