Ornamentalism

Ornamentalism (Oxford University Press) places Asiatic femininity at the center of a new epistemology of race. Through the analysis of court cases, fashion shows, film, and art, Cheng argues that Asian women and their forms of cultural representation have shaped contemporary American conceptions of personhood. In doing so, she constructs a theory that affirms the centrality of an identity previously relegated to the margins of both society and academic discourse.