The China Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation of American Orientalism

Karen J. Leong

Published by University of California Press 2005

The China Mystique

Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation of American Orientalism

Karen J. Leong

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520938632

Overview
Contents

About this book

Throughout the history of the United States, images of China have populated the American imagination. Always in flux, these images shift rapidly, as they did during the early decades of the twentieth century. In this erudite and original study, Karen J. Leong explores the gendering of American orientalism during the 1930s and 1940s. Focusing on three women who were popularly and publicly associated with China—Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, and Mayling Soong—Leong shows how each negotiated what it meant to be American, Chinese American, and Chinese against the backdrop of changes in the United States as a national community and as an international power.

The China Mystique illustrates how each of these women encountered the possibilities as well as the limitations of transnational status in attempting to shape her own opportunities. During these two decades, each woman enjoyed expanding visibility due to an increasingly global mass culture, rising nationalism in Asia, the emergence of the United States from the shadows of imperialism to world power, and the more assertive participation of women in civic and consumer culture.

Author / Editor information

Leong Karen J. :

Karen J. Leong is Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies at Arizona State University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
1. Gendering American Orientalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Pearl Sydenstricker Buck Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
3. Anna May Wong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
4. Mayling Soong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
5. Transforming American National Identity— The China Mystique Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 260

eBook

Published: July 25, 2005
ISBN: 9780520938632