Acknowledgments  ix

1. The Hypersexuality of Asian/American Women: Toward a Politically Productive Perversity on Screen and Scene  1

2. The Bind of Representation: Performing and Consuming Hypersexuality in Miss Saigon  30

3. The Sexual Bonds of Racial Stardom: Asian American Femme Fatales in Hollywood  58

4. Racial Threat or Racial Treat? Performing Yellowface Sex Acts in Stag Films, 1920–34  102

5. Queens of Anal, Double, Trip, and the Gangbang: Producing Asian/American Feminism in Pornography, 1940s–1990s  140

6. Sex Tourists with Movie Cameras and Prostitutes without Movie Cameras: Politicizing the Bottom in Southeast Asian Sex Tourist Movies  185

7. The Political Power of Hypersexuality in Asian American Feminist Films  226

8. New Horizons in Race-Positive Sexuality  267

Notes  275

Bibliography  301

Index  325

Co-Winner, 2007 Association of Asian American Studies Best Book in Cultural Studies

“The Hypersexuality of Race demonstrates that though pleasure might mimic complicity, its radical unruliness is far from simple. Equipped with a filmmaker’s sensitivity to the tangled and unstable desires of authors, directors, actors, and filmic personae . . . Shimizu provocatively addresses the provocations of Asian/American sex kittens, porn stars, and femme fatales who flaunt their brazen sexuality/or who have sex on screen.”—Michelle Har Kim, Women’s Studies

“Where The Hypersexuality of Race succeeds most is in its attempts to complicate and compound the depictions of Asian/American women on screen with the experiences of Asian/American viewers. . . . The Hypersexuality of Race is a welcome addition to Asian/American and media studies, enabling future scholars to build on the author's germinal research and analysis.”—Catherine Clepper, Jump Cut

“The Hypersexuality of Race is a highly adventurous, interdisciplinary project that closely examines the racialized and sexualized representations of Asian and Asian American women in different genres of performance. . . . Shimizu engages complex problems in highly original and exciting ways, leaving many of the issues open for future contestation and critical inquiry. Such openness to alternative possibilities and new insights attests to her own artistic and political creativity, both on display in this refreshing and at times startling work.”—Fei Shi, New England Theatre Journal

“The Hypersexuality of Race is an elegantly written, intellectually invigorating, and necessary addition to gender studies, Asian American studies, and moving images studies. Equally, as porn studies continues to gain serious academic interest, intelligent studies of race and sex like Parreñas-Shimizu’s volume will become indispensable.”—Jun Okada, Journal of Asian American Studies

“An intriguing examination of the Asian femme fatale in cinema. . . . Guiding readers on a well-documented foray into the world of erotic cinema, Shimizu argues that these representations are expressions of a desire for better, more realistic representations of race and gender.”—Teresa Coates, Curve

“The book is a rigorous and intriguing attempt to reframe and recapture the self-determination of Asian American women in film representations . . . . Parreñas-Shimizu should be commended for her bold attempt to relocate the debate on Asian American women in film.”—Valerie Soe, Afterimage

“[I]t is a controversial [book]; scholars will want to weigh in on it. Recommended. Graduate students through professionals.”—B. M. McNeal, Choice

“Instead of simply criticizing [sexualized depictions of Asian-American women] as degrading and insulting, Shimizu champions a more complex analysis of Asian-American women’s representations that draws from queer theory and foregrounds the notion of ‘productive perversity’ through close readings, theoretical foreplay, and unexpected interviews. . . . [A]mbitious. . . .”—Kimberly Chun, Bitch

“I found the book to be both bracing and disturbing, its central and overriding ambivalence about the representation of women’s sexuality a mirror of my own soul in many ways...”—Adrienne L. McLean, Cinema Journal

Co-Winner, 2007 Association of Asian American Studies Best Book in Cultural Studies

“The Hypersexuality of Race demonstrates that though pleasure might mimic complicity, its radical unruliness is far from simple. Equipped with a filmmaker’s sensitivity to the tangled and unstable desires of authors, directors, actors, and filmic personae . . . Shimizu provocatively addresses the provocations of Asian/American sex kittens, porn stars, and femme fatales who flaunt their brazen sexuality/or who have sex on screen.”—Michelle Har Kim, Women’s Studies

“Where The Hypersexuality of Race succeeds most is in its attempts to complicate and compound the depictions of Asian/American women on screen with the experiences of Asian/American viewers. . . . The Hypersexuality of Race is a welcome addition to Asian/American and media studies, enabling future scholars to build on the author's germinal research and analysis.”—Catherine Clepper, Jump Cut

“The Hypersexuality of Race is a highly adventurous, interdisciplinary project that closely examines the racialized and sexualized representations of Asian and Asian American women in different genres of performance. . . . Shimizu engages complex problems in highly original and exciting ways, leaving many of the issues open for future contestation and critical inquiry. Such openness to alternative possibilities and new insights attests to her own artistic and political creativity, both on display in this refreshing and at times startling work.”—Fei Shi, New England Theatre Journal

“The Hypersexuality of Race is an elegantly written, intellectually invigorating, and necessary addition to gender studies, Asian American studies, and moving images studies. Equally, as porn studies continues to gain serious academic interest, intelligent studies of race and sex like Parreñas-Shimizu’s volume will become indispensable.”—Jun Okada, Journal of Asian American Studies

“An intriguing examination of the Asian femme fatale in cinema. . . . Guiding readers on a well-documented foray into the world of erotic cinema, Shimizu argues that these representations are expressions of a desire for better, more realistic representations of race and gender.”—Teresa Coates, Curve

“The book is a rigorous and intriguing attempt to reframe and recapture the self-determination of Asian American women in film representations . . . . Parreñas-Shimizu should be commended for her bold attempt to relocate the debate on Asian American women in film.”—Valerie Soe, Afterimage

“[I]t is a controversial [book]; scholars will want to weigh in on it. Recommended. Graduate students through professionals.”—B. M. McNeal, Choice

“Instead of simply criticizing [sexualized depictions of Asian-American women] as degrading and insulting, Shimizu champions a more complex analysis of Asian-American women’s representations that draws from queer theory and foregrounds the notion of ‘productive perversity’ through close readings, theoretical foreplay, and unexpected interviews. . . . [A]mbitious. . . .”—Kimberly Chun, Bitch

“I found the book to be both bracing and disturbing, its central and overriding ambivalence about the representation of women’s sexuality a mirror of my own soul in many ways...”—Adrienne L. McLean, Cinema Journal

“I find The Hypersexuality of Race nothing short of brilliant, a rigorous and galvanizing scholarly endeavor that promises to make an immediate impact on the fields of Asian American studies, feminist theory, theater and performance studies, and film and cultural studies.”—Daphne A. Brooks, author of Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850–1910

“The Hypersexuality of Race promises to be an influential and perhaps notorious book. Refusing to shy away from the complexity of sexuality and its contradictory meanings, Celine Parreñas Shimizu does not distinguish between positive (or politically correct) and negative sex acts but rather situates Asian (American) women’s expressions of sexuality in relation to racial formation, class consciousness, and other discourses of identity. She emphasizes context and contingency.”—Peter X Feng, author of Identities in Motion: Asian American Film and Video

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