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Perverse Modernities
Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America
Racial Castration , the first book to bring together the fields of Asian American studies and psychoanalytic theory, explores the role of sexuality in racial formation and the place of race in sexual identity. David L. Eng examines images—literary, visual, and filmic—that configure past as well as contemporary perceptions of Asian American men as emasculated, homosexualized, or queer.
Eng juxtaposes theortical discussions of Freud, Lacan, and Fanon with critical readings of works by Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Lonny Kaneko, David Henry Hwang, Louie Chu, David Wong Louie, Ang Lee, and R. Zamora Linmark. While situating these literary and cultural productions in relation to both psychoanalytic theory and historical events of particular significance for Asian Americans, Eng presents a sustained analysis of dreamwork and photography, the mirror stage and the primal scene, and fetishism and hysteria. In the process, he offers startlingly new interpretations of Asian American masculinity in its connections to immigration exclusion, the building of the transcontinental railroad, the wartime internment of Japanese Americans, multiculturalism, and the model minority myth. After demonstrating the many ways in which Asian American males are haunted and constrained by enduring domestic norms of sexuality and race, Eng analyzes the relationship between Asian American male subjectivity and the larger transnational Asian diaspora. Challenging more conventional understandings of diaspora as organized by race, he instead reconceptualizes it in terms of sexuality and queerness.
Eng juxtaposes theortical discussions of Freud, Lacan, and Fanon with critical readings of works by Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Lonny Kaneko, David Henry Hwang, Louie Chu, David Wong Louie, Ang Lee, and R. Zamora Linmark. While situating these literary and cultural productions in relation to both psychoanalytic theory and historical events of particular significance for Asian Americans, Eng presents a sustained analysis of dreamwork and photography, the mirror stage and the primal scene, and fetishism and hysteria. In the process, he offers startlingly new interpretations of Asian American masculinity in its connections to immigration exclusion, the building of the transcontinental railroad, the wartime internment of Japanese Americans, multiculturalism, and the model minority myth. After demonstrating the many ways in which Asian American males are haunted and constrained by enduring domestic norms of sexuality and race, Eng analyzes the relationship between Asian American male subjectivity and the larger transnational Asian diaspora. Challenging more conventional understandings of diaspora as organized by race, he instead reconceptualizes it in terms of sexuality and queerness.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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302 people want to read
About the author
David L. Eng
11 books25 followersDavid L. Eng is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania and also a member of the Asian American Studies Program.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 14, 2025
Read on the flight to Japan … yeah he ate with this … obviously some things are a bit dated at this point but literally canonical in queer of color critique and it’s obvious why
February 2, 2008
I am sure this is a very good book. Most people find it very compelling. I am having a difficult time becoming truly engaged in it. First off, the book’s premise is to explore the intersections between Asian American studies and psychoanalysis. Most academic books that foreground psychoanalysis frustrate me. In the justification for why psychoanalysis, the author’s take seemed to be that it was the prime place to look at for bringing concerns of sexuality and gender to Asian American studies. I agree that discussions of Asian American masculine subjectivity are imperative for Asian American studies. I remain unconvinced that psychoanalysis is necessary to the project. Again – the very use of psychoanalysis can sometimes doom a good book for me. I am much happier when authors explain how Marx relates to their arguments.
Although the readings of the texts are compelling, I am having a hard time identifying what this book is arguing that is new: “This book analyzes the various ways in which the Asian American male is both materially and psychically feminized within the context of a larger U.S. cultural imaginary.” To be fair, I picked up this book because it is so widely cited. It may be that its best insights have been thoroughly incorporated into the reading I have been doing for the last few months, stealing the thunder from the original book itself.
The first chapter of the book looks at the image of the photograph in Frank Chin’s Donald Duk and Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men . While the author insists this is an unconventional pairing because of their well-known feud – almost every work of Asian Americanist literary criticism compares Kingston and Chin. It is the most over-done literary pairing in the field.
The conclusion was the most compelling as it seems to move away from psychoanalysis to look at the relationship between queer studies and diaspora in Asian American fiction.
I think in general the book had too much jargon for me: Some of its point could be made much more simply and straightforwardly. It wasn’t historically grounded enough for me (I really prefer new historicist lit crit – even as its getting to be old school).
But again, most people love this book and find it very rewarding – so maybe the real problem is that I’m reading it on Friday night and I told myself I couldn’t go do anything fun until I finished reading it.
Although the readings of the texts are compelling, I am having a hard time identifying what this book is arguing that is new: “This book analyzes the various ways in which the Asian American male is both materially and psychically feminized within the context of a larger U.S. cultural imaginary.” To be fair, I picked up this book because it is so widely cited. It may be that its best insights have been thoroughly incorporated into the reading I have been doing for the last few months, stealing the thunder from the original book itself.
The first chapter of the book looks at the image of the photograph in Frank Chin’s Donald Duk and Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men . While the author insists this is an unconventional pairing because of their well-known feud – almost every work of Asian Americanist literary criticism compares Kingston and Chin. It is the most over-done literary pairing in the field.
The conclusion was the most compelling as it seems to move away from psychoanalysis to look at the relationship between queer studies and diaspora in Asian American fiction.
I think in general the book had too much jargon for me: Some of its point could be made much more simply and straightforwardly. It wasn’t historically grounded enough for me (I really prefer new historicist lit crit – even as its getting to be old school).
But again, most people love this book and find it very rewarding – so maybe the real problem is that I’m reading it on Friday night and I told myself I couldn’t go do anything fun until I finished reading it.
January 27, 2023
😮💨 there are a lot of really interesting, important points made in this, but I hate this type of writing. It's inaccessible to the average person, and it seems unfair to limit these conversations to mostly academics.
November 13, 2016
Screw this book! I mean it. Screw it. Only 227 pages of its 304 are actual text, the rest is notes and all. When I was almost almost halfway done and yet so far most of it was pointless psychological and techno babble. All the stuff it says about how Asian Americans are emasculated and denied a place in US history I knew already and this adds nothing new. Even the reasons for linking it to homosexuality are not stated even though that is what the author claimed.
Sure the author stated that this book mostly deals with Chinese American and Japanese American studies... well that is a bummer, but it served the reason well as to why I want to read this. And I was interested to read whether KPop had any influence here, considered the often androgynous looks that many have.
However this book only stopped to be dry after 15 pages. And I wondered how an analyses would be here, as the only overlap in the "feminized" professions would be restaurants, laundries and tailor's shops and are not associated with Asians in any way here except maybe imported from the USA, which is possible.
However, interest vanished quickly as this book was boring. I skipped all the parts about how photographs construct a reality instead of portraying one since I knew that already. The thing about that Japanese American believing he would not need glasses in Asia because there everything is constructed for "epicanthic eyes" was funny. The death of the Taiwanese sailor commiting suicide because he was supposed to be shipped to China was not. But afterwards it was basically blablablablabla photography techobabble blablablablablablabla some actual interesting stuff about stereotyping that is drowned out blablablablablablabla photography techobabble blablablabla photography technobabble.... And I didn't care, give me something that actual has to do with "racial castration.
Sure the book is fine when it gives you information about the social exclusion of Chinese and the stereotypes in both directions (e.g. portraying Chinese laborers as young gods or faeries or referring to whites as devils), but when it goes into technobabble and some other shit, the same shit over and over, it is plain annoying.
Sure the author stated that this book mostly deals with Chinese American and Japanese American studies... well that is a bummer, but it served the reason well as to why I want to read this. And I was interested to read whether KPop had any influence here, considered the often androgynous looks that many have.
However this book only stopped to be dry after 15 pages. And I wondered how an analyses would be here, as the only overlap in the "feminized" professions would be restaurants, laundries and tailor's shops and are not associated with Asians in any way here except maybe imported from the USA, which is possible.
However, interest vanished quickly as this book was boring. I skipped all the parts about how photographs construct a reality instead of portraying one since I knew that already. The thing about that Japanese American believing he would not need glasses in Asia because there everything is constructed for "epicanthic eyes" was funny. The death of the Taiwanese sailor commiting suicide because he was supposed to be shipped to China was not. But afterwards it was basically blablablablabla photography techobabble blablablablablablabla some actual interesting stuff about stereotyping that is drowned out blablablablablablabla photography techobabble blablablabla photography technobabble.... And I didn't care, give me something that actual has to do with "racial castration.
Sure the book is fine when it gives you information about the social exclusion of Chinese and the stereotypes in both directions (e.g. portraying Chinese laborers as young gods or faeries or referring to whites as devils), but when it goes into technobabble and some other shit, the same shit over and over, it is plain annoying.
Read
April 12, 2012“[B]oldly initiates inquiry for which this reviewer knows no precedent or peer. Focused on readings of novels, stories, and movies, Eng saturates his wonderfully revelatory interventions with erudite theory, never as end but always as tool. . . . Eng’s seminal study should not be ghettoized as merely a landmark text in Asian American studies, though it is that. This study has the potential to open a floodgate for new work in revelatory and empowering readings of masculinity for many groups, periods or genres. Highly recommended . . . . ”--D. N. Mager, Choice
“[I]ntellectually enlightening look at perceptions of Asian American men.”--A Magazine
“In a brilliant and concentrated collection of psychoanalytic essays, David Eng blurs the constructed boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, and hierarchical subjectivities.”--Frederick Cloyd, International Examiner
“At its best, however, such a work is committed to understanding the United States in relation to diaspora, migration, and the global exchange of culture. . . . [This is] especially true of David L. Eng’s remarkable study of Asian-American masculinity. . . . [T]he great strength of Eng’s work is his suggestion that the production of Asian-American community in the United States involves the disciplining of the Asian as both laborer and sexual actor.”--Robert Reid-Pharr, The Chronicle Review
"Eng has 'forever queered Asian American studies,' compelling Asian Americanists to grapple with the potentially homophobic and nativist grounds upon which Asian Americanism, as a political movement and as a field of study, was founded."--Crystal Parikh, Modern Fiction Studies
"[I]mportant. . . . [T]he value of Eng's most brilliant analyses have less to do with the analystic seeds provided by Freudian or Lacanian theory, seminal though they may be, than with the elegant intellect and astute insights of the author himself as he reworks and expands these frameworks."--Sunaina Maira, Amerasia Journal
“[I]ntellectually enlightening look at perceptions of Asian American men.”--A Magazine
“In a brilliant and concentrated collection of psychoanalytic essays, David Eng blurs the constructed boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, and hierarchical subjectivities.”--Frederick Cloyd, International Examiner
“At its best, however, such a work is committed to understanding the United States in relation to diaspora, migration, and the global exchange of culture. . . . [This is] especially true of David L. Eng’s remarkable study of Asian-American masculinity. . . . [T]he great strength of Eng’s work is his suggestion that the production of Asian-American community in the United States involves the disciplining of the Asian as both laborer and sexual actor.”--Robert Reid-Pharr, The Chronicle Review
"Eng has 'forever queered Asian American studies,' compelling Asian Americanists to grapple with the potentially homophobic and nativist grounds upon which Asian Americanism, as a political movement and as a field of study, was founded."--Crystal Parikh, Modern Fiction Studies
"[I]mportant. . . . [T]he value of Eng's most brilliant analyses have less to do with the analystic seeds provided by Freudian or Lacanian theory, seminal though they may be, than with the elegant intellect and astute insights of the author himself as he reworks and expands these frameworks."--Sunaina Maira, Amerasia Journal
May 25, 2007
Excellent!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews