Negotiating the Boundaries of (In)Visibility: Asian American Men and Asian/ American Masculinity on Screen.

Abstract

First and foremost an audience reception study, Negotiating the Boundaries of (In)Visibility illustrates the dialogic relationship of racial discourse in the media and Asian American male identity in the United States. It combines in-depth interviews with textual, discursive, and industry analyses. I showcase how economic, political and technological changes in America and the media industry intersect with cultural shifts in narratives and representations. Defining the boundaries of their identity and culture, interviewees discuss the lack of an Asian American narrative in American popular culture. Rather, Asian Americans contend with larger stereotypes of “Asian,” considered to be a loaded term accompanied by a long history of ethnic homogenization and racial and cultural stereotypes. This dissertation locates particular sites of identification—social surroundings, news media, entertainment media—and how narratives of Asian, American, and Asian American are negotiated, contested, or made visible.

In remembering news stories from the mid-2000s, interviewees show how diffuse the concept of “Asia” is in forming identities as racial subjects in America. Analyzing news texts and the rhetoric used to describe these news events, I suggest that the anxiety over China’s economic rise and the accompanying resurgence of “yellow peril” discourse perpetuates the homogenizing definition of “Asian American,” and how national discourse about a foreign threat can shape race relations within. These anxieties are countered by the rise of multicultural ensemble casts and Asian American male leads on primetime television shows. This juxtaposition shapes the complicated space in which Asian American men actively resist, negotiate, and accept racial stereotypes and problematic representations. Providing textual analyses of Lost and Heroes, I suggest that the seemingly progressive multiculturalism presented in entertainment texts perpetuates feelings of subordination and marginalization among racial viewers. Finally, I provide a close reading of television shows’ transmedia narratives their treatment of race. In particular, I suggest the ways in which racial difference becomes more visible as texts appeal to more mainstream audiences. In doing so, I begin a discussion of how multi-platform storytelling may offer new opportunities for articulating race and gender beyond television.