Reading List

This reading list was compiled in collaboration with the artists & curators of Phantom Limb and the Asia Art Activism network. Through an open call we have compiled pivotal and important Asian diaspora related readings that have informed our art practices, research and personal politics. We see this list as open ended and just a small selection of readings that are available. Last updated November 2018.


Ang, IenOn Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West. 2001. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, language, 'Chineseness', global identity

Boggs, Grace LeeLiving for Change. 1998. [link]
Tags: Korean diaspora, autobiography, activism, Asian-American

Brah, AvtarDiaspora, border and transnational identities. 1996. p178-208.
Tags: Asian diaspora, global identity

Cha, Theresa Hak Kyung. Dictee. 1982. [link]
Tags: Korean American, autobiography, poetry, art

Chee, AlexanderEdinburgh. 2018. [link]
Tags: Korean American, fiction, Asian American, coming of age

Cheng, Anne AnlinThe Melancholy of Race: Psychoanalysis, Assimilation and Hidden Grief. 2001. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, race, generational trauma, affect

Cheng, Anne Anlin. Ornamentalism: A Feminist Theory for the Yellow Woman. 2018. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, feminisms, gender, race, embodiment

Cho, Grace MHaunting the Korean Diaspora. 2008. [link]
Tags: Korean diaspora, feminisms, historical, Korean War, affect, memoir

Chun, Allen. Fuck Chineseness: On the Ambiguities of Ethnicity as Culture as Identity. 1996. p111-138. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, global identity, 'Chineseness'

Eng, David LThe Feeling of Kinship: Queer Liberalism and the Racialization of Intimacy. 2010. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, gender, queer, psychoanalysis, race, intimacy, affect

Lee, Jaeah J. The Forgotten Zine of 1960s Asian-American Radicals. 2018. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, activism, Asian-American, zines, historical

Lee, Min JinPachinko. 2017. [link]
Tags: Korean diaspora, fiction, Japan, historical, family

Lee, Rachel CThe Exquisite Corpse of Asian America. 2014. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, feminisms, gender, queer, biopolitics, Asian-American, affect

Lowe, LisaThe Intimacies of Four Continents. 2015. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, interdisciplinary, race

Min, AncheeRed Azalea. 2012. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, autobiography, Shanghai

Minh-Ha, Trinh TFramer Framed: Film Scripts and Interviews. 1992. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, feminisms, film, script writing, Vietnam

Minh-Ha, Trinh TWomen, Native, Other. 2009. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, feminisms, gender, queer, writing, postcoloniality

Sakai, Naoki. “You Asians”: On the Historical Role of the West and Asia Binary. 2000. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, essay, global identity, Japan

Takaki, RonaldA Different Mirror for Young People. 1993. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, young people, Asian-American, non-fiction, history

Voices that Shake. Resources for non-Black Asians on Anti-Blackness. Ongoing. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, race, anti-blackness, living resource

Zhang, JennySour Heart. 2018. [link]
Tags: Asian diaspora, fiction, Asian-American, short stories