I have specialized in writing about Asia since first moving to Hong Kong as a journalist in 1989, and spent the past three decades trying to improve understandings between East and West. My Asian women friends repeatedly asked me why Western men expected them to pour their drinks and serve them food. I answered “because that’s what they saw in the movies.” The James Bond films perpetuating these images of servile Asian women scrubbing white mens’ backs in the bathtub were pervasive when they were growing up. I decided to uncover and explain where this history of imagery and the stereotypes they result in come from – and, as someone with an anthropological background, also explain cultural practices that foster misunderstandings.
I wrote...
The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient
By
Sheridan Prasso
What is my book about?
Why
do stereotypes about Asian women persist in Western culture: as submissive and
servile, or the opposite – as kick-ass, kung-fu Dragon Lady dominatrix? Despite
recent progress in Hollywood, these images remain pervasive in film, TV,
advertising, and other imagery. Where do they come from, and what are the
realities behind them?
This important, acclaimed book tackles the perceptions
and the realities, recounting the history of East-West interaction that led to
these images and their persistence, and the cultural factors and market forces
that help them persist. It is ideal for people looking for understanding, and
for people looking to help others – like guys with an Asian fetish– understand.
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The Books I Picked & Why
Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China
By
Leta Hong Fincher
Why this book?
This book by the leading expert on China’s feminist movement speaks to the modern-day realities of women in China – where the promise of the Communist revolution to deliver gender equality has been betrayed. Today’s women in China have experienced a dramatic rollback of the rights and gains they achieved early on. The structural discrimination against women in all sectors, from politics to business to relationships, is not easily overturned.
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Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
By
Leslie T. Chang
Why this book?
A portrait of some of the millions of workers who toil in factories in southern China, most of whom are young women. They leave behind their families and work long hours for little money in boring, repetitive assembly line jobs, making mobile phones, toys, purses and other items for the rest of the world. The realities and challenges for the young women behind the goods we buy daily make this a compelling read.
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Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha
By
Lesley Downer
Why this book?
By reading this actual account by a woman who became a geisha herself, you will come to understand how far from reality the fictional book Memoirs of a Geisha, written by a man, really was. This is the best-ever portrait of this world and the women – far
from the pining, love-besotted servants – who inhabit it.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices
By
Xinran
Why this book?
This collection of hidden testimonies of women in China, based on call-ins to a radio show in the 199Os, depicts what women think and feel about their world and their realities. We hear women speaking for the first time about forced marriages, poverty, persecution, love – and their triumphs. It is key to understanding the thoughts and feelings behind what we think we know.
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Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China
By
Sterling Seagrave
Why this book?
This book takes what you think you know about China’s Last Empress, Cixi, and turns it upside down. Far from the monster created by puerile Western conquerors to justify their imperial domination over China, this historical account uncovers the reality behind the woman who held great power in China. This reality is core to the destruction of the Dragon Lady stereotype in Western culture that I lay out in my book.
