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cover of episode Corinne Mitsuye Sugino, "Making the Human: Race, Allegory, and Asian Americans" (Rutgers UP, 2024)

Corinne Mitsuye Sugino, "Making the Human: Race, Allegory, and Asian Americans" (Rutgers UP, 2024)

2025/2/7
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Weishun Lu
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Corinne Sugino: 我认为亚裔美国人如何被纳入庆祝进步的叙事中,成为进步的象征。然而,这些表面上进步的庆祝形式与持续存在的暴力共存,这让我深感困惑。我开始意识到,亚裔美国人之所以在当代社会争议中高度可见,是因为他们被用作叙事工具,以巩固美国例外主义,维护民族国家的边界,并救赎精英主义的神话。我感兴趣的不是关于亚裔美国人的刻板印象是什么,而是他们如何被动员为叙事人物,他们在这些叙事中做什么,他们代表什么,以及他们如何使西方人正常化。 Weishun Lu: 这些故事服务于国家的某些目标,并且在 COVID 期间,人们迫切需要突出或优先考虑亚裔美国人参与国家进步的故事。这些故事已经存在,但在 COVID 期间,它们变得更加突出。

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Corinne Sugino's research explores how Asian Americans are portrayed in narratives and how this legibility interacts with systems of racial and gendered violence. The project started before 2021, during their doctoral work, focusing on false inclusion and the co-option of Asian Americans in celebratory narratives. The 2021 Atlanta spa shootings and the COVID-19 pandemic heightened the urgency of this research.
  • Sugino's research focuses on how Asian Americans are represented in narratives and the impact on systems of violence.
  • The project began during doctoral studies, investigating false inclusion and the celebratory narratives surrounding Asian Americans.
  • Events like the Atlanta spa shootings and COVID-19 pandemic intensified the relevance of the research.

Shownotes Transcript

In this episode, I talked to Corinne Sugino, whose book Making the Human: Race, Allegory, and Asian Americans) (Rutgers UP, 2024) examines how mainstream stories about Asian American success have come to serve harmful ideas about progress. At the turn of the century, Asian Americans have come to embody meritocracy and heteronormative family values, and more recently, some Asian Americans have become the face of law and order. These ideas become solidified in a variety of narratives, from blockbuster movies such as Crazy Rich Asians, to (supposedly) myth-busting documentaries such as Seeking Asian Female, to legal arguments against Affirmative Action. But these stories—usually stories about American citizens of East Asian descent—erase the diverse lived experience of Asian America. In this conversation, Corine Sugino also explains how we can draw on Black Studies, including scholarship by Sylvia Wynter and Katherine McKittrick, to develop a more capacious understanding of “the human” and antiracism. This provides a foundation for imagining solidarity across racial lines.

About Corinne Sugino: Corinne Sugino is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Center for Ethnic Studies. Their research focus lies at the intersections of Asian American studies, cultural studies, rhetorical theory, and media studies. Corinne's first book project, *Making the Human: Race, Allegory, and Asian Americans *(Rutgers University Press, November 2024) explores how cultural and media narratives about Asian American racial and gendered difference naturalizes a limited understanding of what it means to be human. Beyond this project, her research interests also include discourses of false inclusion, Asian American grassroots media during the Asian American movement, and transnational racialization in Japan.

About Weishun Lu: Weishun Lu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanitities & Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Her research focus is contemporary poetry, avant-garde writing, the history of multiculturalism, and critical ethnic studies.

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