NYU To Host Nation’s 1st Full Conference On Asian American Popular Culture

PDA (Public Displays of Asianness) Conference To Be Hosted by NYU’s Asian/Pacific/American Studies Institute on November 13th&14th

Is there such a thing as an Asian American popular culture? If so, what is Asian American about it? What makes it popular? And why hasn’t anybody thought to devote a conference to the topic until now?

On November 13th and 14th, New York University will bring together a group of acclaimed artists and scholars for the nation’s first academic conference on Asian American popular culture. Entitled PDA (Public Displays of Asianness), the conference has been organized by NYU’s Asian/Pacific/American Studies Institute.

To register for the conference or for more information, members of the general public should call (212) 998-3700.

PDA will host cutting-edge musicians, editors, designers, artists and scholars from across the country in a weekend-long symposium that combines provocative talk with workshops, performances, and presentations.

Conference participants will include Sabrina Margarita Alcantara-Tan, editor of Bamboo Girl; Jeff Chang, music producer and editor of Color Lines; Andy Hsiao, Village Voice senior editor; George Lipsitz, UC San Diego professor; Imran Khan, editor of 2nd Generation; Rekha Malhotra, NYC DJ; Michael Murashige, UC San Diego professor; Spencer Nakasako, videomaker; Mimi Nguyen, editor of Slantgirl; Tricia Rose, NYU professor; Andrew Ross, NYU professor; and film/video maker Richard Fung.

Jack Tchen, who is director of NYU’s A/P/A Studies Program, said, “Popular culture is the air we breathe. It’s all around us and we take it for granted. It’s time we check out what we are inhaling.

Andrew Ross, NYU professor of American Studies, said, “This is not a business-as-usual conference. It will be a paradigm-shaker.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

NOVEMBER 13, 1998

7-9 pm Opening Forum: What's In A Name? Asian American Popular Culture (The Joseph Papp Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, New York City)

Free and open to the general public, this opening forum is an opportunity for conference participants and presenters to consider the intellectual, cultural, and political usefulness of "Asian American popular culture" as a concept.

Participants: Village Voice Senior Editor Andy Hsiao, film/video maker Richard Fung, UC San Diego Professor George Lipsitz, DJ Rekha Malhotra, NYU Professor Tricia Rose

Reception to Follow

NOVEMBER 14, 1998

Registration and breakfast, 9-10 am [Hemmerdinger Hall, NYU Main Building (1st floor) , 100 Washington Square East]

Session I, 10 - 11:30 am (NYU Main Building, 100 Washington Square East)

PANEL: The Good Life: The Politics of Consumption, Pleasure, and Desire How do the tastes, styles, and pleasure/leisure practices of communities contest or align with dominant notions of gender, race, sexuality and class? How does sexuality in particular complicate and contest notions of authenticity in communities of color? (Room 714)

PANEL: Concrete Cultures: Asian American Urban Practices This panel considers the production, display, and performance of contemporary Asian American urban cultures. It considers the ways that Asian Americans claim various urban spaces to produce new communities and means of identification. (Room 713)

WORKSHOP: “Camcorder Diaries” with videomaker Spencer Nakasako (Room 705)

Session II, 11:45-1:15 pm (NYU Main Building, 100 Washington Square East)

PANEL: To Wong Foo: The Migration of Popular Culture This panel follows the journey of Asian cultural forms as they travel across a litany of borders -- geographic, national, intellectual, and artistic. More specifically, this panel examines popular cultural forms that migrate from Asia to the US (Room 714)

PANEL:Digital Dialogues: Asian American Technocultural Practices In surveying the uses of technology by Asian Americans in popular cultural production and expression, this panel examines the ways in which technocultural practices produce meaning, create community, and cultivate both self and group identification. (Room 713)

WORKSHOP: “The Tao of SLANT” with Slant performance trio. (Room 705)

Session III, 2:15-3:45 pm (NYU Main Building, 100 Washington Square East)

PANEL: Resident Aliens: Cultural Citizenship and Popular Culture This panel pays a visit to the imagined communities that are formed in identification or engagement with popular cultural forms and practices. How are citizens constructed in these communities? How is membership granted? (Room 713)

PANEL: Backstage Pass: Hidden Histories of Popular Music This panel explores popular music as an arena where Asian Americans as individual artists and communities disseminate their musical forms and narratives. How do Asian American musicians engage with larger genealogies and influences in the development of their music? How do Asian Americans influence the production, development, and distribution of American popular music? (Room 714)

WORKSHOP: “Creating your own voice through Zine-making” with Bamboo Girl editor Sabrina Margarita Alcantara-Tan (Room 705)

Session IV, 4-5:30 pm (NYU Main Building, 100 Washington Square East)

PANEL: The Real Deal? Asian American Cultural Politics This panel examines Asian American popular culture as a site of political contest. Given that Asian Americans have historically been placed outside of or at odds with American culture, how does asserting a cultural presence necessarily challenge traditional political and social notions of “Asian Americanness?” How can we understand cultural practices as political practices? (Room 714)

PANEL: Notes from the Asian Underground: Alternative Histories, Counter-Narratives This panel examines "emerging" Asian American popular cultural productions; that is, it explores the oppositional narratives that Asian Americans invent, transform, and reconstruct in a variety of less commercially viable media.(Room 713)

WORKSHOP: “Demystifying DJ-ing” with DJ Rekha (Room 705)

11/06/98