Too Cute: American Style and the New Asian Cool

About the Conference

“Too Cute” explores the relationship between style and race through the lens of “Asian cuteness,” featuring scholars and art practitioners from the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom in the diverse fields of literary studies, performance and gender studies, American studies, East Asian studies, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, art, and art history. The two-day conference is open to the public, as are the keynote featuring Eric Nakamura, editor and publisher of Giant Robot, and a special artist appearance and presentation by contemporary pop art icon Yoshitomo Nara.

From Frank Lloyd Wright to Ezra Pound, Asian forms have long impacted the philosophic development of American aesthetic traditions, even as Asian bodies (be it the exploitation of Chinese labor, the Japanese internment, or immigration discriminations) have traditionally been passionately rejected by American nationhood. This conference explores the phenomenon of “Asian cuteness” and its recent explosive transformation into what might be called the new wave of “Asian cool,” as a way to showcase the dynamic and diverse work being done in the field of Asian American studies. Current scholarship on Asian Pacific American issues is expanding beyond traditional disciplinary and regional boundaries, signaling the need for new paradigms of understanding aspects of Asian Pacific experiences as well as their roles in American national and cultural identities.

This conference represents the first Asian American conference to be held on the Princeton campus, and reflects the University’s broader commitment to expanding the discourse of race. This conference highlights mutual interests across campus in the future of Asian American studies at Princeton as a comparative and interdisciplinary field of inquiry and showcases the intellectual collaboration of the Program in American Studies, program in and Department of East Asian Studies, Center for African American Studies, Department of English, and Department of Anthropology.

Schedule

Wednesday, March 3, 2010   Prospect House

8:30 to 9:30 a.m.   Continental Breakfast

9:30 to 10 a.m.   Welcome and Introductory Remarks

10 to 11:30 a.m.   Child Love

  • Anne Higonnet, Barnard College/Columbia University
    “Cute Kids with Big Eyes; East Meets West and Back Again”
  • Christine Bacareza Balance, University of California, Irvine
    “Because You Loved me: Filipina Child Stars and the Politics of Emotion”
  • Moderated by Carolyn Rouse, Princeton University

11:30 a.m. to Noon   Acting Out (I)

  • Joon Lee, Rhode Island School of Design
    “Gertrude Ederle” (a story)
  • Introduction by Daphne Brooks, Princeton University

Noon to 2 p.m.   Lunch Break

2 to 3:30 p.m.   Girls on Girls

  • Karen Tongson, University of Southern California
    “Rin on the Rox, and the Echo Chamber of Remote Intimacy”
  • Laura Miller, Loyola University
    “Twisted Forms of Cute and Anti-Cute in Japanese Girl Culture”
  • Moderated by Alexandra Vazquez, Princeton University

3:30 to 4:30 p.m.   Break

4:30 p.m.   Keynote (McCormick Hall, Room 101)

  • Eric Nakamura
    “Asian Pop Culture and Giant Robot

Thursday, March 4, 2010   Prospect House

8:30 to 9:30 a.m.   Continental Breakfast

9:30 to 10 a.m.   Brief Remarks: The Glamour of Cuteness

  • Virginia Postrel, author and journalist

10 to 11:30 a.m.   Animated Objects

  • Christine R. Yano, University of Hawaii
    “Kitty on the Go: Japanese Cute as Transborder Fetish”
  • Lili Hsieh, National Central University, Taiwan
    “When Female Fantasy Meets Capitalist Society — Reading the Hello Kitty Icon on Taiwanese Credit Cards”
  • Moderated by Amy Borovoy, Princeton University

11:30 a.m. to Noon   Acting Out (II)

  • Todd Boyd, University of Southern California
    “What Is Hip?
  • Introduction by J. Emmanuel Raymundo, Princeton University

Noon to 1:30 p.m.   Lunch Break

1:30 to 3 p.m.   Eros & Errors

  • Eric Hayot, Penn State
    “Hello Cutey: Whiteness and the Poetics of Error”
  • Wendy Chun, Brown University
    “Cyworld and the Global Mis-Transmation of Cuteness”
  • Moderated by Noriko Manabe, Princeton University

3 to 3:30 p.m.   Conclusion and Open Forum

3:30 to 4:30 p.m.   Break

4:30 p.m.   Artist Presentation (McCormick Hall, Room 101)

  • Yoshitomo Nara

5:30 to 6 p.m.   Reception