Lecture by Visiting Hurst Professor Anne Cheng

Against Use: Asian American Masculinity and the Telos of Instrumentality

What does a theory of “Ornamentalism” or ideas of ornamental personhood have to teach us about Asiatic masculinity? Although Asian masculinity in Western culture has long been excluded from the realm of aesthetics, both as objects and subjects, this paper argues that the history of Asiatic male labor in America has helped to shape, and has been shaped by, a set of larger debates about persons versus things, about ornaments versus tools.