2016 Articles

Memory and Migration

Lee, Ana Paulina; Kazumi Stahl, Anna

This is the editorial introduction to the first issue of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas to focus on Asian Latin American content. This special issue examines the transnational aspects that have produced concrete and imagined exchanges between Asia and Latin America not only as linked by their connection to the Iberian empires, but also in ways that puncture imperial/colonial dichotomies. The academics and artistic practitioners who have contributed to this issue engage polycentric perspectives in order to approach their studies of Asian diasporic movements from different locations within and without academic provinces. Each piece provokes an understanding of necessarily global histories, such as immigration, trade, cultural and literary exchange, and translation, as well as the power dynamics that shape—and are shaped by—practical experiences of language, nation, ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, and religion.