THE SCOTT AND LAURIE OKI SERIES IN ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES
From a Three-Cornered World: New and Selected Poems by James Masao Mitsui
Imprisoned Apart: The World War II Correspondence of an Issei Couple by Louis Fiset
Storied Lives: Japanese American Students and World War II by Gary Okihiro
Phoenix Eyes and Other Stories by Russell Charles Leong
Paper Bullets: A Fictional Autobiography by Kip Fulbeck
Born in Seattle: The Campaign for Japanese American Redress by Robert Sadamu Shimabukuro
Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites by Jeffery F. Burton, Mary M. Farrell, Florence B. Lord, and Richard W. Lord
Judgment without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II by Tetsuden Kashima
Shopping at Giant Foods: Chinese American Supermarkets in Northern California by Alfred Yee
Altered Lives, Enduring Community: Japanese Americans Remember Their World War II Incarceration by Stephen S. Fugita and Marilyn Fernandez
Eat Everything Before You Die: A Chinaman in the Counterculture by Jeffery Paul Chan
Form and Transformation in Asian American Literature edited by Zhou Xiaojing and Samina Najmi
Language of the Geckos and Other Stories by Gary Pak
Nisei Memories: My Parents Talk about the War Years by Paul Howard Takemoto
Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Bridge Generation Filipino American by Peter Jamero
Letters from the 442nd: The World War II Correspondence of a Japanese American Medic by Minoru Masuda; edited by Hana Masuda and Dianne Bridgman
Shadows of a Fleeting World: Pictorial Photography and the Seattle Camera Club by David F. Martin and Nicolette Bromberg
Signs of Home: The Paintings and Wartime Diary of Kamekichi Tokita by Barbara Johns and Kamekichi Tokita
Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence: Coming Home to Hood River by Linda Tamura
A Principled Stand: The Story of Hirabayashi v. United States by Gordon K. Hirabayashi, with James A. Hirabayashi and Lane Ryo Hirabayashi
Cities of Others: Reimagining Urban Spaces in Asian American Literature by Xiaojing Zhou
Cities of Others
Reimagining Urban Spaces in Asian American Literature
XIAOJING ZHOU
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
Seattle and London
This book is published with the assistance of a grant from the Scott and Laurie Oki Endowed Fund for publications in Asian American Studies.
is book was published thanks in part to generous grants from the College of the Pacific and the University of the Pacific.
© 2014 by the University of Washington Press
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Composed in Minion Pro, a typeface designed by Robert Slimbach
18 17 16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zhou, Xiaojing, 1952–
Cities of Others : reimagining urban spaces in Asian American literature / Xiaojing Zhou.
pages cm. — (The Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-295-99402-4 (hard cover : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-295-99403-1 (pbk. : acid-free paper) 1. American literature—Asian American authors—History and criticism. 2. Public spaces in literature. 3. Cities and towns in literature. 4. Asian Americans in literature. I. Title.
PS153.A84Z25 2015
810.9’895—dc23
2014025250
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984.∞
Excerpts from Chinatown Family reprinted with permission by Rutgers University Press.
Excerpts from Bone reprinted with permission by Donadio & Olsen, Inc. © 1993 by Fae Myenne Ng.
Excerpts from The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco R. R. Co. reprinted with permission by Coffee House Press. © 1988 by Frank Chin.
Excerpts from Donald Duk reprinted with permission by Coffee House Press. © 1991 by Frank Chin.
Excerpts from What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San Francisco reprinted with permission by New Day Publishers. © 1987 by Bienvenido N. Santos.
Excerpts from Manhattan Music reprinted with permission by the author, Meena Alexander. © 1997 by Meena Alexander, 1997. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee, © 1995 by Chang-rae Lee, used by permission of Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC and Granta Publications.
Excerpts from Tropic of Orange reprinted with permission from Coffee House Press. © 1997 by Karen Tei Yamashita.
ISBN 978-0-295-80542-9 (ebook)
To my sisters and brother
CONTENTS
5 Contents
7 Introduction: Contested Urban Space
8 1. "The Woman about Town": Transgressing Raced and Gendered Boundaries in Sui Sin Far’s Writings
9 2. Claiming Right to the City: Lin Yutang’s Chinatown Family