<P>Poised at the intersection of Asian American studies and dance studies, Choreographing Asian America is the first book-length examination of the role of Orientalist discourse in shaping Asian Americanist entanglements with U.S. modern dance history. Moving beyond the acknowledgement that modern dance has its roots in Orientalist appropriation, Yutian Wong considers the effect that invisible Orientalism has on the reception of work by Asian American choreographers and the conceptualization of Asian American performance as a category. Drawing on ethnographic and choreographic research methods, the author follows the work of Club O' Noodlesa Vietnamese American performance ensembleto understand how Asian American artists respond to competing narratives of representation, aesthetics, and social activism that often frame the production of Asian American performance.</P>

YUTIAN WONG is an assistant professor in the School of Music and Dance at San Francisco State University.

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionSituating Asian American Dance StudiesClub O' Noodles' Laughter from the Children of WarRehearsing the Collective: A Performative AutoethnographyInterlude The Amazing Chinese American Acrobat: Choreography as MethodologyMapping Membership: Class, Ethnicity, and the Making of Stories from a Nail SalonWriting Nail SalonPedagogy of the Scantily Clad:Studying Miss Saigon in the Twenty-first CenturyEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex