Dorinne Kondo draws on critical ethnographic work and over twenty years of experience as a dramaturge and playwright to theorize how racialized labor, aesthetics, affect, genre, and social inequity operate in contemporary theater.
Exploring the intersection of race and performance, the book delves into the racialization processes within the fashion and theater industries, highlighting the impact of Western representations of Asia on Asian and Asian American identities. It presents a fresh perspective on cultural politics, emphasizing themes of pleasure, subversion of Orientalisms, and the evolving challenges to traditional notions of race, gender, and nation. Through diverse examples from Paris to Broadway, it offers insights into the complexities of cultural representation and identity.