Viet Thanh Nguyen

This volume examines the idealization of Asian America by its intellectuals, the saturation of Asian America with capitalist practices, and the challenges posed by Asian America's ideological diversity. Viet Nguyen argues that Asian American intellectuals need to examine their own assumptions about race, culture, and politics, and he makes his case through the example of literature, which still remains a critical arena of cultural production for Asian Americans. Significantly, in examining Asian American literature, what we find is that the literature embodies the complexities, conflicts, and potential future options of Asian American culture.

In Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America, Viet Nguyen argues that Asian American intellectuals have idealized Asian America, ignoring its saturation with capitalist practices. This idealization of Asian America means that Asian American intellectuals can neither grapplewith their culture's ideological diversity nor recognize their own involvement with capitalist practices such as the selling of racial identity. Making his case through the example of literature, which remains a critical arena of cultural production for Asian Americans, Nguyen demonstrates thatliterature embodies the complexities, conflicts, and potential future options of Asian American culture.