| Physical mobility may serve as a figure for political and socio-economic mobility. The history of Asian migration in America is distinctive from those of European immigrants and their descendants, who in general have enjoyed more geographical, cultural, and socio-economic mobility than Asian Americans. Physical mobility for mainstream Americans is closely linked to status but often signals economic and cultural barriers for Asian Americans. Sau-ling Wong contends, traveling for mainstream Americans usually signifies liberation and expansion, but for Asian Americans, oppression and exploitation. In Wong's words, Asian Americans travel out of “Necessity,” whereas mainstream Americans travel for “Extravagance.” However, in many cases it is impossible to distinguish between “Necessity” and “Extravagance,” as travelers are able to turn their experience of forced mobility into a liberating journey and resistance to oppression—what Wong terms “oppositional mobility myths.”; The concept of mobility applies broadly, both in the geographical sense and in terms of negotiating class, ethnic, gender, and gastronomic boundaries. Chapter I, “Mutual Authentication of the ‘Silent Traveller’ and the American Landscape”: Owing to his elite status and cultural capital, Chiang Yee was able to travel like a European American and survey the American landscape like a flaneur; however, his consideration of Western readership compromised his critique of U.S. racism. Chapter II, “Female Nomadology: Re-reading Ethnic Schizophrenia in Mulberry and Peach ”: In her guerilla wandering Mulberry/Peach resists incorporation by the patriarchal nation state. Considered unassimilable due to her sexuality and national origin, she makes everywhere home by incessantly trekking across the United States and leaving her marks. Chapter III, “Gastronomic Mobility and Model Minority Discourse in The Barbarians Are Coming”: Food preparation and consumption are both ethnically and class coded. The male protagonist's upward mobility through cross-ethnic eating/cooking and car driving is compromised by the history of the emasculation of Chinese/Asian men. Chapter IV, “Transnationality, Heterogeneity, and Spatial Negotiation in Asian American Fiction”: Class, gender, ethnicity and nationality complicate the instances of boundary transgression in Bone, No-No Boy, and Yokohama, California. While questioning hegemonic U.S. national culture, Asian transnationalism may promote the American dream by participating in model minority discourse. |
