{"id":53791,"date":"2017-05-04T03:20:39","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T03:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=53791"},"modified":"2017-05-04T19:02:30","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T19:02:30","slug":"the-asian-turn-in-mixed-race-studies-retrospects-and-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=53791","title":{"rendered":"The Asian Turn in Mixed Race Studies: Retrospects and Prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Asian Turn in Mixed Race Studies: Retrospects and Prospects<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Asia Pacific Perspectives<\/a>
\nVolume 14, Number 2: Spring 2017<\/a><\/p>\n

Emma J. Teng<\/strong><\/a>, T.T. and Wei Fong Chao Professor of Asian Civilizations; Associate Professor of Chinese Studies
\nMassachusetts Institute of Technology<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1930, the young Han Suyin<\/a> (pen name of Rosalie Chou, 1916-2012) read this passage in a book called\u00a0Races of the World<\/em>:\u00a0\u201cRacial mixtures are prone to mental unbalance, hysteria, alcoholism, generally of weak character and untrustworthy\u2026\u201d Shaken, she prayed, \u201cOh God\u2026 don\u2019t let me go mad, don\u2019t let my brain go, I want to study.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n

Probably the most famous Eurasian<\/a> author of the 20th century, one who served as a major interpreter of China to the West during the tumultuous Cold War era, Han was haunted by these words and driven throughout her life by a determination to prove them untrue, fighting the pronounced stigma and the obstacles faced by mixed-heritage individuals during her era. As she highlighted in this famous scene from her autobiographical\u00a0A Mortal Flower\u00a0<\/em>(1965),\u00a0such stigma was not only a product of social prejudice, but also heavily reinforced by scientific and pseudoscientific discourses of the time.<\/p>\n

From our vantage point today, it is a good moment to take stock of how far we have come (or failed to come) over the century that separates us from Han\u2019s birth. How have popular perceptions of \u201cmixed-race\u201d peoples changed in Asia and across the globe? How have academic discourses evolved? And perhaps most importantly, how have \u201cmixed\u201d individuals themselves advocated for their equal rights and recognition? The articles in this pathbreaking issue of\u00a0Asia Pacific Perspectives\u00a0<\/em>address these vital questions and others, focusing their analyses on historical and contemporary manifestations of \u201cmixedness\u201d across East Asia…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1930, the young Han Suyin (pen name of Rosalie Chou, 1916-2012) read this passage in a book called\u00a0Races of the World:\u00a0\u201cRacial mixtures are prone to mental unbalance, hysteria, alcoholism, generally of weak character and untrustworthy\u2026\u201d Shaken, she prayed, \u201cOh God\u2026 don\u2019t let me go mad, don\u2019t let my brain go, I want to study.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16,8413,1196,8],"tags":[26941,4776,4777,12657,26940,26942],"class_list":["post-53791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-asia","category-communications","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","tag-asia-pacific-perspectives","tag-emma-j-teng","tag-emma-teng","tag-han-suyin","tag-rosalie-chou","tag-rosalie-matilda-kuanghu-chou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53794,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53791\/revisions\/53794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}