On Friday morning, I am in Modern China, listening to a lecture on the Opium Wars. When the British wanted to trade and the Qing did not, the British smuggled. Opium was their cash crop and turning people into addicts turned a profit. The Qing had choice but to wage the Opium wars against this military superpower, only to disastrously lose. In turn, Britain opened China’s doors even wider, ushering a new era: the downfall of the Qing and rise of western imperialism.
On Friday night, I forget about all of this. I’m dancing to my heart’s content. The pounding music rushes through my body like liquid energy. My heart pulses with the beat. I glance around the room and my eyes lock on yours – for just a second. I don’t dare take a second peek but I find myself dancing closer to you, dancing more wildly for you. Soon, you tap my shoulder. I try to act surprised.
I usually love this part, exploring mutual attraction, drawing that landscape that is you. There’s a rush in this chase. For optimists like me, there’s a hope for something greater. More words are exchanged and dancing ensues. In the heat of pressed bodies, you turn me around. I study your face, the curl of your lashes, the gold hints in your eyes. You lean in close and whisper in my ear “say something sexy in Chinese”
Still facing you, I smile, but in my head, I am panicking. I rack my brain, searching every corner of my limited Chinese vocabulary, thinking “What’s the sexiest thing I could say?”
I wanted to reciprocate the fun and excitement of this moment. I wanted it to give you a flirty tongue-in-cheek answer and that made you smile. But facing you – your eager eyes and expectant face—why did I feel such unease?
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It has been a few semesters since that night and I’ve had time to reflect deeply on your comment. I’ve learned terms to describe your words. I can now call your comment a microaggression, a comment that is supposed to be nice but is actually discriminatory. I learned that your comment is an example of Asian sexual fetishization, deriving undue sexual gratification from my Asian-ness. Most importantly, I learned that your fetishizing comment is a part of a larger systemic issue affecting diasporic Asian women today. That system is called white sexual imperialism.
*content warning: mentions of pornography, torture, rape and assault*
Sunny Woan, an Asian American feminist theorist, coined the term white sexual imperialism to capture how the “history of Western political, military, and economic domination of developing nations compelled women of these nations into sexual submission by White men” (Woan 277). She argues that “White heterosexual male presence in East Asian wars” created the Asian woman’s sexual stereotype of a “hypersexual yet demure and submissive” girl (Woan 278).
I explored this stereotype on (really scary) subreddits and found posts where users gloated about the Asian women they hooked up with. They bragged about how Asian women “will do anything to please you” and how they are the “best deal” because they are “princesses in public, whores in the bedroom.” This stereotype also permeates mainstream American pornography where Asian women are overrepresented, even having special categories like “Japanese schoolgirl.” Alarmingly, the depictions of Asian women in pornography frequently “came up through a keyword search for "torture” (woan 292). The stereotype of submissiveness is incredibly dangerous, because if “Asian/American women are depicted as always consenting, [then] they cannot be raped in the eyes of the law” (Woan 293).
This sexual stereotype was not created by Asian women. It was forged through military prostitution systems that were built from imperialist war efforts. During the Vietnam and Philippine-American War, the US military authorized expansive “Rest and Recreation” programs where Asian women were advertised as “a girl for the price of a burger” (Woan 283). It is estimated that “70,000 U.S. soldiers came to Thailand for "Rest and Recreation"’ from 1966 to 1969, igniting a sex industry that still continues in the present day. These military prostitution systems made turned Asian women into “recreational activity for bored American soldier[s]” and solidified the sexual stereotype(Hu).
The microaggression “say something sexy in Chinese” is not flirtatious. It is terrifying. It is a command that directs me to sexualize myself for your entertainment. It employs a power dynamic of dominant white man vs. submissive asian woman that is rooted in systemized military prostitution.
Even though it’s been some time, I still think about that night and what you said. It still holds me captive. I still don’t know how to enjoy sexuality without fear of this stereotype. However, it was eye-opening to learn that your comment was not a singular case but part of a systemic issue. It was eye-opening to learn that what I had experienced has a history. Now I know what I really should have said to you:
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*I’d like to note that the sexual stereotype described in my essay does not apply to and/or comprehensively account for the experiences of all Asian women or femmes. The term “Asian” is supposed to capture so many people and I acknowledge that my summarization of Woan’s work makes large generalizations that erases important nuances among all that identify as Asian.
**this is a partially fictionalized piece drawn from true, lived experiences. The “you” I have addressed in this essay does not actually exist, rather this person is an amalgamation of experiences**
***If you or someone you know is struggling with gender, sexual, or domestic violence, or is a target of a hate crime, there are many community and University of Virginia resources available including Just Report It, The Office of the Dean of Students: 434- 924-7133 (after hours and weekends 434924-7166 for the University Police Department; ask them to refer the issue to the Dean on Call), the UVA Women's Center: 435-982-2361, Sexual Assault Resources Agency (SARA) hotline: 434-977-7273 (24/7), Shelter for Help in Emergency (SHE) hotline: 434-293-8509 (24/7). If you prefer to speak anonymously and confidentially over the phone to UVA student volunteers, call Madison House's HELP Line (24/7): 434-295-8255.
REFERENCES
Hu, Bian. “Yellow Fever” Harvard Crimson (2014).
Woan, Sunny. "White sexual imperialism: A theory of Asian feminist jurisprudence." Wash. & Lee J. Civil Rts. & Soc. Just. 14 (2007): 275.