In this Book
- Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media
- Book
- 2015
- Published by: Rutgers University Press
summary
What will the future look like? To judge from many speculative fiction films and books, from Blade Runner to Cloud Atlas, the future will be full of cities that resemble Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and it will be populated mainly by cold, unfeeling citizens who act like robots. Techno-Orientalism investigates the phenomenon of imagining Asia and Asians in hypo- or hyper-technological terms in literary, cinematic, and new media representations, while critically examining the stereotype of Asians as both technologically advanced and intellectually primitive, in dire need of Western consciousness-raising.
The collection’s fourteen original essays trace the discourse of techno-orientalism across a wide array of media, from radio serials to cyberpunk novels, from Sax Rohmer’s Dr. Fu Manchu to Firefly. Applying a variety of theoretical, historical, and interpretive approaches, the contributors consider techno-orientalism a truly global phenomenon. In part, they tackle the key question of how these stereotypes serve to both express and assuage Western anxieties about Asia’s growing cultural influence and economic dominance. Yet the book also examines artists who have appropriated techno-orientalist tropes in order to critique racist and imperialist attitudes.
Techno-Orientalism is the first collection to define and critically analyze a phenomenon that pervades both science fiction and real-world news coverage of Asia. With essays on subjects ranging from wartime rhetoric of race and technology to science fiction by contemporary Asian American writers to the cultural implications of Korean gamers, this volume offers innovative perspectives and broadens conventional discussions in Asian American Cultural studies.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Technologizing Orientalism
- pp. 1-20
- Part I: Iterations and Instantiations
- Chapter 4: Queer Excavations
- pp. 64-75
- Chapter 5: I, Stereotype
- pp. 76-88
- Chapter 7: Racial Speculations
- pp. 101-112
- Chapter 8: Never Stop Playing
- pp. 113-124
- Chapter 9: “Home Is Where the War Is”
- pp. 125-136
- Part II: Reappropriations andRecuperations
- Chapter 15: A Poor Man from a Poor Country
- pp. 209-220
- Desiring Machines, Repellant Subjects
- pp. 221-226
- Bibliography
- pp. 227-244
- Contributors
- pp. 245-250
Additional Information
ISBN
9780813570655
Related ISBN(s)
9780813570648
MARC Record
OCLC
913869424
Pages
272
Launched on MUSE
2015-07-19
Language
English
Open Access
No