Wing Young Huie: Looking For Asian America

Sunday, January 27, 2008



The book Looking For Asian America by Wing Young Huie, along with Anita Gonzalez, and Tara Simpson Huie, just got nominated for their regional MN Book Awards, and while I haven't picked up the book myself yet, I am familiar with photographer Wing Yung Huie and his work featuring Asian Americans.

Here's a quick snippet from an Amazon Review:

In search of contemporary Asian America, celebrated photographer Wing Young Huie—the only member of his family not born in China—traveled with his wife Tara through nearly forty states to explore and document the funny, touching, and sometimes strange intersection of Asian American and American cultures. Looking for Asian America illustrates their rich and surprising journey across the United States.

Through Huie’s eyes, keenly aware of his own Midwestern roots and perspective, we witness such images as a Vietnamese Elvis, Miss Congeniality on her cell phone in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a Hmong street sign in rural North Carolina, a meditating Falun Gong protestor in Washington, D.C., a bubble tea Valley Girl, and a Chinese theme park in Orlando. Huie’s camera captures ABCs (American-born Chinese), FOAs (Fresh Off the Airplane), and a self-described “redneck” Chinese restaurant owner near the Okefenokee Swamp. Taken together the photographs reveal a complex portrait of the U.S. cultural landscape, and their dignified elegance invites a closer, deeper look.

Accompanied by the personal reflections of both Wing and Tara Huie, the nearly one hundred spectacular photos tell a story that both mirrors and contradicts stereotypes of Asian Americans, ultimately questioning what it means to be ethnic and American in the twenty-first century.
For more info on photographer Wing Young Huie, check out his site.