Q & a Queer and Asian

What does it mean to be queer and Asian American at the turn of the century? The writers, activists, essayists, and artists who contribute to this volume consider how Asian American racial identity and queer sexuality interconnect in mutually shaping and complicating ways. Their collective aim (in the words of the editors) is \u0022to articulate a new conception of Asian American racial identity, its heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity -- concepts that after all underpinned the Asian American moniker from its very inception.\u0022 Q & A approaches matters of identity from a variety of points of view and academic disciplines in order to explore the multiple crossings of race and ethnicity with sexuality and gender. Drawing together the work of visual artists, fiction writers, community organizers, scholars, and participants in roundtable discussions, the collection gathers an array of voices and experiences that represent the emerging communities of a queer Asian America. Collectively, these contributors contend that Asian American studies needs to be more attentive to issues of sexuality and that queer studies needs to be more attentive to other aspects of difference, especially race and ethnicity. Vigorously rejecting the notion that a symmetrical relationship between race and homosexuality would weaken lesbian/gay and queer movements, the editors refuse to \u0022believe that a desirably queer world is one in which we remain perpetual aliens -- queer houseguests -- in a queer nation.\u0022

David L. Eng is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University. Alice Y. Hom is a doctoral candidate in history at Claremont Graduate University. CONTRIBUTORS: Karin Aguilar-San Juan, Victor Bascara, Ignatius Bau, Bryan, Gaye Chan, Mark Chiang, Justin Chin, Ken Chu, Dan Cuevas, Patti Duncan, Richard Fung, Dean Goishi, Ju Hui Judy Han, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Daniel Yo Kim, Jeffrey Deungkyu Kim, Karen Kimura, I. H. Kuniyuki, Erica Lee, JeeYeun Lee, Quentin Lee, Russell Leong, You-Leng Leroy Lim, Gil Mangaoang, Vera Miao, Marie K. Morohoshi, Hanh Thi Phan, Phong, Jasbir K. Puar, Rhode, Sandip Roy, Nayan Shah, Steven Shum, Min Song, joel barraquiel tan, Donna Tsuyuko Tanigawa, Diep Khac Tran, Jennifer Tseng, Eric C. Wat, Yoko Yoshikawa, and the editors.