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| Afro Asia
ISBN: 9780822381174
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Duke University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Asian Americans; African Americans; Asian Americans; African Americans; African Americans;
This essay collection reveals the historical events, political activities and aesthetic ideas that link African-Americans and Asian-Americans. Although a chasm is sometimes presumed to exist between the two groups, this book reveals the two diasporas' intersecting paths from the 19th century to the present day. Lisa Yun's "Chinese Freedom Fighters in Cuba: From Bondage to Liberation, 1847-1898" is a groundbreaking examination of the treatment of Chinese coolies who "could be brought in as indentured laborers... [and] used as slaves." Statements (one in 1963, the other after the King assassination) by Mao Zedong in support of the struggle for African-American civil rights introduce essays exploring the ties between black liberation movements and Asian-American activism. Diane Fujino's insightful biographies of Richard Aoki and Yuri Kochiyama are especially fascinating. The essays on the arts, including "crossover" pieces (e.g., African-Americans and the martial arts, Asian-Americans and hip hop), are particularly accessible, and Ishmael Reed's "rare original account of the origins of modern Asian American literary production," while terse, is of significant historical value. "An eclectic array of creative writing expressing Afro-Asian interaction" includes poems, creative nonfiction and a performance piece by memoirist David Mura and novelist Alexs Pate (Amistad). Readers should not be put off by the occasional Marxist or nationalist tenor of these pieces because Ho and Mullen's collection offers a fresh perspective well worth the effort. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Fred Ho is a Chinese American social activist. A renowned baritone saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, he founded the Afro Asian Music Ensemble in 1982. Bill V. Mullen is Director of American Studies and Professor of English at Purdue University. He is the author of Afro-Orientalism . |
