Anime Wong is a memory book of performances, most of which were produced collaboratively, reflecting questions of gender, identity, Orientalism, and racial politics. Yamashita’s theatrical work is fiction interpreted by the body in real time; these kinetic encounters, complete with giant foam-rubber sushi and cyborg kung fu fighters, create a space for humor, interaction, and epiphany.
Reviews
“It’s a stylistically wild ride, but it’s smart, funny, and entrancing.” —Michael Schaub, NPR
“Yamashita shatters social constructs of race, gender, and culture and reassembles them into spectacles that dazzle, confound, and ultimately shed new light upon Asian America.” —The California Journal of Women Writers
“In the firmament of American literature, Karen Tei Yamashita has been one of the brightest lodestars that have guided my reading for over 20 years. Her literary creations have delighted, astounded, and confounded me. I say confounded because Yamashita is never predictable; each new book has been formally different and she perpetually challenges herself and her readers. Anime Wong: Fictions of Performance follows this trajectory and encapsulates my history of reading of Yamashita in one volume. It will become an indispensable part of my library.” —Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Bookstore
“I was thrilled to pick up Anime Wong: Fictions of Performance, the long-awaited anthology of electrifying performance.” —Your Impossible Voice
“No matter what form Yamashita’s voice takes—fiction, performance art, theater, stream of (sub)consciousness—it is original, insightful, funny and light years ahead of its time. Cyber time travel? No problem. Ethnic fetishizing? Look out. Techno-orientalism? She’s on it. Anime Wong is a perfect companion to Yamashita’s groundbreaking Tropic of Orange, I Hotel, and Circle K Cycles. This collection reveals, for the first time, the hidden writings of one of this era’s most inspiring authors.” —Denise Uyehara, Performance Artist
“The experimentation of the performances is enough to read for, but they are enriched by the subjects at hand.” —Portland Book Review
Excerpt
ABSTRACTION 3: OPERA—MIKE KATO
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
MIKE KATO (Professor of Asian American Studies)
KATISHA (Activist attorney married to Mike Kato)
PEEP-BO (Adopted daughter of Mike Kato and Katisha)
YUM-YUM (Graduate student in business and finance having an affair with Mike Kato but in love with Nanki-Poo)
PITTI-SING (Yum-Yum’s mother, feminist attorney having an affair with Katisha)
NANKI-POO (International student, TA for Professor Mike Kato, and son of prominent PRC family)
GO-TO (Son of prominent North Korean general, living in Hanoi, and Facebook/Skype friend of Nanki-Poo)
PISH-TUSH (Student studying computer science on another coast and Facebook/Skype friend of Nanki-Poo)
KO-KO (Lord High Executioner)
CHORUS 1 (Asian students)
CHORUS 2 (Non-Asian students)
ACT I
SCENE 1.—COLLEGE LECTURE ROOM
Professor MIKE KATO gives a lecture on television sitcoms, “situation comedies,” noting that there was only one successful Asian American sitcom that lasted three seasons and sixty-three episodes. He points out that DentalOptics was conceived and written entirely by Asian American scriptwriters and had a wide audience, proving, contrary to a history of yellowface and Orientalizing stereotypes, that Asian Americans could be funny, could act in their own roles, and were attractive stars. (Song: We Can Be Funny)
“Admittedly,” KATO goes on to say, “DentalOptics was about model minority profes- sionals, but,” he waxes almost nostalgically, “it was our Ozzie and Harriet, our Leave it to Beaver.” “What’s he talking about?” someone asks, and another shrugs, “Google it.” (Song: Google It)
Vincent Chin, Ho Chi Minh,
I-Hotel and Pat Morita.
Cold tofu? What’s he talking about?
Google it!
Three students rise and make a group presentation based on Wikipedia research. (Song: Based on a True Story)
Based on a true story:
Chang and Eng Bunker,
born in 1811 in a river houseboat in Siam.
Attached from birth: Siamese Twins.
Exploited novelty, make their way across America,
then Europe, a circus attraction, for P.T. Barnum.
Siamese Twins settle in Mount Airy,
North Carolina, landowners, farmers, and slaveowners. Americans!
Marry Southern sisters, Sarah and Adelaide, and
father twenty-one kids.
Pillars of the community, Siamese sons fight and die
for the Confederacy.
Age of sixty-five in 1874, Siamese Twins pass away,
RIP in White Plains.
A student raises his hand. “Are they kidding? They made that up. It’s offensive.” Professor KATO points out that later episodes of DentalOptics employed the history of the original Siamese Twins, though comically. For example, Heco and Okada marry two “movement sistahs” and father between them twenty-one children. He reads from his notes: “In the sit-com, one sister is the result of artificial insemination, the other adopted. Heco marries a strangely beautiful Eurasian with green eyes and perfect hair who does the nightly news for Fox Television. Okada’s bride is one quarter Cherokee, one quarter African American and one eighth Palestinian and three eighths Micronesian. She’s an artist and spiritual healer and specializes in native linguistics.” He laughs, but no one laughs with him. KATO rubs his forehead and closes his eyes. (Song: Life Framed in a Monitor)
SCENE 2.—HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM IN WASHINGTON, DC
KATISHA gives the keynote speech for the Conference on Human Rights. Her subject is her work and advocacy for the Uyghur Chinese detained at Guantanamo Bay as “enemy combatants” in the war on terrorism. She connects Guantanamo Bay and the racial profiling of Arab and Muslim Americans to the history of the Japanese American incar ceration during World War II. (Song: Same Same but Different)
After the talk, PITTI-SING comes up to praise KATISHA for her work. Then she talks about her own work on behalf of international sex workers. The conversation is animated; they exchange phone numbers and emails. They’re interrupted by a call from MIKE KATO to KATISHA. KATISHA says she may have to extend her trip in DC a few days, to which MIKE replies, “No problem.” He says his lec- ture class today was a bust. “They didn’t even laugh.” She says her keynote was a spectacular success. (Song: They Didn’t Laugh)
SCENE 3.—STARBUCKS
PEEP-BO works at Starbucks as a barista making espressos. YUM-YUM is also at Starbucks, sipping a tall double latte and plugged into her laptop. BEEP-PO is on the phone with her mother KATISHA and YUM-YUM is on the phone with her mother Pitti-Sing. The conversations with the obsessive and overachieving mothers are similar. Both may have to extend their trips in DC, “But how are your classes? What are your grades? Did you apply to this or that? What are you plans? Your future in activism. Your future in business finance. Competition is fierce. Never let up! So what if I’m a tiger mom?” (Song: You’ll Thank Me Later)
SCENE 4.—YUM-YUM’S APARTMENT AND WASHINGTON, DC, HOTEL ROOM AND NANKI-POO’S DORM ROOM
In YUM-YUM’s apartment, MIKE KATO and YUM-YUM get into an argument. KATO says, “You never take my classes. You never even audit.” YUM-YUM answers, “I don’t have time for electives. Besides, my mother monitors my course load. I have to complete my business and finance degree in three years. I can’t take anything irrelevant.” KATO is stunned. “Irrelevant?” YUM-YUM ignores KATO’s shock and dials a callback number on her cellphone.
In a DC hotel room, KATISHA and PITTI-SING are sipping wine and talking excitedly about politics when suddenly, in a fit of passion, they grab each other, tearing away at their clothing. After the rough and tumble, KATISHA slips off to the bathroom, and PITTI-SING makes a phone call to YUM-YUM.
In a dorm room, NANKI-POO is jerking off to porn on his laptop when he gets a phone call from YUM-YUM. But then as the phone sex gets hot, YUM-YUM receives a call from her mother, PITTI-SING, and puts NANKI-POO on hold.
KATO and KATISHA and NANKI-POO query their lovers about the phone calls. (Song: Who You Talking To?)
SCENE 5.—KOREAN AMERICAN CHURCH
PEEP-BO has joined a Korean American church. Suddenly, everything is clear to her, and she experiences a sudden epiphany of identity. (Song: Born Again!)
ACT II
SCENE 1.—NANKI-POO’S DORM ROOM
NANKI-POO is on Skype with his best buddies, GO-TO in Hanoi and PISH-TUSH on another coast. They talk about their future business venture together: drone technology made miniature, affordable surveillance with practical applications. PISH-TUSH has named it “the hummingbird,” but of course, it’s top secret. (Song: Sugar Water in a Triple-A Battery).
And why will their business venture succeed? They are a perfect threesome, with GO-TO’s business and military connections, PISH-TUSH’s genius in computer technology, and NANKI-POO’s geographical and financial resources in China and Africa. They map out their spheres of influences: China, Africa, India, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Japan. (Song: Taking Over Our World Byte by Byte)
SCENE 2.—RESTAURANT
YUM-YUM and NANKI-POO dine at an upscale, ultra-expensive restaurant. They speak evocatively or disparagingly about food. NANKI-POO talks about his business venture and business partners and suggests they will need someone like YUM-YUM, with business acumen. They toast appletinis to the future. (Song: Facebook for the Faceless)
After dinner, NANKI-POO invites YUM-YUM to a party.
SCENE 3.—NANKI-POO’S DORM ROOM
When YUM-YUM realizes that “the party” is in NANKI-POO’s empty dorm room, she asks, “You call this a party?” But he replies, “Meet my friends,” and he Skypes in GO-TO and PISH-TUSH. (Song: Bicoastal and International)
PISH-TUSH says he’s excited because he’s got a surprise and switches the monitor to what appears to be a sex video. They watch in voyeuristic fascination, but PISH-TUSH interrupts and announces, “It’s a live feed, like reality TV.” YUM-YUM asks if the couple knows they are being filmed. “Of course not! This is what I’ve been talking about. My hummingbird is at the window! Hey, that’s my roommate. Wait till he finds out!” YUM-YUM disapproves of this invasion of privacy, but NANKI-POO protests. (Song: Isn’t This a Free Country?)
YUM-YUM leaves in disgust.
SCENE 4.—COLLEGE CLASSROOM
NANKI-POO is leading a section discussion about Professor KATO’s lecture. He opens the discussion by suggesting the theme of twins and hyphenation. One student says that everyone in America is some kind of hyphen or a hybrid these days: Japanese-Chinese, Chinese-Jew, Mexi-Pino, Indi-Pino, Afro- Asian, Afro-Vietnamese, Korean-Brazilian. But someone protests, can’t we all be just Americans? Class divides into camps (Song: Hyphen Nation vs. Just Americans)
A non-Asian student protests that it might not be the bloodline that makes you Asian, that he speaks Japanese pretty fluently. Culturally, he’s closer to Asia than “some in this class who only look Asian.” Another non-Asian student says, “Okay, I’ll admit it. I came to this class looking for the other side of my hyphen, an Asian girlfriend.” Groans go around. “He doesn’t want an Asian girl. He wants an Anime girl.” (Song: Like Tomoyo Sakagami or His Otaku Babe)
An Asian student says, “Okay, we know why they want to be in this class, but what about us? My parents say I gotta get a job, a profession; I’m wasting my time.” Another students protests, “It’s a racist jungle out there; what we learn here are survival skills. You can get your profession and hit a glass ceiling.” Someone else says, “That’s not true. If you have money, it doesn’t matter. Even the Siamese Twins bought their plantations, slaves, and respectability.” Another protests, “But what if you arrive with nothing; you’re undocumented, an exile, or refugee? American capitalism caused a war in my country that caused my migration. But, with tuition costs going up, I’m going to have to drop out.” “Don’t worry,” someone quips, “they’ll get an international Asian student to pay a triple-ride and replace three of you.” NANKI-POO realizes he’s one of those international students who pay the triple-ride. Meanwhile he’s been TA-ing for Professor Kato and learning about Mao, Marxism, and the Cultural Revolution. (Song: What Would Mao Say?)
NANKI-POO suddenly feels panic, as if he’s emerged from his Skyping dorm room for the first time. Every sort of Asian immigrant is represented in this class. Several American generations of Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Okinawans, Pacific Islanders, South Asians, and Koreans. Then the more recent stories: the granddaughter of the ex-Peruvian president Fujimori, an Afghan woman who escaped the Taliban, children of Vietnamese boat people and Hmong refugees, children who survived the Cambodian genocide, children of Iranian exiles, a Brazilian Japanese undocumented dekasegi, and him, the son of a prominent Chinese party leader. Their stories, real and animated, swirl around him. The class divides into overlapping choruses for NON-ASIANS (Song: Cultural Creds) and ASIANS (Song: Post Your Race).
Suddenly everyone is reading Twitter on their phones. Twitter news #1: Some student on another coast is accused of causing the suicide of his roommate, having posted a sex video of the same roommate. Twitter news #2: A big-shot North Korean general has been demoted. Twitter news #3: The wife of a prominent PRC leader has been arrested for the murder of her foreign business partner involved in a China-Sudan oil deal. (Song: Twitter Twitter in the Sky)
As class ends, YUM-YUM runs in with her cell- phone.
SCENE 5.—FILM FESTIVAL RECEPTION AND SCREENING
Everyone gathers for the film festival and screening of MIKE KATO’s debut documentary about the making of the sitcom DentalOptics. There is a prescreening reception with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. YUM-YUM toasts MIKE, then announces plainly that whatever was between them is over. She’s going to be with NANKI-POO, who obviously really needs her now. MIKE is disgusted. Hasn’t he tried to educate NANKI-POO about Mao and Marxism and the ill-conceived pursuit of imperial capitalism? KATISHA comes by to also congratulate her husband, then says she knows all about YUM-YUM and hopes that it will work out for him, because she’s thinking of moving to Washington, DC, and living with PITTI- SING. Finally, PEEP-BO greets her father and announces that she’s going with a Christian group to Seoul to find her birth mother. (Song: Found Identities)
The documentary film is screened and ends with applause. MARGARET CHO is the mistress of ceremonies and invites JOHN CHO and KAL PENN to the stage. They gush about the success and influence of this sitcom on their own work, and praise those who took the jokes away from white writers. “Hey, I heard even white people watched it.” They fondly remember comedians Pat Morita and Jack Soo. (Reprieve Song: We Can Be Funny)
CHO invites the nubie director MIKE KATO to the stage. Applause and flowers. Then Q&A from the audience. Someone stands to ask a question: “Professor Mike Kato, do you recognize me? KATO squints through the spotlights. “Are you a student of mine?” The questioner dons an anime mask and announces, “I am Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner!” He then produces from the insides of his heavily padded kimono two automatic assault pistols.
The End
