Choreographing Asian America

Poised at the intersection of Asian American studies and dance studies, Choreographing Asian America is the first book-length examination of the role of Orientalist discourse in shaping Asian Americanist entanglements with U.S. modern dance history. Moving beyond the acknowledgement that modern dance has its roots in Orientalist appropriation, Yutian Wong considers the effect that invisible Orientalism has on the reception of work by Asian American choreographers and the conceptualization of Asian American performance as a category. Drawing on ethnographic and choreographic research methods, the author follows the work of Club O' Noodles--a Vietnamese American performance ensemble--to understand how Asian American artists respond to competing narratives of representation, aesthetics, and social activism that often frame the production of Asian American performance

Situating Asian American Dance Studies. Club O' Noodles's Laughter from the Children of War. Rehearsing the Collective: A Performative Autoethnography. Interlude The Amazing Chinese American Acrobat: Choreography as Methodology. Mapping Membership: Class, Ethnicity, and the Making of Stories from a Nail Salon. Writing Nail Salon. Pedagogy of the Scantily Clad: Studying Miss Saigon in the Twenty-first Century. Epilogue

Situating Asian American Dance Studies -- Club O' Noodles's Laughter from the Children of War -- Rehearsing the Collective: A Performative Autoethnography -- Interlude The Amazing Chinese American Acrobat: Choreography as Methodology -- Mapping Membership: Class, Ethnicity, and the Making of Stories from a Nail Salon -- Writing Nail Salon -- Pedagogy of the Scantily Clad: Studying Miss Saigon in the Twenty-first Century -- Epilogue.