Traffic in Asian Women

Laura Hyun Yi Kang's book explores how the figure of Asian women has been used to understand the emergence, decline, and permutation of U.S. power/knowledge in the twentieth century. She argues that the comfort women case has destabilized the imaginary unity and conceptual demarcation of the category and has been alternately distinguished and effaced as subjects of the traffic in women, sexual slavery, and violence against women. Kang also explores how specific modes of redress and justice were determined by geopolitical and economic changes.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 11 September 2020
Publisher: Duke University Press

Laura Hyun Yi Kang's groundbreaking work, "Traffic in Asian Women," delves into the intricate dynamics of U.S. power and knowledge in the twentieth century, focusing on the figure of Asian women. Through a comprehensive analysis, Kang demonstrates how Asian women serve as an analytic lens through which to understand the emergence, decline, and permutation of U.S. power at the intersection of capitalism, state power, global governance, and knowledge production.

Within this broader geohistorical context, Kang delves into the establishment, suppression, forgetting, and illegibility of the Japanese military comfort system (1932–1945). While many view the comfort women case as a symbol of past violation and contemporary empowerment of Asian women, Kang argues that it has profoundly destabilized the imaginary unity and conceptual demarcation of the category.

Kang meticulously traces how Asian women have been alternately distinguished and effaced as subjects of the traffic in women, sexual slavery, and violence against women. She explores the complex interplay of geopolitical and economic changes, ranging from U.S.-guided movements of capital across Asia and the end of the Cold War to the emergence of new media technologies that facilitated the global circulation of comfort women stories.

Through her meticulous research, Kang sheds light on the multifaceted ways in which Asian women have been subjected to exploitation and violence, and she advocates for justice and redress. Her work highlights the need to challenge dominant narratives and promote a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of the experiences of Asian women in the context of global power dynamics.

Weight: 516g
Dimension: 228 x 152 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478009665