The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient

Sheridan Prasso

PublicAffairs, Apr 29, 2009 - Social Science - 464 pages

Few Westerners escape the images, expectations and misperceptions that lead us to see Asia as exotic, sensual, decadent, dangerous, and mysterious. Despite - and because of centuries of East-West interaction, the stereotypes of Western literature, stage, and screen remain pervasive icons: the tea-pouring, submissive, sexually available geisha girl; the steely cold dragon lady dominatrix; as well as the portrayal of the Asian male as effeminate and asexual. These "Oriental" illusions color our relations and relationships in ways even well-respected professional "Asia hands" and scholars don't necessarily see.The Asian Mystique lays out a provocative challenge to see Asia and Asians as they really are, with unclouded, deeroticized eyes. It traces the origins of Western stereotypes in history and in Hollywood, examines the phenomenon of 'yellow fever,' then goes on a reality tour of Asia's go-go bars, middle-class homes, college campuses, business districts, and corridors of power, providing intimate profiles of women's lives and vivid portraits of the human side of an Asia we usually mythologize too well to really understand. It strips away our misconceptions and stereotypes, revealing instead the fully dimensional human beings beyond our usual perceptions. The Asian Mystique is required reading for anyone with interest in or interaction with Asia or Asian-origin people, as well as any serious student or practitioner of East-West relations.

Contents

• The Asian Mystique: 3
• A Brief History: 29
• Hollywood Burbank and the Resulting Imaginings: 62
• The Incredible Lightness of Being Portrayed: 103
• Raceism Fetish and Fever: 132
• Ten People Ten Colors: 165
• Ten People Ten Colors: 167
• The Real Memoirs of Geisha: 200
• The Other Side of Miss Saigon: 223
• Glamour of the Skies Sorority of Service: 241
• Screwing Getting Screwed and Getting Ahead: 262
• Whos Playing Whom: 296
• China Doll Dragon Lady: 334
• Power Women: 362
• Demand Creates Supply: 389
• Acknowledgments: 397
• Notes: 399
• Selected Bibliography: 411
• Index: 419

About the author

Sheridan Prasso has been writing about Asia for nearly three decades. Her articles have appeared in the New Yorker, the New Republic, the New York Times, BusinessWeek, Fortune, and numerous other publications. A Mandarin speaker with an M.Phil. from Cambridge University, Prasso is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. She currently lives in Hong Kong.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient
• Author: Sheridan Prasso
• Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2009
• ISBN: 0786736321, 9780786736324
• Length: 464 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / Asian American & Pacific Islander Studies; Social Science / Women's Studies