Synopses & Reviews
As exemplified by
Madame Butterfly, East-West relations have often been expressed as the relations between the masculine, dominant West and the feminine, submissive East. Yet, this binary model does not account for the important role of white women in the construction of Orientalism. Mari Yoshihara's study examines a wide range of white women who were attracted to Japan and China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and shows how, through their engagement with Asia, these women found new forms of expression, power, and freedom that were often denied to them in other realms of their lives in America. She demonstrates how white women's attraction to Asia shaped and was shaped by a complex mix of exoticism for the foreign, admiration for the refined, desire for power and control, and love and compassion for the people of Asia. Through concrete historical narratives and careful textual analysis, she examines the ideological context for America's changing discourse about Asia and interrogates the power and appeal--as well as the problems and limitations--of American Orientalism for white women's explorations of their identities. Combining the analysis of race and gender in the United States and the study of U.S.-Asian relations, Yoshihara's work represents the transnational direction of scholarship in American Studies and U.S. history. In addition, this interdisciplinary work brings together diverse materials and approaches, including cultural history, material culture, visual arts, performance studies, and literary analysis.
Embracing the East was the winner of the 2003 Hiroshi Shimizu Award of the Japanese Association for American Studies (best book in American Studies by a junior member of the association).
Review
"This fine interdisciplinary study incorporates the history of the middle class, art, and literature as it historicizes the ways in which white famles participated in, produced, and benefited from Americans' ambivalent fascination with Japan and China and contributed to the feminization of American orientalism during the Gilded Age. Yoshihara's careful research and nuanced readings of multiple texts...is engaging and provocative, and her analysis of the intersections of gender and race is particularly insightful."--American Historical Review
"A welcome addition to the literature on American Orientalism and imperialism....contributes to a significant discussion about how white women in the United States have enhanced and imperialistic vision and the perpetuation of racial stereotypes."--H-Net Reviews
"Yoshihara's careful research and nuanced readings of multiple texts, particularly in the first two parts of the book, is engaging and provocative, and her analysis of the intersections of gender and race is particularly insightful. This book is a valuable contribution to the history of U.S. women and American orientalism."--American Historical Review
"brings rich and careful analysis to an examination of white women's role in constructing orientalism. Highly original in its approach and extremely suggestive for work in a range of related topics, this book crafts a nuanced analysis of white women's influence in generating and mediating U.S. gendered discourse on Asia."- American Literature
"Yoshihara offers an important gender dimension that is missing from the existing scholarship.... The strength of this book lies in itscareful and nuanced analyses of these texts and figures as well as the cultural circumstances that shaped their creation."-- The Journal of American History
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-235) and index.