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sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Abstract

In the 21st century, neoliberalism and technological innovations in Asia produce techno-Orientalism, a "new" framework by which the West dominates Asia. In this process, Asian bodies are configured as inherently technological beings who exist solely for the production of information and neoliberal goods. Techno-Orientalism is a byproduct of the violence wrought by modernity. Yet, Rina Sawayama, a British-Japanese music artist, produces a new form of resistance that can be characterized as diasporic Asian cultural production. Her work challenges the white hegemonic masculine gaze by interrogating modernity in her lyrics, aesthetic, and performance. Sawayama's aesthetic and music videos produce a new sense of Asian subjectivity via the "hacking" of Western epistemologies. Sawayama's artistry provides a new praxis of counter-hegemonic resistance within the neoliberal era.

Publication Date

2018

COinS